The Incredible Hulk

In the latest round of comic book movies, Iron Man has been getting all of the love.  While it didn’t get panned, the reviews for the Incredible Hulk have been lukewarm at best.  I finally understand.  It’s obvious that the people who made The Incredible Hulk actually cared what people like me, comic book readers, thought.  As a result, much of the shmaltz that is woven into movies so that the general public can swallow then is not here.

I’m not going to give any spoilers here but I have to make a few comments.  First, this movie doesn’t see the need to give us a long-winded and cliched origin story.  Actually, it uses the origin found in the television show as a backdrop to the credits.  I actually prefered this because, as a long-time reader of the Hulk, if they’re going to tell an origin story I’d prefer it to involve a gamma bomb. It also allows us to sidestep what would end up being an hour of slow story development and trade it in for some action.

That being said, we get Bruce Banner in Brazil, trying to learn to control the monster inside.  Of course we know that won’t happen because otherwise there would be no movie.  What we get in addition to a great Hulk is a supporting cast full of the characters needed for any Hulk movie.  William Hurt plays a great General Thunderbolt Ross and Liv Tyler is adequate as Betty Ross. What we get in addition to these two is Tim Roth in a fantastic performance as Emil Blonsky and Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns.

Other nice touches include cameos by Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno. Additional touches for long-time Hulk fans include Jim Wilson (one of the Hulk’s former sidekicks) and McGee (the name of the reporter who hounded the Hulk on television) within the film. I do wish that Rick Jones had somehow been worked into the movie as his sidekick.

Overall this movie was fantastic. It includes yet another teaser for the Avengers movie scheduled to be released in 2011 and remembers that the angrier the Hulk gets, the stronger he gets. Don’t believe the reviews that say the movie has no heart, is lacking, etc. This movie was well worth the price of the ticket.

You Maniacs, you blew it up! Damn you! God Damn you all to hell!!

Sorry, the baby went a little crazy today thus the title. Lots of screaming, yelling, crying, blotchy face, etc. So now that things have quieted down, here are some of the items I noticed this week.

I’ve got to start with television this week.  Of course the only thing worth mentioning is LOST.  Holy shit was it something else! Two hours of twists and turns and a plot that is racing towards… well something! I think the big surprise is that Jacob turned out to be the Dharma Initiative Organutang! Who would have thought that? Well it’s not true. We got more questions than answers again, but to be honest I don’t care. As usual, I’ll let other people share their thoughts…

• Cinematically Correct will be depressed for the summer.
• LOTRKing has plenty of spoilers here in case you’ve got it on TiVo.

Also in television, the AVClub tries to decide just what is the worst sitcom of all time?? My initial reaction includes Small Wonder as mentioned in the article, It’s a Living (I’ve actually stayed in that hotel, it’s a dump), Will & Grace likely the one I hate the most, and My Mother the Car, which while horrible is, in a strange way, quite amazing.

In Bob Dylan (yes I’m treating Bob as a category), I saw two things this week:

• An AVClub critic has never listened to Bob Dylan! I find it interesting though that he considers being 34 middle aged. God I hope not!
• The Times writes about Dylan as an artist.

And to mop up the week in links, books, comics, etc Electricity & Lust, everyone’s favorite (or at least mine) clearing house of links points out some really cool stuff including an interview with Jeffrey Tambor and the new trailer to the film adaptation of Choke. Also, some clips are on YouTube, check them out here while they last.

In other books to movies news, the Times also covered the filming of the movie version of The Road. I’m sure it will be the feel good movie of the year!

In books, the Times highlights the the best travel books so far this year.

In comics two things:

• A new book about Jack Kirby is reviewed today.
• The AVClub has a great, and I mean great looking slew of items in its comics panel.  Lots of Iron Man stuff.

Finally, One-Story has an intern. Apparently they’ve also started a Facebook page. Personally, I’d much prefer to see them on Twitter. I don’t have time or energy for that social networking page nonsense.

