The Legendary Trials of Heath

Been gone for a bit

2009-07-17T13:58:00.002-04:00

Sorry that there has not been any new stuff in a while. My CPU pretty much stopped working and I have been trying to get it fixed for the last week and a half or so. Today was my first real chance to get online (at my parents) and explain to all my dozens of readers (lol). Hopefully soon, I will be back online for good, until then take care and see ya soon.

Not really an american hero

2009-07-05T04:04:00.002-04:00

This was a little something different this weekend. While most of the town was off watching the fireworks, my buddies and I took the time to see a movie. After weeks of seeing comedies and Transformers last week, we decided to change it up and see a historical drama/action film. Public Enemies is the movie based on the true story of one of America's most notorious criminals in the 30's John Dillinger. During the great depression, Dillinger and his associates pulled off many daring bank robberies, claiming they were only interested in taking the governments money. By traveling across state lines to commit these robberies, this led to the birth of the FBI. Before the police was helpless s their own jurisdiction ended at the state borders. Dillinger pulled off many stunts including talking openly to the media about the banks he hit to spending time in the Chicago police department while he was the most wanted man in America. Johnny Depp proves in this move why he is one of Hollywood's top actors. He is joined by the seemingly always working Christian Bale and many other notable actors. While the running time hits up to about 2 and a half hours, for me the movie flew by, keeping me entertained through out. I give Public Enemies a score on the Heath-meter of 9 out of 10.

Reading List: The Lord of the Silent Kingdom

2009-07-05T03:52:00.002-04:00

This is the second in the Instrumentalities of the Night series by Glen Cook. I read the first one in the series a while back and was swayed over against my early misgivings. By the end of the first book, all the problems I was having had been eliminated. The amount of information you will have to retain is staggering to be able to keep up with this series. This book delves without warning right back into the mix. Having just read the first one a week or so ago, I had no trouble but someone who might take some time between these 2 books could easily find themselves lost until they remember everything. A refresher of the first one might still be required. What made the first book in this series great continues in this one. All the political intrigue between the leading nations and war is back. More of the world is opened in this one as our hero, Else/Piper is ordered by the religious leader in his country to take the army and begin a crusade. While in the midst of this campaign, our hero also has the task to survive as the creatures of the night and myth step up in their quest to destroy him. It is a lot of information to handle, but once you lose yourself in this story, it doesn't let go. I find myself now desperately waiting the next in this series. hopefully I wont have to wait very long. While Glen Cook's Black Company series is among my very favorite fiction, this series could easily find itself along side it in my tier of favorite series.

Babe of the Week 7/05 - 7/11/09

2009-07-05T03:49:00.003-04:00

This weeks babe of the Week is former fitness model and 7 time WWE women's champion Trish Stratus. Unfortunately, she is now retired and no longer performs but she has been seen on WWE television once or twice since her retirement.

Heath List: Fighting Games

2009-07-04T13:35:00.005-04:00

Here is another geeky Heath List for you guys. My top 5 favorite fighting game franchises.

5) Tekken

4) Mortal Kombat

3) King of Fighters

2) Street Fighter

1) Guilty Gear

The worst thing I have ever seen.

2009-07-04T04:31:00.004-04:00

Earlier today, While at Wal-Mart buying some much needed things, I took a plunge and bought Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, newly released onto DVD. I have always been a big street fighter fan going back to the days of the original Street Fighter 2 arcade. I have played and almost own every incarnation of Street Fighter there has been. Street Fighter Alpha 3 is still among my top favorite games of all time. Street Fighter has always had great characters, plots and has a deep and strong central story. For some reason, Hollywood can't get that across in a feature film. Japan did it with an animated movie, which is the best incarnation of Street Fighter outside of the games. Even the comics (mostly) have done a great job telling the story. Hollywood has taken two stabs at it and has failed miserably both times. Whats worse is that they didn't gain any ground with this latest one. Its actually worse than the Jean Claude Van Damme version that came out almost 2 decades ago. How do you make a movie 20 years after another one and make it worse? I don't think that has ever been done before. What kills me is that this movie is about fighting and it is extremely boring. I fell asleep while fast forwarding to a fight scene. This whole movie is one big piece of crap. There is nothing good to say about this film at all. The story is incoherent, none of the actors do anything credible and that's sad based on some of the actors in this film, and the fight scenes are just ridiculous. Chris Klein puts on a hell of a razzie worthy performance in what has to be the worst acting I have ever seen in anything. Robin Shou gives him a run for his money on bad acting too, and most of the rest of the cast aren't too far behind him. This movie is just god awful. I don't think I could think of a word bad enough to compare this movie to. This film ranks up there with the Star Wars Holiday Special on how bad it is and I finished that movie without fast forwarding or falling asleep. I give Street Fighter: The legend of Chun Li a score on the Heath-meter of 0 out of 10. I felt like I had to give it a 1, but no its not even good enough to deserve that, so it gets a big ugly 0.

