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Without a doubt, the new series that I was most excited for this fall was Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. In September, I was counting down the days until the show premiered. I pre-ordered the SHIELD agent badge and ID for New York Comic Con. September 24 could not get here soon enough.
My expectations were high. I started to worry that they might be too high. What if this Agents of SHIELD series turned out to be a train wreck like the 1999 David Hasselhoff Nick Fury made-for-TV movie?
Tuesday, 9/24, 20:00 hours arrived. I was bolted to my seat at 19:57.
This was the pilot episode? Aren’t pilot episodes supposed to suck? This was awesome! Marvel/Disney is definitely giving them the budget they need. Thanks to the budget, the show fits into the Marvel Cinematic Universe not just in story, but in style too.
While the SHIELD agents don’t have superpowers, I’m very happy that the show will feature people with powers. I’m sure I’m not the only one who hoped that the super strong character that turned out to be Michael Peterson was in fact Luke Cage. Michael Peterson on the show and Luke Cage in the comics come to their powers through similar means. Maybe since Skye wiped Michael from every database we’ll see him reemerge with Luke Cage as his new alias.
Let’s talk about Coulson for a minute. There’s definitely more to his return from death than it being all a set up by Fury to fool the Avengers into forming and that Coulson was cooling his jets in Tahiti. Dr. Streiten (Ron Glass! Shepherd! Yes!) and Maria Hill basically say as much when Coulson leaves them. Streiten is surprised Coulson still believes the Tahiti story and Hill counters that Coulson can never find out the truth. I think Coulson has definitely been completely lied to. I don’t think his death in Avengers was planned in advance. Life Model Decoys were mentioned in the Avengers movie, making me believe that this Coulson we’re seeing today is a Life Model Decoy that’s been programmed with the original Phil Coulson’s brain patterns. For those of you unfamiliar with the Marvel comics from which Agents of SHIELD is based, a Life Model Decoy, or LMD for short, is basically a very advanced android that looks, sounds and feels like the real person, but is in fact a robot. Think of it as half clone-half robotic decoy. For you Battlestar Galactica fans, Coulson is basically a toaster now. Or at least, that’s my theory. Whatever the explanation turns out to be, I’m glad Clark Gregg is a part of this show.
One quick thought on Maria Hill: With How I Met Your Mother wrapping up this season, I wonder if Cobie Smulders will have a much bigger role on Agents of SHIELD starting in season 2.
The pilot episode’s script had the right amount of both suspense, action and humor that you’d expect from a Joss Whedon show. I loved the porcupine/poop-with-knives-sticking-out-of-it bit, as well as Agent Ward’s “Gramsy” line when he’s being interrogated by Skye. The best though might have been Simmons announcing that she’s not Hermione. Aw yeah, Harry Potter reference.
Agents of SHIELD tied very well into both Iron Man 3 and Avengers. I like that Extremis heavily factored into this episode and that gamma rays played a part in powering Michael. I also like that SHIELD has been given a shadowy enemy to hunt down with this new power broker business. I just hope the show doesn’t turn into a “monster of the week” show like the first season Smallville.
I think Joss Whedon has done a great job of making a show that is accessible to both long time Marvel fans, fans of the Marvel movies, and people who are just walking in cold and who want a dose of sci-fi with their police procedural.
Other random thoughts on the episode: I think they’re setting us up for Skye-Agent Ward romance, but I’m more interested in Fitz and Simmons. Having Lola’s wheels turn down and fly at the end was the best form of fan service imaginable, though using the phrase “journey into mystery” in a line of dialog was a close second.
I loved the first episode of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. I’m in for the long haul. Expect to see a review here for every new episode. Next week we find out the answer to the question of just what is an Oh-8-4.
I distinctly remember not wanting to see The Other Guys when it was first released. I can’t remember why, but I can remember not wanting to see it.
I ended up catching it on HBO recently through no fault of my own. I was vacationing in Cancun. There was a torrential rainstorm outside. Some other movie had just ended on Mexican HBO and The Other Guys came on. I wasn’t even paying attention as it started. But by ten minutes into the movie, I was hooked. I wouldn’t let the channel be changed and once I returned home to the US, I rented the movie from Netflix just to watch it all the way through from the beginning.
Without a doubt, The Other Guys is the funniest movie I’ve seen in a while. It is so over the top and so ridiculous, but the movie just goes with it. Even when it questions its own ridiculousness, it answers back with an even more ridiculous answer. Why does Mark Wahlberg’s rageaholic Detective Hoitz know how to dance like a ballerina? Simple, it’s because he took classes so that he could “make fun of guys when we were kids to show them how queer they were.”
Will Ferrell is hilarious as the buttoned up Detective Allen Gamble. This role is up there with my favorite Will Ferrell roles of all time. When we got Gamble, er I mean Gator’s, origin story, I was dying.
If you get your hands on the DVD, make sure to watch the gag reel and improv outtakes. I can’t believe I’m recommending a gag reel, as it’s usually a collection of boring “watch this actor break and then everyone on set laughs” clips one after the other, but the gag reel for The Other Guys is really funny, as is seeing what improvised lines didn’t make the final cut of the movie. Rob Huebel really shines here.
