The best part of this movie was the beginning, not the beginning scene…no it was the moments right before that.  When you saw the ship on the ocean and the credits were rolling on the screen.  It was at that point that I was at the apex of anticipation…I was hoping for this movie to rival the “yippie kia a mother-f…” days of action.  Then I saw them…the thing that would dash all my hopes….the terrorists.  It isn’t that terrorists are bad in action movies, quite the opposite…they are vital to the genre as a whole.  Without the terrorist who would be blown to bits?  It was what the terrorists were doing that was lame.  They had hostages (of course), demanded money, said “you don’t care about your people so we are killing some…”  This was obviously designed to give you the impression they had already asked for money and give the “expendables” a reason to be there.  As expected our hero’s pop up over the edge of the ship and blow the hell out of everyone.  Apparently it was decided at some point that Jason Stathom would be a knife wielding stud, while stallone would work on his quick draw with a revolver.  Dolph Lundgren goes a little over board by trying to hang a pirate…so they decide to kick him off the team.  This was key for their “plot” I suppose, but it did miss out on one key element of the team action movie formula.  To have a successful action team you need characters so simple it’s best described by looking at the A-Team.  You need a brain, someone good looking, a tough guy, and comic relief.  They missed out on the unstable tough guy…sort of.

The next scene gives you that bad ass feeling as they are rolling in to their “hide out” on their bikes…some pretty kick ass looking choppers and then Stathom on a crotch rocket…

The tattoo shop they call home and the scene there in illustrates just how poorly thought out this flick was.  Stallone had a tattoo he was finishing up…which is fine it happens lots of times with big tats…they get done in pieces.  What did he need to finish?  Two letters…small letters…who the hell would stop with two letters left to go.  Then of course, following the tough guy mantra, Micky Rourke starts drawing on him with no gloves…blech.

It would be easy to break this movie down scene by scene and list everything that is wrong with it…but the main problem that runs all the way through it from beginning to end was the total lack of character development and chemistry.  We never got a feel for any of these characters or why we as an audience should be emotionally invested in them.  Why do I care if Stallone or Statham die?  We’ve seen the plot a million times, corrupt FBI agent, commie dictator…bunch of bullets and explosions…roll credits!

This movie felt like Stallone trying to capture some of his pop that he had while he was a big movie star.  He was involved in all the action sequences, tons of close ups…etc etc etc.  It seemed like the other guys just played bit parts to his lead.  Maybe the other guys are all bit actors, aside from Stathom, but it would have been nice to see them develop a little bit.  The only “alone time” Stathom got was when he showed up at his girl friend’s place to get dumped and again when he beat the hell out of some people for hitting her.

Overall, this movie should have gone straight to DVD…not just DVD…to the 5 buck DVD bin.  I’ve read online there is a sequel planned, hopefully they also plan on hiring some writers this time.  This was easily the worst movie I’ve seen all summer…and I took the kid to eclipse, if that gives you any idea how bad it was.

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Anyhow, I finish up and start screwing with the new bag I bought for the bike…the little girl comes out side with a piece of paper in her hand.  I saw her out of the corner of my eye but was focused on what I was doing…then she began to speak.  “listen to me entirely before you just say no” After that line, I figured it was either a movie, the dog park or someone staying over.  Those are really the only things she asks for on a regular basis.  This time it was a movie.  She starts looking at the paper she carried out, “I have a list of movies, the times they are playing and where they are playing at.  Can we go see one?”  She came organized and prepared…I’m good with that, she put some effort in to making the decision and gather information so we decided to go catch Despicable Me.

I’m not a huge fan of catching movies in the theater anymore.  The last one I went to that was worth the price was Inception, but before that I’d have to go back to Star Trek before that.  There are so many movies that just aren’t worth the 9 bucks/ticket + snacks.  I had a free ticket and some free pop corn thing…seemed like a good time to use them.  If I was going to pay for everything it would have run me 9+7+7=23 bucks for 1.5hrs of entertainment.  The price/value just isn’t there for me in that case.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this movie.  I’d seen previews but wasn’t interested at all.  After watching it, I can’t say that as an adult it’s a “must see” flick, but it is something that an adult can take their child to and watch and get a few laughs out of it.  To me it felt like a full length animated Spy vs Spy movie (remember that comic strip from MAD magazine?).  The drawing was really similar, the ideas and gadgets were crazy cartoony over the top and the two bad guys seemed like the black and white spies.

