King Kong

I saw the new "King Kong" a few days ago, but haven't actually set down yet to write anything about it. Unlike most of my reviews of current popular movies, I am happy to say that I don't have to report my usual tirade about too many computer effects and bad storytelling and movie overlength. While not perfect, "King Kong" moves at a fairly brisk pace considering its 3 hour length and while there are computer effects, they are kept at a minimum and usually curtailed to the ape himself, which is necessary. Even the original "King Kong" was an effect, so I have no qualms about effects, I just hate it when computer effects substitute for real locations and real situations and make you think "computer effect" while watching. A good special effect should be seemless and NOT noticable. A good example of a movie using bad computer effects is "Hulk".

Anyway, back to "Kong". Well worth the price of admission. The story and all its components are far more interesting than the bland "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. This is not Peter Jackson's fault, just Tolkien's. Jack Black is his usual self which is a good thing, unless you don't like him, as are Naomi Watts and Adrien Brody. So definitely see, and in the theater.

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Comic Book Saturation

A comic book friend of mine inquired about why Harvey would have expanded its "Casper" line if the series was flagging (see yesterday's blog), so I responded with the following (adjusted for blog purposes):

Having multiple titles of a character isn't as strange as it may seem. Especially now with multiple Superman, Batman, X-Men, etc titles, where there weren't so many in the Richie Rich expansion days. The "saturation principle" must work or realistically SEEM to work in order to pump up a flagging series or character or everyone wouldn't be doing it. You can have more titles out concurrently with the same character to give added exposure and the appearance that the character is successful. Then success breeds success.

Coca-Cola and beer companies do it all the time. I'm sure Coke would do just
fine with "Coke", but they have to hog shelf space with Diet Coke, Coke Zero,
caffeine free Coke, caffeine free Diet Coke, etc. It's the same principle.

I spoke with a local comic book store owner about this very thing and he feels that it is always a mistake to do it, because it distills what is pure with the original product no matter what it is. It happened with the a local newspaper where I worked until August of this year. They had a great little paper out with high circulation and they screwed it up by cutting the morning circulation and adding an afternoon edition with fewer pages. It pissed people off looking for the fat morning paper later in the day.

The comic book store owner thought about expanding his store base, but he doesn't want to distill what is good about his stores, so he has limited it to two locations. He says that if he did open a third, he might try one in another state, as opposed to a third in California. But since he now has a fairly successful mail order business, the need for a third store isn't as important.

Overall, companies do these things like saturation for marketing reasons, but
sometimes it backfires. In the case of Casper, it didn't work. In the case of
Richie Rich (at least from 1971-1982), it did work. New Kids on the Block
didn't, but Superman did. Archie did. And it goes on and on.

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Saving Casper the Friendly Ghost (circa 1972)

There have been many "resurrections" of Casper the Friendly Ghost. Most notably recently with the book release of "The Ultimate Casper". There was a time before when Casper faced the chopping block circa 1972.

Alan Harvey informed me on a recent phone call that the reason that they created the "Casper and Richie Rich" title in the first place was that the "Casper" title had been floundering for years and it was a last-ditch attempt to "rescue" the character before facing the chopping block. If you notice the "Casper" title, it carried reprints for quite a number of years, and the only place you could find new Casper material was in "Richie Rich and Casper". The brief Casper line expansion of 1972-73 apparently did nothing to improve sales and all were canceled by the time "RR&C" debuted.

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Christmas

It's still a very slow Christmas in comparison to other years, which is great since I went to the post office today and had to get some packages out. In the past, I would have to stand in line for hours in order to get my last minute stuff done. Sometimes, it wasn't even last minute. Since I sell comic books online, there isn't any last minute, it's all the time, and I've had to stand in line to get it out regardless of what holidays there are. But today was interesting as there were no more people than normal... Is everyone shopping on line, or not shopping at all? Hmmmm......

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Little Dot

As many of you may or may not know, I publish a fanzine about Harvey Comics called, "The Harveyville Fun Times!" and have done so for the last 15 years (see http://thft.home.att.net). I recently stumbled across a website with the "Little Dot" promo that ABC did. I e-mailed the guy responsible named David Strandquest to find out more information, but I am also putting it out on my blog. Why were these promos created? Did they benefit anyone utilizing a character that is nowadays quite obscure, despite the fact that Richie Rich made his first appearance in "Little Dot" #1 back in 1953? The world may never know...

