colbalt91

all messages by user

1/5/2017 Topic: Hidden Figures colbalt91	"Hidden Figures," a movie about the early sixties, civil rights, and the early attempts at space launches by NASA, is a very good movie. The movie follows the Civil Rights problems of three black women in a segregated office of NASA. One of the women, a math whiz, as played by Taraji P Henson, is borrowed by the main scientists to act as a sort of computer while they wait for brand new IBM computers to be installed at the space complex. In fact, she is occasionally referred to as 'the computer.' This woman still hangs out after work with two of her best friends from her original office. These three women show the social inequities of the time where the segregation of the bathrooms is one of the main focuses of the film. Kirsten Dunst, in a small role, is very good as a supervisor of this office who has her office in another part of the NASA complex. This supervisor is very condescending to the black women that are underneath her. This reflects many of the white people's attitude to the black people in movie. Just by luck or coincidence, the one astronaut that the movie has a small focus on turns out to be John Glenn who very recently died. This makes the movie very topical. There are some tense moments later in the film when mathematics plays a very role as to whether an astronaut can survive in space and make it back safely from space. This is when Taraji P. Henson's character basically saves the Day. There is no way that you will not enjoy this movie.
1/9/2017 Topic: Hidden Figures colbalt91	Now I see that Jenna Bush Hager at the Golden Globes, last night butchered the title Hidden Figures by calling it Hidden Fences when she talked to Pharrell Williams who did the weak soundtrack. I guess she showed black movies don't matter either. Plus, I guess it shows that the 'stupid' genes that George W. bush had have been carried on.
2/7/2017 Topic: A Cure For Wellness colbalt91	Whatever did happen to the Green Goblin? What I mean is after making such a dynamic impression as the Green Goblin/Norman Osborn in "Spider-Man 2" it seems like the actor Dane DeHaan just disappeared. Well, he is back in a new movie called "The Cure For Wellness." Though this movie may fail to get him back into the public consciousness due to its obscure nature. This movie as far as I can tell is not selling itself well to the public through its trailers. Many people are wondering what exactly it is. This movie is a very eerie and creepy horror movie. It seems to be an amalgamation of many styles of horror movie and even when you are viewing it you are not quite sure as to what direction it is taking. This will probably hurt the movie at the box office. Gore verbinski, the director of many "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, is responsible for this film. I found the movie to be very compelling though others may not after the two and a half hours it takes to unravel the mysterious happenings taking place at a European sanitarium. The plot in this movie has Dane DeHaan's character, who is an upcoming corporate big shot for an American company being sent to find an ex-executive who had checked himself into a sanitarium in Europe (a very Transylvanian looking Europe), but had never come back. Upon arriving there, DeHaan's character finds himself a 'guest' at the sanitarium and he himself has trouble leaving. There are a few times where the movie gets very careless in its presentation. There is a scene where a car veers off a road and down a hill for about what appears to be at least 20 feet and then in the very next scene, the car is shown just tipped on the road, leaning down the hill. There is another scene where a crutch is jammed in a double door to keep it from closing, but the angle is reversed in the very next scene. Mia Goth...love that name, is a very strange looking European style looking actress who has some nude scenes and is the crux of the mystery in this movie. She looks like a thinner, more ghostly, young Hayley Mills. Despite these logic problems I did find the movie very interesting, and for me the two and a half hours went by very quickly. "The Cure For Wellness" was able to keep up its' intensity throughout. edited by colbalt91 on 2/7/2017 edited by colbalt91 on 2/8/2017
2/10/2017 Topic: Collection Advice colbalt91	Your friend started collecting comics at just the wrong time. By coincidence I just picked up an old issue of The Comics Books Journal # 183 dated January 1996 and it has two articles describing the meltdown of the comics industry. The article on Marvel talks about how they were doing great 1994 and then had an absolute disaster in 1995. The other article discusses all of Diamond Distributors cutbacks due to the collapse of the comic book industry.
