The Weigh In #58

Earlier this week, something popped into my head that I just needed to share and I figured my article just might be a great place to talk about it. So this week’s article is lovingly entitled:

Does anyone know the street value of a Star Wars Episode 1 first edition Darth Maul still in its original package?

Every year comes the summer movie rush. The blitz of television ads, radio, and billboards. The bigger the hype gets, the harder it is to avoid, as each movie approaches its release date. Normally, right on the heels of this advertising campaign come the toys, dolls, hats, action figures, etc... Without fail, there is at least one movie that has its movie poster in every fast food joint and toy store in the country. They are most assuredly advertising the movie, but they all call to you in the same voice: “while you are in, why not pick up a Happy Meal and get a Toy Story spinner doll or that Lion King plush you never knew you wanted”. While kids movies are normally the most blatant and predictable, adults get heir fair share too. Anyone remember the summer you couldn’t pass a dumpster without seeing a Taco Bell Godzilla cup lid? Or god forbid George Lucas might have a movie coming out. You could fill entire stores with all of the tie-in merchandise from Lucasfilm. The bigger the movie the more chances that at least some of its merchandise would end up at the back of your closet. There almost seems to be some kind of mathematical formula for it all.

This year is strangely silent. With two new films being distributed by Disney, the company that could sell road kill burgers to a vegetarian (Cars, and Pirates of the Caribbean 2), and two comic books movies that are based on merchandise that is sold on a monthly basis (X-Men 3 and Superman Returns), these all seem like shoe-ins to have mountains of random junk made for them. This year though, the wheels of commerce seem to be working in slow motion, if almost not at all. All of these movie will have been released within the next month and we should be inundated with remote control cars, pirate eye-patch Happy Meals, X-Men figures, and Superman paraphernalia. It will soon be too late, if it isn’t already, to sucker us into buying some of the most worthless crap on the planet, all in anticipation of our favorite movie release.

Am I missing something? Am I getting too old to see the polyethylene sign at knee level whenever I walk into a McDonalds or Burger King? If it weren’t so damn hot outside it almost wouldn’t feel like summer.

Just one of the random thoughts that popped into my head this week. Let me know if you think I just completely missed the boat on this subject, if you noticed the same thing and maybe have an explanation, or if this article opened your eyes to some bigger phenomenon (ie.. conspiracy) that you were missing that final piece to at: Dplace76@yahoo.com.


This weeks Superman Returns news:
The Superman Returns release date has been pushed forward to June 28.


This weekend at your local multiplex (6/6/06 and 9/9/06):

The Omen: Horror
Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, Mia Farrow, David Thewlis, Pete Postlethwait
Plot: A remake of the 1976 horror film, an American diplomat agrees to secretly adopt a little boy after learning that his baby died during childbirth, neglecting to tell the mother. As the boy grows older and strange events and deaths surround him, many believe that the child is in fact the antichrist.
Buzz: 30 years after the original, Fox Studios decided to remake a classic horror film. Look for a cleaner, hipper, more stylish version. This movie doesn’t really promise more, hell, doesn’t really promise anything actually. And as we’ve seen in the past, pretty does not always translate into better. Actually it almost never does.

Cars: Animation
(voices) Paul Newman, Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Larry The Cable Guy, George Carlin, Cheech Marin, Richard Petty, John Ratzenberger, Michael Keaton
Plot: Lightening McQueen realizes that there is more to life than just racing and always getting to the finish line when he accidentally ends up in a rural town and meets some of its eclectic characters.
Buzz: Supposedly not one of Pixar’s best, but even decent Pixar is miles above some of the stuff released by most studios.

This week on DVD (6/6/06)

As always, if you have any thoughts or questions, please drop me a line at Dplace76@yahoo.com, check out more random thoughts at www.livejournal.com/users/bigdpimpin, or keep up with the comings and goings of the Stumblebumcrew at www.myspace.com/stumblebumstudios.