The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing well. The weather is bizarre, but otherwise things are good. Today I'm going to be reviewing The Fellowship of the Ring, which is the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings. I did read The Hobbit but I decided to review that another time, instead choosing to simply focus on The Lord of the Rings. Mainly because this year is the 70th anniversary of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, and the 70th anniversary of The Return of the King being next year, in 2025. And because this is a 70 year old novel there will be spoilers as I see fit to include them. So let's get into it.

Published on the 29th of July, 1954, The Fellowship of the Ring reintroduces us to Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit who was the main character of The Hobbit, which was published on the 21st of September, 1937, as well as his friend, the Wizard, Gandalf (played wonderfully by Sir Ian McKellen in Peter Jackson's movie adaptation). It also introduces Bilbo's younger cousin, Frodo, and Frodo's friends, Samwise Gamgee, Merry Brandybuck, and Pippin Took as well as many other characters such as Gimli the Dwarf, played by John Rhys-Davies in the movie, Legolas the Elf, played by Orlando Bloom, Aragorn, played by Viggo Mortensen, and Boromir, also a Human, played by Sean Bean, who gets killed by the end of the movie, which also paved the way for Sean Bean to play Ned Stark in Game of Thrones a decade later. But, I'll get into more of that when I review the Peter Jackson movies, at some point this year.

My history with The Lord of the Rings began just after the movie first came out in 2001, as it was one of the first movies, if not the first movie, we rented on DVD after my parents bought our first DVD player in late 2001 or early 2002. My grandmother bought me the 2001 book boxset (shown above) which contained the seven volume version, which bugged the hell out of me, because it was always distracting having to change volumes in the middle of the books. It particularly bothered me with The Fellowship of the Ring because you had this big action piece with the four Hobbits and Aragorn (known to them as Strider at this point) fighting off the Nazgul/Ringwraiths, and it ends with Frodo having been injured. And then, you get this very quiet first chapter in volume 2, before getting this massive info dump about the One Ring, how Bilbo obtained it during his adventure with the Dwarves many years earlier (as told in The Hobbit), and how Elrond advises the Fellowship on what to do with the Ring. Which kept me from reading it Tolkien's work, apart from The Hobbit.

 Then, for my birthday in 2023, my mom bought me this four book boxset (originally published in 2017, but re-released within the last couple of years) which included mini versions of the hardcover versions of The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and Return of the King, which includes Tolkien's original dust jacket designs from the original editions of all four books which were published in 1937, 1954, and 1955 respectively. I gave my old editions of both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to my sister. Honestly this version made reading The Fellowship of the Ring much more enjoyable this time around.

I think another reason I enjoyed The Fellowship of the Ring so much more this time around is because I've read alot more Fantasy than I had back in the early 2000s when I originally got the seven volume boxset and read Tolkien's work for the first time. I've read A Song of Ice and Fire, The Sword of Truth, Eragon, and The Chronicles of Narnia (which was being published around the same time as The Lord of the Rings was). And so I feel like I have more respect for the works that inspired so many authors to write books that built on concepts that Tolkien created. And like I said, reading the books all at once, in three volumes, rather than spreading it out among seven volumes (including the Appendices as volume 7).

Tolkien had an expansive story that he wanted to tell, which easily could've spanned volumes and volumes and he does such a good job at building up the world of Middle Earth, which is something I praised George R.R. Martin for in my A Song of Ice and Fire reviews. But, unlike Martin's work, Tolkien's includes a much smaller cast of characters that are unique to each volume of his work (including The Silmarillion, which I have not read before). For example, while Bilbo appears in The Lord of the Rings, specifically in The Fellowship of the Ring, he isn't the main character of that particular story set in Middle Earth. He's the main character of The Hobbit. He simply appears here to pass the Ring along to Frodo. Indeed, even Gandalf simply pops in and out of the story here even more than he did in The Hobbit.

