Here’s another look at offbeat Christmas ornaments.
Not a lot needs to be said here except that if someone gives you an Alvin and the Chipmunks ornament I feel sorry for you.
But if you bring this into your own house, it’s all on you.
Okay, I know that maybe it’s not that strange to have Santa Claus cuddling the baby Jesus.
But for a kid who was raised in the Baptist church, the mix of holiday images is just weird to me.
So Santa under the Christmas tree with Jesus = huh?
So Santa right there in the manger = double huh?
Next you’re gonna tell me the Little Drummer Boy is supplying sticks for plugging holes in Noah’s Ark?
I want to believe a man can fly.
I want to believe in Superman.
In fact, I’m pretty sure I do.
It’s “Man of Steel” I’m not sure about.
The latest trailer for “Man of Steel,” producer Christopher Nolan and director Zack Snyder’s reboot of the Superman movies, hit the Interwebz yesterday. I’ve watched it a few times and I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about it.
Ambivalent, maybe. Here’s why:
We don’t need another origin story, even though we’re getting one. Yes, it’s been more than three decades since the last big-screen Superman origin. Yes, the lure of Krypton’s explosion and Jor-El and all that is too great to pass up. But I just feel like we don’t need another introduction to Superman the character, any more than I feel like we needed another introduction to Spider-Man last summer. Between the various and quite good animated versions and “Smallville,” I can’t imagine what another origin story will bring.
Superman is lonely but he isn’t brooding. He’s an alien, more or less the last surviving Kryptonian. Well, that’s proven false time and time again in the comics and movies. But you get the idea. So while I don’t want to see a happy, sunny Superman necessarily, I don’t feel like we need a Superman who’s just as likely to lie on his bed and eat Doritos all weekend as … well, must of his fans are.
On the other hand … Superman isn’t boring. He’s a complex, multi-faceted character, not a Boy Scout. So maybe some stark loneliness will play well.
If Pa Kent isn’t Clark’s dependable mentor and conscience and adviser, I’m not sure I want to see that movie. In the trailer, young Clark wonders if he should have let a school bus full of kids drown in a river rather than save them – especially if it means revealing his powers. Pa says, “Maybe.” No. Pa Kent would never say that. Wrong. Wrong.
We need some action. It kinda sorta looks like Brooding Boy pulls on his scaly blue tights and engages in some fisticuffs with Zod at some point. At least I hope so. “Superman Returns” was so slow.
The imagery is … problematic. The early poster (above), featuring Superman in handcuffs. Why would Warners want that image, curiosity-inspiring as it might be, to be the first image most people connect with the movie?
Did I say we don’t need another origin story? Oh yes, I guess I did.
This isn’t “Transformers.” At least, I don’t think it is.
One of the buzziest movies due out next summer is “Pacific Rim,” director Guillermo del Toro’s epic-in-scale science fiction movie about a future Earth where giant, Godzilla-like creatures have risen from the sea to destroy mankind … and they’re confronted by the giant, pilot-driven robots mankind has created to beat them back.
“Pacific Rim” has been getting some good reaction from the fans so far. The new trailer went online today and I’ve gotta say that it looks good even to someone who isn’t the biggest giant-monsters-menacing-Japan fan in the world.
Check out the trailer on iTunes here.
You know how this goes: I find odd Christmas ornaments and decor take pictures with my iPhone. And publish them here.
Above we see the tiniest manifestation of the Charlie Brown Christmas phenomenon. That little box contains a pathetic little tree and a little book retelling the story from the classic 1965 “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
Tiny little Peanuts pathos.
Here’s the oddest Christmas stocking I’ve seen this year. Anyone else remember the goat leggings from the 1987 “Dragnet” movie?
And finally, there’s this:
Really, Target, I don’t need any more encouragement for my dog to try to eat our Christmas tree.
I’m a little leery of Tom Cruise in the same way I’m leery of Mel Gibson. Their off-screen personalities and controversies have a way of dominating their on-screen presence for me.
Nevertheless, I’ll be seeing Cruise’s new film, “Jack Reacher,” since it’s based on the fun Lee Child crime novels – although Cruise is miscast as Reacher – and I’ll check out “Oblivion” when it comes out next spring.
As you can tell from the trailer, “Oblivion” features Cruise as a soft of human Wall-E, cleaning up an abandoned Earth. But the solitary duty goes haywire when Morgan Freeman and a bunch of mysterious survivors appear.
“Oblivion” looks quite intriguing. It opens in April.
Since it first aired in 1966, “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” has become a pop culture institution. It’s one of the best animated films ever made. It’s a touchstone of the holiday season. It’s a common thread for generations of movie, TV and children’s book fans.
And yet there are a few things many of us don’t know about the special. Here are five things you might not know.
