A Nerds-eye view of Venice, Italy Day 6-7
The good, the bad, and the nerdy.
Sorry I didn’t post day 6 yesterday, but the “business” hotel I was staying at was under the impression that a functioning internet connection is something business people really don’t need. (By the way, my company saw fit to give me a major award. I don’t want to brag, but the words “of the Year” were part of it, as was a nice cash bonus that I blew on an Italian watch that I don’t need)
My life in Venice has evolved nicely. I still get lost, but now know enough to get unlost with a minimum of effort. I have had a couple of complete conversations in Italian (as long as ordering a single scoop of mint (menta) gelato on a cone (cona) counts as a conversation. Incidentally, I think I have eaten my body weight in gelato), can ride both the train (ferravia) and water bus (vaporetti) reasonably confident I will arrive within a reasonable distance of my destination, and have taken about 200 photos with my iPhone. I will post them up on Facebook so if you want to see be sure to friend me.
I will say I have discovered the difference for me between good days and bad days in Venice, and they all involved having something specific to do. Yesterday our business group was given a scavenger hunt to do with things to do and see and I was off like a racehorse, running from one side of the town to another (I skipped all the ones on the list that seemed outside of my skill set (Kiss an Italian girl) or potentially disease ridden (swim in the Grand Canal, see how many pidgins you can get to perch on you) and therefore lost to a guy in our groups who is a known creep with balls of steel who will talk to any girl for any reason and has no fear (apparently) of tuberculous. However, I had a freaking blast.
Today, however, I was on my own kind of wandering around and found myself subject to the pity pot as I looked all all the beautiful girls I seemed incapable of talking to. I can tell you that my lack of skills in “picking up” girls or even just talking to them is not at all improved when I lack a common language or cultural basis. I can also tell you that when I do finally conquer the world any guy I perceive as being a “ladies man” is going to be sweeping out the inside of a nuclear reactor in blue jeans toot sweet.
Bottom line, I need goals to keep me from dwelling on my miserable loneliness (now that I think about it, that’s pretty much how I keep from driving off the Bay Bridge back home). From now on I plan to have something specific to do each day.
I thought since I am mostly done with the trip and only have two days left I would talk about some of the things I have seen that are amazing, some of the things that seem to suck, and what I see as the nerd influence on this country.
The Good:
The Toilets: I had never imagined that the toilet technology could be so far advanced over the pathetic excuses for plumbing we used back in the USA, but it is true. Each toilet has two buttons on it for flushing. The small one is pretty much for a number one and will eliminate any liquid waste in the bowl efficiently. 
The large button is for number 2 and will eliminate anything in the bathroom that is not securely fastened down. I swear it’s like blowing open an airlock door (“Open the pod bay doors, Hal”. 2001 image courtesy of the Movie T Shirt category). Your ears will pop from the decompression.
They also have pay bathrooms over here. They cost between 1 and 1.5 Euros. This might sound annoying, but the bathrooms are absolutely spotlessly clean. I swear I would pay a buck each time to use a bathroom that clean in my own apartment.
The Girls: as much as these girls pain me due to my inability to talk to them (I blame my father) there are some of the most gorgeous girls you would ever hope to see. If you have any kind of game at all get your ass on a plane. Just don’t tell me of your success.
The Euro: I have gotten to be a big fan of the 1 and 2 Euro coin. It is super handy. Makes me sad that the gold dollar never took off in the USA, but you know how it goes over there. Most of the ignorant masses can’t wrap their heads around gay marriage, so imagine how their brains must fail when faced with a new coin to figure out.
The Food: obviously. Of course, any ethnic food you eat that is not Italian will have a definite Italian flavor.
The Public Transit: do any of you regular readers remember me bitching about how much BART sucks from a few days ago? Well, the Italians have public transit wired. Easily accessible, efficient (ish), and generally clean.
The Art and Architecture: if you get out here see some churches and museums. Well worth your time.
The Bad:
The Euro: I’m finding money awfully easy to spend over here, and that has to do with the fact that the Euro might look like a dollar but really it’s currently $1.30. That means when I buy a 20 oz (0.5 liter) bottle of soda that costs $1.79 at the gas station down the street back home for 2.50 Euros (by the way, if anyone knows how to make a Euro symbol on an American keyboard hit me up) you are really spending $3.25 or so.
The Technology: while they do have some cool stuff we don’t really use back in USA, most of their technology seems about five years behind the curve. The best internet you can hope for is a WiFi that seems more like dialup, and a lot of people are still using flip phones.
