Hot Apollo

Toronto's Shiniest Rock-and-Roll Band

Filtering by Tag: movies

Hanging and Shanging

I just saw “Shang-Chi”! It was the first movie I’ve seen in theatres since I went to “Onward” on the last day cinemas were open before the pandemic. And it was the right one to go to. I was expecting some sort of crime intrigue adventure with martial arts and family drama. But yo! Vague spoilers? It was so much more! It veered hard into mystical wildness from the jump, and that was right in my jam. 

Like alright. Just going to say it. Dude rode a dragon. And that wasn’t even a clear contender for the most fabulous thing. 

And for real, everyone had such wonderful chemistry with each other. The whole swishy thing was joyous throughout. 

It just felt right to join some friends in seeing this film put the “cinema” back in “Marvel Cinematic Universe”. Watching “Black Widow” at home was fun, but that was a different thing. 

I heartily endorse all this big screen magic wuxia fantasy.

Black WidJo

I was just thinking about the new Black Widow movie in the context of a recent comic that featured the character’s return from the dead. In comics, unless you’re forgettable enough for your death and subsequent return to pass without much notice, there’s probably going to be a story about that. In this case, cloning was the answer. If I recall right, Black Widow died and came back in a cloned but otherwise unaltered body and fought against a bunch of other Black Widow clones that were under the control of the cloners. Probably the Red Room?

And now, since everyone’s predicting ways in which this prequel movie will have ramifications for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I have this image in my head of a stinger where someone stumbles across this room with countless vats of Natasha clones to open the door for the return of Black WidScarJo. Maybe alongside the new blond one.

Bonus Question!

Best room of clone vats?

Shadows!

ShadJos.png

Zak and George

I wasn’t anxiously anticipating the Snyder cut, but there was always a fairly good chance of my watching it.

Why not? And I do like when creators can just completely put themselves into the work. When he’s allowed, Zak Snyder is certainly good at that. Sometimes that works for me. Sometimes it doesn’t. His output is comparable to Tim Burton’s in my mind. Neither of them like to compromise, and that turns out wonderfully when they’re creating their own material or the subject matter they’re working with is already suited to their tastes. I like it less when they impose their tastes on something that’s not very compatible.

It’s why I love things like “Sucker Punch”, “Watchmen”, “Alice in Wonderland”, and “The Corpse Bride”. All of those were either created by their directors or adapted from works that clearly resonated with their psyches. It’s also why I think that Snyder and Burton were not the people to make movies about Superman and Batman respectively. They weren’t necessarily bad movies in an abstract way, but they weren’t great at focusing on those characters’ essential natures.

And while “Justice League” falls more into the ill fitting category for Snyder, he nonetheless made a gorgeous movie that flowed well, and even if I hadn’t enjoyed it more than I expected to, which wasn’t at a nadir to begin with, I would have supported the realization of that vision anyway.

In another sense, I could compare him with George Lucas. I legitimately love how that dude is such a rarity because he maintains is auteur nature even when he’s a vastly powerful figure in the Hollywood machine. Snyder has a bit of that, and both of them have been praised for things like concepts and visuals even by people who derogate their writing. I don’t think either of them is really bad at that, but part of the reason for which Lucas dwells deep in my heart where Snyder barely ever approaches is because I personally like Lucas’s inclinations more. That’s on me. But I still appreciate when those two and others of similar vision can realize their ideas to their full satisfaction.

Dumb Positivity

I’m somewhat infamous among people who know me for …

Well, probably a bunch of things. But if I weren’t infamous for all of those, I might be infamous for liking enough stuff to the point where there’s not really any room for stuff to hate.

Which apparently isn’t the standard way of things? I don’t know. I’m never great at the standard way of things.

But recently, I’ve noticed an increscent amount of space for vindication of my naive enjoyment of things that are not widely hailed masterpieces. As a kid with no memory of not knowing Vader’s true identity, I was ready for more Star Wars long before “The Phantom Menace” came out, and “Attack of the Clones” is still my favourite film in the entire saga. While I can generally agree with everyone that Chris Evans is wonderful in the role of Steve Rogers, I’ve also said that there are other actors who could capture that kind of energy, but Chris’s Johnny Storm was inimitable. And the rest of the cast worked for me too!

