E.R. Torre's Blog, page 81

Justice League box office…

News came yesterday of the final box office take of Justice League aaaaaannnnddddd… things aren’t all that great:

Justice League ends Box Office run as lowest grossing DCEU movie

The film’s final worldwide total was $657,924,295, a handsome sum certainly but the least amount made of the five films that were part of the DC “universe” of films, which includes Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, and, of course, JL.  Ironically enough, the film that made the most in this group is the much reviled (by some, not me) BvS.

In retrospect, I suspect people should have seen this coming.  The circus and negative reactions to both BvS -which I feel were deeply unfair at times- and Suicide Squad -more deserved, the film’s story was a mess and the only thing that “saved” the film, if such a term can be used, was the acting by the principles- created in the fan community so much negativity that even DC/Warners knew they had to put up a brave front to get people to come back to their side.

They trotted out director Zack Snyder and had him assure people JL would be a brighter affair.  They even had reporters and fans come to the active set and were shown props and scenes meant to give them a taste of the better film to come.

But then came word that Snyder left the project some six months or so before its scheduled release, ostensibly due to the tragedy of the suicide of his adopted daughter.  Joss Whedon took over the film and was doing re-shoots -which the studios stated were approved of/OKed by Snyder- and would finish the film.  Given the film we finally received, I can’t help but believe those statements were lies.

Mr. Snyder, it was revealed much later, had likely been fired from the production and, it should be noted, he stepped down when the re-shoots were beginning.  In other words, Mr. Snyder finished Justice League’s principle photography, reportedly presented a 3 hour cut (which some felt was “unwatchable”), and then was gone when the re-shoots began.

Could it be -and this is rank speculation on my part- that Snyder had no interest in doing the re-shoots?  He’d been a “good soldier” for DC/WB, allowing the clipped theatrical version of BvS to be released when the much better Ultimate Cut was out there.

Could it be the studio meddling had finally become too much for him and, if he wasn’t outright fired, then maybe the studios and he decided it was time to part ways amicably?

Regardless of all that, the film essentially limped into theaters, the source of plenty of negative speculation and feelings that there was no way it could be a coherent work, given the speed in which it was released and the fact that the original director was gone.

When the film was released, it earned generally better reviews but not spectacular ones.  There was more ridicule regarding the fact that Superman actor Henry Cavill had to keep his mustache due to contractual obligations with the latest Mission: Impossible film and the mustache was digitally removed after the fact (not well, to many).

When I saw the film, I liked it well enough, though at times it felt like I was watching a tug of war between the Snyder stuff and the Whedon stuff.  I still hold out hope -perhaps misguided, given the box office figures- that DC/Warners will eventually allow Snyder to go back and release his version of the film.

Why do I say “misguided”?  Because maybe DC/Warners wants to close the book on the Snyder run of movies and have no interest at all in reminding anyone of them.  Given the weak box office they have every reason to close that particular chapter of the book, especially if completing the Snyder “cut” of the film might result in further expenditures to finish any effects.

Which is really too bad.

For better or worse I would have loved to see what Mr. Snyder was planning with Justice League.  At least based on some of the trailers and scenes that never made it to the Whedon cut of the film, it appeared there was more stuff there with the ancillary characters, including Flash and Cyborg.

Truly, its too bad.

Facebook and internet culture…

Hard to believe, given today’s news, the situation regarding Facebook and, specifically, Cambridge Analytica and the way they -let’s be blunt here- weaponized personal data through Facebook. (You can read more about that here.  As for Cambridge Analytica, read about how its CEO was filmed talking about using bribes and sex “traps” here).

Here’s the thing: People are vulnerable.  People are willing to think the best of others, sometimes when they shouldn’t.  People are also suspicious but perhaps not suspicious enough depending on circumstances.

I recall a few years back when a new type of crime was being perpetrated: Criminals would go on Facebook and see when people there noted they were traveling/on vacation and would then go to the people’s homes and, upon verifying they were indeed not home, rob the place.

