Day 136

 

It’s to the point in my life when my generation has become a selling point for Hollywood. Every generation goes through it, but yesterday I knew it was our time. Watching the previews before the latest Star Trek movie, I was bewildered to see an upcoming movie adaptation of a beloved childhood cartoon- G.I.Joe.

I should have known this was coming after the blockbuster hit that was Transformers a few years back. Then there was the bringing back of Indiana Jones for one last shot at getting our dollars. After all, we were the generation dragging our parents to the movies to watch all the previous releases.

But now we are at the point in life where we are having kids (some more than others) and like our parents tried to relive the childhood with Howdy-Doody reruns. Hollywood expects that those of us with children will try to pass it on-the eighties that is. Those of us without will just be happy to bring up some good memories.

Well, I give some of the movie makers credit. When they take an institution like Transformers and capture people to make the movie who loved the original series, then you get a great product. If they had found someone else to do the voice of Optimus Prime, WE would have known.  But not all of our memories of excellent childhood cartoons are great memories.

One of my favorite action figures from the Joe series was “Ace” who came as part of the
skystriker plane. I wish Ace could have met his match and gone down in a fight against the evil terrorist organization determined to rule the world- known as COBRA. However, I lost Ace to a child my mom was babysitting for a friend. She took Ace and that left a hole in me that was never replaced.

I never heard what became of Ace. he may have ended up being forced to hang out with Barbie rather than fight the evils of the world. You were not forgotten my friend. You fought many good battles in the skystriker and you were a brave soldier.

Hollywood has just opened that wound yet again.

But I wonder what’s next? Will we see some ill-thought up plan to create a Cabbage Patch movie or a CGI version of My Little Pony?

I know, if it sells they will make it, but Hollywood you may have stepped over the line on this one. If this GIJoe is as bad as it looks, my generation is smart enough to pull out the dvd of every episode we could get our hands on, and laughingly stash away for that moment in time when it is needed. The real GIJoe. When after a night of tearing down the town and a Denny’s late night rendezvous, one of your friends finds and asks excitedly, “Whoa you have the first season? Let’s throw that on.” And just like you were 8-years-old again, grown men sit around the tube reliving sandbox moments and the action figure they never got but always wanted or the episode that was their favorite. 

Time will tell if this will rake in more nostalgia dollars, or just be a bad idea gone bust. I dedicate this post to Ace and all the other Joes who were broke or stolen or never reached their full potential in the homes of America’s children. Gone but not forgotten.

(And yes I know GIJoe was orginally released after WWII and were like a foot tall, but I’m only referring to the 1980’s version.)

Other notes

Yes, Star Trek was a great movie to see, and if you loved the franchise at all you won’t be disapointed with this one. I grew up on Star Trek too (reruns of the original series and the movies and the next generation) so I treaded lightly into this one. However, there was not ounce of dissapointment. The writing was almost Rodenberry himself (original creator who’s dead) and the graphics were spectacular. There is a part in the movie where they are battling on a mining apparatus and it actually had my heart racing, not only because of my fear of heights, but the cinematography was excellent. It’s a fun movie.

And not to be overlooked as this IS a baseball blog, the Rockies pulled out some late inning heroics with Brad Hawpe himself taking one yard to add to a three-run ninth inning, winning the game 3-1 against the Pirates in Pittsburgh. Nicely done Hawper, let’s see more of it this whole away series.