And of course these are just a small sampling of the opinions that were vociferously contradicted by the voice of the populace for years.

But in recent years, more people are constantly rising up to agree with this sort of positivity. I noticed it to a high degree with the Star Wars prequels, though I’m sure some would write that off as a response to sequel discomfort. But now people are even coming out in support of the early 2000s Fantastic Four films, which for years seemed to be the most execrable superhero movies of the modern era to the point that scores of unimaginative cynics claimed they proved that the property was unadaptable long before the 2015 outing?

Such turnarounds warm my heart. Maybe any dumb positive opinion just has to live long enough to become smart.

Bonus Question!

Best clone?

Stryfe!

Probably not actually. But it’s fun to say.

strf.jpg

Mutants, Slightly Less New

Finally got around to seeing “New Mutants” after it finally got released after years of delays. Finally.

And it delivered. Even other people liked it! Obviously, I was going to enjoy it.

But I think the part that brought the most warmth to my heart was seeing how they made room for a dance montage after “X-Men: Apocalypse”, which is still my favourite of the franchise, relegated that to the deleted scenes.

Cheers!

Bonus Question!

Best New Mutant!

Magik! For weirdness. Also mixing mutanthood and magic. I feel that.

New MCU Punisher! The End of White Castle?

There are rumours of a new non-white MCU Punisher, and of course people are complaining about malefic social justice agendas and stuff.

But here’s the thing. If the Punisher just stays as a white dude in his next screen appearance, those same complainers are just going to whine about the inevitable swathes of articles that decry the new Punisher franchise for being a glorified ode to fragile white masculinity or whatever.

But if Frank Castle isn’t white, the volume of those articles will be severely diminished, and all of Frank’s fans will still get a satisfying Punisher movie or whatever it is without having to cavil about that polemic aftermath. Everybody wins! Or at least no one loses?

Well, maybe someone loses. There is one group to whom my mollifying arguments do not apply. Yup! White supremacists. For whatever reason, Frank, through no fault of his or Marvel, seems to have an inordinate number of avowed bigots in his fan base, and obviously, they’re always going to want a white protagonist. But those are some feelings I care even less about.


Bonus Question!

Best castle?

Howl’s. It’s in the sky, dudes!

Skyfort.jpg


Sandman Dream Cast

Man! When I saw the cast list for the audio adaptation of The Sandman in mid 2020, I initially thought it was for the movie, and I got really excited. The two names that stuck in my mind most were James McAvoy and Kat Dennings for Dream and Death. Those two are fun to watch in anything, and having them in two of the best roles would be a treat.

Around the new year, I was talking with a friend about the movie, and they mentioned those two names. At first I thought they were confused, but then I learned Gaiman has a habit of appreciating people from audio adaptations of his works enough to get them into filmed versions, and McAvoy and Dennings made that leap.

Could not be more excited.

And then I found out that was not the cae, and fhe actual Morpheus is someone I can’t really claim to know, but apparently be played Byron in that Mary Shelley horror movie, which is appropriate in a different way.


Bonus Question!’

I just realized “Dennings” fits with the Endless tradition of names that start with D, and now I’m wondering if McAvoy’s first name should be “Djames”.



Sleepy Chris

A while ago, my ex-girlfriend expressed surprise at the fact I hadn’t seen “Christopher Robin”. I told her I remembered seeing it come to theatres and just not making a priority of it before it left. I placed that memory around the second half of 2019, but when we went to watch it, I was it came out in 2018 and got slightly confused until the mid point of the film when I realized the source of my error.

In the second half of 2019, there was indeed a Ewan McGregor vehicle wherein he portrayed an adult version of a famous fictional kid who revisits the fantastical aspects that defined his childhood, but that movie was not “Christopher Robin”. It was in fact “Doctor Sleep”, and those two films with their conceptional overlaps mingled in my mind, where the Winnie the Pooh one, related as it was to a franchise I always had an attachment to, easily achieved dominance.

There. Cleared up. And the movie rocked.

Bonus Question!

Worst doctor of sleep?

Doctor Destiny. Dude did some dire dream dastardliness in that diner.