The fact that there are companies out there like Cambridge Analytica taking vast swaths of data (not illegally, it appears) and using it to sway people’s opinions and -at times- make them believe things which are not true is far, far more worrisome.

Perhaps I’m the naive one as I’ve always felt people would be suspicious about information being sent their way.  Nowadays, thanks to things like Fox News and, obviously, the information presented above, I’m far more worried that people can be pointed in directions by those clever enough to do the pointing.

If there is a silver lining to this particular black cloud, its that these systems are being revealed for what they are and, hopefully, parent companies like Facebook will be proactive in shutting down these people.

Now, if only someone would do the same to Fox “News”.

Time to get the butterfly nets…

For those who think all I ever do when I talk about politics is slam Republicans, here goes some equal time.

From Ed Mazza and presented on the (oh so liberal) Huffingtonpost.com, a report about a DC lawmaker and his… strange… statement regarding the late winter storms we’ve been having.  The lawmaker, Trayon White, is a Democrat…

DC Lawmaker blames winter storms on Jewish bankers who control the weather

I mean, where do you start here?  The lawmaker later on apologized for his statement but… come on, how does one simply apologize when making a statement that’s that alarming and the people this lawmaker represents just let it go at that?

Sheesh.

There’s been a joke going around that the election of Trump proves we’ve entered into some kind of bizarro alternate universe.

I’m beginning to think this isn’t much of a joke anymore.

Sketchin’ 56

Way back in the 1950’s there was a film that… nah, just kidding.

The subject matter this time around is your’s truly.  A self portrait, as it were!

[image error]

Michael Fleisher, R.I.P.

The name may not be terribly familiar even to those who have followed comic books, but writer Michael Fleisher, who I just found out yesterday had passed away on February 2nd, was an amazing talent who left behind at least two series of stories I absolutely love.

The first, and probably his best, work ran only some 10 issues/stories.  While I lament the fact that it lasted such a short period of time, in retrospect it might have been just long enough.  These stories featured the Spectre, a character who to that point was never terribly well written even though he’d been around since the “Golden Age” of comics, but Mr. Fleisher made him a vengeful spirit who took gave evil doers their just -and often very icky- reward.  The stories were found in Weird Adventure Comics and drawn by the always amazing Jim Aparo…

His other great series lasted a much longer time, over a dozen years and many, many issues, and involved DC’s western anti-hero Jonah Hex.

While Mr. Fleischer wasn’t the man who created the character, he was the one who handled him the longest and, in my opinion, offered the best take on the character as well.  The character has gone on to appear in his own -not very good- movie as well as appearing on DC’s TV shows on the CW.

Perhaps the most fascinating story Mr. Fleisher wrote regarding the character appeared in the book presented below, Jonah Hex Spectacular, which gave us the story of the fate of Jonah Hex.  What happened wasn’t pretty, though DC would return to the story and present a happier ending years later (this story was written by others)…

Michael Fleisher would be bad mouthed in an interview by noted sci-fi author Harlan Ellison in the Comic Journal.  In that interview and among other things Mr. Ellison stated Fleisher was and his Spectre stories were the work of a “lunatic” (he would offer other derogatory things, some even more foul mouthed).  Mr. Fleisher sued for defamation and eventually lose the case while Mr. Ellison claimed the things he said were in jes and that he didn’t mean them to be taken series.  Regardless, the interview and the lawsuit spelled the end of Mr. Fleisher’s career in American comic books.

He would leave comics completely by 1995 and after doing some stories for the British comic series 2000 AD.  His later career was spent in studies and college and he was 76 years old at the time of his passing.

Tonight I’ll have to go through my books and re-read those Spectre and Jonah Hex stories.

The Spectre stories were collected in a TPB called The Wrath of the Spectre…

As for his Jonah Hex stories, DC released two black and white (and 500 some pages long) Showcase volumes which feature quite a bit of Mr. Fleisher’s material…

If you’re at all intrigued by what I’ve written above, get these three books.

They’re that good.

