Blunt Talk and Tunes

This past week featured the premiere of the new Starz series "Blunt Talk" starring Patrick Stewart and created by Jonathan Ames. I was looking forward to this one more for the creator than for the tenuous Star Trek connection. While it was fun to see Brent 'Data' Spiner show up in the first minute of the opening episode, I'm sure that the adventures of title character Walter Blunt, played by Stewart, may well turn off most Trek fans.

Stewart plays Blunt, a British war vet and newscaster who's come to America to do a news/opinion show, the kind that I hate so much. One drunken escapade with a transgender prostitute, and Blunt is in trouble, and continuing his downward spiral as he takes drugs and lies to his employers. This dark humor is what I tuned in for, not Star Trek.

I'm a big fan of Jonathan Ames. His novels, columns, and especially his HBO series "Bored to Death" are full of this type of sarcastic darkness, and I love it. Stewart plays well in this world, and is a comic delight to watch. One particular scene in an airport bathroom in the second episode had me in hysterics. Stewart has a real talent for physical comedy.

The real bonus for me watching the first few episodes was the song "Miss Cindy" by The High Decibels in the first one. Sort of a hip hop rockabilly, it grabbed me right away, so after Shazam-ing and SoundHound-ing it, I sample-listened to the two albums by the band on iTunes. I dug it, a lot, and bought both. Seriously, there's not a bad song in the bunch. When was the last time you bought an entire album where you liked every track, let alone two? Great stuff.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men: Days of Future Past ~ I'm an Avengers guy. I have been aware of the X-Men for decades, but very rarely have I sampled those titles. The only time I did regularly read and collect X-Men comics was the original Chris Claremont/John Byrne era (yeah, I'm that old). The best and greatest story of that run, just behind the Dark Phoenix saga, would be the two-part "Days of Future Past" story in X-Men #141-142. Oh sure, I realize that the storyline has been revisited time and time again, many slipped past my notice, but I think the first was the best. That said, I was really looking forward to the film version of X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Warning - spoilers ahead. If you have not seen the movie yet, it might be a good idea to wait until you have before reading further. You've been warned.

I can't go any further without mentioning how groundbreaking this movie actually is. There were three official X-Men films, and two Wolverine spin-off films, and then there's X-Men First Class, a film that I loved, and one that effectively rebooted the franchise. The film took place in the early sixties, and other than some of the characters, it was recast younger, and showed the beginnings of the X-Men. Had a sequel been made directly to this movie, I don't think anyone would have been disappointed if they completely ignored the other three X-Men flicks, or even the two Wolverines as well.

They could have done it easy, but director Bryan Singer, returning to the franchise had other ideas. He chose to blend the continuities, and mold a story that would include both of the franchise's two casts, young and old. If it worked, it would be brilliance, and if it didn't, a confusing mess no one would want to see. The plan worked beautifully. This is just as a good a crossover film as Marvel's The Avengers was. Fact, comic book folks know how to do crossovers on film.

The plot is the only part where it might become a bit convoluted, but as time travel movies go, this is child's play. The future is overrun by robots called Sentinels, programmed to hunt and destroy mutants, devastating the Earth as they do it. The remaining X-Men send Wolverine's future mind back to his 1973 body to try to convince Professor X and Magneto to work together to stop Mystique from assassinating a weapons dealer. His death is what starts the dominos falling toward the creation of the Sentinels. Changing time is not as easy as it sounds. Wolverine has to first straighten out a wasted Xavier, and then break magneto out of a concrete prison below the Pentagon. Not that easy at all.

There are changes from the original comics of course. Wolverine goes back in time instead of Kitty Pryde. It's arms dealer Boliver Trask who's the target instead of Senator Robert Kelly because Kelly, played by Bruce Davison, had already been used early on in the movie series. There's no Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in the movie, and the Sentinels are more like Super-Adaptoids programmed using Mystique's shape-changing DNA.

The cast is superb. Professor X and Magento, past and present - Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender - are all superior actors and perfect in this film every moment they are on screen. Hugh Jackman just about is Wolverine at this point. Halle Berry insisted on much higher billing than she deserves, but at least she wasn't awful. Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde and Nicholas Hoult as the Beast are terrific, and I wish Anna Paquin's Rogue hadn't been cut from most of her shots in the flick. Shawn Ashmore's Iceman has as much screen time as Berry's Storm, but is much more charismatic and memorable. I wanted more Iceman, but was meh on Storm.

