Movies/TV
DragonCon 2009: Day One - Best Costume So Far, Initial Thoughts, and an Unexpected Gift from Above.
Day One - DK Pick for Best Costume: Sith Elvis!
Any of the literally dozens of loyal readers we have at Deviant Knowledge probably are at least aware of the the annual Labor Day idiocy that happens in Atlanta, GA each year called Dragon*Con. For those not familiar, formerly a smaller and more narrowly targeted affair, it’s now described on their own website as “the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US.” This year is my first opportunity to attend and after 14 hours on day one I was stunned by how huge and well run of a program this is so far. I’ve been to many cons over the years: GenCon, Star Wars Celebrations, several Trek, Doctor Who and general Sci-Fi cons and so far this seems to be about the most well-oiled of any of them–of course, hell is bound to ensue as the weekend hits.
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Avatar Reaction: A Sad Day to Be a Fanboy
So, by now, you’ve probably seen the teaser trailer for James Cameron’s Avatar, and maybe, like me, went and saw the fifteen or so minutes of footage at the (somewhat pretentiously named, I feel) Avatar Day screenings. Did the footage live up to all the hype that’s been coming out of earlier screenings? Is it the Second Coming of Film?
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Inglourious Basterds is Great Cinema but Falls Short of Being Tarantino’s Masterpiece.
When the opening credits for Inglourious Basterds rolled and Tarantino’s name flashed across the screen, I had an unexpected well-up of emotion that I hadn’t had in a movie in many years. Even though I’m a huge Tarantino fan I wasn’t expecting this. Basterds is the film that has been haunting Tarantino for years as his unfinished masterpiece with a massively long development process almost all in his quest to perfect the script. I had a great time with it, but the farther I get away from my first viewing and my first impressions of it continue to gel I have to admit that even with how incredibly well done it is, Basterds is a deeply flawed film.
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Peter Jackson’s District 9 is a Strong, Expert Drama Disguised as a Summer Sci-Fi Film
The trailers for District 9 sparked my interest as one of those guilty pleasure pulp-sci-fi flicks that come along every once in a while. I have no shame in admitting that I will continue to be an unashamed apologist for films like Independence Day, Starship Troopers or Total Recall. Instead, producer Peter Jackson and director Neil Blomkamp have surprised us with a first class character study wrapped up in an allegorical cautionary tale about morality and racism. It succeeds so wildy in this approach that I was completely blindsided by a powerfully good film shattering my complete lack of any real expectations. One of the small pleasures that I appreciate most in this life is walking into a movie expecting nothing and walking out grinning ear to ear completely blown away.
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DK Book of the Month Pick: Rhymes With Duck
This month’s Deviant Knowledge Book of the Month pick is the educational classic Rhymes with Duck. Few children’s books have moved me to tears before I’ve even gotten past the cover but this one is certainly an attention getter.
Picked up at one of our fine local “Dollar” Stores, I can’t help but wonder how the concept behind the writing and publishing this book ever got past the “humorous suggestion” phase.
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If GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra Were a Horse, We’d Have to Put It Out of Its Misery.
I have to put the GI Joe phenomenon firmly in the same category as Transformers. While other kids my age were firmly engrossed in those two animated series in the 80s I was engaged in much more “mature” pursuits such as Star Trek, Doctor Who and mourning the loss of Three’s Company between planning my weekly schedule around Cheers and Night Court. However, the trailer for GI Joe tugged at the coolness factor of my long dead kid as well as the former lead actor from the recently resurrected Doctor Who, so I was hip for this, at least up until the first 45 minutes or so of sitting through it.
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Funny People Throws Expectations Out the Window for Adam Sandler and Seth Rogan.
The marketing for Funny People has to be the biggest act of cowardice in a movie marketing campaign in 2009. The trailers are desperately trying to sell this film as an Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan crazy laugh fest. There are plenty of laughs in the film, but the truth is that this is a serious, thoughtful character study that may be Judd Apatow’s best work as well as one of the best film’s I’ve seen this year, certainly not something I expected to say coming out of an Adam Sandler film.
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WiiSports Resort: Why Do I Keep Chucking Money at Nintendo’s White Brick? Oh, Ya, Here’s Why…
Had I not been intimately involved with enjoying some WiiWare titles along with being teased if not thrilled by my experience with the WiiMotion plus controller that came with Tiger Woods Assassination (see article from last month) I probably would have been extremely skeptical of the latest “big” release for the little white brick from Nintendo, WiiSports Resort. Not to short change WiiSports, but it was, after all, the game that came with the console. Even though it probably still remains one of the most popular titles on the console for that reason along with its obvious attraction as a party game, paying full price for a new WiiSports game was just a little unsettling for me.
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: No Way Weasley Shouldn’t Be All Over that Granger Chic
In the desperate rush to adapt all the Harry Potter novels before the stars of this popular film series become grandparents we’ve come to the sixth film, 
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I have mixed feelings about this film series. I’ve never read one word of any of the books, but I understand the obsession of original fantasy/sci-fi works on young minds. I thought the first film, was quite good. The Chamber of Secrets was a rather bland follow up in my assessment and kind of what I expected. A good start followed by progressively less exciting followups until the money train finally dries up. I was wrong. I was actually surprised at how good Goblet of Fire was, best of the three. Progressively, every film in the series since has gotten better.
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Bruno: A Funny but Flawed Film That Reinforces Rather than Refutes Negative Stereotypes
I’ll admit that I was completely uninspired to see Borat when it hit theaters and indeed I didn’t. When I finally caught it on DVD later I was actually astounded that I liked it as well as I did. Apart from the shocking and funny moments in Borat, it really has a pretty important subtext about current U.S. cultural values, intolerance, and anti-semitism. I’m not touting Borat as an educational film, but it certainly manages to create some rather uncomfortable moments when showing real people at their worst. Bruno tries to brew some of the same cultural controversy around acceptance of homosexuality, but utterly fails.
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