These two walked by and I almost missed them. If they’d been separate, I definitely would have. But the pattern on the mask, combined with the sunglasses on the other, made me realize what I was looking at: casual cosplay Crowley (red) and Aziraphale (blue). Absolute perfection. I was SO excited!!!
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Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 2005 film Sky High.
A wonderful and terrible amalgam of John Hughes, American Pie, and early 2000’s superheroes. The story has all the beats you expect and cringe at. It’s an extremely derivative story.
Score: 0
The characters are fun archetypes. I love the tough brooding guy with heart of gold trope. Nice to see the hippy nature lover as a love interest. The rest of the kids are a weak attempt at inclusion and underdogs.
The actors are all quite good. I’m particularly impressed by the main character, who manages to sound like a younger Kurt Russell.
Score: 0.5
It’s a love story to superhero movies and comic books. The dialogue references so many different movies and manages that 2000’s innocence without coming off as fake. There are also quite a few good quips.
Score: 1
The visuals are pretty good for its age and budget bracket. Most of the effects were practical and the sets were real. All this makes it look less dated then a lot of other movies that came out at the time. The cinematography and fight scenes are also surprisingly well done.
The soundtrack is nearly completely 80’s music remade by early 2000’s bands and hits me right in the nostalgia. The score is very good.
Score: 1
Despite the teen cringe factor, the movie is a lot of fun. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and the actors use that to both ham it up and deliver surprisingly nuanced roles.
The kids loved it and the rest of us did too.
Score: 1
The story might be derivative and the teen love story a little cringy, but it’s a loving homage to superheroes that feels dated but still a lot of fun.
Final Score: 3.5 Stars out of 5
I was so excited to see Osgood. She even had a puffer! She was happy to be recognized, which I thought was strange – Osgood is so recognizable!
Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12
“This was a terrible idea,” the Aresian said. “You being a Martian is one thing, but a Feline as well.” He sounded dire but his tail gave away his excitement at the prospect of a fight.
“Former Commander Nessa Muldune, and yes this is probably the worst idea either of us has ever had but our gods will laugh at the strength of our arrogance.”
They had escaped their bonds and managed to get out of the room. Standing in paper gowns, the two of them looked down on a ten-storey sized room with at least ten thousand soldiers standing in formation. They were facing the other way, receiving orders from someone.
“Lieutenant Bart Shelby,” he said. His fur was a dark blonde and short. His ears were a little floppy but alert. He looked a lot like a man she’d been in the academy with. Canines were similar on both Ares and Mars. That made her more confident that they’d been colonized from Earth.
After a little more staring in awe at the army they backed away and started trying to move stealthily towards the docking bay where the Camlann was docked.
They managed to avoid several patrols, thanks to the ship’s gaudy interior design. Who puts ornate pillars in a ship? she wondered.
When they got to the docking bay, there were two ships, the Camlann and another one person fighter. “You tried fighting them in that?” she asked in awe.
“I was scouting this sector thinking your people had created some sort of secret weapon when I came across them. I tried to go out in battle but their tractor beams got me.”
“I think your ship will fit in our hold,” she suggested.
“That’s great, but your ship looks a little big for just the two of us.” He was right. The crew was expected to be twenty and they could operate efficiently at a skeleton crew of six; pilot, engineer, gunner, navigator, medic, and scientist.
“We could probably get it out of here and recruit a new crew,” she said doubtfully.
Pointing in the general direction of their old cell, Bart said, “Or we could go recruit them now. Shouldn’t your crew be here?” He saw her pained look and said, “Oh… drama huh? Well suck it up kitty-cat, I don’t like them either.”
Getting back to the cells was too easy. The three-guard patrols were predictable and easy to avoid. They managed to get to the first cell and Nessa’s face lit up seeing Perri. “Doctor! Are you comfortable or can we get you out of there?”
He said something, but the force field blocked all sound. There were no obvious controls or any central station for the force fields.
Bart tried hitting the wall but nothing happened. “I guess we need to fight a patrol,” he said enthusiastically.
Waiting for the next patrol they jumped them and managed to take them out with little difficulty.
“They looked surprised. Why is that? Does this all feel too easy to you?” Nessa asked.
Nodding, Bart said, “I think it has to do with why they were testing us. They said something about not seeing me in their future.” He picked the guards’ pockets and found nothing. With a grunt, he picked up a guard and carried him to the doctor’s cell. Nothing happened until he tossed the guard at the forcefield. When he did that, the field collapsed.
