For the last 3 years, Muppet Show has been releasing full seasons of there show. Last Tuesday they released Season 3. I have yet to watch it, but I will. While the show was on during the late 70s and early 80’s, I used to watch these show in reruns with my wife. They were a favorite show of ours. Sometime in the 90’s the Best of the Muppets were released on DVD’s. We were able to enjoy them again. Not all the shows were released. I have seen some of my favorites in season 1 and 2. I hope there will be more favorites in season 3.

Watching the Muppets now bring me a good feeling. This was not always the case. I’m glad that the first season came out when it did. Any earlier, I would never have been able to watch the first season, I would have skipped over that DVD in the store, and then probably wouldn’t have picked up seasons 2 and 3. Sometimes things happen at just the right time. They came out the time I needed them. After I watch of few, I’ll get into all the things we liked about them Muppets. Right now it is a time of quite reflection for me.

My lovely eldest daughter bought me a toy. It was the latest Mr. Potato Head, complete with Indiana Jones Costume. Since I am a big Indy fan, this was a real treat. I’m just waiting to get the “BIG” Lego set, I just don’t know where I would put it.

The newest installment of the Indiana Jones series comes out this Thursday. While I would love to be there on Opening night, there may be other things that keep me from the movie house. I’m sure I will see it this weekend, but the exact day is up in the air.

I’d like to say something insightful or thought provoking about the movie, but I’m just making this up as I go along.

I took 2 of my daughters to see Prince Caspian tonight. While I enjoyed the movie, but couldn’t help but feeling that it wasn’t quite flowing with the book. It has been years since I’ve read the book, so I couldn’t be sure. I will have to read the book again to determine if my feelings were accurate.

As far as the movie. I was entertained. I think that I will want to get the DVD. I think I would just rent this to see it again in most normal instances, but since I have the first movie, and the books, it will add nicely to a collection.

I’m not sure I would take younger children to this movie unless they have a good idea that movies are “make believe”. This movie was a little more intense than “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. There are two major battles, and a couple of more intense chase scenes. So while a good movie, you may want to watch it first before taking the young ones.

I’m a glutton for punishment. I watched the second of the “Land of the Lost” shows, “Return to the Land of the Lost”. The same actors, with a different story. It was much better actually. I already knew that the story could not be anything like the book. After the first movie I wasn’t expecting much at all. The storyline was actually good. They writers did a much better job this time, since they didn’t have to throw anything away. It made my initial reaction to the actors in the first movie. They filled the roles well in both movies. The dinosaurs in this movie were actually worse than the first movie. There was one instant were someone hit a dinosaur and it looked like they were hitting foam rubber. Which of course they were, and they looked it. Oh well, I knew that going into.

I’ll have to get another “B” dinosaur movie, I actually enjoyed the last couple of evenings. Even if I complain a little about movie makers abandoning books. More on that in another blog, it just started getting to me again.

I have a 1992 version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Lost World”. I tend to like movies about dinosaurs, especially campy ones. Rubber dinosaurs, stop action clay dinosaurs, lizards with frills attached are all good fun. Newer movies with good CGI effects are also fun for me. The movie I have is more of the rubber dinosaur type. If you now of the book, John Rhys Davies is Professor Challenger. I’ve like most of the movies with Mr Davies, and so far this is no exception. He is as bombastic and egotistical as the book. I don’t remember the story having a kid along, but he hasn’t got on my nerves too much yet. My biggest problem with the story so far is that they moved the location of lost world from the Amazon to the heart of Africa. I’m still curious as to why that was changed, but I guess it doesn’t make much difference. More on this after I finish watching.

I’ve been hitting the Superhero movies hard for the past few weeks, so I thought I would let some of my other side show. So I thought I would write about Mel Brooks Comedies.

My absolute favorite is Blazing Saddles. A wonderful spoof on almost every western made. I’ve been thinking that this movie could not be made and release today. There were way too many politically incorrect comedy bits in that show. The best part of the show in my opinion had to have been Alex Karras. The part of Mongo and his hitting the horse and of course the Candy Gram. These little things made the movie fun for me. Of course all the puns and movie bits that make most of the Brooks’ comedies fun to watch over and over again. There are seems to be movies I haven’t seen that have been used in satire in these movies.

