Batson's Blog

I realized it’s been a few weeks since my last movie review. Before that, it was even longer, so I decided: it’s movie week. All week, a new movie review each day. It starts off with Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow . I remembered seeing a few previews years ago, but it never peaked my interest enough to see the actual movie. It was on my Netflix list, however, so last week it ended up in my mailbox. Turns out, it wasn’t a bad movie at all. Sky Captain was a lot like Sin City in the sense that it consisted of a lot of very impressive artwork and graphics. At first I didn't realize there was so much animation involved. The movie starts off with a scientist getting killed. From there giant robots attack New York City. The Sky Captain, Harry "Joe" Sullivan (Jude Law) ends up swooping in (literally, with his Sky Captain plane) to save the day.  During the entire scene with the robots, it becomes clear that a good portion of the movie was filmed in f...

With the premiere of the third Iron Man just a few days away, there are several questions to be answered: who is the main villain? How will Iron Man survive what appears to be (based on the previews anyway) his greatest threat yet? Will there be an Iron Man 4? Just as important, though, is this question: what will Stan Lee’s cameo be? He’s made an appearance in almost every Marvel movie in the past decade. It’s become a tradition. Even his least memorable cameos have been very fun to watch. To prepare you for Iron Man 3 , here’s the top 15 Stan Lee cameos: 15. Stan Lee as an eyewitness to the Avengers saving New York City Stan Lee’s last cameo, in The Avengers , was fun, but not particularly clever or overly memorable. He made a minor appearance towards the end of the movie as a witness to the scene in New York. To be fair, The Avengers was such an action-packed movie that finding a cameo for Lee was probably a fairly difficult task. 14. Stan Lee as a heroic bystan...

For some reason I’m just finding out about Gigi’s Cupcakes . I Googled “Charlotte Cupcakes” several months ago when I started writing these reviews and I missed Gigi’s. It’s located in the Sharon Corners Shopping Center , but it doesn’t stick out, even if you’re looking for it. The shop is tucked way back in the corner, underneath Jesse Brown's. Admittedly, I missed the turn at first, so I had to make a loop through an entirely unrelated neighborhood in order to actually find the shop. It’s a smaller shop in size, with a couple of display cases on each side of the cash register, but the cupcakes sure aren’t! Just looking at the display case you can tell that there’s a lot of effort that goes into the cupcakes. The frosting is piled on – three layers up – and some of the cupcakes had additional toppings and decorations as well. How good they tasted, I wasn’t sure, but they looked impressive. I was very tempted to get the Peanut Butter Cup and Salted Chocolate Caramel ...

After A.J. Clemente's on-air gaffe , there's a lot of opinion floating around about whether or not he should have been fired. When I was getting my degree in Mass Communication, I was taught that there are a couple of cardinal sins in journalism. One is saying that someone is dead when they really aren't.  That's a surefire way to lose your job, especially if the person you accidentally kill is Reverend Billy Graham . The other major no-no is swearing while you're on the air. For that reason, when I was a reporter, I didn't swear inside the TV station at all. Despite Clemente's firing, he's been getting his 15 minutes of fame, so it may work out for the best. Clemente wasn't the first TV personality to swear during a live broadcast and I'm sure he won't be the last. Whether it's magazines, newspapers or TV news broadcasts, mistakes happen. Some are more minor than others though. Mistakes, big and small, are bound to happen...

After blogging about some possible characters in a possible third G.I. Joe movie, I figured why not give X-Men a shot. Days of Future past is already in the works, but what about the one after that? One has to think that after the original trilogy, two Wolverine movies and two prequels, there’s not too many X-Men movies left. Nightcrawler made an appearance in X2 , Beast made his full-form appearance in X-Men: The Last Stand , and Gambit made an appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine . Banshee, Havok and The White Queen were all part of X-Men: First Class . Magneto, Mystique, Cyclops, the Professor, Rogue and Storm were all major parts of the original X-Men trilogy. So who is left? Here are a few characters who would be fun to see make appearances in any remaining X-Men movies: Jubilee She was a teenager in the animated series in the ‘90s. Because of that she was often left out of the major missions, for her own safety. In X-Men , Rogue kind of took on the role of the...

After the successful opening weekend for G.I. Joe: Retaliation a few weeks back, rumors immediately started swirling about G.I. Joe 3. Even though there was no additional scene after the credits, I almost immediately began anticipating a third movie as well. Given that there was such a shift in the cast between the first and second movies, I'm hoping they continue that trend (to a degree) with the third, welcoming a few more Joes to the fold. I hope there's a few new villains as well. While I always welcome Storm Shadow back for round three, I think Firefly and Zartan's departures (assuming they don't make a miraculous comeback) will open up a couple of new spots. Here are some of the characters I'd like to see show up next time around: Shipwreck He was always one of my favorite G.I. Joes, simply because Shipwreck always had personality. There were some episodes that centered around him and it got to be a little annoying. Too much Shipwreck equals an...

I have yet to see Oz: The Great and Powerful , but I hear it’s a pretty decent movie. It’s on my ‘to see’ list – maybe even in the theatres. I’m curious to see what the plot is since I’ve stayed away from reviews and spoilers. I’m equally curious to see what Oz looks like with the technical capabilities of the 21st century. Over the years, Hollywood has done a pretty spectacular job at making some make believe places look very real. Here are nine other make believe lands that would provide a lot of fun if they actually did exist: Narnia Imagine being able to step through a mirror and being transported to a magical land of talking lions, talking beavers and other magical beings. As long as it's a time of peace, there wouldn't be any evil witches to worry about. I think I'd be a little scared to go, honestly. I'd be worried Aslan would get a bit of an appetite and I'd be his lunch.  It'd be and adventure though -- that's for sure. Neverlan...