Action Movie Scene


September 21st, 2008

Cute idea for a scene in an action movie: The hero has succeeded in breaking into the villain’s lair. He sneaks into the villain’s office, and finds a bank of computer screens displaying strange, incomprehensible patterns. He stares at them, racking his brains, trying to figure out what they could possibly mean…

…and it turns out it’s just the screensaver.

Wall-E


August 29th, 2008

I finally got around to seeing Wall-E, and I’m really impressed at how much Pixar has matured lately. I mean, Toy Story and A Bug’s Life and Pixar’s other early movies were very well-done, don’t get me wrong. But Wall-E isn’t just a great animated movie. It isn’t just a great children’s movie. It’s a great movie, period. I think I may have to get it on Blu-Ray when it comes out.

Build a Better Bomber


August 13th, 2008

You know, if I ever decide to become a crazed homicidal bomber like they have in the movies, I’m going to do things a little differently.

To start, all of the wires will be the same color. And if I really must have a wire where cutting it disables the bomb, it’ll be tangled up with a hundred wires where cutting them makes the bomb go off. Why give the hero a 50/50 chance?

Oh, and no silly LCD screen telling the hero how much time he has left to disable the bomb. But if I really need it for some reason, the bomb will go off when the screen is still showing 10 or 15 minutes left.

Today’s crazed homicidal bombers make things far too easy for the action heroes.

Technology Changing


July 28th, 2008

I’m watching “Back to the Future II” right now, and I’m amused to discover that in the producers’ vision of the far-off year 2015, they have flying cars, fusion power, hover skateboards, bionic implants…

…but they still use pay phones.

Just drives home how quickly the cell phone phenomenon took over, and how it really took everyone by surprise.

Evil Versions in Movies


July 21st, 2008

Have you ever noticed how often, in superhero movies, the hero fights a very literal evil version of himself? The same superpowers (or close to it), an origin that’s directly tied into the hero’s origin…Spider-Man fought an evil Spider-Man. Iron Man fought an evil Iron Man. The Hulk fought an evil Hulk. Superman fought pretty much nothing but evil Supermen–3 out of his 4 movies had them.

Isn’t it about time for them to come up with some more creative villains?

Idea File: Misguided Reviews


May 30th, 2008

You know what would be funny? Writing reviews of movies as though you thought they were in a completely different genre than they actually are. Like reviewing “Iron Man” as a romantic comedy. I think there could be a lot of comedy mileage in that.

You know, kind of like those re-edited trailers you see online occasionally, that portray the movie as being in a different genre. “The Shining” as a Nora Ephron-style comedy, that sort of thing.

Indiana Blu


May 13th, 2008

I saw an ad on TV last night for a new “Special Edition” release of the three Indiana Jones movies. New transfer, cleaned up, special features blah blah blah the usual drill. But it was only on DVD, not also available on Blu-Ray. What’s up with that? You can get lots of recent crap on Blu-Ray; you’d think they’d start re-releasing older movies like Indy that would really benefit from the better picture and sound, especially if they’re doing a new transfer anyway.