It's funny because the last time I read this book, I didn't like the Tom Bombadil chapters very much. Yet, this time I absolutely loved those chapters. Same with "The Shadow of the Past" and "The Council of Elrond". Despite the fact that it took me several days to get through "The Council of Elrond", simply because it is such a long chapter. There's so much backstory within that chapter, that, we, as the readers, didn't necessarily need, but it's all stuff that Frodo and the others needed to know for their upcoming journey once they leave Rivendell. It also doesn't rehash everything that Gandalf told Frodo in "The Shadow of the Past", nor does it rehash the events of The Hobbit in their entirety. Which would just bog the book down completely. 

Even though I really like Frodo as a character, my favourite is Samewise Gamgee, played by Sean Astin in the movie. There's just something so innocent and loyal about him that makes him the best companion a protagonist could ask for in a Fantasy series. From the getgo, Sam knows that Frodo plans to leave the Shire with the Ring, and even before Merry and Pippin get involved, Sam made up his mind to follow Frodo all the way to Mordor if their journey came to that. Even at the end of the book, after Frodo escapes from the crazed Boromir, and plans on sneaking off into the night to make his way to Mount Doom in Mordor, Sam knows his friend and master well enough to understand that Frodo was going to sneak off, not wanting to put his friends in further danger, and even knowing the danger, chose to go with Frodo anyway, knowing that Frodo wouldn't be able to destroy the Ring on his own. Especially because Gollum had been tracking them since Rivendell, and could attack at any moment.

What else can I say about a book that has been talked about endlessly over the last 70 years? I really enjoyed it. Yes, the pace is slow, and there's alot of information being given to the readers, as well as the characters in those two chapters I mentioned earlier. But, it's still enjoyable in a way that I didn't appreciate until I started this reread. I've always loved The Hobbit, but I'm starting to enjoy The Lord of the Rings more than I used to.

Alright my friends, I think that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more blog posts, including the next part in my Star Wars Legends novel overview series. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Disney Sing-Along Songs: Disneyland Fun (1990) DVD Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Tonight I'm just here to do a quick little DVD review. I watched Disney Sing-Along Songs: Disneyland Fun on DVD last night and I decided that I want to talk about it. I had originally planned on talking about all three versions of it that I've owned over the years (2 VHS editions and the one DVD edition), but I decided that I would just go for something simple tonight. So let's get into it.

Disneyland Fun is something that I've watched so many times. I grew up watching it on VHS, I've watched it on YouTube several times before I got physical copies of it again just a few years ago now, and I can honestly say it is one of my favourite Disney Sing-Along Songs volumes of all time. My all time favourite Disney Sing-Along Songs volume though is The Bare Necessities, with this one being second to it.

Disney released this on DVD in 2005 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of Disneyland, which happened in 1955. As I mentioned in my Disney Sing-Along Songs overview series, Disneyland Fun was one of the few volumes from the series to get a DVD release in the 2000s. I shouldn't say few though, because really 17 out of the 32 is quite a bit. Only two of them were DVD only releases, and the other DVD releases had VHS releases previously. 

Disneyland Fun is great. I originally owned it on VHS when I was a kid and I love watching it on that format, but I love watching it on DVD too. For the DVD release they kept the Disney Sing-Along Songs title card originally introduced in 1994 with the third wave of VHS releases, but they replaced the 1994 Disney Sing-Along Songs closing promo, which used the second wave VHS covers, with the original music only version of the second wave closing promo from the original 1990 VHS release, which just had the titles of the previous six wave two releases appear similar to the wave one releases from the late '80s. Some closing promos from wave two included a voiceover by Ludwig von Drake, but the closing promos were changing all the time since new volumes were being released all the time.

I actually find it interesting that they decided to change very little, if anything, for these releases. And it was all arbitrary too because, like with the VHS re-releases, for those that had them, they wouldn't change anything, not even the title card, but others they'd remove a song, or even add songs. I'll get into this when I talk about the DVD release for The Bare Necessities, which will happen at a later time.

