Insanity caught on film

Pure crazy adrenaline action is what one could say to describe both Crank and its newly released sequel Crank 2: High Voltage. If you looked up ADD in the dictionary you would probably see a picture of these movies as one of the examples. Crank 2 is so freaking nuts, it makes Crank 1 seem like a jolly joyride through normal land. Spoilers ahead just in case but if you have seen the trailers that show on nearly every other commercial break then you should already know this very obvious clue, Chev Chelios survives the events of the first film. After his body is recovered and kept alive by Chinese gangsters so they could harvest his seemingly superhuman organs, Chev wakes up to realize that his heart is gone and has been replaced with an artificial heart that runs on a battery. Much like the first movie where he runs around trying to gain revenge on his enemies while keeping his adrenaline pumping, Crank 2 has him running around trying to gain revenge on those who stole his heart and get it back, all the while recharging his battery by any means necessary. This film is FULL of over the top action fight scenes and chock full of cameos from characters and actors that appeared in the first film. Some of the scenes include a Godzilla like fight between Chev and a bad guy at a power station that includes giant rubber suited fighters, a guy cutting off his nipples in graphic detail and Chev busting into a house and throwing someone through every possible window except for one guy who gets thrown through the wall. Basically, if you like random crap that will make you laugh or liked the first one in any way then you will also like this one. I give Crank 2: High Voltage a score on the Heath-meter of 8 out of 10. (Artificial hearts by the way)

Babe of the Week 4/26 - 5/02/09

Major babe Blake Lively has been in some movies and can be seen every week on Gossip Girl.

Reading List: Brave Men Run and Rolling THunder

As you can see, Brave Men Run is by Matthew Wayne Selznick. This is the 4th and final superhero novel I bought online a few weeks ago. I actually finished this book like 2 weeks ago, I just haven't gotten around to writing this out yet. This book is told through the perspective a young man during the 1980s. He is an outcast at school mainly because of his looks. When super humans are introduced to the world, his life goes upside down. The best way to describe this book is to go along with the musing of one of the reviewers listed on the inside of the book who states that it is like if John Hughes had directed Spiderman instead of The Breakfast Club. All I can say is that I liked it and I'm hoping that there are actually more in this series.

I also read this book in my weeks of non posting. John Varley is one of my favorite Sci Fi authors. His Gaea Trilogy is fantastic and the first book in this series called Red Thunder is also fantastic. Rolling Thunder is the third in the series following Red Lightning. It also continues the story of the families whose story have been told in the previous books. While I ended up liking this book, I had my doubts early on. IT kinda goes on without any kind of plot for a while until a certain event gives us the main story for this book. It also opens many questions and really gets you wondering where its going. The only thing, it doesn't go anywhere. The story reverts back to the format before the climactic event. It actually does work for the story but I could have had more. It just seemed to be a lot of filler and an excuse to show up just how much Mr Varley does his research on certain subjects. While I think this and the 2nd one for that matter are decent but not really all that, I do recommend reading Red Thunder as it is a very cool book.

Something different

Most of you guys know that my life is pretty boring. I work 2nd shift, I sleep during the day and the only time I get to hang out with friends is on the weekends. Most of that time is going to movies and such. Well yesterday, my friends and I changed it up a bit. We got to go see Tim Wilson, country comedian extraordinaire, along with the hilarious Stewart Huff. Both did an outstanding job. The only thing is that the theatre, The Paramount in Bristol has the smallest freaking rows I have ever seen in any public forum. It wasn't long after sitting that my legs started to hurt a bit from being cramped up. My friend Matt who is quite taller than me had it a lot worse I'm sure. It was still a great show and it was totally worth it. If you guys ever get a chance to see either Stewart Huff or Tim Wilson you should definitely take the chance.

Babe of the Week 4/19 - 4/25/09

Gorgeous British model Jennifer Ellison, who has appeared in many tv shows in England and appeared in The Phantom of the Opera that was released a few years ago.

Well thats it, Im officially taking my place in this era.

Something I have been waiting on for YEARS has finally happened. Nintendo announced they are releasing Punchout for the Wii! Super Punchout from the Super Nintendo is my all time favorite game. Mike Tyson's Punchout is also one of my favorites. I have seriously been waiting since the days of the SUper Nintendo for this game. So sometime soon, Im going to buy me a Wii and get prepared for the awesomeness. I was pretty much done with video games as far as buying new systems go. This is the one thing thats bringing me in. Sorry World of Warcraft, youre going to have to wait on the shelf for a while. Punchout bring it on!

I was wanting to post the official trailer for Punchout on here but due to Blogspot.com being anti youtube freindly, here is the link to it on youtube instead. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-rWG_ZQnLM.

