Benjamin Grimm

Not much. Special effects, dumb story.

'Thor' moves up release date while 'Spider-Man 4' stalls By Melissa Moseley, AP Hot on the heels of the news this week that production of Spider-Man 4 is delayed, Paramount and Marvel Entertainment have pushed up the release of Thor by two weeks to May 6, 2011, reports Variety. Thor, starring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, was going to open on May 20. Disney has now grabbed that date for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Spider-Man 4 was supposed to start filming in February, reports Nikki Finke, then it pushed to March. Then late March/early April. And now there's no date at all. Finke says director Sam Raimi "hated" the script.

I only saw four of them, and the only two I liked started with the word "Up." UP (ani) UP IN THE AIR 2012 CORALINE (ani)

Maybe that kid in the orange shirt is commenting on the positioning of the outfielders. More likely, he's pointing to the zany antics of the costumed litter patrol guy running through the stands with a trash bag.

I saw this yesterday, and voted it a 6. It was a good movie; I enjoyed it. I particularly liked that it didn't provide the ending that, I suspect, most moviegoers were probably expecting. I was disappointed, though, that it wasn't in 3-D and they never showed the old guy attaching the balloons to his house and floating away.

I enjoyed reading Ludlum when I was a twenty-something. I didn't know they were aimed at seniors! (I guess I was a bit of a fuddy-duddy.) I saw a new Ludlum novel on display at the supermarket this past weekend. Knowing that the author is dead at the present time, I took a closer look. It's actually written by "Robert LudlumTM" and the indicia describes how the Ludlum family has personally approved an anonymous author to keep churning out Robert Ludlum thrillers in order to keep the gravy train on its tracks. (They didn't word it quite that way.) I think that's just awful. It wouldn't be so bad if it was titled "Robert Ludlum's the Something-or-Other Something or Other" by New Author Guy. But to have it look like Ludlum actually wrote the thing is unfair to his legacy, whatever you may think of him. What's next? Is some descendant of Charles Dickens, or John Steinbeck, or some other famous literary dead guy, going to commission a family-approved author to crank out "Greater Expectations" or "Of Mice and Men: Lennie's Revenge!"

Frayed Knot wrote: This actor appeared in just five feature films in his career but all five were nominated for Best Picture Oscars (three won) - name the actor, and the pictures while you're at it. The first name that I thought of was James Dean, but I knew right away that that was wrong because I know he only made three films. And I'm not sure that any of them were nominated for best picture. (Maybe Giant was?)

metirish wrote: Got to say I couldn't sit through The Incredibles Really? That's how I felt about Wall-E. It seemed like three hours of watching a little troll shoving garbage around.

Iron Man The Incredibles Dark Knight

I was curious to see this movie, until I saw a clip on Letterman. It showed a couple of pretentious blue monkeys scurrying around in a tree. It looked absolutely dreadful. Now maybe it's possible to make a really good movie about pretentious blue monkeys, and I've judged Avatar unfairly, but I don't care to invest the time and money to find out. I don't think I'll watch it on HBO either.

The Schaefer voting results: 1 David Wright 91.72 2 Johan Santana 84.61 3 Daniel Murphy 71.46 4 Luis Castillo 70.96 5 Mike Pelfrey 58.78 6 Carlos Beltran 57.53 7 Angel Pagan 54.94 8 Fernando Tatis 53.44 9 Jeff Francoeur 50.81 10 Gary Sheffield 46.94 11 Livan Hernandez 46.08 12 Omir Santos 42.66 13 Francisco Rodriguez 38.58 14 Tim Redding 37.44 15 Bobby Parnell 35.11 16 Brian Stokes 34.50 17 Pedro Feliciano 32.62 18 Sean Green 32.04 19 Ryan Church 29.47 20 John Maine 29.16 21 Nelson Figueroa 27.53 22 Alex Cora 25.69 23 Pat Misch 23.59 24 Cory Sullivan 21.72 25 Brian Schneider 21.29 26 Carlos Delgado 20.71 27 José Reyes 17.29 28 Oliver Perez 16.58 29 Elmer Dessens 16.50 30 Fernando Nieve 16.27 31 Anderson Hernandez 15.92 32 Ken Takahashi 15.41 33 Jeremy Reed 14.75 34 J. J. Putz 12.51 35 Ramon Castro 10.37 36 Wilson Valdez 10.26 37 Fernando Martinez 9.97 38 Josh Thole 9.75 39 Jon Niese 7.44 40 Nick Evans 6.78 41 Tobi Stoner 3.06 42 Lance Broadway 3.02 43 Ramon Martinez 1.73 44 Angel Berroa 1.69 45 Billy Wagner 1.66 46 Casey Fossum 1.62 47 Darren O'Day 0.69 48 Jon Switzer 0.56 49 Andy Green 0.32 50 Argenis Reyes 0.16 51 Emil Brown 0.10

