The Dark Knight Posters.

In 2005, I was looking at all the cool Batman Begins posters coming out, and I decided that I definitely wanted one. Here were the basic options:

Teaser posters, such as "black and white in cave" and "silhouette."



I generally don't like teaser posters, so I didn't bother with those. I was more into the bat swarm-filled theatrical posters:




I knew I didn't want the one where he's holding Katie Holmes, and I think the one of his head and shoulders was technically, like, the official official theatrical poster, but the one where he's flying overhead with his cape spread was just too beautiful to pass up. So I knew I'd get that one eventually. Then one day they announced that they were pushing up the release date from June 17 to June 15. I immediately ordered the flying cape poster on the chance that I'd get one with the original date, and sure enough, I now have a poster that has the incorrect "June 17" on the bottom. I thought that was kinda cool. I pulled the same trick the following year when they pushed Superman Returns up from June 30 to June 28. So I have a nice display of both incorrectly-dated posters together. I am pleased by things that probably wouldn't please most other people.

Now The Dark Knight is coming out, and I have to think about which poster I want. In December 2007, they put out some domestic and international teaser posters:




Then in April 2008, they released the official theatrical poster (with the burning building), as well as some alternates and extra teaser stuff. I don't know which of it is international or what:





You mightn't know this just from reading it, but I did a fuckload of research just to write this ridiculous post. Anyway, I think I would definitely like to get the official theatrical one of Batman before the burning building. That's basically the only Dark Knight poster I would consider essential display material. Ideally, though, I'd like to also find mini versions of the two teasers of Batman and Joker's backs and use them to replace my two current Transformers mini posters of Megatron and Optimus Prime. The Transformers ones are cool, because they're profile shots (so they're looking at each other), but I didn't really love that movie, so I'm always looking for a new pair to replace them. It's like I'm dating someone I don't really like (so I can get sex while I wait for "the one"). Right now, I think the hypothetical mini versions of the Batman/Joker back teasers are "the one."

So, to recap. I want big theatrical burning building and two mini back teasers.

However. This Friday I was at a store looking at action figures when I saw they had some 22x34 posters for The Dark Knight at five dollars each:



Five dollars for 22x34 posters. That's a fucking deal. So I bought them. They also had the original teaser one of the graffiti on the wall, but I don't much care for that one. I mean, it's painted bricks. I figure I'll take down my big Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life poster and put these two up in its stead. It's a heavy loss, but I still have the original Lara Croft Tomb Raider mini-poster to keep Angelina somewhere on that wall. And I still want the other three that I said.

Mini posters are easy to come by. I get them for free all the time at movie theaters and comic book stores. But it's not often I actually purchase new full-size posters. It seems to only happen now when there's a Superman or Batman movie. Although next year I will probably get at least one Watchmen poster.

Cheers,
Diego

The Length of Things.

It's interesting how people seem to have just organically decided how long everything should be. Songs are a few minutes long, movies are a couple hours long, etc. What if society had evolved in such a way that, organically, we decided songs would be a half hour long? Is it based on societal sensibilities, or is it more biologically based (though of course the two are far from mutually exclusive)? I wonder if there was a society where humans were exactly the same, but the society itself was really different. Or a very similar society, but the humans were way smarter. Would songs and movies be the same length?

Cheers,
Diego

The 2008 MTV Movie Awards.

Tonight I watched the 2008 MTV Movie Awards. I made picks on a ballot beforehand to make it more fun. Here's how I did:

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE
MY PICK: Amy Adams, Enchanted
WINNER: Ellen Page, Juno

Whatev. Both were good.

BEST FIGHT
MY PICK: Tobey Maguire vs. James Franco, Spider-Man 3
WINNER: Sean Faris vs. Cam Gigandet, Never Back Down

I should've known. That whole movie was about fighting! I'm glad it won. I just went with Spidey 3 because that was an exceptionally cool fight.

BEST SUMMER MOVIE SO FAR
MY PICK: Iron Man
WINNER: Iron Man

No contest there.

BEST MALE PERFORMANCE
MY PICK: Will Smith, I Am Legend
WINNER: Will Smith, I Am Legend

That was one of Will's best roles. He really makes that movie.

