Pop Culture for Fun

Assuming studios don’t mess with the announced release dates (which will happen), next year promises to offer a lot of (would-be) blockbusters. There’s everything for everyone: Deja Vu with Jake Gyllenhaal as Denzel Washington (Source Code), The Three Musketeers in Paul W.S. “Resident Evil” Anderson’s vision, an uninspired Wes Craven attempt to resurrect the Scream franchise, a prequel to the Planet of the Apes, Michael Bay’s Blow It Up 3 Transformers: Dark of the Moon, J.J. Abrams’ next Cloverfield (Super 8),the two superhero movies that will determine The Avengers’ ultimate(ha!) fate (Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger), Red Riding Hood : A Twilight Story, Paul Bettany is post apocalyptic again with Priest, the Smurfs come to life, and there’s a myriad of remakes: The Thing, Conan, Footloose and plenty others.

Now, among the big budget extravaganzas there are a couple of films that might prove to be worthy of your money, here’s 10 of them, in chronological order (as of the date of this article):

The Green Hornet

Personally I would have loved Stephen Chow to make this (mostly because I think the movie would have been great done in Kung Fu Hustle style). But Michel Gondry can make pretty thoughtful movies and can handle some humor (as more or less evidenced in Be Kind, Rewind) so I am more than interested to see how this superhero movie will turn out. Seth Rogen might get to come out of his comedic cocoon too, though the by the looks of the trailer he’s not playing outside his comfortable area. The best part of the movie: Christoph Waltz.

The Adjustment Bureau

Despite what might be a good Sci-Fi thriller, this should be one to look out because of the on screen pairing of Emily Blunt(a ballerina) and Matt Damon(a politician). Look for Damon to mix up his The Good Shepherd act with a bit of Jason Bourne. The movie is directed by The Bourne Ultimatum co-writer George Nolfi, and it should at least feature plenty of Bourne style tension coupled with some Sci-Fi elements, which is all I need to see a movie.

Sucker Punch

Zack Snyder’s first original story is like a geek teenager’s fantasy: 5 pretty girls, one mental institution, a fantasy world filled with robot samurais, battlefields, mechs, blimps, sword fighting, I think I even saw a dragon. If not anything else, Snyder’s visuals are sure to be breathtaking. I expect this 300 on steroids with girls to be a big hit.

Super

A movie about a guy who turn into a wannabe superhero because his wife left him for a suave drug dealer played by Kevin Bacon – need I say more?. Put in some dark humor coupled with extreme violence, Ellen Page as a psychopath and Liv Tyler for eye candy and you have what might be next year’s Kick Ass with a more adult theme and less stylized direction from the director that gave us the deliciously gory Slither.

Your Highness

If you would ask me which of the movies on this list I look forward to most, it would be this fantasy-comedy featuring Danny McBride, James Franco, Zooey Deschanel and Natalie Portman. I expect the Pineapple Express trio (David Gordon Green as director, McBride and Franco) to bring their genius and for Natalie Portman to steal the show in what would be her comedic Ying to her Black Swan artistic Yang.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

There are good news and (possibly) bad news for the 4th installment of the franchise. Verbinski and Depp are back, but the director seat it now Rob Marshall’s, which can go either way, since this is one director with little experience in the action department, though he can handle a star studded cast, and musicals (now, a Pirates of the Caribbean musical sounds great). Ian McShane, Penelope Cruz and Judi Dench are also appearing, which is good news, and more good news – no more Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan. If this is less complex, and more humorous, the franchise might be revived (even though given its box office business the last film was a hit, even if it was panned by critics).

The Hangover Part II

The biggest comedy in years gets its sequel, and heads to Thailand. Mel Gibson was in and out, I say Liam Neeson is better, now that he’s subbing. The original cast is back, minus Heather Graham, and will likely bring its A-game, but it might not be enough for the huge expectations everyone will have. I expect this one to be less of a success than the previous one and reviews to be mixed – some will hate it, and others will love it (I’ll probably be in the latter category).

X-Men: First Class

It’s the young X-Men on screen. I don’t think this will be ground breaking or great, but I look forward to seeing Matthew Vaughn lend his style to the Marvel Universe and breathe some life into the slowly dying franchise. Two other key elements: Michael Fassbender as Magneto and James McAvoy as Professor X. As far as I am concerned, it’s perfect casting.

