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Superman/Batman - Public Enemies (2010)
No, it's not 'Superman/Batman vs Public Enemy'....that would just be too awesome for human eyes. I'll bet Chuck D and Flava Flav would give Clark and Bruce a good run for their money...
Seriously, this is another well-written and action-packed full-length animated feature from Warner Bros and DC Comics (adapted straight from the comic books, no less). It doesn't really give you any new insight on either Batman or Superman, but it does shed a little light on the relationship these two have, having worked together on about seven thousand different cases. It's what you'd call a 'Buddy Superhero' movie...like a buddy cop movie, but without the crude childish humor, and everyone is ultra-buff and wears spandex 24/7.
The story is this: Lex Luthor (yes, him again) manages to get himself elected as President, and makes 'Meta Humans' (ie: superheroes) like the Justice League into a government-controlled agency. This in itself sounds a little too much like Marvel Comics' far superior Civil War storyline, but I'll buy into it. Superman and Batman refuse to work with Luthor, so Lex frames Supes for the murder of Metallo (one of the more powerful villains in DC, I think) who was supposed to have 'gone legit'. There's a billion dollar bounty on Superman's head, and every villain and hero in the world wants to collect that paycheck.
It's exciting stuff and an interesting story if you can keep up with all the betrayals and redemptions and the abundance of super powered pugulism going on. Even though Batman is one of the main characters in it, don't expect your usual Dark Knight type storyline here. This film shows how truly amazing it is that the
B-Man can run with the big boys and give em a good fight, and not just swoop down out of the dark upon unsuspecting purse-snatchers.
This one is probably for comic book fans only. I couldn't get my wife to watch this in a million years. Poor woman doesn't even know what she's missing....
A-
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Freaky Friday (2003)
Obviously, I didn't pick this one out myself. This was picked by my 6 year-old daughter for 'family movie night'. Having never seen anything starring Lindsay Lohan before, I guess I had a morbid curiosity about her. I wanted to see if she really was 'all that' (Do people still say that?). Well anyway, she ain't.... I never cared much for Jamie Lee Curtis either, for that matter. She's just a little too 'man-ish' for my tastes.
All my prejudices aside however, this wasn't that awful. I like the concept of the movie - the whole switching bodies and seeing-life-through-the-eyes-of-another thing. There were a good number of funny moments too, such as Jamie Lee with a 15 year-old brain driving 80 miles an hour everywhere she goes, or Lindsay with a 40 year-old mind trying to pretend she knows how to play guitar at the all-too-familiar 'Battle of the Bands' scene near the end.
Sappy ending, lots of cheesy chick-punk rock songs, dramatic twist at the end of Act II, the hard-of-hearing grandpa, the stuck-up cheerleader rival girl and of course the quirky smart-alec little brother - these are all key ingredients to be found in just about every bit of so-called 'entertainment' oozing from Disney these days. Unoriginal, predictable and squeaky-clean pseudo-rebellious themes are what made this American Movie Dynasty, and they are not about to stop now.
I guess I can try to open my eyes to the views of others and say that, although I would have rather been sleeping, it was worth watching it and having a laugh with my kids. It could have been far, far worse.
C
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Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode 2
Don't know what can be said about this....if you like Star Wars, you've got to find this at least slightly amusing, if not drop-dead hilarious. Personally, I love Star Wars (duh) and I love Robot Chicken, even if they go a little overboard sometimes. That being said, it's not quite as funny as Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode 1. Seth MacFarlane's Emporer Palpatine is really annoying in this one and hogs a lot of screen time. He's played in the same arrogant, insulting vein as Stewie from Family Guy - a show and character I personally could really do without ..... and I'm getting pretty sick of the R.C. version of Boba Fett....It gets a little tiresome just watching Star Wars characters walk around saying 'F#@* You' to each other all the time. Luckily it's not all just like this.
There are some genuinely hilarious parts in it, like the AT-AT drag race, the bounty hunters, the Geonosis Arena Monster Truck Rally-style TV ad, and Gary the Stormtrooper's 'take your daughter to work day'..... I laughed so hard that I almost messed myself when Darth Vader strangles the Rebel Officer and says "It's because of people like YOU that Gary never gets to see his daughter!!!"
It was also nice to hear some of the the actual voices of the original Star Wars cast again - this time around they got Carrie Fisher and Billy Dee Williams, and even though their parts weren't really that funny, it was a nice bit of nostalgia. So yeah, not as good as the first one, but definitely better than the two Family Guy: Star Wars piece of crap parodies.
B+
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Battlestar Galactica (Season One - Disc One)
This doesn't really qualify as a 'movie' review, per se, but I did rent it on video recently and I've got an opinion on it, so you're going to have to suffer through it - too bad. :p I don't know if this whole disc was just the Mini-series Pilot or if there were some other episodes tacked on after it or what....honestly, I just don't give a frack. I don't care if I ever see the rest of the series.
The original series, as 'cheesy 70's TV show' as it was, was pretty cool - definitely the coolest thing on TV at the time as I recall. The characters were good, the robot bad guys looked cool, and the spaceship battles were neat. I was pretty skeptical going in to watching the new version, because it seems to me that it came out at a time when all of the network and cable channels were overflowing with new sci-fi shows, none of which were really any good if you ask me. Star Trek - Enterprise? C'mon, are you shittin' me? The only good (or at least truly original) sci-fi series that came out around this time was Firefly. I ignored a lot of friends' advice to watch Battlestar - people whose opinions I normally trust.
Ehhhhh....turns out I was right..... I know it's called a 're-imagining' of the story, but I didn't care for some of the changes they made....I mean, Starbuck - a chick? WTF?? Colonel Tye a drunk? Okay, that was cool.....but what's with the 'mysterious' been-there-done-that body switching 'who's the bad guy?'-type menace from these new Cylons? Lame. Body Snatchers, the Matrix, Sky Net and Replicants people....we've all seen all of this before. Suddenly Cylons aren't Cylons anymore! At least they're not your father's Cylons....
This is a true Cylon (maybe not 'true', but you know what I mean):
This is NOT a Cylon IMO:
This is just an excuse to stick some hot evil chick in a red dress into a sci-fi show to sucker in more teenaged boys and female viewers; the latter because it makes the show 'more sexy' and shows a powerful female character, and the former just because it's a blonde chick in a red dress ('nuff said). Add this to a rich, complex sci-fi backstory (which was already written by someone else - all you have to do is f**k with it) and throw in an equally strong older female character (Madame President Whatserface), and you've got an instant hit amongst men and women, old and young alike. Too bad it's boring as hell to watch, except for when there are spaceships or robots on screen, and there wasn't enough of that to keep me going. I guess the actors are passable for a weekly series, but with the exception of a few, they're all turning out pretty Young and the Restless caliber performances.
I honestly don't know why my friends or anyone else thought this was cool.
Boo.
I still can't believe that they perverted my childhood memories of the mighty Starbuck and made him into some ugly butch chick.
D+
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That's it for today, and that's plenty of movies for awhile. Got some comics to catch up on too, so don't go too far, because those are coming up soon!
....Hey wait! No! Promise you'll come back!!!.........please?.....
May the Force be with you...
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