The Presidio (1988) a (very) belated review

I’ve always been kinda/sorta fascinated by the works of director .  While he may not be a terribly well known director, he’s made some pulpy films that have lingered in my mind over the years.  They may not always be the most original works, they do have their interesting elements.

Among the many films he’s directed is the Mars landing conspiracy thriller Capricorn One, the remarkably not all that bad 2010 (a sequel to the classic Stanley Kubrick directed 2001: A Space Odyssey), and two of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s better movie outings, Sudden Death and Time Cop.

Mr. Hyams also made two films with , the Alien set/visuals-inspired and High Noon story-inspired Outland and The Presidio.  Here’s the trailer to The Presidio:

I have to say up front: Unlike the many Peter Hyams directed films I mentioned above, there was little I recalled about The Presidio, which I only saw once many, many years ago.  The things I remembered about the film were a)  looked really attractive and b) the characters played by Sean Connery and were constantly arguing.

Anyway, fast forward to a few months ago and the film was airing on some cable channel and I recorded it to my DVR.  It lingered there, recorded but unwatched, until yesterday when I had a little bit of free time and decided to give the film a go.

The first thing that struck me about the film, and you can catch glimpses of it in the above trailer, is the appearance of as the victim of a murderer -this happens quite literally in the movie’s first few minutes so I don’t feel its a terribly big spoiler- and that sets off the movie’s story.  I point her out because she’s only a couple of years removed from her role as Private Vasquez in Aliens and, because she’s dressed in military green, still looks very much like that famous character.

Anyway, so we have her mysterious murder within the Presidio, the famous San Francisco military academy, and that in turn leads to Mark Harmon’s detective Jay Austin meeting up with Sean Connery’s Lt. Col. Alan Caldwell, the head MP of the Presidio and the man in charge of the case there.

The two have, we soon find, a history.  Austin used to be an MP under Caldwell and at some point he broke from the academy and became a police detective.  He doesn’t care for Caldwell much and the feeling is mutual.

However, because the murder occurred on the Presidio’s grounds, of course the two are eventually forced to partner up.  And it is when Austin heads to Caldwell’s home that he finds the man’s daughter, Donna (Meg Ryan, natch) and the attraction is instant.

Things move on and the conspiracy is eventually exposed but the fact that I couldn’t recall much of the film all these years later becomes more evident as I watched it.

To be blunt, the film isn’t all that good, even though it features a typically strong Connery performance, a charismatic turn by Ms. Ryan, and a so-so turn by Harmon.  I can’t be too harsh regarding Harmon as his character is pretty one note as written: Brash and handsome, handsome and brash.  What may be interesting to some is to see Mark Harmon play essentially a younger, brasher version of his character on N.C.I.S.

The story turns out to be a rather uninteresting one with one “big” surprise regarding one of the ancillary characters that is so obvious that even newborns should see it coming (though, of course, our leads didn’t).

Worse and especially early in the film it seemed we were jumping forward, story-wise, to the point of near incoherence.  I feel like there were scenes missing which were meant to elaborate on Donna and Austin’s relationship.  Perhaps they were filmed and clipped from the final cut or perhaps they were dumped in the screenwriting stage, but nonetheless there were times it felt like I was missing something.

For example, there is a scene which suddenly occurs where Austin and Donna are at an officer’s/military dinner and her father is at another table, seething as he watches them.  Donna acts up and provokes Austin into a fight.

There is no lead up to this scene -either that or I fell asleep for a moment or two and missed it.  One moment Austin and Caldwell are investigating the murder and suddenly they’re all at that military party and Donna’s acting like a crazy person.

A little before that scene there is one where Austin and Donna are walking on a beach and Austin very clumsily states his love for Donna, noting how he’s come to feel this way after seeing her all this time.  At that point in the film I believe we only had them together twice, the first time they “meet cute” and then when they first go out!

Weird, huh?  As I said, I get the feeling there was more to the whole Donna/Austin relationship but romance was torpedoed in favor of action/mystery.

