The A-Team 2: A Possible Future!
Rumours that Tom Schoon was in talks with studio bosses to appear in the also-rumoured Hollywood sequel ‘The A-Team 2’ were fuelled further today when this picture appeared on the internet.
Tom Schoon was unavailable for comment, but his official blog posted the image anyway.
This news brought to you thanks to Mr. M. Bury.
I have a weakness for TV ads like this. I love the style, the sound, the movement.
I don’t want to buy a Honda…I just think this ad is awesome.
I just finished watching Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’ last night having not watched it for almost ten years! It reminded me of why it garnered so much critical praise back in 1989.
What separates this from other comic book films is that Burton inserted some excellent metaphors and subtexts to stir things up a bit.
I was reading through a message board on IMDB about the film and someone asked the question; how did Batman miss the Joker in the scene towards the end of the film? The scene in question, in which Batman fires a whole arsenal at the Joker and misses completely, only for the Joker to then destroy the Batwing with one shot, is one such scene that has a subtext that is worth mentioning.
Previous posters on the message board had said that this scene is a joke and not to be taken too seriously and they are correct, on the surface at least.
Batman and the Joker from Tim Burton's 'Batman' (1989)
This is my view of the scene:
When you strip away the surface you are left with a much more interesting view of the scene. Batman, the hero, is struggling. His battle is certainly not easy and he is even having trouble keeping the girl interested.
The fact that all of Batman’s weapons do nothing to the Joker is, for me, a symbol of the former’s impotence against the world. Everyone hates him, the police are after him, he can’t seem to catch/kill his parent’s killer and he can’t satisfy (mentally at least!) the girl of his dreams.
After the hail of bullets and bombs is over, the Joker calmly pulls out a long gun from his trousers. Now, you can’t deny that a gun is phallic at the best of times, but to be produced from the trousers and to be an exaggerated length makes it even more so. I am not claiming that the scene is purely about sex, but it is about our basic instincts.
The Joker is essentially saying ‘mine is bigger than yours’. The symbolism is complete when one single shot takes Batman down.
This scene is basically a metaphorical way of Burton showing us the personal struggle between Batman and the Joker. Batman is the nerd in the playground while the Joker is the bully stealing his lunch money.
It works on a different level in that it is hilarious and rude at the same time – while still actually driving the story forward to its ultimate climax. In the finale Batman kills the Joker (after barely over-powering him) and in doing so removes the threat to his status, thus allowing him to rescue the girl, winning her once and for all and proving himself to the city of Gotham. In a sense he gets his libido back, or more precisely his power to use it.
I am not saying that I am right, this is just my opinion.
My better half and I recently had the pleasure of seeing the animated film ‘Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs’ (2009) a few weeks ago. Aside from being fantastic fun and a film that doesn’t take itself too seriously (a growing problem with Disney/Pixar), it is noted as the first film aimed at children that I have seen that features the great Nikola Tesla as a ‘hero’.
In the film, Tesla is one of the famous inventors depicted in posters on the young Flint Lockwood’s wall. In fact, out of all of the inventors (Edison and Einstein being among them) Tesla’s poster is the one on which Flint draws the most inspiration.
Tesla's depiction in 'Meatballs'
Now, I know what you’re probably thinking – this is going to be one of those preachy blogs where someone goes on and on about their heroes! Maybe, but I’m hoping it won’t be. Please read on…
In my opinion, Tesla is a tragic example of genuine and compassionate innovation taken down by corporate greed and the matter of money over progress. I strongly believe that if we had taken on more of his ideas and inventions the world would not be in such a mess right now and we certainly would not have had that giant oil spill recently that BP are desperately trying to brush under the rug.
Tesla’s inventions and theories behind wireless electricity into our homes is in evidence today with rechargeable toothbrushes that require no physical connection and recently I noticed in The Carphone Warehouse that a new form of phone-charger has been developed whereby you simply place the phone on the ‘pad’ and it charges the phone without having to plug anything in. Purely wireless.
So, with technology like this in existence and Tesla himself having run tests to prove their safety and reliability a hundred years ago – why are we still using cable to transmit everything? This is also briefly touched upon in another film that I was impressed with, ‘The Prestige’ (2006), in which David Bowie plays Tesla with understated dignity.
With Edison doing his best to put his rival out of business, it was just a matter of time before the government and the banks realised that Tesla’s inventions had no money making potential. How could you charge people for using electricity that came freely from the air?
And this brings me back to the subtle brilliance behind ‘Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs’. Our protagonist Flint Lockwood invents a way of producing any ready-made food to order using a machine that turns water from the air into food particles.
The machine is a huge success as hamburgers, fried eggs and bacon fall like rain from the sky. There is never at any time a mention from the powers-that-be about making money from selling the food. This is dealt with by using the mountains of free food as a tourist attraction which, of course, goes disastrously wrong.
The food falling from the sky is still free. This is exactly the sort of invention that Nikola Tesla was working on a hundred years ago and the reason why this film gets me very excited. With oil being spilled into our oceans and our governments invading other countries simply to obtain more of the precious liquid – is it time we gave Tesla a posthumous second chance? Is it time we moved everything over to wireless? We can do it with mobile phones, the internet, battery powered toothbrushes and the like…so why not electricity?
If we started taking electricity from the air – as Flint takes water from the air to make his food – we could power our homes, cars, computers, hospitals. The list would be endless and the Earth has enough power for everyone.
Now, I know that this post isn’t technically about art – but at the same time it may be thanks to recent films such as ‘The Prestige’ and ‘Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs’ (both based on books, by the way) that our future gets the saviour it so desperately needs – from the past.
thought exodus 