The Good Mike D

Things I Like Thursday

2012-01-26T08:52:00.000-08:00

This idea is from my friend RK's blog, wherein she (and a couple of people from other blogs) post the various Things They Like -- on a Thursday, I believe.

I think I'll amend this to Things I'm Thinking Of On A Thursday, however.

1. Saw this performed on an old Saturday Night Live, and dug it.

2. Buffy is pregnant in the comics, doesn't know who the dad is, and will apparently lose an arm soon (maybe that's a metaphor) --that's a lot to handle!! Luckily, as a great writer once said, it's in a comic, for which no idea is too complex. Not sure how I feel about this...

3. Van Halen Concert---less than 2 months and counting!!

4. http://www.behance.net/gallery/Movies-From-An-Alternate-Universe/2783319

5. Heirs to the Throne of Lost: Alcatraz, Person of Interest, and Once Upon A Time. Lots of callbacks to Lost, same actors, directors and producers.

6. Currently reading Candace Millard's Destiny of the Republic, about the assassination of President Garfield. His assassin was a nutjob by the name of Charles Guiteau. This dude was so crazy, so egomaniacal, you have to read it to believe....

My First Hardcore Song

2012-01-21T13:09:00.000-08:00

Why yes, I did download this from iTunes once I heard it. A costly $.99 mistake? Probably. And for some reason, reviewers on YouTube are taking this seriously.

Reblogged!!

2012-01-17T08:10:00.000-08:00

Hey Sports fans!!!

So, I sent my Avengers Primer list to the tumblr known as "Fuck Yeah Avengers," and it's been reblogged, being seen the world over by various people such as yourselves!! How cool is that!!!!

Here it is!!!

Oh, and the Goonies Data painting is not by me, it's from an old "Crazy4Cult" show at Gallery1988 in California....

The Original Data

2012-01-15T08:54:00.001-08:00

Y'know, from The Goonies!!!!

The Most Important Post Ever...

2012-01-11T13:32:00.001-08:00

Okay, well not really....

This post is something near and dear to my heart: The Avengers movie coming out in May!! I wanted to give you guys some movies, clips, and books that might prepare you for the upcoming Joss Whedon-directed awesomeness!! So, without further ado:

The Avengers Primer

Iron Man

Iron Man: The first time we see Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man. Downey's past drug and alcohol behavior as well as Tony's pure ego and genius on the screen was incredible and a perfect Tony Stark. The first in the Avengers movies. Wait for the end when Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury makes his first appearance, as does Agent Colson.

Iron Man II: War Machine, Black Widow and an expanded SHIELD presence makes this one cool movie. There's also references to a "Super-Secret Boy Band," namely the Avengers. At the end, you can see some TV footage from the Hulk movie. Also, the Stark Expo makes a reappearance on the world stage (the first being during WWII during the Cap movie). Also, home movies of an older Howard Stark, Tony's brilliant dad. He's played as Walt Disney meets Howard Hughes.

Sherlock Holmes: Robert Downey Jr playing the world's greatest detective. Certainly some of Tony Stark is in this appearance.

Timothy Dalton James Bond movies: Alex Ross based his Tony Stark on Dalton.

Captain America

Captain America: The First Avenger: In the beginning, we're at the First Stark Expo, where you see the original android Human Torch on display. The flying car is also in there, and is a nod to the SHIELD comics. There's also Howard Stark, Tony's father. In both the Iron Man movies, Howard was a national treasure, a deceased war hero. He also searches for the Cosmic Cube at the end of the movie. Imagine Cap in the Avengers movie: asleep for 70+ years, thrown in a super-powered team. Going from The Andrews Sisters and goose-stepping Nazis to Lady Gaga and the Internet. Wonder what he'd think of his namesake in Easy Rider?

Now, I'm not much into fan films, but one I saw a while back really captured my imagination, and to what Captain America must have been in between black-ops missions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_910218&v=S9pDEhU7iJQ&src_vid=bk8sXpS91VU&feature=iv&hd=1

Chris Evans has made some valiant efforts to be an action star, pre-Captain America. Check out The Losers, another comic book movie. He was great as the Human Torch in the okay Fantastic Four movies, but Johnny Storm is a completely different character.

The Hulk

The Incredible Hulk: The Ed Norton one. Norton is perfect as Banner, but I think Mark Ruffallo can pull it off as well. I love the beginning sequence, showing his creation as the Hulk, and his life on the run. There's also a pre-Cap mention of the WWII super-soldier program, even an attempt that went really badly--the Abomination. Banner goes into hiding, where the Black Widow finds him to join the Avengers. A funny bit with Cap's shield shows the Stark family connection with Cap. The discovery of Thor's hammer at the end by Agent Colson. Don't bother with Ang Lee's version once you've seen this one. Maybe watch some old TV eps?

To understand what Banner goes through, try checking out anything with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde--the underrated League of Extraordinary Gentlemen's Dr. Jekyll undergoes the struggle to be more powerful and strong, but not in control.

Thor

Thor: A perfect Avengers movie. Science and Magic are the same thing. The first appearance of Hawkeye, but more on him later. Agent Colson makes another appearance. Loki is a revelation and will make a great villain--his supposed death and reappearance at the end of the flick sets up The Avengers. How will Thor get back to earth? Will he see Jane again?

The 13th Warrior: There have been lots of Viking movies, but this is my favorite. Bad-ass Vikings fighting an old menace in their homeland. The Russian guy who played the warrior King Bulvi (or Beowulf) would have made a great Thor.

Chris Helmsworth will apparently play what looks to be a warrior character in the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman movie.

Hawkeye

Jeremy Renner has been steadily making a name for himself the last few years. In the comics (and movies), Hawkeye is a soldier with SHIELD and is an expert marksman. As it shows in Thor, he apparently now favors the compound bow.

SWAT: Although he plays the bad guy, it sets you up for Hawkeye. Renner is a former SWAT police officer turned mercenary. Samuel L. Jackson is in this flick too. Renner plays an expert sniper, judging by the scene he takes down a police helicopter from quite a distance. He's also a sniper in 28 Weeks Later, a zombie flick.

The Punisher: The Thomas Jane version, not Dolph Lundgren. I refer to the scene at the end where Frank Castle invades the main bad guy's compound silently, taking out minor bad guys with a bow. With extreme prejudice. For more bow-and-arrow work, check out Jessica Biel in Blade Trinity or even Kevin Costner in the '90's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

Black Widow

The beautiful Scarlett Johansen. Her first appearance as Natasha Rominoff/Black Widow was in Iron Man II as a SHIELD shadow agent. Pretty much any Cold War-era femme fatale movie would be a perfect primer for Black Widow. Also see Angelina Jolie's characters in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Salt or Tomb Raider.

Nick Fury

The awesome Samuel L. Jackson. He's had a cameo in almost every Avengers movie so far. An expanded role in Iron Man II whetted our appetites for Fury. Even gave a little SHIELD history lesson.

XXX and XXX 2: Augustus Gibbons is a scarred bad-ass secret agent who's put boot to ass for his country for decades. Sounds familiar? A great pre-Fury role for Jackson, highly underrated action movies.

SHIELD

I love the idea of a top-secret government agency made to combat super-human and alien threats, and even better, establish its own super-hero team made up super-soldiers, bad-asses, armored individuals and a God.

The scene at the end of Thor where Nick Fury is showing the Loki-possessed Professor the Cosmic Cube (apparently after fishing it out the ocean, Howard Stark turned it over to the US government and eventually, SHIELD) is great, but makes me think of the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where said Ark is placed in a government warehouse full of identical boxes.

Super-Hero Movies

Watchmen: This flick grows on you, even after you've seen it in theaters. A previously un-filmable movie about super-heroes is great.

X-Men First Class and X2: X-Men United: I love these mutant movies, since I was such a comic-book fan growing up. The two actors playing Magneto (young and old) are spectacular. X2 is damn near a perfect comic book movie, and even has Stark Technology building Magneto's plastic prison.

Spider-Man I and II: Spidey One I believe is the first modern Marvel comic-book movie. I included II in there to let you ruminate on this: imagine if Otto Octavius has access to Stark's ARC Reactor technology to power his octo-arms and his energy doohickey.

Miscellaneous

Firefly: My first foray into Joss Whedon-directed movies (besides TV's Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dr. Horrible, etc).

There have also been Marvel mini-movies with Agent Colson on both the Cap and Thor Blu-Ray releases. Also, check out Mark Millar's/Bryan Hitch's 4 volume run on The Ultimates. These are my new favorite books, it's the Avengers on wide-screen comics.

Owww!!

2012-01-03T09:21:00.001-08:00

From Buffy Season 9 #8!!

Impossible Missions

2012-01-03T08:32:00.001-08:00

Ha! Okay, Van Halen is one of my favorite bands of all time, and I hope I can see them again in concert! Anyway, they don't have the best track record with tours with David Lee Roth, here's hoping everything will go okay!!! They're going to be in NY soon--check it out.

Also saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol as well. It isn't going to blow any minds, but it does revolve around a series of really cool stunts and this great desert chase scene that was the highlight of the flick. I think Tom Cruise (and I never thought I'd see another one of his movies after he revealed himself to be an unstable Scientologist nutjob) wants to prove he's still not jumping on couches by doing these crazy adrenaline-junky stunts off a building that may or may not have really been in Dubai. A pre-Hawkeye Jeremy Renner is an analyst/agent in the flick, and kills it with his stunts and action scenes. All of them really provided comedic bits, even though you may think this is Simon Pegg's domain. Lost's Josh Halloway is in the movie for about 5 minutes and is on the way to a good post-Lost career. The team has a tendency to rely on ridiculously high-tech toys but it looks good on film, for action and laughs. It also shows that India has really cool toys, even if they're just for parking Euro-cars. The ending kinda leaves you guessing how they got there, but it makes sense plot-wise. Good action movie, nothing more.

Lost Episodes Seasons 1 & 7

2011-12-27T12:33:00.000-08:00

Season 7: "Lost: La Secuela Sudaca"

I tried to translate this, and got two different meanings. Secuela is "sequel," so that's pretty self-explanatory. However, "Sudaca" is either slang for South American (my guess) or is some kind of pejorative term. The pic is from an Argentian account, so it is South American,

I discovered this pic through Flickr, so it's not one of mine, but I like it. I like to imagine that it takes place in the future of the island, a little Season 7 style. I can imagine two of the boys being Charlie Hume (son of Desmond and Penny, who also inherited his father's ability to not only absorb vast amounts of electromagnetism, but also his ability to "break the rules" of time and time travel. Another boy would have to be Aaron Austen, the son of Claire Littleton and her dead-beat boyfriend and the foster son of Kate Austen, who raised him after they left the Island together. He was deemed to be "special" as well. At first I though the dude in the middle with the long hair was a girl, but it's a dude. If it was a girl, I was thinking that could be Ji-Yeon Kwan, the orphaned daughter of Jin and Sun Kwon. The child was conceived on the Island (after Jin was told he couldn't have kids) and was rescued with Sun. Jin was thought dead and when Sun came back to the Island to find her husband, she left Ji-Yeon with her parents. Both Sun and Jin died on the submarine during the war with the Man In Black. Perhaps the teenaged Ji-Yeon is looking for the mysterious Island that both her parents disappeared on. I don't know who the last kid is, maybe somebody new to the Island.

