Who’s excited for it?
What are your expectations?
What do you want to happen?
What do you want to NOT happen?
Iron Man takes a siesta on my bookshelf.
The Avengers 2 – Age of Ultron – Out Soon
Bookshelf Battle
The only site where new bestsellers are forced to do battle for space on a nerd's bookshelf.
Tag Archives: hollywood
Community Lives On
EDIT: I wrote this awhile ago and for whatever reason, never got around to posting it. Community’s return to Yahoo is old news now but what the hell, let’s talk about it anyway.
I’m sure I can blame this on The Yeti somehow.
It’s the show by Geeks, for Geeks with so much Geek support that it refuses to die. And now it belongs to the Geekterverse.
Community’s Sixth Season is now available on Yahoo Screen, after five seasons on NBC.
Since its inception, the show has always had an uphill battle. If you’re a geek, nerd, dweeb, poindexter or an all around pop culture junkie, then this show is your bag. On the other hand, if you’re a square like most of America, most of the jokes probably fly right over your head.
With online displays of support, Internet nerds the world over managed to keep NBC from tanking it for years. In fact, this show has always been a pioneer of the streaming age with droves of fans who didn’t watch in its usual time slot but caught it later on their own terms.
And now it belongs to the web.
The show has suffered some losses in recent years. Chevy Chase/Pierce Hawthorne to a falling out with show runner Dan Harmon, Donald Glover/Troy to “to be on his own” and according to a letter to his fans, not to focus on his rap career as “Childish Gambino,” and now Yvette Brown/Shirley to take care of her Dad (awww).
With so many exits to the core group, the show isn’t quite the same, though the Season 6 premiere “Ladders” is as nerd-tastic as ever. Still, I hope no one else leaves. If Joel McHale/Jeff Winger takes a hike, that will probably be it.
The plot, for those who’ve never seen it? Community College attendees tend to run a wide gamut – the elderly looking for something to do (Pierce), the lawyer who faked a Bachelor’s and now needs to actually get one (Jeff), the single mom (Shirley), the dumb guy (Troy), the guy who is convinced he’s living in a television show (Abed), the classic overachiever (Annie), and the girl who’s always feeling the need to protest something (Britta).
As a show about college, it was destined to have a short shelf life from the start (after all, college only lasts four years). Yet, last year in season 5, there was a pretty adept “reboot” in which Jeff and the gang decide their lives are no better than when they first started college. Jeff stays on as a professor while the rest of the group decides to keep studying. If it is one thing this show is good at, it is reinventing itself.
“Shows change,” as is pointed out in an exchange between Abed and newcomer Frankie Dart (Paget Brewster). She’s hired by Dean Pelton to whip the school into shape, but as the group laments, Greendale’s lousiness is what makes it so charming.
Good luck on the web, Community. Your legion of nerds is behind you, but you’re going to have to come up with a helluva story to keep the gang at college past year 8 (and knowing you people, you probably will easily).
How Justified Made Westerns Cool Again
My parents loved Westerns. I don’t blame them.
I’m not sure of the actual numbers, but I’m willing to bet if someone did a statistical analysis of the subject matter of all films produced between 1950-1980, “Western” would dominate its way straight to the top.
Gene Autry, Chuck Connors, James Arness, John Wayne – the baby boomers loved their cowboys.
Justified – Flashbacks – The Beginning – FX
When my parents grew up, became adults, and had me, they often had reruns of shows like Gunsmoke and The Rifleman on. Or they’d watch one of their favorite cowboy movies over and over.
In recent years, the Bravo Western channel made it possible for them to watch all of these movies and shows on a permanent loop. I’d visit and there’d they be – glued to the same Western movie they’d seen a hundred times before.
And literally, even if it was a different movie, the plot of most Westerns were the same. Bad guys did bad things. The townsfolk were too oppressed and downtrodden to care. They just took it and accepted it as a part of life. A righteous lawman blows into town and gives the bad guys a run for their money. The bad guys get angry and fight back. They get violent and make life even worse for the townsfolk. The people turn their wrath toward the lawman, blaming him for stirring up trouble. Can’t he just leave well enough alone and let the bad guys have their way? In the end, it all culminates in a final showdown where the lawman and a bad guy draw, and the lawman is inevitably faster with the iron.
