The Bullseye Spotlight 4.22.07: Heat Vision and Jack
Posted by Scotty Flamingo on 04.22.2007
Knowledge is power…for real!
Do you have a certain movie, show, or celebrity that you love, but you don't see much praise about? We're not talking The Shawshank Redemption here, everyone loves that. This column is about those things that seem to be unfairly criticized or forgotten completely. This is The Spotlight.
Hey kids! It's your old pal Scotty with another hidden gem of forgotten goodness right here on The Light!
My last column was a nice change of pace. Frankly, I've been a bit burned out on finding something to trash all the time and I'd kind of tapped the well too much. Plus, I get the vibe that a lot of readers think that I hate everything, which couldn't be farther from the truth. My DVD collection alone disproves that theory.
I scored a pretty sweet Blue Demon Lucha mask off of ebay. It is surprisingly comfortable. So much so, that I think I might start wearing it all the time so that I may fight criminals and vampires.
I got some feedback for last week's column on M. Night Shamylan...
The Reflection
Nick writes:
I'm indifferent to Shamalan overall. I saw the "Sixth Sense" twist coming (every preview focused on Haley saying he sees dead people and Bruce got shot at the very beginning, it just clicked in my head), "Unbreakable" was cool if somewhat boring, "Signs" I hated, "The Village" I liked until the horrible twist, and I haven't seen "Lady in the Water". I can see the guy's writing and directing talent, but he needs to lay off the twists and just write a good story beginning to end. The one that pissed me off the most was "The Village" twist because it made absolutely no sense. The only reason the village adopted the 1800 culture was specifically to trick the audience. Otherwise, they could've worn Hawaiian shirts and spoke like Keanu Reeves and the same would be accomplished because NONE of the village children were alive when they started living in the woods. I don't have a problem with him, but I won't pay to see another of his movies for that one reason. To me, what makes a good movie is when you take away the audience and the story still makes sense. "The Village" didn't have a twist that made sense in the world he created without the audience present. It was a giant middle finger to those watching it. Up until that point, it was a perfectly fine movie, but the ending ruined it horribly.
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Nick
Well Nick, I disagree about The Village. I don't think that the 1800's culture was just a cheap trick. The Villagers wanted out of modern society. They wanted a clean break. You couldn't have much of a separation if you still had cell phones or the Internet. It isn't totally unrealistic. I mean, you have the Amish. Also, I think too many people think that Night is just a director with a twist gimmick. Signs didn't have a twist and neither did Lady in The Water. With The Village, the twist was presented in a different was as well. Where Sixth Sense and Unbreakable threw it out in the final moments of the film, The Village brought it out earlier.
And now, moving right along, we get to my weekly cool thing in a segment I call...
The Snapshot
Edward Norton has been cast to play puny Banner in The Incredible Hulk. Another tidbit that makes me more optimistic about this project. Norton is usually great in everything and can do the multiple personality thing. Plus I'm sure that he'll be a great improvement over the void of personality that was Eric Bana. Something tells me he was cast because his name sounded like Banner…
But wait, there's more! In an interview with producer Avi Arad this week he mentioned that this would be a completely different Hulk, letting it slip that he'd even be a different color. So that means we could be seeing the grey hulk in the new movie. Personally, some of my favorite Hulk stories were from the Peter David "Joe Fixit" run, so I'm as giddy as a kid buried up to his neck in candy about that.
Heat Vision and Jack
Heat Vision and Jack was a pilot produced by Ben Stiller in the late 90's following the cancellation of The Ben Stiller Show, but before he hit it big with such hits as Meet the Parents, Something About Mary, and Duplex. Sadly, the pilot was never picked up and everyone moved on. However, through the wonders of the interweb, people began seeing it and it developed an underground following. Of course, being the trend setter that I am, I had already seen it years ago from a contact of mine in LA (that's Los Angeles to those of you in Middle America). The show boasted a ton of talent that had yet to hit it big including the show's star, Jack Black, Stiller Himself, and Owen Wilson.
Heat Vision and Jack is the story of astronaut Jack Austin (Black) and his talking motorcycle, Heat Vision (voiced by Wilson). The show is pretty much a parody of all the action shows of the 70's and 80's like Knight Rider and The Six Million Dollar Man. The format of the show would have been Jack moving from town to town on the run from NASA. You see, while on a mission, Jack's ship flew too close to the sun and he developed super intelligence whenever exposed to sunlight. Sound familiar? Well, if you are a die hard follower of my boy, Leonard Hayhurst's Ask411, you know that this is an homage to the obscure 80's TV movie Northstar.
Pursuing him is the nefarious Ron Silver. Yes, THAT Ron Silver. Silver is billed as an employee of NASA and "also and accomplished actor…and a cold blooded KILLER". Silver is hilarious with his deadpan delivery of typical TV villain lines.
"You can take your questions…and shove them…where the sun does not shine."
Now you'll notice that I've already quoted the show twice. Every scene has some line that I quote to this day. Whether it is Heat Vision shouting "Eat Wheel!" as he takes out a foe, or Jack waiting for the sun to come up saying "C'mon you big ball of gas…light my darkest hour".
Sadly, the show was never picked up. It is not exactly a surprise though. The style of humor the show used was a very specific niche. It would've probably been cancelled within a year. But wait! In March of this year it was announced that a script for an HVAJ feature film was in development. So until then, 411 readers, I give you what you want…
