Monthly Archives: May 2018

Movies

Deadpool 2 (2018) a (almost right on time!) review

It’s so very rare to review a just released film… one that’s still in theaters.  In fact, one that was released less than a week before!

Let’s bask in that particular glory for a second or two…

All right, enough of that crap: Deadpool 2.  My 0.02 cents…

When the original 2016 Deadpool was released, I liked but did not love it.  (You can read my review of the first film here)

My hope was that the people who made this film refined their formula and made a better overall work.

Long story short: They did.

Now, I know there are people out there who have expressed a preference for the original Deadpool, but I’m not one of them.

Deadpool 2 follows the manic formula and kicks it up several notches, this time around offering a surprisingly meaty plot that -take it from someone who writes- was very well thought out, despite the fact that it offered plenty of silliness.

In some ways the film’s silliness is not unlike the works of the Zucker Brothers and Abrahams (Airplane!, Top Secret!, The Naked Gun films) in the sense that the jokes come quick and thick and I’m sure, having seen the film this one time, that I missed many, many jokes.

For example, over at one website I was on a little while ago, someone mentioned laughing out loud when, during the movie, we see a TV News report and the crawl on the bottom of the report says something like this: Christopher Plummer rejects role of Deadpool.

Totally missed that one!

I also loved many of the new characters brought into the feature.  Josh Brolin was great as the gravel voiced, grim time traveler Cable.  Zazie Beetz, similarly, was a delight as Domino, the hero whose big power (or mutation) is… luck.  She more than held her own in the craziness that came around her.

If there’s one thing I wish there was more of, its Brianna Hildebrand’s Negasonic Teenage Warhead.  She was, IMHO, one of the great delights of the first Deadpool.  I loved her silent exasperation at the antics of Deadpool but this time around she doesn’t show quite as much of that.  On the other had, they expanded on her character by introducing her girlfriend Yukio (Shioli Kutsuna, quite delightful!), and this character’s interactions with Deadpool were quite a hoot.

I’ve tried very hard not to get into spoilers here regarding the story presented in the film, up to and including what happens in the opening minutes, and I’m not about to give that stuff up now.  I will say this, though: There are two hilarious cameos by big named actors, one of which if you blink you’ll miss it, the other of which is pretty heavily disguised so, if you don’t notice it, you’ll be forgiven for checking the web for who/when this person appeared.

In conclusion and suffice to say, I recommend the film and highly suggest you stick around during the credits as there is an extended bit that’s quite hilarious and… I’ll say no more.

What are you waiting for?  Go see Deadpool 2!

General

About that Tesla Model 3…

After considerable delays in production, it appears the Tesla Model 3, the “affordable” electric vehicle (starting price is $35,000), is off to a rather rocky start.

Over at Slate.com, Will Oremus outlines some of the problems critics, including Consumer Reports, have found in the vehicle:

Tesla’s Model 3 fails to get Consumer Reports recommendation, may not be perfect, affordable electric car after all

I know I’m about to step all over the article here, but the gist of the Consumer Reports negative findings for the most part involve the car’s braking distance from a speed of 60 mph.  The car’s braking, to be blunt, is inconsistent and tends to require more distance than most cars of its size.

They found other problems, such as difficulty in using the vehicle’s central screen, which makes the driver too often look away from the road to work on the various do-dadds the screen covers, which is most everything.  Finally, they stated the car was noisy when driving along the highway.

Interesting.

The author further notes that though Consumer Reports could not recommend the vehicle, they did give it generally good reviews for all other elements.

Here’s the thing: I’m not all that surprised.

This is the first Model 3 released.  Like computers, like cell phones, like laptops, one should always be leery of the first generation of any technological release.

As much as my mouth waters at the prospect of getting a Tesla vehicle -or look forward to the day when all vehicles eschew the combustion engine- I kinda/sorta knew there would be bumps in the road.

Don’t get me wrong: the inconsistent braking in the Model 3 is worrisome.  In fact, I’d say it’s very worrisome.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that if a car’s braking is inconsistent, there is a certainly a danger one might slam into someone/something due to the fact that one cannot figure out the distance involved in safe braking.

Having said that, this is a correctable problem, one that the author notes may be resolved through software updates.  It would not shock me at all if Tesla does resolve this issue rather quickly.

But, again: As more and more models are made and provided to the public, improvements will be made.

I may not get the first generation affordable electric vehicle, but perhaps in a few years we’ll have a better one.