I can’t count the number of times I made fun of my parents over this. “Do you guys realize you’re watching the same plot over and over again?”
They didn’t care. And today as an adult, I get it. The American West was literally society’s last chance for adventure, at least in this part of the world. “Go West, Young man” they’d say.
People would head out West to prospect for gold, claim land and farm or become ranchers. Some would start businesses. Of course, there was a hearty supply of ne’er-do-wells who took advantage of the lack of an established criminal justice system to cheat, steal, and rob everyone blind, thus providing the fodder for the cornucopia of cowboy flicks that my baby boomer parents held near and dear to their hearts.
All that Western stuff? It was still going on as of the early 1900’s. People from the 1950s, like my parents, probably knew an old timer or two who could recount stories they’d heard or read about. By the middle of the last century, the West was won, but the stories? They were finally being told thanks to the invention of movies and television and the kids of yesteryear couldn’t get enough. The West was a limitless supply of adventure.
Somewhere around 1980, that all became lame. Once in awhile, they still make the occasional good cowboy movie. Young Guns with Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen (before he went bonkers) was a favorite of mine.
Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice Trailer
Happy Tuesday 3.5 readers!
BQB here, sharing the clip of the 2016 blockbuster – Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice
There’s been so much speculation that this movie will stink. Me? I always had a feeling that the people behind this flick knew they were taking a big bite with this one and assumed they wouldn’t be doing so if they didn’t think they’d be able to chew it.
In my opinion, the trailer looks great.
The apparent premise? Superman has God-like powers that make people afraid. Those in fear include Batman who, presuming the Man of Steel poses a threat to the world, decides to take the notorious tights wearer on.
We can only hope the film ends with them patching up their differences and singing a hearty round of kum-bai-yah. After all, they’re both good guys.
But if someone has to be the victor, my money’s on Batman.
Well, at least I’m rooting for the Dark Knight.
Good Old Superman – the superhero who started it all. People love to root for him and over the years, he’s become a symbol for “Truth, Justice, and the American way.”
He’s also hard to identify with. Handsome, flawless, chiseled – shoot him and he spits out the bullet with his teeth. Set him on fire and he doesn’t burn. Blow him up and he comes back for more. He can fly, run fast, lift enormous and heavy objects, turn back time, shoot lasers out of his eyes. He has every power.
Unless you chuck a rare piece of Kryptonite at him, he’s going to eat you for breakfast and therefore, while fun to cheer him on, it’s hard to look at Superman and say, “there’s a fella like me!”
Batman? Well, his powers are derived from money, intellect, and drive. Money is obviously the big factor as it affords him the ability to spend a vast repository of wealth on his vigilante persona.
So, yeah, you might argue it’s also hard to relate to Batman except for the fact that Batman, though he probably wouldn’t budge at the sight of Kryptonite, could otherwise die in a multitude of ways!
Superman has always proven to be a difficult character to portray on the big screen. Here you have a character with so much power and one would think the ultimate foil would be an equally powerful bad guy.
Yet, for some reason the 1970’s and 80’s movies pitted him up against Gene Hackman’s caricature of a criminal mastermind. Though fun to watch, Lex Luthor was historically, at least in the comic book world, a more intelligent, cold, and calculating foe. So many old Superman films and yet the hero to end all heroes rarely met a baddie his equal.
2013’s Man of Steel sought to remedy that with General Zod, a fellow citizen of Krypton who, like Superman, also becomes blessed with super powers when under Earth’s yellow sun. In fact, I’d argue the old film starring Terrence Stamp was the best of that series because it was the only one where Superman fought a challenger with similar powers.
Man of Steel, to this blogger, wasn’t the dud that other critics labeled it. However, I have to admit, when I saw Superman and Zod smashing their way through an IHOP, a 7-11 and other chain stores, my reaction was, “Wow, that is a lot of product placement.”
Since that was my only issue with Man of Steel, I assume I’ll have a fun time watching Batman and Superman, as long as Bruce doesn’t drive the batmobile through an Outback Steakhouse or something.
Were you skeptical of Ben Affleck as Batman? Admittedly, I was. Actually, I was on the fence. On the one hand, Affleck has given us Gigli. On the other hand, he also gave us Argo. He’s given us more pops than flops, so I assumed he wouldn’t have taken the role if he didn’t think he could deliver, and thus far this trailer proves me right.
