Here and There...

Well, haven’t had much interesting to say lately…hence the lack of blogging. However, here’s a few interesting notes: After all the good stuff coming along for X-Men 3, here’s a bit of a blue note – the reported running time is 103 minutes (1 hour, 43 min.). That’s a half hour shorter than X2, and a minute shorter than X1. This is yet to be officially confirmed, so I’m hoping someone just fell asleep at the stopwatch. If true, this doesn’t bode well when you think about it. Most fans thought the first one was too short, but it was the first one, had to explain origins, and had certain mandates from the studio, so it could be understood. The second one felt like they tried to shoehorn too much plot in, but considering what story they were trying to tell, 133 minutes was pretty good. Now they have the third one in what is supposed to wrap up the trilogy, and it’s the shortest one yet?! The have to introduce Beast, Angel, and Juggernaut, deal with various storylines, and try to tell a coherent Dark Phoenix story to boot? All within the shortest running time yet? Either there’s going to be a triple dip DVD with all the uncut footage, or that compacted schedule really took its toll… Put this in your “Who’d a thunk it?” file. Via an article at The Movie Blog, Steven Seagal (yes, THAT Seagal), is releasing an album. A music album. Where he sings. I guess he did show flashes of musical possibility in the flick Fire Down Below, and since he hasn’t released a good movie since, I guess it’s time to branch out a bit. The funny thing is that after reading most comments I’ve come across and listening to some of the 30 second clips, it seems to be a general consensus of shock of just how much this doesn’t suck as bad as you’d expect. In fact, the clip of My Time Is Numbered was actually pretty good. The tunes seem to have a bluesy, southern sound, and some of it actually works. Who knew? The Maple Leafs fired coach Pat Quinn. This really isn’t a surprise. Unless he won the cup, he was on his way out, and missing the playoffs sealed it. Sure, John Ferguson should carry some of the blame too as it was him that assembled such a sorry team, but the fact that the Leafs sucked so badly in January/February and then turned it on at the end to make it interesting with a heck of a final run shows that this team could play well. The fact that they didn’t looks bad on the coach. Of course, the team that played well was mostly youngsters and not the group of misfits signed by Ferguson. It’s too bad Leafs management didn’t boot Ferguson as well and start from scratch. Oh well, welcome to the Paul Maurice era as Leafs coach. On a different note, it was nice to see JS Aubin play so well in goal for the Leafs down the stretch and almost single-handedly get them into the playoffs. At least he got rewarded with a contract for next season. It’s just sad that they didn’t have him up with the team earlier. I remember telling a friend last September when we were talking hockey that Aubin was way better than Tellqvist in net and that he shouldn’t have been sent down. I saw that in training camp highlights on TV, and it took Leafs management till the end of the season to figure it out. If only they’d ask me first :)