"Make Mine Disney" Doesn't Have The Same Ring To It

As you may or may not have heard, Marvel Entertainment - the company that owns Marvel Comics - has been purchased by The Walt Disney Company for the sum of four billion dollars. That's "billion" with a B. The purchase apparently hasn't completely gone through yet, since I think it still has to pass an antitrust review and get approval from stockholders. But I'm sure it'll go through, and Marvel will become the official property of "the House of Mouse."

A lot of comic book fans have gotten their panties in a bunch over the news. They've immediately started assuming that Marvel will have to bend to Disney's every whim, and water their products down so they can cater them to the Jonas Brothers/Hannah Montana crowd. But that doesn't have to be true. Who's to say that Marvel can't just go about business as usual, only with a Disney bankroll? It could be like the Disney/Pixar deal, where Pixar goes and does their own thing and Disney releases the final product. Besides, Disney owns Miramax Films and used to own Dimension Films, and neither of those brands are strangers to R-rated movies. So there's no reason automatically assume the worst.

And theoretically, this could put Marvel in the same boat as DC Comics. Now that Marvel is owned by a large media conglomerate, its movies already have a guaranteed distributor. But the details of the sale to Disney does specify that the movie rights that have already been sold will stay where they are until those deals expire. And whenever the rights revert to Marvel (and thus, to Disney), I hope they start incorporating characters into the universe that Marvel has started building in anticipation of the Avengers movie. And they'd be smart to do it, too. A crossover between some of these characters could make crazy money if it were done right. But hey, we'll just have to wait and see.

"Wait and see" is probably the outlook we'll have to take on this whole Disney/Marvel sale anyway. I know the super-nerds are acting like this is some kind of grievous offense, but is it? So what if Disney owns Marvel? If, a year from now, Marvel is doing "Spider-Man and Wolverine vs. The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" or something stupid like that, I'll agree and say that the sale sucks. But if it's business as usual, then it's no harm, no foul. I'm actually curious to see just where this will go.

And is it wrong to hope for a Donald Duck/Howard the Duck crossover now?

Was Adding "Part 4" To The Title Too Much Effort?

If you read this blog for a long enough period of time, you'll begin to notice that I go out to the movies quite a bit. This weekend was no exception, as I headed out to see The Final Destination this afternoon. It was either that or Halloween II, and I went with the one I thought wouldn't suck. Plus it was in 3D, and there's nothing wrong with seeing a 3D movie every now and again. (Except for the theaters inflating the ticket prices by $2.50 to cover the glasses, that is.)

So what did I think about it? I thought it was really entertaining. All the Final Destination movies are pretty much the same, since I guess they figure they shouldn't change what works. All they have to do is figure out some creative death sequences and throw around the number 180 around a bunch. But even though there's nothing about The Final Destination that makes it stand out from its three predecessors, I thought it was still a fun way to spend an hour and a half. I can't recommend it to those who aren't already fans of the franchise, but I will say that I'll give it three stars out of five.

And that's about it for this post. I might go see Halloween II next weekend, though I must admit that I'm not very excited to see it. The commercials look awful, the reviews are overwhelmingly negative, and Rob Zombie's last attempt at a Halloween movie really sucked. But I'm curious to see just how bad it really is. We'll just have to see how it goes next weekend.

The Real War Should Have Ended That Way

I can't really say I've seen many World War II movies. But when I heard that Quentin Tarantino was making one, I had to go see it. So that's exactly what I did this afternoon when I headed out to catch Inglourious Basterds. And it isn't that bad of a movie, either. I've seen better from Tarantino, but I've seen far worse too.

My real problem with the movie is that there's so much that could have trimmed from the movie. Did we absolutely need the whole side plot with the Jewish theater owner wanting to kill Nazis? Did we need a 30-minute scene where some undercover allies play a drinking game with a Nazi soldier? (I'm not sure if it was actually 30 minutes, but it sure felt like it.) But if they'd taken that out and focused primarily on Brad Pitt and his gang of soldiers, I'd have appreciated the movie a lot more.

But other than that, Inglourious Basterds is an entertaining enough movie. Pitt is awesome, Tarantino's dialogue is great, and the movie looks fantastic. I think I'll probably give it three and a half stars on my usual scale of five. I don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone other than die-hard Tarantino fans, but if you like his work, you'll like Inglourious Basterds. Even with its flaws, it's still a million times better than Death Proof.