Will DC finally catch up to Marvel’s box office prowess? We’ll have to wait until next year to find out.
What say you fellow nerds?
Game of Thrones Wrap-Up – Season 5, Episode 2 – “The House of Black and White”
Hey there noble readers,
Time to talk about tonight’s Game of Thrones!
- Arya has made it to the House of Black and White
- There’s friction in Dorne over the Viper’s death
- The Mereenese are displeased (and hissing) at the Mother of Dragons
- Speaking of, Drogon’s back! (To protect his mom from unruly rock throwing subjects?)
- Cersei gets no respect, no respect at all…it’s open season on imps!
- Jamie’s on a mission to Dorne
- The Spider and the Imp are on a road trip!
- Jon Snow is the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch (and Stannis wants him to be Lord of Winterfell)
- Brienne of Tarth should probably think about finding another cause. The Stark girls just aren’t interested.
- What is Littlefinger up to?
What say you, bookshelf battlers?
Movie Review – Chappie – (2015)
Sigh. I really wanted to like this one.
Director Neil Blomkamp hit a home run his first time at bat with 2009’s District 9, attracting a rare Oscar nomination for a Sci-Fi flick. Critics weren’t big on his follow-up Elysium with Matt Damon but this blogger thought it was actually pretty decent.
So when I saw previews about a movie starring a bad ass police robot with Hugh Jackman as the villain, I was all like, “Sign me up!”
But after seeing it? Ugh. Where do I start?
OK. If you want no SPOILERS leave now.
“Suck” is a strong word. It wasn’t the worst movie I’ve ever seen and it did have its up moments. “Suck” is often in the eye of the beholder. And an ongoing theme of this blog is that I cheer on artists of all kinds in the hopes that said art will find a home in the hearts of people who will appreciate it.
So, I only use the word “suck” in correlation to what I was expected and what I received.
I was expecting an off brand Robo-cop. What I got was a robot with a childish brain spending most of the movie waxing philosophically about the meaning of its existence.
I can’t really explain it without digging into the plot, so here goes.
Deion (Dev Patel) is an engineer for a corporation that builds police robots for the South African government. One day, he develops a program for a true AI, an intelligence that will allow a robot to be able to think like a human (more so, actually).
The CEO, played by Sigourney Weaver, is not interested and orders Deion not to use company equipment to experiment with his AI program. Odd that the head of a for-profit company would balk at an idea that would revolutionize the robotics industry but, ok.
Against orders, Deion implants his program into a broken down police robot headed for the scrap pile.
Oh, I forgot to mention, he does this after he is kidnapped by Ninja and Yolandi, two gangster criminals who cook up a scheme to kidnap the engineer in the hopes that he can provide them with a remote control they can use to shut the police robots off and commit crimes with reckless abandon. The gangsters abandon the remote control idea and Ninja wants to use the robot, which they name Chappie, to help with a heist that will be used to repay money owed to an even worse criminal.
Here’s where things start to get odd. Deion goes along with it and ok…what choice does he have? They’re criminals with guns and shit.
But then – from time to time, Deion just comes back to the criminals lair to talk to Chappie and help him with his development.
Well ok – Deion has stolen a company owned robot against orders so that’s understandable he doesn’t want to call the cops on Ninja and Yolandi.
But then – Ninja and Yolandi just kind of like, let Deion come and go as he pleases. I feel like most gangsters probably would have just shot him.
Chappie was born the instant his AI program was switched on so there’s a learning curve. He’s basically a kid in a robot body and everything in the world is new to him. There are some funny moments when Ninja teaches him how to swear and act like a gangster but other than that…eh, it’s…I don’t know. “Eh” is the best word I can use to describe it.
Ok…so its a goofy set up. It gets better right? Nah…while there are some good action scenes, a great deal of the film is spent on Chappie learning about morals, the soul, the purpose of being alive, how people should treat one another, and so on.
Maybe that’s good. Maybe there are people who will enjoy that. Maybe Sci-Fi should make you think and maybe it doesn’t always have to be mindless special effects.
But me personally? I came into this film expecting a 2 hour bad ass police robot film and instead I got Chappie in bed with Yolandi (who he believes is his mother) reading Ba Ba Black Sheep to him:
Chappie and Yolandi – Sony Pictures
Stop reading, Chappie. I know. I’m a book blogger. But seriously, stop reading. Stop painting. Stop philosophizing. Be a badass already.
