Comic Con, Inception, Mandy Lane, Mutant Girl Squad, Scott Pilgrim & The Kids are Alright

So 2 weeks ago i left for vacation, to the San Diego Comic Con, i'm just a city boy, born a raised in midtown Omaha, i hopped a midnight train going anywhere....and it was relaxing, it almost felt like i was stoned, anyhow i left on a Sunday night/Monday morning around midnight, and got to San Diego on a Wednesday morning around 6 am. after venturing around the city and checking into our hotel, my uncle & I went to go see Inception!

Inception is the story of a ground a mind thiefs who extract ideas, however when one of their marks, Saito(Ken Watanabe) gets the better of them, he makes an offer. The offer is to implant an idea in the head of Robert Fischer(Cillian Murphy), that will cost his fathers business, a competitor of Saitos. SO Dominic(Leonardo DiCaprio) and his team, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Eames (Tom Hardy) & Yusuf (Dileep Rao), agree to it. They need one person to help them create worlds so Dominic goes to Miles(Michael Caine) who helps him enlist Ariadne (Ellen Page). The group must go through several levels of consciousness, dreaming within dreams and over come Dominics haunted past with his wife(Marion Cotillard) before succeeding in their job...or did they? As the ending leaves questions that could be left for interpretation. Is it the best film of the year that many asre claiming? I still got to go with Shutter Island, is it my favorite film of the year thus far? No, but i'll get to that in a bit.



Then the next day was Comic Con, we arrived at 7 to get in at 9, huge lines, unbelievable, the 4 day event was amazing, i met Edgar Wright, Llyod Kaufman, Adam Green, James GUnn, Darren Bousman, Adam Rifkin, Bill Moseley, Sid Haig, Charles Band, i didn't get pictures with them all as some were greeting/sayign goodbye as they were taking off, others like Sid Haig, wasn't too pleasant. Bill Moseley is a cool mother fucker, he was just chilling right behind me during the Troma panel, Edgar Wright was nice enough to stop for a picture with me while walking the exhibit hall, but Haig refused to do shit unless he saw money. Reggie Bannister one of the coolest cats i've ever met, we spoke for like 15 minutes about Don Coscarelli, Angus Scrimm, Bruce Campbell, my projects, a bunch of stuff. Plus a i shot a promo video with Llyod Kaufman for a local theatre that refuses to have a Troma weekend.







Over the 4 days i received alot of free shit, Scott Pilgrim shirts, pins & wristbands, Expendables shirts, Green Lantern shirts, Sushi Typhoon shirts, I Spit on Your Grave wristbands, free food, free comics, a free Lost pin & book, even got free dvds(Bitten with Jay Mewes from Fangoria, and the newest Puppet Master, by spinning a wheel after purchasing the first).

The panels were cool, went to a Gamera retrospective, Scott Pilgrim in the massive hall h, in which he told people if they had a certain pin that they'd get to see the film that night, i didn't but everyone got to see it the next day, well first come first serve that is. I also attended the awesome Sushi Typhoon panel, and was given a shirt. The next day, was in line for the Walkign Dead for 2 hours before not gettign into it, on Saturday there was a stabbing in Hall H, a line i was in to see Paul, Cowboys & Aliens, Thor, Captain America & Kevin Smith, was in line for 2 hours before not getting in, which was good since i saw Troma instead. The Troma panel was a gift to filmmakers, talked alot about low budget filmmaking, showed soem fine clips & trailers and they all goofed around for an hour(Green, Bousman, Rifkin, Kaufman & Gunn). I went to the last half of the Tommy Wiseua panel(i missed the short film he starred in, but got a mask!), pure awesomenes. Other panels attended was a Lost panel & a Gene Rodenberry panel.

The exhibit hall was great, especially the Walking Dead booth, full of props, speaking of props, there were plenty of film props to go around, the Famous Monsters booth was great, seeing a bunch of new figures was a blast too, funny enough the whole time we were there, we were looking for horror films & underground comics, more so than Marvel or DC. I bought Galaxy of Terror, Combat Shock & a bootleg of Rec 2!