E. R. Torre Art

Sketchin’ 69, 70, and 71

Been away for a few days and…

…I’m back!

And I bring you a trio of serial adventure goodies!

First up, my interpretation of Batman and Robin, from the 1949 Serial!

But wait, there’s more!

In 1944, the Captain America serial was released.  15 cliffhanging episodes, to boot!

Finally, while on this adventure serial tangent, one has to pay tribute to the man who was THE biggest star of the serials: Buster Crabbe, and the character he was most associated with: Flash Gordon.  While I’ve already made a Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon piece, it wasn’t in color so, here goes:

Flash Gordon, from Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe, featuring Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon and Carol Hughes as Dale Arden.

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, a 5/17/18 update

Short one:

Today I began typing the revisions.  So far, moving as expected: Quickly.

As I said in yesterday’s post, the first half of the book is quite good, its the second half that requires a little more work.

Regardless, gotta navigate the hills before gettin’ to the mountains!

I really can’t wait for this book to be done and out there.  So incredibly exciting!

Hang in there!

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, a 5/16/18 update

It’s been nearly a month since my last update (4/18/18… you can read it here) on progress for Book #7 of the Corrosive Knights series.

Today, I’m pleased to announce I’ve finished the read-through/written revisions of Draft #6 of the book and will be soon putting those revisions on the computer.  Once done, It’s off to Draft #7.

It’s taken me a little longer than I hoped to get through the read-through, though this was something that was also anticipated.  We had some traveling done (a graduation) and I’ve been left in almost sole charge of a family business so time to focus on the novel has been a little tighter (and might be a little tighter for the next few weeks) than before.

Regardless, I feel I have a very good grasp -much better than I did after finishing Draft #5- of the book than before.

Basically, the first half or so of the book is great.  It requires minimal fixing, mostly grammatical/spelling type stuff.

However, there is still work to be done in the second half of the book, some of which may require a little more writing (I suppose this is similar to when it is reported a film calls back the actors to do “reshoots”).

To be clear: The book is well on its way to being finished but there are elements in that second half that will require more work.

On the great side, I feel that after I finish up the revisions for the 1st half of the book, I can set that aside and don’t have to do full novel revisions from now on.

This will save time as I’ll be focused on shaping/revising the second half of the book exclusively and reading/revising a full novel versus one half a novel will cut down on the time required to finish up.

Before I release the book and when I’m happy with the second half of it, I’ll give it one more full read-through and see how the book feels as a whole.

As impatient as I am to get it all done, these things do take their time, but it IS moving ahead and we will get there.

Soon!

Movies

Now this is truly strange… Christopher Nolan and the “unrestored” 2001: A Space Odyssey

I think its fair to say director Christopher Nolan is up there in the very high echelon of “great current directors.”

His first full film, Following, presented a story which was told in reverse order, something he would subsequently use for his breakthrough follow up, Memento.

Mr. Nolan would release several incredibly well reviewed films, including his Batman trilogy (though, to be fair, the final movie in the trilogy did have its detractors), The Prestige, and Inception.

I’ve read interviews with Mr. Nolan and clearly he’s a BIG movie lover.  He loves celluloid and, interestingly, seems to have similar tastes to mine with regard to films he admires.

One of them is Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which happens to be one of my top three all time great films (for the record, my other two all time favorites are Metropolis and Orpheus, though there are many, many films that fall just outside this category… and in time may supplant a film or two there!).

Anyway, Mr. Nolan, while in Cannes, showed a unrestored (yes, you read that right) copy of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and… I’m left scratching my head.  So too was Stephen Garrett over at Slate.com, who wrote about it here:

Does Christopher Nolan’s “Unrestored” 2001 do right by Kubrick?

Understand: As a film lover, I very much want to see films look as good as they can.  I know that film stock can degrade over time, some dangerously so.  Colors tend to fade and this is why restorations, IMHO, are vitally important.

Yes, restorations of films often involves turning them from film stock into digital media and I understand that, as mentioned in the article, digital media wasn’t always the greatest way to show all the sparkling colors film stock manages.

But…

Digital technology is always improving and, as the author of the article mentions, what digital media produced 20 or even 10 years ago is at a lower level than what can be produced today.  I suspect it won’t be long before digital images will capture anything/everything film stock can.

However, here’s the thing: UNrestored print?!?

Again and according to the article, the image was generally good but the author noted scratches in the print, wobbling sound here and there, and the cigarette burn looking edges of the print which, in the old days, indicated a reel change.