What makes this a real throwback is the rides at Disneyland. This was filmed in 1989, which was about four years before my family and I would go to Disneyland during our week in Los Angeles in January, 1993. So, even though Mickey's Toontown hadn't opened yet, they might not even have started building it yet, the rest of the rides were exactly the way they were when my family and I were there in 1993. Now, I didn't get to ride Star Tours when I was there, seeing some of it on screen, in its original form, was weird. Especially because there's a shot of R2-D2 and C-3PO as part of the footage used during "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah". Also, being that this volume was released two years after Who Framed Roger Rabbit came out, Roger is all over the place in this volume. It's been a little over 31 years since we were there, but I don't remember how often Roger was walking around in 1993. I don't actually remember meeting him, not even in Toontown, and he's pretty much gone from the parks now. He was definitely prominent in 1989, when this volume was filmed, and in 1990, when it was released. 

I remember going on the It's a Small World ride when I was there, so seeing part of that in this volume, while "It's a Small World" was being sung. Same goes with the teacup ride as well. And they're both featured in Disneyland Fun. There were a couple of other things in this volume that I remember experiencing when I was at Disneyland in 1993. The Jungle Cruise and Main Street, U.S.A. are both things in this volume that I experienced when I was there in 1993.

Honestly, this is a great DVD to try and get your hands on. None of the Disney Sing-Along Songs volumes have been re-released since the DVD re-releases/releases of the early to mid 2000s happened. None of them are available on Disney+ either. Which is a shame, because they're great to go back and revisit, whether you have the DVD releases or any of the VHS releases. I have three of the DVD releases (The Bare Necessities, Disneyland Fun, and Beach Party at Walt Disney World) and four of the VHS releases (Disneyland Fun, Be Our Guest, Circle of Life, and Beach Party at Walt Disney World), and I love putting them on every once in a while and revisiting my childhood, because the VHS releases were a huge part of my childhood. We owned three (Heigh-Ho, The Bare Necessities, and Disneyland Fun), and rented a bunch of the other ones from You Can Fly! to Colors of the Wind and they entertained my siblings and I for hours. So I highly recommend picking these up if you can get your hands on them.

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for tonight. I'll be back soon with more blog posts. I've only got two chapters left of The Fellowship of the Ring, so expect that review on Wednesday. I think I'm going to do part 2 of my Star Wars Legends overview series on Friday, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime though have a great night and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

New Teen Titans #1 (1980) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone, how were your weekends? Mine was pretty good. I went to the Carleton Place Comic-Con on Monday with Brad, and I got my smallest haul ever of anything I collect, be it comics, novels, or movies/TV shows. But, I'm not here to talk about the comic that I got at the convention. That's going to be for next week's comic book review. This week I'm going to be talking about the first issue of The New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, which I got the Facsimile Edition of back in January. I'll get into that a bit more later on in the review. Let's get into it.

While this was my first time reading this issue, I've read other issues from this series from the '80s and early '90s, so I'm pretty familiar with Wolfman and Perez's work. Of course whenever the Teen Titans are adapted into a TV show, this is the team they tend to go with. Minus Kid Flash and Wonder Girl. The 2003 Teen Titans animated series basically popularized this team with people my age and younger as we were either kids or teenagers in the 2000s and being that the show was heavily influenced by the Anime explosion of the late '90s and early 2000s, we really got into it. Even the live action series, Titans used a mix of this original Wolfman/Perez team, including Wonder Girl, the late '80s/post-Crisis On Infinite Earths team, which included Hawk and Dove and Jason Todd, and the 2003 Geoff Johns comic book team, which included Superboy, in the late 2010s and early 2020s. 

The Teen Titans is one of my favourite superhero teams of all time, next to the Sailor Scouts/Sailor Senshi from Sailor Moon and the original Power Rangers team from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and is probably my favourite comic book superhero team of all time, even over the Justice League. I think it's because I was introduced to them on television, and in the comics when I was a teenager, with the 2003 animated series being on the air at the time (it ended in September, 2006), and picking up the first 18 issues of the original '60s Teen Titans comic book series in the first volume of the DC Showcase Presents: The Teen Titans black and white trade paperback reprint series in 2006. 

It also helps that the Teen Titans have always been present be it in comics or on TV as Young Justice, which featured a version of the original '60s Titans team, began airing in 2010. Plus the older comics have been pretty readily available at conventions and comic book sales, even when I wasn't looking for them in particular. AND DC has been doing a series of Titans six issue mini-series in the last few years too.