Anyway, I can’t recommend The Presidio, even to hard core Peter Hyams (there are some of you out there, no?), Sean Connery, Meg Ryan, or Mark Harmon fans.  There simply isn’t enough “there” there to justify the time.

Too bad.

Assorted (political) musings…

…you’ve been warned!

Based on many of my political comments, one can rightfully surmise I don’t think much of “President” Donald Trump.  This feeling has extended into the Republican party and that’s because, IMHO, the party has been moving more and more toward having just such a Frankenstein’s monster of a leader for many years now.

The fact that so many prominent Republicans, the pundits in print and on TV now shake their heads and wonder what happened to “their” Republican party amuses and saddens me.

For example, I’ve written before that I liked what Michael Steele, ex-head of the Republican Party, had to say about the hypocrisy of Evangelicals in the way they looked away from all the dark moral actions Mr. Trump, noting that from now on they shouldn’t ever have anything to say about morals to anyone.

Kudos for that statement, Mr. Steele, but I have a long enough memory to remember when he was in charge of the Republican Party and during that time he said plenty of stupid crap that, sadly, has led the party to the point where it now is.

Another guy who laments where the Republican Party currently sits is Steve Schmidt.  His comments, whenever he appears on political shows, is sober and there is a genuine lamentation of what has become of the Republican party.  He has no kind words at all to say about Trump and wonders when any of the Republicans in office will finally stand up to him.

Based on these comments, he is another Republican I find myself in agreement with, but, again, there’s that pesky little memory of mine.

Wasn’t Mr. Schmidt the man who ran John McCain’s presidential campaign?  You know, the campaign that eventually gave us Sarah Palin?!

Yikes.

Anyway, my point is not to rub all these people’s noses in their past, though frankly those who so lament the state of the Republican Party and the “presidency” of Trump should really, really look hard in the mirror as he didn’t just come out of nowhere.  He was, I feel, part of a long and torturous process that took years to become realized.

Having said that and despite all the dark news regarding the current political state of the nation, I find myself of late remarkably optimistic.

It’s been said that the Great London Fire of 1666. a great tragedy that took the lives of many and destroyed much of medieval London, nonetheless allowed much of the city to rebuild from scratch and better than it was, perhaps leading to eventual greatness.

So too it feels with the state of the current Republican Party.

Yesterday in a special election in Pennsylvania there was a special election in what people have long considered a Republican stronghold.  The election, to be sure, means little as whoever wins stays in power only until November, when new district lines come into effect and an election will again be held throughout the state.

However, at this moment and at this time and thanks to now declared illegal gerrymandering, the district where this election was being held, as I mentioned before, was considered a “lock” for Republicans.  In the presidential election, Trump won by 20 percent over Clinton.

And yet, as of today it appears the Democratic challenger, Conor Lamb, has apparently won the election.  His margin of victory is razor thin, amounting to a little over 600 votes, but considering where the election was held, this can’t be a happy day for Republicans in general.

Mind you, I’m not anti-Republican.  I’m old enough to have *gasp* once been on the fence regarding party affiliation, one of those independents who could at times be for a Republican candidate as easily as I could be for a Democratic candidate.

Things changed, for me, during the Clinton years.  During this time the right wing, frankly, began to scare me.  I don’t like guns and scratch my head at this country’s fascination with them.  I like social services such as the police, fire-fighters, infrastructure workers, and scratch my head at the need to keep offering tax breaks to the rich when we need revenue to build and maintain the structure of this country.  Further, I want the government to fund science and technology.  I want more public transport and better schools.  All these things require tax money and while I hate seeing my salary go this way, the reality is that the investments have paid off.

Even worse, I hated, hated, hated the way many Republicans kept going after candidates on the other side as if theirs was a moral imperative.  They pursued Hillary Clinton for years over Benghazi yet they feel there is no more to investigate regarding Trump and Russia?

Wow.

Anyway, the election in Pennsylvania, whether it stands or not (there are calls by Republicans for a recount, something I can’t blame them for given the very close results), could well be the best example of how things just might be changing.