Look, I’m all in favor of seeing things as they were, but given the film’s age, the “unrestored” copy that Mr. Nolan is showing has to display such age related wear and tear.  And seeing these little glitches… does it really enhance one’s appreciation for the film?

I would think not.

But that’s just my opinion.  Who know, maybe there is something to replicating the original theater experience, warts and all.

TV

Gut punches… TV cancellations!

Yesterday news broke on several TV show cancellations… and one case of a network not airing any more episodes of a show.

First up, Fox announced the demise/cancellation of three very good comedies.  From CNN.com and written by Sandra Gonzalez, this article which notes…

Brooklyn Nine-Nine cancelled (also The Mick and The Last Man on Earth)

The article hews toward the (bad news, IMHO!) of Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s demise after five seasons and, I must say, I’ll miss the show.  It’s been a fun run and I suppose one should be happy with five seasons -which, let’s be clear, is quite good- but the show wasn’t slowing down.  It was still a very fun, at times outright hilarious comedy with a quirky, interesting cast and well written episodes.

Sadly, the show simply didn’t have terribly good ratings so away it went.

The good news?

Looks like the show may have a chance to be picked up by a service like Hulu or Netflix.  I’m skeptical (I’ve heard that before with shows that were never seen again) but hope, as they say, springs eternal.

The two shows the article doesn’t focus on as much is The Mick (2 seasons) and The Last Man on Earth (4 seasons), both of which were also, IMHO, incredibly funny shows, though the later does require a bit more patience from viewers.

I felt The Mick was an enjoyable show that featured potentially nasty yet lovable characters.  Yeah, they were slobs, snobs, and losers, but they were presented as less than the caricatures they could have been.

For me, The Last Man on Earth was really tough to get into, at least during that first season.  The main character was such an asshole that it was difficult to want to follow his “adventures” in the post-apocalypse.  My wife, to her credit, stuck with it and I gave the show a second chance and… it clicked.

The appearance of the main character’s brother -and his eventual sad fate- humanized him.  Yeah, he remained for the most part a clueless asshole but his heart was clearly in the right place.

I’ll miss all three shows.

Finally, from i09.com, Evan Narcisse writes…

Syfy says this season of The Expanse will be the last one on the Network

Unlike the shows I mentioned above, I gave up on The Expanse after its first season, which I thought was decent enough but didn’t “grab me” like it did other shows.

And, to be very clear, The Expanse certainly grabbed many other viewers!

In fact, many consider this one of the best sci-fi shows airing on TV currently.  Critically acclaimed or not, the Syfy Network won’t be airing it anymore because it costs them too much to do so and they only have the rights to air the episodes on a first run basis.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Syfy Network does not have any rights to digital or streaming of the show, which obviously cuts down on the returns (ie money) the network could have made on what is a very expensive show to produce.

It’s a cruel thing to lose shows one likes, and this year so far (lest we forget, Ash vs. Evil Dead is another goner), seems crueler than others.

Movies

In these dark days…

…its always fun to find articles like this one, presented on etonline.com and written by Brian Haas:

Mike Myers wants to do an Austin Powers movie from the perspective of Dr. Evil

I point this article out not only for the fact that it sounds (at least to me!) like a fun idea for a continuation of the Austin Powers film “universe”, but because of the comments he makes regarding Margot Robbie, who produced and stars in the heist thriller Terminal, in which Mr. Myers also plays a role (his first in a while!).

A fun little article and I’m not going to spoil it by giving away anything.  Check it out!

Music

One-album wonder

Sorry for the dearth of posts of late… been busy with plenty of different things, including the lovely graduation of my eldest daughter (sniff).

Getting back to business (at least ’round these parts), found this intriguing article by Priscilla Frank and found on HuffingtonPost.com:

One-Album wonder Margo Guryan didn’t fade away.  She escaped.

The article’s title is pretty self-explanatory and involves musician Margo Guryan who, in 1968, released her one and only album, Take a Picture and then dropped off the proverbial face of the Earth, at least with regards to continuing any sort of musical career.

I highly recommend you read the article as Ms. Frank details how she stumbled upon Ms. Guryan, who also released a politically twinged song titled 16 Words in 2007 but only has these two musical works out there to be listened to.

Ms. Frank would eventually get in touch with Ms. Guryan, who is now 80 years old, and find out why she dropped out of the music scene.

Her lone full album is considered by many to be among the best “one-album wonders” ever released and several critics have noted the album sounds like the Beach Boys’ music of that same era.  Mighty high praise indeed!

So check the article out, its quite fascinating!