Up, up and away.

Simply put, it was great. One of Pixar's best ever. You should definitely go see it. It has drama, comedy, action and even makes you cry. I give Up a score on the Heath-meter of 8 out of 10.

Babe of the Week 5/31 - 6/06/09

Buffy month concludes with the original Buffy from the movie version, Kristy Swanson.

Number 4 and ready for more

Terminator: Salvation is the 4th film in the storied franchise. This film acts as a prequel to the previous films as having taking place before the events of the first Terminator. I for one really liked it. Ive never been a huge Terminator fan but I did like the first one and of course T2. I still think T2 is one of the best films and easily among the very best movies that are sequels. The first one is still a classic and the third wasn't god awful so that's a win in the books for me as well.
This movie takes place in our future after Skynet has become aware and began its war on Humanity. While trying to help the resistance that has risen up against the machines and, John Conner using the knowledge of the future, comes across something even he didn't expect. This film is full of action, some throwbacks to the true fans such as the classic lines, "Come with me if you want to live" and of course "I'll be back". Christian Bale once again nails the performance of John Conner and Sam Worthington easily steals the movie as Marcus Wright. We also get to hear Christian Bale slip into his Batman voice several times and even an appearance by the Governator, even if it was mostly CGI. The one thing that this movie could have used was Summer Glau, the sexy female terminator from the TV show. I for one cant wait for the next one. I give Terminator: Salvation a score on the Heath-meter of 8 out of 10.

Babe of the Week 5/24 - 5/30/09

Buffy month continues with the gorgeous Charisma Carpenter. She mostly appeared on the Buffy spin-off Angel, but ,to the best of my knowledge, has been on both shows.

Good news and some bad news

Once again the people of this world fail me. The Middleman was a series that debuted on ABC Family last year and ran for 12 episodes. IT was zany, fun, action packed and just chock full of geeky awesomeness and nerd culture references. Unfortunately, it did not garnish the ratings that ABC Family apparently thought it should achieve so it was inevitably cancelled. That makes 2 shows in the last 2 years that I started to follow only to have them yanked from my viewing pleasure. The other being NBC's Kings which mysteriously disappeared from airwaves earlier this year. Anyway the point of this blog is to state that The Middleman will be released on DVD as the entire series on July 28. Maybe if I'm lucky enough people will buy it and maybe save it from television limbo and bring it back on the air. So go tell everyone you know to check it out. My fingers are crossed.

Once again

No new film this past weekend. The initial plan was to go see Battle for Terra. Unfortunately fate and declining ticket sales worked against us as it was no longer playing in theaters here in Johnson City. Instead, I ended up seeing Star Trek again. Two weekends in a row and I could go again. That's not going to happen though as Terminator: Salvation comes out this weekend and I'm pretty sure we are going to go see that. Anyway If I were to review Star Trek again I would give it yet another 10 out of 10.

Reading List: Latro in the Mist

This is actually a collection of two novels by Gene Wolfe that tell the story of a Roman soldier. A few years after the battle at the Hot Gates (the battle from 300) A man named Latro was terribly wounded in battle. His head injury causes him to forget everything the next day. Also as a side effect of his head injury, Latro now has the ability to see the gods and goddesses of myth. He travels facing adversity along with several friends as they try to help Latro find a way to restore his memory. I loved this book (or these books). The story flows perfectly and just the way it goes is simply amazing. The characterization is very detailed and especially Latro's show a lot of depth. Just the fact that Latro's perspective of different characters change everyday for he cannot remember them is incredible. The only thing that I can say is that the whole myth thing while it does have points in the book that help the story, it is mainly understated. The story starts to evolve more into Latro and his ever renewing blank slate and his interactions than his remarkable ability. It gets a little hard to read time to time but never enough to take someone out of the story. I recommend this book very highly.

Babe of the Week 5/17 - 5/23/09

Buffy month continues with the beautiful Eliza Dushku who played Faith, another Vampire Slayer in the series. Eliza Dushku also had memorable roles in movies such as The New Guy and Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back.

Live Long and Prosper

For the second time this year, I along with a friend made the trip to Knoxville to see a movie in an IMAX theater. While the trip didn't go as well as one could hope, (more on that at another time) The movie like the last one we came to see in IMAX definitely delivered. I had some high hopes for this film and I wasn't disappointed at all. Star Trek leapt beyond every expectation I had for the film. Not only does it relivened a franchise that has been on its dying legs for many years now, it ties this movie into the original series' as well. The special effects are out of this world, no pun intended. The new actors brought in to play the roles of the original cast all perform spectacularly. The story is spot on, there is nothing I can even think of that is negative about this film. For the first time in my life I consider myself more a Star Trek fan than a Star Wars fan. That's something I thought would never happen, something I couldn't even fathom happening. I don't even see hos Original fans can see anything wrong with this film. In short, This was the perfect way to recharge this franchise. It doesn't take anything away from the original series or its followups and adds a new story at the same time. A story that can be appreciated by both long time hardcore fans and new fans who might go back and become fans of the first series as well. I highly, HIGHLY, encourage anyone reading this to go see this movie if you have not yet. I give Star Trek a score on the Heath-meter of 10 out of 10.

Babe of the Week 5/10 - 5/16/09

THe very gorgeous Allyson Hannigan, most famous for her portrayal as Willow on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. She also is famous because of the American Pie films and can now be seen every Monday on CBS on How I Met Your Mother.

Heath List

This list is for my top 5 Marvel comic characters who I would like to see in a live action movie, be it X-Men, Fantastic Four, Avengers, Spiderman, Iron Man whatever.

5) Ms Marvel

4) Taskmaster

3) Black Cat

2) Havok

1) Deadpool (done right)

Ah well

Even though I wanted to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I wasnt alltogether hyped for it. With news leaking about some of the changes made to certain characters *cough Deadpool cough*. I was a little worried. While it was enjoyable as far as an action movie goes, the story itself was just blah. Mainly it was hollywood cliche after hollywood cliche. Twice we got to see someone hold a departed loved on in their arms and howl at the sky, we got to see someone walking while something was exploding like seriously 10 feet behind them and many more. The special effects didnt seem like they were finished in some scenes. A few things I did like were the fight scenes especially the one at the end involving Deadpool, Wolverine and Sabretooth. I did like the way they did Sabretooth in this film too. Much better than in X-Men 1. I alos liked the many cameos we were shown of other marvel characters, but mainly because Im a fan. Sure they could have done more with sadi characters, but hey at least they were in a movie. Now if these movie making people would get off their collective asses and get Havok into one of these Id be happy. I give X-Men Origins: Wolverine a score on the Heath-Meter of 6 out of 10.

Babe of the Week 5/03 - 5/09/09

Sarah Michelle Gellar who has appeared in many films such as the Scooby Doo live action films, I know what you did Last Summer and Cruel Intentions, is most famous as Buffy on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.