July Comics Preview With Shag And Mike
Shag (OnceUponAGeek.com) and Mike (ViewsFromTheLongBox.com) get back together for the ever popular “You spend HOW MUCH on comics?!” discussion.
In this episode they discuss the comics that you should be spending your mortgage money on for July of 2009.
Email the geeks at: thegeeks[ at ]theuniquegeek.com
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June 2009 Comics Preview With Shag and Mike
Shag (OnceUponAGeek.com) and Mike (ViewsFromTheLongBox.com) get back together for the ever popular “You will buy this or your an idiot!!” discussion.
In this episode they discuss the comics that you should be buying (or avoiding) for June of 2009.
Email the geeks at: thegeeks[ at ]theuniquegeek.com
Comment Line: 813-321-0TUG (813-321-0884)
Skype: theuniquegeek
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Issue 86 - Star Treking
Jon, Serv, Ron, Cary, Terry, Ed, Thomas, and Need Coffee’s very own Widge hang out and discuss the awesomeness that is Star Trek. I mean seriously only an idiot would find flaws in this masterpiece of a film… just call us a bunch of idiots then.
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Magic Trek!
There’s an expression in fan chat rooms and message boards that has fallen a little by the wayside. It refers to when a classic series is updated or “improved” to be made more palatable for a modern audience. I refer, of course to: “Eat it, Grandpa!” a sort of a battle cry for those who prefer reboots to the original, etc. Don’t like that they added a scream when Luke falls down the Cloud City mineshaft? Eat it, Grandpa! Optimus Prime has lips! Aww, don’t like it? Well, eat it, grandpa! There is no series with a deeper, grayer legion of grandpas, than Star Trek, and the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek has gone out of it’s way to say “Grandfather, your opinion is important to me. You are my elder, without you I do not exist, and I hold you in the ultimate respect. I hope you will find the offering on the table palatable.”
How do you make a Star Trek movie in 2009? There’s a lot going for you and a lot going against you. On your side is an epic, sweeping, mostly-open plotline with only some basic mythological threads necessary to stick to. It’s flexible (just make sure McCoy’s a doctor and Kirk’s the Captain, etc, and go to town) You’ve got all the good will and name recognition in the world (everyone knows Star Trek, it’s the Batman of science fiction), and you’ve got international generations of fans, loyal to a fault.
Against you is brand-fatigue. Later expansions of the series sure punished the poor, damned souls who followed them, and the word “Trekkie” has been late-night talk show host code for “sexless loser” for as long as there have been late-night talk shows. You have to appease that core audience, convince the casual fan it’s superior to the last fifteen years of televised eye-murders and somehow grab the grandchildren, let them know there are zippers on the Starfleet uniforms.
They pulled it off.
What a corker of a barn-burner this new film is, with action and charisma to spare. Marvelous casting and wild, flaring action and romance. It’s rare to have a movie with so awful a plot, such an embarrassing shuttle-wreck of an opening and with such useless villains be so wildly entertaining. You like the people, so you want it to work. You forgive its massive missteps to the degree that a painful film becomes a beacon of hope for the future, and isn’t that the original purpose of Star Trek, to inspire hope for the future?
The Salmon climbed the ladder at the Ballard Locks and saw an IMAX screening this weekend in Seattle. After enduring that awful, awful open, a scene badly written, acted and shot, a complete off-putter from the get-go and rendered completely unnecessary by three conversations held later in the movie, he was able to settle in. He found it irritating and unlikely when Anakin Li’l Kirk rocked out to the Beastie Boys, (it would be like a kid today stealing a car and flying down the road to Chopin), but he liked the weird half-shadows of sci-fi landscapes in the background and the future cop. He hated the cheap-ass longface “monster” in the 99-cent store version of the cantina scene, but he liked teen-Kirk’s smirk and Uhura’s responding coolness. The pattern of forgiving the movie in favor of the cast was becoming firmly established. The bitterness of the opening was recalled by the recruiting speech Pike gives Kirk, but Pike was so gruffly likable, the bad taste was swallowed.