All of that was to say that I'm a fan of the Teen Titans, no matter what incarnation they're in, though I enjoy some versions more than others. So when I saw the foil variant of the Facsimile Edition of New Teen Titans #1 on the rack at the Comic Book Shoppe, I knew I had to grab it. I read it when I got home and I really enjoyed it. I also reread it today for this review, and I still enjoyed it.

Marv and George did such a good job setting the story up for further issues. While comic books published by DC were still mostly one and done issues with the occasional two or three parter thrown in at the time, Marv and George had come from Marvel, as had the book's editor, Len Wein, and Marvel books had ongoing, semi-serialized, storylines running through them, where actions taken in one issue would have consequences in later issues, and you'd get real character development and growth. That's what Marv and George brought to the New Teen Titans. It allowed the readers to follow the story and see the characters grow and change over many years without rebooting the story, despite the fact that DC DID reboot the entire Universe at the end of Crisis On Infinite Earths in 1986.

This issue is a good introduction to returning characters, such as Robin, Beast Boy (now known as Changeling), Kid Flash, and Wonder Girl, as well as new characters, Cyborg, Raven, and Starfire. It also introduces the Gordanians, who had captured Koriand'r a.k.a. Starfire as a slave during their invasion of her homeworld, Tamaran. Of course, none of that is in the actual issue itself, it's all stuff we'll find out in later issues, but the issue does open with Starfire attempting to escape the Gordanian ship. The Titans fighting the Gordanians and rescuing Starfire after she'd been recaptured is the focus of this issue. We're also introduced to a guy named Grant, who, surprise, turns out to be Deathstroke's son, Grant Wilson, and after the Titans inadvertently wreck his apartment, as that's where Starfire ended up, he hires H.I.V.E. to destroy the Teen Titans for no other reason than they accidently wrecked his apartment.

This reason for Grant's animosity towards the Titans is so stupid, but it fits right in with the various reasons that their other enemies have for hating the Teen Titans. But it's still so dumb and it made me laugh. I mean, it's the very pinacle of villainous behaviour for someone to hire someone to kill a group of heroes just because they wrecked his apartment during a battle that happened there only because HE had taken Starfire there.  

Perez's artwork is fantastic. Backgrounds, characters, scenery, all of it looks amazing. George Perez, may he rest in peace (he died in 2022), is one of my favourite comic book artists. Like I said, his artwork is amazing and I could spend hours looking at it. Even without any dialogue on the page.

New Teen Titans #1 was first collected in 1999 when it was collected with the rest of the first eight issues of the series in The New Teen Titans Archives Volume 1, which was a hardcover in the long running DC Archive Editions hardcover series that had begun collecting old Golden Age and Silver Age comics published by DC.

In 2011 the issue was included in the The New Teen Titans Omnibus Volume One hardcover collection, which includes issues 1-16 of New Teen Titans, the DC Comics Presents #26 short story, which acts as a prologue to this issue, and issues 1-4 of Tales of the New Teen Titans, which began as a four issue mini-series before becoming the continuation of the main series after New Teen Titans (Vol. 1) ended with issue #40.

Three years later in 2014, DC began collecting every issue of New Teen Titans and Tales of the New Teen Titans in trade paperback form. The first volume contains issues 1-8 of New Teen Titans and DC Comics Presents #26. This is probably the easiest way to read this series since the DC Archive Editions only collected up to issue #27 and the Omnibus is out of print. This series collected the entire first run of New Teen Titans and issue #41 where it was renamed Tales of the New Teen Titans. 

As mentioned this issue was reprinted as a Facsimile Edition in December 2023. This is the version that I have, though my copy is the silver foil variant cover. Which is really cool. I can't say enough good things about the Facsimile Editions, from both DC and Marvel. It's a great way to experience key issues, such as this one, as the issues were originally published, without having to shell out hundreds of dollars for either an original copy or a collected edition, be it hardcover, Omnibus, or trade paperback.

Overall, this is a great issue. While Grant's reason for hating on the Teen Titans is pretty stupid, if you're a fan of the Teen Titans I highly recommend picking up this issue. It's a bit dated, but every comic book is in one way or another. So definitely pick up the Facsimile Edition if you're able to. 