Peter Dinklage of "Game of Thrones" is clearly wasted in the film as Bolivar Trask. He is seen but rarely heard. This is a sad waste of a terrific actor, who also has a fan base that would bring folks to the film. On the same note, seeing how Mystique was a major character in the story, I was hoping that Jennifer Lawrence would have been given more to do. She looks good, has amazing action sequences, but as an Oscar nominated and winning actress, it would have been nice to see her actually, you know, act. Now don't get me wrong, I liked them both, I just wish there was more of them, just like Rogue.

The breakout performance of the flick however is Evan Peters as Quicksilver. For my money, he was the best part of the movie. This is teenaged Quicksilver, a smartass, but not the prime jerk he becomes as an adult in the Avengers. I was reminded much of the upcoming "Flash" TV series on the CW, because this is a character who enjoys his speed and using his powers, sooo refreshing. And again, much like Mystique and Trask, why not more Quicksilver?

And more Quicksilver would have made perfect story sense. At a point when Professor X was powerless, the beast was reluctant, and Wolverine only had bone claws, wouldn't a super speedster be a much needed helping hand? It must be noted, but when the only complaints I have are wanting more of what we got, is it really a complaint?

I did have another quibble - the Kennedy thing. I just thought it was too easy. Not the idea that Magneto killed JFK, the whole idea of the bullet that changes course is a great and clever inside joke, but it's the concept that Magneto was captured while protecting the President. Charles believes Erik much too easily when the villain says he was trying to save JFK because he was 'one of us.' Prof. X might well have already known that the President was a mutant via Cerebro, but this exchange changes the two's dynamic too easily, too quickly. Charles just drops his anger at Erik like rock. Too easy.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is a dark film, and there are long stretches of that is-it-time-for-the-good-guys-to-win-yet, but it pulls together in the end. There's a pay-off that makes the long periods and the darkness well worth it. Like Bobby Ewing stepping out of a shower, the film does what all good time travel movies should do. It fixes what was broken as a bonus. When Logan returns from the past, Jean Grey and Cyclops are alive, and uncredited but still played by Famke Jansson and James Marsden. Bryan Singer fixed the crappy ending of X-Men: The Last Stand.

Be ready, just like the Marvel films, this Fox X-Men flick has an after credits sequence, something The Bride and I have named an 'afterburner.' This one depicts the villain of the next X-Men film - Apocalypse, so wait through the credits, it's good, and will make you tingle with anticipation for the next chapter. I still think First Class is the best of the X-movies, but this one comes close, recommended.

For more of The Bride's and my thoughts on X-Men: Days of Future Past, you can listen to this week's Make Mine Magic Podcast, with our special X-Men episode that you can hear right here.

Conspiracy Theory

Conspiracy Theory ~ It's one thing to watch a movie you didn't really have any interest in that has been recommended by someone whose opinions you trust and respect. You may not want to see it, but usually it's an adventure, and an unexpected delight. What happens when the recommendation comes from someone whose opinions you do not trust or respect? Such is the case with Conspiracy Theory.

You might think the subject matter would be of interest to me because I'm such a Coast to Coast AM junkie, but the truth is, when they start talking conspiracies, I zone out. Give me Bigfoot and UFOs any day over that crap. Nothing against Julia Roberts, but I think she's lazy. She has two modes - Oscar nom, and give me the check. Most of the time I think it's the latter.

And then there's Mel Gibson. Mel has fallen out of favor for very solid reasons, but for me he was always on the brink of parodying himself, always a Keanu Reeves 'huh' away from ever being a good actor. And then there's all the other stuff he's done and said. I can't help seeing the Daffy Duck version of him from "South Park" now whenever I see him.

Already Conspiracy Theory has several strikes against and I'm still paused on the WB shield. Let's hope it gets better. Now I realize that Gibson is playing someone is apparently mentally unhinged, but I'm sorry the credits haven't finished running, but he is already firmly Daffy Duck-ing in my head.

Also what bugs me early on is that the conspiracies put forth are the generic Hollywood version of conspiracy theories, not real conspiracy theories. It also feels very dated, as if it was written at least a decade before its 1997 release date. The dated performances of 1980s big names Gibson and Roberts certainly don't help.

Gibson's Daffy Duck meets Curly Howard performance as a paranoid cab driver who's been brainwashed by the government makes you think you're getting a comedy and clashes horribly with the real tenor of the flick. It's a dark dark film, although you'd never know it watching Gibson cavort.

He's doing schtick, so when Patrick Stewart shows up doing his Marathon Man bad guy imitation and shoots Gibson up with LSD, you can't help but wonder what the hell you're watching. Oh, and Julia Roberts? She's about as interesting as old wallpaper in this movie. Her dye job has more charisma than her performance.

This is a long movie, and it's made even longer by the overacting and under-acting of the leads, the over-explanation of the plot, the overbearing score, and the horrific and ridiculous ending. I was pretty sure I would hate this movie, and I was right.