BEST COMEDIC PERFORMANCE
MY PICK: Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
WINNER: Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Naturally.

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
MY PICK: Michael Cera, Superbad
WINNER: Zac Efron, Hairspray

I'm not really sure what this award means.

BEST VILLAIN
MY PICK: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
WINNER: Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

I suppose if anyone merits two awards, it's Johnny Depp.

BEST KISS
MY PICK: Daniel Radcliffe and Katie Leung, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
WINNER: Briana Evigan and Robert Hoffman, Step Up 2 the Streets

I only picked Harry Potter because I thought that was the funniest potential winner of the "Best Kiss" award.

BEST MOVIE
MY PICK: Juno
WINNER: Transformers

Holy shit. Overall, it was a pretty good show. Mike Myers was a good host. The Wayne's World comeback was fucking awesome (it was exactly as good as it was in the early 90's). And I scored a three out of nine. Funny that there was only nine awards (not counting Adam Sandler's lifetime achievement thing). I'm really amazed that there's no category for Best Song. This would be the ideal show for it. One, because they love to nominate stuff that would never get recognition at the Academy Awards, so they could nominate all the bullshit pop songs they wanted. And two, because they used to show music on this channel. Although, to their credit, they did throw in a couple of completely irrelevant live music performances by Coldplay and the Pussycat Dolls. I'd say the low point of the evening was when Seth Rogen and James Franco, in a seemingly unscripted moment, took out a bag of weed and smoked a J before presenting an award, and the directors in the booth were so flustered, they nervously stayed in a super wide shot for the whole thing, and cut to some useless reaction shots toward the end. Grow some balls, MTV.

I do like that there's an award show where Step Up 2 the Streets and Never Back Down both walk away with awards.

Cheers,
Diego

New Blog: Redbox Rentals.

I just started a new blog dedicated exclusively to my Redbox rentals. What the hell does this mean? Read it to find out.

Big D Pitchas: Redbox Rentals.

Cheers,
Diego

I Love James Cameron.

I saw an article today that said James Cameron's next project might be "The Dive," a true story about the romance between this Cuban diver guy and his female protegee. First, Cameron told the Hollywood Reporter this:

"After Avatar, I want to do something a lot smaller."

Then, he said this:

"It's a drama, a love story. This will require underwater photography, which will look gorgeous in 3-D."

Cheers,
Diego

Iron Man Action Figure.

I got my tickets for Iron Man two weeks ago. I'll be seeing it tonight. I thought it would be cool to get an Iron Man toy before I saw the movie. So last week, my friends (Justin, my brother, and Carl) and I made arrangements to have lunch on Wednesday (April 30) at a Burger King in Burbank (the one seen at the beginning of Back to the Future). I figured we'd have lunch, get one of those Burger King Iron Man toys, then walk next door to the Toys R Us and possibly buy one of the new Iron Man action figures.

So on Wednesday, we went to Burger King. Justin ordered his food first. He didn't want a toy, so he didn't ask for one. I asked for one, and the lady told me you could only get one if you ordered a Kids Meal. Because they didn't want to run out, she said. Yeah, I can only imagine how a hopeful customer would feel if they came all the way to Burger King and couldn't get their Iron Man toy. It sounds awful. Anyway, I had already made my order, and she had already called it into the microphone, so I just said fine and I got no toy. Then my brother walked up to the cashier next to me. I told him in advance about the Kids Meal thing and told him to get a Kids Meal so he could get the toy. He said he didn't want a Kids Meal.

My brother frustrates me sometimes. A Kids Meal is food, isn't it? What the fuck difference does it make what you order? If it's too small, just order more!

So he didn't even try to get the toy. When we sat down, Carl had an Iron Man toy. He said he just asked for one and they sold it to him. When we finished eating, Carl ended up throwing it away on accident. So already this day was not going so hot. We walked over to the Toys R Us and they had some Iron Man stuff, but no action figures. A guy who worked there checked the computer and told us the Toys R Us in Van Nuys was also sold out, but the one in Glendale had four action figures left. He gave me a printout of that information (it was a pretty slow day).