Today there’s a big protest from school kids regarding gun control, and suddenly, after far too long, it appears maybe people are finally starting to wake up to the fact that having such lax, pro-NRA elected officials in office may not be such a good thing.

After going so far over the bend with someone like Trump, could it be that the pendulum is finally swinging back?

What more need be said…

Sad news yesterday of the passing of Stephen Hawking, an intellectual giant who, despite physical limitations, soared like few others.

Known as a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, but was also a best-selling author and, perhaps most incredibly, celebrity, Mr. Hawking will be missed.

 

Sketchin’ 55

The luminous Carole Lombard had a stellar career which began in 1921 and during the silent film era.  She would successfully make the transition into “talkies” and made many successful films, including the 1936 comedy My Man Godfrey.

In 1939 she married Clark Gable.  On January 16, 1942, Carole, her mother, and 20 other people were flying back to California -Carole Lombard having completed a war bond rally in Indiana- when their plane went down outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. All aboard the aircraft perished and Mrs. Lombard was dead at the age of 33.

[image error]

Channel Zero: No End House (2017) a (mildly) belated review

Currently in its third season, the Sy-Fy (its still hard to write it this way!) series of mini-series’ second “season”, consisting of the six episode No End House, had the following intriguing trailer…

Originally published on the creepypasta website and distributed over the web, Channel Zero takes some of the more popular short stories posted and makes them into these mini-series.

No End House concerns a group of late teens (out of high school, just into college) who hear about the “No-End House”, a horror themed home that appears in random places throughout the world and which one enters and encounters six scary rooms before exiting.

But… do you ever exit?!

We start with Margot Sleator (well played by ) who has had a recent tragedy in her life.  Her father (played by , also quite good) recently died and she’s become something of a recluse, living in her home with her mother but, in the year since his death, not venturing out much.

Her best friend Jules (, again, quite good) arrives in town after spending a year in college and re-connects with Margot.  She tries to get Margot out of her depressive fog and the two venture out to a nightclub.

There, they meet up with old school friend J.D. (, also… well, all the actors are pretty damn good in this film) and acquaint themselves with Seth Marlowe ().

While Margot originally doesn’t want to stay, she’s attracted to Seth and changes her mind.  The foursome talk about all kinds of things, including the legend of the No End House, which is rumored to be stationed in their very town.

Few know exactly what No End House is about, other than the fact that it appears in random towns and those who enter it go through six scary rooms before emerging outside.  The experiences are vague as each person apparently experiences a different thing.

The four head out of the club and find No End House and enter… and then things change.

I don’t want to give too much away here but suffice to say that entering the No End House is a hell of a lot easier than exiting it, and what one finds within is eerie and life-threatening.

The series is quite creepy, offering interesting revelations about the various characters before reaching its climax.  Who is good and who is bad?  What does one gain and what does one lose upon entering the No End House?

Further, the acting, as I stated above, is uniformly good while the cinematography, sound effects, and editing are top notch.

As for the writing, most of the questions one has regarding the No End House are answered by the end.

Most, not quite all.

Worse, while the series goes on for six approximately 45 minute long episodes (the extra 15 minutes were for commercials, of course), it felt at times the story was being dragged out longer than it should have been.

One of the bigger problems I had at the very end is that I’m left with no real answers as to what the No End House is, and that wound up bothering me perhaps more than it should have.  Is it a force of good or evil or is it just “there”, corrupted by those who enter it?

In the end, I find myself in a very curious position.  While I like almost everything about the series, by the end it felt like a) it went on longer than it should and b) the answers given/the story told were interesting but didn’t constitute a world-shattering product.

When all was said and done my reaction was: “Eh… it was ok” and that’s hardly a ringing endorsement.

Still, there is stuff here to like and I don’t want to give the impression the whole thing was a waste of time.  Perhaps the problem lies in me and I was expecting more than I got and therefore was disappointed.

Still, it is what it is.  No End House is a handsomely mounted, well-acted, and for the most part well written mini-series that nonetheless ends with more of a whimper than a bang.