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Memories of a Geisha

I don't believe that I have commented on this film even though I saw it on a sneak preview last week. This is one of those films that definitely has "Oscar" written all over it, even though I hate that term. However, unlike most Oscar contenders, it actually is very watchable and entertaining. One may quibble about the use of Chinese and Mongolian actors to play Japanese roles, but it's better than Charlie Chan or the actors in Disney's "One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing". So anyway, to make a long review short, it is good. The plot is the basic girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy in the end variety. This is not giving away anything as that's not the impetus for seeing it. The real reason is the Geisha lifestyle that is shown throughout the movie. A good date flick, but good to see overall.

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Sudoku

Why is the Sudoku game so popular? Where did it come from? How many possible combinations can their be? Why is it so addicting? The world may never know.

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Rolling Stones Rarities Volume 2?

So I got "Rolling Stones Rarities 1971-2003". It's a mixed bag but worth it only for the CD debuts of "Through the Lonely Nights" and "Let it Rock" among others. Of course, now with the age of downloads, waiting for a CD issue is a moot point. Should they do a volume 2 and using the same "rarity" qualifications of previously released, but not on a regular album, I would like to see the following:

1. Jump on Top of Me
2. Think I'm Going Mad
3. Cook Cook Blues
4. When the Whip Comes Down (Live "Sucking in the 70s" version)
5. Everything is Turning to Gold
6. The Storm
7. So Young
8. Honest I Do ("Hope Floats" Soundtrack)
9. Undercover (12" version)
10. Too Much Blood (12" version)
11. I'm Going to Drive
12. Long Black Veil (with The Chieftans)
13. Rocky Road to Dublin (with The Chieftans)
14. Paying the Cost to Be the Boss (with BB King)
15. Highwire
16. Sex Drive
17. Winning Ugly (12" Version)

There are obviously more alternate and live versions and truly unreleased stuff, but I tried to stick to around 16 tracks like the first set.

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Captain Marvel Movies

Today's my birthday!! My dad got me a DVD of the old Republic serial of Captain Marvel and I was amazed at how different the series was to the old Fawcett comic books. I was hoping for an origin story similar to what appeared in "Whiz Comics" #2, but no such luck. The serial was entertaining nonetheless, considering its limitations, but not really true to the character. Even the Saturday morning series "Shazam!" from the 70s was not true to the character, but seemed closer to the mark.

I would like to see DC (the current owners of Fawcett's Captain Marvel) and Marvel (the current owners of their versions of Captain Marvel and the name) come to some sort of an agreement that a feature film be made similar to the Superman or Batman movies, but with a lot more humor (which was a Captain Marvel trademark) and an accurate origin (Billy Batson works for a newspaper, later a radio station, and follows a stranger into a subway, and meets Shazam, the old wizard who grants him special powers...), and appearances by Mr. Tawny, Mr. Mind, Dr. Sivana, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel, Jr., etc., etc.

I think it could be great. Get Peter Jackson to work on it...

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Jacques Tati

Can someone please explain to me the fascination with film director Jacques Tati? His marginally funny films (at best) are always revered by any of today's top critics as being the funniest thing ever with comparisons to Buster Keaton among others. I think he's more of a hack in the Ed Wood level who doesn't even understand comedy. Does that make me unable to be a movie critic? Possibly. I always have problems with any movie that requires repeat viewings before it gets good. Anything can get good with repeat viewings, because it becomes familiar to the viewer, that doesn't mean it is good.

So tell me what I'm missing. And yes, I have viewed "Mr. Hulot's Holiday", "My Uncle", "Playtime" and "Traffic" in their entirety with "Playtime" getting the nod as the best of the lot, but that's not saying much.

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

1001 Films You Must See Before You Die

There is a book out called "1001 Films You Must See Before You Die". While the title seems inviting, it's annoying to note that so many non-US (and therefore more difficult to find) movies are on the list. Also, the list has the typical "usual suspects". No where would you find movies like "Blazing Saddles" or "Willy Wonka" or "Song of the South", but you will ALWAYS find movies that I feel are tremendously overrated such as "Mr. Hulot's Holiday", "Citizen Kane" and foreign features like "Rome-Open City". I've seen them all, and tried hard to like them.

