A Return Home and Bits about Movies

Classic Movies as Websites; Are The Incredibles ... Right?; and the Wrong Constantine

Harrowing journey to the retreat site aside, I had a wonderful time at the Mount Eden Retreat facility in Washington, NJ. I returned home on Sunday evening and had just enough time to drop off my stuff, kiss my wife, and then run over to the theater for a tech rehearsal. I'll be spending every evening at theater this week. So, because I will not (and have not) had time to see any movies, I offer up these few posts about them instead. 

if the great movies had been websites – This is an older offering from Jeffery Zeldman. In this post, he laments that personal diaries seems to be the best that the majority of web creators can provide. He then wonders: What if every potentially great new medium had been filled with "content" like this? What if, instead of actually MAKING Citizen Kane, Orson Welles had simply published a Web diary? 

The INCREDIBLES Right Wing – Via GetReligion: The Bush army praises strength, marriage and family values. The hit movie, THE INCREDIBLES, praises strength, marriage and family values. Could this movie possibly be a right-wing recruiting device? 

Going to Hell – Can anyone, anyone at all, tell me why Keanu Reeves was given the title role in Constantine?! Even the trailer shows just how far off base this casting -- if not the whole movie -- is. For those of you who have no clue as to what I am talking about, or why it upsets me, read on. John Constantine (pronounced "KON-stan-tyne") is the title character of Hellblazer, a comic that is part of DC Comics' Vertigo line. To sum it up in one sentence, Hellblazer is a British occult horror magazine. That summation does no justice to either the character or the series. Constantine was created by Alan Moore in the pages of Swamp Thing (a Len Wein and Berni Wrightson creation). Moore's Constantine became popular and was given his own series -- the aforementioned Hellblazer. Stories range from one shots like Hold Me, penned by Neil Gaiman, to grim, multi-part tales of serial killers or other, more supernatural forces that threaten mankind. For more information, I refer you to this profile, this interview with the two writers who have penned the most Hellblazer stories, and The Ultimate Hellblazer Index. Oh well, I suppose the movie casting could have been worse. Nicholas Cage had been interested in the part, and was cast early in the game. But now it looks like he will have to settle for screwing up the Ghost Rider movie instead. OK. Judging by the amount of time and work I just put into this "third" of the post, I may appear to be a little ... overly concerned about this film. But don't worry. I know there are far more important things to worry about than a bad movie interpretation of a comic book character. I just choose to not think of any at the moment.