Green Lantern

Two time Bond and Zorro director Martin Campbell takes the helm of a DC Comics adaptation that can do for DC what X-Men did for Marvel, and pave the road for future adaptations, not related to Batman, and maybe spark hope for a future Superman movie. Ryan Reynolds stars as the superhero in what should be the performance to put him on the A-list (it feels like he should have been there already). Other noteworthy fact: Mark Strong as a villain (again).

Cowboys and Aliens

“Imagine you’re watching Unforgiven, and the aliens from Alien land.” That there is a quote from Alex Kurtzman, part of the Roberto Orci/Alex Kurtzman duo of screen writers, that wrote the movie together with Lost’s Damon Lindelof. That should be plenty fuel for hype. But there’s also Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Sam Rockwell, Paul Dano, Keith Carradine, Clancy Brown and Olivia Wilde in a sci-fi/western directed by Jon Favreau. This should be the most interesting high-profile blockbuster of the year, and a possible hit with the critics as well.

The Walking Dead didn’t disappoint the buzz around it with the pilot episode. It was filled with suspense, action, and a whole lot of zombies. It was also thoughtful and hinted that it could do the whole Romero “zombies as social commentary” thing well. The next episodes a mixed bag. The great characterization that got us to cheer for the hero and the people he met in the first episode turned into somewhat of caricaturization and soap opera fare. I found things to like (like the statement about not shying away from darker material made with an overly gory scene that the show runners decided to prolong longer than common sense deemed it necessary), but also found a lot lacking (as in the previously mentioned poor substance of the characters introduced). The show has 2 episodes left of the first season, and, if we are to judge it by the last one, it does stand a chance to end with a bang (the last episode was everything the show could and should be if the writers think things through).

Why should anyone pay attention to how The Walking Dead does on TV? Because, being based on a comic book, all other attempts to bring graphic novels or comics to the small screen will be judged by this show’s success. That is, if it winds up being big, others will follow, if it doesn’t people will have a hard time bringing adaptations to life.

Now, generally speaking, few comic books can stand to be translated to television. It’s in their nature to not be good material because of the budgets involved. You couldn’t have a live action of the caliber of Spiderman with the budgets TV shows get. And, when making animated adaptations, sometimes studios just want to draw the most people in, and not everything is better once it’s stripped down of some things to make it child friendly (not all animated adaptations of comic books can be “Spawn”).

On the other hand, there are plenty of comics that can and should be brought to TV, since many of them cannot go to the big screen without losing a lot of plot and depth. The first two I can name off the top of my head (and mainly because these should be everyone’s number one choice to be brought to life) are Preacher and Y: The Last Man. Both have a relatively small cast of main characters, and where others could not do without big special effects, both of these can lose some visuals and still be as good as the source material (I’m guessing both could run on whatever budget any fantasy show out there has had – e.g. Buffy, Angel, Heroes with a third of the cast and half the special effects, True Blood).

Both Y: The Last Man and Preacher have been shopped around both television and movie studios for a while. The latter had been once seen as an HBO feature, which would have been a great match, yet none have yet to find a home.

Remakes were something normal until a couple of years ago when people started using the term reboot. The reason was probably the increasing number of franchises available and the fact that the studio heads started thinking in terms of those rather than individual movies. If a franchise shows signs of fatigue in its current incarnation, you just reboot it, start from scratch. Such reboots and remakes have made it so some character have gone through several actors playing them. Here’s a list of the more popular ones.

Freddy Krueger

The character was originally played by Robert Englund in 7 movies and one TV show before the 2010 reboot, in which Jackie Earle Haley took over. As fine an actor as Rorschach…I mean Haley is, Robert Englund had made the role his to the point few imagined it without him.

The Hulk

Originally there was this guy called Lou Ferrigno that they painted green for The Incredible Hulk, then CGI took over. Both the 2003 Ang Lee version and the 2008 Louis Leterrier provided a more faithful depiction of the comic book character, Eric Bana and Edward Norton having little to do with the computer generated superhero.

Shaft

Richard Roundtree made this character more than blaxploitaition, he made him iconic. Come 2000, it seemed only logical that Samuel L. Jackson could fill those shoes. The result was a mediocre movie that probably stands as a low point on Christian Bale’s career.

Lolita

Stanley Kubrick made a lot of good movies, and his Lolita with, then 16 year old, Sue Lyon is no exception. More of an adaptation than Kubrick’s version, Adrian Lyne’s Lolita had an equally strong cast with, then 17 year old, Dominique Swain as the titular character. Both renditions were strong, to the point that both actresses’ careers never topped them(though Swain still has the time to do so).

