To the people of Boston, I send nothing but love and care for all of you.

I went to Boston in 2009 to hang out with a friend, and I instantly fell in love with the city. I loved the history, the ability to walk just about anywhere, the people, the food, it was just a generally wonderful time in an exceedingly pleasant city. I look forward to visiting it again some day.

The events of Monday are horrific, and I am thankful they were not worse than it turned out to be. The idea that even one person was injured, however, is abhorrent to me. What did you accomplish? Nothing. Not a thing. Did 9/11 not teach terrorists that nothing stops us? Americans don’t tend to roll over and take things lightly. This is not an act that will change this world except to bring us closer together.

My heart bleeds for those impacted by this cowardly act. To those who carried it out… there is nothing you could ever say that would justify such an action.

This site normally cover pop culture, but at this time it just doesn’t seem appropriate. I will return to normal coverage on Wednesday.

The image with this post is the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier started shooting on Monday, and it sounds as though Marvel has some definite plans for making sure you never forget this is part of a larger universe.

While the first phase of the Marvel movies were all building towards The Avengers, it appears as the second phase is going to assume you’re used to characters hopping between films. Returning from the first film, Chris Evans will again be Captain America, and we’ll also see Sebastian Stan as Bucky, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Toby Jones as Arnim Zola and Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, but as for familiar faces from other films you can expect to see Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow, Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill and Maximiliano Hernández as Agent Jasper Sitwell.

Totally new roles this time around will include Robert Redford as Agent Alexander Pierce, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/The Falcon and Georges St-Pierre as Georges Batroc.

This is going to be a very different film from Captain America: The First Avenger from the sounds of it, and it makes sense. Where the first one had to tell his original from the time period of World War II, he is now very much a mart of the modern times. It makes sense that he would have ties to S.H.I.E.L.D. as Cap is very much the all-American and would want to continue to work with the government.

Is there a possibility that this is simply too many characters? We won’t know until we see it and just how much each of them plays into the overall story.

Captain America: The Winter Solider will hit theaters on April 4, 2014.

After five weeks of slow box office, things are finally looking up thanks to Sony taking the top two spots.

Hotel Transylvania had the biggest September opening ever, beating out the one set by Sweet Home Alabama back in 2002. The new animated festure was the biggest release yet for the animation arm of the studio and brought in $43 million off of a reported $85 million dollar budget.

Sony also secured the second spot this week with its new sci-fi action thriller Looper which came in with $21.2 million off of a $30 million budget. The film is also reportedly bringing in $23 million in China this weekend, marking the first time a film has opened larger in the growing film market that in the U.S. Considering the budget, this sounds like it’s going to do extremely well.

End of Watch had an excellent second weekend, dropping only 39.2 percent from its opening weekend. Anything under a 50 percent drop is considered a success, so it did well.

Fourth place went to Trouble with the Curve which saw a drop of 38.1 percent drop.

House at the End of the Street landed in fifth with a slowdown of 41.8 percent, so every film seems to have enjoyed some extra bumps from the business. Maybe everyone just wanted to get out of the house?

Next weekend sees the release of Frankenweenie, Taken 2 and Pitch Perfect.

Oh, Dredd 3d? 11th place with $2.28 million. I might as well give up my hopes of a sequel now.

With a 28 percent decline in the take at the box office from the same weekend last year, no one is going to be crowing about the last three days.

As it stands right now, House at the End of the Street and End of Watch are both claiming to have taken $13 million this weekend, so the real number one won’t be known until later in the day until the actuals are reported. Suffice it to say, this is a fight of mediocre returns, however. End did about average for cop movies, but House actually came in a little bit ahead of the norm. Considering the budgets – $7 million for End and $10 million for House – both studios are still looking at profits in the not too distant future.

The new Clint Eastwood vehicle, Trouble with the Curve, came in with $12.7 million, although some are saying its up there in the tie for first place. Either way, that is way off the mark for baseball movies as of late.

Finding Nemo 3D dropped 43.4 percent to land in fourth place with $9.4 million. It is definitely looking like 3D re-releases aren’t going to do as well as some thought.

Fifth place went to Resident Evil: Retribution with another $6.7 million, but it’s still not doing that will with only $33.4 million domestic so far off of a $65 million budget.

While I normally don’t come out of the top five, for all of the coverage I’ve given Dredd 3D – including reviewing it – I’ll sadly report it landed in sixth with $6.3 million. The producers already said it needed to hit $50 million in the U.S. to even consider a sequel, and that looks out of the question now.

Next week’s big releases are Hotel Transylvania, Looper and Won’t Back Down. With the way things have been going as of late at the box office, I wouldn’t expect to see any of these to be break out hits.

Dredd 3D can be summed up very easily for fans of the long-running comic book series: Pitch freaking perfect.

I was able to slide out of the office early enough today to catch a 2D matinee of the film – I have yet to see a 3D screening of a film, and don’t plan to – and walked in with a lot of trepidation. From rumors of problems in the editing room, to Mega-City One not looking quite right,  I wondered if I was walking into a disaster of a film that would leave me angry at the inconstancies with the source material.

