Tag Archives: #2015

Four Years of DSB

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dsb 4 bday irony

. . .being a Brit.

Roughly four years ago today I gave birth to DSB. In case you were wondering, yes, it was an immaculate conception. There was no one else who helped make it happen.

I don’t mean to toot my own horn here, but I’m proud of what this has become. I think I might have said this before, but I was surprised I ever returned to this page after I took a year-long hiatus from mid-2011 until March of 2012. I remember having just . . . such an embarrassingly emotional reaction to Todd Phillips’ bacchanalia Project X that I felt the need to go and write my thoughts down. That was a review that makes my recent Jurassic World rant tame by comparison. I’m going to try in the future to not let those emotions get the better of me. I’m sure I have annoyed a few readers in the process of doing that, and I kind of regret it. Sometimes I have this feeling that I do more harm than good by coming on so strongly. That’s why the blog has lost its original slogan: ‘Rants and Raves.’ I want to take the focus off of the negatives and focus more on the positives!

Regardless, I’ve appreciated having this space to vent. I thank WordPress for being such a tool . . . a good one, that is. 😉 You can bet I’ll be signing up for another year with you. Since consistently posting from around early 2013 and onwards, this has become quite the addiction. I love the feeling of getting to write something and then have like-minded people ‘Like’ and leave feedback on my stuff. It’s truly great and that energy is what is helping propel me into the future.

Speaking of which, my next moves are going to be a tad scarier and undoubtedly more expensive. The goal is to relocate to Salt Lake City. Not only is that town a killer place to be for those attracted to the outdoors (as I am) — as well as Mormon fundamentalism (as I am not) — but every January there’s a little film festival that takes place known to some as Sundance. I have loved covering mainstream releases — and there are a lot to be found here — but I would really like to start digging into the world of independent cinema more often. I’d love to have exposure to things that could prove to be harder to access outside of the film festival circuit. So, I’m setting that as a goal for me to achieve within the next two years. I think that’s reasonable. Right . . . ?

Alright I was promising myself I wouldn’t ramble on with this post and here I am doing just that. I shall use the rest of this space to list a few little tidbits and factoids in celebration of the blog’s fourth birthday/anniversary. And is it just me, or does time really fly when you’re having fun blogging. . . ?

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DSB’s original banner image

Four of my Favorite Films I Saw in 2011

  1. Drive – Ryan Gosling, meet Nicolas Winding Refn
  2. Win-Win – first of all, how many people saw this? And second, Paul Giamatti – awesome.
  3. Cedar Rapids – another under-seen and under-appreciated film, this time starring Ed Helms.
  4. Crazy, Stupid, Love – a crazy, not stupid and lovely date film

Four of my Favorite Films I Saw in 2012

  1. The Dark Knight Rises – a near-perfect end to a near-perfect trilogy. Tom Hardy gave me chills
  2. Marvel’s The Avengers – . . .do I really need to qualify this?
  3. Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson’s made a lot of good ones, but this one’s hard to beat
  4. Skyfall – Sam Mendes’ apology for Marc Forster’s indiscretion with the convoluted Quantum of Solace

Four of my Favorite Films I Saw in 2013

  1. The Way, Way Back – so awkward it becomes adorable. I. Love. This. Movie.
  2. Rush – Ron Howard concocts a classic racing film, least in my eyes. And that casting — wow!
  3. Safety Not Guaranteed – an excellent and beyond-quirky little gem starring one of my biggest celebrity crushes, Aubrey Plaza
  4. The Place Beyond the Pines – too quickly forgotten, this sprawling epic proved an acting showcase

Four of my Favorite Films I Saw in 2014

  1. Her – Spike Jonze’ deeply personal and witty commentary on our relationship with technology is one of the most impressive films I’ve ever seen
  2. The Skeleton Twins – pairing Bill Hader with Kristen Wiig in this deeply touching and moving dramedy worked like a charm on me
  3. Godzilla – a refreshingly restrained monster movie in an age where we seem to demand we get all the good stuff up-front without question
  4. Winnebago Man – this docu is amazingly insightful and hilarious. Underrated is how I’d describe it.

Four of my Favorite Films I’ve Seen so far in 2015 

  1. Love & Mercy – achingly nostalgic and filled with spectacular performances, the biopic of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys is a definite winner
  2. What We Do in the Shadows – painfully funny stuff brought to you by one-half of the musicomedy duo Flight of the Conchords
  3. Almost Famous – a classic from the turn of the millennium which I have no excuse for putting off for so long. This is a fantastic film from Cameron Crowe
  4. The Guest – suspenseful, artistic and bloody in equal measure, this is a crazy awesome film that snuck under a lot of people’s radars

Four Films I’m Most Anticipating in 2015

  1. Spectre – I’m excited to see where Sam Mendes can take the gritty James Bond next. Trailers so far hint at the darkest chapter yet.
  2. In the Heart of the Sea – set to the tune of the epic tale of Moby Dick, this film will reunite director Ron Howard with star Chris Hemsworth
  3. The Revenant – with a mind-glowingly awesome cast under the direction of last year’s Oscar Best Picture, I’m really curious to see what this will be like
  4. The Green Inferno – I wouldn’t call myself the biggest Eli Roth fan, but no joke . . . his latest film looks bloody and bloody brilliant. Sign me up.