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more blog posts. So until then have a great afternoon and I will talk to you all later.

Batman Beyond #1 (1999) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I'm back with a comic book review and this week I'm taking a look at the first issue of the original 1999 Batman Beyond comic book mini-series. I'm going to try to make it as spoiler free as possible, but, it's a comic book that turns 25 years old this year, so I'm not as concerned about including spoilers. Let's get into it.

My history with Batman Beyond is weird, because I remember watching it at my grandparents's house whenever I was visiting them at the lake, but despite it airing on YTV at the time, I didn't watch it at home. I think that's because YTV didn't advertise it and at the time I was only watching certain shows on the channel like Radio Active, Animorphs, Digimon, Pokemon, Uh Oh!, The Odyssey, System Crash, The New Addams Family, and Incredible Story Studio, so I didn't actually know that it was on on YTV. Until a month or two ago I thought that it only aired here in Canada on the Kids WB, which I only got on Satellite TV up at the lake. And because I wasn't buying new comics in 1999, I didn't know that DC was giving the show the same comic book treatment that it had given Batman: The Animated Series and The Adventures of Batman & Robin with The Batman Adventures and The Batman and Robin Adventures throughout the '90s. I'll get into my history with the TV show more when I actually review the show at a later date. Right now let's get back to the comic.

This is the first issue of the six issue mini-series that DC put out prior to the production of an ongoing monthly based on the TV show that started only a few months after the final issue of this mini-series was published. This issue and the following one adapts the show's two-part pilot episode, "Rebirth". I don't have the second issue, for a reason that I'll mention later, so I don't know what additions that issue has to the story, but at the beginning of this issue, before we first see Bruce Wayne in the Beyond suit, there's a sequence where Batman, in his The New Batman Adventures Batsuit, takes down a few thugs with an apparatus on his right glove that was a prototype for the technology that he would later use in devising the Beyond Batsuit. The thugs were trying to steal a weapon from a place that I'm assuming is Powers Technology, as the CEO who gives Batman crap for destroying the weapon looks like a much younger Derek Powers, wearing a moustache.

From there we go into the episode itself, which opens with the scene that fans of the show are familiar with. There really isn't much to say about the story or characters, because it's the first episode of the show in comic book form. If you've seen Part 1 of "Rebirth", then you've read this comic. Aside from the opening of the comic, I don't think there are any other differences between this version and the televised version. I also don't remember if anything was removed from the story in order to compact it into comic book form. The issue is written by Hilary J. Bader, whose comic book work I'm not familiar with. However, I am familiar with her work on Star Trek as she wrote several episodes of TNG, DS9, and Voyager in the '90s. She also wrote several season 1 episodes of Batman Beyond as well.

The artwork is the standard The Batman Adventures style that I grew up looking at as the artists on this book are Rick Burchett as the Penciler, and Terry Beatty as the Inker. Both of them worked on both The Batman Adventures and The Batman & Robin Adventures. It still looks amazing in the context of Batman Beyond too. 

The issue was collected with the rest of the mini-series in a trade paperback collection in 2000. This collected edition is long out of print though, and I've never seen it at a con, comic book sale, or a comic book store, even back in the 2000s when I was starting to buy new comics again. The cover looks really cool though.

DC published a Facsimile Edition version of this issue in December 2023 (the publication date on the first page is March 2024), and that's how I got the issue. I was at my local comic book store with Brad two weeks ago and I saw it on the month old rack so I decided to pick it up, even though I could probably find the entire mini-series at a con or comic book sale. And each issue would probably be about the same price as the Facsimile Edition is too.