Season 1.14 Special

I made this picture as a homage to a painting I found online of all the episodes.It started off as a screen grab of the comic in the show and a new panel was added with the word "Lost." The mystery of the Polar Bears had a big role during the first season and continued in bits and pieces, finally being solved by stating the Dharma Initiative brought over genetically-engineered polar bears (so they could withstand the heat) and use them for temporal experiments at the Orchid Station.

The comic book is in spanish, and was originally Hurley's, but found by Walt Dawson after the crash. On another note, virtually all the kids listed her are considered "special," either by the Island or others.

More Lost Episodes! Namaste!!

2011-12-23T15:14:00.000-08:00

Episode 6.9 Ab Aeterno

Ricardo Alpert, a spanish slave turned immortal by the mysterious Jacob, crashes on the Island with the Black Rock, a slave ship. This ship plagues the castaways, blowing up unimportant castaways with unstable dynamite, parent-killing con men murders, and attempted suicides. I like this picture, even though it's from another comic series and not Lost. Oh, and Ab Aeterno means "of enternity."

Episode 5.2 The Lie

I like this picture. In the Fifth Season, Hurley and Sayid are on the run from mysterious people trying to kill them and the police. After Sayid is knocked out, Hurley drives them to a gas station and replaces the shirt ruined by ketchup. He buys a "I Love My Shi-Tzu" shirt as a disguise. This is from a picture of the McFarlane Toys Hurley action figure, I just changed the color of his shirt and added the logo. It's pretty funny.

Episode 4.3 The Economist

An episode that kinda pisses me off, but I still like it. Sayid, under orders from Ben to kill an off-island Widmore associate called The Economist. What really pisses me off is that seasons later, we still don't know who the damn Economist was. I like this song by the offbeat band Previously on Lost. It has a Shaft-beat. Once you get past the annoying voices in the beginning, the rest is gravy.

Top 5 Christmas Movies you didn't know were Christmas movies

2011-12-23T15:10:00.000-08:00

Top 5 Christmas Movies you didn't know were Christmas movies:

5. Lethal Weapon

4. Die Hard

3. Rocky IV

2. Gremlins

1. James Bond 007: Die Another Day. If only for the Denise Richards-played "nuclear physist" Christmas Jones. And if only for the Sean Connery-esque quote "I thought Christmas came once a year" while banging her like a Christmas drum.

Gods, Muppets and Holmes

2011-12-23T15:07:00.000-08:00

So I saw another group of movies and didn't put reviews up here in a timely fashion.

First off was Immortals. Clash of the Titans meets 300. Mythology on crack. The actor who will eventually play Superman did a decent job, shows he has the acting and action chops. Not worth it in 3D. The scenes with the gods are my favorite, but they were portrayed as young hot, ab-filled gods. Zeus was an old man. The fighting scenes with them were pretty cool and looked like an old painting. The most uncomfortable parts had to do with Mickey Rourke and the enemy army. In order to join this army, you evidentally have to get scarred, wear a mask and have your manhood smashed to bits by a psycho with a big hammer. Painful. We know this because it happened to a traitor, and the reasons behind this were never really explained. Freida Pinto--an Indian actress, not a tasty mexican platter, is gorgeous in the flick, but her character was little over the map.

The Muppets: One of my favorite TV shows growing up, Jason Segel (the writer and human star) did a great job, but I think he has something for hot redhead elementary school teachers (see both Amy Adams in this flick and How I Met Your Mother--a favorite). I had a smile on my face the whole time! One of my favorite parts is that the Muppets had a cover band performing their hits at dive bars. The Moopets. HA!

Sherlock Holmes II: Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law (now thankfully out of the annoying spotlight after being in like 20 movies in one year and sleeping with his kid's nanny) are great together and have truly encompassed their characters. Stephen Fry as secret agent Mycroft Holmes was brilliant, couldn't have asked for a better actor. I just didn't want to see him partially naked though. The old guy playing his butler was great too. The supposed death of Irene Adler was glossed over a little too much for my taste, as I find Rachel McAdams to be distractingly beautiful and a strong female presence. The flick had its trademark slow motion and fast forward, Matrix-like effects too. There was a dancing scene in the movie but it was so weird, so LSD, fast paced, it was too weird to forget or not mention. As a Sherlock Holmes fan, I knew what was going to happen at Reichenbach Falls, but I liked the way they went about it. The final battle between Holmes and Moriarty takes place entirely in their genius minds, trading punches and strategies. It would have been better if they left the end a little more to the viewer's imaginations. Good flick, but the World War plot has been done before--by the same character (Moriarty) in the under-rated League of Extraordinary Gentlemen flick a few years back.

It's been one helluva day....

2011-12-07T14:47:00.003-08:00

I need a Swiss Colony Beef Log...

Lost Season 7

2011-11-30T15:22:00.000-08:00

Flashforward didn't last very long, but did have an advertisment for Oceanic Airlines.

Once Upon A Time is a brand new show, made by some of the producers of Lost. The clock tower in the fairy tale town was stuck at 8:15 until Emma came to town.

Person of Interest is a great new show starring the former Ben Linus, Michael Emerson. And, on this surveillance camera shot, the numbers are on the screen.

And, of course, Hurley numbers were featured in a real-life lottery ticket winner!!! Here's that story!!!

Lost is taking over!! Season 7 is all over the place!

Buffy Season 9

2011-11-29T12:48:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite artists, Jo Chen, has done another Buffy Season 9 cover. I think it's for the upcoming TPB or hardcover edition. I hate buying hardcovers; they cost a fortune. I will have to investigate....

Edit: New News!! Apparently this is for the hardcover edition of Season 8! Why the hell would I want to buy these twice? And it's only Volume 1....

New Bruce Banner Poster

2011-11-18T15:35:00.000-08:00

Sorry, as a rule I hate Perez Hilton, but it's the only clear image I could find on short notice.

Gotta love the new poster they released for the Avengers movie; they're more character posters of each of the Avengers: Hulk, Cap, Thor, Loki, etc. This one of Bruce Banner is very cool--they chose to show Bruce instead of CGI-Hulk. But if you look carefully, he has a green tint to him, kind of like a green light to the side--and I think his eyes are almost green. This is probably my favorite of the new posters--the whole thing is my computer wallpaper.

This is one of my favorite Hulk posters from the awesome movie a few summers back. In that Incredible Hulk, Blonksy takes some kind of super-soldier serum, but it has some serious adverse effects--especially when he combines it with Banner's blood. Since the original super-soldier formula was lost in WWII after transforming skinny Steve Rogers into Captain America, it appears to have been from the same batch, but with different results. The military is trying to create super-soldiers again but unable to without the doctor.

Lost Stuff; Awesome

2011-11-12T17:18:00.000-08:00

Real Steel Review

2011-11-10T15:24:00.000-08:00

Ok, this is one's a long time coming. I just went through 8 days no power and 12 without cable (hence the no internets). So here we go.

Basically Real Steel is the best parts of the triumphant Rocky movies. Down on his luck boxer, looking for his next shot at the title. suddenly has a kid to take care of, indestrutable and impossible to beat opponents, slowly making his way to the top, cute girl waiting for him at home, kid makes him a better man and dad, foreign people with strange accents taking over the sport, "I will break him," makes you want to chant "Rocky Rocky Rocky," or in this case "Atom Atom Atom." A true underdog story with robots.

The Rocky movies made me and my cousin want to beat the shit out of each other everytime we saw them together on TV. Wolverine and Kate from Lost (looking super cute by the way) were good in this flick, if not a little predictable. Like I said, the best parts of the Rocky movies except with robots. Boxing. The kid dancing with Atom was a good hook, and the end where Wolverine takes over Atom, with Atom mimicking his shadowboxing movements is an awesome feel-good part of the flick.

Oh, and the new Ultimate Spider-Man with Miles is really good, I've been keeping up with it at work every month. The new Evanesence album is good too.

Avengers Assemble!!

2011-10-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm getting obsessed:

Also saw Real Steel last night, will have a review soon. And no, I'm not turning into a vampire--although I was offered once! I have a storyline idea I want to put online.

Wishverse Idea...

2011-10-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

Something I'll be working on soon, just something I've been thinking about lately.

Also, new Avengers trailer comes out this week!!!

Misckellaneous

2011-10-04T12:28:00.001-07:00

Yes, I spelled it wrong on purpose. It's all in the pronunciation....

Oh, and this pretty much sums everything up.... Borders employees strike back!

Avengers Stuff

2011-09-30T09:05:00.000-07:00

Thank you free 3-month subscription to Entertainment Weekly!!!! Avengers cover!!

And this kick-ass shot of Black Widow and Hawkeye!!

Welcome back home RK!!

Defender of the Universe

2011-09-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

No, not me! HA! Seriously, Voltron is being made into a comic (that I probably won't see until trade paperback form)! Ordinarily, I would only slightly care, but it's covers by Alex Ross, one of my favorite artists!

Also, I picked up Thor on DVD, and I think it's better after I saw Captain America and have a better idea about Joss Whedon's Avengers movie next year! I still need to see the various features on the disc!

Speaking of Joss Whedon, I read Buffy Season 9 issue 1 at work, and it's very cool! There's new plot points, intrigue, etc!! Check out a tumblr for Buffy and Angel and Faith!

The Movie Reviews Nobody Asked For....

2011-09-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

The movie review you've never waited for: Conan the Barbarian. No, not the Arnold version, it's with a new dude I think was on some Stargate series. This Conan didn't grow up a slave; he grew up bad-ass. Born in the middle of battle, his mom getting some kind of battlefield C-section from his dad, the always awesome Ron Perlman. This kid grew up brutal, too--one scene from when he was a kid shows him beheading enemy invaders. One of the nastier scenes shows young Conan chopping off some dude's nose--a scene that's fairly pivital. Young Conan declares war on the man who slew his entire people--and his daughter, the always pasty Rose McGowan. Once the first bit of revenge is taken, the movie slides slightly. There's always battles, with a scarred Conan taking a big sword to somebody. Everytime he kills one of the men who killed his father, you feel a small sense of relief--you're keeping score. When Conan and his band of pirates repel a small invasion of enemy troops, you want to whoop and yell with them; it's fairly triumphant.

X Files: Fight The Future. What a piece of crap. I used to like this show, but it went on for about 2 or 3 years too long, they should have gone out on top, like a Lost or Cheers. This should have been a 2 piece episode instead of a movie, like they found an old script, changed it up a bit, then churned out this. There's Scottish-ex-priest-turned repetent pedophile psychic, gay beheaded Soviet mad scientists, and Mulder and Scully.

The Runaways: the story of Joan Jett's all-girl rock band. Kristen Stewart actually embodied young Joan Jett, turning in a decent Non-Twilight performance. Since Dakota Fanning doesn't do movies like this and she's not an innocent little girl anymore, she turns in a great performance. The girl playing Lita Ford was a bit of an unnecessary bitch (I'm sure Lita didn't appreciate that, but maybe that's how she was back in the '70's), the girl on drums had a cute smile, and the bass player had a nice rack. Here are the three sections of the movie: playing kick-ass classic Runaways tracks (one of which I put on my i-Pod), doing a massive amount of drugs, or being all introspective and annoyingly quiet. Sometimes, they do all three. You see the band form, there is some kind of lesbian undertone with Joan and Cherie, and then they spectaculary implode and disenigrate as a band.

