ModestGeniusXL

Iron Man 3

Normally I'm not too keen on sequels.  They just don't have that great of a track record in Hollywood.  Especially when you start talking about the third installment.  By that time there's a very good chance that the franchise has started to grow stale or very well on its way.  Don't get me wrong though...there have been exceptions like "Lord of the Rings".  When I saw that some critic had called this one "the best Iron Man yet" I tried to be optimistic that there would be hope for this one too.

In "Iron Man 3" Tony Stark/Iron Man  (Robert Downey, Jr.) faces a new foe known as the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark brazenly invites Mandarin to bring the fight to him, he finds his personal world destroyed.  Tony has to get back to the basics as he tries to hunt down the Mandarin for revenge as well as anyone else that is responsible.  

There was something that I noticed right away in the superhero franchises where the heroes wear a mask.  The longer the series go on, the less time you see the hero in the mask.  My theory is that as the franchise goes on and gets more and more popular, the actor wants more face time.  So they start coming up with more excuses as to why they need to have the mask off.  It happened in the Spider-Man movies with Tobey Maguire.  "Iron Man 3" is another prime example.  But they took it to another level here.

Stark spent WAY too much time outside the suit.  They purposely wrote the script so that there was a need for it.  With most of his homebase and the only suit he had being inoperable, we got to see nothing but Tony for a great portion of the film.  Sorry, but I have a problem with that.  I want to see an Iron Man movie.  Not a Tony Stark movie.  Then the moment when he single-handedly infiltrates the Mandarin's hideout took the cake.  I just found it hard to believe that a place that was supposedly so heavily guarded would have very little electronic surveillance and security guards that were so inept. 

That disappointment was nothing compared to how they handled the Mandarin.  **SPOILER ALERT** I was stoked the moment I saw the clips of Kingsley in that role.  He certainly didn't have the mass to be somene physically imposing, but he is such a gifted actor that he can easily convey the persona of a psychopath.  However, the problem is they drastically altered the Mandarin character.  He wasn't an actual villain at all.  He was just a puppet.  Mandarin was an actor?!  They had a chance to make one of the most epic movie villains ever and instead they belittled him making him borderline corny.  Was not diggin' that at all.

Naturally, Iron Man was going to need some type of physical villain to match up against since they hollowed out Mandarin.  Enter Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce).  I will admit that the power that they gave him was pretty interesting.  And at least they didn't have him a tacky costume.  It also helped that Pearce made him somewhat charismatic which is a key ingredient for a villain to have.  So I guess he wasn't all that bad as the latest Iron Man adversary.  It's just too bad it had to be done at the expense of ruining what good have been an even more epic bad guy.

Once they FINALLY gave us some actual Iron Man action, it finally picked up.  The highlight of any Iron Man movie is always seeing the suit in action.  It doesn't even matter who's in it.  Which is why even Don Cheadle's scenes as Iron Patriot were fun to watch.  And they took it up several notches here with a climatic battle that featured all of the Iron Man suits.  Now granted, it is rather incredulous to accept that all of these suits are able to operate in full battle mode on their own.  Do you know how much tech would be involved with that??  But it's an action movie so remember you're not supposed to be think reasonably.

So was "Iron Man 3" the best Iron Man yet?  Not by a longshot.  "Iron Man" is in no jeopardy of losing that distinction.  As much as I did like the underlying storyline here that Tony was still struggling with the demons from the "Avengers" battle, there other problems the flick has that distracted from that.  Unless they intend to make the Mandarin the right way, they would be wise to stop the Iron Man franchise now.


My rating:  B -

 

 

 

Thanks for Making Us Jump...Jump...

It was so ironic that I was just listening to Kris Kross's "Jump" just the other day.  And it wasn't like I put the song on to hear it..it just happened to be coming on the radio.  I smiled as it brought back fond college memories for me as I had nearly forgotten about those two little kids.  Then it was just days later that I would hear the news I never expected.

Rapper Chris Kelly passed away at an Atlanta hospital May 1st after he was found unresponsive at his home.  He was 34-years-old.

I can still recall being in my sophomore at Iowa State University when I first heard one of my frat brothers talking about some song they had heard back home in Chicago.  Apparently it was burning up the stations there.  The hottest new rap sensation.  But at a time when hip-hop was at its apex in the early 90s, these faces weren't at all what I expected.  The voices weren't at all what I expected.  It was two little kids??  But thing was the music was HOT!

