(In my best Kermit the frog voice) Yaaaaaaay!

It’s been 12 years since the last Muppet movie, and 27 years since the last truly great one. But Jason Segel has done it – he brought the Muppets back!

Courtney and I finally got around to seeing The Muppets, and I was mightily impressed. It’s definitely a throwback to the Muppets’ heyday, complete with a plot centered around the standard rich and famous contract from the original movie, clips from The Muppet Show, and vintage references galore – but there was more than that. The characters often acknowledge the fact that they are in a movie. When incredible distances are traveled in no time, or when there is some key plot point exposition, or when they need to go to a time-saving montage, those moments are specifically called out for the audience. I feel like that doesn’t happen very often in movies anymore, and while I generally don’t like breaking the fourth wall, it works seamlessly in a Muppet movie.

Then there’s the music. Bret McKenzie, half of the Flight of the Conchords, wrote the original songs, and they are amazing. The most Flight-of-the-Conchords-y song, “Man or Muppet,”: was hands down my favorite, but all of the new tunes were great. They might not be classics on par with “The Rainbow Connection” or “Together Again,” but they are all definitely catchy, they move the story along, and they are used sparingly; i.e. there’s not a new song starting every five minutes.

The plot is simple and straight-forward, and closely mirrors the real world situation The Muppets have found themselves in recently; namely, that they have been largely forgotten and glossed over, yet there are still dedicated fans pulling for a comeback. The movie is definitely more for the original fans, and the nostalgia for the franchise is certainly a big part of the story… which makes sense, given that Segel wrote the script as basically a love-letter to the felt puppets of his youth.

The big question that remains is whether this new iteration can attract new, young fans. The kid in me loved it, but today’s actual kids are used to 3D, CGI, and dark stories where the main character’s parents were murdered by an evil wizard. There were a few kids in the theater with us, and though they did laugh a few times, they were also definitely bored at times. That could have just been them, and there’s no way to know if those two youngins are representative of the youth of the nation as a whole. The movie’s gotten good buzz and fairly good reviews, but it couldn’t beat Twilight for the #1 spot at the box office. If that’s not a sad state of affairs, I don’t know what is.

But in the end, it was a really fun movie – there was even a new Toy Story short attached! – and I heartily recommend the movie to everyone, be they child or woman… man or Muppet.

For far too long, the only news about Arrested Development were rumors about a movie that was always “coming soon.”

But now – finally – comes the news we’ve all been waiting for since 2006: not only is an Arrested Development movie in the works, but it will be preceded by ten new episodes of the show as well! Yay!

The timing is funny – I just got Seasons 1-3 of the show as a birthday gift last week.  I was looking forward to rewatching the show before, but now I have even more motivation to revisit the Bluth family.

The deal isn’t officially in place, which isn’t great, but the cast, creator Mitchell Hurwitz, and producer Ron Howard have all confirmed the plan.  So we may actually really get new AD by 2013.  Netflix and Showtime are currently in the running to snag the new episodes.  It would be a major win for Netflix, which could use some good press right now.  And the lure of Dexter alone hasn’t been able to get me to subscribe to Showtime, but if they had Dexter AND Arrested Development?  Well, they’d also get some new customers.

It’s the story of a wealthy family who lost everything and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together… It’s MORE Arrested Development!

If 80’s music is so great (and we all know that it is), why aren’t they making any more of it? Good news – The Cars did just that, and they did it very well.

I can’t offer any reason as to why this may be, but I’ve noticed lately that cars that have the new, hideous yellow New York state license plates seem to be especially bad drivers.  So be on the lookout.

There may be another Austin Powers movie – because that’s what the world needs now – another awful and unnecessary four-quel.

I’ve been wondering lately if James Spader will have a “That’s What She Said”-esque catchphrase this season on The Office.  His character’s name is Robert California, so maybe it could be something that plays off of that.  Like, “I’m the Californicator, baby.”  Or maybe something more company-specific, like “It’s Sabre for your paper.”  Or he could always just go with a new twist on an old classic.

catch phras eon the ofice – LA LAw – got it in SPADES

I was, admittedly, late to the Whedon-verse party.  But as previously chronicled on this blog (much to James’ chagrin), I found the pure joys of the nerd-worshipped’s Joss Whedon’s creations Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel series.  I loved Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, and though Dollhouse was an odd concept, I stuck around for both seasons.  But the Whedon creation that I took the longest to watch was Firefly. 

