This week the J-Man looks into the Spider-Man debacle regarding Sony/Disney’s “Relationship.” He will also look into the Money but how will he look towards the Future. P.S. He will also discuss Netflix and the latest Marlon Wayans Romp “Sextuplets.”
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(Video shared courtesy of Jimmy Kimmel Live!)
“Welcome Home Spidey!”
Outside of the huge amount of excitement I have, Spidey’s back where he needs to be, and it’s good to see Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) again after what happened in Civil War. The quips, the mannerisms, and everything that Tom Holland is putting into his performance is on point. 2017 is going to be a great year for Marvel (and Disney in general with Thor 3, Guardians 2, and all). I love the atmosphere of the film, Vulture’s design, and it’s always a pleasure to see Michael Keaton. No sign of the Shocker yet but that’s ok since this is the first trailer for what’s to come.
Save the date for July 7, people we’re going to an event.
Feel free to discuss your thoughts below or on twitter: @j360productions. #comics #spiderman #movies
I know I should be taking the time to discuss the Monster Fest and the movies involved with it but I wanted to speak about the TMNT for a moment.
http://heroichollywood.com/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-3-not-going-ahead/
It’s still a toss up in the air if we’ll ever see a TMNT 3 from Paramount Pictures due to Out of The Shadows’ lackluster intake from the box office. Unfortunately I missed seeing its theatrical run (was busy with other interests at the time), and I really don’t remember it being promoted as heavily as the first installment from 2014. Now that it’s on the home release I do know that it’d be a real cop-out to pull the plug on a movie franchise cause of a horrible sales weekend. Even on holiday weekends you know some people just aren’t taking themselves to the movies like they used to. Regardless The Turtles still have a strong market appeal and despite the evolution that has taken place regarding their designs and everything the reboot movies tend to have the heart of the beloved 80s series in mind in addition to the attitude of the 2012 animated series. I don’t think we’ll see a movie made in the vein of the classic black & white comics because of the dark tones and really the only movie that came close to that style is the classic 1990 movie.
Even the classic series of movies had a few bum steers but even then it was steady, uneven but steady until that large gap between Turtles 3 and TMNT (2009). Remember no film franchise is perfect and then when we found out that they were rebooting the Turtles for the big screen again, many a turtle fan was joyful. That is until we found out whom was at the head of the production regarding the movies (-cough- Michael Bay), and remembering full well what this man did to Optimus and Co. Many Turtle fans went into a frenzy and yelled out their venomous hate for the man and his childhood destroying ways. I too was among them especially when one of his premises dealt with aliens…bah…although the ooze did come from the TGRI Building and the subplot with the Utroms but that’s not important right now. Many of us wanted to see the Turtles done well as we envisioned in our minds for the new production but since Paramount already picked their guy to be in charge of the production, marketing, and gameplan. We all had to wait and see what would happen in 2014.
We saw four huge turtles battling about a cyber shredder, sure Splinter was there and Megan Fox was April but it didn’t matter. As superficial as we humans can be, we saw the redesigns, casting choices, and reacted accordingly with increased hatedom to the new franchise. Plenty of people were hating more but I started to change my mind a bit because I started to see signs from the new trailer that perhaps the action sequences are good. Maybe there’s something positive in this circle of negatives because people tend to hate what they don’t understand (especially in the movie process).
Why did they design the Turtles in the reboot to look the way they do?
I have no clue but I could see through their interactions with each other and the way they do their job of protecting the city.
They were the same turtles in Spirit and that was good enough for me, plus Bay wasn’t even directing this movie. It was all from Jonathan Liebesman and this isn’t Transformers. This is something new, something fresh to watch, and as it isn’t the Turtles designs I’ve grown up with, it shows that the TMNT have to evolve with the times too. So when I went to see the 2014 movie with Guardians of the Galaxy as a double feature, I had a great time. I’ll admit the designs took some getting used to, and the plot really wasn’t important to me. I got to see the turtles battle the foot mercenaries, and eventually battle Shredder while showing how powerful they are as a team and a family. There was charm in this film, I didn’t expect to see a unique take on the Turtles and I was entertained which is what movies should be about in addition to money.
(How could you not laugh at this clip?)