The T-Shirts: I have been looking for cool shirts to bring home with me, but my god are they all awful. They seem to alternate between retro-horrible and just plain dumb. Makes me think about opening a t-shirt shop here just to show these poor people what cool shirts look like. Not only are the shirt dumb, but they are using the most basic and lame printing techniques ever. Ironically, all the shirt blanks are amazing quality, although be prepared to upsize as the XL definitely fits like a L. Also, every t-shirt stand or shop has the exact same shirts as their neighbor.
The Media: Pop music sucks when done competently. Here it all sounds like the dumped a dozen pop singers into a cement mixer, filled it with helium and broken glass, and let it run for a couple hours. The TV is not much better, unless you are into soccer (football). It seems to most closely resemble Mexicali.
The Night Life: Maybe it’s just me (actually it’s probably more than just maybe) but I can’t seem to find any kind of night life here beyond eating dinner and drinking wine. I have yet to find a coffee house, club, or bar that has more than six people in it (in fact, for some reason I can’t find a coffee house to save my life. I swear I would be there now if it existed). Most of the bars are just that: a bar with no seating and no big clientele. I’m guessing that Venice is such a city for couples that they don’t feel the need to help single losers hook up. Either that or I have somehow missed the entire “fun” district.
The Nerdy:
I can honestly say I think Italy is a county populated entirely by nerds. I’m sure they have their “cool kids” but everyone I see looks and acts like a non English speaking American nerd. They are into weird stuff, wear dorky clothes, and rarely look like they spend a lot of time in the gym. Of course, I don’t know a true nerd who isn’t up until 1am and most of this city seems to be in bed by 10:30pm, but still, if you want to feel kind of cool you can’t go wrong here.
I did check out the local Games Workshop and a few comic book shops around town, but honestly for the most part the customers there looked a lot like the customers I saw in any other shop.
By the way girls here are less inclined to get contacts or laser eye surgery so if you are into the girl librarian nerd you don’t have to look far. Very nice (and frustrating for me).
Thanks for reading. Long post but I had a lot to say. I think I am taking a train ride to Florence tomorrow. More on that soon. Follow me on Twitter @Nerdkungfu. If you have comments about this post or Italy feel free to throw them up here, or if you have specific questions or suggestions that are off topic email me at [email protected]. Thanks again. Talk to you soon.
Dave
Goodbye Henry Hill
I don’t know if you saw this, but Henry Hill passed away from heart complications recently. I know he doesn’t have much to do with the nerd world (in fact he is as far removed from nerds as you can be without being from another planet (without nerds)) but as a fan of movies I couldn’t not acknowledge the influence his book, Wiseguy, had on gangster movies.
As any movie buff knows, his book was the basis for one of the greatest gangster movies of all times, Goodfellas with Ray Liotta, Joe Peschi, and the great Robert DiNiro. Of course, all that is aside from the fact that it was directed by the amazing Martin Scorsese. If you have never seen it I don’t know what kind of bubble your parents have you locked in but break out immediately and go rent it.
By all reports Henry outlived his expected lifespan by several decades and lived a pretty fun and wild life, so I don’t feel too bad about him. I used to hear him on the Howard Stern show and he didn’t sound all that remorseful for the crimes he committed (including murder), but he did manage to help set the mold for gangster movies, so I guess I am sad to see him go.
The Goodfellas image comes to us courtesy of the Movie T-Shirt category. Thanks for reading. Coming up-more on Italy.
Dave
A question from the Watchmen
So here is a question I always had from watching the Watchmen. If you read the comic you know that Ozymandias summoned a giant dead Cthulu-esque monster to take the blame for the destruction of New York City. However, I guess in the interest of making things easier for all the dumb consumers out there in the movie the made it so a bomb went off with Ozymandias simulating Dr. Manhattan’s power in each of the capital cities, causing Russia and America to band together against him.
The question I have is Dr. Manhattan has been working for America for decades and actually used his power to wreck the North Vietnamese. How is it the Russians didn’t even question the whole deal, or ask for some kind of accountability regarding Manhattan? Sorry, but from an actual nation building point of view dead alien Cthulu makes a lot more sense.
Still a great movie. This Dr. Manhattan image I found in Dave’s comic book movie collection. He only has a few from the Watchmen.
Jason
A nerds-eye view of Venice, Italy day 5
Kind of a weird day. The first half of the day was international meetings, which were productive but kind of not at the same time. Most of it was marketing, which are rarely as interesting or informative as most marketing people seem to think. Why is it marketing people are usually my favorite people to meet and hang out with but the meetings I dread the most?