What really interests me about the movies like this are the background characters that do the screwy stuff.  In this movie there were the “minions” that were the background comic relief.  I can’t really explain the stuff they were doing, but it was your typical cartoon comic relief.  Some of the stuff was pretty funny, the only part that felt a little forced was when one of them was xeroxing his ass.  But it’s those scenes that will bring a smile to an adult’s face.  A child wouldn’t really understand the humor involved in xeroxing one’s ass…but adults may have done it and probably know someone who has and got a kick out of it.

There was also the option to watch this movie in 3D.  I didn’t think it was “shot” in 3D so it wasn’t worth the extra scratch.  There was only one scene in the amusement park that might have gained something from being in 3D.  I would almost bet that scene was an after thought when 3D became a way to get more money from flicks.

The story ends with a predictable story line to some extent.  It went a little further though in that it showed via flashbacks, which didn’t seem forced and flowed fairly naturally, that getting to the moon was this guys life long goal.  At the end, obviously the little girls melt his heart…blah blah blah.

If your kid is still in to cartoons, it’s worth letting them see…if they aren’t old enough to watch a flick themselves it’s quite tolerable for the adults.

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I’ll put up my thoughts on it a bit later.  I don’t want to give away any plot or twists to anyone before people have a chance to see it.  If your interested in spoilers you can find plenty on the net.  I will say the movie did make me think about some stuff for a few min.  It wasn’t something that will change my life, but it is nice to watch a movie that does provoke a little bit of thought.

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LONDON – Patrick Stewart has been upgraded from captain — to knight.

The actor — famous for playing Capt. Jean-Luc Picard on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” — officially became Sir Patrick Stewart when he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday.

While “Star Trek” introduced him to a different group of fans, Stewart is also a widely respected stage actor.

The 69-year-old actor discovered the theater as a child, and said “my heroes were Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Alec Guinness.” Being “in that company is the grandest thing that has professionally happened to me.”

Stewart joined Britain’s storied Royal Shakespeare Company in his 20s, and in 2008 was nominated for a Tony award for the leading role in “Macbeth.”

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Micheal Baye’s response to Fox’s comments:

Well, that’s Megan Fox for you. She says some very ridiculous things because she’s 23 years old and she still has a lot of growing to do. You roll your eyes when you see statements like that and think, “Okay Megan, you can do whatever you want.

I got it.” But I 100% disagree with her. Nick Cage wasn’t a big actor when I cast him, nor was Ben Affleck before I put him in “Armageddon.” Shia LaBeouf wasn’t a big movie star before he did “Transformers”–and then he exploded. Not to mention Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, from “Bad Boys.” Nobody in the world knew about Megan Fox until I found her and put her in “Transformers.” I like to think that I’ve had some luck in building actors’ careers with my films.

Some sites were saying based on those comments that she would be out for T3…it appears she is.  I’d like to know the real reason they dropped her though.  It seems pretty common that we hear the reason as being salary demands.

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The thing that interested me most about the first Ironman flick was the use of the technology.  JARVIS and the holographic goodness that Stark was playing with was really interesting to me.  That was somewhat lacking in the 2nd flick.  There was some focus on the chest piece…but no real sci-fi theoretical techno-babble.  He had a really kick ass little hand held computer thing-a-majig that he used during the Senate inquiry that was pretty cool and his touch screen computer interface you see from time to time was really cool…but beyond that there was really nothing.  I expected some really cool high tech weaponry talk with War Machine being part of this one…but really nothing there either.  They pretty much glossed over all of that stuff and tried to go for more story…which in most comic book flicks falls really flat.  To me it’s the techno speak that makes a sci-fi movie…and this one was really thin on that.

There were a couple of story lines in this flick and IMO that was a mistake.  It seems that they (marvel?) was, with this flick, hell bent on shoving the avengers down your throat.  Obviously the fans that have been paying attention to the rumors (at first) about several movies being tied together culminating in an avengers team up flick in a few years.  We know now that an Avengers movie is going to happen…and with this Ironman flick they are really driving that home.  There was too much focus on SHIELD and not enough on Tony Stark.

I was very much disappointed about how the War Machine conception was handled.  There was no real introduction to how Rhodes gained access to the armor.  You would assume that Stark would have some ultra super security on that crap…  He just kind of stepped into what appeared to be a spare suit with no real explanation of what that suit can do.  After that, the military has Hammer (another weapons manufacturer, rival to Stark) load it up with weaponry…huh?  Why does this suit not have any fancy energy type weapons like the other iron man suits?  Why is it using regular projectile weapons?  This part of the whole deal is really freekin lame IMO.  I expected War Machine to be setup like the Sherman battle tank of personal armor…instead it looks like it takes a huge step backwards in weaponry.  Where the hell would the suit store all the bullets?  How does Rhodes step into the suit and just know how to use it?  Pretty piss poor handling of a major point of the movie…

Mickey was alright in his role…but overall kind of boring.  You never get a good feel for the hatred this character has for Stark.  You know why he’s going after him, but there is not a developed back story or any seething anger coming from him.  He seems pretty calm and calculated…and doesn’t seem to have that evil super genius but pretty freekin nuts aura about him that all good super-villains have.  He did O.K. with the part, but in the end I didn’t feel like he really cared one way or the other….so I didn’t really care what happened to him.

