2010 San Diego Comic Con

 So the the event has finally arrived and I am sitting in a hotel room waiting for  day 1 of the San Diego Comic Con to begin.  I have spent the last 4 hours going through the program book figuring out which panels I want to attend and what signings I will be standing in line for.  I will post fun pictures and videos at the end of each day, but for now this is what the next few days will look like for me.

Thursday, July 21
10am - Megamind screening
1pm - Spotlight: Charlaine Harris
3:30pm - Psych panel
4:45pm - The Expendables panel
5:30pm - Geek Girls Exist panel
10pm - Lost Boys: The Thirst screening and Q&A

Friday, July 22
12:45pm - Big Bang Theory panel
2pm - Bones Panel
3pm - Bite Me ~ vampire themed panel
5pm - Girls Gone Genre panel
5:15pm - True Blood Panel
7:30pm - 30 Days of Night panel
9:25pm - New Brow Art Doc screening

Saturday, July 23
10am - Chuck panel
11am - Leverage Panel
12pm - Fang Girls and Fang Boys panel
3:15pm - Fringe panel
4:15pm - Vampire Diaries panel
5pm - Dark Shadows panel
6:15pm - Human Target panel
7:15pm - Kevin Smith

Sunday, July 24
10am - Castle panel
12pm - Blood, Sweat and Tears YA panel


For this being such a HUGE event for me I cannot wait for the festivities to begin.  You can be sure that a ton of fun pictures and many exciting costumes will be commented on beginning tomorrow.  If you are here in San Diego I wish you the a very geeky week, and if not I promise I will share all of the excitement as best as I can.

Well I'm off to bed so I'm well rested to geek out tomorrow. 

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

This time last year I remember walking around NYC and seeing bright orange and yellow signs taped to various parking signs and lamp poles notifying drivers that there is no parking on that given street due to a production shooting in the area.  I had seen the signs before, but these were different and I wanted nothing more than to try and find some way to be a part of it.  So after a week of seeing these various signs around I decided that the next time I was available on the date and time listed I would go back and try to find someone to talk to.  It took me about a week to find who I was looking for but the wait and following experience was totally worth it. 

Having my first crew experience on a Disney feature film was unbelievable. The crew was amazing and even though the overnight shoots were a little rough on the sleep routine I would not have traded the experience for anything.  Yes my days felt reversed after a while, and yes I had trouble keeping track of what day it was since everything was blending together, but it was such a high being on set that none of it mattered to me.  I spend 2 days working on 6th Ave where it was shut down from 14th St to 21st St for a part of the car chase, and 4 days at Bowling Green working the last scene of the film.  The week at Bowling Green I was actually working 20 hour days with my regular day job and then running off to catch a train to make it on set just as the call time rolled around.  There were even bets as to when I would go down during that week since few thought I would make it all the way through, but I proved it to myself and the friends I made on set that if you want it bad enough nothing can stop you. 

Now that the film has hit theaters, one can only imagine the excitement of going in and seeing what the final product is.  After seeing what actually goes into a film with a ton stunts and visual effects I was on edge waiting for clips to hit the web so I could see what all of that hard work was for, and for me the final product totally paid off.   

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a family fun film full of movie magic.  It is the apprentice that carries the weight of the film on his back, and Jay Baruchel as Dave Stutler does that and more.  He brings a fresh new face and sense of humor to the film and gives his co-stars a run for their money.  With Nicolas Cage as Balthazar, Monica Bellucci as Victoria, and Alfred Molina as Horvath, the cast was full of great talent that will entertain adults as well as kids.  Director Jon Turteltaub gives us a fun adaptation to the classic fantasia cartoon of Mickey and the brooms.  Even with a bit of a humor on the iconic scene that was of course included, I don't believe anything was left out or needed to have made this film more fun. 

If you are looking for something fun to take your family to this weekend I would recommend checking out The Sorcerer's Apprentice.  It may not quite stand up to the action and suspense of the National Treasure films which were also directed by Jon Turteltaub, but it is a nice addition to the live-action Disney collection along side so many other great Jerry Bruckheimer productions.  So go out this weekend and experience the magic for yourself.  I'm sure you wont be disappointed.

Eclipse -- Review

 Dear Twilight Franchise --

I know that over the past handful of years you have been compared to the Harry Potter phenomina, which there is nothing wrong with since it was and still is wildly sucessful, but you should not have let that go to your head.  Just because HP is splitting the final story into two parts does not mean that you have to as well.  Yes Twilight blew up over night just prior to the first film.  Yes the books are a great YA (young adult) series that got a ton of teens back into reading after the HP books were completed.  Yes you have one of the actors who was in the Goblet of Fire film as the star of your films, but how far are you really going to take this competition?       

Now let me begin by preferencing this with the fact that I have been a fan of both book series for many years and the books are fantastic.  BUT dearest Twilight, you have saddly disappointed me for a second year in a row with your films, and what I am about to do is not only a little sad, and sligtly embarrassing, but I feel as though I need you to understand just how much you broke my heart with the third installment of the Twilight Saga.

"Yo Twilight, I'm really happy for you, I'm going to let you finish but Harry Potter is one of the best franchises of all time...one of the best of all time!"

Twilight did so well with the adaptation of the first book, and even the second film was palatable outside of the fact that you have made a sex symbol out of a 17 year old boy who some 30-something women have a hard time controlling themselves as they watch the film, and who even twilight-moms make complete fools of themselves by embarrassing their daughters by making such odd requests as asking the buff star to sign their Team Jacob panties.  I'm sure it will be a story told anytime Mr. Lautner is asked what is the craziest thing that has ever happened to him, but did you really need to go as far as you did? And with Eclipse I am saddly left speechless. 

 

Eclipse had so much potential but I felt it fell short of what it could have been.  The two-hour film was hard enough to sit through with awkward dialog (which I've yet to figure out if that is just because Kristen Stewart still has not come to terms with her new found fame that the role continues to make her one of the most awkward and uncomfortable actress to watch on screen, or if it was just the dialog chosen for the film) and a third of the film being visual effects that moved so quickly that all I could focus on was the blurry CG playing out before my eyes.  No matter how much I love Stephanie Meyer's writing, this film did not stand up to the reputation and stands of the two films that came before it.  Too much time was spend on visual effects, and not enough was spent on the story itself.  Had a viewer not read the books they would have been left in the dust as they would have had no idea who the characters were or what was happening in the story.  I felt it was the weakest film of any series I have ever seen.

Although I cannot say that the whole film was a bust.  There were a few saving graces during the 2-hour running time.  I commend the writer, Melissa Rosenberg, and director David Slade in their flashback sequences as they were the highlights of the film.  I loved seeing each of the Cullens' back-stories play out on the big screen.  As far as the actors go, it was Billy Burke (Charlie Swan) who saved the film for me.  His quick one-liners were the comic-relief that made the film easier to stomach.  And of course I just have to mention that my favorite line in the film is Edward saying: "Doesn't he own a shirt?"

I am sad to report that I am no longer a Team Edward or Team Jacob advocate.  I will stand beside Jasper any day of the week and turn to Charlie when I need a quick pick-me-up.  However the films just are no longer doing it for me.  I would rather turn back to the black and white pages of the books and re-read the series to get the original excitment and joy I felt when Stephenie Meyer first introduced me to the Twilight series. 

Overall, I give Eclipse a 2.5 out of 5.  Judge as you may, but after seeing the film don't say I didn't try to warn you.