2014 came and went, there were several sequel hooks to let you know that a new film is coming soon. So I was psyched to hear that it the movie that eventually became Out of the Shadows was coming to theatres in 2016. The thing is, there were so many superhero movies coming out at once so that it was hard to catch up. You had Batman v.Superman coming out in March, Captain America: Civil War in May, and Suicide Squad in August. Right in the middle was the TMNT coming out with an April release during Easter weekend for goodness sakes. In my opinion, the reason why the 2014 film was a sleeper hit is because August is the end of the Summer Rush. The series has market appeal but during the last times of summer people are just running to the movies or the beach to get that last bit of fun. The franchise was well marketed in the previous outing because it’s trying to establish an audience and product placement from Crush sodas, commercials, and toys were there so people just had to go see this movie. The 2012 animated series was running at full steam so that was enough fire to push the first movie. The reviews haven’t been that great from mainstream critics but they never are for any movie these days.
(Results are courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes)
As 2016 rolled around, it was questionable on what happened in TMNT 2’s results? Perhaps they didn’t have a good spot to push it or maybe they felt that having it on Easter Weekend was a marketable strategy as it is Spring Vacation for kids and families to go to the movies. I knew the movie was coming but during the time after the DCEU’s appearance and knowing full well Captain America: Civil War was coming in May, I wasn’t thinking about the next TMNT outing.
That’s the thing about Marvel movies you know? None of us expected something like the MCU to take off and carry well into mainstream filmmaking. You’re always wondering what’s happening next but you have to bid your time and wait but you’re too excited to care unless you get Superhero fatigue.
If Paramount were to do what Disney did regarding Star Wars by keeping the films marketed in the same slot (for the year’s end in December). It gives that charm and sense of something big is going to tie up the last month. They could’ve done this with the TMNT regarding the last two weeks in August. It would’ve made a spectacular ending to a potential summer rush but as it was placed in the middle between DC and Marvel both armed by WB and Disney’s marketing it got lost in the crowd. Even if most people claim that BVS sucked, they weren’t thinking highly about about the next TMNT adventure as Team Cap/Team Iron Man was stuck in the brain.
I will say that by looking at both films on the home release they were both quite enjoyable, and not every film is the Revenant or a box office smash but they’re good in their own way. I think that Paramount should try again and not leave the current/new gen TMNT fans hanging. See us in the elder Gen Y realm, we already know what our ideal Turtle film would be like (The original prime Turtles) but we shouldn’t ruin it for the next generation. The big wigs at Paramount should try to see if a third film could work, they had the actors signed for three films and they may as well complete the trilogy. Next to Universal, Paramount seems to be having a hard time outside of the Transformers films to find a steady shared universe for their properties. Universal is going to attempt to create a new one with their classic monsters line-up, and eventually we’ll have nothing but shared universes on the movie platform and it’s just getting to the point where people are getting tuned out but this is another subject to cover at a later time.
Time to step into the Monster Fest Legion, I’m going to watch four obscured horror films from the 50s, and 60s even a rare Hammer horror featuring Christopher Lee called “The Terror of the Tongs”and Vincent Price in “The Mad Magician.” I stumbled upon this collection as I wandered around the local store last night searching for some Godzilla flicks. Each titles seemed to tell a unique story that I was looking for to present in the Fest this year, so I’m intrigued in seeing what each feature offers in terms of suspense and creepiness. I will look at each movie via the order represented on the art above.
Here are the synopsis of every film in the collection, along with trailers shared courtesy of respected youtube channels.
1) Five (1951): The Earth is destroyed by a Nuclear Holocaust. The only survivors are a pregnant woman, a philosopher, a black man, a banker, and an explorer living in an abandoned home. In order to survive they must work together but opposition regarding their views for the future may destroy them.
2) The Mad Magician (1954): Gallico the Great a, magician and master of disguise turns into a homidicial maniac when his manager closes his show and gives his trick to a rival. With his illusion disrupting abilities at his disposal, Gallico begins to unleash his wrath by taking out his victims one by one.
3) The Man Who Turned to Stone (1957): Someone is committing murders inside of a woman’s prison, and a new psychiatrist is uncovering the mystery to find that it’s all connected to a centuries old evil ritual for immortal life.