The Li’l Spock scenes were cute, and the goofy testing pits were equally so. Loved the idea that Vulcans feel emotions even more intensely than humans, thus their greater need to suppress them with logic. Super cool sci fi psychology. Winona Ryder looked a little older than Leonard Nimoy. She needs rest, maybe a few years of it. The Salmon offers his Brooklyn apartment for this purpose. He’ll leave sweaters out for her to steal and he’ll pretend to be an undercover cop. Spock’s mommy had been wicked, hasn’t she? What sort of arrangement might we come to, to avoid my reporting Spock’s mommy to the store manager, hmmm?
Issue 85 - A Shaved Chest For The Ladies (The Wolverine Review)
Jon, Serv, and Ron get together to mostly review X-Men Origins: Wolverine. We talk about some other stuff too because, frankly, there is not much to talk about with Wolverine.
Oh, and we dial up a few other folks including our friend in NYC and a, wait for it… girl!
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Issue 85 - A Shaved Chest For The Ladies (The Wolverine Review) [50:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadIssue 84 - Drunk Dialing
So things have been a bit crazy here at the TUG headquarters and this issue doesn’t make it any less so. I want to believe that this issue was about Wolverine and Star Trek (and it was at some point) but really it was more about us goofing off and being out of podcast practice.
The cast for this issue is Michael Bailey(Views From The Longbox), Ron (sort of), Shag (Once Upon A Geek), Jon (AudioMohel), Serv (The Beaches of Florida), and Scott C (Need Coffee). Oh yeah, and a very special guest at some point.
Email the geeks at: thegeeks[ at ]theuniquegeek.com
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The Spirit is Willing…on DVD
When we reviewed The Spirit during its theatrical release, we thought the experience might have been improved on DVD. The theory was the movie was so full of brilliant, distinct images and equally full of complicated action, we ached to seize the reigns ourselves, to have the opportunity to slow down that action (or skip it all together) and see, really see, what was there. With the DVD (and Blu ray) out today, we got that chance, and all we can say is: “God bless the pause button.”
Also confirmed was our suspicion that director Frank Miller was overwhelmed by the party atmosphere on the set. In the director’s commentary (more entertaining than most, art fans, he’s joined by producer/comic book fan Deborah Del Prete) he floats on a tide of gush for his celebrity pals. Being by nature more visually oriented and probably star-blind and flattered, he let the story and the action get away from him. You want to stand there and say that, Scarlett? You go, girl. You want to take over your scene and improv your own dialog, Sam? Your call, bro. It’s the director’s job to make the actors happy, right?
When he’s doing his actual job and focusing his actual talent, he scores. The atmosphere and the look of the film really work, and one wonders if the editor and cinematographer were, in turn, dazzled by Miller, because he had them inspired to work at the top of their game. The snow, those silhouettes, that city!
There’s a featurette on the green screen process they used to prep the scenes for background inclusion, and we learn that if the actor isn’t touching something in a scene, it isn’t there. It’s legitimately impressive, and while we’ve been seeing and hearing about this process since Princess Leia’s hologram first beamed out of R2, the capabilities and opportunities the modern advancements provide are amazing. You can almost literally do anything. I mean, they used it to rescue this crazy movie.
There’s a cute alternate ending played out with Millier’s images, and having a living legend and cultural innovator as your storyboard artist doesn’t hurt at all. Sam Jackson (The Octopus!) and Gabriel Macht (The Spirit!) come in to narrate, and it sort of solidified a thought I had during the movie but didn’t give voice to in the original review. They’re playing rivals in the film, and it sort of played out for real during the making of the movie. Macht, lord bless him, is trying as hard as he can to be an upright hero, do as he’s directed and make a great holiday hero flick. Jackson is a force of chaos, cracking up and trying to see what kind of goofy nonsense he can get away with. They let the Joker on the set and Commissioner Miller couldn’t quite put him away.
Packaging-wise, the Two-Disc Special Edition has a pretty super die-cut slip case and does a nice job of choosing eye-catching costumes and images from the movie. It should stand out on the shelf. The original trailer is on there too, so you can puzzle over the ad campaign.
