Clue remake casting

Slightly old news that Clue is being remade (which I'm fine with), so here's my current casting thoughts, which were actually made with friends in the summer of 2015:

Mustard - Nick Offerman
Peacock - Kristen Wiig
Scarlett - Tina Fey?
White - Julia Louis Dreyfus
Delivery lady - Kristin Chenoweth
Yvette - Kate Upton
Green - Robert Downey Jr or Aziz Ansari
Wadsworth - Tom Hardy, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio or Colin Firth
Mr. Body - ?? (Christoph Waltz?)
Plum - Jonah Hill? Maybe Chris Pine

Thoughts? And yes, while the above cast is fairly white, non-white actors are 100% welcome (these were just quick-thoughts from more than one year ago). Stephen Root and Kate McKinnon would also be great additions.

The World is Made of People

Controversial (not really?) rant of the day:

Can we please stop saying how either "politics" or "the system" is broken? That oversimplifies the actual issue:

People don't know how to communicate or work together

If everything is a social construct, which it largely is, the root of that is PEOPLE. People have created basically everything on this planet. It requires people working together to do so.

If something isn't working, it's more than likely because the people aren't working together, for potentially a variety of reasons.

Politics isn't working? Perhaps because certain people are stalling the process. Perhaps because certain people don't know how to listen or keep an open mind. Perhaps because people don't know how to communicate or do what's best for the future/collective rather than just the present/individual.

This works similarly to any large organization. Whether it's a corporation, a city, a school - any sort of collective where people are unwilling or unable to work together will stall progress.

People are the greatest resource on this planet. If we can learn to work together, then we can achieve almost anything.

The Mermaid (2016) movie review - STEPHEN CHOW!!

STEPHEN CHOW!!

The trailers (American?) did not do The Mermaid any justice, presenting it as more of a hard action movie. In actuality, this is more of a return to form for director Stephen Chow, returning to his 90's comedy-romance(-action) roots.

One could argue that if you've seen one of his 90's comedy-romance movies (whether he acted or directed), you've seen them all, but The Mermaid has a few nice differences.

For one, it feels more cohesive. There's a core story that flows very well, with each of the main characters feeling fleshed out and motivated.

Two, there are some great themes, such as the most obvious environmentalism, commentary on wealth and class, personal growth and love.

Three, while his 90's films typically feature an amazing guy who may be down on his luck falling in love with a "loser" girl (somewhat haphazardly), this one features a woman who isn't anything close to a loser. She's dedicated (to her family, friends, self), strong, funny, can fight and more. There may still be some cultural challenges, but it's a refreshingly different direction. The guy is still on the wish fulfillment side, though, but is also the protagonist who grows the most during the journey.

Long story short, it has some great visuals, GREAT comedic sequences (Chow would be a perfect choice for Looney Tunes), great themes and is a LOT of fun.

A solid RECOMMENDED (with a personal bias towards HIGHLY because it's Stephen Chow). Catch it as soon as you can.

X-Men: Apocalypse movie review

Where to begin with this dud-filled piece of dudly crap that is X-Men: Apocalypse... perhaps with some positives:

1. The costumes were generally pretty good
2. Storm - she gets a solid yes

And those may be the only good things I have to say about this movie. I'll give some neutral credit to the music and music selection, though the X-Men series on the whole, for something that's a good 6-plus movies in now, has still FAILED to create a proper score with recurring themes, leitmotifs, etc. The closest thing to is it John Ottman's title credits theme (done with wonderful aplomb in Days of Future Past).

The X-Men series has a great distinction, to me, of having every entry be generally entertaining, though flawed in various degrees. Yes, even both X-Men 3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine were fun (though perhaps the heavily negative bias set my expectations super low); the musical scores of both definitely helped, as well.

Yet here we are with Apocalypse... I was excited for the film when the teaser at the end of DoFP first played, but shortly after had a sinking feeling in my gut when it was announced that Bryan Singer was returning to direct.

Bryan Singer is not a good director.

At the very least, not anymore. Or if he is, he certainly needs a LOT of help with writing and should consider changing some of his Hellfire Club (inner circle); they are doing him no favors. For example, DoFP's future sequences were the best parts, but the 70s-set character driven story with Magneto, Professor X and Mystique was boring as hell. The one great sequence being Quicksilver, which was a mere 40ish minutes into the movie and created such a stupid loophole that was underutilized (recruit the damn guy!).

Which leads us to the convoluted, poorly edited, mediocre-acted mess that is Apocalypse.
Point blank: who's story are we following? I don't care about anyone or anything that's happening due to three reasons:

1. Recycled storylines/a sense of been there, done that
2. Too many characters/not enough screen time
3. Things happening for no good reason

There's no point in going into the details for any particular character, as they're all underwhelming and poorly developed, save for maybe the new gen of kids. As well, any time something interesting is about to happen (e.g. Quicksilver and Magneto), the story goes into the wrong direction.
Mystique/Jennifer Lawrence doesn't care at all about being in the movie, followed closely by Magneto/Fassbender (though whether he's acting as a burnt-out character or just being himself is another question). McAvoy as Prof X has never really done anything for me (save for Fassbender's Magneto). Neither of the two have the gravitas of Patrick Stewart of Ian McKellan, story taking place earlier in their timelines be damned.

