Kickin' Okole'...

So the CBG gang went to see Kick-Ass this past Saturday night over at Ward. The much anticipated comic book movie based on Millar and Romita Jr.'s extreme comic book played out pretty much like it's 6 issue mini-series.

On one hand, it was like the comic book, it was actually pretty enjoyable and a pretty good action packed movie. On the other hand, it was like the comic book and I think that the amount of violence and some of the swearing was gratuitous and unnecessary. Like the comic...haha...look at the amount of violence just for the sake of it we can put in and get away with. But I digress...

In a sense, Kick-Ass was very much like the old T.R.A.C.K. comics my friends and I did when we were teens. So much so that in issue 2 that we never finished, the light-hearted exploits of the kids in issue 1 that we had done in 1987 had turned into a violent bloody adventure midway through issue 2 when I took over fully in the early 90's.

But without getting too much into that, the concept was great. I loved it but like I said, I wonder if Millar and Romita Jr were laughing thinking look at what we are gonna get away with being away from a big named company. But perhaps that is the allure of it. Being restricted while working with the bigger named companies, you sometimes wanna do some of these more extreme things in comics that when you get a chance, you go full force and over the top. An enjoyable 7/10 for the movie that seems marketed for kids but is clearly not made for them.

I'm actually doing this backwards...because it was earlier in the day that the CBG gang went to the Kawaii Kon at the Hawaii Convention Center. Got to see our friends Jon J. Murakami and Gordon Chan over at the Gordon Rider booth. Jon was promoting his new Gordon Rider 5 Year Art Tribute book that Jackson, Bert, Myron and I got to do a drawing for. It was fun and nice to see our work in a book along other artists. Kinda like the calendar projects.

Sean had his Mecha Hawaii booth over at the dealer's room. Nice to see Sean there, I hope he had a profitable con. That kinda looks weird..."hope he had a profitable con" Kinda like I hope his "con" works and he is able to make money off of suckering a poor guy. LOL!

Sam Campos, Alison Kam and Mark Gould had a Dragon Fly booth there too. Too bad the Dragon Fly suit wasn't there to make an appearance and too bad that Alison wasn't "promoted" there...you know, 'Come See Star of Dragon Fly, Alison Kam!'

Doc Grant of Lime Media also had a booth promoting their latest project from the Hawaii Star Media Project. Nice to see them moving along as well as all these other local artists!

BTW, we got to wish both Sam and Doc a Happy Birthday on Saturday the 17th.

Adam West on the Tonight Show!

I try not to stay up too late now days LOL but I had to watch the Tonight Show tonight after hearing that Adam West was gonna be on it.

Nicholas Cage was on the Tonight Show promoting the upcoming film "Kick-Ass". During the interview, he talked about how he played his character Big Daddy like Adam West as Batman.

He also mentioned how he was a big fan of the '66 Batman show when he was a kid. Jay proceeded to go on and say that they were gonna have a Batman trivia quiz and then he brought out Adam West!

Adam went on to win the trivia contest (maybe Nicholas let him win) but I have some new respect for Nicholas Cage...I didn't know Alfred Pennyworth's full name was Alfred Thaddeus Crane Pennyworth.

How cool is this...Batman has his own collections category on the iTunes library! Movies, TV shows and music the character has enough media to warrant his own personal collection. Admittedly, not all of them are gems but if you are a fan, I think it's pretty cool and exciting to see something like this.

All of the titles for each sub-category also has more titles if you click on the See All button on the upper right corner of each section. I think I have almost all of the titles offered here...haven't picked up the motion comics yet.


Wow...this is the third movie I've seen in less than a week...Clash of the Titans last Saturday night, How to Train your Dragon on Monday night and She's out of my League tonight. It's your typical romantic/comedy...not necessarily a bad thing. Enjoyable for the most part, I give it a 7 out of 10...LOL. But seriously, I'm a sucker for movies like this.

Gotta stay away from the movie theater popcorn though...

Goodbye Detective Goren...

After a little over 8 seasons, Detective Robert Goren said goodbye to the Major Case Squad on last night's Law and Order: Criminal Intent episode. The second episode of season 9 saw him leave after (IMO) a steady downhill slide in the CI series since the end of season 5.

Personally, the first four seasons of Law and Order: Criminal Intent was actually a really good show. Vincent D'onofrio's Detective Robert Goren character took a bit of time to get used to but it was his quirkiness that added so much to the character. It seemed to me though that along with a change in the team leading the show going into the sixth season, the show kinda jumped the shark.

It seemed like a totally different show with different characters. D'onofrio put on a lot of weight but that wasn't the most jarring change. The characters themselves changed. IMO, Eames was always a weak character and was there to play off of Goren, someone he could bounce theories off of. She may have been the senior officer but it never came across that way. In season six, Eames suddenly became strong headed (not a bad thing) but it was a different character and the once quirky and insightful Goren was now suddenly...unbalanced, no longer quite insightful.

Anyway, another one of my favorite television characters has said goodbye. Detective Adrian Monk late last year and now Detective Robert Goren. I'll still watch CI for a while to see where it goes as Jeff Goldblum's character Zac Nichols has a quirky Goldblum quirk to him. It may be interesting for a while but seriously, I haven't really enjoyed the show that much in a while.

How to train your Dragon

Got a chance to see the new DreamWorks animated movie How to train you Dragon. Didn't see the 3D version but it was a good movie. One of the more enjoyable CG animated movies I've seen in a while, one that I wouldn't mind seeing again.

...I probably would write more but I'm not feeling so good right now so I'll cut it short...maybe I'll come back to this later...

Release the Kraken!

The CBG gang caught the 8:00 show of Clash of the Titans last night (Saturday 3/3/10) at Ward Theaters. As you would expect with a re-make, it wasn't exactly the same as the original. Things were changed some for the better, some not so. Was it enjoyable? For the most part, I enjoyed it...I wasn't the biggest fan of the original story. I think I enjoyed it more for Ray Harryhausen's stop motion visual effects in the original that I was blown away by as a kid but enjoy it for the novelty of it as an adult. Enjoyable for what it is but the realization of how far we have come in visual effects.

What made it enjoyable for the most part for me in this re-make was that the pace was picked up and it was an enjoyable, "popcorn" movie. I hadn't seen the original in a while so I didn't quite remember all the little plot points of the movie but maybe that was for the better. When we got back to the cave after the movie, we popped in the original Clash of the Titans on DVD. I'm glad at least a nod to Bubo (is that spelled right) was included in the movie.



We also continued our annual Easter tradition of dyeing Easter Eggs after we got back after the movie. Some interesting egg creations this year.

Happy Easter everyone!

I love it when a plan comes together!

While walking through the mall today, I saw the poster for this summer's A-Team movie. Just saw the trailer the other day and for the most part I'm excited about it. I enjoyed last years Star Trek, even with some of the changes they made. As long as they keep most of what made the show enjoyable in the 80's I'll be happy.
A-Team Trailer

I remember as a kid, my mom getting me a black "Members Only" type jacket because I wanted one like the one "Face" had on the A-Team I didn't know that it was a leather jacket or the difference between the 2 jackets. I also remember my parents taking me to Universal Studio's
and getting to see the A-Team stunt show they had at the time. I still have this postcard we got from the gift shop over there.

Of course the show will always have a special place in my heart for all the memories I have of it but I hope the new movie will live up to the memories I have of the original show or be entertaining enough to create new ones and not just leave a bad taste in my mouth.