Fun fact that I didn’t realize until I went home and Googled the film – Ninja and Yolandi are actually two members of the South African rap group Die Antwoord. I’d never heard of them before, probably because I’m not South African. Their rap names are actually Ninja and Yolandi and they play fictional versions of themselves in the movie.
After finding that out, I felt like the movie was one big joke that Blomkamp didn’t let me in on because I’m not South African and had never heard of Die Antwoord before.
Imagine if they made a movie where Nicki Minaj and Kanye West became the parents of a robot with a childish brain. That’d be kind of hilarious. Had I known who Ninja and Yolandi were prior to going into the movie, I might have found the whole thing a laugh riot (though I’m not sure a comedy was the director’s intent).
Admittedly, I might be broadcasting my lameness since these guys are apparently tearing up the inter webs.
If South African rap interests you, their vids are on youtube. They’re a bit…well…”out there.” No offense, I think I’ll stick with good old traditional Ludacris and Fiddy regaling me with tales about their trips to the club, their love of Cristal, spinning rims and so on.
That’s not a knock on Ninja and Yolandi though – they may be the only redeeming part of the movie, if there is one.
In conclusion – I gave it a solid C. Probably not something you want to rush out to the theater for but you might give it a rental in the hopes that Neil Blomkamp can be encouraged to bring us another project of District 9 proportions.
That grade was hard for me to give. My regular 3.5 readers know I hate to criticize and there may very well be people who love this movie and I’m glad for them but…meh…I think it is the first bit of media I’ve reviewed thus far that will not find its way on my shelf.
PS: What constitutes good science fiction is often debated. Some think that a sci fi flick should just be mindless laser blasting, space opera, and little else. Am I therefore being one of these people by criticizing Chappie? I suppose so, though it’s not my intention. I didn’t like it, but I can see why others might.
Game of Thrones – Season 5 – Episode 1 – “The Wars to Come” – Wrap-Up
Dang! That was one badass premiere!
In the name of the Seven, know that there will be SPOILERS ahead:
Let’s discuss!
- Young Cersei visits a witch who predicts a younger, prettier woman will take her place. Is it Margery or Dany? Someone else we haven’t thought of yet?
- It’s the buddy cop duo of Varys and the Imp! Tyrion drank himself across the Narrow Sea but now he’s ready to visit Mereen and join up with Dany.
- Speaking of, the Mother of Dragons has some rebellious kids.
- The show still manages to surprise – i.e. the death of White Rat
- Will Dany reopen the fighting pits?
- Will Jamie go against Tyrion?
- Will Cersei still marry Loras?
- Was I the only one who thought Mance would reconsider and bend a knee as the fires began to grow?
- Beware the Red Lady. Beware any character who has their own background music.
What did I miss? Discuss in the comments below and feel free to link to your own blogs and GOT commentary.
Join House Bookshelf!
GOT Season 5 Starts Now!
Stop by bookshelfbattle.com and discuss tonight’s episode right after the S5 premiere! (Don’t forget to plug your blog while you’re at it while you’re commenting! It’s ok, we’re pretty shameless about self-promotion here at Bookshelf Battle Headquarters).
Sigil of House Bookshelf
And Now Our Watch Begins…
Wait another day for Game of Thrones to start???
This a man cannot do.
GOT fans and bloggers! I hope you’ll feel free to join me in the many discussions that will be held on bookshelfbattle.com as we watch Season 5!
What do you hope to see? Hope not to see? Conspiracy theories? Praise or complaints? Toss it all into the comments section and you know what? While you’re at it, feel free to add a shameless plug for your blog while you’re at it. Tell my 3.5 readers where they can see your GOT commentary and watch your stats surge (with all the surge that 3.5 readers can provide!)
There’s always a battle going on in my bookshelf, but it looks like Jon Snow and Nedd (with head firmly attached head) Stark have things under control. I’ve assigned them to guard my 20% Target copy of Game of Thrones and thus far they have not failed.
Although between you and me, Jon is a bit of a dummy. Whenever I ask the guy a question, it’s like he knows nothing. :::rimshot:::
You know nothing, Jon Snow. Now guard my 20% off Target book!
Valor Morghulis, friends! Join in the fun, share what’s going on in your blogs, and have fun this season!
Bookshelf Battle 