Bits & Bobs - 9th Edition

Bits & Bobs collects some of the cool things around the interwebs that I think are noteworthy and worth your time but don't necessarily fill up a full blog post or news item. On with the show...

DEADPOOL FEELS PRETTY, OH SO PRETTY

With production just on the horizon for the new Deadpool movie, Ryan Reynolds took to his Twitter this morning to reveal a sneak peek at the costume. More specifically you catch a glimpse of the mask and gloves that have been presumably used on the tests that he had discussed a little earlier in February. Reynolds alludes to the release date next year with a crack accompanying the photo, "Sepia tone disguises the fact the mask is ballerina pink. It's early. 365 sleeps early."

 

A L'LL TABLETOP BUSTING

Ever look at your board game collection and wax nostalgic about the Milton Bradley Real Ghostbusters board game that you had as a kid, then immediately wish that something a little more complex and updated was available for you? Well, wax no longer (that's a phrase, right?) because Cryptozoic has taken to Kickstarter to unveil their all-new Ghostbusters Board Game. The game appears to be a combination of strategy and role-playing with an expandable playing field similar to a Settles of Catan. Which is pretty much all that needed to be said to me. I've backed it and you should too... the more pledges they receive, the more extras and add-ons they'll give everyone. Go check it out!

THE DEAD RISE FROM THE GRAVE

Speaking of Ghostbusters, for about ten years or so I used to run a Ghostbusters fansite called Ghostbusters HQ (or GBHQ) which started back in the early days of the interwebs on AOL. The site went the way of Gozer long ago, with just a shade of its past assembled in place as something of a tribute. But recently I've had a lot of fun engaging with the social masses through a new Ghostbusters HQ Twitter account. So if you're feeling saucy and looking for another Twitter friend to follow that's all Ghostbusters, all the time. Go check it out!

The Ghostbusters Revolution Has Already Been Televised

Great googa mooga... were we actually the first "Ghostbusters" reboot?

So many are up in arms about news that Paul Feig is going to "reimagine" Ghostbusters with a whole new cast and all-new characters. I, for the record, am excited about the prospect. If you're going to make another Ghostbusters movie, that's the only way to properly do it while remaining respectful to the comedic genius that the original film encapsulated.

But funny enough, many have forgotten that Ghostbusters already received a reboot of sorts in the form of one of DreamWorks' first films released when the studio was in its infant stages. And by the hands of one of Ghostbusters' main contributors, Ivan Reitman. 2001's Evolution was a bit of an enigma to audiences when it was released.

The film shared very similar characteristics to Ghostbusters in the form of wise-cracking professor protagonists who fight to save the world in the name of science, cracking jokes all the while. It's almost as if the two films share very similar DNA to each other. The film even ends up with the heroes riding in a fire truck (in place of the Ghostbusters' familiar Cadillac ambulance) going to save the day.

Evolution so desperately wanted to be Ghostbusters that even the logo and the print ads bared resemblance to the Ghostbusters marketing campaign.  But ultimately, the whole film was really trying to harness that lightning in a bottle but failed to register with a popular audience for one reason or another.

You might be able to chalk it up to the film's release coming in June of 2001: a summer that was jam-packed with mega-hits like Shrek, the first Fast and the Furious film, and a third Jurassic Park film. That same summer was also filled with a lot of similar comedy films aimed at the same audience. And then, given what happened that September, audiences' tastes immediately changed and seeing a firetruck presented in a light like this might not have been at the top of peoples' priorities. The film also received fairly mixed ratings at the time, with many of the critics seeing it as more of a rip-off than an homage.

"Two decades ago, this would have been a great movie. Now, it's just another round of leftovers."
- review c/o Rotten Tomatoes

Regardless of how it was received, I remember seeing Evolution multiple times at the small multiplex that was by the college where I spent my freshman year. And I still enjoy it to this day. It had that same swagger to its step, and a similar sense of chivalry as Ghostbusters, while doing its best to maintain a similar sense of humor.

With a little bit of luck, maybe the new Ghostbusters film can take note of where Evolution succeeded and ultimately failed, in hopes of assuring that it will be a great success both financially and critically.

Eight Harry Potter Movies, Three Days

Those crazy wizards, probably off to jinx their wands...

I've been hearing it for the better part of thirteen years...

"What do you mean you've never seen any of the Harry Potter movies? You haven't even read any of the books?!?" - - and various other statements of absolute terror that I just wasn't a passenger on the Harry Potter bandwagon for all this time. The fact of the matter is that I had seen (parts) of the first two movies and they just never really grabbed me. And at one point during a family vacation had attempted to read my sister's copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and only made it about fifty pages in before succumbing to boredom.

But since my wife and I started dating, we'd always talked about watching all of the films so that I'd be up to speed (and people would stop calling me a Muggle followed by nine-year old girl giggles).

A great package sale with all eight movies for fifty bucks, a desperate need for loafing time following the holidays, and a sick day/New Years day off combination proved the perfect opportunity to view all of the films back-to-back-to-back. And while I'm not exactly running around with a Gryffindor scarf disarming people of their wands now, I've found an appreciation for the series and see why it's appealed to so many. It was also interesting to see just what elements it influenced in the boom of derivative young adult fiction that's followed in the years since. I'd find myself often going, "Oh, well there's Twilight. There's Maze Runner. There's Hunger Games." All of which followed five to ten years after the publication of the first Harry Potter book. And vice-versa, how the popularity of several of those properties then appeared to influence the Potter series. And I also find it interesting that the first movie/book in the Potter series is so heavily influenced by Enders Game, it's a shame the film adaptation of that book didn't make the mark that it really should have.