Anyway, after a full day of meetings at the modern nightmare that was our hotel we went skating. It was fun, and I got to teach a couple Italians how to skate better. I have always enjoyed that and feel like I ma making the world a better place, at least as far as skaters goes.
We then went to a gorgeous villa for dinner. It is here that I fell into conversation with a beautiful, interesting, and highly intelligent Bavarian girl. To say I was captivated is a huge understatement. It could almost be said I was totally falling for her. We literally talked all the way through dinner, the bus ride home to our hotel, and the hotel bar until about 1:30am. Inexplicably the evening ended without even a handshake. I wasn’t expecting to hook up with her or anything like that but it seemed a little abrupt. It didn’t help that my ass hat American friends kept telling me I should be hooking up with her that night. However, I consider the entire evening more evidence of my hellish Tantalus-esque existence as well as my inability to make any kind of positive impression on attractive females.
I honestly don’t have a lot more to report. I only slept about two hours, mainly because I kept thinking about the girl but my issue was aggravated by the snore my roommate, whom I have roomed with at every sales meeting for the last ten years with nary a problem, seems to have recently developed. Looks like I will be drinking lots of caffeine.
Today is more meetings. Tomorrow we are doing a scavenger hunt in Venice. Given the three days I have already spent there I should have a significant advantage, but the prizes for these things are rarely things I want so I might duck out and finally write up that Snow White review.
I talked to Jason via last night via Skype before bed and he told me Prometheus was pretty cool. He is less the descriminating viewer than I (he liked Priest) but that doesn’t necessarily mean this movie will be bad (Alien image courtesy of the Movie T Shirt category). I will see it as soon as I get home. Talk to you soon.
Dave
A Nerds-eye view of Venice, Italy Day 4
Actually, Treviso Italy. Not a lot to report today, as most of the day was spent in marketing and operations meetings. I will say the meetings were consistently more productive and constructive than most. Maybe it was the fact that most of crew was severely sleep deprived, or we sat at a new table format, or just the magic of Italy, but we got a lot of really positive energy going across the room.
We spent most of the meetings in this really cool refurbished villa owned by the company I work for. Very nice, although you could find the bathrooms by following your nose. Afterward we went into Treviso, a very cool small walled town nearby. I took a ton of photos and will eventually upload them to my Facebook page once I get home. We wandered the city for a bit and eventually ended up at a small restaurant.
At that point the crew I was with opted to play the part of the drunken ugly American tour. Loud and obnoxious. I love those guys and have fun when they get hammered and tell each other inappropriate stories, but in terms of my Italian experience this was about as far as I could get without actually traveling back to America. Surrounded by drunken English speaking Americans I might as well have been on Riverwalk in San Antonio with my Warhammer crew, although I have to say my company business associated tend to have more respect for me and seem less likely to jump on me for being human. (I Drink Beer shirt courtesy of the Funny T Shirt category)
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve known and respected these guys for almost 20 years and like them all to a man. I just feel like we are back in New Hampshire when we all hang out like that.
More meetings today at the ultra modern hotel. I am looking forward to them but am also dreading them, as I tend to check out during certain meetings pretty badly (cough cough marketing cough cough) and am going to be struggling even more due to the fact that a lot of these will be in Italian. Wish me luck on that.
Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter @Nerdkungfu. If you have any comments on Italy or these blogs feel free to leave them here. Any off topic suggestions or questions can be posted here. We are supposed to do some outdoor activities later and it is raining like hell, so I might find time to write up Snow White and the Huntsmen. Talk to you soon.
Dave
A Nerds-eye view of Venice, Italy day 3
Kind of a study in contrasts today. This is when the business part of my business trip starts. After a leisurely breakfast I was picked up by a raucous crowd of my fellow sales reps. You see, sales reps by nature have kind of over the top personalities. One on one that works great, and people love us and like buying from us (for the most part). However, get more than a few of us in the same room together and it is like standing in a wind tunnel, except instead of air the tunnel is blowing a storm of sales gripes, bad stories, and fart jokes.
After a short drive through some mundane countryside we ended up at a hotel that almost comical in it’s contrast from my time in Venice. It is termed a “business hotel” but could be more accurately described as a “correctional institute”. It is ultra modern, yet bare and oppressive like a medical correctional facility.