Happy Mother’s Day

Before I say anything about anything this week, Happy Mother’s Day to Shannon, your Junior Grumpy Future Comic Book Nerdloves you!

I’ve got to start this post with Comics. While my pile has been growing and growing and I’m WAY behind on comments, Marvel’s Secret Invasionhas been fantastic. The two issues they’ve released have been the kind of comics I have always loved to read; full of surprise and history and action. The tie-ins have been pretty awesome too. Here are a few reviews to check out:

• Mighty Avengers #13tells us a little of what Nick Fury has been up to.
• New Avengers #40tells us some of what the Skrulls have been up to.

I have not seen Iron Man yet (babies will do that) but here is some news about the thor movie.

The AV Club has noticed Ryan Adams and his blog.

The Philadelphia sports-loving Bizzaro Jerry has put up his weekly Lost post. It’s good stuff, which can be confirmed by Shannon’s out-loud laughter and praise while reading from her perch on the couch. His Bizzaro Jerry status (or mine depending on which universe you live in) can be confirmed somewhat with his Speed Racer post. I’m kind of happy to see this movie fail, the commercials make it look worse than I Love Trouble.

Electricty & Lust has released its links of most anticipated summer movies. Not sure why Hollywood has redone Short Circuit (this time without this week’s Howard Stern highlight – The Incredibly Hung Steve Guttenberg) but I can agree with the other links. There’s also some good stuff on Electricity & Lust’s Linkemonypost.

We finished HBO’s In Treatment and I have to say that, much like life, the last episode was full of sound and fury, yadda yadda yadda. It was a really interesting nine week experiment in television endurance and I wonder if HBO will try another season of it. Like life, the series showed how messed up people are without making it all tidy or giving us much of a resolution.

I’m reading Franzen’s The Corrections and so far it’s great stuff. I still have a mountain of New Yorkers and comic books to climb.

Another Week Another Post

May means spring is here in North Carolina, the summer movie season is starting out, and another week has passed meaning I need to update this site before my readers get bored and go elsewhere to read about God knows what. So what’s up this week? Well, let’s jump right in…

In books, I finished Neighbors by Thomas Berger.  What a demented book.  It’s a great novel covering the events of one night when new people move in next door to Earl Keese.  Harry and Ramona then proceed to torment Earl in a way that makes me (even more than now) want to never speak or look at my neighbors again.  You can buy it here at Powells or here at Amazon.

Continuing in literature, One-Story magazine has published issue #102.

In pop culture, Electricity & Lust is back to the general pop culture posts. Also, thanks to Electricity & Lust for pointing us to a trailer to the new Hulk movie. I might be one of the few people excited about seeing it.

Also, Iron Man has come out. I’m looking forward to seeing that too!

Cinematically Correct wrote his weekly Lost thoughts. I’m very jealous as he went to see Jack White and the boys in concert Thursday night.

In the interwebs, Google has added new artist themes to the options of stuff you can add to your iGoogle page. It’s some asshole artists and some good stuff. It’s at least worth checking out.

In technology, I saw a couple of cool things this week. Most are for the road warrior. They include:

• The Belkin Mouse Trap, a nifty way to store the little stuff from your desk and your mouse to zip up and take with you.
• Also from Belkin, a way to add more USB ports.
• Finally, a very cool speaker for the IPod. It also appears to be a good solution for various Sirius radios with an AUX jack but no speakers.

What else? A few loose ends…

• Former nerdy teen Patrick Dempsey has released what I want to nominate as the dumbest, worst movie of the year: Made of Honor. This movie sucked the last six times they made it.
• A few new comics came out this week, but Secret Invasion #2 is on the horizon for next Wednesday.

And a final word of advice for all of you out there shopping for Mother’s Day. It comes from my lovely wife Shannon who is a new mother (just 8 weeks) herself.

Don’t buy me anything for Mother’s Day that the television tells you to buy.