So what did I notice in our viewing of all the films in succession? Here's a few of a Muggle's thoughts:

• You really have to admire how the films (and the books I would imagine) were paced out to divulge bits and pieces of the bigger story over the course of the eight films. Sure, there's a lot of backtracking on things that we're led to believe were placed there as storytelling elements that a bit of a head-scratcher but the overall story arc was really impressive... even if the ending wasn't ultimately fulfilling.

• I know House/Clan/Group Slytherin is associated with the deadly snake. But they should really think about changing their crest to a herring. Of the red variety. Especially Draco, I was surprised by the end of the series where he actually WAS responsible for something for once.

• I'm really glad the Time Turner disappeared as quickly as it appeared, because their time travel logic is all sorts of Doc Brown headache inducing. Also, for as smart and cunning as we're led to believe these kids are, they go all the way back in time then just sit and hang out until nightfall? You could have, I don't know - captured the creepy rat man before he got away, warned Sirius Black that he'd be crucially injured (or even take a step back from that and just yell at David Thewlis, "HEY! REMEMBER, YOU'RE A WEREWOLF! AND THE MOON IS COMING OUT!"). 

• Emma Watson really grew from that first movie. And no, I don't mean that in a "dude the girl got hot" way (but that's also true) - but her acting in the first film was toothpaste commercial terrible. Chris Columbus has been amazing at directing kids in the past, I'm surprised that he let this slide but each precocious line was followed with a dimpled smile cheated to camera, it was horrifying. By the final installments of the series though, she's by far the best actor of the bunch.

• Speaking of which, Harry sure does grit his teeth a lot. Hope Hogwarts has good dental.

• Wow those last two movies are a long slog. Dancing montages and Horcrux hunting are seriously laborious. But then when the final battle actually happens, it goes by in a blur. I won't get into the logic of who needs to die in order for who to die, or why Harry meets Dumbledore in purgatory (if that's even purgatory) because that's a bunch of cosmic mumbo jumbo that would make Grant Morrison proud. But after four hours we finally learn that there's a legendary wand to end all wands with a super-cool backstory... that nobody until this point had ever talked about? Wouldn't all the first-year students be super-stoked about ultra-mega-wand?

• Why are they not supposed to say Voldemort? They dare not speak his name, but the guy really has a glass jaw. Maybe that's something that's a little more ominous in the books but it plays a little silly in the movies. It almost sounds like a convenient writer work-around. "Oh, we dare not speak of that. It's a long story."

• Dumbledore really gets upset toward the end that he's put the students and faculty in grave danger. But he's been doing that since Harry and his friends' first day of school. "We must close the school, it's just too dangerous." Because everything to this point wasn't? Kids die playing Quiddich and nobody seems to bat an eye.

• Following the super pretty battle in the room with all the prophecies, Harry learns that neither can live while the other survives. But they have been? Just not at full wizard power? And does anyone else find it strange that Potter starts calling himself the Chosen One out of nowhere? I get it, the phrase Chosen One adds mystique but it immediately veers it into Matrix sequel territory for me.

At any rate, aside from the minor quibbles (and the fact that everyone has a name that seems to rhyme with the word quibble) I'm glad I plowed through all the films and gave them a chance. Definitely enjoyed them from time to time. The first two and the last two films definitely are the weakest of bunch but as a whole especially when viewed rapid-fire, it was a fun and satisfying story.

Welcome to 2015

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What's wrong, do we become a bunch of assholes in 2015?

In 1989, as an eight-year old Troy emerged from a movie theater in Vail, Colorado after having seen Back to the Future: Part II with his parents, visions of 2015 swam through his head as the idyllic future. Hoverboards, flying cars, a Pizza Hut dehydrator that would make him pizza in mere seconds. That young version of me was more pre-occupied with the gadgets and futurist technology that would be available to me all those years later than where I would end up.

But now, reflecting on the movie as I sit here a little over 24 hours into the real 2015, I find myself identifying more with Marty McFly at the end of the first film. In the final moments of the first Back to the Future film, Marty has saved the day and changed his present: his father is now an accomplished author, his brand new truck is all waxed up and ready to go, and life seems great. Until Doc Brown crashes in on the party and tells him its imperative that Marty and Jennifer accompany him to 2015. "It's your kids, something has to be done about your kids," he tells the couple. He's not concerned about all the cool stuff that he can have in 2015, he's concerned about what he would become.

We have a lot of incredibly cool gadgets in 2015: iPhones, streaming internet movies, a seventh Star Wars movie (instead of a 19th Jaws), and I can at least order my pizza from several of the gadgets even if it isn't quite as sexy as rehydrating one from a Black & Decker oven. But there's no possible way that eight-year old me could have predicted where I would be twenty-six years later. Married, writing, and most definitely not hoverboarding for fun as I originally romantically visualized.

My life is a lot different than the eight-year old me thought it would be like thanks to Back to the Future: Part II, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I have a feeling 2015 is going to be a good year, and that it's going to bring about a lot of good changes too. 

Funny enough, 2015 also marks the 10th anniversary of Still Playing with Toys. So expect some stuff on the horizon concerning that as well. Hard to believe that it was ten years ago that I was sitting in my then girlfriend's dorm room struck with the idea for the "company." Thanks for being here for those ten years, and hope you'll join me for what's to come this year and in the future.