Shmee.Me

February 12, 2013March 4, 2013

What to do about Star Wars

There has been a lot of action recently around the Star Wars franchise: Disney bought all things Lucas Arts, writers were hired, Michael Arndt writer of Toy Story 3 for Episode VII, Lawrence Kasdan writer … of well … Star Wars for a spin off, and J.J. Abrams to direct Episode VII. I just thought I would give my two cents on it all, and what I think they should do. After all I am on the internet so I must be right.

Disney is ridding on a lot of good faith from the great job they have done with the Marvel franchise, but with that they were just smart enough to follow the plan created by Kevin Feige. With Star Wars they need to make their own plan. It is good to see they brought Lawrence Kasdan back, after the horrible messes of Episodes I through III it will be nice to have a good writer involved again, but the big question is what are these writers are going to write about. What stories does Star Wars have left to tell via film.

The Star War universe is huge now. Lucas decided to open it up and allow a lot of good writers and not so good writers to expand the universe in so many different ways. It now spans thousands of fictional years, and has so much back story that I think Disney would be foolish to ignore it all. I think they should embrace it, and maybe even set the spin off in a different era with a different cast of characters. I would push for the Knights of the Old Republic time frame.

The Knights of the Old Republic is set about 4,000 years before the movies, and would allow the writers to do pretty much whatever they wanted. They could have massive Sith vs. Jedi battles, or they could just focus on a small group trying to navigate the Wild West of the Star Wars universe, and they wouldn’t have to worry about how they interacted with previously created movies.

But the most important thing they should do: Is just make a good movie, and I think the J.J Abrams hire was perfect for that. He proved with Star Trek that he was more interested in a good movie then sticking to the Star Trek canon. This may have made a few Trekkies mad, but the movie was great and it became the most successful Star Trek movie ever. If he keeps the same frame of mind with Star Wars, we should be in for a treat.

February 11, 2013

The Walking Dead are Back!

So after what seems like a long break, The Walking Dead is back on TV. This is by far my favorite show currently airing. Last night (2/10/13) was all about the reunion of family in more ways then one. I am not going to give anything away, but it is good to see people back together.

The show did not get the things going with the bang I was expecting, but it continues be tightly written and tense. It is just giving off that feeling that things are about get super crazy in the most awesome way possible.

The hardest part about the show being back on the air is waiting for Sunday so I can watch the next episode. They should just let me watch the whole thing now that way I can be happy, and that is all that really matters here, but I guess I will have to wait, or invent time travel.

To the lab!

February 10, 2013

Futurama returns to Netflix

Yesterday was a good day. The seventh season of Futurama has hit Netflix. I have been waiting to watch the new season for what seems like forever now, and at last the wait is over.

So far the season has not had any truely classic episodes, but it is still as funny as ever, and there are only so many shows that make physics and math jokes, and understand the jokes they are making. So if you see me on Xbox Live in the next few days you will know what I am probably watching.

I hope that Comdey Central keeps this show going as long as South Park because it is amazing, and one of the few shows that doesn’t think its viewers are idiots.

February 9, 2013

Don’t get Total Recall

I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised by Total Recall, a remake of a movie with the same name by Paul Verhoeven, but I wasn’t. Instead I was just bored. It is easy to see how this movie was made, Sci-Fi is big again thanks to Avatar, and it is based on a well liked short story by Philip K. Dick, but it is laking that spark that makes a good movie.

The basic plot is that a factory worker dreams he is something more, and he decides to go to Rekall to make memories to support his dreams, but when he goes there he finds out that he is indeed a double agent on a mission to save The Colony, post bio-war Australia, from the British Federation, post bio-war Britain (why do they get to keep their name?).

This movie screams, “made in a boardroom”. A bunch of executives got together and went through a check list: find a Sci-Fi script, “Hey what about Total Recall?”, check. Find cheep director that can handle action, “Hey Les Wismen did Underworld!”, check. Get beautiful known actors that don’t demand a lot of money, Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, and Jessica Biel, check, check, and check. Set design, “Didn’t Philip K. Dick also write the story Blade Runner was based on? So lets steal that look!”, check. Film, print, and release.

What do you get after all of that? A film that lacks passion. When watching this movie I could just tell that no one on this project really wanted to make a new Total Recall. They were just doing their jobs and picking up a pay check, and because of that it is hard to care about what is happening on the screen. It is like a pretty flip book.

The movie is competently made, and I don’t think anyone embarrasses themselves, but they should all pick projects they truly want to do in the future. I am going to do my best to forget about Total Recall.

February 8, 2013February 8, 2013

Tucker and Dale vs The Cabin in the Woods

tucker-and-dale-vs-evil-poster

In late 2011 and early 2012 two movies with a similar premise came out. Kids go up to the woods find a cabin and bad things happen. Now I know what you are thinking, this is the plot to a ton of movies why pick these two to talk about, but they both take this basic plot and turn it on its head. They are also both entries in to the seldom used genre of horror comedy.

It is interesting that both creators, Eli Craig, and Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, and The Cabin in the Wood, respectively decided to pay their respects to foundations of horror and horror comedy, with very unsubtle homages to the Evil Dead series. They have the same cast of characters for their victims: an easy girl, a jock, a smart kid, an idiot, and a girl of virtue. Tucker and Dale throw in a couple extra just so they have people to setup their gags. But that is where the similarities stop, and they both decide to make different points.

Tucker and Dale has one reason for its existence: to make you laugh, and it succeeds. It makes the real enemies the kids’ prejudice and stupidity, and poor Tucker and Dale are just trying to enjoy their new summer home. The way they setup every gag is spot on, and it uses what the kids think they know about these horror like situations against them.

The Cabin in The Woods on the other had is all about you, and why Joss thinks you need horror movies, and why they all have to be pretty much the same. Thanks to his great writing and Goddard’s good directing it just happens to be very funny as well. I would love to tell you more but that would just spoil things.

It was great to see two movies take a shots at all the standard horror tropes, and succeed. I would say that Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is the funnier of the two movies, but The Cabin in the Woods is smarter, but in the end it is a character flaw of mine that I like to laugh more then I like to think, so I like Tucker and Dale better, but not by much. Hopefully Hollywood takes notice and more of these genre bending movies come out. I think it would be fun if Joss did a The Cabin in the Woods type movie for all the major genres, and it will interesting to see if Eli can use this movie to build his career.

Also I would be remise if I didn’t link over to my buddy Daniel’s reviews of The Cabin in the Woods and Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.