Rambling Film

Or rather, I want to talk about her. She's my favorite Avenger after all. I'm used to defending my fav. I want her to succeed. She's a highly powerful witch that has suffered great loses but can use her tremendous power to help now, right? Well, not according to Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Spoilers ahead. I'm writing this from an MCU perspective. Wanda has a long comic history that is occasionally translated to the films, more so now than in previous years. I've noticed there is sometimes a big divide between comic and movie fans. Those introduced through the films want Wanda to be a hero, as do a sizeable amount of comic fans. There's plenty out there that hate House of M for what it did to Wanda. But others want her to embrace her dark side and "go crazy." I'm firmly in the hero camp. That's what this post is about. I think Wanda in the MCU works better as a hero , and I'm baffled at the way the Multiverse of Madness was...

I saw this question on Twitter as part of a "get to know me" game and when I tried to think of the answer for myself, what I came up with kind of surprised me. I've mentioned before that working at a movie theater as a teenager is what broadened my horizon for films, but what was the movie that got me to look at cinema beyond the comedic and horror films that I normally stuck with? At first I thought of American Beauty . It's my all time favorite movie which I saw for the first time at age 13. While it's very important to me because it was the first time I considered dysfunctional families and stopped feeling alone about it, I never really got into anything like it until years later.  I thought of all the Shirley Temple movies I would record off of AMC when I was little just so I could watch her tap. I loved those too, but I never watched other classic films.  I loved big franchises like Star Wars , and Lord of the Rings , and Harry Potter , b...

I go through entertainment moods. Sometimes I'm in a reading mood, other times I'm in a watching mood. For pretty much all of October, I've been glued to my Netflix account. While I wrote a few full reviews for some of the movies I watched, such as The Kindergarten Teacher and Apostle,  the rest I decided to do in one post. Here are some movies and TV series I've been binging lately.  DVD   The first three reviews are from their DVD rental service. Side note, how do more people not use this? It's amazing! Do you all still have video rental stores in your neck of the woods because I sure as hell don't. Eighth Grade Elsie Fisher is a gem. This is a very quite movie, some would say "nothing happens" but really, everything does. I laughed pretty hard a few times and cringed at others because I could relate. Middle school was hell. I had ICQ and MSN Messenger to make mine awkward, I couldn't imagine having even more social media to add to it now...

Putting together my three picks for the Non English TV Show edition of Thursday Movie Picks got me all nostalgic. Now I'm remembering all these shows/movies I used to watch and I felt like making a list out of them. I'm not going to include the big ones like Doug, Rugrats, Rocko's Modern Life, Hey Arnold, All That, Clarissa Explains it All, Alex Mack etc. Those are very popular with my fellow 90's kids and are easily memorable. These are the ones I had to dig a bit for in my brain. I'm going to start with the shows that I remember the earliest, and go from there. Most of these are TV shows, with a few movies thrown in. 1) Eureeka's Castle This can best be described as a derpy puppet show. They had a bat that constantly flew into things, but you bet your ass my 2 to 3 year old self was watching this every morning.  2) David The Gnome Like I said during TMP, this was a show I never realized was a dub until I found IMDb. It was originally a Spanish...

I love true crime documentaries. I was always one of those kids who would get stuck on crimelibrary.com for hours in the middle of the night. That's probably super weird but it's hard to look away from the massive fuck up that is the criminal justice system sometimes. Over the past few weeks I've watched three docs about crimes or the prison system in general. I decided to share them all in one post. 13th (watched on Netflix Instant) This is a documentary I expect to see on a lot of "best of" shortlists. I think it will rightly snag an Oscar nomination too. 13th follows the prison system in the United States and how it's unfairly structured to affect black men and women the most. It takes it's title from our 13th amendment. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”   There are som...

Earlier this week the folks at  Entertainment Weekly  posted that pre-sales for the highly anticipated Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II are showing more people are opting for 2D rather than the current fad, 3D. I was curious as to what my fellow movie goers locally were choosing, so I asked my buddy that works at the theater. 2D is selling more than 3D as well. In fact, with the sales they've gotten for 2D, they are actually saving one of their biggest screens for just that. Originally their plan was to have both of their largest theaters in 3D. Anyone who reads my blog knows how unnecessary I think 3D is. I've been patiently waiting for this to fade out. I jumped for joy when Part I of Deathly Hallows nixed the decision to show in 3D. Now with arguably the biggest film of one of the most successful franchises on it's way, can Harry Potter fans show the world that movies can make bank without the 3D price tag? I find 3D...

I just got done reading 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' (again) and it got me thinking about the film. I thought I'd make a list of things I really want to see, then on Nov 18th when the film comes out, I will re-visit this list and see if I got any of my wishes. Of course it will be impossible to incorporate every little detail from the book into the movie, so I'll try to be as fair as possible with my "demands". Also after I see the film I'll write up another column of 10 things I'd like to see in part 2. 1) The opening sequence : There are certain parts of the book that really don't need to be toned down for film. This is one of them. Members of the Order of the Phoenix are trying to get Harry safely from his home on Privet Dr. to random portkeys. (objects that essentially teleport you to another place) These portkeys will all lead them to a safe place. Ron, Hermione, Fluer, Fred, and George are all dressed as fake "Harrys" an...

Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing ...

It's pretty obvious that I'm in love with movies. I'm intrigued by everything about them, but one other thing I've loved for a long time is Pro Wrestling. I've been a fan since about 1994. I mostly watched WWF, but I lived near a video store that had all the old videos so I could see what was going on before my time. Wrestling has drastically changed since I first watched it. I got used to the Hulkamania days, then when I got a bit older the 'Attitude Era' as it's known to fans started. This was truly the best time in wrestling. Nowadays WWE pushes the PG product while it's competitor TNA is trying to bring it back. I appreciate everything about wrestling, the stuff those guys and gals put their body through is ridiculous and their schedules are insane. They really are the best athletes out there, because there at it all year round. While I spend a good deal of my time poking fun at Raw (mostly at http://www.thejohnreport.net) and admiring what I see...