Treehouse Time

I watched the new Croods sequel. Ryan Reynolds and Nic Cage as weird cavemen? Yes. More of that.

But the sequel in particular got me by featuring Leslie Mann in a fantastical treehouse, which was how I was first introduced to her in the Brendan Fraser classic “George in the Jungle”. Probably also how I was first introduced to Brendan Fraser and John Cleese. Thomas Haden Church … Maybe everyone in that movie? I was a very young child.

Anyway, “Croods 2” was a joy, and if you still need more of Leslie Mann in an epic treehouse, go back and watch “George of the Jungle” again.

Bonus Question!

Best George?

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron.

Aphra Name Change - Star Wars Retcon?

Everyone now knows and loves Doctor Aphra, one of the greatest new Star Wars characters of the modern era. Darth Vader’s erstwhile archaeologist assistant. Evil Indiana Jones lady. Overall amoral science type. She began as a supporting character in Vader’s comic several years ago. and now she might be getting her own television series.

Anyway, recently I was looking on Comixology or something for the new issue of her comic, and my search for “Aphra” was turning up nothing. That’s when I realized I’d somehow gotten her name wrong for this entire time. It was actually “Althra” or something. I had no idea how that mistake had happened.

Until I woke up.

Yes, it’s actually Aphra. Chelli Lona Aphra.

Sweet dreams.

Bonus Question!

Best evil Indiana Jones?

I mean …. This guy.

dudeateafly.jpg

Bee-Lo and Stitch?

Though I was familiar enough with the franchise in general and the television show in specific, I’d never seen the original “Lilo and Stitch” movie. But it’s one of my girlfriend’s favourites, and we finally watched it together.

Here’s what I’ll say. That scene at the beginning where the alien winds up at the dog pound and gets claimed against the manager’s protestations by the protagonist? In my mind, that’s what inspired the beginning of the first Michael Bay Transformers film. Just with a car alien instead of a dog alien. Stitch and Bumblebee even have somewhat similar habits of intermittent unintelligibility.

Bonus Question!

Best bee?

bea.jpg

Anudder Woman

I still remember that whole plot in “Batman Forever”, one of my favourites, where the awkward, poorly socialized Edward Nygma idolizes his rich, glamorous superior, Bruce Wayne, and obsesses over him to the point of emulation. I remember seeing it again in “Iron Man 3” with the exact same hair. Before and after. And again in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”. Different hair and blue skin, Worse teeth.

But now that classic “Notice Me, Senpai” school of villainy is back at DC with Kristen Wiig’s Barbara Minerva in the new Wonder Woman movie, and all is right with the world. Well, many things aren’t. But this is.

It’s a good movie. That’s what I’m saying.

Velvet Rewind

So. This new David Bowie movie’s out. “Stardust”. It’s a movie about David Bowie that’s not allowed to use any of David Bowie’s music because no one in David Bowie’s family wanted it to happen.

But like . . . This exact thing already happened.

In the 90s, Todd Haynes, who went on to more mainstream biographical success with the multifarious Bob Dylan film “I’m Not There”, was set to direct a movie about Bowie called “Velvet Goldmine” until Bowie realized he didn’t like the specific biography that served as primary reference material for the film. Instead, Haynes turned the whole thing into a fantastical view of the glitter rock era’s general feel with weird touches like the idea that it began because of a magic gem Oscar Wilde’s extraterrestrial parents gave him. Also, Ewan McGregor was a composite of Iggy Pop and some other dudes, and he looked like Kurt Cobain. And he wasn’t famous yet. And neither was Christian Bale. Or Jonathatn Rhys-Meyers. Toni Collette. Eddie Izzard might have been the biggest star in it at the time.

Anyway, I love that movie.

Bonus Question!

Best Stardust movie?

Dusty!.jpg

Mulanimal Crackers

I have nothing against it, but I really doubt I’m going to see the live “Mulan” movie. I liked the original, but I think my personal experience of the remake would be similar to my assumptions around the 2019 “Lion King”. Too much of the charm is missing to my tastes. In the case of “Mulan”, that charm is largely coalesced in the form of a diminutive dragon with the voice of Eddie Murphy.