“Probably designed to not harm the guards,” she suggested.
“Commander!” Perri exclaimed and saluted. “What do we do?”
Bart scoffed and said, “I’m not saluting you.”
Nessa smirked. “Let’s get some more crew.” Her plan had been to get as many people out as she could, but the alarms started to blare and she knew she only had a little time before they were swarmed with guards or soldiers. “Grab the guard, let’s release the closest cells.
They managed to release four more people before they started to hear marching. There was an Aresian lieutenant, who was tall, muscled and looked like she’d been in plenty of fights; a lizard man from the Tyrite Empire who wore their uniform for a science officer; a Canine officer from the same ship as the lizard man; and last was a young girl who looked like she might have been fifteen, wearing strange clothes.
“Follow me and be quick,” Nessa led the way and tried to pick a random path back to her ship.
They arrived with no fight, to Bart’s disappointment, and found Sun Speaker Aria waiting outside the ship’s hold. “You are hard to predict, but even without my powers I knew you’d come here.” She raised a gun and pointed it at Nessa.
“There’s a lot about Felines and Martians that you don’t know.”
With a smirk, the Sun Speaker replied, “Yes and we’ll find out.” She turned the gun to Bart and shot him. Bart crumpled to the ground.
In the time it took the Sun Speaker to turn the gun back to Nessa, the Feline had closed the distance between them and grabbed at the gun. She punched the other woman in the throat and grabbed the gun, turned it, and shot as the psychic gasped for air.
“He’s breathing, it must be a stun weapon,” the Doctor said and gestured to the Aresian woman and Tyrian to help carry Bart into the ship.
They raced to the bridge, except for the doctor and Bart who stopped in the medbay, and she sat in the pilot’s chair. She was more comfortable in the navigator’s position, but she was the only one who knew the ship.
“Aresian woman, can you shoot?” Nessa asked.
She was right and the woman replied, “Of course I can. It’s ensign Tanya Brook by the way.”
“You,” Nessa said pointing at the lizard man.
“Alexandre Crowley, senior science officer.” The Tyrian said with a hissing voice. She pointed him to the science consol.
“Ensign, take out the walls and the forcefield should come down. I’m going to try and activate the star drive the moment the shield is down.”
They all gasped except the young girl and she thought she saw excitement in their eyes.
Tanya was an excellent shot and the forcefield was down just as Nessa finished firing up the engine. They jumped to faster-than-light speed and they all visibly relaxed.
She didn’t want to overtax the engines and cut the throttle when she thought they were far enough away.
Dropping out of FTL, they found themselves in an empty part of space.
“Captain, there’s a dark planet down there and it’s hailing us,” Alexandre said, sounding shocked.
While you wait for the next chapter, check out the previous serial stories:
Hello,
It’s been almost two months since I updated you. It hasn’t been a particularly enlightening two months.
I did finally get an appointment for the specialty clinic. That appointment went well; I have an awesome occupational therapist and doctor who are in charge of my case. The doctor, unfortunately, is an elbow surgeon who’s not quite sure why WSIB has referred me to him, but he’s willing to send me to specialists and tests.
They sent me to a Neurologist. I was really excited to finally see one. He did the exact same test that the carpal tunnel doctor did back in August. He says I have a little bit of carpel tunnel in my wrists, but that shouldn’t be bothering me. There’s no indication that my nerves are damaged or that they’ve had any issues at all.
He ended the exam saying that I was too young to worry about it and that if it were up to him he’d say to forget all this WSIB stuff and just go back to my normal routine and then added that the whole thing was ridiculous.
When I asked him about the numbness in my face he said, “That’s nothing. Ignore it.”
I was disheartened and angry. I’m not sure if he thought I was faking or that I was exaggerating my pain, but it was really condescending.
The nice elbow doctor and occupational therapist had scheduled an MRI for my neck, but with the Neurologist saying that I don’t have any nerve damage, they canceled it.
The downside to the clinic is that I only get appointments every 6 weeks. My next one is early April and hopefully they won’t be as dismissive as the Neurologist.
Unfortunately, I’m still in a lot of pain and it’s not getting better. My face is still numb and it aches a little when I work too long. I also find the vision in my left eye gets worse when I overdo it.