Actually, now that I think about it, the building looks and feels like one of those Umbrella research facilities pre T virus outbreak. Bare white corridors, sensing card keys, doors that would not have looked out of place as airlock portals, and everthing steel, white, grey, or beige. If it weren’t for the cute girls behind the desk I would be expected to be experimented on this morning. (Umbrella Corp logo image courtesy of the Zombie Movie T Shirt category)
The room itself is surreal, in that the first one the window or air conditioning didn’t work (this is a brand new building), the beds are tiny, only about 1/2 the light switches actually connect to anything, the shower seems specifically designed to spill water all over the floor, and the room has this power saving feature that requires you to leave your key in a slot by the door or 30 seconds later the power in the room goes off. This is all well and good until your roommate opts to leave the room while you are in the shower, leaving you dripping wet and stumbling around the room naked looking for your key (thanks, Frank).
The guy with the car had to go back to the airport to pick up more of our sales reps, and he dropped me and two others off in a small town to kill time. We had a good lunch (Italian food. Go figure). At that point we discovered that small Italian towns on a Sunday are pretty much deserted wastelands. We must have walked two miles (5 km) and saw maybe four people. None of the shops were open. We ended up sitting on a park bench only to find our friends were having lunch at the exact same restaurant we had eaten at.
After that it was an afternoon and evening of hanging out with my loud American friends. I have to say after three days in charming, quiet Venice being in this ultra-modern eyesore and surrounded by boisterous Americans really made me start to wish I was back in Venice. As I sit here typing I suddenly realize that in spite of all my bitching about stuff I have been really captivated by that town and the culture. I will be back in three days after a bunch of meetings. I won’t say these meetings will be bad, as they really are important to my business, but I think I will be happy to be back in the heart of the canals again.
Dave
A question about Spider Man’s web shooters.
So I have a question about Spider Man. It looks like in the new movie they are adding in the artificial web shooters that he should have had from the beginning. I know I asked about this stuff before but another question occurred to me.
As any fan of the comic knows, Peter Parker used science to invent his web shooters and web fluid, which creates webs that dissolved after an hour. While this is cool and all, I have to wonder about how Peter Parker keeps himself supplied with web fluid.
Think about it. Spider Man shoots webs at every opportunity and in the comic he would often have to stop to replace his web cartridges. However, give the fact that he is a full time student, photographer, and spends hours a day patrolling New York City when does he have time to cook up more web fluid? He is pretty broke most of the time, so where does he get the raw material? I would imagine it’s it made of pretty esoteric chemicals. Where does he go to get his stuff? Also, couldn’t someone trying to find him analyze the webs and track him down through his suppliers?
Anyway, that’s it. This image I got from Dave’s Marvel comic t-shirt collection. Very very cool IMO.
Jason
A Nerds-eye view of Venice, Italy Day 2
Day 2 was interesting. I opted to expand my exploration to outside the city of Venice (really, how many canals can you look at in a week?) and visit the city of Paduva, about 50 minutes away via train.
The train ride was a positive experience in both directions, in that I got to talk to a hot girl in each direction. Going out was a girl from Mexico named Sandy and her sister. She was about 4’10” and cute a button. On the way back this gorgeous Italian girl who helped me find the train sat across from me. She works in Venice at a hotel. I would have loved to talk to her more but she really did not engage and according to my personal Two Minute Rule had to stop talking to her.
Anyway, the train was cool, although they do something weird with the seats in that the head rests come out at about my shoulder blade level, making them impossible f or me to sit in. I have to say I pity the tall women of this country. I saw a number of really tall girls but have yet to see an Italian man above 5’10”. For the most part they all seem to be weedy little hipster dudes until they hit about 40 when they turn into chubby short guys.
I am proud to say I chose Padova for the nerdiest of reasons; it is home of the only Games Workshop store in the area and likely the only place where I could get a feel for the local Warhammer scene. Your might recall from yesterdays post that I was looking for a store that had it’s pulse on the local scene to no avail.
I took a cab to the store and talked to the manager, a nice guy named Daniel. Turns out the local Warhammer tournament circuit is about as beardy and rules intensive as I have heard. Seems the winningest is a dwarf army with six war machines, an anvil, and two huge blocks of warriors with great weapons. Not only is it as exploitive as possible it is also painfully boring to play, so I guess the Italians don’t really care much for soft scores. I give my Daemon list about 50/50 to beat it depending on how the dice roll out, although there are others in my gaming group that could beat it handily.
