It's Destro's Turn to be Revealed...Sort Of!

The Criminal mastermind and arms dealer Destro from the upcoming G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra has had a lot of images plastered around the web. However, much to the chagrin of geeks everywhere, he has not been seen wearing his trademark metal mask. However, my pals in the Twitterverse unearthed some images of the Destro action figure from the film and it appears he will don the classic mask before all is said and done!

I've hoped that Destro would appear in his mask on film since the Combat Heroes action figure images were leaked some time ago...and my hopes are rewarded!

I'm eagerly looking forward to this movie so that I can watch my childhood imagination blasting across the big screen!

Cobra Commander Revealed...Sort Of (again!)

HissTank.com snagged a few images of the upcoming action figure for Cobra Commander based on the G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra film coming out August 7, 2009. These new images are better than the Combat Heroes version we saw a few months ago as they have a photo on the packaging. I'm not pleased that CC doesn't have his traditional hood as I think that is more menacing but I'm chalking my continued optimism one up to the fact that G.I. Joe is just one of those childhood memories I've always wanted to see on film (the other being Lone Ranger). So, here's the images... (As always, click on them to see the full size versions.)

Leave My Brain Alone

Okay. I don't normally post these crappy internet memes but this one worked out so well (and allowed for comments) so I just wanted to share. Don't worry. Won't happen again until I get bored...which isn't often.

RULES:
1. Put your media player of choice on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write down the name of the song no matter how silly it sounds!
4. Put any comments in parentheses after the song name.

So here goes...Shuffle on!

----------------------

1. What do your friends think of you?
"More Than a Feeling" by Boston (Yeah...okay.)

2. If someone says, “Is this okay?” You say?
"Feel Good, Inc." by The Gorillaz (If it doesn't feel good, it's probably not okay.)

3. How would you describe yourself?
"Who's your Daddy?" by Lordi (Yeah. Who's YOUR Daddy?)

4. What do you like in a girl/boy?
"Everybody's Rockin'" by Werly Fairburn (My lady is rockin' so I guess this is right.)

5. How do you feel today?
"Easy Breezy" by Utada (I guess this is true. It's a lazy Sunday.)

6. What is your life’s purpose?
"Big Time Operator" by The Dead Milkmen (I declare that I will achieve this one day!)

7. What is your motto?
"On My Own" by Hank III (I do a lot on my own so...close enough.)

8. What do you think about very often?
"Erie Canal" by Bruce Springsteen (This one is just wrong. I live in Erie but have no idea where the Canal is located. Damn it! Now I'll be thinking about it often today!)

9. What do you think of your best friend?
"If It Will It Will" by Hank Williams Jr. (He's kind of laid back so that's probably his motto.)

10. What do you think of the person you like?
"A Very Unlikely Occurrence" by MC Frontalot (It's an unlikely occurrence that a geek like me ended up with a rockin' lady. I'm just lucky that unlikely does not equate to impossible.)

11. What is your life story?
"Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson (I am constantly judging myself so this could be fairly true.)

12. What do you want to be when you grow up?
"Guess Things Happen That Way" by Johnny Cash (Since I'm technically "grown-up" now, I guess it's already happened that way.)

13. What do you think of when you see the person you like/love?
"I Get Ideas" by Louis Armstrong (Heh. 'Nuff said.)

14. What will you dance to at your wedding?
"Real Solution #9" by White Zombie (Maybe at the renewal of our vows. Of course, my wife would kill me if I tried this one.)

15. What will they play at your funeral?
"Downer" by Nirvana (Har! It'll definitely be a downer when I snuff it.)

16. What is your hobby/interest?
"Ironic" by Alanis Morissette (It's not really ironic. I've been interested in the same hobbies since I was about 5 years old.)

17. What is your biggest fear?
"Unbelievable" by EMF (Really. You wouldn't believe it.)

18. What is your biggest secret?
"November Rain" by Guns & Roses (This one might be right...but you'll never know. It's a secret.)

19. What do you think of your friends?
"Informer" by Snow (I have no idea what this could mean. Next!)

20. What will you post this as?
"Leave My Brain Alone" by Zombina and the Skeletones (Okay. I guess that's a good title.)

Happy Pi Day!

A song in tribute to this geekiest of Holidays!



Now that that's out of my system, I begin prepping for Towel Day.

Who Watches The Watchmen? Hyde & Geek Does, Baby! Read on!

Okay. By now any comic geek worth his salt has seen Zack Snyder's The Watchmen. But for those of you who haven't, I'll toss out the short short spoiler-free version of my review here and put the spoilers after the break.

Short and Sweet:
This is as close to Alan Moore's comic vision as a film is likely to come...ever. Alan Moore has famously been quoted as calling The Watchmen "unfilmable" and, in a respect, I'd have to agree with him. There is a LOT missing from the book here. Many...nay most of the subtle sub-plots have been tossed aside in favor of keeping this epic film under the 3 hour mark. However, Zack Snyder was fairly adept at culling what was the most important elements to the central story and what is here is almost panel-by-panel awesomeness. Yes. As I'm sure you've read elsewhere, things have been changed. Most notably the ending. But it works within the context of the film and the feel of the ending is held in tact. So...will you like it? I would normally say yes but reviews seem split down the middle thus far so it's hard to say. I nearly loved it. I may put it in my top comic films once the DVD comes out with the extended "Black Freighter" cut that is rumored to plug some of the comic's side stories back in. Obviously readers of the graphic novel are going to take more from this film than the non-initiates out there but I went with my lovely wife and she enjoyed it having not yet read the book.

So that's it. I'll post a cool image and then go into a hopefully brief bitch-fest about some more spoilerific gripes that I had with the film. You have been warned.

Here There Be Spoilers:
There's not a lot to spoil since, as stated above, this is nearly a direct translation of the novel. However, a few changed scenes stuck in my craw that I will take a brief moment to complain about. I'm a comic fan and this is my blog. What did you expect?

Change #1: Laurie no longer smokes. Obviously this change was made to make the PC folks happy that one of the less-insane heroes isn't smoking. But this is The Watchmen, folks! How un-PC a film did you expect!? There's rape, murder and brutality all around and Laurie still has latex covered superhero fetish sex with Nite Owl but she can't smoke? It makes her setting off Archie's flame thrower in Dan's basement seem like she's an idiot rather than giving her a legitimate reason to be pushing the huge red button with flames on it while looking for the lighter.

Change #2: Rorschach's infamous flashback scene with the child murderer has been changed. In the comic, Rorschach handcuffs the crook to his stove, tosses him a saw, sets the place on fire and then watches it burn. In the film, Rorschach, in one of the most graphic and gasp-inducing scenes in the film, simply takes a cleaver to the pervert's head. Okay. Since seeing it, I've come to terms that this was probably changed to not have Rorschach look like he was taking a page from the book of The Saw film's Jigsaw. Fine. It's a cool death scene.

Change #3: The ending. (Insert ominous organ music here.) Yes. The squid is gone. This will probably...scratch that...This will be the most talked about change that Snyder made in this translation. But, to his credit, I don't think the squid would have worked. I mean it could have been done but what we have in its place works much better in the context of what is actually displayed on screen. The new ending blames the destruction of New York on Dr. Manhattan. Trust me. It actually works.

END OF SPOILERS

Final Word:
The Watchmen is good. I give it 4 out of 5. That's it. I've had my say on The Watchmen movie for now. I may post a review of the extended DVD once it's available. Until then, I recommend those people I mentioned at the start of my review to get out there and read the book.

Cheers!