Happy Easter

So god awful it is fantastic.

Several years ago, I made a mistake that to this day still haunts me. Two friends of mine went to see a movie that I personally had no interest in whatsoever. That movie was House of the Dead. A movie I now own for the simple fact that it is one of the all time worst movies ever put to film. It is one of those that is so bad its fun to watch. Nevermind that it was supposed to be scary, it ended up being hilarious. Ever since then, My friends and I have been on a quest searching for another film that fits into that same category. We have failed many times, watching craptacular films that only make you cringe in their awfulness. We have also found some hidden gems among the movies we have watched such as Evil Alien Conquerors but none as good as House of the Dead. Well that changed tonight. Dragonball Evolution is that movie. Based on the manga/anime series Dragonball, Dragonball Evolution tells the story of Goku as he quests to stop the evil alien warlord Piccolo from destroying the Earth and gather the 7 mystical dragon balls that when brought together, can grant one wish. The anime series is actually pretty good. I myself was more of a fan of Dragonball Z, the follow up series that continues the story of Goku and friends. They pretty much threw everything out the window except for character names and made their own film. Where to start on the flaws of this movie. Terrible acting, terrible story, insanely god awful special effects. I mean seriously, some of them looked like cardboard cutouts being drug through the scene on wires. This made for great entertaining hilarity but for fans who wanted a seriously good interpretation, this must have been like sitting through 90 minutes of hell. Whats worse is that the filmmakers set up the story for a sequel. Not only did they think that this movie was good, but good enough to make another one. I for one hope they do, Its not often one gets to see a movie that sucks to this magnitude. I will for sure be first in line to see it when it comes out too. I can always go for a good laugh. I give Dragonball Evolution a score on the Heath-meter of 1 out of 10.

Babe of the Week 4/12 - 4/18/09

The very beautiful Emmy Rossum who has appeared in many movies. The only ones I can think of presently are The Phantom of the Opera that came out a few years ago and Dragonball: Evolution, both of which in she was easily the best part.

Reading List: Nobody gets the Girl

By James Maxey. The third of the four superhero novels I recently bought off eBay and so far the only one that failed to live up to my expectations. There are really only two things about this novel I liked. First though let me give you guys a rundown. Richard is an office worker who, on the side, moonlights as a club comedian. He wakes up one morning with everything changed. His house is different, his wife is nowhere to be found, there are strange people living in his house and no one can see him. After the revelation that he is now an invisible man, He is recruited by the world's top most scientist, Dr Know, to be a spy against his enemies. Richard takes the name Nobody and joins with Dr Know's daughters who happen to be superheroes and fights with them against the evil Rex Monday, an evil terrorist who with his own team of super humans try to sow chaos and destruction. Richard or Nobody has simply the best Invisible man origin ever conceived. His origin is very original and surprising. That and the origin of superheroes in their world are really the only high points for me for the entire book. Richard has no characterization and cant seem to decide what he believes. Pretty much the entire book is nothing but contrived point to contrived point trying to connect the beginning to the end with nothing but crap and adolescent fantasy. It all wraps up to the most obvious twists or surprise ending ever. It seems to me that Mr Maxey had great ideas but failed to wrap a story around them. Nobody gets the girl is worth reading for the origin stories alone and that's it. That or talking a friend to read it and then convince him to tell you what happened.

Now this is a comic I want to read

Now I know that Marvel Comics had at one time publish an entire series with future versions of their most popular characters in the year 2099 such as Spiderman, The Punisher and Dr Doom. Most of it was crap, okay just about 99 percent of it was crap but this is pure gold. I cant imagine how this story came about or what takes place in it. One thing for sure, I'm going to explore the net and if this issue really exists, I'm going to find it.

Travesty

A shameful day in basketball in my opinion. The class for the 2009 basketball hall of fame was decided today. On the ballot were several great players and coaches among them, on the ballot for the first time was Chris Mullin. Now I have to say I'm very biased. Golden State has been my team since I was a little kid and Chris Mullin has always been my favorite player. Now I know hes no Michael Jordan who was voted in this year along with David Robinson and John Stockton, but he is a great player. He scored close to 20000 points in his career, was a member of the original dream team and was voted as one of the greatest 50 players in NBA history. I don't know the reason why he was overlooked but I digress, he should have been voted in.