Samuel L. Jackson and Duane “The Rock” Johnson steal the movie as action-hero cops in the beginning of the film. I still laugh to myself whenever I think of the line, “Aim for the bushes.”
With all the serious movies that he’s done, I forgot how funny Michael Keaton can be. He’s awesome as the precinct’s captain that can’t stop quoting TLC songs.
The combination of a very funny script and a cast who go the distance with their improvised lines make The Other Guys a must-see movie. Definitely watch it. Twice.
Kotobukiya has opened up pre-orders for its NYCC 2013 exclusive R2-Q5 ARTFX+ statue. The statue is $29.99 and will ship out one week after NYCC. Shipping adds over $11 to your order. Unfortunately, they are not taking any pre-orders for pick-up at NYCC. If you’re definitely attending NYCC this year, you may want to wait to buy it at the show and save yourself the cost of shipping.
But if you’re a Star Wars fan who can’t make it to NYCC this year and has a thing for dark side astromech droids, this is your perfect opportunity to secure a R2-Q5 for yourself!
What’s with companies and using R2-Q5 as their NYCC exclusive? The same droid was a Hallmark NYCC exclusive Christmas ornament last year.
One of the coolest looking exclusives at the upcoming 2013 New York Comic Con is eFX Inc’s Agent Phil Coulson Badge and ID. Cast from the master molds used in ABC’s Agents of SHIELD TV series, these prop replicas look like the same badges carried by SHIELD agents on the show. The badge and ID come in a genuine leather wallet embossed with the SHIELD logo.
What’s more is the NYCC version includes a personalized ID card with YOUR photo and information! Going by the reaction I’ve seen so far on Twitter, I expect this to be one of the most sought after NYCC collectibles this year. The NYCC exclusive badge and personalized ID set is limited to 1500 pieces and costs $50.
Beginning tomorrow, Tuesday 9/17/13 at 9 AM Pacific (12 Noon Eastern), you’ll be able to pre-order your badge directly from eFX for pick-up at NYCC. You’ll even be able to upload a photo of yourself so that your badge and custom ID will be ready for you at NYCC, allowing you to skip the sure to be long line for this collectible. I wouldn’t be surprised if eFX completely sells out from just the pre-order.
It’s time to break out your black suit, white shirt and black tie!
Information on how to pre-order the badge tomorrow can be found on the eFX website.
When you watch Stand By Me, do you think to yourself, “This movie is good, but it would be great if it had Matthew McConaughey in it.” If you do, then Mud is the movie for you.
Okay, maybe I’m being too glib. Mud is neither a carbon copy nor a rip off of Stand By Me. But I am guessing that if like one one, you will also like the other. Tonally, they are very similar.
McConaughey plays the titular character in Mud, but he’s not the main character of the film. That would be Ellis, a young teen who, along with his best friend, Neckbone, encounters Mud living in the boat they want to salvage from up in a tree. I’d like to pause here and say that Neckbone is the coolest name I’ve heard for a supporting character this year. Who names a kid Neckbone? It’s not his given name, that gets used a couple of time throughout the movie, so how on Earth does a kid pick up that nickname? I’m hoping for a Neckbone: Origins prequel in 2014.
Mud is a gritty movie. Not over the top gritty like Sin City, but gritty in a these are real people with real problems kind of way. People who have fallen out love, people who have fallen on the wrong side of the law, or in Mud’s case the wrong side of some very bad men; these are the people that inhabit the world of the film Mud. But like the character Mud, the the overall film Mud has a lot of heart.
One word of caution though, be careful what advice you take from Mud. As it turns out, a snake will cross a braided rope.
Mud is a serious contender for the best of 2013. Buy it now on Amazon.
On the eve of This is the End’s release, I still had no idea what the movie was about. The poster tells you nothing. I hadn’t seen any trailers. I wrongly assumed it was a Hangover-like bachelor party movie. All I knew about it was that quite a few people whose opinion I like said it was hilarious. And really, that’s all the information I needed.
I really liked that the actors in this film are all playing themselves. It helps that they’re all real life friends who have worked together before, as they take a lot of comedy from their past experiences working together. Like when James Franco showed off his art to Seth Rogen.
The This is the End poster says “with Michael Cera and Emma Watson.” Oh man, if these two have had funnier roles before, please point me in the direction those movies. Michael Cera was especially hilarious, playing the douchiest version of himself imaginable. There are more celebrity cameos that I’d hate to spoil here…they’re just too damn funny.
There are so many funny scenes in this movie. The rapture of James Franco might be my favorite. That, or how Michael Cera comes to his end.
As I was watching the movie, I found myself falling in the Friends/Sex and the City game of trying to match my friends up with the characters on screen. Who in your group would be the Danny in the post-apocalyptic world? After you figure that out, you might want to avoid that guy from here on out.
If you haven’t seen This is the End yet, I highly recommend it. It’s easily the funniest movie I’ve seen in the theater this year. It’s probably too late to see it in any theater unless you have a third or fourth run theater near you, but it will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on 10/1 from places such as Amazon.
