From: Entertainment, Links, Movies, Politics, Ranting, Science By Bevans on Wednesday, April 16, 2008

I'm using my considerable draw and influence to call attention to a good cause today.

By now you've probably seen commercials for Ben Stein's new movie "Expelled", which is apparently being marketed as a wacky teen comedy or something. But really, it's a "documentary" full of anti-science, anti-evolution propaganda.

That's not what I'm trying to call attention to. I'm calling attention to Expelled Exposed, a web site designed to show just how full of shit Ben Stein and his stupid movie (as well as creationists in general) are.

But, some may argue that this is just calling more attention to the movie. Well, it's already being advertised for on TV. The best we can do is help to draw attention to the truth. The Expelled Exposed site is currently #8 when you search for "expelled" on Google, and the more you link to a site, the higher it goes on Google. So the goal is to get this site to appear BEFORE the movie's web site on Google.

From: Design, Movies By Bevans on Thursday, May 10, 2007

From: Movies, Reviews By Bevans on Sunday, May 06, 2007

Apparently, Sony is planning Spiderman 4-6 right now. If they can keep them as interesting as this one was, then I might as well give them my money now. Actually, they'll have to be satisfied with an IOU, because I'm broke. That's if they were actually accepting money for the next 3 movies right now. Oh, but I'm rambling.

So yea, I liked it a lot, despite its flaws. I'd say it was better than #1 but not as good as #2. But maybe I'm biased, since Doc Ock is my favorite Spiderman villain and they got him PERFECT in the movie.

It's really hard to go over what you like about a movie, and really easy to go over what you didn't. So I guess you can assume that I liked everything that I didn't like.

So what didn't I like? For starters, there was just too damn much Mary Jane. Kirsten Dunst isn't exactly my favorite actress, and she was exactly the same as she was in the previous two movies: boring boring boring. We have characters in this movie who can shoot webs from their hands, turn into sand, and fly. Why did they have to stick so much "struggling actress" into it? I didn't pay $9.25 for a Hallmark Channel special. Fortunately, the parts that aren't about MJ are a blast to watch. Supposedly, Dunst doesn't want to do any more Spiderman movies, and for that I'm glad.

What else didn't I like? Sandman. The actor was great, the sand effects were great, but they basically turned him into a lumbering Frankenstein monster that kills without thought. His "I just want to help my daughter" story isn't exactly believable when he's smashing people by the dozens.

The fact that the movie had three villains to try to juggle when they weren't advancing the insipid love story meant that they had a lot of story to tell, but not enough time to tell it. You can tell by some noticeable gaps in the story, as well as a couple too-convenient duct tape-style segments that tie things together, that a lot of content got left on the cutting room floor.

I wish they had just focused on Harry, Sandman, and the black suit, and just left Venom as a cameo at the end so they could focus on him in the next one. Why did they feel like they had to jam three unrelated villains into one movie? Hell, even TWO is too much sometimes (I'm thinking of the Batman movies, pre-Bale).

Aside from those problems, it was still a blast to watch. The fights are great (though they use too much CG in them) and Spidey is still a great character. There were even some surprises to ME, and I thought I knew what was going to happen since I know the source material. It had the action, the characters, the humor (oh Bruce Campbell, you're just too awesome for words), and the suspense that the previous movies had.

Basically, I'm saying that if you liked the other Spidey movies, you'll like this one. I give it an 6.5/10.

From: Movies By Bevans on Thursday, May 03, 2007

The first Fantastic Four movie certainly wasn't perfect, but it was overall a pretty cool flick. Actually, it was far more interesting seeing the main characters playing with their powers, trying to go about their normal lives, and bickering with each other than it was when they finally got down to fighting Dr. Doom.

And speaking of villains, this one features a doozy: The Silver Surfer. Well, that's not technically accurate, but I won't go further into that, lest I spoil it for the uninitiated.

Honestly, I was a little surprised that SS was going to be part of the FF movie rather than starring in his own movie first, but I guess it's kinda hard to tell the SS's story without featuring the FF. Rest assured, there will doubtlessly be spinoffs.

And what can I say about the Surfer? They did a really good job of making him look cool. A big shiny man flying through space could look really stupid, but fortunately they pulled it off. I guess they're using a special material to achieve that shiny look without CG for many parts of the movie. Remember how cheesy you thought the CG for Colossus looked in X-Men 3? Well, not all of that was CG either, and that's apparently the same stuff they're using here.

But what's going to be the true test for me will be how they handle Galactus. But if they can make the Silver Surfer, the Human Torch, and The Thing look cool, then they can probably get Galactus right too.