Reading List: Superfolks

By Robert Mayer. Superfolks is a breakdown of golden and silver age comics. When Superfolks was first published in the 80s, most heroes were paragons of virtue and villains were the epitome of evil. There was no gray, only terms of black and white. Superfolks came out and helped the change that comics took in the 80s to more darker, less blatantly superficial styles. Superfolks tells the story of Overman, greatest defender of Earth who was born on a distant planet and sent here by his parents as his planet, Cronk, exploded. He follows the basic Superman story line and even has very similar bad guys. After 8 years of his powers on the fritz and being retired, he succumbs to his fantasies of trying to do good again and just in time as a sinister plot years in the making is coming to fruition. Superfolks is seriously one of the best super-hero novels I have read and believe me, I have read quite a few. Its fun, hilarious at times, and features great characterization and is full of twists and turns. While some things can be guessed, I was surprised again and again as I read this book. There is one scene at the end that I feel would have been better left out but that just my opinion. So, you want to read some good superhero action, go check this out Superfolks.

What you should be watching

Kings on NBC. I was a little skeptical at first but I decided to try it out for a few episodes. The 2 hour first episode was decent but mostly just setting the groundwork for what the series really is. Based on the biblical story of King David, Kings takes that story and sets into a modern world. Kings has great writing but they do tend to get a bit cheesy at times but it has yet to over ride the story, for me anyway. Kings is also full of political intrigue, and so far has excelled superbly on characterization and plot. Ian McShane was by far the best choice to play the manipulative but hopeful King Silas. The only complaint I have at all with the show, besides the somewhat cheesiness, is that the world in which this story takes place is not different enough. IT seems the only difference between this world and ours are the names of the countries. I hope we see more small changes in the future in this series. Hopefully, the series will continue to be amazing and more people will start watching. You can see Kings every Sunday night at 8 eastern standard time or on NBC.com or even NBC on demand.

Babe of the Week 4/05 - 4/11/09

Teh absolutely stunning Kris Williams, who if you're lucky, can be seen every week on Ghost Hunters on Sci-Fi.

Reading List: Playing For Keeps

A while back I posted about a trip I took to Knoxville. In that post I mentioned that my friends and I scoured through a huge used book store. I myself took a list of books that I was having trouble finding up here in my local area. After striking out on all counts down in Knoxville, I decided to buy several on eBay. Playing for Keeps by Mur Lafferty was the first one that I received in the mail so I started right away on it. It sucks that books like this are hard to find, because Playing for Keeps is a great fun read. Playing for Keeps takes place in Seventh City where Superheroes are the norm. Most people with powers are placed into two categories, First wave and Third wave. First wave are the supers with amazing abilities like flight, super strength and the ability to shoot lightning. The third wave people have the powers that may or not be entirely useful. Powers such as the ability to never spill a bar tray, or complete control over elevators or even the ability to smell the past and in one case, the ability to shoot excrement out of your fists at high velocity. The First wave are the heroes that are adored by the masses, where the third wave are treated like second rate citizens. One of these third wavers is Keepsie who has the power to keep anything she has from being stolen from her. Keepsie finds herself caught in the middle of a war between the Superheroes she despises and the super villains that plague the city when a villain gives her a device that holds the interest of both parties. Playing for Keeps does a great job of characterization. Ms Lafferty also handles the hard task of utilizing the lame powers that some of her characters possess without them seeming forced into the story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a superhero fan.

Ever had that mysterious song stuck in your head?

If so go check out http://www.songlyrics.com/ . It has a search engine where you type in whatever lyrical torture is running nonstop through your mind and it will give you a list of songs, with title and singer or band that the lyric could belong to. I found about this just the other day and I have to say it is a life saver. I heard a song on the radio on the way home from work. I just happened to catch only the tail end of it and of course the dj failed to mention the name of the song as they transitioned into the next song. I got home, looked up the lyrics I heard on this site and the first result turned out to be the song I had heard. So next time you hear a mysterious jingle or just cant remember who it was that sang a certain tune, go check out songlyrics.com and find out who it was.

Reading List: A Canticle for Leibowitz

I was first introduce to this book by my friend Matt who spent many weeks looking for it as many different book stores. I was able to find this at a used book store in Knoxville purely on blind luck. I wasn't even looking for it, I just happened to see it on the shelf. This is a very strange book. The story is divided up into 3 parts that each tell a story of the new age of man. The first being mainly an introduction the world now in the 26th century and an explanation of how things became this way. The second part is yet further in the future where electronics and ingenuity are once again taking shape in the minds of men. The third part is yet again farther in the future where man has once again entered into the atomic age. All these stories tell a powerful message of learning from our mistakes. The link holding this book together is that all these stories take place in a small abbey in the once southwest United States. The abbey of course is for the Albertan order for the Saint Leibowitz. That and an old pilgrim who occasionally shows up at different points of the book. It is very hard to describe mainly because at times this book takes a very serious turn and at times seems too hilarious to be taken so seriously. It was a good change of pace from my usual reading habits. I urge anyone to check it out.