I Wonder Where The First Eight Districts Are

Believe it or not, I went out to the movies this afternoon. At this rate, I might as well make this the "Sutton at the Movies" blog. But anyway, I headed out early this afternoon to check out District 9, the new science fiction movie produced by Peter Jackson. I don't want to go too much into detail about the movie out of fear of spoiling anything, but District 9 felt like an art house movie if it had a 30 million dollar budget and played in mainstream theaters. It's a different kind of movie, but what makes it different is part of what makes it so darn good.

When you see a movie about aliens arriving on Earth, they're here to either conquer or offer peace. But District 9's are stuck here and want to go home, and end up being the victim of anti-alien racism. It's kinda like that movie Alien Nation if it were set in South Africa. It's almost refreshing to see a movie about extraterrestrial visitors that doesn't really follow the usual tropes. The hybrid of pseudo-documentary style and traditional filmmaking used by director Neill Blomkamp is really neat (though it can take a little time to get used to), and I thought that lead actor Sharlo Copley put forth a very good performance. The only really negative aspects of the movie that I could find are that Copley's character comes off as being unsympathetic at times, and that the ending could have been a little tighter.

But other than that, I really enjoyed District 9. It was a brave movie in an era where it's easy to let science fiction be driven by effects and action. And personally, I'd almost be willing to call it something of a successor to David Cronenberg's remake of The Fly. My final score: three and a half stars out of five, and a thumbs up. Go check it out, folks.

My Name Is Not Bruce

In the midst of the big pile of nothing I've been up to lately, I've also been working on a brand new review for "Sutton at the Movies." You fans are in for a treat, because this time around, it's my review of the Bruce Campbell flick My Name Is Bruce.

Also on the topic of "Sutton at the Movies," I'm starting to run out of space on Tripod. I've got just under one megabyte of room left. So once that remaining space is gone, I think I'll finally close the old MSX for good and start posing the new reviews on a Blogger version of "Sutton at the Movies." The old Tripod version will probably stay up just so I don't have to change the links in the archives. But you might want to look forward to a Blogger version of "Sutton at the Movies" sometime in the next few months. Maybe I can hold off until November, so I can use it to celebrate the eighth anniversary of the MSX. Actually, that doesn't sound like too bad of an idea.

I'll look into that. Meanwhile, you guys enjoy the new review.

The Most Perfect Getaway Ever, Except For The Killing

I know it seems like I do a quick movie review every week, but we've reached a point where there are very few movies I'm actually interested in seeing release. But I did go out to the local theater today to check out A Perfect Getaway with my dad. I think my dad mainly wanted to see it because I'm pretty sure he has the hots for Milla Jovovich, but that's just a guess on my part.

Anyway, about the movie. Believe it or not, the movie is really good. The cinematography is fantastic, the acting is good, and there are some pretty good scares in it. I'll admit that I probably wouldn't seen A Perfect Getaway if my dad hadn't wanted to see it, but I'm glad I did. I'm gonna give it three and a half stars (leaning towards four) on my usual scale of five, and I'd gladly recommend it to anyone who has even a remote interest in seeing it.

And if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go cancel my Hawaiian hiking trip.

Hungover Gangsters At The Movies

Remember when I posted about my trip to see Land of the Lost and Drag Me to Hell at the Harrodsburg drive-in theater about a month ago? Well, guess where I just got home from. Go on, guess.

Okay, you got me. I just got home from Kate Beckinsale's house, and she's decided that her husband is out, and I'm in. But seriously, I just got back from another adventure to the Harrodsburg drive-in. That whole Kate Beckinsale thing is just wishful thinking. Sweet, sweet wishful thinking. Anyway, the drive-in had another double feature on deck, so let's just see what I thought about the two flicks.

First on tap was Johnny Depp's recent gangster movie, Public Enemies. I can't really say that I was a fan of the movie, for a couple of reasons. One is that it was really murky-looking. I don't know if it was due to the cinematography, or the print the theater had, or if I needed to clean my car's windshield, but the majority of the time, I had no clue what was going on. My other problem is that Public Enemies had absolutely no plot at all. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the movie has no actual story. The Twilight movie had more story than this, and it was just a couple of terrible actors staring at each other for two hours. You'd almost be better off reading John Dillinger's Wikipedia article instead. The saddest part of the whole thing is that with all the talent in front of and behind the camera, Public Enemies is still a pretty awful movie. So I really can't justify giving it anything more than two stars.

The second half of the double feature was The Hangover, which I'd already seen back in June. The movie is still just as funny as it was the first time, maybe even funnier. I think I might have to actually upgrade that three-and-a-half star rating I gave it in June to four stars now. It deserves it.

So this trip to the drive-in was a balancing act between good and bad. It wouldn't have been so bad had Public Enemies not sucked so badly and had the weather been a little better, but you can't always have everything the way you'd like it. Maybe next time...