Producer sensation Jermaine Dupri had created a sound that was able to appeal to a wide variety of age groups.  Those two kids really should have had only their age group clamoring after them.  Instead, thanks to the beats and tracks that Dupri provided, even us college kids couldn't help but bob our heads to their sound.  Now granted, we weren't stupid enough to fall for the fad of wearing the clothes backwars that they tried to create, but we certainly liked what we heard. Some of our generation liked it a little too much.  I clearly remember them being on Soul Train and grown women were fawning over them.

Therein lied part of the problem.

Dupri always caught a bad rap for borderline exploiting young talent.  He would get them at a young age when he new they would be "cute" then cut them loose once that wore off.  Usually about the time they became legal.  By that time, the kids had already grown up too fast.  They had experienced more in their preteen and teenage years than most of us would probably experience in a lifetime.  And naturally, not all kids are mature enough to handle that fast-paced life being thrown at them.  Not without a proper mentor.  Which Dupri was not.  So you end up getting kids running into adult problems.

The word is that Kelly had problems with drugs over the past several years.  Unfortunately, I'm sure that doesn't surprise any of us.  We've all heard the story a dozen of times of these child stars that go down the wrong path.  It seemed like Chris had gotten thru the rough patch though when he and fellow Kris Kross member Chris Smith had recently reunited for a So So Def 20th Anniversary performance.  But instead of being a road to recovery, that may have done nothing but reignited his past demons.  Whatever the case, it is yet another example of another artist gone far too soon.

Rest in peace, Mac Daddy.

Happy Birthday!

Yes, I purposely left the subject generic on purpose.  Even though it is my Uncle's birthday.  I've already wished him happy birthday on The Book.  With the photo that you see here.  Which then caused me to realize the same thing I always do when it comes to my blog.  That once again, the folks that read this aren't privy to the greatness (yes, I called it greatness) that is being shared on that social networking site.

It's more than just this photo though.  It's what this photo represents.  An idea that I came up with a while back when it comes to birthdays.  It's really just a different way of wishing a person a happy birthday.  Something inexpensive that can still manage to brighten their special day.

On The Book, it's common knowledge that when it's someone's birthday, folks will flood their wall with posts wishing them happy birthday.  Some of them are sincere.  Some are just folks saying it because they feel obligated.  Or they're just trying to be friendly.  You can usually tell the difference in the punctuation that's being used.  I try to be cordial as well by doing the same, but I take it a step further in some instances.

There are a lot of folks on The Book that have done shoots with me.  So as a sign of gratitude to them on their birthday I alter one of the pics from their shoot to give them their own distinguished birthday shout out.  When I first did it, I made my XL-Images logo the prominent part of the picture.  Just switching it up how it normally looks.  Then it occurred to me that was rather selfish since it was that person's birthday.  So I changed it to that person's name being the focal point. 

I do have parameters as to what pics I can and can't use.  By rule, I will only do it if the person has done a shoot with me.  For instance, if I shot an event and that person was in one of the pics, I technically could photoshop the pic they were in and use it.  However, that cheapens the whole thing for me.  It's not like they were supporting XL-Images by just showing at up an event I was shooting.  Obviously, they were supporting us if they did a shoot.

Naturally, there are exceptions to the rule.  As you see here.  Of course this isn't from a shoot.  It's from the banquet celebrating Union Baptist's 100th anniversary.  But Uncle Johnny is family.  I make an exception for family when it comes to the birthday shout outs.  Just as long as I can find a picture that's good enough to use.  And who knows...maybe family will return the favor and get me to do one of their shoots? 

Happy (Belated) Mother's Day!

I originally posted this on The Book which means some of you may have missed out on it.  I just realized today that I hadn't shared anything out here for that auspicious occasion.  That wasn't very nice of me.  And now that I'm finally caught up on editing all my shoots from a few weeks ago, I have a little bit more spare time to get caught up here as well.

So far in 2013, I have had a chance to work with some fantastic mothers.  In all different types of families too.  There were the standard nuclear ones (which oddly enough seems to be a rarity these days), the single mother, the mother and grandmother, the mother with multiple children, the stepmother..you name it.  And every single one of them was a pleasure to work with.  What's even better is every single one of them enjoyed the photos I did for them.  Even more so when they saw that they were a part of this collage.

That took care of all the mothers that were clients, but I did something even more special for my Mom.  Something that I knew she wouldn't be expecting.  I thought about sending nice little card to her.  That just seemed a little plain though.  Then when I got one of those spam emails, I had an even better idea.  I would send her flowers.  That was something that I knew Mom wouldn't be expecting from me.  I can't remember the last time I got Mom flowers.  I want to say it was when I was 9 or so and I brought her some dandelions from the front yard.  Yeah...I know...lame.

