Bloody hell...

Haste makes waste! Remember that phrase? If you do not, then I suggest you do now. This post was supposed to be about Harry Potter and such but in my haste to get out with DW to see a movie (F4, review later), I forgot the golden rule of blogging: Select and Copy entire post BEFORE doing anything that switches screens!

Well, in my haste, and using that nasty Gates product called IE (since DW stubbornly refuses to join the rest of us knowledgeable people to get off the MS teat), I attempted to spell-check my work. Of course, IE never having seen Blogger before, refused to popup an additional window and then cleared my post from ^%(&^%(& view!

OK, no real issue right? I can just hit the ole recover post link and I should have most of my wonderful dissertation on wizards and witches. Nope. It bloody took me back to the original three lines I started with. F-@-@-K!!!!

Now, back to your original programming...

So, we head over to the Eglinton Town Centre to see The Fantastic Four. We have a bunch of movie coupons due to expire in September so we are determined to not lose any. We were going to wait to see it but I was playing around in QuickTime on my, er, work's new Mac mini that I have in my possession (possession is nine tenths of the law, right?) and watched the F4 trailer in high definition. Suhweeet. So it got me and I decided that we should go see this since our original choice (The Wedding Crashers) was part of a double bill at The Docks' drive-in, which we would be attending tonight. OK, I invite comment that I am at 37 a drive-in virgin. DW has kindly volunteered to pop that particular cherry.

I used to collect (or is that horde under my bed like a pack rat) thousands of comics. That is until one day my mother and her evil twin (my sister) decided that MY room was too messy and proceeded to gather up all my precious comics and throw them away in big green garbage bags. I was not even allowed to save them from the curb. Now, I know you are thinking, "So what?" Well, for one, all the money to buy those comics came from my parents so they just trashed over a thousand bucks in investment. Number two, those comics today would be worth at least ten times that amount. If you know anything about comics, I used to regularly buy a number of series: Fantastic Four, Spiderman - Amazing, Tales and Team-up, ALL the X-men versions, Batman, Superman, Justice League, some Flash, Johnny Cage and Ghost Rider, and a lot of the special editions and crossovers (like Secret Wars). ALL GONE! I still hold a nice grudge about that if you have not noticed. I left another 1100+ with a friend when I moved some years ago and lost track of him. Either it is still in his possession, he smartly sold it, or another box bit the dust. Did I mention that most were in very good to mint (as in just store bought) condition? Sigh.

Anyhow, since I collected comics, I am a big critic of any changes that divert from the original story so that they can craft it into the movie line. Spiderman did not spin webs from his own fluids (ewwwww), he made various web formulas to fight the different criminals' powers and circumstances as they presented themselves. The Fantastic Four did not live within eyesight of Dr. Doom's lair (why are all the powerful, evil dudes named Victor?), and Daredevil was not such a putz. So, I do my best to allow some leeway if the storyline makes up for it and the special effects are dazzling. Granted, trying to explain to the average movie go-er in 2 hours what has culminated in a couple of decades of issues is a very difficult task. The director both hit and miss on this note in F4.

I will say that it is a decent afternoon matinee (read cheap) time-waster as anything that blows shit up good deserves theatre sound. I just would not recommend paying full pop for it as with any starting movie in a franchise has too take way too long to establish the how, where and why of the super powers before getting to the ass-kicking. Maybe in F4-2 there will be a whole lot more death and destruction on a grander scale to live up to one of the best comic book series of all time.

Now, before I sign off on this, I would be remiss if I did not tell the latest movie tale of the DW. There we are in the theatre, yapping through the insidious commercial crap. We decide that a refill of my iced tea is in order as well as our Reel Deal should have come with a candy bar, so my dear DW volunteers to do the honours. When she gets back, they have started into the main (louder) commercials and previews. So, on comes this movie and the guy is kicking serious ass everywhere. Everything on my face and in my posture says that I am really interested in this preview and I am concentrating on the screen. Yet, my spider sense is picking up a buzzing in my ear. What is that? Oh. Yes dear? The Reel Deal no longer comes with? The other deal is better? They should have told us? Yes, please do the math for me ....right...now! So, my face is that which i have when I am watching sports and she insanely believes that my attention will be diverted as she is talking. BING! DW realizes that I am watching this preview, which is almost done and I missed the good parts, and stops her story of the cheating movie house (playing all over at a spot near you). After the preview for Transporter 2 completes, i intently listen to her story. After all, she got me iced tea. :)

To end this little post, I must say that we did not have dinner prior, so like bad little people, we went down into the seedy bowels of the T-dot, well, halfway between Regent Park and Yonge Street on Dundas, to George's Chicken. Everyone who has every partied late into the morning knows that there are four places you can count on at 3AM when you have the munchies and need to sober up" Fran's, The Griddle on Front, Mr. Submarine off of Dufferin and George's. I'll talk a bit more about George's another time. So we got dinner to go, drove back past the hookers, drunks and dealers, and headed home. Having seen the preview for Transporter2, which means it must be coming out soon, I had a serious itch to finally watch the first one; if I could find it in the DVD library. It took a while to locate it as I had it in my mind that the case was dark with light lettering not the other way around. Duh. So, we watched, well I did mainly, and it is not a bad time waster. It looks like more ass gets kicked in the second one so I cannot wait.

Ciao.