While there was one moment in the opening monologue that made me a little concerned (it sounded like Mega-City One was the only city, and it isn’t in the books, but a very minor quibble), from that point forward this movie hit all of the right notes. From the oppressive nature of the city, to the dystopian system that is held together by a thread, everything is here.

Karl Urban’s performance as Dredd does, however, seem to teeter at times between intense and caricature. His snarled lip almost sent me into fits of laughter in one scene, but otherwise it was believable and carried the gravity of the city’s top judge. There is no compromise with Dredd, the law is black and white and everything he does is 100 percent by the book of the law.

Olivia Thirlby’s turn as Judge Anderson does something I thought was impossible: It made me actually care about Anderson. While the character has had a long run in the series, she has just never appealed to me, but showing her as an uncertain rookie that could teach Dredd something about not being so quick with his judgement made her more human and likable. Yes, we have seen the story of a “seasoned cop with the rookie under his wing” more times than I can count, but it worked here on a very different level due to the stark and brutal nature of the world they inhabit.

This movie is not for the squeamish. The slow motion violence though is beautiful in its own way, but it will leave you wondering about the fragility of the human body as you see it ripple from impacts. A good portion of the $45 million budget had to of gone to the amount of blood that gets splattered generously around the edges of the frame, but it is shot in such a way that you never feel like its gratuitous.

In short, it a fun romp with a highly unoriginal basic plot, but you don’t care. You can just sit back and enjoy the ride and receive a crash course in the world of Judge Dredd and his totalitarian police state future.

Stallone who?

It may have taken the top spot at the box office this weekend, but Resident Evil: Retribution doesn’t have too much to get excited about.

Resident Evil: Retribution took the top spot at the box office this weekend, but it had the worst opening for the series since the original film in 2002, and it led the second slowest wekkend of the year. The film ended up bringing in $21.1 million, but with a $65 million dollar budget that isn’t a whole lot to crow about.

Coming in second was Finding Nemo 3D with $17.5 million. That’s one of the weaker 3D rerelease openings, but considering what the process probably cost the studio, I wouldn’t say we’re done seeing these happen quite yet. We can all hope, though.

Third place went to The Possession with another $5.8 million. I only recently learned the “true events” that inspired the movie happened here in my town of Kirksville, MO. Yay? That aside, it’s scared up $41.1 domestic off of a $14 million budget, proving once again that perhaps smaller budget films seems to be the way to go as of late.

Lawless slipped into fourth place with $4.2 million bringing its domestic total to $30.1 million. No word yet on its budget so there isn’t anyway to tell how it’s doing. My gut tells me “so-so,” however.

Rounding out the top five was ParaNorman with just over $3 million and a new domestic total of $49.3 million. It’s definitely looking like making a kid’s film is no longer a sure fire path to success.

Interestingly, The Master, a film many have said is loosely based on the origins of Scientology, opened in 18th place and was only on five screens nationally. It brought in $730,000 and will go national next week. It has some star power behind it with Paul Thomas Anderson directing, and Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix in front of the camera, it is sure to drum up some interest.

Next weekend sees a bunch of newcomers hitting the screens: Trouble with the Curve, House at the End of The Street, End of Watch and Dredd 3D. I think you all know which one I am most excited for …

Can we just all agree that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is insane?

As has been covered widely over the past day or so, Michael Bloomberg is pushing for an initiative in New York City that will ban the sale of any sugary drinks over 16 ounces.  This includes not only sodas, but also sweetened tea and coffee.  The ban only applies to restaurants, movie theaters and concession stands, but not to grocery and convenience stores.  So, while you won’t be able to get a drink the size of a trash can at a movie theater, you’ll be able to walk into a 7-Eleven and still get your drink that holds more than the human stomach is designed for.

In an interview with CBS News on Thursday, Bloomberg said, ”Every study shows that you will eat a very big proportion of whatever’s put in front of you.”  He went on to add, “And if you have to make a conscious effort to go to another cup, you’re less likely to do it.”

Okay, yes, I see what he’s saying, but lets think about this for a moment.  You want to ban sugary drinks of a certain size in movie theaters where people don’t want to get up and leave the film to get another.  While doing this, you will still be all for them buying Gigantor drink at the convenience store.  How does this make any sense?  Don’t worry, it doesn’t.

Then, when you factor in concession stands, that includes sporting arenas that sell alcoholic beverages, which, by the way, are exempt from this proposed regulation.  So, feel free to drink all the alcohol you want, but don’t you dare have a soda at the same time.

I’m still trying to grasp how coffee is included in this whole thing.  I drink my coffee black.  So does this mean I can no longer go into a Starbucks in New York City and order a Venti (20 oz.) House Blend?  I know what he’s attempting to get rid of is some of these crazy coffee concoctions they come up with, but I use no sweetener or cream in my coffee, and I would be subject to the same rules?

This is yet another example of out of control nanny state stupidity.  I am a grown man, and you know what?  I gave up soda several years ago.  While that was the right decision for me, it doesn’t mean I think everyone should be forced to follow that.