But you know what else got released to streaming around the same time? “Animal Crackers”! A movie about officially licensed Animal Crackers with the voices of Ian McKellen, Office Jim, and others of epic merit. With heart! Apparently, it was a huge passion project for some of its creators to the point where one of them painted the official poster by hand. And one of the directors turned out to be the guy behind the animated “Mulan”.

So you know what? “Animal Crackers” is to me the real successor to cartoon “Mulan” for the summer of 2020. Confirmed.

Bonus Question!

I just realized Eddie Murphy’s Mushu could be a descendant of Eddie Murphy’s Donkey and his dragon wife.

Comics, Cartoons, Comedy

Man, that final weekend in August. The August of not a lot of movies!

And this one weekend had three big ones I had to see. Who knew a day would come when an X-Men movie would not be prioritized of all else for me after a lifetime of my affinity for the franchise? And it’s not because I’m not excited. I’d be here for it even if no one else thought it looked good. And public opinion is not seeming to be largely against its quality.

Nah. I’m holding off on that, which is a film that looks somewhat appropriate for the Halloween season in its horror overtones, and the new Bill-Ted movie because of Phineas and Ferb. It hasn’t done much in years, but I still love the soundtrack, which includes some cuts from their first movie, like the song Slash played on. And was called out in for the guitar solo.

Now they have another movie, and since the whole franchise is predicated on endless summer, it felt right to fit it within the season. So yeah. In the words of Phineas, “Alright, Slash, let’s go.”

All of you are called Slash for the purposes of that quotation.

Bonus Question!

Worst Phineas?

Phineas Mason, the Tinkerer, was a bit of a jerk. Especially to Spider-Man.

Mermaid Energy

So. I never actually watched “The Little Mermaid” in its entirety. It came out in the year before I was born, and my parents didn’t really go out of their way to get a bunch of Disney stuff till I arrived. Thus, I have vivid memories of constantly watching “Aladdin” and “The Lion King” in my early years. 

I always meant to get around to it, but I never did until I started seeing this girl who loved it. She had strong mermaid energy anyway, and she seemed like the right person to watch it with.

Seeing it in its fullness for the first time felt like connecting all the scattered dots I’d accumulated through osmosis and occasional peripheral clips over the course of the last three decades. Everything finally got assembled and reinforced by a bunch of songs I didn’t really know.

I always liked “Under the Sea” though.

Sebastian’s got wild pipes.

Bonus Question!

Which Sebastian has the wildest pipes above the sea?

 Bach. The guy from Skid Row. Not the composer.

Real Evil Genius

Just watched “Artemis Fowl”. I keep hearing that all of these film houses are so desperate to adapt a fantasy book series into cinema’s next Harry Potter franchise, and people always seem down on it. Meanwhile, I’m here and loving all of it. But they never do well enough to stick around. it took a year or two for me to realize that the “Golden Compass” movie wasn’t getting a sequel. At least we got James McAvoy’s Asriel in the television series.

And “Artemis Fowl” gave us a whole new Josh Gad with a scratchy voice and a demeanour that almost felt like what you’d get if you got Jack Black in a Johnny Depp Halloween costume.

Basically, I’m saying this movie ruled.

Bonus Question!

Best fowl?

Phoenix.

"Gods Behaving Badly" Filmed Badly?

Big fan of mythology. Also comedy. And also fantasy stories. There was this book, “Gods Behaving Badly”, which hit that trifecta for me quite well when I read it ages ago.

Today, I just learned that it was made into a movie in 2013 with an astonishing cast. Christopher Walken was Zeus. That’s just a taste.

In the same day, I tried to find a place to watch it, whereupon I discovered that it had one showing at an Italian film festival before consensus decreed that the director’s inexperience and the general messiness of its production made the movie essentially unreleasable. Thus, it was never actually released.

But at least I saw some pictures. I got a taste.

Bonus Question!

Best movie about badly behaved gods?

“Thor”. It’s not even the best Thor movie, but the entire plot starts when Thor’s bad behaviour gets his father to overreact and send him to Earth, which is bad behaviour in itself. And then Loki starts behaving worse.

Copyright © 2011, Jaymes Buckman and David Aaron Cohen. All rights reserved. In a good way.