What's fun about this version is that it's actually the first Facsimile Edition version of a comic from the late '90s that I've seen. So it has ads for Pokemon: Red Version and Pokemon: Blue Version, Batman Beyond on The Kids WB, the collected edition, Batman in the Sixties, an order form for the US Postal Service reprint of Action Comics #1 (1938), the Prestige One-shot special, Impulse: Bart Saves the Universe, Wizard Magazine's 6th Annual Fan Awards ballot, a subscription form for the more kid friendly comics published by DC such as Animaniacs, The Flintstones & The Jetsons, and Scooby-Doo, Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century's premiere on Disney Channel (Family Channel here in Canada), a letter from then President of DC Comics, Jenette Kahn, about the death of Bob Kane, the co-creator of Batman (he was known as the sole creator of Batman outside of the comic book industry at this time unfortunately), and the back cover is an ad for a Pop-Tarts sweepstakes where someone could win a spot in a Pop-Tarts TV commercial. Which is cool. 

Overall I recommend picking up this Facsimile Edition. The issue is a great adaptation of the first half of the pilot episode of Batman Beyond. It's also great to relive memories of the late '90s if you were a kid back then and watching Batman Beyond and reading the original mini-series. I have no idea if Facsimile Editions for the remaining five issues of the mini-series will be published or not, but it's cool that they at least published this issue.

Alright my friends, that's gonna be it for me for today. I'm probably going to be back on Friday with another blog post, but I honestly have no idea if I actually will or not. I have a medical appointment really early tomorrow morning, and while that shouldn't affect my desire to do a blog post on Friday, it might. Especially because next week is looking like it's gonna be busy. So we'll see. If I don't see you on Friday, I hope you have a great weekend. If I do, I hope you have a great evening tonight and a great day tomorrow. Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

The Goonies (1985) Movie Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? Did you all have a good weekend? I had a pretty decent one. Apologies for not putting anything out last week after my Blue Beetle movie review. I got distracted with other things. But, I'm hopefully back in full force this week. Today I'm gonna be talking about the 1985 movie, The Goonies, which has a story by Steven Spielberg, a script by Chris Columbus, and directed by Richard Donner. Let's get into it.

The Goonies is a movie that I've only seen a handful of times, but love everytime I watch it. I don't say this too often, but it's one of those rare movies that is truly timeless, despite very much being an '80s movie. I saw it when I was probably about 12 or 13, in the late '90s, and I enjoyed it as much back then as I do now, and I think I would've liked it just as much as I would've had I been around to see it in 1985, when it had originally come out. To me that's the mark of a timeless movie.

You have a pretty amazing cast in this movie. I'm not super familiar with ALL of them, but I am familiar with most of them. I mean you have Josh Brolin as Brand, the oldest of the kids, and I know him as Thanos in the MCU, and Cable in Deadpool 2, and Sean Astin as Brand's younger brother, Mikey, and I know him as Samwise Gamgee in the The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, the voice of Raphael in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, and he's in season 2 of Stranger Things, which I haven't seen. I also know Ke Huy Quan as Short Round from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The rest of the cast I'm barely familiar with. Jeff Cohen, who plays Chunk, left acting behind after 1991, so his acting resume isn't as long as some of the others. Corey Feldman is the only one I'm pretty familiar with as the voice of Donatello in the first and third live action Ninja Turtles movies from 1990 and 1993 respectively. I'm only distantly familiar with Kerri Green and Martha Plimpton, who play Andy and Stef in this movie, as I've only seen them in The Goonies, though Kerri Green was in another popular '80s movie, Lucas, which I also haven't seen.

My favourite scene in this movie is when Andy calls for Brand while the kids stop for a bathroom break, planning on kissing him, but, instead, he sends Mikey to see what Andy wants, and because Stef took the lantern, it's dark in the cave, so Andy doesn't realize that it's Mikey she's kissing. There's something so sweet and innocent about it, and, unlike in today's movies, that sort of thing doesn't create drama between Brand and Andy, Brand and Mikey, or Mikey and Andy. It also makes sense that Andy would mistaken Mikey for Brand, since it's dark in the cave and she's never actually kissed Brand before, so she wouldn't know the difference necessarily. I also like the scene near the end where the Fratellis are trying to make the kids walk the plank of the pirate ship, and Chunk and Sloth show up to save the day.  