Prince of Persia. Nothing really to write home about, but the ostrich race was stupid. The girl with the great eyes from Clash of the Titans is in it. Jake Gyllenhall plays a parkour stuntman/adopted prince from Persia. As with all movies depicting a foreign race, they all have English accents.

I wanted to watch Black Swan, but I couldn't get into it.

I am Number 4 was okay, but moved so slowly.

I'm sure there are more movies I've seen recently, but I can't remember all of them.

Enough of movies, I heard Van Halen is supposed to come out soon with a new album with the semi-classic line-up of Dave Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and Wolfgang (!) Van Halen--Eddie's son--on bass. I have a bootleg tape of part of their demo tracks from the '70's. Here's Voodoo Queen--it has new lyrics to the Mean Streets instrumental track.

Buffy Season 9 Begins!!

2011-09-14T17:15:00.001-07:00

Odinson

2011-09-09T14:29:00.001-07:00

So I was really bored and had a moment of creativity. Stupid creativity, but creativity nonetheless. Just click on the image and you'll see it in its entirety.

Cap Posters

2011-09-02T11:12:00.001-07:00

I swear, that Conan recap is coming soon!!!

Animate!

2011-08-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

I'll comment on my viewing of Conan in the theater and a few at-home viewings of some other crap-tastic movies!!

I'm probably seeing Conan tomorrow after work....

2011-08-21T16:45:00.001-07:00

...And it better be bad-ass. I feel 60% manlier just thinking about seeing it.

Mongol General: Conan! What is best in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.

The Doctor and Buffy

2011-08-19T14:00:00.001-07:00

Three relatively large pictures found at random.

The cover of the third issue of Buffy Season 9. Apparently she meets up with some dude slayer who has a unique way of dealing with the vampire issue.

An old issue of Angel, by Mike Mignola. His artwork sometimes speaks to me.

I'm not the world's biggest Doctor Who fan, but this one made me laugh. You see, Rose and a clone of the Doctor ended up in an alternative universe where Rose's family is ridiculously wealthy. And, like any ending of a love story, they get together, much to the squeals of fangirls and boys.

100 Movie Meme Part II

2011-08-12T08:13:00.000-07:00

49. The Back To The Future Trilogy: DeLorean, Biff, Doc, the 2015 Future (only a few years away and no flying cars!) train robbery and the alternate 1985.

48. Serenity--Joss Whedon directing a feature-length movie.

47. The opening credits of Nic Cage's Gone in 60 Seconds.

46. "The Ex-Presidents are Surfers!"--Point Break. This also made me hungry for meatball sandwiches and quoting Keanu Reaves.

45. My extreme guilty pleasure: Fast and Furious movies. I can even quote them.

44. Captain Jack Sparrow.

43. I think Bambi was the first movie I ever saw in theaters.

42. JJ Abrams' Star Trek remake. I waited until the last possible moment to see that flick in theaters.

41. Watching Snakes on A Plane with my friends and many other people in the theater, MST3K-syle.

40. Perfect comic book movie without the comic book: Unbreakable.

39. Al Leong--the ultimate Hollywood stuntman/actor. He's the Asian guy with long
hair and a goatee in pretty much every movie you can think of: Big Trouble in Little China, Die Hard, etc. You can make a game spotting him like we did.

38. Boot camp scenes in both Platoon and Stripes. The rest of those movies were just okay.

37. Chris Evan's Human Torch/Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four.

36. Shannon Elizabeth naked in American Pie. The whole theatre got really quiet. On par with Phoebe Cates getting out of the pool in Fast Times.

35. The trailer to Van Helsing. Such promise. Too bad the movie itself sucked.

34. Watching Surviving the Game with Ice-T and Hard Target with Jean-Claude Van Damme the same night and realizing it's the same fucking movie.

33. Wyld Styllns.

32. Ultimate Nick Fury. Played now by Samuel L. Jackson. He was originally a character in the comics based on Jackson, now real.

31. The Rock in The Rundown.

30. Saw the original 1989 Batman trailer at a comic-book convention when I was a kid.

29. Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. Best stoner flick I've seen in a while. NPH is brilliant and helped transform his career. I've never even had White Castle, but I wanted to after seeing this.

28. Ed Norton in American History X. He's terrifying as a Nazi skinhead, and just played the role so well.

27. The Matrix bullet-time. When it first came out, it was incredible. Now it's just cliche.

26. The implied mythology of the Vorpal Sword and the Jabberwocky in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

25. Watch Denzel's Manchurian Candidate and Mel Gibson's Conspiracy Theory the same night and try not to be paranoid.

24. The unrealness and pure comic-book feel of Sin City and 300, even though I don't like Frank Miller.

23. Ryan Reynolds as Hannibal King in Blade 3.

22. Bruce Lee.

21. Cloverfield. I just feel it's a unique filmmaking experience.

20. "Yippe Kay Yay Motherfucker!"--Die Hard.

19. Rocky IV with Ivan Drago is the perfect Cold War movie.

18. Daniel Craig as a new James Bond without all the crappy gadgets. The parkour scene with the cranes is incredible!

17. Toy Story looked so real.

16. Goth sensibilities in The Crow. Brandon Lee's finest movie, he could have been
so much more. The music was great.

15. I remember watching all the Nightmare on Elm Streets during the summer on TV with my friends before going to the beach.

14. Another Fast and Furious reference: Suki from 2 Fast 2 Furious. She took over the beginning of that movie.

13. Armageddon. Every emotional available.

12. Speaking of Michael Bay-- Peter Cullen's voice as Optimus Prime in The Transformers movie. Brings me back to childhood. "Autobots--transform and roll out!"

11. The over-the-top violence of the first Kill Bill.

10. "Bohemian Rhapsody" in Wayne's World.

9. Thor and SHIELD agents fighting next to his hammer.

8. ECTO-1 from Ghostbusters. Vigo the Carpathian from II.

7. "Now you know what we are, now you know what you are. You'll never grow old, Michael, and you'll never die. But you must feed!"--Lost Boys.

6. "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."--Princess Bride.

5. The Outsiders. Greasers vs. Socs.

4. Two great Civil War movies: Glory and Gettysburg. I saw Gettysburg with my history class because my professor is a renactor that was in the film. Glory 'cuz it's perfect.

3. Tombstone's gunfight at the OK Corral. And Val Kilmer's entire performance as Doc Holiday.

2. Empire Strikes Back: greatest movie ever.

1. Getting out of my crappy cubicle job, getting on a bus to Maine, meeting up with my buddy and his geeky friends (in a good way) and seeing Star Wars Phantom Menace. Jar-Jar aside, one of the most fun parts of that was the Post-Mortem discussion afterwards in Chile's.

100 Movie Meme

2011-08-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

100 Movie Things (not really in order except the last few). I got the idea from http://samuraifrog.blogspot.com/2011/05/100-movie-things.html. Here are the first 50, which pretty much wore me out.

100. The 2 Magnetos: Ian McKellan in the first 3 X-Men movies and then Michael Fassbender in the new First Class. Both were brilliant actors, played the roles to perfection--old Magneto and young Eric.

99. Saw Animal House my first night of College. Every single guy on the floor came into our room (a converted break room/quad) and watched the ultimate party movie.

98. I love the movie Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

97. Jurassic Park was the first movie I saw when I graduated high school. I think I read the book for an assignment in biology class.

96. Never saw the movie, not a big fan of Judd Atapow or Seth Rogen, but I love saying this: I am McLovin.

95. Becoming inspired by Bill Pullman's speech from Independence Day. Made you want to kill some aliens.

94. Braveheart on a constant loop in my old apartment. Everytime I'd come home, my roommates would be watching it. And we could do every line, complete with Scottish accents.

93. Wanted to become a Colonial Marine after seeing Aliens.

92. Seeing Wolverine for the first time on screen in the original X-Men. My best friend growing up and I were huge X-Men fans, read the comics, and thought about who would best play Wolverine.

91. Wishing we snuck in and saw Robocop 2 instead of Dick Tracy.

90. The opening credits of Watchmen and The Incredible Hulk movies.

89. Terminator 2.

88. Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight. Knowing he passed away made it seem more real.

87. My friend constantly saying something about Royales with Cheese or having a sip of my soda weeks before we saw Pulp Fiction--he had seen it before we did.

86. And I know I'm stealing this from Samurai Frog's blog, but: "Lo there do I see my father. Lo there do I see my mother and my sisters and my brothers. Lo there do I see the line of my people, back to the beginning. Lo, they do call to me, they bid me take my place among them, in the Halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live forever." -- The 13th Warrior.

85. Everytime I see an actor from Lost in a movie, I refer to them as their character from Lost.

84. Wanting to open doors or choke my mom with the Force after seeing Return of The Jedi with her and my cousin.

83. Billy the Kid from Young Guns 1 and 2.

82. The sheer presence of Mr.T from Rocky 3.

81. Yelling in victory with my friends when the guy in Misery told Kathy Bates she was a "sick demented fuck!"

80. The soundtrack from Judgement Night being more popular with me and my friends than the actual movie itself.

79. Speaking of soundtracks, being utterly disappointed at Pump Up the Volume for not including the great songs actually in the movie--they either weren't on there or were cover songs.

78. Watching Starship Troopers with my parents and being utterly embarassed at the shower scene. My dad made me turn it off. God, that movie sucked.

77. Watching Titanic with my friend Stacey, and having her cry before it began because she "already knows how it ends," she saw it like 5 times before dragging me along.

76. Con Air, Air Force One and US Marshalls will always have a place in my heart because I saw them during my time in Washington, DC.

75. My perfect imitation of Sean Connery in The Rock ("Your best? Losers always whine about their best...").

74. Renting The Fog, The Bog and something else that rhymes with that at a NH Blockbuster with my friends and watching the employee having "that" look on his face. I still have that NH Blockbuster card, 10+ years later.

73. Watching The Jackal my first night meeting RK and laughing at the non-DC Metro stations the movie made.

72. The utter shittiness of Highlander sequels after the classic first one and a great first few seasons of the TV show.

71. I cannot fucking wait for Joss Whedon's Avengers.

70. Watching Apocalypse Now in English class and needing my Mom to sign a permission slip.

69. watching Chicago to impress a girl.

68. Watching The Blair Witch Project, actually having scared the shit out of me, and it was in a theater with woods surrounding it.

67. I remember as a kid, watching a movie with a dude with leather overalls in it. Evidently, it stayed with me.

66. Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man. After that type of background and ego, he was perfect.

65. Soundtracks to Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park having such a profound impact on me.

64. A dubbed Mexican in a USA Network censored presentation of Desperado saying "Holy Frijoles!"

63. I still count Uncle Buck as one of the funniest movies ever.

62. Midnight releases of all 3 Lord of the Rings movies with my cousin.

61. Two kids lighting up a joint during the third Matrix movie. In a theater. With ushers.

60. Brad Pitt in Snatch.

59. Being one of the only people I know who liked Daredevil, but not the only one who hated Elektra.

58. Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny soundtrack.