It’s worth checking out to marvel over the effects and lust after the cast at your own speed. The images are very strong. That opening fight still gives the impression you’ve shown up late to a party where everyone else is crazy tanked and you have no chance of catching up to them, but Eva Mendes rising up out of the water will sober up even the drunkest reveler. Have the remote handy.
Oh! The second disc is a digital copy of the movie, which makes it easy to download to whatever platform you dig. Dig?
The Spirit releases today on DVD and Blu-ray.
PS: I don’t have access to the Blu-ray, but there are some intriguing notes from the press release. There’s an interactive function called MOLOG (Movie Log!) which lets you communicate online with other Blu-Ray folks and narrate or comment on the movie while it’s playing. I’ve heard of it before, but never seen it. I might want to ask the guys in our Technical Difficulties podcast to explain it to me, but the concept is pretty exciting. This would be a fun one to shout about. Like, you could make a little buzzer sound every time they show that photocopy of the rump or “dish” on the costumes. I think it would be worth it to log on and hear someone across the country call The Octopus a “hot tranny mess.”
May 2009 Comics Preview With Shag and Mike
Shag (OnceUponAGeek.com) and Mike (ViewsFromTheLongBox.com) get back together for the ever popular “What are you going to buy?” “I don’t know. What are you going to buy?” discussion.
In this episode they discuss the comics that you should be buying (or avoiding) for May of 2009.
Email the geeks at: thegeeks[ at ]theuniquegeek.com
Comment Line: 813-321-0TUG (813-321-0884)
Skype: theuniquegeek
Sponsor: Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts
TUG Interview - Widge
The latest in the TUG interview series features a friend of The Unique Geek, Widgett Walls.
Widgett Walls (aka John Robinson) is the Chief Monkey Wrangler at Need Coffee. He is also an author, podcaster, and international super spy.
On March 13th 2009, he and Ken Plume will be hosting a 24 hour web video funny fest on RedNoseNet.com to draw attention to Red Nose Day and Comic Relief UK.
You can follow Widge on Twitter (Twitter Name: Widgett).
His books Mystics On The Road To Vanishing Point and Magnificent Desolation can be purchased on Amazon.
There’s A Zombie In My Treehouse will be available later this year.
Email the geeks at: thegeeks[ at ]theuniquegeek.com
Comment Line: 813-321-0TUG (813-321-0884)
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Watchmen Review - Look, Ye Mighty, and Despair
There are a billion reviews of this movie, and there were a billion articles in advance of it. The demographic I fall into is well-represented already as far as online criticism goes. (What, a white thirty-something wannabe writer who read the comic as a boy is talking about the film?! That’s a perspective I hadn’t considered! Link me!). I write this without any conceit of a unique perspective, but as a record of my personal experience in order to compare it to that of others.
I’m in my mid-thirties. I have always known Watchmen as a collected work, so my “cred” doesn’t go all the way back to the individual issues. I didn’t find it by “accident,” (even less cred!) It was first recommended to me by a comic store employee in the late ’80s, and since that time I have probably read it all the way through (including the text documents) three or four times. I have flipped through it to revisit the art or favorite scenes many many times, but the last time I read it cover to cover was probably ten years ago. I wanted to re-read it in advance of the movie, but my thought was seeing it without being hyper-aware of each panel would enhance my ability to judge it as a film. Like, if I knew everything that was going to happen, it would cheapen the experience.
Some things are unavoidable, some plot elements you don’t forget. I know who the bad guy is. In the early scene where Nite-Owl goes to warn Veidt someone might be trying to kill him, Veidt receives this news with his back to Nite-Owl, and we see a little smirk, a tiny tug at the corner of his mouth. Knowing he’s the villain makes it difficult for me to see that as anything other than either, “Hee, the fool is warning me that I might be trying to kill me!” or “As the paragon of human genius, I predicted you would come here, and I take a small pleasure in seeing it happen.” Someone unfamiliar with the story might think the smirk meant, “Me, in danger? Laughable!” I can’t know.
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