... FOR "SUMMER OF THE SUPERHERO, 2012"

Now that 2012's summer movie season has ended (Lionsgate's Expendables 2, starring Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme and virtually every other 'roided 80's action star you can think of, opened to $28.6 million last weekend, and is arguably the last big-budget "event" movie until October), it's important that we look back and remember what worked, what didn't, and what lessons studio executives had better take to heart as they gear up for Summer '13. There were overachievers (Marvel's The Avengers, $617 million U.S.) and underachievers (Battleship, $65 million), breakout hits (Ted, $213 million) and outright disasters (Rock Of Ages, $38 million); there was also, bless its heart, a 47th Ice Age adventure (Continental Drift, with $150 million stateside, plus another $644 million worldwide). All of these, plus more, warrant a discussion on the modern revitalization of the Hollywood blockbuster...

... FOR "WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED FIFTY (PART 39 - 'DINOSAUR' EDITION)"

My continuing foray into Disney's fifty official Animated Classics. As always, don't hesitate to share your thoughts/memories/complaints in the comments section below. Links to previous entries have also been included below.

Title: Dinosaur (2000)

The Plot: When a meteor collides with Earth, an Iguanodon raised by Lemurs makes the treacherous journey to the "Nesting Grounds" - a mysterious valley believed to be untouched by the devastation.

The Songs: None

... FOR "MARKETING PLOYS AND THE SORRY STATE OF ADS ON TV"

It's an unwritten rule in the Lundberg home that, when the TV's on and it's time for a station break, the sound on the television must be automatically turned off. We do this for a number of reasons: One, the commercials tend to be 60% louder than the actual program we're watching (why is this?); two, with four kids running the house, the added silence isn't just welcome, but necessary to maintain our sanity; and three, 19 out of every 20 commercials tend to raise my blood pressure to dangerous levels. It's unhealthy, I suppose, to get so infuriated by your average TV commercial that I wind up yelling back at the screen like an idiot, so until we can afford some much-needed psychotherapy, that all-important "mute" button on the remote will have to do.

... FOR "WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED FIFTY (PART 38 - 'FANTASIA/2000' EDITION)"

My continuing foray into Disney's fifty official Animated Classics. As always, don't hesitate to share your thoughts/memories/complaints in the comments section below. Links to previous entries have also been included below.

Title: Fantasia/2000 (1999)

The Plot: A series of animated segments set to classical music, performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conducted by James Levine.

The Segments: Symphony No. 5 in C minor-I, Allegro con brio (Ludwig van Beethoven), Pines Of Rome (Ottorino Respighi), Rhapsody In Blue (George Gershwin), Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major-I, Allegro (Dmitri Shostakovich, based on The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen), The Carnival Of The Animals, Finale (Camille Saint-Saëns), The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Paul Dukas), Pomp And Circumstance - Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4 (Edward Elgar), Firebird Suite - 1919 Version (Igor Stravinsky)

... FOR "'THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN' AND THE ART OF THE CYNICAL CASH GRAB"

Because there's no better way to ring in the release of The Dark Knight Rises than by talking about a competing superhero franchise from a competing motion picture studio...

I was just about to publish some thoughts on Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man last week, starring Andrew Garfield as everyone's favorite web-slinging superhero, when I happened across my friend Drew McWeeny's (second) write-up over at HitFix.com, which pretty much rendered anything I had to say on the subject moot. If you don't mind a spoiler-filled discussion on the plot's more "intricate" twists and turns, then you should really give that a shot, or at least check out Drew's initial review of the movie itself, as it sums up basically everything diehard fans find so frustrating about Spidey's big-screen reboot. (What follows is a slightly modified version of my original piece.)