57. Empire Records being on constant play on HBO during one summer. "Damn the Man, Save the Empire!!"

56. Putting Revenge of the Sith up there with the original trilogy.

55. Kevin Smith movies. Seeing him live was a highlight.

54. "Son of Jor-El, kneel before Zod!" --Superman II.

53. The Star Trek movie with the Borg Queen and Data.

52. Seeing my first Jackie Chan movie, Rumble in the Bronx and being amazed by the stuntwork.

51. The only movie that I can actively recall wanting to cry: the firefighter's funeral scene in Backdraft.

50. Shawshank Redemption. 'Nuff said.

More to come?

League of Extraordinary 30 Rock

2011-08-07T16:48:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big fan of either the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (except I love the idea of literary heroes and anti-heroes from the Victorian Age banding together; and the movie was great) or the TV show 30Rock, but I'm a huge Alex Ross fan. One day I want to buy one of his prints--not an actual painting, cuz that would cost a fortune...

Ultimates Cap

2011-08-07T14:49:00.001-07:00

I should go see Captain America again....

The Star-Spangled Man and The Boy Who Lived

2011-08-05T08:50:00.000-07:00

Due to the immense heat we were having in my part of the US, I went to see TWO movies in about a week, since they had the almighty AC. So, I saw Captain America and the new and last Harry Potter.

First off is Cap. I love the poster above, it looks like the old WWII War Bond posters, which it's supposed to. They also had this great USO music with Captain America, that as a friend put it, made him want to out and buy war bonds. First off is the actor Chris Evans. In Fantastic Four, he was brilliant as the Human Torch--sarcastic, cocky, everything Chris Evans is known for playing. But, he took the film anyway away from my future wife Jessica Alba. I never expected him to be so good as Captain America. The only thing that bothered me about his performance is the scenes with him being super-skinny Steve Rogers. His head was so enormous on a skinny tiny body, that it was distracting. But, the SFX guys seemed to have gotten better at it during certain scenes. Tommy Lee Jones played his usual tough-guy bad-ass General. Hugo Weaving is great as Red Skull, but I prefered him when he had the regular-skin mask on. Red Skull is all about Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith voice. Oh, and HER. Her part (and acting) in the movie wasn't all that spectacular or mind-blowing, but the pictures I've seen afterwards sure are. The whole movie is set in World War II, with a Great Escape about halfway through the flick. Cap is a soldier, after all. Who kills, not just throws a shield to knock them out. His shield is a great symbol, by the way. The parts where Steve is put in the USO doesn't make a lot of sense, given he is America's first Super-Soldier. Looking back now, though, it kinda does. It was either that or becoming a lab rat. But the second half makes up for it, but not nearly enough derring-do and explosions.

It sets up the new Avengers movie perfectly: Brodsky from the last Hulk movie takes the same formula as the Captain, but with more disastrous consequences, Howard Stark is Tony's father from the Iron Man movies, and it has Nick Fury, played by Samuel L. Jackson. The ending has a Joss Whedon Avengers trailer, however brief. Oh, and if you look carefully during the Stark Expo in the beginning of the flick, there is the original Human Torch (an android in the WWII-era comics) in the center of the pavillion.

Harry Potter was good too, with an end to the whole Voldemort/Harry Potter rivalry. Neville Longbottom was my hero in this flick, finally becoming a bad-ass with a sword after all the movies with him being a clumsy, awkward British kid with big ears. Draco Malfoy didn't turn out to be a big villain like everybody thought he'd be from his past behavior. He's just a bully with a big mouth. He did get an awkward hug from Voldemort though---Youtube that shit, it's hilarious! Lot's of magic and action, it's all from the book (which is usually better). Ron and Hermione (I actually never knew how to pronounce her name until the movie came out) finally get together. The final "19-years later" scene worked better in the book, but it was a fitting coda to a great franchise.

Buffy-sort-of-mood

2011-08-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

From the 1st Season of Buffy....

SHIELD!

2011-07-27T12:03:00.001-07:00

Agents of SHIELD. Another Avengers poster from Comic-Con 2011! This time it's Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson in his Ultimates incarnation), Agent Colson--in both Thor and Iron Man 1 and 2, and whatever agent Colby Smothers is playing. I usually watch her on repeats of How I Met Your Mother when I got home from work latenights. I love her smile, and it would be good to see her in black leather. Kidding.

Hawkeye Poster

2011-07-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

Fresh from San Diego Comic-Con 2011, which I'm not at. I think I need to be adopted by someone who will take me. I'm housebroken and everything....

Anyhoo---

Advertising the upcoming Joss Whedon Avengers movie!!! Awesome. The Captain America movie had a brief teaser trailer at the END of the credits!

Jazzed

2011-07-22T17:41:00.000-07:00

So, I went looking for this on the mighty YouTube, and this is what I found. For those of you who don't know, the Haka is intended to get a group of Hawaiian/Maori warriors hyped up about the upcoming battle. In this case, a football game. Makes me want to go out and smash something.

Saw the new Harry Potter and Captain America flicks due to the intense heat we're battling. Reviews soon...

The Dark Knight Rises Poster

2011-07-13T11:11:00.000-07:00

Groovy Mutations and Green Light

2011-07-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't been around lately. I was first on vacation on another coast and then sick soon after. There was a lot of snot. It was frickin' disgusting....the sickness, not vacation.

Anyways. Before and during all these shennanigans, I saw X-Men First Class and Green Lantern. Both were awesome. Like to hear it, hear it goes...

X-Men First Class:

I am a tremendous X-Men fan. Always have been. This new flick is not only a prequel to the other 3 (by the way, the second one is probably one of the best comic book movies ever) but also a bit of a reboot. The whole movie was kind of a '60's period piece, looking like a great retro Mad Men movie, but with mutants, super powers and Kevin Bacon. For my money, there were two great things about this flick. First is Erik (or Magneto as he is later known). The actor playing Erik did such a tremendous job, he was so good in this role. You know why he is the way he is. The scenes of him hunting ex-Nazis with his magnetic powers are great, I wouldn't mind a whole movie of him doing that! You can feel his pain during specific scenes. The second is the girl who played Mystique. Gorgeous, I couldn't take my eyes of her. They kind of forgot about her once she came into her own, she just disappeared into the background. The other actors and intense action scenes were good, but those two really stood out. Did you know that mutants were responsible for the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Green Lantern:

I said before, the fake trailer with Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern was better than the trailer they released for the actual movie with Ryan Reynolds, but the flick itself made up for it. It relied mostly on special effects as expected. It was all about willpower versus fear. The special effects of Parallax attacking earth was great, as was the constructs Hal Jordan created with his ring. Hal's a military man, so having him with green gatling guns, anti-aircraft weapons and fighter jets made sense. The environment of Oa was incredible, true to its comic roots, and I loved the little immortals as the Green Lantern's leaders. The cast of characters as Hal's fellow Lanterns were great, with a lot of presence despite them not being real.The guy playing Sinestro was good and charismatic, only because he will play such a major role in the sequel (stay tuned during the credits for him putting on the fear ring, and having him change right in front of you). The girl from that crappy TV show Gossip Girl, Blake Lively also appeared. She and Hal apparently knew each other as kids, along with another main character (the secondary villian). I thought this could have been shown, instead of imagining the bond between them--guess that's for the DVD. I understand though, not enough time for the action and complicated kid backstory. Lively, however, can't act for shit--but she is really nice to look at.

Skottie Young

2011-05-31T11:10:00.001-07:00

His drawings crack me up...

If your life was a movie...

2011-05-25T10:01:00.001-07:00

This one's for RK: If your life was a movie...

At this point in my life: Clerks.

Hopefully, later on in my life, it will be like the 2000's version of The Mummy (with Rachel Weisz hopefully):"I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am. ... I am a librarian!" However, I do hope to combine that into a Giles-like librarian from Buffy. Combine that with Jessica Alba in Into the Blue, and I'm set...

Or, barring that, a porno in a library: Check this out! Not safe for work, BTW.

Aw, come on , that's funny!

Real Vampires Don't Sparkle!

2011-05-19T08:40:00.001-07:00

See, I've been saying this all along, and Australia beats me to it!!!!

Fast Cars and Norse Gods

2011-05-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

So I was wicked lazy with these reviews and didn't post them until now. I saw 5 Fast and Thor over the past 2 weeks and they were awesome!!

5 Fast

Yet another installment in the movie series, with a 6th on the way I'm sure!! It's essentially Fast and Furious meets Ocean's 11. These flicks are my guilty pleasure. Almost the main characters from the past 4 movies come together with fugtives Dom and Brian to pull off a robbery (from a powerful drug lord) that will allow them to disappear forever. They are being chased by bad ass Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and his team. Vince from the first flick makes an appearance as well, redeeming himself. With any Fast and Furious movie, you sometimes have to put cool stunts over the real world, but it's pulled off well. Lots of funny lines are throughout, and a real sense of family and friendship is pulled off. The druglord's chief lieutenant does not want to get killed---he always stays alive for some reason! Great scene: Million dollar Quarter mile race with cop cars. I would love to see the Rock in a movie of his own with this character and a new team. Be sure to stay after the credits---Eva Mendes comes into The Rock's office with impossibly high heels to tell him about another case in Germany...it sets the stage for the 6th.

Thor

I had absolutely no idea what to expect with this flick. Can't wait for the Avengers to come out next summer. The dude who played Thor did a great job. The Asgard scenes were like something out of an original Jack Kirby comic and it was written by the guy who writes the Thor comic now. Kat Dennings (one of my top ten if you recall) was hilarious as a political science major in the middle of a physics project. She called his hammer Meow Meow instead of Mljonior, very funny scene. Stellan Skarsgard is back to annoy me with yet another role as a genius mentor with a Norwegian background. SHIELD played a key role in the flick, and the scene where Thor goes through agents to get to his hammer, King Arthur/Excalibur style is my favorite. Samuel L Jackson does another Nick Fury cameo at the end. I was never a Thor comic fan, but one line stands out to me from a comic I read once: "Yeah, well MY god has a hammer."

And you can't watch Thor without the classic KISS song, "God of Thunder!"

Fanboys!!! (and SuckerPunch Girls)

2011-05-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

2011-04-22T08:40:00.001-07:00

Saw this in hardcover a while back, but it just recently came out in paperback. I will be purchasing soon. Oh, yes, I will be purchasing soon.... It contains the only known photograph of John Wilkes Booth in Vampire form.

Apparently, Tim Burton's going to be directing the upcoming movie. Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Mary Todd Lincoln is a funny bit of casting. 'Cuz Mary's hot and Mary Todd ain't.

Buffy Season 9 and Angel & Faith

2011-04-11T09:18:00.000-07:00

The two brand new covers to the new Buffy Season 9 and Angel & Faith comics, both by the incredible Jo Chen

Recent Movies 1

2011-04-04T14:36:00.000-07:00

See below for some reviews!

