Month: July 2009 (Page 7 of 26)

True Blood 2.6 – Tease ’em, Thrill ’em, Torture and Kill ’em

All right, kids, I’m back to blogging, though given the amount of responses Jamey got from his stint as my substitute, maybe he should be the one doing this on a regular basis. Or not. (I’d be quite glad to let him do it, but I know that – like myself – there are never enough hours in the day for him to accomplish the tasks he already has on his plate, so adding one more would just be cruel.) Fortunately, I’ve had time to play catch-up, so I know what I missed last week…which, as it turned out, was quite a lot.

We didn’t see much of Eric this week, but his scene with Lorena at the beginning of the episode was certainly a crucial one, setting up a lengthy flashback to Chicago in 1926, where Bill…oh, sorry, make that Guillaume…is tickling the ivories as Lorena tries to pick up a beautiful blonde who’s hanging on the arm of a complete boor. Fast-forward a bit, and things have gone horribly wrong for the two non-vampires in the equation. Isn’t that always the way? God damn, Bill was a nasty son of a bitch back in the ’20s. I have to say, though, that I’m still not a fan of those blood-laden sex scenes, so I just focused on the importance of the necklace. It’s clear that there’s still a bond between Lorena and Bill, and despite her actions toward him later in the episode, I still think that her feelings for him are going to come back into play and hose up Eric’s plans.

Jason seemed scared to death that maybe his relationship with Sarah might have been discerned by Rev. Steve, but when the Rev copped a ‘tude toward his wife, you could sense that Jason suddenly wasn’t nearly as upset about the previous night’s actions as he might’ve been…and when Steve started talking about the whole “Meet the Sun” procedure, Jason’s disgust at the concept was evident. So there you go: a perfect excuse for him to hook up with Sarah in the church. Not that she didn’t need some sympathy, after what she’d just witnessed…

The dynamic between Sookie and Hugo was pretty funny, and his discussion about his experiences as a human dating a vampire certainly provided Sookie with a few new things to think about. I laughed when she said that, in person, Sarah looks like vanilla pudding, but there was a lot of tension in the scenes with Sookie and Hugo in Steve’s office, with the constant sensation that Jason could bust in at any time and ruin things for them. He didn’t, of course, but then the tension only got ratcheted up further when it became evident that Sookie and Hugo were on a collision course with oblivion, particularly when talk of the lock-in started. I really didn’t think they’d end up being taken down to the basement. That’s what I get for thinking, I guess.

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Harry Potter and the rodents of surprising popularity

I’m still very much at at Comic-Con so I’m going to be keeping this one simple.

As usual, my Thursday preview was wrong, wrong, wrong.  “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” only managed an estimated $30 million, somewhat below the $31 million Carl DiOrio suggested as a kind of “floor.”

Meanwhile, the poorly reviewed but family-friendly guinea pigs of “G-Force” showed extra strength and became the highest grossing film with a weekend take of somewhere in the neighborhood of $32.2  million. That marks a new success for producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who certainly has a history of high profitability, medium-to-low quality hits like the “Pirates of the Carribbean” and the “CSI” franchise, to name only two of the more recent examples.

Harry and Hermione ponder the impermanence of the #1 spotIt’s possible that the progression of the Potter story arc makes the films extremely safe bets but somewhat self-limiting to those who are not up to speed on the Potter epic. I hope it isn’t true that stronger than usual reviews somehow damage the sixth Potter film. Still, the news wasn’t all bad for the kid from Hogwarts, as the latest chapter in the story did win the international derby with $84.4 million.

The number 3 spot went to the film that many thought would take second. The R-rated rom-com, “The Ugly Truth,” seduced enough audience members to earn an estimated $27 million, which is not bad at all. “Orphan,” however, turned out to be the red-headed stepchild at the nation’s cinemas with a relatively forlorn $12.8 million, making it a somewhat disappointing weekend for movies involving young people from Warner Brothers.

Comic-Con Saturday odds and ends

Things may be somewhat winding down as the con’s final day unspools, but there was plenty of big movie stuff yesterday.

* I attended part of a live event that was basically the equivalent of a nifty Blu-Ray disc feature for the “Watchmen” director’s cut Blu-Ray disc, in which director Zack Snyder (“300“) performed a live commentary that was really more of an Q&A with users of the “BD Live” feature for the disc and audience members. What I saw didn’t quite rock my world in terms of the level of discussion. When asked whether the Comedian is a good guy or a bad guy, his answer was words to the effect of “I don’t know. That’s kind of the point.” Things were also light in terms of techno-geekery, slightly to my disappointment and slightly to my relief.

Here’s what bugs me, rightly or wrongly: Snyder has basically finished making two huge comic-book adaptations from opposite sides of the political spectrum — not necessarily overtly, but very clearly in their background — and he hasn’t seemed to notice. I’m a political animal by nature, so that kind of baffles me. Not everybody has to be super-political, but morality and politics is very much at the heart of “Watchmen” at least, and I don’t know how you can make the film without having more of a position on it. Also, Snyder says he hasn’t decided whether or not Veidt/Ozymandias is gay or whether Rorschach might have issues there as well. I’m not saying he had to publicly out any fictional characters, but it’s sort of conventional wisdom (and wise wisdom, I think) that a writer or a director should know that kind of detail for himself about major characters in his film, much as the actors also need to , though sometimes they can make differing calls on those matters. It has to do with committing.

There was also some mention, and free XL polyester t-shirts, for Snyder’s new project, “Sucker Punch.”

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Comic-Con mess o’ stuff


I might have missed my Joss Whedon panel yesterday (clearly, I didn’t want it enough and failed to get in line an hour early), but lots of other folks aren’t missing a thing.

* Apparently, Robert Downey, Jr. is claiming his martial arts using, womanizing (at least that’s how I remember the trailer), and druggie Holmes is closer to the Arthur Conan Doyle character that the scads of cinematic and TV Holmesessess we have had up to now. Well, the literary Holmes did use cocaine. Let’s just say I share Luke Thompson’s differing memory on those points.

Maybe it was all a product of the squirrelly Downey sense of humor we’ve seen in so many unusual performances over the years. I’m also skeptical of why Steven Zeitchik thinks the Guy Ritchie-directed Holmes is a particularly tough sell to geeks. Isn’t Data one of our patron saints? The geeks I grew up with actually used words like “Holmesiana.” The Aleister Crowley-cult thing won’t hurt with a certain breed of gothy nerd, either.

* John Lasseter presented one of the real greats, still very active and hoping for his first stateside hit: Hiyao Miyazaki.

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“Tron Legacy” trailer and a techno-whine

I haven’t been presenting many videos from my Comic-Con sojourn. That’s largely because they are taking damnably long to load and watch — as much as a half an hour or more for a couple of minutes. Considering the number of people here, could be simple overload, I suppose.

In any case, rather ironically considering the computer/web/gaming subject matter and because it was asked for, however, please enjoy the rather cool “Tron Legacy” trailer.

I was not a fan of the original, many years ago, and have been a little surprised by its growing cult appeal over the years. Given that this looks pretty cool, that it’s in 3-D, and has Jeff Bridges, I could nevertheless be on board with this after all. I’m a sucker for kinetic 3-D.

Back with more a more newsy type post a bit later on.

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