Boris Karloff. Yes, everyone knows that Karloff, immortalized forever as Universal’s Frankenstein monster in the studio’s movie series from the 1930s, provided the narration and the voice of the Grinch. But most probably think that Karloff had been in hibernation for decades before recording the Grinch and then passing from this plane of existence in 1969. But Karloff was active in show business even three decades after his Frankenstein heyday. He was memorable not only as the Grinch but also for appearances on “The Wild, Wild West,” “The Girl from UNCLE” and “I Spy.” He even hosted the “Thriller” anthology TV series for two years beginning in 1960.
Thurl Ravenscroft. Possessor of one of the great names of all time, Ravenscroft was the man behind the booming bass voice who sang “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” Because Ravenscroft wasn’t credited, many people assumed that Karloff sang the song. Ravenscroft had, up until his death in 2005, a long and varied career. He was the voice of Tony the Tiger in Frosted Flakes commercials. His voice can be heard in the Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion Disney attractions. He had a brush with another animated pop culture franchise by singing the song “No Dogs Allowed” in “Snoopy, Come Home.”
Chuck Jones. I’m of the opinion that the “Grinch” animated show wouldn’t be half as good if not for director Chuck Jones, seen above with Karloff. A legendary animation director, Jones – who died in 2002 – directed many great Warner Brothers cartoons, including two of my favorites, “What’s Opera, Doc” and “One Froggy Evening.” Jones’ talent permeates the “Grinch” special but is especially notable in the little touches, including the expressions on the Grinch’s canine sidekick, Max.
Albert Hague. Yes, Mr. Shorofsky from the “Fame” movie and TV series has a “Grinch” connection. He wrote the music for “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” His 2001 obituary noted that Dr. Seuss himself, Theodore Geisel, said that Hague contributed greatly to the special. “Any man who slides an octave on the word ‘Grinch’ gets the job,” Geisel said upon hearing Hague’s work.
Other Grinches. I’m not talking about the Jim Carrey movie. Two other animated specials, “Halloween is Grinch Night” and “The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat,” aired in subsequent decades. Although the wonderful Hans Conried performed the Grinch in the first, neither can compare to the original special.
Once you’d seen Sherry Jackson’s appearance on an episode of the original “Star Trek” series, chances are you never forgot her.
As Andrea, a startlingly human android in the 1966 episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of,” Jackson single-handedly sparked puberty for a few million young boys.
In that crazy criss-cross jumpsuit, Jackson posed a special kind of peril for Capt. Kirk. Seriously, how could he keep his mind on the problem at hand – controlling a planet-bound android inventor and his huge killer robot (played by Ted Cassidy of “The Addams Family”) when Jackson was there, looking … really not at all robotic?
Jackson, who is now 70 (!), was a regular on 1950s TV in “The Danny Thomas Show.” By the 1960s she was all grown up, a point driven home by her “Star Trek” appearance and a series of movies she made in the 1960s and 1970s.
Today, Jackson is immortalized not only on home video and online but through a website, sherryjackson.net, that offers up not only video clips but autographed photos.
Here’s to the lovely Ms. Jackson.
Nothing snide or crass here (that’s coming in another installment). Just pretty ornaments via my iPhone.
Love the bulbs above.
And these little red and white guys.
These little owls are really cute.
And these pink Santas, while I thought they looked washed out originally, are kinda nice.
Okay, next time back to snark and goofy.
It was another interwebs meltdown kind of day, with everybody weighing in with their opinion on the new “announcement” trailer – a short version of the teaser trailer, or an even shorter version of the nine minutes of IMAX footage coming in front of “The Hobbit” – for “Star Trek Into Darkness.”
And of course I’ve got a couple of thoughts too. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the “official” US trailer on iTunes and here’s the Japanese trailer, with the extra few seconds of footage that has everyone so crazy.
Five things:
That voice. I love the narration, presumably by Benedict Cumberbatch as the bad guy. “I have returned … to seek my vengeance.” Yikes.
The Cumberbatch! One of my favorite Brit actors because of the “Sherlock” series, Cumberbatch looks damn cool here. Is he playing Khan? Is he playing Gary Mitchell? Somebody else entirely? Whatever!
The water. I’m still trying to figure out why the Enterprise is in the ocean. The shot of the ship plowing into the water is startling and looks like they’ve decided to wreck the Enterprise again. But the one of the ship rising out of the water? Reminds me of the nebula cloud “submarine” games in “Star Trek II.”
The city mayhem. The shots of people staring up at something horrible happening in a big city – London? San Francisco? – bugged me. Call it a long-lasting 9-11 effect.
The hands. This is the part that’s making everyone crazy. Two hands, separated by glass. One is unmistakably in a Starfleet science uniform and is making the familiar Vulcan gesture that usually accompanies “Live long and prosper.” The similarities to the finale of “Star Trek II” are obvious. But surely they’re not going in that direction again? This is, after all, a rebooted universe. Anything can happen.
We’ll know in May.
keithroysdon 