And FFS Oscar Isaac's Apocalypse... So much wrong. The writing is certainly the biggest travesty, but Isaac himself was miscast. Such a thankless role. The creative direction here, again due to the writing, was so bad that it's hard to really properly comment. The changing consciousness, absurd power levels, random story direction and lack of actual comic book characterization similarities form a giant suffering of underwhelming (I have no idea if that sentence/phrase makes sense, but I'm going with it). Michael Clarke Duncan would have been awesome. The Rock would have been awesome. Hell, James Earl Jones in makeup would have been awesome.

Also, why are we even leaping decade by decade? Who oversees the story direction for this franchise? Are they trying to make it like a TV series or movie serials? Gah...

The editing is bad, jumping around with poor character choices. Again, convoluted. Hell, it's so bad it's making my review convoluted. I have no idea what direction I'm going in, the film has rubbed off on me that much...

Psylocke. Have to mention her, so she can be just as "there" as she was in the actual movie.
For a film that goes out of its way to make fun of X-Men 3 and the third entries of trilogies, I'd rather watch that one any day. Singer even re-used some of the same ideas fans hated about that entry! What stupidity is this?

Apocalypse is a hot mess of a movie and a great example of how important story construction and paying attention in the editing room needs to be - so much to cut from this film, yet I'm not sure if there's enough of a core story present to save it.

Bland, unfocused, messy, stupid.

I watched the extended cut of Batman vs Superman after this, which looks like the Godfather in comparison.

You know what would have been better than this? Hire Stephen Sommers to remake his remake of The Mummy but using X-Men, with Apocalypse as Imhotep. Follow the young kids as they're on a random trip to Egypt and accidentally summon Apocalypse, who falls in line with the Brotherhood as they piece him back together, etc. etc. Make it more of an adventure/event movie.

Long story short... NOT RECOMMENDED, with a Bret Hart-approved 4/10.

The Power of Music and Visuals - Star Wars and James Bond fan edition

LATE one night, my friend Richard and I both happened to be up. We were discussing the following student-made video, which creates a James Bond-inspired title sequence for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (though it borrows from the original trilogy) and features Radiohead's alternate title song for Spectre entitled "Spectre":

The video above lacks the audio track due to Youtube's fun, however, the full version can be found at Vimeo here. Second however, the above video being muted helps, as this whole post is about alternate songs that could work for the above video and was the reason my friend Richard and I stayed up until 4am or so one day.

We tried numerous videos, some for their general sound and others for their themes, starting them at various points in both videos to try and see what syncs best. I've included some starting points, but feel free to experiment. Regardless, it's a fun educational example of how impactful audio and visual syncing can be.

Without further ado, here's essentially an adaptation of our conversation... (personal favorite is probably #5)

1. "Skyfall" - Adele
Richard started the night (or morning) out strong, as, surprisingly, or not, the song syncs almost perfectly. It helps that both versions of Spectre (Sam Smith's and Radiohead's) continue in the vein of Adele's deservedly multi-award-winning tune.

2. "Live and Let Die" - Paul McCartney and Wings
As Richard said, " apparently, James Bond music is so formulaic." As the songs typically revolve around the basic Bond theme, that holds true. It also helps that "Live and Let Die" is one of the best Bond songs.

3. "Nobody Does It Better" - Carly Simon
As a personal favorite Bond song, I was curious how this one synced. If you start the song when it first cuts to the lightsaber, it has only a few blips, but hot damn that ending.

For other Bond songs, Richard said Goldfinger works, but both Goldeneye and Casino Royale break the formula. I'm abstaining on links in order to move onto some more experimental fun, such as...

4. "Thunderstruck" - AC/DC
Something was telling me this could be a fun song and it didn't disappoint. Start the actual song as soon as the SW video starts. It misses spots, but syncs really well with others.

5. "Simple Man" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
My next submission. This one is thematically really fun. It can be started at various times, either with the beginning of the video or when cutting to the lightsaber; the latter of which syncs better at the end. As Richard said, "Lol, wow, Simple Man totally changes the genre of the film."

6. "Uno" - Muse
Richard: "I'm enjoying this Muse song starting from the shot of the lightsaber from the front."

7. "The Dark Knight Theme" - Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard
Switching to a different film franchise, Richard suggested starting the video about two seconds ahead of the song.

8. "Cat's In the Cradle" - Cat Stevens
Another thematic one. This one has some EXCELLENT moments, particularly in the middle, if started from the beginning. Syncing from the lightsaber also works ridiculously well. As Richard said, "Awesome. My judge of a good match now is whether or not a big beat lands right on the laser shooting from Vader's eye, and Cat's in the Cradle does not disappoint."

