ddean

I did not like the Captain America movie.

I know I'm in the minority of fanboys, but I didn't care for this flick. It's hard for me to separate the many hats I wear when watching a film like this. First, I'm in the business of video production, second I'm also a writer, and third, I'm a huge Captain America fan with 30+ years of back issues in my collection so I'm bound to have conflicting views when I watch one of my favorite four-color heroes make the leap from paper to the big screen. However, I'd like to think those elements make me an educated viewer.

After sitting on the Cap Blueray for far too long, I finally decided to watch it. Why did it take me so long? For years I wanted a Cap movie that was going to be "Saving Private Ryan" with a guy and his shield. After seeing the previews, stills and other widely available hype for the movie, I knew that's not what I was going to get for my price of admission and like a child who doesn't want to rip off a band-aid, I waited.

Here are my thoughts as I watched.

1. The flick starts off at a pretty slow pace. Hugo has a good entrance though.
2. Erskine is played very well.
3. I don't like Hydra being folded into the WWII story. I've always thought Nazis were pretty good villains as is.
4. The Hydra costumes look terrible. Was there a garage sale on the left over Cobra costumes from GI Joe?
5. The little nod to the Human Torch in the World's Fair scene was nice.
6. The US sets and costumes are pretty good.
7. Stark doesn't need to be a part of this. That's too cute of a nod.
8. The Bucky actor is pretty good too.
9. I really like the propaganda bit. It's kind of fun.
10. The Hydra tech level is way too advanced and looks too futuristic. Video cameras? Spaceship style submarines? Ray guns? Why didn't Hydra win the war in like 10 minutes?
11. I don't mind the Asian guy being added to the Howling Commandos. His 2002 emo hair should have been left out.
12. I've never liked a movie with a zip line.
13. "Montage! F@#%ing Montage!"
14. I'm liking Zola the more scenes his in. Great casting.
15. Jump cut, after jump cut. Who edited this thing?
16. Why does Cap have James Bond's motorcycle?
17. JJ Abrams made the ray guns. I can tell because of the lens flare.
18. Another zip line scene?
19. The romance was handled right. I'm glad it wasn't any more prominent than what we saw.
20. Tommy Lee Jones is pretty good. Actually, a lot of this cast is solid and well played.
21. So Cap was active for a week?

I give this movie a solid C. The A on Cap's head apparently stands for Average.

CBS is launching a new series called, "Elementary" based on Sherlock Holmes, and presumably, attempting to cash in on the fame of the BBC's "Sherlock" series.



Most Sherlock Holmes interpretations fail. Most of these failures stem from a couple of mistakes that writers/producers/film makers try to change from the Doyle canon.

1. The story isn't told from Watson's perspective as the "everyman."
2. Sherlock treats Watson like an he's an idiot and not a partner. These largely started when the line from, "It's elementary, my dear Watson," which Holmes never said in any Doyle story. Once, the phrase, "elementary" was used to downplay Watson's praise and certainly not to berate him.

The BBC series is nearly perfect. As a huge Holmes fan, the only thing that made me cringe was the updated phrase of, "the game is on," however, that is just a small quibble in an otherwise outstanding production.

CBS seems to be trying to tap into that same vibe, but has obviously has many of the earmarks of a Hollywood producer, like gender swapping (We need women 18-49 watching!) and location swapping (Americans don't want to see London!). I wouldn't be surprised if a kid is introduced to appeal to children (probably named Baker Streets) or perhaps a talking dog (likely called Mrs. Hudson.)

I may be wrong but I don't think this series will end up being very good. A lot of the things that make Holmes so well loved seem to have been stripped from "Elementary" and like the Robert Downy Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies, this seems to be based on the Sherlock Holmes Wikipedia entry and not the Doyle stories.

A question about, "who would you bring back from the dead" was posted in a comic book forum recently and I began turning my wheels.

After all of my thinking about this, I can't come up with anyone that I'd like to bring back. The only thing I'm sure of is that some people didn't get good enough deaths, but I'm tired of characters coming back from the dead.

I think if I were in charge, I'd increase the number of deaths and keep 'em dead, like in Milligan and Allred's X-Force/X-Statics. I think lives of "super heroes" should be brutal and short and I wouldn't water down the significance of their lives by making death so arbitrary and easily overcome.

However, I think there are good times and places for resurrection stories, like the original Phoenix and Elektra but when Thor or Odin dies three times in two years, I feel a little cheated. All of these "back from the dead" stories leave me with a "who cares" attitude when a character dies in a book from the big 2.

I made this one when I had a fever.

I've been fighting a cold for the better part of a week.

I didn't go to work on Wednesday. I went to work on Thursday because I had a really important meeting, but I really shouldn't have gone. I didn't go again on Friday.

Today, I'm happy to report, that I've just moved on to the phlegm stage of recovery. About 20-percent of my coughs produce a jelly-like blob of greenish-yellow goo. My cough if still nearly non-stop but having some "productive" coughs thrown in makes me feel like I'm getting better.

Tonight I have tickets to see Brian Regan at TPAC. I'm going to bring my bag of cough drops and a stack of Kleenex and hopefully I won't be a distraction.

My photo is on the cover of this month's seveneightfive magazine and there's a little article on my mail pranks inside!

Yesterday I got a haircut over my lunch hour. Since I didn't want to itch all afternoon, I asked the stylist to give me a "good blow dry." Only I didn't say, "blow dry."

The entire shop started laughing at my faux pas and I was so embarrassed. The manager, who was working in the stall next to me, said it was ok and that people actually say that all of the time, including the staff. I gave the stylist all of the money in my wallet as a tip out of shame. Now I can never go back there...