Recent Movies

2011-04-04T14:14:00.000-07:00

Sucker Punch: Wow, what a great movie! It comes down to a dream within a fantasy. or perhaps more fantasy in a fantasy. Cute girls with guns and swords--perfect movie, right? The main character is Baby-Doll, whose mother dies and is taken in by a sexually abusive step-father. Baby-Doll accidentally kills her sister while trying to protect her. He sends her to a corrupt mental instituion. It's there she begins to fantasize about escaping. All the girls have cutsie nicknames like Sweetpea or Rocket. There's also The Wise Man, who gives the girls mission briefings (everything they need in the real world, Baby-Doll imagines they get through incredible mission dream sequences) and spouts poetic sayings like Confucious or Bazooka Joe. It takes place in the 1960's, but the dream sequences take place in various places in history on crack. WWI Trench warfare combined with steampunk Germans, modern automatic weapons, and future-tech Meks. Then WWII bomber planes with orcs, dragons, and dudes in armor. Finally, Vietnam-era Huey Helicopters with robots and future trains with bombs. On the surface, it's an incredibly dark story but a positive track with friendship and freedom. The music was great, with one track getting my attention: Queen songs cut together with some dude rapping. Usually I hate the bastardization of such classic songs--huge Queen fan, here!--but this actually rocked and put a modern twist in the movie. One scene that should have had a different song but didn't. The Huey scene. On the side of the chopper is the painted name and logo "Cherry Bomb." This would have been a perfect opportunity to put The Runaway's Cherry Bomb song, but maybe they couldn't get the rights. Because it is a dream, time works differently. At first, you're not sure if it's all a dream in her head before a critical moment, but then you find out the stuff she did before the critical momet (sorry, don't want massive spoilers) matches what they did in the dream sequences. The action sequences are incredible, mostly with Baby-Doll doing feats of anime-and-video-game-inspired martial arts. There is so much more I could write, but this what came out first....

Kick-Ass: I read the graphic novel as well, and this was a little more sanitized than that. I like Mark Millar's work, his ideas are incredible and smash typical comic-book norms, but he does have a tendency to go too violent and over-the-top. The break out star is the little girl who plays Hit-Girl, trained by her ex-cop father to kill bad guys. There's one scene where she violently kills an apartment full of bad guys with the old "Banana Splits" cartoon theme music. Probably one of the more brilliant movie ideas. There's another massacre scene with Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation." I think the songs themselves in the movie were covers by other bands, though. Oh, and the girl who becomes our hero's girlfriend? Way too hot for him. He becomes friends with her originally because she thought he was gay, but then he reveals his secret identity as Kick-Ass and that he's not gay. And thanks to this manipulation, she bangs him. In the comic, she yelled at him and embarassed him in front of the school. Movie-wise, I like the fact he gets the girl. Anti-Spiderman.

Inception: I think I have to watch this movie several more times before I get it completely. A buddy pointed out that the jack is his wife's totem, not his. So everytime he spins it to see if he's still in the dream, it's his wife's state that he's seeing. The end confused me a bit too, because it looks like the jack stops mid-spin, and spins a different way. Also, all of the character's front names spells out DREAM.

Takers: Meh. Only cool scenes are during the two heists, made better with T.I.'s gangster commentary. Anakin Skywalker was in it, dressed like some Rat-Packer, and made some bad acting choices. If people thought he was stiff in Star Wars (I'm not one of those people, by the way), wait till they get a load of him here.

Jonah Hex: Didn't know what to expect, but it was pretty good. A good western, but too much 21st century commentary. A terrorist with the ultimate weapon and suicide bombers? The whole bit about Jonah's face got a bit old, but they owned up to that. Meghan Fox is flippin' gorgeous, and is not believable as a Old West Hooker.

Coming soon: New Fast and Furious, Captain America, Thor, Green Lantern!!

Happy 3rd Annual Rex Manning Day!!

2011-04-01T07:44:00.000-07:00

Yes, my friends. It's that time again. 3 years ago, I decided that April 1st will now be officially known as Rex Manning Day, in honor of the killer flick Empire Records....

And yes, I do wish this were true....

Wonder Twins Power Activate!!

2011-03-27T18:37:00.001-07:00

Man, I've been posting a lot of random pics lately! Here's Alex Ross' version of the Wonder Twins. It was done a few years back in the now-defunct Wizard Magazine (Boooo! for the cancellation of this awesome mag) as an April Fools Joke. It was supposed to be an advertisment/sneak peek of Ross' new oversized comics (he did one for Superman and Batman). The focus was on the Wonder Twins and them trying to solve the world's draught problem. Gleek suffers from not enough water and goes rabid....

Obviously, Alex Ross is my top favorite artist!! Maybe I'll go into Philly and see his show in the Andy Warhol Museum.....

A Gift Real Special

2011-03-24T14:37:00.001-07:00

Even though it's not the holidays, my birthday just passed, so it's an official holiday to me!

Now you'll have it stuck in your head like I do: Dick in a Box!!!

Just rented a bunch of videos like Jonah Hex and Inception. Hopefully seeing SuckerPunch this Monday!

Dare you not to laugh

2011-03-19T07:57:00.001-07:00

A-Licky-Boom-Boom-Down

2011-03-08T17:38:00.000-08:00

So, thanks for the added traffic to the ol' blog here, people!! By the way, the above tattoo is a railroad spike through the Angel Investigations logo from the Buffy spin-off Angel. It's actually described in the graphic novel Spike: Shadow Puppets.

Wanted to let you know I added some new songs to my portable 8-track known as an iPod.

3 Old School Beastie Boys tracks, previously unreleased

Snow's Informer. I used to like that song back in high school, probably hasn't stood the test of time, but maybe Snow needs a new pool or something!!

Destroy All Robots

2011-03-05T08:28:00.001-08:00

Let's see here, I see R2D2, C3PO, Robocop, Bender from Futurama, Rosie from the Jetsons, Vincent from The Black Hole, Number 5 from Short Circuit, and Robbie the Robot.

Back (kinda) from the Dead (kinda)

2011-03-01T08:13:00.001-08:00

I realized I don't keep with this new-fangled bloggy-thingy as much as I should. As a front-runner in the Mayoral race for President, I promise to do better.

So, The Mechanic sucked. It didn't move fast enough, and the action scenes were really few and far between, plus didn't really provide enough action anyways--a little predictable and yawn-inspiring. Usually Jason Statham is a great action star, but this wasn't his role. I hope to see Sucker-Punch for my birfday when it comes out. Looks like a really trippy dream-sequence, and the director Zack Snyder does that kind of stuff well.

I found this Lost-inspired picture online, and I thought it was by Mike Mignola, who created Hellboy. Apparently, it looks like it was just influenced by him. Done by a guy named Thomas Kovach.

"Be it my mask or your blood, red will be the last thing you see..."

2011-01-20T12:52:00.000-08:00

For the record, the new Green Hornet sucked. Seth Rogen, on his best days, annoys the crap out of me. Some of his lines were funny, but that's about it. He's all talk and bravado. And an idiot. Huge parts of this movie were incredibly boring. After the death of his domineering father, Britt (Rogen) has to take over his father's newspaper empire. Edward James Olmos is there, but plays so little a part, that I'm not sure why all the Spanish television stations interview him. Rogen meets up with his father's driver and coffee maker, Kato. More on him later. After committing some vandalism and bonding, the two decide to become crimefighters posing as criminals. This story alone should have taken some time and consideration, but it's done all within about a half hour. Oh, and don't see it in 3D--it was useless. Another example of Hollywood using technology there's no need to use. The more exciting scenes were all shown on Mythbusters and the funnest scene, with the Coolio rap "Gangster's Paradise" sing-along, were shown on the commercials.

Acapella Gangster's Paradise

METAL Gangster's Paradise

Kato was played by some Japanese popstar, and was the highlight of the flick. He was certainly written as "Bruce Lee as Kato." Kato's too fast to be seen by cameras--which was one of the complaints that Bruce Lee received when he started playing Kato on the original TV series (made at the same time as the Adam West Batman series). Lee was so fast in his martial arts moves and stunts, he was literally too fast for the camera to capture. Another nod was Lee's one-inch punch. Lee used to do it during competitions where he would put his fist one inch from his opponnet and punch, sending the guy backwards. In the movie, Kato does the same, excepts sends his target through a tiny window. Also, there are nunchucks, Bruce Lee's signature weapon. Can you tell I'm a huge Bruce Lee fan?

The main villain with the impossible to pronounce and remember last name, Chudnofsky (?) was played brilliantly--at first. The top scene of the flick is him facing a creditless James Franco (also Awesome), and getting complaints that his name or his look aren't scary. This is his shtick throughout the rest of the movie. Then, in a stupid plot twist, goes nuts and asks to be called "Bloodnofsky" and the stupid catch phrase above. He starts wearing red and spouting his catch phrase every ten minutes.

So. Not a great movie at all. Hopefully, The Mechanic will be better.

Yesterday's was Buffy The Vampire Slayer's 30th Birthday. I entered a contest to win some free art, but I got runner-up. Which I means I won nothing. Oh well...

Random...

2011-01-14T14:17:00.000-08:00

Still digging out of a massive snowstorm....

LOST recaps....

2nd Post of the Day: Pictures!

2010-12-23T08:53:00.001-08:00

Jingle Bells

2010-12-23T07:51:00.001-08:00

Oh, Jingle Bells

Batman Smells

Robin laid an egg

Batmobile lost a wheel

And the Joker got away HEY!

Checkin' back in...

2010-12-18T10:49:00.000-08:00

So, how did those fictional characters influence you? Excellent question, RK....

They mostly represent periods in my life...Encyclopedia Brown, Optimus Prime, and MacGuyver were all from the '80's, being the decade of my childhood. So was Bert and Ernie and the Hardy Boys. Most of the people on this list are detectives or in some kind of mystery-type deal. I still continue to be a huge fan of Star Wars and the X-Men. I thought Ms. Havisham from Great Expectations was interesting in high school, and I've read Robert B. Parker's Spenser series since I was a kid. The stuff from today include Lost and the Dresden Files book series.

Be sure to check out the Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode III special tomorrow night!!

Merry Christmas and I hope I put the ho-ho-ho back in your holiday!!

15 Fictional Characters

2010-12-05T07:40:00.000-08:00

So I'm on the Facebook and a friend of mine (who, sadly, is no longer in my state) challenges me to post 15 fictional characters who influenced me the most in 15 minutes. Time to put my thinking cap on (which is very similar to my rally cap, which is also worn inside-out)!

1. Encyclopedia Brown
2. James "Sawyer" Ford (Lost)
3. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
4. Sherlock Holmes
5. Luke Skywalker (Star Wars)
6. Miss Havisham (Great Expectations)
7. Spenser (Spenser for Hire book series)
8. Snake-Eyes (GI Joe Comics)
9. Richard Castle (from Castle TV show and books)
10. Harry Dresden (The Dresden Files book series)
11. Hardy Boys
12. Bert and Ernie (Sesame Street)
13. Wolverine (X-Men comics)
14. Optimus Prime (Transformers cartoon)
15. Angus MacGuyver

If you want to participate, feel free!!! Send me your link! Oh, and using bad-assery in a sentence is allowed!

Faster of Puppets

2010-12-04T09:48:00.000-08:00

See, that was a Metallica reference for you...

Anyhoo, I saw Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in Faster the other night, and the Rock is trying to get back into the action movie game! It's about revenge, forgiveness, family, deception, the past, personal hells, and of course, a big dude in a muscle car with a freakin' hand cannon for a gun...