4) The Terror of the Tongs (1961): A British sea captain seeks revenge against the Red Dragon Tong, a gang of Hong Kong drug and slave traders for killing his daughter, with a former slave by his side they begin to incite a riot to destroy the group however there’s something vicious about this Secret Society and it’s more powerful than he thinks.
Cults, Revenge, and Xenophobia? Oh my!
This is a brilliant four for all package, and I’ll share some clips via the social media, and a review about each installment this Friday.
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| Do not watch this film |
Title: Meet the Family
Synopsis: A Shy, Obese loner brings home his girlfriend to meet his parents unaware that they are meeting his entire family.
Year: 2005
Time Length: 90 minutes
Rating: R
Budget: $300,000
Production Company: Lerner Entertainment Group
This production info provided by IMDB
Hello J360 Legion!
This movie deals with an obese and shy scientist named Humphrey Rump and his family.
We’re introduced to Humphrey’s Family coming together to meet him and his new girlfriend/lab assistant named Lacy.
The Family stand within the living room where we meet the usual stock characters in an urban comedy: The generic friendly parents, the sassy sister, the scheming brother, the horny grandma, the senile grandpa, and plenty of extras.
If that didn’t sound horrible (I know it did), it gets worse. The acting and interaction of each character is about as fake as the people portraying them.
We’re led from the living room with the parents talking about Humphrey: his background, being a scientist, shyness and etc. His sister would talk about in him in praise while his brother would talk about him in mocking for example: Humphrey’s weight.
We don’t meet Humphrey himself until about 30 minutes into the movie.
The family sits down at the table in the dining room and continue talking more but this time you’d realize each character’s “purpose.” The brother and sister would say some of the most pointless banter to which if most parents heard one word of it would kindly tell you to shut up. The Parents here however would smile and encourage it while keeping a false friendly demeanor with each other.
The worst doesn’t come from them but from the grandparents.
Usually in comedies, you’d love to see the senior citizens characters come in because hilarious statements tend to come out of their mouths through different circumstances.
Not in this case, the grandfather is a senile old man who is often misunderstanding the world around him, has to say something at the end of every frame, and it’s usually bland or out of context.
The grandmother on the other hand is a mega-bitch, she pretty much kills this movie (If it’s not dead already). Everything that comes out of her mouth is a sex joke, she has an active sex life, cheated on grandpa, and slept with one of the guests at the the dinner.
After much talking from the family we’re finally introduced to Humphrey himself. If you ever get the displeasure of watching this movie, and he looks familiar then you’ve figured it out, the whole movie is a rip-off from the dinner scenes of The Nutty Professor (1996).
Humphrey walks in with his lovely assistant/girlfriend Lacy, who to the surprise of the family is a thin, blonde, caucasian woman. The family only commented on this twice which is good because some movies would take this subject into overkill (remember National Security?).
The young woman isn’t harassed but constant passes are made to her by Humphrey’s scheming brother whom Humphrey doesn’t say anything to and the parents are still smiling awkwardly at everything.
Humphrey’s girlfriend doesn’t push the movie along any better, as a matter a fact she shows herself as being a complete ditz and very in line with the stereotypes of every character in this movie. It’s unnerving to see and makes you wonder what compelled the actress in following through with such a character?
I can only hope this portrayal didn’t damage her self-esteem or career because there seemed to have been some talent in her.
Do note once you’ve read this line, it’s been 40 minutes into the movie…Guess what happens next?
They’re all still sitting at the table and Grandpa says possibly the one funny line in this movie.
“When are we going to get some damn food here?”
Yes they’ve sat there the entire time with no food on the table, and since I don’t have any patience to repeat this anymore. I’ll sum up the movie in a list.
While there’s no point in explaining any further with the movie, it really shows how far you can get away with $300,000 dollars and not use one damn cent in the production. There’s a subplot dealing with a growth formula but with the monotone of the family sitting there at the table, and 90 minutes of my life wasted I guess we tend to ignore that happy crap.
Course, we can excuse it because it was made during the dark years of filming: 2005…Yes the time when we started to make tv series into movies and deal with lackluster remakes but no…forget it…this is inexcusable.