In my experience (which has been documented on this blog in the past), whenever they tell you a store in a nearby city has three or four of something left in stock, this means that store is sold out of that thing, and their computer inventory is off by about three or four. But I live close to Glendale, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to look. First, we went to the Glendale Target. They had some Iron Man stuff, but no action figures. Then we went to the Glendale Toys R Us. They had some Iron Man stuff, but no action figures. I asked a woman who worked there if they had any Iron Man action figures left, and she looked at me like I'd just walked into a supermarket and asked for fresh pterodactyl meat. She walked me over to the shelf I had already looked at and double-checked with another employee, who reacted as if she had just asked him if maybe there was some pterodactyl meat left in the freezer. I showed her the printout from the other Toys R Us, not really expecting it to help, but just so she would know that Toys R Us fucked us into traveling a long distance for nothing. She theorized that maybe the phantom four action figures had been stolen. Hmm.

Later that day, I went to Golden Apple Comics and the West Hollywood Target. Golden Apple had a giant display of Iron Man stuff, with an action figure stuck in as part of the display. If they were selling these babies, I didn't see them. Target had some Iron Man stuff, but no action figures.

I'm not crazy, right? Is it too much to ask that toy retailers stock action figures of one of the biggest movies of the year on the WEEK it's coming out?

This whole situation got me to thinking about how last week, I was in La Habra, where I visited a Target and a Walmart. The Target had had a couple of Iron Man action figures and the Walmart had had a bunch. I hadn't bought anything then because I had no money, and I figured I would just get it on our Burger King/Toys R Us trip on Wednesday. But now I had nothing. So yesterday, I went back to La Habra and had lunch at Chick-Fil-A. Then I went across the street to a second Walmart that La Habra had, that I had never been to. And oh my god, this La Habra Walmart, oh my god. Not only did they have Iron Man action figures. They also had Incredible Hulk action figures, Indiana Jones action figures, and The Dark Knight action figures. They also had standard turtles in their TMNT action figure line. From now on, this place is my first stop.

Right now, there's five Iron Man action figures to choose from:
- The Mark 1. This is Iron Man's shitty first armor that he builds in the movie.
- The Mark 2. This is the second version that looks almost like the final version, except it's silver.
- The Mark 3. This is the final red and gold Iron Man suit.
- The Prototype. This is essentially the Mark 3, but with detachable parts to reveal Tony Stark underneath.
- Iron Monger. I believe this is the giant suit the villain builds in the movie.

Now, I'm a sucker for a superhero's shitty first costume. My favorite part of Spider-Man was when he was wearing that stupid wrestling outfit. So I was very interested in the Mark 1. But I also kinda wanted the final suit, so I could display it with my Superman Returns Superman and Batman Begins Batman. And the Prototype's removable mask feature was very tempting. Every kid wants the action figure that can switch between superhero and secret identity (I had the BTAS Bruce Wayne/Batman as a kid). So I ended up going with the Prototype. Also, the La Habra Walmart didn't have any Mark 1s.

The action figure is pretty cool looking. It's hard to play with, because it lets you switch out his bare arms for armored arms, and those babies'll fall off if you handle the figure in any way, as will his shoulder pads. Whenever I show it to people, I hear myself saying "could you pick that piece up?" a lot. But for display purposes, it works beautifully. The removable mask is great. I'm not sure about the scale, because this Iron Man is noticeably taller than Superman and Batman. So maybe they won't stand next to each other on my action figure display. Maybe stick him in the back so he loses a few inches from perspective.

And hey, tonight I'm actually seeing the movie!

If I could offer one bit of wisdom based on this experience, it's this: If you ever want to get a new movie action figure, but you live in or near a big city, just drive directly to the Walmart that's 30 miles out of town.

Cheers,
Diego

American Idol Loser Wish List: Top 4.

Here's my American Idol Loser Wish List from last week. In order from the person I most want off the show (David Archuleta) to the person I least want off the show (Brooke White). With tonight's Bottom Two underlined.

1. David Archuleta.
2. Jason Castro.
3. David Cook.
4. Syesha Mercado.
5. Brooke White.

And Brooke White went home. I'll keep watching for Syesha Mercado, but the show is essentially over for me.

Here's my Loser Wish List for next week:

1. David Archuleta.
2. David Archuleta.
3. David Archuleta.
4. David Archuleta.

Cheers,
Diego