I then wandered the city and got lunch. The first thing I notice is the graffiti, which had been moderately bad in Venice, was pretty much what they decorated the walls with here. While I saw a few pieces with a little more artistic effort than in Venice (some actually had three colors!) for the most part they were black spray paint and very political. The best one I saw was in English and said “It’s not easy making a name for yourself”. Not sure what that was about.
Padova appears to be where bad shops go when they die. I saw shop after shop selling knick knacks and crappy stuff that might have been popular in the US 3-10 years ago. As something of a t-shirt expert I paid particular attention to the t-shirts. They are almost all as hokey as possible, and generally printed with very poor printing techniques. Popular t-shirt themes include Super Mario Bros (Poison Mushroom courtesy of the Video Game T Shirts), the Smurfs, the Simpsons (Duff Beer especially), and for some reason Monster Energy Drink. In girls it all seems to be sayings. The most common one I saw was “You and I Are Meant to Be” which seems awfully optimistic in my bitter dating experience.
At that point, having exhausted the level of interest to be found in Bedazzled iPhone cases and heavily decorated miniature bird houses (not to mention feeling really old. Everyone there was like 19) I decided I was done with the Padova experience and was starting to look for a cab ride back to the train station. It was then I stumbled upon something that put a big smile on my face and kept me in town for another four hours.
Yes, an old fashioned swap meet, Italian style. The difference that I could see between an American and Italian swap meet is the Italian ones do not really feature piles of rusted tools and stolen bike parts (it also seemed like I was less likely to get stabbed by the local crazy homeless man). For the most part it is brand new merchandise sold at a low low price in a tent by the Italian equivalent of white trash. I saw booth after booth of shoes, followed by booth after booth of clothing. T-shirts of an even hokeyer nature and printed with even worse printing techniques were on display. Socks, underwear, pants, jeans, and jackets were in abundance. I saw a few booths selling tools (new, for the most part) and a few selling cheap toys. There was a huge section that only sold fresh flowers and plants. Very cool.
The swap meet made a huge circle around a park, and after a while I opted to cut through the park to see what was up there. It was pretty much a giant teenage water balloon fight going on. Lots of kids with frisbees and bottles of water to throw on each other. There was a cop in the middle of the park who just sat there on the hood of his car.
I wandered over to the saddest amusement park I have ever seen (and I’ve been to Bibleland). One min-Ferris wheel, some dilapidated bumper cars, and a booth selling hot dogs and cotton candy. For all that it seemed popular. To each his own.
Eventually I made my way back to the train station (via a surpisingly attractive female cab driver. Very MILFy, and she was wearing high heels with her toenails done up with glitter polish) and got my heart broken by the hotel girl on the train ride home. I made it back to Venice without incident and there met up with a business associate for dinner (technically this is a work trip). He has been to Venice many times and took me to see a lot of the stuff I should have seen my first day here but was too lazy to research. Very cool stuff, and we rode on a boat bus (not sure what they call it) down the Grand Canal. We also ate a little local hole in the wall that was way better than any of the places the tourists hang out at.
Then bed. More tomorrow, although now I have to start seriously working so my posts may get a little dryer. Feel free to comment here if you have been to Venice and want to contribute. Follow me on Twitter @Nerdkungfu and send me any off topic questions or suggestions to [email protected]. Talk to you soon.
Dave
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Review
Pretty much exactly what you would expect.
I have some time to kill in my hotel in Venice waiting for a business associate to join me for dinner and thought I would dash this off. 
I saw this movie Sunday and quite enjoyed it in the same way you would enjoy ordering your same coffee drink at Starbucks: pretty much exactly what you expect with no surprises either positive or negative.
(Drink coffee image courtesy of the Funny T-Shirts category)
I have learned that as a reviewer you have to treat independent films with kid gloves. Not only are they the beloved underdog of the movie community they are also particularly sensitive children. If I say the latest George Lucas film is a steaming pile of excrement I am but one voice in a sea of lost souls wailing for justice (and even if Lucas did read my review would he really give a crap?). On the other hand if I say something that sounds even slightly like a less than gold star about an independent film than I am destroying some poor struggling sods dream and I guarantee he or she will have read it.
Fortunately I don’t need to don the kid gloves for this one. While not exactly the deepest or most complex story around, it is nigh flawless in it’s execution and induces exactly the warm feelings it intended. The story is not terribly complex but it is definitely different, and the cast is extremely talented and delivers some great performances.