The flick centers on three main characters: Driver (Johnson), a guy who just got out of prison after serving 10 years. Before that, he was almost killed by a gang of criminals who wanted to rip off his brother and he after pulling a bank robbery. The Rock plays a guy so bad-ass, other bad-asses won't mess with him. He doesn't have too many lines. Cop (played by a particulary scum-baggy Billy Bob Thornton) who chases after him. Cop--not called by name until the end of the movie--is addicted to heroin, smokes too much, not liked by anyone, divorced with a kid, and 10 days away from retirement. Maybe it's the inner detective in me, but I had an idea about the relationship between these two about halfway through. But it was still cool to see. And Killer. Killer's a former software millionnaire who becomes a hitman while apparently bored with his existence--he's conquered everything else including yoga. We later learn that he charges only a dollar for these contract killings. His girlfriend is played by former Lost star Maggie Grace--and she's never looked better on screen (actuall there's two Lost stars--including Mr. Eko). It also helps she doesn't wear very much throught the movie. But I digress.

Lots of action, shooting and bad-assery is involved in the viewing of this flick. Like I said, I sort of figured out the connections between two of the main characters about half way through, but I wanted to see if I was right. The main back story is told through video, photos, flashbacks, but you eventually get the whole picture--I like the way that was done. The poster's tag line (up above) is "slow justice is no justice," which is really cheesey and cheapens the cool image. The tattoos on his arm represents a running tally of dudes he's taken out in prison (in self defense, of course). When somebody in the know sees these tats, they run the other way. It won't win any academy awards, but as usual, The Rock's charisma carried the flick.

Now, as for the previews, it was the usual stuff except for not one, but two Nicolas Cage movies. And they both look awful. In one, he escaped from hell and going after some dude who took his daughter. Bad lines, bad acting. Not even the hot girl in the poster can save this piece of crap. I don't think he's made a good movie since Con Air or The Rock. The other movie is some medieval thing where he's saving people from hell (I think). Oh, and there's something about a witch.

Weird Music Choices

2010-11-30T09:18:00.000-08:00

Hey all--

So I wanted to tell everybody some unusual musical choices I've made in the last 3 days.

Linkin Park/Jay-Z's "99 Problems" remix. I woke up this morning and wanted to find it online.

2 choices from "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog." Can't go wrong with Joss Whedon.

Ugly Kid Joe's "Everything About You." Went out to a bar with some friends the other night and somebody karaoke'd this. Haven't got it out of my head since. Old school high school days...

Random Pictures I liked

2010-11-28T13:54:00.001-08:00

Harry Potter

2010-11-23T13:51:00.000-08:00

Harry Potter

So, I went to see the new Harry Potter with some friends from work. Actually, we went to see the midnight showing of Harry Potter on opening night. We had to show up about an hour and half early just to get seats.

There were a lot of teens. With stupid conversations. One started off with the term "naked dreidel." The staff of the movie theater even managed to get these kids to spend vast amounts of money on crappy popcorn just to get "free posters." My friends and I, who are quite a bit older than them, just kinda sat there and talked about Buffy and Dr. Horrible and how a mutual friend of ours (with us in the theater) met Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku, etc at various Comic-Cons. Jealous.

Whatever.

The movie itself was pretty good, considering it was part one of two of the last movie/book. It was just like the book (which I bought at the midnight release party at a book store, but that was because I work there). A bunch of girls sitting behind us were the best criers ever. They started about 10 minutes before the character was going to die, and bawled straight through. I think I'm a heartless bastard because I felt nothing, but I did feel guilty about feeling nothing. This set off two of my companions, because like vomiting in Stand By Me, it was a chain reaction. So they cried. There were also a few scenes specifically for the Tiger Beat generation, what with Harry Potter stripping down a few times, and a magically naked evil vision.

One of the best sequences was the animation in the "Deathly Hallows" fairly tale. It was very cool, just great animation. I put it on the same artistic level as the fairy tale sequence in the second Hellboy. If you can find it on Youtube, please do and you won't be disappointed.

As far as previews go, there was one for the new Green Lantern with Ryan Reynolds. The trailer was okay, I actually liked the fake one with Nathan Fillion better. There was another trailer for a new Harrison Ford/Daniel "Bond" Craig flick called...Cowboys and Aliens. Six shooters and spaceships. Yeah, I'm there.

DON'T see Funny People with Adam Sandler. Way too long and way too sucky. I've been watching Scott Pilgrim Vs The World a lot. It's just that good. Go see it now.

Hopefully soon I'll see The Rock (AKA Dwayne Johnson, but he'll always be The Rock in my book) in his new movie Faster. He was doing a lot of crappy Disney flicks and getting away from his action-hero roots. After all, Conan/Terminator himself passed that baton! Happy Thanksgiving!! I will be O.D.ing on trytophan and watching the only football I usually watch all year!!

SUPER GROVER!!!

2010-10-20T06:47:00.002-07:00

I love this print and will someday have it. When, I don't know. But oh yes it will be mine.

Besides, who doesn't love SuperGrover by Alex Ross (One of my favorite artists by the way)?

Princess Bride

2010-10-15T08:48:00.001-07:00

Completely Random Post

2010-09-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

Surfin' around the JimSmash blog, and discovered the following 2 items:

And, "According to "DEMOLITION MAN", the last MDK (Murder Death Kill) happened this past Saturday; September 25, 2010." Demolition Man just happens to be one of my favorite bad movies of the '90's. I think I am one of a handful of people who own it on DVD. $5.00 from Sam's Club back in the day...

And Friday, August 29, 1997 was the original "Judgement Day" in the Terminator timeline. I was in Washington, DC at the time, but I don't remember any explosions. So that's nice.

Oh, and check out the Caf-Pow from NCIS:

I'm tired and it's late and I really should go to bed...

2010-09-08T22:13:00.000-07:00

But, I've been thinking about this movie: Ever seen Cloverfield?

UPDATE: Now that I'm awake, RK didn't know what Cloverfield is!! It's a Blair Witch-type movie, where the whole thing is filmed first-person POV with a standard video camera--although I'm sure they used a regular movie camera. Great flick, really original. A monster--unseen until the final bits of the flick--attacks New York City, Godzilla Style! Ridiculously good-looking friends go through the city to rescue another ridiculously good-looking friend from her smashed apartment. I went to see this with a bunch of friends from work, and one of them had to leave! The shaking and running images made her motion sickness jump into high gear. I heard later they had to put warnings in the theaters to let people know about this.

Cloverfield

Old Spice Guy

2010-09-07T13:23:00.000-07:00

Look What I Got in the Mail!!!

2010-08-31T13:13:00.001-07:00

What? It's a Hurley Reyes Bobblehead from Lost!!! Oh, you don't have one. I'm sorry about that, you having a bum no-Hurley Bobblehead type of life. Sucks to be you...

Aliens Vs Predator Vs Terminator

2010-08-30T09:14:00.000-07:00

So for some reason, a movie idea for Aliens Vs Predator Vs Terminator popped into my head a few months back and I can't get it out of there. I may end up posting some stuff about it on the ol' blog here.

In order to get your mind on it too, I'm posting some of the cooler Aliens/Predators/Terminator posters I found on my new best friend, Flickr. And yes, I know there was a comic about this a few years back but it apparently sucked. As did the second Aliens Vs Predator movie. But at least the poster is cool.

More Lost Episodes

2010-08-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

Episode 5.13: Some Like It Hoth

Get the wordplay there? So our castaways are still stuck in Dharma Times, back in 1977. Sawyer's group, including Miles, have been members of the Dharma Initiative for about threeyears. Hurley, newly arrived, decides to write George Lucas' Star Wars masterpiece, The Empire Strikes Back. The episode in general is about Miles' life and his ability to "kinda talk" to the dead.

This episode immediately made me think of a TaunTaun toy on the beach.

What If Episode from Season 7, Henry Gale

When our castaways first meet the nefarious Ben Linus, leader of the Others, he is claiming to be one Henry Gale from Minnesota. His backstory is that he crashed on the Island while on a balloon ride. There was even a destroyed balloon on the Island, right where he said it was. The actual balloon ride was sponsored by our favorite fast food restaurant, Mr. Cluck's (hence the logo). Unfortunately, the real Henry Gale is not from the Wizard Of Oz, he's a dead and buried black man on the Island. Ben, being the bastard he is, proceeds to sow mistrust and everything bad that goes along with it. Somehow he survives torture, gunshot wounds, being made to dig your own grave and a massive amount of beatings throughout the series.

This pic is once again from Fro Design's Season 7 prints.

Epilogue: The New Man In Charge

So I purchased the brand-spankin' new Season 6 set yesterday at Best Buy. I went home, and while feasting on Grade D Delicious tacos from The Bell, watched the much-anticipated 20 minute Epilogue, The New Man in Charge. And it was awesome. On the series finale, Ben and Hurley are on the Island with Desmond while everybody else escapes death and/or abandonment. Hurley became the new Jacob as the Protector of the Island, and Ben became his number 2, an advisor. The epilogue opens up on a Dharma warehouse in Guam, where these two poor saps have been putting Dharma-products on a pallett to be air-dropped on the island. Ben comes to relieve them on their duties (since both Ben and Hurley are able to come and go from the Island, one assumes that Desmond has as well, rejoining his wife and kid). Ben shows them the Dharma Orientation video for the Hydra, explaining polar bears, Room 23, aliases, birth troubles, and a host of others. The Epilogue then takes us to Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute, where Hurley and Libby once stayed as patients. But who's there now? WAAAAALLLLTTT!!! Yes, Michael's son Walt. He was told he was special, the Others kidnapped him and let him go, and he left the Island, seemingly forgotten by all. But here is at a Mental Hospital, when Hurley and Ben told him he has work to do on the Island, to help his Dad. His Dad, by the way, is dead, but Hurley can see him, restless on the Island. This show probably could have done several more seasons with this as the premise, but it was not meant to be. It ended on a great note, by the way.

Episode 5.13: Some Like It Hoth

What If Episode from Season 7: Henry Gale

Epilogue: The New Man In Charge

What If? Lost Season 7 Episode 8: Wallace

2010-08-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

So I was inspired by this great but simple design over at Fro Design by Moses Lee about their fake Lost Season 7 and Wallace. So who is Wallace? Who the hell knows?

I'll let Lostpedia explain:

"Wallace is the surname of a person found on the dial in the lighthouse. He/she is listed as the number 108, but the name is crossed out. Jacob, through Hurley, gave Jack directions to turn the lighthouse compass bearing to 108, although Jacob in the end seemed to care little about the bearing itself and more about Jack learning of the lighthouse."

The number 108 is the combination of every one of the special numbers throughout the show: 4 + 8 + 15 + 16 + 23 + 42 = 108. The numbers and names on the lighthouse dial represents the different candidates that may take Jacob's place as the protector of the Island. Some of the names, like Shepard and Jarrah we know, but others like Thompson and Wallace we don't. Also, if the Swan Station's computer counted down to 108 and the numbers weren't entered, then you have a catastrophic event take place. Also, the episode "Lighthouse" was episode 108 of the series. Wallace may have been important since Jacob was originally going to have Hurley turn the lighthouse towards his numbers. But the dude's crossed out! He's no longer a candidate, but ghost Jacob did state that that didn't really matter if you wanted the job.

For some reason, people have been really excited about this mysterious "Wallace." He really latched on for just being a scratched-out name on a dial. Well, in my fake Season 7, Wallace gets his own damn episode!

Lost Season 7 Episode 8: Wallace

WE ARE SEX BOB-OMB!!! 1-2-3-4!!!

2010-08-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

Just saw Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Literally. Only got back a few hours ago, had some crappy Wendy's burger, and went on the ol' computer.

At first I wanted the whole soundtrack, but it seemed a little too indy-rock pretentious for me. I'll probably just get the individual songs that I liked. Most soundtracks sound better in the movie than the actual CD itself. Take Pump up the Volume. Great movie, the music was awesome, old Beastie Boys, old punk tunes. The soundtrack: sucked. It was all remaked versions of these great songs and they didn't even have permission to put the originals on the soundtrack.

But I digress. Scott Pilgrim was great!! Just like the graphic novels, down to the printed sound effects. Bassist and slacker Scott Pilgrim must defeat his new girlfriend Ramona's Seven Evil Exes (as it is brought up multiple times in the movie). It played like a video game, with coins, power-ups, etc. A lot of laugh-out-loud parts. Made me want to pick up a bass (guitar, not fish). First time I ever saw a Michael Cera movie in the theater--he usually plays the same character over and over again, but this time it works for him because he is Scott Pilgrim. Fun movie, a plot not to be taken seriously. I also like the posters a lot: Oh, hey here they are.

I'm gonna give you two versions of this great song only because I love to hear Allison Pill yell "We are Sex Bob-omb!" multiple times.

Word.

2010-08-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks RK!

I'll be seeing Scott Pilgrim Vs The World soon. That and the Expendables. Oh, and this guy's eyes glow because he's a vegan. Probably the most exciting vegan ever.

A New Meme

2010-08-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

RANDOM IMAGE, YET "BIG TROUBLE" AWESOME

So RK gave me another meme assignment and I am hopeless to resist.

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing that you thought? I need to shave.

2. Do you miss anyone right now? Yes.

3. If you could move anywhere else, would you? Maybe, depended on the circumstances.

4. If you could choose, what would your last meal be? Chicken Parmesan.

5. What famous person, dead or alive, would you want to have lunch with? Abraham Lincoln or Joss Whedon.

6. What was the last book you read? Reading The Stand right now but I finished a Star Wars Old Republic book. Meh.

7. What was the last movie you watched? Predator.

8. What was the last song you heard? Bad Company by Five Finger Death Punch.

9. What’s your dream vacation? All around the US, visiting weird museums, tourist attractions and places I've always wanted to visit.

10. What is the next trip you’ll take? Probably to work, hopefully not to jury duty.

11. Did you ever go to camp? Yes.A-Y-A-P-O!!

12. Have you ever been in love? Yes.

13. What do you want to know about the future? No.

14. Where is your best friend? In New Hampshire I believe.

15. How is your best friend? Good.

16. Who is the biggest gossiper you know? I heard she was sleeping around with Ted from accounting...

17. What does your last text message say? U R Great! Thanks

18. What are 3 things you’ve always wanted to do, that you still plan to accomplish? Write some kind of history book, get a job in a place I love and be satisfied with life.

19. What is one thing you’ve learned from your parents? To be a good person.

20. What is one thing you hope to teach your own children? To be a good person.

Movie Posters I

2010-07-30T15:02:00.001-07:00

So, as you may have guessed: I love movies. And Movie Posters appeal to the geek designer in me. So, here, off the top of my head, are some of my favorite movie posters. I have no doubt I'll remember about 12 movie posters as soon as I post this, so I'll add more later!

Episode 6.11 Happily Ever After

2010-07-24T08:25:00.001-07:00

This is an episode from the final season. We now know that the "Flash-Sideways" world is actually some kind of purgatory until all the castaways remembered what happened to them. Anyhoo, any Desmond Hume episode is guaranteed to blow your mind, leaving you drooling until the next day. He's dealt with time travel within himself and now his enemy/father-in-law Charles Widmore knows how special he is to the Island. Apparently, Desmond is able to withstand vast amounts of electromagnetic energy and still survive. The scene where he's forced into that chamber reminds me of the Watchmen comic and the origin of Dr. Manhattan. I used a picture from the movie to demonstrate. The top pic is from the Lost episode.

Episode 6.11 Happily Ever After

I found this great picture somebody made on Flickr of a young Charles Widmore and it cracked me up!!! I can't post it but please take a look!!

Lost Episode 3.14 Expose

2010-07-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

I'm getting back to these!!

Lost Episode 3.14 Exposé

This is the episode most people hate, but it cracks me up. It sorta introduces Nikki and Paolo to the Lost universe. They had been sudden background characters with speaking lines in the last several episodes. But the thing that I really love about the episode is the fake show-within-a-show, Exposé! I really like the image I created for this episode. It's from this site: Paul Goodwin Designs. If you look carefully, below the TV is the famous picture of Desmond and Penny. It's covering up the previous photo in that frame.

Essentially, Exposé is a cheesey, exploitative show about girls who are strippers at night, but also by night they're detectives. Yeah, you read that right. Strippers and detectives. Oh, and "Corvette's" famous catch-phrase: "RAZZLE DAZZLE!" That cracked me up.They're lead by the suave stripclub owner Mr. LaShade. Their arch-enemy is the mysterious Cobra. Yet, the twist is Mr. LaShade and Cobra are the same person---Billy Dee Williams!!! Yeah, just as awesome as it sounds.

The other crazy thing about this episode is that Nikki and Paolo stole diamonds from their employer after killing him and take off on Oceanic 815. However, it crashes but Nikki is still obsessed with greed and her diamonds. She paralyzes Paolo with a Medusa spider but gets bit herself. As a result, she's paralyzed as she reaches the remaining castaways. They think she's dead and proceed to bury both her and Paolo alive.

Lost Episode 3.14 Exposé

Oh, somebody even made sneakers devoted to this episode and the fake show!

Want!!

2010-07-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

As I sweat here, I came across this awesome Darth Maul Cyborg from Sideshow Toys. It's based on a "Visions" comic story that came out before Episode III. In it, Darth Maul somehow survived being cut in two by Obi-Wan and is pursuing Obi-Wan and young Luke Skywalker. Great story, and now it's a giant collectible. If you buy this for me, I'll be your best friend!!! And maybe buy you an ice cream in return.....

https://www.sideshowtoy.com/?page_id=4489&sku=3000221

Predators!

2010-07-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

Holy crap, I saw the new flick Predators and really liked it!!!

Okay, so a bunch of soldiers and killers wake up on an alien game preserve, parachuting from the sky. There's Adrian Brody as a mercenary and general bastard. For some reason, women LOVE this guy. I don't see it, but what do I know. He also has this wicked cool weapon and figures out what's going on, as well as a logical assessment of what they're dealing with. There's a woman sniper, a death row inmate, a Russian soldier with a mini-gun (a la "Ol' Painless" from the first Predator), a Yakuza guy with two missing fingers (who later finds a katana for a kick ass sword fight with a Predator), some African soldier and a doctor. Yeah, the "doctor" is played by Topher Grace, seems kind of out of place but provides some laughs and later, some intricate role. I unfortunately found out about him months before I saw the movie but it didn't interfere. Oh, and a dude I will dub "Machete" because the trailer for that flick was in the previews right before and it's played by the same guy -- Danny Trejo. And Laurence Fishburne is in it as well, although briefly. The trailers made him seem like this bad-ass dude who has been killing predators and stealing their gear. Nah, he's just shitbird insane.

They do reference the original Predator, and thank God not the second Aliens Vs. Predator movie. The sniper recalls a black ops mission in Guatemala where the group was wiped out one by one, survived only by Ah-nold. Also, the Little Richard song played over the end credits is the same song played by that group while flying over the Guatemalan jungle.

The Predator is also different: seems the one we're used to seeing is only one of the Predator species. There's a bigger, badder kind as well--the one we see has used bone in customizing his armor. There's also these crazy attack dog-creatures and some kind of cool, stealthy, unmanned robot drone that attaches to the Predator's backs. Very neat.

Just a fun, down and dirty action movie.

Damn you Internets

2010-07-08T08:54:00.001-07:00

So, Youtube has once again found a piece of my childhood. How did I ever like this shit? On a side note, some of these Kids (see what I did there?) have gone on to bigger and apparently better things. Stacy Ferguson is now Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas, Martika made some '80's one hit wonder and Ryan Lambert starred in the cult classic Monster Squad (which I watched for the first time in about 20 years--wow!)

Seeing Predators tomorrow, hopefully will have a review soon!

El Joy de Plastico

2010-07-02T17:27:00.000-07:00

So RK asked me to do this meme:

Plastic Joy:

In my award acceptance speech I have to name 5 people I'd like to get jiggy with if I could, and apparently, my partner won't get mad and kill me with a shot gun.

So, I currently possess no partner, so therefore no death by shotgun. At least not yet. I usually don't do this kind of meme only because...

eh, I don't know.

So here are my five that I would slam the nickels out of:

1. Jessica Alba: I have always been in love with Ms. Alba. She is my future wife. The whole husband and kid thing? This is Hollywood, baby!! Who cares?

2. Miranda Kerr: Yeah, I know it's cliche to put a Victoria's Secret model in this type of list, but I .don't care. She has all the parts I like and has a killer accent.

3. Kari Byron: This one's kinda weird. She's on Mythbusters and makes SCIENCE sexy. And apparently I have a thing for redheads.

4. Christina Hendricks: Shit, I don't even watch Mad Men, but she was on Firefly and about every magazine cover I've ever seen. She's also built like a brick shithouse (as my father used to say) and I love that. And, oh look, another redhead.

5. Kat Dennings: This last one's kinda weird, but I got a thing for her.

BONUS:

For accent and smile alone: Billie Piper from Doctor Who.

'Nuff said, I've embarrassed myself enough.

Some Interesting Pics

2010-06-30T15:33:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite comics ad from the 1980's. It was in the X-Men comics. I remembering seeing this in ads in comics and on my comic shop's walls. I recently found it online and made it into my own print.

The above image is from the TV show The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It wasn't all that great, but okay to watch. It continued the adventures from the AWESOME Terminator movies. The lion eating the Terminator is apparently a symbol of the Resistance.

For some reason, I love these little minion guys from the animated flick Despicable Me. They crack me up. I will dub them shmahegonees.

Sum Sum Summertime

2010-06-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Summertime again. How do I know this? Because the Fireworks tent down the street from where I work has gone up again. One day, I want to shoot a flare gun into that tent when nobody's around. Y'know, so nobody gets burned.

Anyhoo.....

Visited the NYC last week to visit my friend Riot Kitty. A great time was had by all. Went to Jim Hanley's Universe, an awesome comic book shop near the Empire State Building. I know it was near the Empire State Building because every tour group in hell wanted us to jump on their bus and join the tour. After a while, we just said we lived in NYC and they shut up. Good times. Saw Strawberry Fields with John Lennon's Imagine thingee and somebody put a piece of fruit in the middle of it. Huh.

