If you need to see just how much BULLSHIT would go on if we ever let Will Smith play an actual super hero, just read this review of Will Smith's latest faux Superhero movie, Hancock. Super sperm and head in ass... classy.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/36670
Hah, take that Hillary. Tasty primary results. Stop running and causing division amongst Democrats. You're going gonna Nader this whole fucking election.
Ah yes... You're referring to the mini series "The Truth: Red, White and Black", and that happened in the mainstream Marvel Universe (Earth 616 as the Watchers call it). Although, that would not work for the movie... It's very "Flowers for Algernon". The Weapon Plus program has long been known to experiment on minorities, people the general public wouldn't care about. They would start experimenting with Mutants during the Weapon X program. But with Weapon I, they were experimenting with a different type of minority, African-American soldiers. They had the Super Soldier Serum, but it had yet to be perfected. Most of the soldiers died or were hideously disfigured, But it worked for one of the soldiers: Isaiah Bradley. He went on one mission as Captain America, but eventually he lost his cognitive abilities making him somewhat of a slow witted hulk of a man. With the data they recorded from that program, Weapon I would develop the serum that would eventually be used on Steve Rogers, the man we all know as Captain America. Isaiah's grandson, Elijah would inherit his shield and currently fights crime as a sort of teenage Cap, The Patriot. I'd love to see it as a movie, but Hollywood doesn't have the balls, and Will Smith churns my stomach even as a choice for Isaiah. I'd go with your earlier suggestion, Tyrese... that man is a mahogany god.
If we're going with a going with the Steve Rogers Cap, It's a tough call. I'd have to say Brad Pitt could probably get it right. His performance in Legends of the Fall captures that era and people's sensibilities (It was about 20 years earlier, but still early 20th century). Although with his current activist activities, I doubt he'd sign up to play "Captain America". But Will Smith man? COME ON. That's not even a situation like with Kingpin or Nick Fury where the actor that best suits the character happens to be black. Will Smith would try and crack too many "witty" Michael Bay action hero jokes like "here's shield in your eye" or some shit like that.
If they are bringing the mainstream Marvel portrayal of Cap he should be like your dad. He may be slightly square and not exactly "with it", but ultimately you respect the hell out of the man and will do anything he says. If they go with the "Ultimate" interpretation of Cap, he should be like every gnarly old WWII vet you've ever talked to, but still have the body that makes you believe that if you sass him, he will fuck you up. I like that version. He kinda reminds me of my uncle Tom. He was gay, in his mid 70's and only had one leg, but I still believed he could probably take my ass in a fight, hell the man stormed Normandy. Ultimate Cap's neighborhood from the 40's had since turned into a shithole ghetto while he was frozen, but he refused to move just because a few "bad elements" had moved in. He was late to an Avengers press confrence once because he was chasing down some punks that had broken into his apartment and poured acetone on his collection of 45's. Yeah, that's the Cap I wanna see.
I see what you're saying about Marvel churning out crap. But here's the thing... From now on, the material is going to be much better guarded, wanna know why? Marvel has realized that comics are a dying medium. Once our generation dies, comics are gonna go the way of pulp fiction magazines. Todays kids are into video games and movies with $100 million budgets. The mythology will die with it if they don't branch out. That's why Marvel has started Marvel Pictures. The movies are 100% funded and backed by Marvel itself. No retard studio exec, who doesn't know Spider-man from John Candy, saying "Well, what if we made Galactus a cloud, better yet we make Dr. Doom some whiny yuppie douche bag!". It's Marvel, the director, and the writer... that's it, those are the creative forces. I think since the powers that be in this situation know the source material, and know how it works and have a good grip on story telling, we're going to see better comicbook fare.
As for the rapidity to which the movies are coming out, I think I messed up on the time table. It's going to be 2 years until Iron Man 2 and Thor, and 3 till Cap and Avengers. I don't think 2 per year is such a bad thing. Iron Man hit big this summer, and in a few weeks they're gonna release the Hulk. I don't foresee it being a big block buster, but the quality of the effects and the story from what I can tell from the trailer make me think this is going to be a pretty solid flick. I'm convinced Edward Norton can be great in any role he's put in. Tim Roth is generally a great villain. The Hulk doesn't look like a green cartoon characature of a mongoloid this time. And I'm pretty sure the final fight is against an actual villain this time and not a cloud (what is it with shitty marvel movies and the protagonist having to fight a cloud at the end of the movie).
As for Thor, every review of the script (the only thing solid to emerge from preproduction) states that it will turn the super hero movie on it's head, but the trick is going to be casting Thor. Someone with the physicality and the acting ability to make you believe he is a god. As for the casting rumors about Matthew McCaunaghey as Cap. Well, a lot can happen in 3 years. Cap is another situation where casting is key. We have to believe an ego centric Howard Hughes type, a Nordic thunder god, and the most powerful hero (rage driven force of nature?) in the Marvel Universe, would follow this guy into battle... a tall order.
As far as Cap not playing to an international audience... I think if you did his first solo movie as a modern superhero movie, you'd be right the foreign market grosses would be in the crapper. I feel your pain there, this faggotry of America having to cow tow to a foreign market has seeped into GI Joe, which at one time was A Real AMERICAN Hero. However let's take a look at what little we've been told about the Cap movie. The title: The First Avenger: Captain America. Hmmm... notice how Cap's name is a subtitle? Secondly, Variety stated that the film will "focus on Captain America's role as the First Avenger." Now that's really vague, but my interpretation? The movie will be about his days fighting Nazis in WWII. Now most countries on the world stage may hate us. But most countries can also agree that Nazis in World War II were way worse. I think they'll make it a superhero/WWII movie, have Cap frozen at the end of the movie. Then he is discovered by SHIELD in the Avengers movie released a few weeks later. Just my prediction.
