Not a newsletter: 02/03/18

/ Ian Casselberry / 1 Comment

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Hey, how are you? You doing well? Managed to avoid that flu going around, I hope? Well, you look good. Whatever you’ve been doing, it’s working.

It’s been a long time since I’ve written something that wasn’t at least a little bit work-related. I’ve been wanting to get back to that for a while. During that time, I’ve been sneaking out on Squarespace and flirting with WordPress — largely because it’s what I use for work, so I’m really familiar with it and it feels easier.

Part of me thinks I should keep using Squarespace, so I can be more versatile, still do some HTML, etc. Plus, I somehow managed to create more of a website there and not just a blog. Though I never devoted the time — or had the know-how — to take it where I wanted to go.

So I’m giving this a try to see how it goes. And I hope to write something — anything — at least once a week to keep the lights on and the cobwebs out. I know I’ve said that many, many times and if you’ve been friends with me or been following me for a while, you’re read that before. It’s a constant work in progress.

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Anyway, I’m a fan of newsletters. I subscribe to far too many of them, which prevents me from getting anywhere close to Inbox Zero. Subscribing to newsletters, buying t-shirts and socks, and ordering coffee from different roasters around the country are my three vices. Or the vices I’m aware of. It could be worse, I tell myself.

I’d kind of like to do a newsletter. But really, they’re just emailed blog posts, right? And I keep saying I’d like to maintain a regular blog again. So this is my newsletter. Or blogsletter. Or a links post. Whatever. I intend to post it every Friday or Saturday. There will probably be Sundays.

Thank you for clicking over, and I hope something here was worth your time. I’ll see you next week — or sooner!

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‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ is total nonsense, but Michael Bay makes a mess look cool

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

Note: This was originally published at The Comeback in June 2017.

Virtually nothing in Transformers: The Last Knight makes any sense, but does that matter? If you’ve seen the previous four films in this series — or even just seen one or two of them — you know that attention to story and detail isn’t a priority for director Michael Bay and the various writers who have pounded out scripts for these toy-inspired assaults on the senses.

Yet The Last Knight almost seems to double down on devolving into complete nonsense during its two-and-a-half-hour run time. Using the word “devolving” is probably generous, implying that the movie actually started out resembling something coherent and compelling. But I’ll admit that I was with this movie for the first 60 to 90 minutes.

Sure, the left side of my brain was saying to me, “You know none of this makes any sense, right?” But the right side of my brain was still enjoying what I was seeing on screen. No matter what you think of his movies, Bay is a master visual stylist who taps into something primal with his imagery.

Yes, he’s become a cliché in many respects. There’s not a gunfight or woman’s backside that he won’t linger on lovingly with his camera. But the man still frames silhouettes against a sunset and shoots muscle cars roaring down the road or fighter jets streaking through the sky better than anybody. That stuff just looks cool. Truly, no one does it better, even if it’s long past time that Bay move on from the giant robots in disguise clashing with one another and treating the earth like their sandbox.

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Guy Ritchie’s ‘King Arthur’ offers new take on old mythology, but won’t kickstart franchise

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Note: This was originally published at The Comeback in May 2017.

Criticizing King Arthur: Legend of the Sword for being too much of a Guy Ritchie film might seem silly. You generally know what you’re getting with Ritchie as director.

He has a distinct style, utilizing speed ramping, slow motion and fast-cutting to keep the pace moving even when some scenes call for a bit more focus on detail. His characters are fast-talkers, bantering with colleagues and adversaries while often relying on wit to gain an upper hand. And music is a big factor in providing momentum, a hard-charging beat that adds to what’s shown on screen, underlining the action.

Check off all of those boxes for Legend of the Sword (which no one will call this film). This is very much a Guy Ritchie King Arthur movie. Imagine Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch taking place in medieval times, with some sword and sorcery mixed in (along with pinches of other influences like Game of Thrones, 300 and Man of Steel), and that’s what we have here.

It’s a reimagining of a legendary mythological figure akin to what Ritchie did with Sherlock Holmes, tearing down an old, familiar archetype that had become stuffy and reinventing it with an energy and mindset aimed at appealing to new audiences. That will work for some viewers who either aren’t all that familiar with the Arthurian mythos or are eager to see a new take on the story. But it will turn off plenty of others who already have an idea of what a King Arthur story should be and aren’t interested in any radical reinventions.

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25 years ago, Terminator 2 raised standard for sci-fi, action movie sequels

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Note: This piece was originally published at The Comeback in July 2016.

With the weak, disappointing sequels that we’ve seen so far this year at the movies — including Batman v Superman, X-Men: Apocalypse and the abysmal Independence Day: Resurgence — it’s getting difficult to remember (or believe) that a follow-up to a successful film can actually be an improvement on the original.

Yes, I realize some of you will counter that assertion with citing The Empire Strikes Back or The Godfather: Part II as great sequels. But I would argue that those movies and other strong sequels like The Road Warrior or Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan were continuations of a larger story, rather than another standalone film that came after a breakout hit.

(This continuation caveat applies to nearly every superhero sequel, doesn’t it? It’s essentially understood that those properties are intended to be multi-film franchises. So movies like Spider-Man 2, X2: X-Men United, The Dark Knight, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier weren’t necessarily created when their predecessors were breakout hits. Sequels were already part of the larger plan.)

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New York Mets broadcast team celebrates 10 years together in the SNY booth

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Note: This article was originally published at Awful Announcing in April 2015.

The 2015 New York Mets season will represent the 10th year together for SNY’s (SportsNet New York) broadcast trio of Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez. It’s an impressive run, one not typically seen on regional team broadcasts. The success is even more notable, considering how rare three-man booths are on sports television these days.

But the SNY team makes it look easy, with a smooth chemistry and refreshing candor that’s made it extremely popular among Mets fans and considered by many to be the best broadcast booth in MLB. So what has been the key to the trio’s success? How has it worked so well over the past nine years?

“I think the thing that works best for us — and it really is rare in television, especially when you have two players who had great careers — is that we have a very low-ego booth,” said Cohen, who had called Mets games on radio for 17 years before moving to TV.

“What I mean by that is, nobody needs to be the star. You hear it sometimes in other broadcasts, where there’s almost a competition for the microphone, and that’s never the case on our broadcast, even when we have three in the booth.”

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