Inspector Clouseau

Though briefly portrayed by Roger Moore (he would be credited under an alias), and on one occasion by Alan Arkin, who is a strong actor, but failed miserably in the role, Inspector Jacques Clouseau is Peter Seller and vice versa. I for one can’t imagine the character without him, though 2006 saw Steve Martin as the clueless frenchman.

The Punisher

Dolph Lundgren stepped in as Frank Castle in 1989, and although he had the look and physicality for the part, the movie was just another ’80s action flick. Come 2004 Thomas Jane tried it and found out it fit quite well, though the studios figured somehow the decent action movie was not as close as possible to the comic book and went with a reboot and Ray Stevenson in the part.

James T. Kirk

I doubt there’s anyone thinking of anyone else than William Shatner when they hear the name. Actually I’m willing to bet that the first scene that comes to mind of those that do think about Captain Kirk is that of him uttering with rage “Khaaaaaan!!!”. 2009 saw Chris Pine step into Tiberius’ shoes in a true reboot (we’re talking history rewritten here).

Batman

Adam West was Batman for a long time, along with the camp that came with it (and some late appearance featuring a new found trait – the paunch). Then Tim Burton came and brought the character back with his unique goth visual style. Michael Keaton was decent as the millionaire playboy by day, masked crimefighter by night. Then Val Kilmer stepped in, as Joel Schumacher felt we needed a blonde Batman. What followed barely deserves mention, with George Clooney donning a nippled Batsuit. It took a talented director and equally talented actor to bring the bat back from the dead. Christian Bale made the Dark Knight dark again under the helm of Christopher Nolan.

James Bond

It’s hard not to mention Bond on this list. There’s been many talks about the definitive 007, but each has his own merits. Sean Connery was equal parts suave, physical and funny as the secret agent. Roger Moore brought more humor to the spy, why Timothy Dalton oozed style. George Lazenby was more of an action man, and Pierce Brosnan was a more faded version of the previous combined. In 2006 we made the step to James Blonde with Daniel Craig filling it with added physicality, and less suave, more brutal.

Considering there’s a sleuth of planned remakes or reboots, as the upcoming Spiderman featuring Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker, this list will likely become extremely outdated extremely fast.

I have recently finished Fallout: New Vegas. Though I’ll admit is quite addictive, and in some ways, an improvement over the 2008 Game of the Year, its story and ending were not on the same level. But that’s not what I want to point out. Both Fallout 3 and NewVegas had fictional radios. And apparently not a single bit of music made after the ’50s (with some minor exceptions) made it into the new, heavily irradiated world after the nuclear war. It was quite in tone with the game’s retro style (a bit of the early Cold War paranoia and hairstyles, are just a few of the things that stick out).

The first one was mostly about the jazz, the swing, the blues. You had The Ink Spots (they started it all with the first game’s intro song – “Maybe”, it was a haunting ouvre), The Andrews Sisters, Roy Brown(you actually could hack people to “Butcher Pete”), Cole Porter and Billie Holiday. New Vegas went chronologically further with more swing and a bit of country. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee, Marty Robbins and Bing Crosby can be heard while wandering through the wastes of the Mojave.

The interesting thing is this: how exactly does a video game aimed at people between 16-30 (I’m guessing that’s their target audience) manage to sell them on the idea of oldies (and I do mean old, not like some who throw that word in front of everything older than 10 years)? My answer would be that they don’t even try to sell the idea, it just mixes rather well. I realized about 2 hours in, that the music actually builds atmosphere. It’s ironic, funny, and anachronic at the same time to shoot raiders in the head while Dean Martin swaggers to the beat of “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head”. Or to beat someone to a pulp while a love ballad like Nat King Cole’s “Love Me as Though There Were No Tomorrow” plays on. And I’m guessing that’s what brings the hipster approval. Then again, there’s also the fact that this is good music that today’s youth hasn’t been introduced to(and in some ways I’d rather it not become some DJ’s mixing fodder).

Evidence of these songs’ popularity outside the confines of the game can be found all over Youtube’s boards.
If you look at the comments section, you’ll notice most people recognize that the game brought them there. The funniest part is realizing there’s actually a conflict between the ones who haven’t played Fallout, and the ones that did. Focusing solely on the matter of how the song was discovered. I call it funny because there’s two sides that fight over something both of them like.

As for me, I just feel Sinatra’s low-key “Blue Moon” is perfect for stretching your legs in a desert after the end of the world.