Between the pain, the clumsiness, and the numbness in my face, I’m starting to suspect MS. When I had an optometrist appointment in December, he said he couldn’t get my left eye to be as clear. I asked him about the numbness and that I sometimes got blurry vision in my left eye. He said that it couldn’t be nerves and that it’s possibly a side effect of fatigue. He said the only thing he knew that would affect my eye and not be seen in his tests was MS.
I’d hoped the Neurologist would have been able to test for that, but he didn’t.
MS is a scary prospect, but I’d rather find out than not know. There are plenty of other options; Fibromyalgia, Myofascial Pain Syndrome, and some much scarier, like ALS or cancer.
So a lot happened, but nothing new was discovered. Let’s hope this is just another step to figuring it out.
Stay safe and be kind,
Éric
I almost want to delay this picture until Peter Pan and Wendy, but I won’t. These wings are too gorgeous to postpone. I wish the kids had been able to see these two in person.
@ujjiocosplay @ujjio as Tinkerbell and @a_gastaldini as Peter Pan
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Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 2021 film Gunpowder Milkshake.
Hyperviolent with just enough emotion that you know it’s there. A classic style action movie. It’s not deep but it does have heart and a nice theme about found family.
Score: 0.5
Stoic, sarcastic, and deadly. The characters are barely two dimensional and only work through the immense talent of the actors.
Score: 0
Lots of quips, snark, and wonderful banter. The dialogue does double duty in needing to express the subtleties that the characters themselves don’t.
Score: 0.5
The style reminded me of a more colourful Sin City with a little of the surreal aspects of Sucker Punch. Overall, it has beautiful cinematography, sets, costumes, and action. The action is absolutely superb. Loved the car chase in the parking garage.
The music was a nice combination femme rock and instrumental action music.
Score: 1
I wasn’t sure what to expect and wanted something exciting and easy to watch. I wasn’t disappointed. I can see this being a comfort watch for me. Jen wasn’t as big a fan of the gore and extreme violence. The kids were in bed and did not watch, thankfully.
Score: 1
An excellent hyperviolent action movie with all the music quips and fights that make the genre fun to watch. The actors in this are at the top of their game and killing it (literally and figuratively.)
Final Score: 3 Stars out of 5
I followed the sewing of this costume intently before this convention, and it did not disappoint. She did a beautiful job.
The only time I’ll be excited to see Mother Gothel is a cosplay Mother Gothel!
Hello Coffee Lovers,
Yes, it’s still winter here. There are some advantages to roasting in winter. The first being that the beans cool faster. The second being that roasting things at 250-300 Celcius is a lot more tolerable when the temperature outside is -5.
The shoveling and having to stop for snowfall isn’t as much fun.
I was roasting this weekend to prepare for Mini Ottawa Comiccon. It’s at the EY centre and will be a vendors market with free entrance (Although parking is $10).
Hours are 11-6 on Saturday and 11-5 on Sunday.
Hope to see you there,
Éric
Hello Readers,
I’ve started re-reading The Copper Tarnish. I started the novel in November 2016 and took several breaks from working on it. I’ve finished six books since then. I’ve worked on it a little here and there, but it stalled when Pegasus was born and I devoted myself to finishing The Mystery of the Dancing Lights (Elizabeth book 4, coming this fall.)
The big issue with not touching a book for nearly three years (whoa Pegasus is going to be 4 soon!) is that I forgot the story, the characters and the voices.
That meant I needed to read the unfinished book, something I’m not good at. I haven’t been reading very much lately, mostly because it’s hard on my arms, but my wonderful wife inspired me. I loaded the document in Word and used the feature where it reads it to me. I set it to fast and read along. It’s really helpful and I think it’s helping me to re-connect with the story and characters.
I’m also really liking the story and the pure snark of the characters.
The Copper Tarnish is my attempt at a monster movie style story. It’s also a little more personal, being about a bisexual in Northern Ontario. Although I never had to deal with zombie people, green goo, aliens, or rogue goverment agents.
A lot of the book is set in a fictional town that’s an amalgam of the towns where I grew up, and re-reading feels a little like going home. Everything feels smaller and doesn’t fit right.
It’s weird reading something I wrote and it feels like someone else did it. I think once I get back into it I’ll feel like it’s mine again.
I’m hoping to be done writing this by the end of summer (more realistically the end of year) so I can submit it to my publisher. I only have about 20 thousand words left to write.
Thanks for reading,
Éric