On to a quick list of favorite in order

1) Blazing Saddles

2) Young Frankenstein

3) Space Balls

4) The 12 Chairs

5) High Anxiety

6) History of the World

7) Silent Movie

8) Robin Hood Men in Tights

9) Dracula Dead and Loving It.

10) To be or not to be

11) Life Stinks

12) The Producers

–Not a movie but it should be in here The 2000 Year Old Man.

— I’m fairly certain I will like Get Smart this summer too. He is a writer for that, and was a writer for the original series.

I’ve been told I have a different taste in movies. I know that I watch and like some movies that others do not. The reason for this is simple, I go to movies to be entertained. If I lose myself for 1-4 hours (Lord of the Rings was at least that long on the extended DVD) and come out feeling entertained, I feel the movie did its job. The kicker on this is if I think the movie has a chance of entertaining me again. There is where I get my choices for good movies. Now for the movies that have been dumped on by critics, friends and family, but I still like them…

#1 on the list, but not in my favorites, this has just been dumped on by almost everybody, even the lead…. Catwoman. Yes, the one with Halile Barrie. I knew from the start that this movie was not going to follow any comic book ever written about Catwoman. It wouldn’t even be close to any of the Batman movies, TV or cartoon catwomen. But Hallie looked real good in the leather jump suit. Hell, her male stunt double looked good in the leather jump suit. I heard that she had a male stunt double for some of the fights, flips and other stunts but I had a hard time believing it. I was finally able to pick out the double, and CGI catwoman most of the time. Other than that, the character they developed for Catwoman was interesting to me. In knowing cats they came up with a good human characterization of the cats qualities. I found the transition from the mousy woman at the beginning of the show to the proud feline at the end was a good use of what this type of thing could do to a person. The beginning story line trying to find what was poisoning people, and the classic business cover up was good to. What I didn’t like was “Stone Faced” Sharon Stone. For 1 it was a really bad pun, but I don’t think that Catwoman needed that kind of adversary. It would have been better to put more mystery in the story and have the “Cat” stalk for it. More cat like in my opinion. I could go on but there are other movies to list…

2) League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Just a fun flick. See how much they took advantage of the characters, and they did stretch them a bit, was pure enjoyment to me. The story was so-so, the acting was iffy, but it all worked as a whole for me.

3) DareDevil. Again, the story just kept my attention and I walked out in a better mood than when I went in.

4) Electra — Same for this one, I just enjoyed the movie.

5) The Shadow. I grew up listening to these on a little transistor radio hidden under my pillow. The show brought back fond memories of staying up late and not letting my parents catch me.

6)More B movie sci-fi fantasy than I can remember. Beast Master hits me as one of them. There was another, that I can’t remember the title of, but it was fun watching the heroine’s dress go from torn to whole to torn to dirty, to clean to whole in about a 15 minute period. I don’t think she ever had time to change.

…. More to come I just can’t remember all of them.

I was just wondering why movies based on comic books always start with the character introduction. Why do we go back to Superman getting sent to Earth? Why see Batman’s parents shot over and over again? Why see Peter Parker get bit by that spider? Why go into all of this?

I realize that not everyone has read the comic books that these characters are based on, and they do need to know a little about the character, but can’t there be a better way?

What got me thinking on this was one of my favorite movies has a larger than life hero. In the first movie, we weren’t given a big background on his character. He was just there, larger than life and doing many things just in the first 5-10 minutes of the movie… It took Peter Parker 1/2 the movie before he even became Spiderman. The first Batman movie with Michael Keaton was actually good in this, but Batman Begins went to the Introduction again…

Why can’t we have a Super Hero movie, where the first time we see the character he is already the Hero. (Again, Batman with Michael Keaton did this, and so did “V for Vendetta”.) If we really need the back story, it can be filled in with short flash backs or dialog on screen. I think it would be more fun for the general audience just to see the characters unfold. To learn their strengths and weaknesses as the movie unfolds.

Until putting these thoughts down, I never really understood why this is now the standard practice for all “Superhero” movies. I now have a theory. Superhero movies are done in this fashion for the main purpose of selling the sequel. We get an “introduction”, and the design is to leave the movie wanting more. The last 20 minutes or so are filled with the big fight scenes and mass destruction. The audience is left with many unanswered questions (not in that introduction). They are left wanting (maybe subconsciously) more. Then the next movie is released. Just my thoughts.