I also find it interesting that Ke Huy Quan plays a character whose nickname is Data, just because The Goonies came out a little over two years before we were introduced to Lieutenant Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

If I'd never seen The Goonies before and somebody told me what the movie was about, without telling me who the people making the movie were, I could actually believe that this was a Steven Spielberg production, written by Chris Columbus, and directed by Richard Donner. Because I've seen some of their other movies. Like I've seen Donner's Superman, I've seen tons of Spielberg movies, and I've seen Columbus's Home Alone, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Mrs. Doubtfire and all of those movies have elements that they share with The Goonies.

The score for the movie was done by Dave Grusin, who I'm not familiar with outside of his work on this movie. The movie's theme song, "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" was done by Cyndi Lauper, who I'm pretty familiar with from her songs "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "Time After Time". The rest of the soundtrack is full of songs by the day's popular artists like Cyndi Lauper, Luther Vandross, The Bangles, and REO Speedwagon. The songs are probably the only thing about the movie that dates it a bit, but honestly, I wasn't paying too much attention to the music outside of Grusin's score and Cyndi Lauper's song when I was watching the movie last night before bed. 

The only real issue I have with this movie is that it has a little bit of bad editing, and doesn't really establish the situation the families of the kids are in. Troy, the teenage jerk of the movie, mentions that it's his dad who wants to destroy the Goon Docks, but that's more than half an hour into the movie, so the stakes aren't very clear other than someone wants to demolish everyone's houses. Also, at the end of the movie, Andy mentions encountering an Octopus in the chamber where the pirate ship, Inferno, was located, but there's no scene with an Octopus. That's because there are two deleted scenes, which are on the DVD and Blu-ray releases of the movie, that establish these things. So I do wish those scenes weren't removed from the movie itself. 

I saw The Goonies on VHS sometime between my 12th birthday in 1998 and my 16th birthday in 2002. I know, earlier I said when I was around 12 or 13, but I actually don't remember for sure. I know it wasn't before my 11th birthday in 1997 and it was after the Ice Storm of 1998, but, I also know it was before I turned 16, because I got a TV/VCR combo set for my 16th birthday in 2002, and I remember watching the movie on VHS on the TV in the family room rather than in my bedroom. It was one of those rare nights where my brother and sister weren't home and my parents decided to rent a movie for me that night. As I said before, I really enjoyed the movie, but I didn't exactly ask for someone to get me my own copy on VHS or on DVD once we got a DVD player in the early 2000s. 

I eventually did get it on DVD in 2014 or 2015 and I think I've only watched it twice since then. Aside from the case changing from the snapper case of the late '90s and early 2000s to a regular DVD case, nothing has changed between the DVD releases that the movie has had. There's an audio commentary, a short "Making of" featurette, the "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" music video by Cyndi Lauper, and four deleted scenes (called outtakes here). I haven't watched the movie with the commentary and I haven't watched the music video, but I did watch the deleted scenes and the featurette after watching the movie last night and they were decent.

I love this movie and I really need to watch it more often just for my personal enjoyment. Before last night I think the last time I watched it was when I got it on DVD in 2014 or 2015, whenever that was. It's a great movie and I definitely recommend giving it a watch if you've never seen it before. Like I said at the beginning of this review, it's one of the rare movies made in the '80s that holds up after nearly 39 years. 

Alright my friends that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more posts and reviews. So until then have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Blue Beetle (2023) Movie Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I'm going to be talking about the 2023 DC Comics based movie, Blue Beetle. There will be some minor spoilers, but nothing too major because this movie is only, almost, six months old. So let's get right into it.

Blue Beetle was a huge surprise for me. After seeing the trailers, and after expressing severe disinterest in Warner Bros. Discovery's slate of DC Comics based movies following the many missteps and disasters of the last decade, since Man of Steel came out in 2013, I was super hesitant to see this movie. Especially because I hadn't read any Blue Beetle comics and didn't really know that much about the character, other than the Ted Kord version was best friends with Booster Gold (a character I dislike), and that the Jaime Reyes version had been in episodes of both Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008-2011) and Young Justice (2010-2022). But, after reading the first twelve issues of the 2006 Blue Beetle comic book series, the first to star Jaime Reyes as Blue Beetle, I decided that I wanted to see what the movie adaptation was like. So when I was out with Brad last week I picked it up on DVD. I had wanted to get it on Blu-ray, but the store we were at only had it on DVD, which I was fine with, because it's a movie I hadn't seen yet, and wasn't sure if I was even going to like it or not. 

