I was glad to see the documentary “The Image Revolution.” Seriously, if you grew up during the nineties, you’ll fondly remember how Image dominated pop culture for a while. They were so popular even Marvel and DC began imitating them, even though Image primarily trotted out Marvel clones when they ran out of ideas. Which is not a statement meant to devalue their influence or impact, but come on.
Okay, I have to ask what the hell is the appeal of “Lilo and Stitch”? Every person I’ve come across in the last fourteen years has had something positive to say about those stupid movies. Even people that don’t like it, just find it lukewarm Disney crapola. This is the studio that gave us “The Incredibles” and “Wall E,” and they were clearly not even trying to deliver quality entertainment for their audiences. They made a movie to create a toy line pure and simple. It’s a movie created for merchandise. It’s their predecessor to “Cars, if you will.
It’s funny that even today when my taste is a lot more discerning, I’m very prone to experimenting with television shows. I’m extremely judgmental towards reality shows, but when it applies to sitcoms or animation, I’m very open minded. If you’ve ever seen an “original” sitcom from Nickelodeon’s Nick at Nite line up, you’ll know that you really have to be experimental to watch what they feed their audience. Their sitcoms are shockingly safe, often very bland, and have yet to really break any ground in entertainment. We had a claymation family show, a show about a step mother, and “See Dad Run” which was Scott Baio doing sitcoms again. The show was pretty mediocre all things considered, and I’m not too shocked it’s being cancelled by Nick at Nite.
Danny Trejo has been in almost three hundred films, and at the age of sixty nine (turning seventy this year!), he is by no means slowing down. He has almost a dozen projects lined up in 2014, including a supporting role in the upcoming George Lopez series on FX in America. Trejo is a man who obviously loves to work and will be in almost anything. Whether you enjoy the movie or not, you have to admit the man has presence and a unique charisma that makes him stand out, whether he’s playing a bar tender, or a janitor. While Mr. Trejo has managed to amass a humongous list of films and television roles, here are five we especially enjoyed from his long and well earned career.
“Heroes” definitely wasn’t worth the hype, and I say that as someone who invested a lot of time in the show. I loved it from minute one, and eventually dropped it like a bad habit mid-season two. I do that to most shows I watch on TV, but rarely with a show centered on people with super powers and mired in comic book mythos.
I sat through four seasons of “Smallville,” three seasons of “Lois & Clark,” I watched the whole of “Mantis,” “Night Man,” “Mutant X,” “My Secret Identity,” “Swamp Thing,” and most of “The Cape.” As for “Alphas”? It had a great concept and that’s about it. I’ve been very forgiving when it comes to series about super powered people and superheroes. So don’t lecture me on being loyal.
<!–more–>But even with its convoluted writing, badly serialized story arcs, and lack of ideas after season one, it’s STILL waves better than “Smallville” ever hoped to be. It had a better pedigree of actors, a much better cast, excellent production qualities, was much more ambitious, and garnered infinitely more epic potential.
“Oh Felix, you’re just hating on “Smallville” because it lasted ten seasons and Heroes was just a fad.”
The WB flat out admitted in their CW re-launch that they only left Smallville on the line up because they had nothing else to air. The first month of the new CW they barely had enough programs to fill up four days of programming! And it was on for a decade because by CW standards, it did well in the ratings!
Sorry, I’m going off topic, here. Where was I?
In either case, “Heroes” was the better of the pair, despite being just a lot of nothing. “Heroes” presented this idea that there was so much substance and dimensions, and it offered nothing in the end. “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World”? It meant nothing. The season finale? Nothing. Just fucking disappointing. I collected magazines, and read theories online for the series, I avoided spoilers like the flu, and I centered every Monday Night around it. And then on the season two premiere, I felt a deflated sense of enthusiasm, and I was so crushed at how they greeted fans who’d returned.
Granted, the show introduced me to gorgeous women like Brea Grant and Hayden Panetierre, so I can’t really fault it for that. And Sylar is still an amazing villain with great potential. He was just in the wrong series. These days with NBC seemingly having absolutely nothing on their plate, it’s not a surprise “Heroes” is coming back.
Marvel and DC are at war to churn out movies and TV shows from their properties, and NBC couldn’t even sell audiences on seeing shows from past sitcom icons like Michael J. Fox, so it only stands to reason they’d go back to “Heroes,” and try to give Marvel and DC a run for their money. The truth is “Heroes” still has potential, it just has to demonstrate a lot of back pedaling to be taken seriously once again.
You can pay tribute without being completely derivative, don’t crowd the screen with characters, don’t build up to something huge only to offer absolutely nothing, and every single season should have a new cast. Period. I don’t care how popular they are, completely wipe the slate clean and focus on new character affected by the eclipse that turned people in to beings of immense power. Hey, it works for “American Horror Story”! And the cast of “The Walking Dead” season one is almost completely different from the cast of season four.
Don’t be afraid to kill people off, don’t be afraid to really deliver on the ideas after a lot of build up, don’t build up to nothing. Catchphrases are neato, but how about offering a conclusion to said gimmick like “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World”? And don’t promise an epic battle only to show two guys punching one another and end it abruptly with our hero exploding in the sky. That was so fucking disappointing. Introduce one villain, one fluid story, dodge the stupid time travel nonsense, and run with it. NBC is insistent the new “Heroes” will be a mini-series, but I’m sure there’s an option in there somewhere to bring it back as a series once again.
You can make the argument the writer’s strike gave the show a disadvantage somewhat, but the series was doomed before the strike. That said, based on NBC’s latest fantasy series “Revolution” and their complete mishandling of that epic series, I’ll likely skip “Heroes: Reborn.” Unless there’s a really good argument for trying it out, or if the trailer for it is really good. Or if Brea Grant comes over and asks me to the premiere. Either way, I’ll consider it. Probably.
I am very surprised that “Space Jam” continues to garner such a cult following, even to this day. I remember watching it for the first time back in 1996 and leaving it thinking “That kind of sucked.” Even years later, I remember it as a movie that did nothing but pander to audiences, push massive merchandise, and worked as a PR tool for Michael Jordan who’d garnered some poor fan fare after his foray in to baseball. “Space Jam” is not that good a movie.
Even in my current love for nineties nostalgia, you’d have to argue very hard for me to buy the movie on DVD or Blu-Ray. And I almost bought a bag of old pogs on online, a few days ago. In either case, Warner is hoping to cash in on fans of the first movie by creating a sequel tentatively titled “Space Jam 2.” This installment will apparently star Lebron James, in place of Michael Jordan.
1996’s “Space Jam” was a goofy movie, with a paper thin plot, and lackluster comedy obviously constructed by a committee of corporate suits, Jordan’s PR team, and some writers who built the perfect publicity machine for Air Jordan, all the while selling off some Looney Tunes crap with McDonald’s.
That said, we have our fond nostalgia for the movie, however minuscule, so here are 5 Things We Love, and 5 Things We Hate About “Space Jam.”
I know, I know, I’ve been wrong before. I smashed “21 Jump Street” upon its initial trailer, and ended up loving the movie, but my instincts are not wrong with the X-Men and their upcoming movie. I just know I’d be wise to sit back and wait a little while for it all to sink in. As a long time X-Men fan, I just know that the movies are not the best that the X-Men can be.
And Bryan Singer returning has been a horrible curse on the movie series. I completely forgot years ago how much he repressed everything exciting and fun about the X-Men, turning it in to a self serious parade of nepotism for Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman.