10 Things We Learned from the ‘Breaking Bad’ 10 Year Reunion [Comic-Con 2018]

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Chris Evangelista and /Film present 10 Things We Learned from the ‘Breaking Bad’ 10 Year Reunion [Comic-Con 2018].  Be advised that major spoilers may be lurking if you proceed further.  Here are three of my favorite things learned and some of my thoughts about each…

2. Darkness Was Important
Breaking Bad was an extremely dark show, and the darkness was essential, as far as Vince Gilligan is concerned. “If the show is going to be about producing and selling meth, you want to take it seriously,” the creator said. “But you don’t have to make it some after school special – you just have to show the reality of why that’s a bad decision.” Gilligan also added that any time they needed to show a violent moment on Breaking Bad – like the episode “Krazy-8”, where Cranston’s Walter White has to strangle a man to death with a bike lock – it was important to never treat the violence as “entertainment”, but to rather highlight how unpleasant it was. “There has to be consequences,” Gilligan said. “If you don’t do that, you’re not doing the show justice.”
Craig’s thoughts:  Gilligan is so right.  Actions have consequences and bad actions can, or at least should weigh heavily on a character unless he/she is a sociopath.  The added layer brought realism and importance to those “dark” decisions.

4. Aaron Paul Misses Jesse
This may not seem like a huge revelation. But during the Hall H panel, actor Aaron Paul commented that he really “missed” playing tragic drug dealer Jesse Pinkman. What made this moment so memorable was the wealth of emotion in Paul’s voice – he sounded as if he was on the verge of tears as he uttered these words. It got to me.
Craig’s thoughts:  How can you not love how attached and appreciative some actors get to the characters that made them?

7. Bryan Cranston Would Frequently Trick Aaron Paul Into Thinking Jesse Was Going To Die
While Jesse Pinkman lived beyond the first season, and ended up surviving the series as a whole, Bryan Cranston would constantly prank Aaron Paul into thinking his character was going to die. As Paul and Cranston tell it, Cranston would come up to Paul and ask: “Have you read the latest script?” When Paul would say no, Cranston would give Paul a big hug and say, “I’m so sorry,” thus making Paul think his character was about to get bumped off. This apparently happened several times, and Paul apparently fell for it almost every time.
Craig’s thoughts: This is probably not a new story for most fans of Breaking Bad, but I think it is so funny that Cranston would mess with Paul like that… and of course Paul would fall for it!

The 10 Wildest Movie Plot Twists

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Paul Shrodt and Mental Floss present The 10 Wildest Movie Plot Twists.  Be advised that major spoilers wait for those who venture further.  Using Shrodt’s list, here are three of my favorites and some of my thoughts to boot.

1. PSYCHO (1960)
Alfred Hitchcock often constructed his movies like neat games that manipulated the audience. The Master of Suspense delved headfirst into horror with Psycho, which follows a secretary (Janet Leigh) who sneaks off with $40,000 and hides in a motel. The ensuing jolt depends on Leigh’s fame at the time: No one expected the ostensible star and protagonist to die in a gory (for the time) shower butchering only a third of the way into the running time. Hitchcock outdid that feat with the last-act revelation that Anthony Perkins’s supremely creepy Norman Bates is embodying his dead mother.
Craig’s thoughts: Psycho makes the “twist” list for a couple of reasons.  1: It starts off with the feel of a crime movie and twists into a horror film.  Bravo!  2.  The twist ending is a classic and truly shocked audiences… still does.

2. PLANET OF THE APES (1968)

No, not the botched Tim Burton remake that tweaked the original movie’s famous reveal in a way that left everyone scratching their heads. The Charlton Heston-starring sci-fi gem continues to stupefy anyone who comes into its orbit. Heston, of course, plays an astronaut who travels to a strange land where advanced apes lord over human slaves. It becomes clear once he finds the decrepit remains of the Statue of Liberty that he’s in fact on a future Earth. The anti-violence message, especially during the political tumult of 1968, shook people up as much as the time warp.
Craig’s Thoughts: I saw the original Planet of the Apes during it’s initial run.  I was 9 years old and had no idea of the twist ending.  I. Was. Shocked.  The movie remains one of my favorites.

5. THE USUAL SUSPECTS (1995)
The Usual Suspects has left everyone who watches it breathless by the time they get to the fakeout conclusion. Roger “Verbal” Kint (Kevin Spacey), a criminal with cerebral palsy, regales an interrogator in the stories of his exploits with a band of fellow crooks, seen in flashback. Hovering over this is the mysterious villainous figure Keyser Söze. It’s not until Verbal leaves and jumps into a car that customs agent David Kujan realizes that the man fabricated details, tricking the law and the viewer into his fake reality, and is in fact the fabled Söze.
Craig’s Thoughts: The Usual Suspects is a modern classic.  What a great mystery told to us with all the clues right there.  Then when it all comes together in the end, we’re as shocked as David Kujan.

Additional thoughts:

The Sixth Sense is a great choice, but I picked the three above because they surprised me.  I knew the Sixth Sense had a twist at the end and actually figured it out early on.  It was cool to see how M. Night put it all together though.

I also applaud the twist in Primal Fear.  That one caught me off guard.  Kudos to Ed Norton’s acting.  Fight Club and The Others had interesting twists but didn’t shock me as much as the three I chose did.

Although it didn’t make the list, The Perfect Getaway is an under-rated film with a great twist ending.  Written and directed by David (Pitch Black) Twohy it stars  Milla Jovovich, Steve Zahn, Timothy Olyphant and Chris Hemsworth.

Batman: White Knight by Sean Murphy

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Batman: White Knight, written and illustrated by Sean Murphy is set to be the first graphic novel published by DC under their new Black Label banner.

After years of epic battles, the Dark Knight finally finds a way to cure the twisted mind of his archenemy. The Clown Prince of Crime has now changed his ways, fighting for good in Gotham City, and it may just cause Batman to go over the edge of his own sanity.

Writer/artist Sean Murphy takes the helm of this Batman/Joker story like no one else could, delivering an alternative examination of the relationship between the greatest rivals in the DC Universe, exploring the darkest corners of justice and madness. This new graphic novel is the latest in great stand-alone stories from DC Comics. Collects issues #1-8.

This won’t be your father’s Batman.

Jonathan Maberry Going Down George A. Romero’s “Road of the Dead”

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Remember last year when George Romero announced his next zombie film, George Romero Presents Road of the Dead?  While I was glad Romero was taking part in a new addition to his zombie films, I wasn’t thrilled with the concept which to me sounded like Death Race 2000 meets Dawn of the Dead.

Then in July of last year, Romero gave an interview talking up George Romero Presents Road of the Dead and more.  Sadly, three days later he died.

Today at Comic-Con, IDW announced that Jonathan Maberry will write a 3 issue mini-series based on Romero’s Road of the Dead.  Maberry is the perfect choice for this project having worked with Romero on Nights of the Living Dead anthology last year.  That and the fact that Maberry is a fantastic writer.

In addition to Maberry writing the series, I was pleased to see that my pal, Drew Moss will be providing covers and interior art!

Source: Bleeding Cool.

 

26 Things We Learned from Tom Cruise and JJ Abrams’ “Mission: Impossible III” Commentary

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Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 26 Things We Learned from Tom Cruise and JJ Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III Commentary.  Here are three of my favorites…

5. That’s Abrams’ voice on the phone calling Hunt at the party. His hands also cameo as the coroner removing the explosive charge from Lindsey Farris’ (Keri Russell) dead head.

14. They couldn’t control the area for the scenes shot around the actual Vatican, and crowds gathered which caused interruptions. “So what we did is about a block and a half away from this location we set up a phony shoot, and we had three girls in bikinis and three old women dressed as nuns, and we had a camera and we had a tent. We pretended to be shooting something.”

20. “Listen carefully to the flute,” says Abrams during the scene where Musgrave mouths his support to a secured Hunt. “It’s the Mission: Impossible theme.”

9 Things You May Not Know About Billy the Kid

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Evan Andrews and History.com present 9 Things You May Not Know About Billy the Kid.  Here are three of my favorites…

The Kid’s first arrest came for stealing clothes from a laundry.
Henry McCarty’s first run-in with the law came in 1875, when he assisted a local street tough known as “Sombrero Jack” in stealing clothing from a Chinese laundry. Henry hid the loot in his boarding house, but was arrested after his landlord turned him in to the sheriff. The crime only carried a minor sentence, but rather than face punishment, the wiry youth escaped the jailhouse by shimmying up a chimney. McCarty then fled town and embarked on a career as a roving ranch hand, gambler and gang member. He became handy with a Winchester rifle and a Colt revolver, and in August 1877 he killed his first man during a dispute in an Arizona saloon. That same year, he adopted the alias “William H. Bonney” and became known as “Billy the Kid” or simply “The Kid.”

He played a prominent role in a frontier feud.
Billy the Kid first earned his reputation as a gunslinger in 1878, when he participated in a bloody frontier war in Lincoln County, New Mexico. The conflict centered on a business rivalry between British-born rancher John Tunstall and a pair of Irish tycoons named James Dolan and Lawrence Murphy. Dolan and Murphy’s outfit—known as “The House”—had long held a monopoly over the dry goods and cattle trades in Lincoln County. When they tried to intimidate Tunstall’s upstart operation, the Englishman enlisted the Kid and several other gunmen to protect his property. The tensions finally boiled over in February 1878, when Tunstall was murdered by a posse organized by Sheriff William Brady, a supporter of The House.

Following Tunstall’s death, the Kid and several other former employees organized themselves into a vigilante group called “The Regulators” and swore revenge. In what became known as the “Lincoln County War,” the Regulators assassinated Sheriff Brady and spent the next several months shooting it out with The House’s forces. In July 1878, the feud reached its climax with a deadly, five-day firefight in the town of Lincoln, after which the Regulators disbanded and the two sides sealed a flimsy peace agreement. The Kid left the war with a reputation as one of the West’s most skilled gunmen, but he remained wanted for the murder of Sheriff Brady. He would spend the rest of his life on the run from the authorities.

The Kid made a famous jailbreak.
In late 1880, Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett tracked the Kid to a cabin in Stinking Springs, New Mexico, and forced his surrender. The outlaw was found guilty of the murder of Sheriff William Brady and confined to the Lincoln courthouse. He was scheduled for a date with the hangman, but on the evening of April 28, 1881, he engineered the most daring getaway of his criminal career. During a trip to the outhouse, the Kid slipped out of his handcuffs, ambushed a guard and shot the man to death with his own pistol. He then armed himself with a double-barreled shotgun and gunned down a second guard who was crossing the street. Once in control of the courthouse, the Kid collected a small arsenal of weapons, cut his leg shackles with a pickaxe and fled town on a stolen horse. News of the brazen escape was soon reprinted in newspapers across the country, making the Kid the most wanted man in the West.