Overall, this show was worth watching, but not as memorable as the first.  Having AC/DC on the soundtrack helped a little bit IMO.

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Kevin Smith sees hit and miss on his movies…a couple have been decent, but I didn’t dig on chasing amy at all and I heard enough bad press about jersey girl to skip it.  His movies usually make it to at least rental status though.

“Red State” is a horror film about Fred Phelps, the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, which became infamous for taking a supremely homophobic stance and for picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq.

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Peter Graves, whose calm and intelligent demeanor was a good fit for the intrigue of “Mission Impossible” as well as the satire of the “Airplane” films, has died.

Graves passed away Sunday just a few days before his 84th birthday outside his home in Los Angeles, publicist Sandy Brokaw said. Graves was returning from brunch with his wife of nearly 60 years and his family when he had what Graves’ doctor believed was a heart attack, Brokaw said.

Graves first gained the attention of many baby boomers with the 1950s TV series “Fury,” but remained best known for the role of Jim Phelps, leader of a gang of special agents who battled evil conspirators in TV’s “Mission: Impossible.”

Normally cast as a hero, he turned in an unforgettable performance early in his career as the treacherous Nazi spy in Billy Wilder’s 1953 prisoner-of-war drama “Stalag 17.”

He also masterfully lampooned his straight-arrow image when he portrayed bumbling airline pilot Clarence Oveur in the 1980 disaster movie spoof “Airplane!”

Graves appeared in dozens of films and a handful of television shows in a career of nearly 60 years.

The authority and trust he projected made him a favorite for commercials late in his life, and he was often encouraged to go into politics.

“He had this statesmanlike quality,” Brokaw said. “People were always encouraging him to run for office.”

Graves was preceded in stardom by his older brother James Arness, who played Marshal Matt Dillon on TV’s “Gunsmoke.”

Born Peter Aurness, Graves adopted his grandfather’s last name to avoid confusion with his older brother, who had dropped the “U” from the family name.

Graves’ career began with cheaply made exploitation films like “It Conquered the World,” in which he battled a carrot-shaped monster from Venus, and “Beginning of the World,” in which he fought a giant grasshopper.

He later took on equally formidable human villains each week on “Mission: Impossible.”

Every show began with Graves, as agent Phelps, listening to a tape of instructions outlining his team’s latest mission and explaining that if he or any of his agents were killed or captured “the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.”

The tape always self-destructed within seconds of being played.

The show ran on CBS from 1967 to 1973 and was revived on ABC from 1988 to 1990 with Graves back as the only original cast member.

The actor credited clever writing for the show’s success.

“It made you think a little bit and kept you on the edge of your seat because you never knew what was going to happen next,” he once said.

He also played roles in such films as John Ford’s “The Long Gray Line” and Charles Laughton’s “The Night of the Hunter,” as well as “The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell,” “Texas Across the River” and “The Ballad of Josie.”

Graves’ first television series was the children’s Saturday morning show, “Fury,” about an orphan and his untamed black stallion. Filmed in Australia, it lasted six years on NBC.

In his later years, Graves brought his white-haired eminence to public television as host of “Discover: The World of Science” and A&E’s “Biography” series.

He noted during an interview in 2000 that he made his foray into comedy somewhat reluctantly.

Filmmakers Jim Abrahams and David and Jerry Zucker had written a satire on the airplane-in-trouble movies, and they wanted Graves and fellow handsome actors Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Nielsen and Robert Stack to spoof their serious images.

All agreed, but Graves admitted to nervousness. On the one hand, he said, he considered the role a challenge, “but it also scared me.”

“I thought I could lose a whole long acting career,” he recalled.

“Airplane!” became a box-office smash, and Graves returned for “Airplane II, The Sequel.”

Graves was a champion hurdler in high school in Minnesota, as well as a clarinet player in dance bands and a radio announcer.

After two years in the Air Force, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota as a drama major and worked in summer stock before following his brother west to Hollywood.

He found enough success there to send for his college sweetheart, Joan Endress. They were married in 1950 and had three daughters — Kelly Jean, Claudia King and Amanda Lee — and six grandchildren.

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