Oh, that hero that just started doing his thing at the beginning of the movie. The one we didn’t really know much background on until the third movie was released? The one where another movie is soon to be released? That would be Indiana Jones…

I’ve been watching the Animated Superman DVD’s I picked up. I also went to seeIron Man last night. So I thought I would try and explain what I like and don’t like in movies/shows based on comic books.

For some insight, I’ve only purchased comic books on rare occasions, most of the time I would borrow them from somebody else. My college roommate was/and still is a collector of comic books. I still go to a sight or two to try to keep up with what is going on. I generally liked most comic books I’ve read, but have really come to appreciate what they can do in the movies. Finally the movies can make the heroes of the comics do all the things they were able to in those comic pages.

My first objective to any movie, comic book based or otherwise, is very simple: When I leave the movie, did I enjoy myself? Nothing other than that. After that I will start look for other things in the movie. If based on a book or story I know, did it follow the thing it was based on. If not, why not? Was the acting good? Did I see the actor, or the character? That’s it, not much deeper than that. This does explain why I’ve liked movies that other people just can’t stand.

For comic book movies, I add one more item. Based on the technology of the day, did the comic action seem real? Why say based on tech, well the latest Superman film released had much better tech than the Superman movies with Christopher Reeve. But for its time, the older Superman movies did as well as they could, they were some of the best SFX during that time frame. I expect more from new movies than I do from older movies.

Now onto the movies…

Most of the Superman animated I’ve watched have been decent shows. The story lines on some of them would have made better movies than anything released to date. These seem to follow what I remember from the comic books better than any movie has done. In short, I am entertained by them. Well worth the money spent. I will tend to watch some of the shows more often than others, but as a set they are at least a 3 out of 5 stars.

Ironman… I left the movie and could honestly say I had enjoyed it. There were parts that made me do some thinking (planned by the filmmakers of course), but that is what I expected going into the show. As with most of the comic book movies, there is a need to introduce the character to people who never read the comic. There is the big 3 of course (Superman, Batman and Spiderman) that could have gotten by without the “introduction” movie, but it seems that most others have to have that. Ironman was an introduction movie. We are given a background of the character, and how he became “Ironman”, then the major “comic book” action sequence takes place. Without giving too much away, I found that the actors became the characters. Even though I knew most of them from other movies, they became the parts they played. Good writing and acting all around, I give this movie one of my better reviews scores…. I’ll buy it when released.

My review scores for movies are (from best to worst) Both See it again categories will mean that I get the DVD later.

See it again (At the high priced place)
See it again (Cheap seats)
Buy the DVD when released
Rent the DVD when released
I’ll watch if someone else has it
I don’t ever want to see it again
Can I have my money back?
Leave the theater, and never tell anyone I saw it (you won’t ever see this review mark, but if you ask about a movie, and I say I haven’t seen it. Well I guess I could have, but it was a real stinker in my estimation.)

Recent Movie Ratings…

Spiderman I II and III all were See it again (cheap seats)
Superman Returns that was really a rent when the DVD comes out, but I bought it for my DVD collection of Superman movies
Fantastic Four — same as Superman Returns. I’m collecting Marvel Comic Movies too.
Batman Begins — See it again (cheap seats)
X-Men I, II, and III — See it again (cheap seats)

If you have comic book movies you want my long version review of, just ask

While I was heading to my eldest daughter’s place last Saturday, I did a bit of shopping in the Toledo area. I was looking for an animated Superman series on DVDs. I found them. What got me started on this, was finding Superman DVDs in the cheap section of some local stores. Anywhere from $1 to $8 for 4 stories. The animation was ok, but most of the story lines were very good. Not at all like the Superfriends that were on TV when I grew up. The producers of these shows seemed to put a bit of thought behind each story. I was happy with the few shows I had.

Then, I watch the complete Justice League on DVD. I’m fairly certain I have all the episodes. And there were references to things that happened in the Superman Series and maybe even Batman. I just had to get them to find out what went on. I tried looking to rent, but I figured out, I was just going to have to buy them. Lucky for me there was a special that day. I now own seasons 1 through 3. I watched Season 1 and will watch the others soon. A very good way to pass the time.

Now I have to see if I want the complete Batman and Batman Beyond series……