If we start removing every unhealthy choice from the hands of citizens, you may soon find a very empty grocery store.  Are we going to remove candy bars next?  Are we going to say how much butter can be put on your popcorn at the movies?  I mean, come on Bloomberg, you’ve already added more smoking bans, banned trans fats, mandated calorie counts on menus and banned sodas from school property, you simply are not aiming high enough!  There’s a lot more ways you can annoy the citizens of New York City, you just have to be willing to go for it!

The cast of villains for Iron Man 3 just gets stranger and stranger.

Just the other day I explained that Firepower will be in Iron Man 3, and that James Badge Dale has been cast as Eric Savin, also known as Coldblood.  Well, now Dale has been spotted walking around the set in the armor you see in the picture above, which basically makes it appear he will be the Iron Patriot.

This is where it gets odd.

In the comic books, the Iron Patriot was really Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin from Spider-Man fame.  Scuttlebutt on the set is that Dale is still playing Savin, will start off as the Iron Patriot, and then go bad and turn into Coldblood.  (I think my head hurts now.)  Meanwhile, supposedly Ben Kingsley is indeed playing the Mandrin – Iron Man’s arch-nemesis – and will be pulling the strings on Iron Patriot/Coldblood and Firepower.

At this point, who knows what’s going on, but I do fear the film is going to be villain heavy.  And if you want him to fight another armored villain, why go with one that hardly anyone knows and a second stringer?  Why not bring in Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, Whirlwind or any of the other numerous armored bad guys?   Or, you know, you could always just have him fight the Mandarin alone as that’s the bad guy long time Iron Man fans have been waiting for.

There I go with that crazy talk again.

As I sit here, my bags are packed and my alarms are set to get me up for a fun-filled 9 hour flight to get back to the states.  I leave with a lot of memories and experiences and one very clear theory: London is not ready for the Olympics.

After spending six days in London I am certainly not an expert on the city, but I will say from what I’ve seen, this city’s public transport system can barely handle it’s day to day residents.  Add in the number of people coming in for the games and, well, I pretty much predict doom.  Tonight while trying to leave Covent Garden after spending a nice evening with some friends who had just returned to town, we had to opt for other stations as the line to get out was out into the street.  Imagine a bustling center of tourists, add the games on top … it isn’t going to be fun.

I’m glad I visited now before this city gets crushed.

In the meantime, I leave you with an image of the statue dedicated to the candy, Jelly Babies … because the world needed this to exist.

Filming on The Dark Knight Rises has moved to New York City and it looks like it wil again be focused around the citizens of Gotham taking to the streets in protest of something.

All of the filming that was seen involved the three desert camo Tumblers we’ve seen showing up all over the place, and at least some scenes did involve Batman (Christian Bale) and Bane (Tom Hardy).  The primary focus seems to be on a confrontation between the Gotham City police and a huge group of rioters, but whatever is firing them up is unclear.

All I can say is thank goodness Christopher Nolan doesn’t like to shoot indoor on soundstages because it gives us just that much more to speculate about what is happening in these scenes.

In this take, it appears the cops run past the rioters more than actually fight with them.

In this version you can hear a bit of the dialog of the police saying “Disperse … disperse now or you will be fired upon … this is your last warning … disperse now …” and then the fight happens.

More of a street level take on the happenings.

A good close up of the fighting.

Amazing Spider-Man 2 will hit theaters on May 2, 2014.

I’m sorry, but, what?

The confusion here comes from the fact the first film, Amazing Spider-Man, doesn’t come out until July 3, 2012, so we now have a release date for a sequel to a film that hasn’t even been released yet.  ”I think it speaks volumes about our confidence in what we are seeing on the new film and our desire to move quickly on the next installment,” a Sony executive told Deadline.

What it tells me is you’re racing to get a lock on a weekend and make it extremely clear to Marvel that you’re never going to let these rights revert back to them.  (So long as Sony keeps production on a Spider-Man film churning every few years, the rights will never return to the comics company, or its parent company Disney.)  Do you even have a script ready?  Have you locked crew yet?  I’m sure you locked Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone (pictured to the right) for multiple films, but do you have a director ready to go?

The first film is still in post-production, and now these same folks have to get pre-production ready on the next one?  True, it’s a little under three years away, but you are definitely overlapping productions here, and that can go horribly wrong if not managed correctly.  True, the Harry Potter series kept a similar schedule up, so it is possible, but it definitely makes me nervous about what sort of quality we can expect.

Despite still being a year away from release, The Dark Knight Rises is gearing up its promotional campaign with the release of its first teaser poster today.  While not as exciting as getting our first look at the villain Bane, it’s still nice to see any new imagery from one of the most anticipated movies out there.

The poster doesn’t tell us a heck of a lot, and it took me a little bit of time actually to spot the Bat symbol in the sky, but beyond that it just shows the buildings of Gotham City crumbling down to the street.  (You can click the image for a much larger view)  Are we to take it literally or figuratively?  Are the buildings of the city actually crumbling for some reason, or is to represent the moral decay of this city?  I guess we’ll find out next July.

Considering how much I’ve loved the first two films in this series, I can’t wait for this third one where Christopher Nolan wraps up his trilogy.  Come on, you’ve knocked it out of the park twice, do it for us a third time.