It is the story of the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and the retired individuals who opt to live there. This is another story that devolves into a half dozen sub plots interweaved together. However, unlike other movies that do it badly (cough cough New Years Eve cough cough) the stories here are interesting, complex, and resound well with the talents of the individual actors. They also interact together, with each actor playing a part in the resolution of another’s sub plot.
Anyway, there is the retired high court judge who is coming out of the closet (Tom Wilkinson-Batman Begins, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Shakespeare in Love), the recently widowed woman who was left destitute by her husbands debts (Judi Dench-Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, As Time Goes By), the retired couple who are left broke when their daughters start up doesn’t take off (Bill Nighy-Hot Fuzz, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 1, Pirate of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest and Penelope Wilton-Shaun of the Dead, Match Point, Pride & Prejudice), the cougar looking for a sugar daddy (Celia Imrie-Highlander, the Phantom Menace, Bridget Jones’s Diary), the old rogue looking for love (Ronald Pickup-Prince of Persia Sands of Time, the Mission, Lolita) and the racist old woman (Maggie Smith-Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, Hook, A Room With A View). They all arrive at the hotel only to discover it is not quite as clean and well kept as the advertisements implied. It is run by a young Indian named Sonny (Dev Patel-Slumdog Millionaire, the Last Airbender, Skins) who is desperate to make the hotel succeed to prove himself to his disapproving mother. He is also trying to get her approval to marry his super hot girlfriend (Tena Desae-Yeh Faasley, Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bandi).
The stories move and develop. The gay judge is looking for his lost Indian boyfriend. The destitute widow takes a job at the girlfriends telemarketing company. The couple are torn between the husbands new found love of India and the wife’s need to move back to England. The cougar is looking for a husband, and the old rogue for a hookup. The disapproving mother (Lillete Dubey-Monsoon Wedding, Vanity Fair, Kal Ho Naa Ho) threatens to pull the whole deal apart while the racist learns to love other cultures.
The stars. Acting was top notch, particularly Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. Two stars. The story was well done. Two stars. A nice insight into living in India, at least from the perspective of a retired white person. One star. A feel good movie that successfully makes you feel good. One star. Tena Desae was extremely easy on the eyes. One star. A PG-13 film that felt and worked as a PG-13 film. One star. Total: eight stars.
The black holes. Pacing at parts definitely dragged, and by the end of the film you start to feel the 124 minutes. One black hole. If I were a less kind person I could say that the endings all felt a little too pat, but I will pass on that. Other than that, taken in the context of what this film was supposed to be I can’t think of anything else. One black hole.
A grand total of seven stars. Should you see it? If you are my mother absolutely. If watching retired people find love and meaning in their life works for you then yes. However, if you find it difficult to connect with older actors and/or just want something resembling action or a bigger conflict than a couple fighting with each other than maybe pass. You have to want to see a feel good movie to enjoy this one. Bathroom break? Nothing really springs to mind. Maybe the part where the judge plays cricket with the local Indian boys. Not a whole lot happening there. Judi Dench wandering the city could probably be missed too if necessary.
Thanks for reading. I am having a blast here in Italy but if I find the time will try to get my review for Snow White and the Huntsman up. The one bad thing about this trip is I am missing Prometheus and will have to wait until I get back to review it. Follow me on Twitter @Nerdkungfu. If you have comments on this film or review feel free to leave them here. Off topic questions or suggestions can be emailed to me at [email protected]. Thanks again. Talk to you soon.
Dave
Warner Bros. considering dumping Ryan Reynolds for next Green Lantern movie?
I say go for it. Like Dave said in his blistering review, Ryan Reynolds was the weakest part of the entire film. He just doesn’t come across as anything other than a sleazy good looking guy who’s only interest really is in hooking up with every chick on the planet. Honestly, that doesn’t really say Hal Jordan.
Actually, now that GL is out of the closet, that might make Reynolds an even worst cast, if that were possible. I’m not saying you have to cast a gay actor, but Reynolds seems to have a certain straight typecast going on.
Something else mentioned in the article I read is about Warner wanting to work with creative talent that “gets” the character. I couldn’t be more pleased to hear that. I honestly think this movie really missed the mark, and based on how poorly it did worldwide I’m not the only one. They need to stop hiring guys who know how to write movies for the general population and hire guys who know how to write comic book movies.
Anyway, I’m sure Ryan Reynolds will do fine in his next movie. Maybe Van Wilder II, since that is pretty much the only movie he seems capable of doing.
This image comes from Dave’s comic book t-shirt collection. For some reason he has like 1,000 GL shirts.
Jason