9. "Danger Zone" - Kenny Loggins
Richard: "Oh man, WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS SOONER."

With that, Richard was tapped out, but his final contribution inspired me to try one more song...

10. "Push it to the Limit" - Paul Engemann
Start the song a smidge before the video. Side note: Paul Engemann went on to be part of the band Device, which created the spectacularly awesome 80's album 22B3 (partially streaming on Amazon Prime). Highly recommended.

That ended our late night of fun music and video syncing.

But wait!

There's more...

Coda, courtesy or Richard; "The video also goes well with The World is Not Enough, as well as the top two tracks from "Iron Eagle" - One Vision by Queen, and Iron Eagle by King Cobra. Lol, just in case you're still not sick of this."

And with that, I hope you've enjoyed the ride.

The Omega Men - comic book review

The Omega Men is a wonderful example of a comic book that's an allegory for what's going on in the world today - our obsession with war and materialism, how they drive us, how we're being led by narratives to fight each other, that many see the world in black and white when there are MANY more options, that war and violence beget war and violence.

If we want to break the cycles, we truly need to find other ways.

Excellent pacing, art direction and use of the medium. It's a solid story, for which The Omega Men is HIGHLY recommended.

Kubo and the Two Strings review

To anyone who's a fan of movies, please go see this.

Kubo and the Two Strings is an absolutely stunning, beautiful, gorgeous movie and a breath of fresh air amidst a sea of forgettable blockbusters. It is largely everything I can want in a movie:

• Top-notch animation/production values
• Amazing soundtrack by Dario Marianelli
• Stellar art direction and costumes
• Great (adult) themes
• A solid (dark) fantasy/folk story plot
• Great villains
• Good comedy and humor (for both kids and adults)
• Heart-wrenching sentimentality and emotion
• Did I mention the soundtrack? It's really good

There is very little about it I didn't like and it's easily Laika's best yet (note: I've yet to see Boxtrolls, but meh).

However, is it perfect? No. I can understand some arguments about how the voice casting could have been more culturally sensitive, as well as how some of the themes/ideologies may come across too heavy-handed. But I'm willing to forgive both of those because the film is just that good.

One other area people may complain about is the relatively straight-forward plot, which consists of gathering items in order to defeat the villain(s). However, this is offset by some rather sly comedy that leans more adult/meta. I can understand how some may find it disconnecting, but it worked for me.

Regardless, I LOVED this movie and HIGHLY recommend it. I saw it in 2D and would gladly go back to see it in 3D. Hell, I wanted to instantly rewatch it, which is rare.

Please, if you love cinema, go see this movie. It deserves to be on any best of 2016 list and NOT just in the animation category - declaring it now.

Again, if you are a fan of movies, please go see Kubo and the Two Strings. Then listen to the soundtrack on Spotify or buy it from Amazon.

The Brother from Another Planet movie review

The Brother from Another Planet is a surprisingly enjoyable movie about the immigrant experience told through the story of an alien's first encounters on Earth.

Joe Morton is wonderfully endearing as the completely mute alien known as The Brother. The film features some downright excellent scene work which occasionally manages to have great social commentary (it's seriously top-notch stuff, particularly for 1984), while also including some fun absurdist moments, particularly from the dynamic duo of writer-director John Sayles and David Strathairn (yes, that David Strathairn) as two character who could fit perfectly in SNL sketches. The music selection is also a nice hodgepodge of songs, with a few being personal standouts.

However, TBFAP is missing just a little something to hit real greatness (it could click or gel more), but it hits the right spots enough to be satisfying, if not moreso.

Easily recommended if you can find it.

The Mummy (1999) movie review

Stephen Sommers' The Mummy is a fun serial throwback rollercoaster ride with gun fun characters, good humor and good action. Is Rick a little too machismo? Is Evelyn a little too damsel? Perhaps, but they have enough moments to round themselves out, particularly Evelyn (while the film skews heavily male, it had some solid feminist moments that come across very naturally).

Yes it's a 90s movie, complete with cheesy CG, but the art direction works. The movie may have some cringe worthy moments with regards if you read into the social portrayals, but on the whole it works (it may lose some steam towards the end).

Also, solid soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith.

Very fun and recommended.

Predator 2 quick review

Predator 2 is not a good movie. It's a solid premise (changing the location from the jungle to the urban jungle), but it's a victim of 90's filmmaking - plot driven with characters you don't care about (and are generic stereotypes). Seriously, where did the 90's style of camera angles/cinematography and editing come from? It's not horrible and Danny Glover is OK, but the film is incredibly flat, bland and boring. Even the Alan Silvestri score is a weak rehash of the original film.

A shame it set the Predator franchise back so long, as it's a great concept; Predators was a fun return to form and I'm looking forward to the supposed Predator 4 by Shane Black.