Like I said, the movie surprised me. It was a straightforward superhero origin story without any connection to either the previous DCEU continuity, or the upcoming DCU continuity, though according to James Gunn, this version of Jaime will appear in future DCU projects. Between him and WBD itself, I have no idea how any of the DC stuff is actually going to work for movies and TV shows going forward, but that's a discussion for another day. 

One of the things that I love about this movie is how much heart it has. It's also not cynical either. Which I really appreciate because I'm getting so sick of cynical superhero movies. The stakes were personal. It wasn't a universal save type of movie. It was Jaime trying to figure out how to be a superhero while protecting his family, and the legacy of Jenny Kord's father, Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle. And the best part is, he still struggles with being a superhero, like the comic book version of Jaime does, which I really like. It makes him more relatable without making him unlikable. 

The cast of the movie is spectacular. The only actors that I'm familiar with are George Lopez, who plays Jaime's uncle, Rudy, and Susan Sarandon, who plays the antagonist of the movie, Victoria Kord, who is Jenny's aunt and sister to Ted Kord. Lopez is the only cast member that I've actually seen in anything besides this movie. I used to watch his sitcom, The George Lopez Show, in the 2000s and he was high profile enough in the 2000s and 2010s that I was aware of him, even if I only saw him on his sitcom, and nowhere else. 

The rest of the cast is amazing, for example I love the movie version of Jaime's sister, Milagro, who is much younger in the comics than she is in the movie, and I love Jaime's Nana, who isn't in the comics. But my favourite performances come from Xolo Mariduena as Jaime, and Bruna Marquezine as Jenny Kord. Mariduena has been in a few TV shows lately, including in Cobra Kai (2018-) as Miguel Diaz, one of the main roles of the show, but I've never seen it, and I haven't seen anything else he's been in, so this was my first encounter with him. Jenny is another character created for the movie, and I think Bruna Marquezine did a wonderful job. And while I think their chemistry together was excellent, the romantic aspect of their relationship was a bit...subdued. I mean, yes, it's not a romance movie by any means, but most comic book based and superhero movies have a more pronounced romantic element to them that this movie is lacking. I'm not even going to start speculating why that might be, but it is interesting to note nonetheless.

 The movie mostly takes inspiration from The New 52 Blue Beetle comic book series, including the Blue Beetle suit's design. Though, since I haven't read any issues of Blue Beetle except for the first twelve issues of the 2006 series, I have no idea what elements from The New 52 version made it into the movie. 

What's also interesting is that elements from the movie, such as Victoria Kord, and Jaime not being in high school, made it into the comics starting with the tenth volume (including the original Fox Feature Syndicate and Charlton Comics issues) of the Blue Beetle comic book series. Which isn't that surprising given that the movies and TV shows based on DC Comics characters have always had elements from them incorporated into the comics, going all the way back to the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons and the Batman movie serials from the '40s.

The music in this movie is great. It's done by Bobby Krlic. There's a good mix of Mexican music and classic songs like Air Supply's "All Out of Love" and a Spanish version of the Ronettes's song, "Be My Baby". "All Out of Love" isn't on the soundtrack album, but the Spanish version of "Be My Baby", titled "Tu Seras Mi Baby", is the final track on the album. So that's cool.

Blue Beetle was released on digital download on September 26th, 2023 and on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K on October 31st, 2023. Both the Blu-ray and the 4K have several bonus features, including behind the scenes featurettes. The DVD doesn't include any of that. There's not even a commentary track on the DVD release. I have no idea how well the home media releases for the movie have sold, but, it's apparently the most streamed movie on Max, which is cool.

Overall, I enjoyed Blue Beetle. It was fun, interesting, simple, and shorter than most movies that come out these days. I hope we see these characters again in the DCU. If you've been hesitant to watch this movie as I was, I recommend giving it a try. It was fun.

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more blog posts. So until then, have a great evening and I will talk to you later. Take care.