That is no longer the case.

For those unfamiliar, Firefly was a sci-fi show that only lasted half a season, but has a pretty rabid fan base.  Though the show was prematurely canceled, it did get a big-screen follow-up (the film Serenity) that allowed Joss and his fans to have some sense of closure.  Science Channel had recently aired the series, and Netflix has been kind enough to offer Serenity on their streaming service.  So now, finally, I’ve been able to catch up on this beloved show and it’s movie.

And I really liked it, though I do think that it was somewhat a victim of being over-hyped.  The show, like everything Whedon does, was sharply written and defied conventionality.  Taking place on a spaceship several hundred years in the future, there is an eclectic group of characters serving a renegade captain, doing ‘jobs’ wherever they can.  Though it’s a sci-fi space saga, there’s a deliberate attempt to give the series a Western theme, which actually served the show well.  The ensemble of characters had great chemistry, and seeing the different ways they interacted is what drove the show.  Except for the Shepherd – he never seemed to have much to do.

I liked the show, and I’m sure if I had watched it when it originally aired I would have absolutely loved it, and cried foul when it was yanked off the air.  Having been told countless times that the show was pure genius, however, I may have had unrealistically high expectations.  Still, it’s easy to imagine that the show could have gone on for many great seasons had it been given the chance.

The movie Serenity truly was great.  It gave resolution to the central mystery of what happened to River, while also explaining several other aspects of the show’s mythos. It’s really just a very well done flick, with surprises, twists, and an awful lot of stuff packed in, while still not cramming in things that there simply wasn’t room for (Inara and Mal’s story would have felt shoehorned, and it was better left open anyway.) I can imagine it could be difficult for people to appreciate if they hadn’t seen the TV series, but who cares about those people? I felt like the movie was an amazing capper to the overall story, and it made the stories introduced in the show even stronger retroactively.

So what’s next for a behind-the-times nerd? Battlestar Galactica?

According to Entertainment Weekly, a sequel to 2001’s amazingly brilliant comedy Wet Hot American Summer could potentially happen.

Please let it happen!

Now as a general rule, I don’t believe in unnecessary sequels to movies that stand perfectly well on their own.  And Wet Hot American Summer certainly works just fine as it’s own thing.  Hell, they even have that brilliant epilogue at the end that shows all of the characters reunited ten years later.  But the people in and behind the original movie are SO funny that getting them all back together for another project can ONLY be a good thing.  Sure all of the actors are way bigger stars now, and sure there would be a ton of hype and pressure for the movie to improve upon the original, which is certainly a daunting task.

But I don’t care.  I’d see it.  Anyone who loves good comedy would, I’m sure.  I’d probably even write about it in my gournal.

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Yeah, maybe you saw the end coming, but the meta twist is a funny way to let you know what the movie is REALLY about. (If I helped to spoil the surprise with my recent post, I apologize.)

Unnecessary Movie Sequel Idea of the Day: A new Major League movie.

Now, this concept has a lot in common with the usual groan-inducing sequel/remake/reboot movie ideas that hit the web every now and again: It’s been too long, there is no need for a sequel, the original was a classic so just leave it alone, etc.

But this pitch has its own unique curveball (see what I did there?)  The writer-director of the original movie, who has written a new script, wants to reunite old castmates Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, Corbin Bernsen, and Dennis Haysbert.

Really?

I’d imagine Bernsen and Haysbert would have no issues returning to their respective roles; after all Roger Dorn and Pedro Cerrano were the only original characters to show up in the rarely seen Major League: Return to the Minors.  (I know I saw that in the theater, but I don’t really remember it well, other that Scott Bakula was in it and I found the title and the subtitle to be somewhat contradictory.)

But Sheen and Snipes?  I’m not so sure that either one of those guys are up to be in a major movie right now.  Wesley Snipes happens to be in jail for tax evasion, and Charlie Sheen seems to have a pretty set schedule of filming Two and a Half Men around insane benders.  Granted, I guess both men could use some Hollywood cash to pay off the IRS and their coke-fueled prostitutes respectively, but somehow bringing this franchise back from the dead seems to already have two big strikes against it.  (See, I did it again!)

They are both great! But overrated.