Edgy DC wrote: In recent weeks, Stoner has been buzzed about the blogosphere as a dark horse for the Mets rotation. Really? That's interesting...

There's a country in Europe that's full of guys like Switzer.

I guess. With Zito is was an expensive bullet. With this schnook it's more of a moronic bullet.

The next decade or two may prove me wrong, of course, but right now he looks to be a Barry Zito-sized dodged bullet.

It's also possible that the Mets will bring in a one-year old guy to hold down first base for 2010. (That old guy may be Carlos Delgado, or not.) In which case, Davis would be more realistically aiming for 2011.

I think it's good news, if another FF film gets made, rather than have the characters on the shelf for another 20 or 30 years. It may not be a good movie, but I'll take my chances. And I don't think they'll "rush" to make a bad movie just to hold on to the characters. It's not good business sense. Why spend the money to make a bad movie, when the bad movie will only devalue the property that you're trying to hang on to?

Latest news is that Fox is planning to "reboot" the Fantastic Four series. Apparently they hold the rights to the characters "in perpetuity" as long as they keep making films. So their options are: 1. Lose the characters 2. Make a third movie in the current series, which has had mediocre (at best) quality and less than mediocre reception. 3. Reboot, as was done with the Hulk. New cast, new interpretation, new... whatever. I think this is good news. I'm still hoping to see my favorite characters get the treatment they deserve. I was afraid that the two recent movies doomed my hopes for at least a generation. Now... maybe not.

Edgy DC wrote: Ike joins the US team next week at that International Baseball Federation's Baseball World Cub in Europe starting next week. I saw advertising billboards for that event in Prague this summer.

Paramount: 'Thor,' 'Iron Man 2' still coming despite Marvel sale by Alynda Wheat Paramount Pictures issued a statement today in the wake of Marvel Studios� sale to Disney, reported earlier. The $4 billion deal won�t affect Paramount�s distribution arrangement for five upcoming films, the studio announced, including the highly anticipated Iron Man 2 and Thor. �Paramount Pictures has enjoyed a productive and fruitful relationship with Marvel Studios from the start of our distribution agreement in 2005,� the statement began. �So much so, we announced a five-picture slate distribution deal last year which includes worldwide distribution rights for upcoming films: Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, Avengers, and Iron Man 3. This distribution deal will be unaffected by today�s transaction. We look forward to continuing to work with Marvel and, with today�s announcement, to working with Disney to replicate the incredible success of Iron Man on all our future collaborative projects.�

Weren't Iron Man and Incredible Hulk made by Marvel Studios. Either way, if Paramount or Fox have licenses with Marvel, then they now have licenses with Disney. Marvel still exists, it's just become yet another subsidiary of Disney.

Wouldn't Disney have ownership of any rights that Marvel had ownership of? If Marvel can make Thor or Iron Man 2, and now Disney owns Marvel, then I don't see why Disney wouldn't have the rights to make the movies. I suspect that this will make it easier for the Marvel characters to come to the movies or TV. I'm not saying that Disney will do a better job, but if they produce more, then there will be more quality stuff (as well as more poor stuff). If I was still reading the comics, I'd probably be concerned about their future, but I don't, so I'm not.

I was going to comment on his age. At 22, is he older than most of the rest of the FSL? (I'm not saying he is, I'm just asking.) If he is, that could make his numbers a little less impressive.

Pass. None of them really floated my boat.

He would be a good choice. If I were developing Spidey 4, I'd have Spidey team up with Johnny Storm to fight the Wizard and Paste Pot Pete. (I think I've posted that before, perhaps even in this very thread.) It would be a great homage to those old Strange Tales stories of the 60's.