My wife saw her first Jaws movie last night. She’s never seen the original Jaws, but I’ve seen them all, so I knew what to expect from this first sequel. I used that to my advantage. When the shark was getting ready to make a surprise appearance, I made it a point to have my arm around her and squeeze when the shark appeared. The screams she let out were hilarious.

I took a road trip to Minnesota this past weekend and its a 7 hour drive for me to get to my destination. In order to make the time go by faster, I listen to music like most people, but I listen a little differently. I listen to movie scores and other off the wall music like Weird Al Yankovic. Well, to make this trip go by faster, I listened to movie music from movies that had car chase scenes, such as:

1. The truck chase from “Raiders of the Lost Ark”
2. The main theme from “Back to the Future”
3. “Speed”

I may be a geek, but it helped pass the time to Minnesota.

I’m not a fan of the current Saturday Night Live, and I haven’t been a fan for a while. The last time I watched an original airing of SNL was when Dana Carvey and Mike Myers were still doing the Wayne’s World sketch. Since then, I have had to wait for something that would require watching. The Celebrity Jeopardy sketches with Will Ferrel as Alex Trebek are hilarious, but I was not about to waste night hoping that a specific sketch would be on the docket. Now, the next SNL inspired movie will hit theaters tonight. Watching the previews, I have somewhat high hopes for this. I was a casual follower of MacGuyver and his ingenuity in making something from virtually nothing became an iconic joke. So, to watch SNL take on this icon in a satirical fashion means that there is potential comedy to be mined from the premise. While I might go see this movie in the theaters, I don’t think it will bring me back to the show.

This is one of those poll questions that is too early to ask, but I have pushed to my breaking point. The latest take on the fictional character Robin Hood opens this week, and it got me to thinking about the various movies. After realizing that this is a particular topic that needs to be put to pasture, I decided to once more figure out which is the best Robin Hood movie. Now, let’s get some ground rules. First, Robin Hood is a fictional character based on several figures in British history. Second, most of the info we know concerning this character come from songs created by minstrels who traveled from town to town, singing for entertainment and money. Third, I read dramatizations of the songs when I was a kid, so the common elements of the Robin Hood mythos are Sherwood Forest, his status as an outlaw, his band of merry men with Little John leading the way and his relation to Will Scarlett are all part of the songs at some point.
That being said, each movie includes some of the original myth as well as embellishment for its own sake. Erol Flynn’s movie is colorful and playful, Kevin Costner’s is more realistic, except for his lack of accent, Disney’s is a anthropomorphic fox, and Mel Brooks’ is a satire. There are probably a few I’ve missed (like I said, this character needs to be put to bed), but what I’ve seen of this new one with Russell Crowe, it appears maid Marian becomes a soldier. I’m sorry, but historically speaking, that would never happen. So of all the Robin Hood movies, my favorite one to watch is still Costner’s. I can live with the fluctuating accent.

Continuing with the poll typr posts, let’s pose another question: what is the best and worst superhero movie of all time? And when I say movie, I mean theater movie, not made for TV movie. For me, I have a hard time naming the best.  I grew up with many, the original Superman from the the 70s, Tim Burton’s Batman from 1989 and Batman Returns would all be contenders for me and it’s hard to select the top one. Picking the worst is hard because I am a bit of a snob when it comes to superhero movies. Any movie that doesn’t have a lead that interests me doesn’t make it on my radar. I have yet to watch any of the X-Men flicks or something from the Marvel universe and here’s why.

Being a superhero is a fantasy of most men and some women.  If you had an ability that is outside the normal range of humanity, you would be pretty stoked about it and the world would probably develop an unhealthy worship of you. Yet, every Marvel comics character hates the fact they have their powers and the world in the comic demonizes.  I’m sorry, but that’s a load of garbage, for reasons I said earlier. I can’t imagine anyone in this real world saying, “Oh, I have a titanium skeleton and can never be seriously injured. The world hates me for my gift.  Boo-hoo.” Give me a break.

photo from Julien's Auctions

Planet Hollywood is planning a memorabilia sale in June at their Los Angeles location, and among the memorabilia are previously unseen photos of Marilyn Monroe on the set of one of her most iconic films, Some like it Hot. I won’t talk about the plot, especially if you haven’t seen it, needless to say Marilyn is dressed to the nines and the filmmakers highlighted her figure, but the thing about this role is that Marilyn plays it with such a cute vulnerability that every time I watch, I want to reach into history and put a hand on her shoulder and tell her that everything will be OK. She had a such a hard life, it’s difficult to look at these photos. Marilyn looks like she’s somewhat enjoying herself.

This is so perposterous, I can’t even make this up.  There is a video on YouTube of a school play of…Scarface.  The Brian Depalma film holds the record for the most f-bombs dropped in a movie, never mind the violence and the drugs. I’ve watched the video; it’s legitimate. Kids in 2nd or 3rd grade using the word “fudge” as a substitute, a pile of popcorn represents the cocaine, and nerf guns and sound effects round out this production.  Now, I have no problem with watching the movie, if you’re an adult, but to have kids re-enact this particular movie almost seems like one of the seven signs of the apocalypse.  If you’re going to do a school play around a movie, I’m sure there are others out there that can entertain with offending.

Well, in the past 24 hours, I’ve been reminded that a remake of Clash of the Titans is coming out, and I also learned that they are remaking Nightmare on Elm Street. This new movie appears to take the movie back to its origins where Freddy was someone you actually feared meeting in your dreams. They even appear to have gone and gotten a new actor for the role. I always thought this series has some merit early on, before the numerous sequels turned it into a superhero movie almost. I’m actually interested to see what they do with this new nightmare.

For those of you that don’t know what this is, this is called parkour. Parkour is also known as free running. Basically, you use the evironment and fluid body movement to move from point A to point B as fluidly as possible. It’s not technically a sport, but the training you need is very sport-like. I just like the idea of running and no obstacle slows you down for even a second. The guy in this video is one of the first practitioners of parkour, so you know he’s had a chance to practice.

I went and saw the movie Avatar last night. And from the title of this post, I think you can guess my feelings on it. James Cameron is not a very subtle storyteller. Maybe he should go back to making Titanic movies.