The wife and I finally watched all six episodes of AMC’s The Walking Dead, and caught the movie Black Swan. The Walking Dead is a really fun show, and it’s easy to see it having a pretty solid run. The characters are interesting and the zombie death scenes definitely look pretty cool. It’s a well worn genre, and the whole “guy waking up from a coma to find the world overrun by zombies” thing feels recycled from 28 Days Later. But putting a zombie story into a serialized TV show was a great idea, and the execution has been wonderful.

But the hype surrounding the show has been insane. People on Facebook were raving about it when it first aired. Entertainment Weekly called it the best new show on TV. So I was expecting something truly amazing and utterly epic, along the lines of Lost. And while I enjoy TWD and will definitely tune in next season, it wasn’t THAT good.

Ditto Black Swan. I enjoyed the movie (yes, Mila Kunis’ presence only helped) and found it to be an intriguing and visually amazing movie about one woman’s obsession with being perfect. Definitely worth seeing. But the awards hype surrounding it has gotten a little out of hand, no? I mean, it was no Toy Story 3, that’s for sure.

Shrug. I guess this is just bound to happen when you don’t see the next big thing right away, and the hype only builds and builds. And it’s a shame when it happens to something that is good, because you end up being disappointed if you don’t think it’s AMAZING. It’s not like it’s the movie’s fault people rave nonstop about it. But for what it’s worth, I recommend both Black Swan and The Walking Dead. Just don’t expect either to change your life.

Remember when I wrote about how a Buffy movie might happen without Joss Whedon?  Well, it’s offically happening.

Sigh.

So what does Joss himself think about it?  You can and should read his thoughts here, but his point is essentially that it seems strange to remake something when the original is still so fresh in people’s minds.

And he’s right.  The thing is, people bemoan remakes and reboots and endless sequels, but enough people (possibly the same ones bemoaning, perhaps not) still shell out for tickets to see these movies.  This summer’s The Karate Kid was both bemoaned AND extremely profitable.  (I’ll stop using the word “bemoan” now.)  And show business is, after all, a business, so you can understand why countless remakes are being greenlit – an established name is a safer financial investment than a purely original concept.

Even though The Karate Kid is something I fondly recall, it had been 21 years since Daniel-San’s last fight (and 16 years since The Next Karate Kid – shudder.)  That is at least a decent amount of time to wait before starting again from scratch.  I have written about this before as well, specifically how Warner Bros. – the same people rebooting Buffy -  decided to reboot their Superman franchise just a few years after Superman Returns.   Should there at least be some sort of time limit – say 20 years – in between attempts to restart what could be a possible franchise?  Or will it only be a matter of time before something like this happens?

The trouble with a time limit is that then the moviemakers would just set their sights on older movies.  Hell, that’s happening now, too -  there is talk of a Wizard of Oz remake for crying out loud.  So maybe there should be an independent council set up, made up of regular folks, hardcore fans, and industry professionals, who would have to approve any remakes.  They would be able to give the go-ahead to specific projects, or deem certain ideas as “classics” that are not allowed to be remade.   Of course the problem with both that idea and establishing an arbitrary time limit is that they don’t take into account the legalities of the current properties – certain individuals and corporate entities own the rights to beloved characters and stories, and they can do what they want with them.

So how about this idea – why not remake BAD movies and TV shows?  Sure, sure, I get that such an idea flies in the face of the whole “safer investment” argument, but hear me out: Take an old property that was at its core a good idea, but the execution was just way off, then attach a writer/director/star who really want to do justice to the core of the original story.  That way you get to cash in on an established name, while at the same time not alienating scores of die-hard fans.  I guess you’d piss off the people involved with the original, but that’s their own fault for making a crappy show or movie.

Perfect example: Waterworld.  The concept – in the future, the polar ice caps have melted, the world is covered by oceans, and dry land and drinking water are next to impossible to find.  That sort of eco-friendly, green message would play great now!  And who would be offended by remaking Waterworld?  Costner?  Too bad.  Bring in a good creative crew, and turn that into a tentpole movie.  Sign the actors for three pictures and make it a trilogy.  Market the hell out of it – make some obligatory comparisons to The Dark Knight, say that this version will be the Waterworld that they just couldn’t make 15 years ago!  It will be better!  Darker!  More dramatic!  Actually watchable!  Everybody wins!

Taking classic films that have stood the test of the time and needlessly updating them is a real shame.  So is bastardizing a franchise that has only recently hit screens.  The system of what gets rebooted needs to be rebooted.  Any other ideas?