Overdue Quick Review: Deadpool

I'll keep this short: Deadpool was loads of raunchy, violent fun, and Ryan Reynolds is perfect as the title character. I didn't see the need to bring in a couple of X-Men characters -- one of whom I've never heard of before and is named...get this..Negasonic Teenage Warhead. But whatever. My grade: A-minus. Let's get back to Ryan Reynolds...

...and to think that since this cover hit the newsstands his career went in the tank a bit. Now he's a star again.

Quick Review: The Change-Up

So, it's not such a great summer for Ryan Reynolds, is it? "Green Lantern" was a disappointment and so was "The Change-Up," in which he and Jason Bateman undergo a body switch. Reynolds, as the single slacker actor, and Bateman, as the married-with-kids workaholic lawyer, aren't bad actors but they need better material than this. There are some gross-out moments and a few fun bits, but mostly it's a predictable tale in which they're forced to live each other's lives and learn the obvious lesson that the grass isn't actually greener on the other side of the fence. My grade: C-plus.

Don't worry, Ryan, we still love you for this...

Quick Review: Green Lantern

I was worried about "Green Lantern," based on the DC Comics character. Face it, once you get past Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman you're dealing with DC's second string. And look at the trouble DC's parent company, Warner Bros., has had turning their properties into films. They had to go back to basics with the Batman films after what Joel Schumacher did to them (and struck gold, to be sure). Their first Superman franchise reboot took forever and was not as successful as they wanted, so now they're trying again with a different director, star, etc. And Wonder Woman's been stuck in movie and TV limbo. So a Green Lantern movie would have to be done right to cross over to the public at large. The box office may ultimately tell a different story, but for me, it wasn't a huge success.

Ryan Reynolds isn't terrible as Hal Jordan, the test pilot who is chosen to become the newest Green Lantern of Sector 2814 (that would be the one that includes Earth, of course) and receives the green ring that grants him superpowers. (And, as you can see, he's pretty, although he doesn't show much skin in this movie.) But the plot is splintered, veering between Hal's getting the ring and learning how to use it and meeting other members of the Green Lantern corps, and the threat of an entity known as Parallax (the essence of fear, which is represented by yellow, although the entity itself seems to be a smoke monster), and the relationship between Hal and Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), and then to Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard), a scientist who gets a piece of Parallax inside him and mutates into a villain himself, although he doesn't do all that much, really -- the character and actor are both pretty much wasted here. And to explain the history and mythos of the Green Lanterns and the Guardians who created them, and how green is the color of willpower, able to confront fear, and so on, took a lot of narration. I didn't dislike this movie as much as others, but it's still a disappointment. My grade: C-plus.

My Weeks In Comics 12-1-10, 12-8-10

It's been a light couple of weeks, but I got a bonus at the end of the week thanks to a Borders 40 percent off coupon and an additional discount I was able to get by upgrading my Borders Rewards card...not that I want this to become a commercial for Borders...

So on the first (actually the second because there was a one-day delay because of Thanksgiving) I only bought...

Action Comics Annual 13: Because this series has been starring Lex Luthor, the annual does the same, with two tales from Lex's younger years. You know this because he had hair back then. It fits the story they're telling now  in that it gives insight into Luthor's mentality, his motivations and his flaws, but it's also a bit weird. The stories deal with Luthor's first meeting with both Darkseid and Ra's al Ghul. The latter tale is told in a third-person narration that's sort of a parable, while the other features many exclamation points. Essentially, whenever Darkseid speaks there are exclamations: "You look at me and think 'I'm not like him!' You would be correct! We have nothing in common!! You're a man -- and I -- am a God!!" Exact quote.

Then, this past Wednesday...

Superboy 2: Love this book so far. Featuring Poison Ivy, some freaky aliens (I'm assuming, anyway; they look like farmers currently) who have plans for Superboy, and the newest invention of Conner's friend Simon Valentine: Parasite Frogs! (Patent pending.)

DC Universe Holiday Special 2010 1 (of 1): Six holiday tales featurning various DC characters. I'm convinced that the entire purpose of one story -- centering on an award given by the city of Metropolis to a hero each Thanksgiving -- was to make the following blatant plug, in the guise of a Daily Planet staffer conversation about who would get the award...
Lois Lane: Green Lantern has done well this year. They're even making a movie about him.
Cat Grant: With Ryan Reynolds, right? Talk about hot -- can't wait to see him in that!

Yeah...

My Summer Listening Pleasure (And Maybe Yours) Part 1

I love disclaimers. In the case of the big 58-song summer playlist I've created, there are a few of them. These songs fall into at least one of these categories, sometimes more, sometimes all: they were released during the summer, they were popular during the summer, the song title and/or lyrics refer to summer, sun, heat, etc. If they don't fit these categories -- and this is a pretty big disclaimer -- to me they either sound like a summer-type song or I identify them with summer in my mind for some reason, which will be explained.

Also, the list only includes songs that are in my iTunes library. There may be other songs that are truly summer songs, but if I don't own them I didn't include them. (It's also possible that some songs not on the list but should be are in my iTunes but I somehow neglected to find it.) I am open to any and all suggestions to add to the list, but if it's not obvious from the song title why it should be included I hope you'll enlighten me as to why it's a summer song.

I'm listing them in order of the year of release (according to Wikipedia or whatever other sources I could find). Using the versions I have (a couple of extended mixes included) it's over 4 hours, 15 minutes of music, and Part One begins after the jump:

Ryan Reynolds may play Green Lantern

He may play a comic book superhero. Yeah, whatever. I mainly just wanted to post this: