Think I'm scheduling this far enough in advance?

I'm really not trusting that y'all aren't already busy through until May, but I thought I'd try to start reserving something now.

My birthday is next month. I'm not going to do a party. I'd rather do dinner and a movie with everybody. Last time I did that, it was Grindhouse, and that shit was awesome. This year, I'm looking to do Kick-Ass. For those of you who need convincing, check out the red-band trailer. Yes, I'm in love with Hit Girl, too. Yes, that's still creepy.

The movie comes out April 16th. I'm thinking of doing this little shindig on either the 16th, 17th, or 18th. Please let me know which day and which time works best for you. A proper invite will be in the offing when I get a better idea of who all is available.

[Poll #1532157]

Compare and contrast

A serious article about film criticism and its decline.

vs.

ZOMG COMIC BOOK MOVIES R OVR.

The criticism of online reviewers in the first link seemed especially prescient this morning when I went from it to the second link. Of course, the problem with the io9 criticism is that the cyclical nature of genre popularity is just that: it is only popularity that waxes/wanes, not actual production. There will be some stepping off of making superhero movies, say, when a few superhero movies have failed to make big bank or have failed critically (either with fans or reviewers or both). But the movies will still be around. After Watchmen did less well than hoped, and after Wolverine was so boring even fanboys didn't bother watching the leaked movie, we are still looking at a slew of movies that were pushed into action regardless of those films failures.

This year, we get Iron Man 2. Next year, Thor and The Avengers. DC is pushing a new Superman movie and another in the Nolan Bat-films. Kick-Ass is already rumored to have a sequel in the works. It is not that we'll tire of superhero movies. We only tire of some superheroes. That's what I mean about popularity. As the Burton-Schumacher Batman franchise started to wane, Blade stepped in, as did X-Men. (The former informed upon The Matrix; the latter took a few cues from it.) Within a couple of years, we had Spider-Man. All around them were the also-rans: The Hulk, The Punisher, Fantastic Four. Then we came back to Batman again.

To the internet's credit, most of this was pointed out to the io9 OP. Perhaps we aren't all the anti-education film reactionaries that that first link assumes many of to be?

Movies: February

I appear to be thwarted in my attempt to talk to the woman I might end up working for today, seeing as her lab has been showing around a prospective post-doc and she's been in meetings and interviewing him all day. It'll have to hold until tomorrow.

Until then! We're done with February and I have a list of movies I've seen. I'm rather disappointed with the rate I'm getting through all of these. I realize a whole week in February was given up to Mass Effect 2, but, really, I need to step up the pace. I've only seen 32 movies so far this year!

Clash of the Titans: The effects don't really rescue the movie, sad to say.

Videodrome: ???

Terminator Salvation: Oh boy. Where do I even begin? ( I'm not actually sure I even saw a movie. )

( A few more, we're almost done... )

Night of the Comet: AWESOME! Had to drop a comment on this one because there is something amazing about this schlocky little post-apocalyptic movie. That something is the heroine. When we first meet her, she's currently claiming another spot on the top ten scores of an arcade game. She then proceeds to have sex with a guy she likes--but doesn't love!--joking about how him giving her a cut of his bootlegging deal better not make her a prostitute. 'Cause if it does, she wants to be paid better! ZOMG LOVE HER.

When the apocalypse falls, she doesn't freak out. She goes to get her sister, who also survives, and the two of them continue to be awesome through the whole movie. Their dad was in the army, so they know how to use a variety of weapons. Her sister, the cheerleader, shoots up a car with an automatic weapon and throws a reasonable fit about how she'd prefer to have the less jam-prone Uzi. They're not ninjas, they're just chicks who know guns. IT IS AWESOME.

Mantis in Lace: I believe my Twitter comment was "surprise softcore is surprising!"

Jennifer's Body: Not as grating as I expected, though for every decent line, there were four or five others that just groaned.