2/18/2017 Topic: Before I Fall colbalt91	I do not know about you, but I did notice that when Valentine's Day week came that there was no traditional Valentine's Day movie that was released. Unusual! There was "The Batman Lego Movie", then the second John Wick movie, and then "Fifty Shades Darker." Yes, the last two can sort of fit into a Valentine's date week. But, where was the traditional movie. The one that the guy had to make the ultimate sacrifice and go see with his girlfriend. There was no pain for a guy who went to see the John Wick movie or the "Fifty Shades Darker" movie with its kinky sex. Now that missing movie is coming... only three weeks late. It is called "Before I Fall." This movie is an amalgamation of "Mean Girls" meets "Groundhog Day" with a touch of "The Bridge of San Luis Rey." Samantha Kingston played by Zoey Deutch is a sort of passive mean girl in a posse of mean girls in high school. She goes along with the program. She is not the meanest one of the group. Life is good for her as she is one of the most popular girls in high school and now it can only get better as it is Valentine's Day. Soon, however, her life is shattered by her encountering her own death. Somehow she comes back only to reenact the events of the prior day, but with each reenactment she starts to learn more about herself and the people she has surrounded herself with. What she sees is not what she had once thought of herself. This is a chick flick. I see that the movie program is classifying this is a mystery/drama. I see it as a chick flick, with a pretense of being deeper. I mean how could it not be if it takes place on Valentine's Day? This is not the worst chick flick ever made. It does try to elevate itself above the normal chick flick with the element of deja vu. If I had to give it a grade I would give it a C+. edited by colbalt91 on 2/18/2017
2/23/2017 Topic: Get Out colbalt91	"Get Out" is a hard movie to categorize. On one hand it seems to be a satirical horror movie and at the same time it seems to want to skewer white/black social issues. A little odd there. Sort of dangerous in that you have to have just the right balance to make it all work. And Jordan Peele, the director, on his first time out has done just that. The name Jordan Peele may sound familiar to some as he is one half of the comedy team of Key & Peele. I have never thought they were funny. And perhaps Peele would agree as he is now branched out into the film industry. This movie begins with a black man named Chris played by Daniel Kaluuya being dragged by his white girlfriend played by Allison Williams(the daughter of broadcaster Brian Williams) into the suburbs of an ultra white community to meet her family. Naturally he is very nervous, especially when he finds out his girlfriend has not yet told his prospective in-laws that he is black. Shades of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." Yet, soon Chris will find his reception in a white community to be the least of his worries. "Get Out" is the sort of movie that creeps up on you. By this I mean the audience member is slowly taken unawares by what is really going on because they are mezmorized by the director, much like a magician would keep his audience off balance. Better for both in order for them to completely mystify the audiences and arrive at a stunning unraveling of the trick...or plot, in this case. This movie could easily become a cult classic.
2/26/2017 Topic: Live Bands colbalt91	I saw INXS live soon after they had some hit like Shabooh Shoobah. They we're not that good at that time live. I remember Michael Hutchence was wearing that hat with the flat brim. This was probably around 1983. I saw AC/DC for their Back In Black tour and much later I saw them with their Wrecking Ball tour. Almost forgot: I saw Russell Crowe and his band, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, for two shows of a three night stand in Austin Texas. In August of 2000. During the first show Russell Crowe came out unnoticed into the audience while the opening group consisting of female cellists played. This woman to my right I had just vacated her space to go use thebathroom and he took the space next to me. Everybody was standing up at that venue. Then I turned to the woman I had brought with me and told her that Russell Crowe was standing next to me. But she refused to believe me as I was always pulling pranks. Finally she noticed the women in front and around were starting to swoon and act unnatural and then she looked on the other side of me and saw that it indeed was Russell Crowe. I asked him if he would be signing autographs afterwards and he said he would, and then he disappeared and later gave his performance, but never signed any autographs. So the next day as I was seeing another concert there with him I arrived early and sort of barged into the soundcheck. I reminded Russell Crowe that he had said he would sign some autographs so he sort of felt obligated then and signed some autographs for me and my friends. I had an autograph book and he inadvertently signed the page to himself. He soon realized it and then tore the page out and then signed a new page to me with his name. Both of his concerts that I saw were incredible and I loved his use of the horn section. edited by colbalt91 on 2/26/2017 edited by colbalt91 on 2/26/2017 edited by colbalt91 on 2/26/2017 edited by colbalt91 on 2/26/2017
3/1/2017 Topic: Ghost in the Shell: An IMAX First-Look Fan Event colbalt91	Last night I watched a 15-minute first look at the upcoming "Ghost in the Shell" movie starring Scarlett Johansson. This preview was outstanding and knocked everybody's socks off. The CGI was spectacular. In this preview there was a little bit Matrix and a little bit RoboCop. This glimpse of the future movie showed the invention of Major, the character Scarlett Johansson plays, and one action sequence which was over the top. Then there were some bits and pieces of different sequences of the movie. Though the preview was 15 minutes most of the audience thought it seemed like it had only been 5 minutes. That is how smoothly it flowed. At previous 15 minute previews done by other companies it was one and done. What I mean is that you had to stand in line for just one 15 minute showing while wondering would it really kill the film company to show it again and sort of make the wait more worth while. In this instance the audience was given the chance to see it twice and it still went by very quickly portending that when the regular film shows it will have no problem keeping the audience's attention. A small cardboard lithograph movie poster of "Ghost in the Shell" in a white envelope was also passed out to the audience.
3/10/2017 Topic: Defiant1's Stuff colbalt91	I always loved the Gold Key issues especially with the Russ Manning artwork. I always figured that this character would make it to the movies first as they would not be too much CGI needed for Magnus, only for the robots.
3/12/2017 Topic: Gwenom Is Coming colbalt91	I saw on Bleeding Cool that they are predicting Spider-Gwen number 19 will be the first 'proper' appearance of Gwenom. Taking almost a year from when I first told you guys about it.
3/24/2017 Topic: Song of Songs starring Ryan Gosling colbalt91	You would think with stars like Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, and Val Kilmer a movie would be half decent. Instead, "Song of Songs" is one of the worst movies ever made. It is mainly because it is directed by Terrence Malick who some ungodly figure has blessed with the love of most movie critics and adulation of most grade 'A' actors. This has enabled this man to direct and get distributed some of the worst movies ever made. If one were to try to describe this debacle it would be that a director, drunk or high on drugs, having found some old Super 8 tapes of his having filmed some behind the scenes rock and roll footage of some rock event that happened in Austin, Texas years ago and then added some of his actor friends excreting drivel under the pretense of a plot. The quality of the lighting and editing lends itself to this theory, also. Terrence Malick movies are much like the old fable by Hans Christian Andersen, "The Emperor's New Clothes." In that story people were convinced that even though they saw the emperor had no clothes on that he actually was wearing Royal finery. For ages Terrence Malick has been putting out trash and reviewers have given him nothing but praise and actors have been lining up at his doorstep begging for him to let them be in his next movie. I have actually seen some bad reviews for this movie so maybe the tide is turning. All I know is if you go to see "Song of Songs" you will regret losing two hours of your life.
3/30/2017 Topic: Ghost in the Shell colbalt91	Despite stunning graphics throughout the movie, "Ghost in the Shell," eventually runs out of steam and plot. In this film Scarlett Johansson stars as Major, a robotic humanoid in a futuristic Japan, who has only her brain left from her original body. This film resembles "RoboCop" in many ways and the movie, "Robocop," did indeed come out two years before the manga of this film was first published. I will not bore you with the many similarities, but I will mention that in the movie "Robocop," it is drumed into the audience members minds that Robocop is not able to harm anybody in the top hierarchy of the corporation that created him called OCP. At the end of the movie, "Robocop," this command is key to one of the great final scenes of the film. In "Ghost in the Shell" it is emphasized many times that Major has to give her permission for the corporation to get inside her body to do repairs, but at the end of the movie when this plot ploy is utilized it amounts to nothing as far as increasing what could have been the greatness of one of the final scenes. Bringing up the final scenes of this movie again, I will say that the film loses it's way and gets confusing when what looked like a minor character suddenly gets balls and basically does Major's job for her. This comes completely out of the blue and takes away from Major's heroics and "Ghost in the Shell's" catharsis. Even though this movie has problems, Scarlett Johansson does indeed know how to fill out a skin-tight suit, so many male viewers may not mind that "Ghost in the Shell" has some failings. And the CGI is fantastic.