They offered the option to have them delivered on Saturday or Sunday.  I'm not sure how Sunday was even going to work.  None of the delivery services run on Sundays.  Were they going to make a special exception because of the day?  I thought that may have been a mistake so I chose Saturday instead.  I would rather it get there early then risk the chance of getting there late.

I just wish I could have been there when those flowers showed up.  The look on Mom's face would have been priceless.   Especially after reading the card that came with it.  And if you know anything about me then you know that card was epic.  Getting that text from Mom thanking her for her flowers made my day.  I could sense the smile through the phone.  And anything that I can do to make Mom smile is the least I can do for the greatest Mom ever.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TEANDRA!!!

Yes, I know this pic is almost two years old.  It was taken during my trip to Bloomington for Thanksgiving 2011.  It's all good though.  Teandra still looks the same.  She has looked the same for the past several years.  Simply not aging.  Whenever someone tells me they can't believe how old I am (and it surprisingly happens more often than you would think) then I tell them they should see my sister who looks like she's still in her 20s.  Okay...maybe late 20s, but still.

Anyways, happy birthday to my favorie sister who lives in Illinois!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

He's Signed Off for the Last Time

Well hello there strangers!  Just checked and looks like it's been over two weeks since my last post.  A little behind to say the least.  And naturally, a lot has happened since the last you heard from me.  My FB friends have been up to speed while the other select few have not.  I hate that the first entry has to be so morose, but it's long overdue and this cat deserves more than that.

Legendary play-by-play announcer Pat Summerall passed away April 16th from cardiac arrest.  He was 82-years-old.

In his much younger days, Summerall first made somewhat of a name of himself as a player in the NFL.  He was a placekicker playing 10 seasons for the Chicago Cardinals and New York Giants from 1952 to 1961.   WAY before my time and not really one of the prominent positions that stands the tests of time for even football historians.  But dude did end up scoring more than 500 points as an NFL player.

Where Summerall really made a name for himself was in front of the camera as an announcer.  There's not a football fan alive today that doesn't recall him calling some of the most famous football games during our lifetime.  He was alongside with John Madden doing 1o Super Bowls.  You would be hard-pressed to remember the prominent players from 10 Super Bowls, but Summerall was one constant that you could always associate with the memories of those games.

The one thing that I would always remember about him was that he was also one of the first announcers featured on the Madden football video games that become popular on gaming systems.  Seeing him on the screen even for a brief minute before the game AND hearing his voice while you played added even more authenticity to the video action.  His greatness will stay with us forever thanks to those games.

Rest in peace, Mr. Summerall.

Goodbye Jonathan

Add another one to the category of "thought he was already dead".  Not to be insensitive or anything, but it just seemed logical.  Dude was always known for being overweight.  And even back in his prime in the 70s/80s he had an old look to him.  So the fact that he made it this long was rather amazing.  Still too bad though.

Comedian Jonathan Winters died of natural causes at his home in Montecito, California on April 11th.  He was 87-years-old.

I was trying to recall what exactly what it was I best remembered Winters for.  When reading the obits about him I saw they mentioned that he played Mork's son in the last season of "Mork and Mindy".  Who didn't love that show in the 80s?  It was a young Robin Williams at his best.  But I honestly don't remember Winters on that show.  Apparently, I must have tuned out by that last season.

The timing of Winters' death was very ironic.  Just the other day I had a hankering to check again to see if there was a dvd available of one of my all-time favorite movies as a kid:  "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh".  After years of there only being a VHS version, it was FINALLY on dvd.  I immediately ordered  a copy.   Shortly after it arrived is when I saw the news about Winters passing.  That's when it hit me.  Winters had a small role in that piece.  So him being a part of that epic film was good enough for him to get a shout out here.

Rest in pieace, Jonathan.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

So I was going all through my photos trying to find a good pic of Dad to put up for this special day.  I couldn't believe that I didn't have any good enough and/or current enough.  I had a couple of nice ones with him and Mom, but I didn't want to crop Mom out.  That makes the photo look janky.  It was just a further reminder of one of the reasons I need to get there to visit again.  I should definitely have some more pics of the folks.

At any rate, I rather dig this photo for a few reasons.  First and foremost being that it's an excellent photo.  Y'all know I get rather picky about that.  Not a fan of blurry pics at all.  And with even cell phones that are capable of taking pics as high as 16 pixels there should really be more high resolution snapshots out there.  So I was glad to see that Dad was able to get this pic taken at high quality.  Especially given what it represents.