What are four of your most anticipated this year? What are four of your favorites so far? 

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Four new things about the blog

  1. Expanded menus – I finally figured out how to customize menus in the editing page and now you can access all that DSB has to offer through a variety of drop down menus located above the banner. That only took me four years to figure out lol
  2. The introduction of character studies in the form of 2014’s The Franco Files and 2015’s John C. Reilly Factor. If you’re a fan of these folks, check these pages out!
  3. The DSB Spotlight – this new ‘feature’ represents the first paid contribution to this site and it makes me very proud to be able to feature a fellow movie fan’s writing on here. This is validation that others beyond the blogging community have been reading and accessing what I have to say about movies and it is humbling to say the least. You can check out this article here.
  4. With the help of esteemed blogger and friend Mark Fletcher of the fantastic Three Rows Back, I co-hosted my very first blogathon — The Decades Blogathon — which turned out to be a great experience and led to even more exposure to both film titles and film fans/bloggers alike. This was a great experience, and hopefully not the last for me.

Thank you as always for reading my stuff. It’s an honor and a privilege to still be doing this. Onwards!

Man of Steel, meet the Dark Knight. . . ?

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Apparently, this was not the Comic Con to miss.

As things were getting wrapped up at the Warner Brothers booth at the 2013 edition of the big geek-fest (trust me, I’d go if I could afford to), they intentionally left some of the best/biggest news for last — that there will indeed be another movie starring Henry Cavill as the man of steel, as well as co-starring a Batman whose identity we will not know for a long while. Since Christian Bale has announced his definitive retirement from the iconic role, we will have a new actor donning the cape and the cowl.

I would be more stoked about this announcement of a follow-up to Man of Steel, never mind the fact that two immensely popular DC superheroes will be sharing screen time, but I am a little worried/irritated by the fact that we will yet again undergo changes in the world of Batman. I was initially taken aback by changing out actresses for Rachel Dawes (dropping Katie Holmes and replacing her with Maggie Gyllenhaal was more or less a seamless transition, but this change was still noticeable in places and still a distraction for the first couple of viewings). Make no mistake, switching actors in a role of this caliber means a hell of a lot more than that. (No offense, Katie or Maggie — both of you were great, but let’s be honest, you’re not the centerpiece of that trilogy.)

Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy really struck the ‘holy trinity’ of the movie/entertainment industry’s biggest concerns — all three films were critical, commercial, and financial successes. To me, no one has done Batman better. Nor will this level of complexity and darkness be approached for a long, long time (if ever again). Nolan created true cinematic magic, and if you were to change out one of the most significant pieces of that magic trick, I believe the show could fall apart. Case in point — who the hell exactly follows up Bale’s brooding, somber Bruce Wayne/Batman?

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And I know, it was pretty clear awhile ago that Batman wouldn’t ever be involving the charming Brit again — I’ve been prepared for a change for awhile. But I only assumed we’d have several, several years in between Bale’s departure and the Justice League film for all of us to kind of move on from that era.

I feel as if such an upcoming project were to reintroduce Batman to us, there would be some obvious issues. First of all, there’d be a whole new persona to get used to. We’ve spent nearly a decade gawking at how “accurate” Bale’s version was — I put that word in quotes because I believe he more or less redefined the character in his work. Second of all, a lot of complaints about how Man of Steel was tackled seemed to weigh on the side of either “too much” or “too little” exposition of its central steely character.

Those who thought the opening sequence was rushed ended up experiencing the rest of the story as far too bombastic and epic to really justify Cavill’s moodiness; those who thought there was a bit too much explanation as to who and why Superman is coming to be (on Earth, anyway) are probably going to have an even harder time coming to grips with what lengthy exposition is bound to be present in Man of Steel 2 (I’m going to call it that for now, who knows what this thing will actually be called in two years). In short, I just can’t see a situation that will not include some kind of background story for Batman as he gets into it with Supes.

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…aaand I’m out. Peace, Gotham.

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aw, dammit I wanted to meet Christian Bale, too!!! 😦

Look, please don’t get me wrong: I loved loved LOVED both franchises. I was among those who thought Snyder and Nolan really entreated Man of Steel with a power and grandeur that likely will go unappreciated until the sequel comes out. But hearing the news of introducing Batman NOW seems a little weird to me. I know talks of a Justice League movie are definitely occurring, and that’s exciting as all get-out. But I feel they are rushing this a little. But these are, obviously, just my initial and personal feelings. I want to hear from you.

What do you guys think? With Bale clearly out of the running for the Batman role again, how do you feel about someone else taking over? How do you think Superman and Batman will mesh in a movie (at least, this soon)? Do you think I’m just being a little too skeptical/critical too early? TOO SOON??? 😛

Whatever it is, I’d love to hear your thoughts!!!

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no — it’s . . . . SuperBatman?? Wtf.. . . ?

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