Saw the new movie The A-Team last week. It looked good in all the trailers, and didn't scare me off like those suits in GI Joe or ebonic-speaking Transformers. I grew up in the '80's and worshipped Mr. T. This movie didn't disappoint. It was a fun movie, not meant to be taken too seriously. In it, the A-Team are Army Rangers performing missions in Iraq for the past 8 years. They are framed for a massive money counterfeiting scheme/robbery by a bunch of private military mercenaries and a CIA operative. They're portrayed as serious soldiers who like to party hard and look after each other. Like I said, a really fun movie.

Found this online. It's from one of my favorite movies of all time, Fanboys. It's the comic book Eric Botler creates when they get back from the epic journey to steal Star Wars Episode I from the Lucasfilm Ranch.

Oh, and I was inspired to create this little image by watching some episodes of Firefly. I've only played Guitar Hero a few times, but I'm addicted each time. Blue Sun was a company on the show.

I hope to win free prints

2010-06-07T09:53:00.001-07:00

I hope I'm eligible to win these!!! From FroDesigns! Hook me up!!

Greatest Dumb Idea Ever!

2010-06-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

Sea Bear and Grizzly Shark!!!

Also, I'm reading the new Firefly book, and wondering why the damn show got cancelled in the first place!

And speaking of Joss Whedon, you need to check out the incredible art of Season 8: HERE!

Episode 1.01: Pilot / Episode 6.17: The End

2010-05-24T08:20:00.000-07:00

Wow.

Lost ended last night with a bang. Everybody you wanted to get together got together, but in a bittersweet way. After 6 years, the show is over. Wow.

This image represents the way the series started and the way it ended. The opening scene of Pilot was that of Jack Shepard's eye opening suddenly after being ejected from the crashing Oceanic 815. The End, last night's finale episode, ended with Jack's eye closing as he died, protecting the Island. I would have done this shot myself with my own eye, but my camera's batteries died.

In-freaking-tense episode, maybe one of the best....

Episode 1.01 Pilot

Episode 6.17: The End

New Lost Goodness!

2010-05-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

So, I've been gone from this blog for a while, a bit lazy, a bit busy, I'll admit....

Anyhoo.....

In honor of the LOST SERIES FINALE tomorrow night, I have decided to put up not one, not two, but THREE representations of episodes!!!

Episode 5.9: Namaste

So, some of our castaways are stuck in 1977 Dharma-times. Time travel, y'know? "Namaste" is kinda their catchphrase, what they say at the end of their Orientation Videos, etc. The Dharma Initiative is made up of former hippies, but are wiped out the Hostiles, the Island's Indigenous Inhabitants (The Others).

This particular picture was taken last year in Portland, Maine whilst traveling from a friend's wedding.

Episode 6.15: Across the Sea

Not one of my favorite episodes, but it did introduce some crucial Island mythology with Jacob and uhm... Jacob's Brother. AKA The Man in Black, AKA Fake Locke. Island CJ Cregg couldn't even name his brother, even though she obviously loved him more!!! This picture is of the book Bad Twin. It was released several years ago as part of the Lost Alternate Reality Game (ARG) but didn't live up to the Lost creator's expectations. It was an okay book. I picked this because Jacob and the Man in Black are twin brothers, one good and one evil. I don't know if Damon and Carlton did this because they knew what was going to happen on the series or what... Also, the "author" of the book is Gary Troup, an anagram for "Purgatory." He's sucked into the engine during the Pilot episode. Sawyer and Hurley later find his manuscript for Bad Twin and begin reading it. Bad Twin Synopsis.

Episode 1.4 Walkabout

The episode that made me love this show! It had twists and unexpected turns. It followed John Locke as he tried to go on an Australian Walkabout, but he is denied. The reason? He's in a wheelchair. Up into that point, you never knew he was in a wheelchair.

This was one of the posters for the Damoncarltonandapolarbear.com ARG for this season. It's a poster by Olly Steed. Very cool, very retro.

Episode 1.4: Walkabout
Episode 6.15: Across the Sea
Episode 5.9: Namaste

It's Rex Manning Day!!!

2010-04-01T13:04:00.001-07:00

It's the second annual Mike D Presents Rex Manning Day!!!! Don't despair!!

Episode 3.6: "I Do"

2010-03-31T10:06:00.000-07:00

In the episode "I Do," Kate marries Nathan Fillion's character, who is a Miami Dade Police Officer. However, he has no idea that she's a fugitive (later an international fugitive) and has completely lied to him. Meanwhile, in present Island time, Kate, Sawyer and Jack have been kidnapped by the Others. Kate and Sawyer are held in the old Dharma Initiative's Polar Bear cages, and after many head games and fishbiscuits, have sex in them. Good times.

Nathan Fillion is an actor well known to Joss Whedon fans. He's Captain Hammer in the Doctor Horrible webshow, Mal Reynolds in Serenity and some evil mysoginistic priest in the final season of Buffy. The two pictures I chose are from comic books of two of those shows, created by Adam Huges and Gene Ha. There's also part of the movie poster from Caged Heat, an infamous chick prison movie from the '70's.

Episode 3.6 "I Do."

Movies Movies Movies

2010-03-27T13:27:00.000-07:00

Went nuts during my "vacation" and saw a bunch of movies. Like to hear it, hear it goes....

Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton's):
Wow, I don't care what anybody says, this movie is incredible. Yes, it doesn't follow the books at all, but I think it's faithful to the core material. Visually, it's incredible. The final scene with the Jabberwocky--with Christopher Lee's Voice, no less, talking to the Vorpal Sword is great--real mythological. I also thought that Tweedledum and Tweedledee were hilarious..just funny silly characters all around. Johnny Depp makes another heavily-makeupped and prosthetics appearance. I agree with one kid I heard say that Johnny Depp doesn't want anyone to think he's a pretty boy so he puts all this shit over his face and body to disguise himself.

Inglourious Basterds:
Great flick, another one for Tarantino. Brutal, bloody, but clever. Brad Pitt made me forget he's Brad Pitt. It had Tarantino's signature 20 minute verbal diarrhea scenes, but the rest of the flick is so good, that it didn't matter. I found myself saying the name "Hugo Stiglitz" the next day at work for no apparent reason. The Boston accent on Donny is hilarious--try saying "Fraulein Von Hammersmark" with a Southie accent, and you'll see what I mean. If not, call me and I'll do it for you. I can see why the actor who played the main Nazi won an Academy Award--and don't worry, he got what was coming to him in the movie....

Twilight:
Yeah, I know, but it was free on Showtime On Demand and I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. What a mistake. This was a freakin' average movie. It was awful to watch. Pale teen angst from 24-year-olds. The angst was really annoying. I'm glad I hated this flick because I'm not a 13-year-old girl. Oh, the Showtime On Demand menu had such incredible pieces of cinematic kick-assmanship like The Devil Wears Nada, The Hills Have Thighs and my personal favorite, Slutty Busty and Bad. Chew on those for a while.

The Surrogates:
Okay. Pretty much every other Sci-Fi movie. Go see Gamer instead, it's pretty much interchangeable.

Law-Abiding Citizen:
Not bad, made you hate the justice system. Gerard Butler does a good job, you didn't see the ending coming. Ingenious inventions, waiting to see who'd die next and how. I probably would have liked it better as a book instead.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:
Really good flick, improves on the original movies. They really keep getting better as they go along--one more to go!! The only drawback is you really have to read the books first in order to get all the nuances and details. Suggested, but not entirely necessary.

Thanks!

The Way I am Rap Remix

2010-03-24T13:31:00.000-07:00

I've liked this song for a while, I even have a free copy of it on my Ipod--hey it was an instore play!!! Her voice is so ridculously smooth and beautiful when she's rapping!!!

I'll have some movie reviews soon!!

Kreativ Blogger, Apparently!

2010-02-17T07:27:00.000-08:00

Once again, I've been tagged by Riot Kitty for a meme! However, I choose not to use that Kreativ Blogger logo, because it doesn't fit my badass image...or something like that.

Da Rules:

1. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

2. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.

3. Name seven things about you that people think are interesting. I'll go with RK and name seven random things.

4. Nominate seven other Kreativ Bloggers

Ok, my seven random things, in RK's style:

1. I really hate incompetence in commercials. Like people who can't peel a freakin' potato or can't seal a trashbag without trash getting everywhere.

2. Whilst a cable TV operator, I have busted many a kid who ordered adult PPV to their parents' cable bill. "What's this $9.99 charge on my bill?" "Well, ma'am, that's an adult movie! Surprise!!"

3. Some of my favorite movies are bad action movies from the '80's and '90's, like Robocop, Demolition Man, Aliens, and The Running Man.

4. When I was a kid, I popped out my shoulder while playing basketball with friends, and so we decided to put it back in ourselves. Violently.

5. I lived in Washington DC for a year, and worked down the street from Monica Lewinksy's original lawyer's office. Paparazzi were everywhere!

6. I have been told I have a unique and infectious laugh.

7. I am a tremendous Star Wars fan.

So, seven people who I'll nominate, eh? Here are some sites I visit frequently... or not.

1. Samurai Frog

2. Vitamin Steve

3. Buffyfest

4. Nik at Nite--my favorite Lost Blogger!

5. Artist Jim Lee and Friends

6. General Zod

7. Best idea ever (courtesy of RK again) Axecop! Written by a five year old and illustrated by his 29-year-old brother!

Lost Episode 6.1: LA X

2010-02-01T09:17:00.000-08:00

This is the first episode of the new season, starting tomorrow night (Tuesday, February 1st, 2010!! According to my TV Guide, "the aftermath from the bomb detonation." I guess it's supposed to represent the LAX sign at the Los Angeles airport, the original destination of Flight 815. If the bomb erased all the previous history, does 815 land sucessfully at LAX and everything starts over again? Hmmmm...we'll have to find out.

The image is from somebody else on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brendangates/4114035379/

Episode 6.1 LA X

Here's one of the more interesting Comic-Con videos, Hurley is the CEO of Mr. Cluck's Chicken and has nothing but good luck stemming from winning the lottery with the Numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42). In previous episodes, Hurley hated winning the lottery because it brought back luck to everyone around him!!!! It also contains an Oceanic Airlines commercial with a "perfect safety record" for over 30 years!

Holy....

2010-01-05T07:54:00.000-08:00

The greatest thing in the NEW YEAR so far...

Welcome to the Future, Mortals! It is the Year 2010!

2010-01-01T08:01:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years!! I expect my jetpack and Mars invasions very shortly.

Just a few o' my favorite things so far:

The beginning sequence of the Watchmen Movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=573XmVOdD2Q
Amazing. Can't embed it, though--YouTube won't let me!

And, Starwars.com's Best of Feature: http://www.starwars.com/bestof/bestof2009/index.html

Tales from the Longbox

2009-12-23T08:24:00.000-08:00

Well, it's almost Christmas time, and you know what that means: crappy holiday comics! In this case, a Star Trek: The Next Generation Christmas comic I got back in the late '80's! Bad dialogue, bad skinny ties, fake Christmas cheer! I sent it into the good people at I-Mockery.com, and they made a li'l article about it! Check out the link: http://www.i-mockery.com/comics/longbox34/

And my good friend Riot Kitty wrote a mind-blowingly nice article on her blog about me! Check it out, homeslices: http://riotkitty.blogspot.com/2009/12/constant.html

Thanks, RK!!! Miss you too! :)