I feel that someone (maybe me) should issue a book of "1001 Films You Must See That Are Made In The USA And Are Not The Usual Film School Required Watching Features". That way, an occasional dopey Disney comedy or sub-par but watchable Don Knotts or Jerry Lewis movie could be included...I mean, I would rather watch Disney's "Million Dollar Duck" again than watch any Jacques Tati film.

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Christmas Shopping and Target

I went into Target last night to do a little bit of shopping and discovered that not that many people are really shopping for Christmas gifts and in fact, are not shopping all that much at all. Really strange, especially since everyone is predicting record sales and a bustling economy. Well, sorry folks, I hate to tell you, but the economy, though improving a little bit, isn't going gangbusters here in the US as everyone seems to predict. It's just been plodding along since 2001, and this holiday season seems to be more of the same. Oh well.

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Work, Work, Work

Sometimes I just get too busy to write, so I'll keep this short. I'm doing a cold call blitz and as such, don't have time to say anything else...

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

DVD Release at Movie Theaters

Now, they're thinkin'! I've proposed this idea for years! See article below...

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

"Disney CEO Robert Iger appears to be bracing himself for a war with theater owners over his determination to eliminate the delay between the time a film is released in theaters and the time it is released on DVD. In an interview with today's (Monday) Walt Street Journal, Iger said that he had hoped that other studio chiefs would side with him, but he said, "No movie studio really wants to be first because it's like going over the hill first in battle. They don't want to take the most bullets." He said that theater chains have threatened to reduce the number of screens his movies are shown in if he attempts to narrow the gap between their theatrical and DVD release. "We'll have a conversation with theater owners to see whether we can move them more peacefully," he told the Journal. "But I think in the end, it's going to have to be more by force than through negotiation or diplomacy." Iger indicated that he recently proposed to the theater owners that they sell Chicken Little DVDs in their lobbies and share the profits from the sales. "But there's so much fear now about change that no one wants to sit down and have a frank discussion."

Aeon Flux

Saw another movie, Aeon Flux. While there were some worthwhile scenes featuring the always-beautiful Charlize Theron, the movie dragged in spots as it seemed to take forever to get anywhere between many mini-battles. The story itself was simple but effective and was plainly laid out at the beginning and the end of the film. It is true to the animated series of year's back about being set in the future and being dreadfully serious and somewhat graphic on the battles. So, ultimately, as far as these things go, it was a pleasant surprise, but you might hit the fast-forward button a couple of times when the DVD comes out.

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Team America and South Park

I used to be a big fan of "South Park". Then after I felt it ran its course after a couple seasons, it kept going and going and going, so eventually I stopped watching it (not having cable helps a lot). Anyway, "Team America" came out on DVD and I felt that since this was supposed to be a little more "sophisticated" than "South Park", I'd give it a shot.

Amazingly, except for their parody of "Rent", the entire film was way too serious and straight and the novelty of having marionettes wore off after a few minutes. I was bored. I sped through the end. Sorry.

Also, Trey Parker and Matt Stone should really work on some different character voices. All of their character voices sound like Terrance and Philip, and although those voices seem to work for those obnoxious characters from "South Park", they come off as extraordinarily irritating in "Team America".

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
thft@att.net

Sin City

So I saw "Sin City"; another in a long line of films that look good, but aren't good. Yeah, I know there are sexy women and lots of nudity, but for these types of films a story would be nice. And while I respect Frank Miller as an artist, I am not really a fan of his work. Also, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino have done much better in the past. See "From Dusk Till Dawn" for what I mean.

I used to really respect Rodriguez as a director, but ever since he got caught up in the 3-D craze, he really hasn't made anything that has excited me since "Spy Kids 2". I'm referring to "Spy Kids 3" and "Sharkboy and Lavagirl". Even his standard films like "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" have suffered.

Rodriguez is currently working on a sequel to "Sin City". I can hardly wait (sarcasm).

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net