Now there were other free things going on, alot of it outdoors, without even having to own a badge, the outdoor shit was fun as fuck, especially seeing David Hasselhoff singing on a double decker bus, plus the whole area downtown was Comic Con'd out, it was everywhere, oh and the chicks were very nice! There was a Robert Rodriguez after party that we thought we had invites to, however our invites were invites to get the real invites. IT was still cool as it was an outdoor party and we could still see it, including the new trailer, and footage from Machete!But my favorite thing was the free film screenings!







The first night went to a midnight screening of All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, which i might say is the best slasher since Halloween, i loved it. Mandy Lane(Amber Heard) used to eb an outcast along with her friend(Emmet Scrimm) however after Emmet egged a popular kid on to his death, Mandy Lane ditched Emmet to become "popular". She goes to a farm with several kids who get picked off one by one, until it's down to mandy, the killer and the man in charge of the ranch, Garth, there are soem twist & turns but it leads to a satisfying film, my only complaint was learning who the killer was way to early, there should have been some red herrings.





The film to end all films though, my favorite film of the year, based upon my favorite comic book, i waited in line for 4 hours to see, SCOTT PILGRIM! Holy shit was this an experience, Edgar Wright introduced the cast, then the film began, it begins with an 8 Bit Nintendo esque version of the Universal logo, then the film begins, and i don't even know if i can describe it, it rocked my world, as soon as Kim(Alison Pill) shouted WE ARE SEX BOMB-OMB the whole crowd shouted 1 2 3 4! IT was a raucous crowd to say the least, and the opening credits were great! It's about Scott(Michael Cera) who is in a band Sex Bomb-omb with Kim & Steven Stills(always say his full name) played by Mark Webber, along with their biggest fan Young Neil(Johnny Simmons). Scott is dating a high schooler, Knives Chau(Ellen Wong) she's chinese, he then meets Ramona Flowers(Mary Elizabeth Winstead), leaves Knives for her and must defeat her 7 evil ex's, Mathew Pattel(Satya Bhabha), Lucas Less(an always getting better by each film Chris Evans), Todd Ingram(Brandon Routh), Roxy(Cera's Arrested Development co star Mae Whitman), the twins Kyle & Ken,(Shota Saito & Keita Saito) and finally Gideon Graves(Jason motha fuckin Schwartzman). For the most part it follows all 6 graphic novels, again it's for the msot part, just a couple tweaks here & there, but i didn't mind them at all, especially considerign the 6 book was being written at the same time this was.
The cast is great, especially Scott's gay roommate Wallace Wells(Kieran Culkin), and so was Jule Powers(Aubrey Plaza) and Stacey Pilgrim(Anna Kendrick), and so were the minor characters, and the little comic book bubbles, the video games sounds, and the cameo of the Vegan Police! In the comic and the film i still would have chosen Kim over all the chicks, but that's me, but the film was a geektastic event that ended in a huge near 5 minute long standing ovation, Edgar came out again thanked everyone and brought out Brian O'Malley. Some will say Cera is playing Cera again, but as a huge Pilgrim fan, i bought him in the role and didn't think of him as Evan from Superbad, but Scott Pilgrim!



The other film i saw was Mutant Girl Squad, which is the story of a group of girls with powers that transform parts of their bodies, they soon become a terrorist organization, but three of them chose to fight from with in, but may ultimately end up doing what their group had originally planned anyhow. It's one of the most over the top & fun films i've seen in a long time.



I also saw Rocky Horror with the awesome San Diego shadow cast, Crazed Imaginations. The final day was going around the booths a last time, until havign to leave and come back home. On the way though i decided i liek life on the road, so i'm gonna hit the road next year, and take Crackel on tour, which will be going into production with in the next 2 months. Since i've been home however, it's been all the same, but i long for more events like this one, second convention in a year isn't bad though). I did see The Kids Are Alight

It's the story Joni & Lazer(Mia Wasikowska & Josh Hutcherson) 2 kids whoes parents are lesbians, Nic & Jules(Annette Bening & Julianne Moore), and they seak out to find their sperm donor, Paul(Mark Ruffalo). Once he enters their life he becomes a father figure of sorts for the kids, and engages into a sexual relationship with Jules, the family then hits a rocky stage, and everyone has to come to terms with mistakes, and events that have happened. It's a very good little flick, that may be this years Little Miss Juno. Just to await to backlash it'll receive months down the line.