4/5/2017 Topic: And WHY is Power Girl vol 2 #27 >$200 ??? colbalt91	Major cleavage would be the right answer. I know this one comic shop owner that told me every statue he orders of Power Girl that shows extreme cleavage is sold immediately. Now this phenomenon has crossed over to the comic books. edited by colbalt91 on 4/5/2017
4/15/2017 Topic: And WHY is Power Girl vol 2 #27 >$200 ??? colbalt91	I was at a Half Price bookstore this morning and I saw the trade paperback for Power Girl called Old Friends with the cover that is worth all that mucho money for the comic book. The trade paperback had the same cover and was priced at $25, $5 over the cover price. There was also a different Power Girl trade paperback there and it was going for only $8. I can only think of two reasons for this dissimilarity in the pricing of the two trade paperbacks of Power Girl. edited by colbalt91 on 4/15/2017
4/16/2017 Topic: Free Fire starring Brie Larson colbalt91	"Free Fire" stars Brie Larson, who could possibly be the new Captain Marvel, in an entourage movie which essentially is a firefight in a warehouse. That's the plot! Two different gangs meetup, one with money to buy weapons and one with weapons to receive money. Oh, yes, this film also takes place in the 1970's. For some reason one of the gangs is Irish, complete with Irish and British accents which hinders the audience's comprehension of some of the dialogue, as you may well imagine. Perhaps the film company is hoping for a further payoff in England. To legitimize the Irish accents it is made clear the Irish gang is buying the weapons to help the IRA out in Ireland. So for an hour and a half there is one of the biggest shootouts ever in a large warehouse. Gangsters are shot up right and left, never seeming to die. At least not immediately, as the film has to last an hour and a half. One gangster, who appeared to be dead, even comes back alive only to shortly go back to being dead. After a while it seems like this movie is like a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Extreme violence appears only to enact only minor damage. That could be why this movie takes place in the 1970's as the weapons being bought are the top of the line for that time period. If this movie where to be filmed today the warehouse would probably have gone up in a nuclear blast within five minutes. Even though "Free Fire" is just an hour and a half of mindless violence, it was entertaining. After a while my mind became a little numb to the ceaseless repetition of guns going off and people being shot, but I made it through the movie without being bored. Armie Hammer(a former Spider-Man) and Cillian Murphy(the Scarecrow in a Batman movie) also have rolls as gangsters. So, a comic book fan could think of it as Captain Marvel meets Spider-Man meets the Scarecrow. An interesting film. edited by colbalt91 on 4/16/2017 edited by colbalt91 on 4/16/2017
4/26/2017 Topic: And WHY is Power Girl vol 2 #27 >$200 ??? colbalt91	Sssh.. don't tell Sclingerman about Suicide Squad #16, cover B, which came out today. Otherwise, we'll have to explain it to him all over again.
4/26/2017 Topic: And WHY is Power Girl vol 2 #27 >$200 ??? colbalt91	Just having fun with you, but this issue is red hot. And why... edited by colbalt91 on 4/26/2017
4/27/2017 Topic: And WHY is Power Girl vol 2 #27 >$200 ??? colbalt91	Forget Power Girl for right now, and start chasing Suicide Squad #16 cover B.
5/5/2017 Topic: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 colbalt91	This movie is a very funny and light movie as the first one was. I actually think this movie is better than the first. In the first film I had some confusion in my head about who people were and what different situations were. In this second "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie everything seems very logically plotted. 'Family' appears to be the central theme of this film. Peter Quill, played by Chris Pratt, is having daddy issues and Gamora is having sister issues. And the conclusion by the end of the film seems to be that no matter how bad your relationship is with your sibling, family wins out. Well, perhaps Peter Quill is the exception. But even in that case there is a silver lining. And as with the first movie the soundtrack is dominant. So dominant that the title of the movie is 'Vol. 2.' In this film you will learn what the greatest song in the universe is as song by the greatest group in the universe. I actually have this record in my collection, so I must have excellent taste. I had thought I'd heard that Stan Lee has ceased to make cameos, but he once again pops up not once but twice in this film. There is an evil queen in this movie named Ayesha, who has a comic book history that connects her to Adam Warlock. And there were rumors that this film would be Adam Warlock's debut. However, by the end of the film all you get is merely a whisper. This is a very enjoyable movie and no one will be disappointed.
5/5/2017 Topic: Volatile Uncanny X-Men prices colbalt91	To me it seems like comic book prices have gotten like the stock market. There are ups and downs, but generally everything goes up. I don't see how anybody can hate on Dark Phoenix, but perhaps some movie plans fell through somewhere.