Most of the people (all 12 of you) that still read this blog may already know about Dad's daily Thoughts of the Day.  It used to be you were only aware of it if you were on The Book.  And also if you were one of his contacts.  Not anymore.  Now he's converted several of those into his very own book which you see in this photo.  "Now Think On That!: A Collection of Thoughts for Positive Daily Living! Vol 1 (Volume 1)" now makes Dad a published author! 

As if I didn't have enough things to look up to Dad for, along comes yet another.  I once had aspirations to be a published author.  I probably still could if I applied myself.  And now Dad has achieved that goal to give me yet something else to aspire to. Granted, my writing has taken a backseat to my photography in the past few years.  That doesn't mean the book publishing thing can't still happen.  It's just not in the forefront at the moment.  Given the passion that I have for my photography, I don't see it creeping back in that position either.  But I digress...

The odd thing about this week is there have been a lot of negative things happening around these parts lately.  Down right horrible.  The Boston Marathon tragedy...some moron trying to send poisoned mail to the President...this fertilizer plant explosion down here...even the background check bill thingy not passing (yep...I'm throwing that in there).  And all this before the week was even over.  But the one shining moment to look forward to was today.  Celebrating the birthday of the best role model a guy could ask for.  That's some good stuff right there.

Now think on that!

 

42

I can't stand baseball.  I understand that certainly won't endear me with those baseball fanatics that senselessly go nuts over the start of the season.  I'm perfectly fine with that.  There's just not enough action in it for me.  However, I always appreciated the significance of what Jackie Robinson accomplished as his pioneering effort to become the first African American to integrate Major League Baseball.  Seeing his movie  was a no-brainer.

"42" tells the story of not only the legendary Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) but also of visionary Brookly Dodgers GM Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford).  Rickey became an integral part of history in 1946 when he signed Robinson to the Dodgers, forever penetrating MLB's infamous color line.  Naturally, the move also endangered the two of them.  It would have been easy for Robinson to lash out against the criticism he received for his groundbreaking move.  But it was his courage to stand strong by showing restraint that made him so courageous.  This flick attempts to depict just what a difficult chore that would end up being.

The thing that worried the most without having viewed a single scene was exactly how far back they would go with Robinson's life.  Would it be like "Ray" where it goes all the way back to his childhood and we had to wait for them to get to the meat of the film?  It worked for "Ray", but I couldn't see it in this case.  Fortunately, the writers didn't either.  They spared us all or Robinson's childhood memories as it jumped right into what we all wanted to see. 

I went into this one expecting to not only see Jackie's struggle with trying to break the color barrier, but also feel it.  There's always a fine line when trying to achieve that type of emotion in a movie.  Since it's been done so often you run the risk of being cliche.  There were plenty of moments like that here.  You know the ones...where the white guy realizes he's wrong then does that nod of approval to Jackie like "you're alright with me".  I lost count of how many times it took place.  That served as a distraction.

What I wanted to see more of was some of the life-threatening moments that Jackie avoided while off the road.  They gave us one instance where he and his personal handler Wendell (Andre Holland) helped him escape a lynch mob of sorts.  But it wasn't much of a close call at all.  There had to have been moments where Jackie faced some serious jeopardy off the field.  I just never got the sense of that in this flick.  "42" makes it seem like the most adversity he ever faced was while he was actually playing.  I just find that hard to believe.

Having a relatively unknown actor in the starring role as Robinson was a smart move.  We weren't preoccupied with trying to imagine some big name star trying to pull off the character of a lifetime.  All I could think of when I saw Boseman was that I was really watching a young Jackie Robinson pave the way for future generations of minority athletes.  There were a few moments where Chadwick may have laid it on a bit thick, but he still served the purpose of making Robinson himself the focal point.

But surprisingly enough, it was Ford that stole the show here.  It's been a while since I have seen him so immersed in a character.  Of course we all know who Han Solo/Indiana Jones is.  Easily one of the most recognizable actors on the planet.  However, he transformed himself into someone entirely different when he took over that Rickey role.  Complete from his appearance to his accent to his mannerisms.  I had no idea who Branch Rickey was before this movie, but after seeing Ford play that part, he WAS Rickey.

The best part about "42" was having a visual way to relay to G precisely how impactful Jackie Robinson was.  I went in there HOPING they didn't cheapen such a historical moment the way that "Red Tails" did They did not.  Far from it.  Instead, we were left with a movie that did an excellent job of appealing to all age groups and even non-baseball fans while telling Robinson's story.  It wasn't powerful enough to get me to start liking baseball.  No movie will ever do that.  But "42" was good enough for me to swell with pride even more thinking about Robinson's sacrifices as an unassuming hero.


My rating:  A-