Yeah Stone, you were right... Iron Man kicked, like... 8 different kinds of ass. Pitch perfect casting in all roles, perfect balance of action and humor that sets the tone for all good Iron Man stories. I think that's what really did it for me... 90% accuracy on the source material and they got the tone right.
This is the type of humorous tone that Spider-man should have had. I mean, sure Peter Parker gets shit on at every turn of his civilian life, but when he puts on the mask all that melts away and he can be the charismatic swashbuckling Spidey we all know. But the movies are so fucking somber and depressing. They stressed the "power and responsibility" point of Spidey over the fun aspect of being Spidey. That type of tone works excellently for a character like Batman, it's a major problem for Spider-man.
Back to Iron Man, all I can say is WOW. This is the type of Iron Man movie I envisioned when I was eleven. This is the movie where they start tying the ends of the Marvel Universe together on film. Nods to S.H.I.E.L.D., War Machine, and the Avengers. Nick Fury even shows up sporting 3 claw marks over where his eye used to be, from running into a particularly foul tempered feral mutant. Word has it he shows up in the upcoming Incredible Hulk movie too. Thanks to opening weekend grosses, Marvel Pictures has greenlit Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, and the Avengers. The first two movies will show up summer of '09, the last two in summer of '10.
The new Dark Knight trailer showed up in front of the movie as well. Heath Ledger's Joker, while adhering to no particular vision of the character in the last 70 years, appears to be an interesting performance nonetheless. He's going less for clowny aspect of the character than the deranged fuck-job aspect of the character. Which definately works... I've always thought the Joker should be the only one who laughs at his jokes... everyone else in the room should want to lose their lunch. Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face also appears to be deeply disturbing if the pictures I've seen on the internet turn out not to be fakes (they look a little photo shopped).
All in all a good time to be a comic/movie geek. No Fantastic Fours or X3's on the horizon!
Happy b-day, you crazy mad scientist!
Hey Guys, this morning at 8:15 we had to put Thor down. It was sad, but it was also time, he wouldn't have wanted to live like he was. But I was just wondering if any of our posters could right a few words about their favorite memory of Thor. Whether it was him snapping at someone, or hanging out with you during a "constitutional", just a nice memory.
On a lighter note I'm going to try and get some people together Sunday the 23rd, give me a ring.
Hey Guys! Well, I'm spending my first night in the new condo. It's pretty fun... my first place out of my parents house is MY place. Any hoo... I'd like to have all you guys over for a good old fashioned hang out... maybe some dinner, who knows. We can kick back, enjoys some Tom Collinses and make smores in the fireplace.
Well guys I've been mighty silent recently, haven't had time to talk to anyone... I haven't spoken to some of my friends since the wedding. I've cited numerous times that the cause of this has been the search for a home. Well as of 9 A.M. this morning Jocelyn and I are the proud owners of a condo in Cromwell.
Now "they" say never to do business with friends or family, and I generally try to follow this edict... but this time, opportunities presented themselves and it got pretty hairy at the last minute. Now for as long as Jocie and I have been going out, we have hung out on occasion with a couple she knows at their condo. When we set out to find a home of our own we said "wouldn't be swell if we could get a condo like Meghan and Josh's". Well no sooner did we say that, than Meghan and Josh put their condo on the market. The next few months were a whirlwind of paper work and various lenders and real estate, just about all of which Jocie handled. We were supposed to close on Tuesday, but the lenders didn't get the paperwork together in time... but by the end of the evening we signed what we could and were just going to drop the papers off in the morning, trade checks and deeds and keys. Well, the lender took their time giving us the money. It was somewhere during that time that everyone in my immediate vicinity lost their shit. Jocie and her friends were trying to smooth things out, then my dad (Our lawyer) started getting pissed off at everyone. Apparently he started off swearing at the lenders, then the sellers attorneys, then finally at my mom and Jocelyn. After this insanity, Jocie called me at work stating that if I didn't come home and straighten out everything, she was leaving to go live with her mother until we found another place to live.
So in a short period of time, my father had gone completely mad, my wife had threatened to run off to her mothers on me, and my condo deal was falling through my fingers. So I had to leave work, for which I got a verbal warning (It's the end of the year, all personal/sick time was used up), and I had to lay my pimp hand down on everyone around me. I went home, ran damage control on all parties, did my best Henry Kissinger, and at the end of the day everything was in order. This wasn't very hard, but the thing was everyone had gotten so pissed at each other, no one was willing to listen to anyone else. All I had to do was keep in contact with everyone and it all sorted itself out.
It's been a long hard road to hoe, but we finally got it... The Filth Home.
Yeah, that guy was a greasy motherfucker... I knew he was a piece of shit from day one. I once had to drink 32 oz of bourbon to tolerate his prescence. Well, to be fair it wasn't just him, sort of a perfect storm of annoyance. I was trapped at a table with Calliander, Stone, Kunkel, Calliander's ex (who better pray she never meets me in a dark alley with a pair of pliers), and Kunkel's equally annoying Asian girlfriend. I wasn't sitting through that meal without getting blind stinking drunk. So I noticed the TGIFridays was serving cocktails in these 32oz glasses called "Colossals". I asked the waiter if I could get an Old Fashioned (various whiskeys in a glass with mottled fruit at the bottom) in a Colossal. The Bartender came to the table and shook my hand.