Heath List: Transformers

2009-06-28T04:28:00.003-04:00

Here is yet another Heath list. This one lists my top 5 favorite Transformers. Most of my knowledge comes from the movies, both the live action ones and the animated on that came out decades ago. I never really watched any of the cartoons, played with any of the toys or even read the comics. Let me know what you guys think.

5) Soundwave, I know in the comic he was a boombox that had cassette tapes that transformed into different robots, but in the new movies he becomes a satellite in space.

4) Optimus Prime, he did always have a classic look, and his original voice actor is playing him still today in the new movies.

3) Star Scream, mainly because in the original cartoon, his voice was the same as Cobra Commander's

2) Galvatron, in the animated movie, Megatron becomes Galvatron who was bad ass. He also transformed into a cannon, which in my opinion is always better than the pistol that Megatron changed into.

1) Ravage, he was originally a cassette tape that changed into a panther. In the new movie, he is a something that changes into a panther like robot, He is still cool and in the movie, he packs the firepower.

Reading List: Heroes of the Space Marines

2009-06-28T04:21:00.002-04:00

Another book Ive read recently is a collection of short stories set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, Heroes of the Space Marines. This book collects 10 stories in total, all involving Space marines and/or their evil counterparts, the Chaos Space Marines. One thing I loved about this collection is the inclusion of a story involving the Death Watch. The Death Watch in Warhammer 40k is a specialised group of Space Marines chosen from different chapters to go on basically suicide missions that have them going up against incredibly insane odds. Most of the short story collections of Warhammer 40k include such a story. Also included in this collection is a prequel story to the Salamander series coming soon by author Nick Kyme. His story really showed promise and got me all excited about reading the series when it is finally available to buy. There were also a few stories included that failed to catch my attention and also a few that were at best decent. But there were several that were outstanding and that alone makes this worth buying for any Warhammer 40k fan.

Reading List: Tyranny of the Night

2009-06-28T04:09:00.003-04:00

Glen Cook is one of my favorite authors. He ranks up there right behind Scott Lynch as a matter of fact. Mr Cook brings a stark realism to even the most outlandish of fantasy stories. He does simply by making the story about the people and not the champions like every other fantasy novel does. Tyranny of the Night is no exception. He brings back the style that made him an international best seller with his Black Company series. Tyranny of the Night is about a soldier named Else Tage. He is sent by his Warlord to infiltrate and spy on the lands to the west so that his country can anticipate when the rulers of the western kingdoms will try to raise an army to purge his country from what the world believes to be the Holy Lands. Unbeknown to his leaders, Else is attacked by and actually kills a minor god, one of many that plague this world during the night. Not only does Else have to play the spy game and keep himself from being revealed to his new comrades and employers, but he also has to watch out for the wrath of the gods. It did take me a while to get into this book. Like most of his novels, Glen Cook really develops the characters and their homelands to great detail. One really has to pay attention when reading this book or you can easily become lost in the vast amount of details and actions of the many involved parties int he story. Once I got everyone down, where they were from and what their motivations were, this book become very enjoyable, that and the fact that the plot evolved from the intrigue to actual battles and so forth. It can be a little overwhelming but Tyranny of the Night is a very good read.

Autobots! Roll out!

2009-06-28T03:50:00.004-04:00

Finally. After several weeks of comedies, I was ready for a big summer action movie. A movie where there is no real story beyond getting the characters from one location to another. A movie where everything you see gets exploded to hell and there are hot chicks running around. Transformers 2 delivers on all of those fronts with ease. I really liked the first Transformers movie, mainly because it ended up being way better than even the slightest amount of hope I had for it. With this one, I was ready for what awaited me and I think that's the main reason, I didn't like this one as much. This time around Sam and company are trying to find an energy source before the evil decepticons find it and use it to power a machine that would *gasp* destroy the sun and kill us all. Most of the robots are back from the first one and there are many more added to this movie, most notably Soundwave, the former boombox decepticon who in this film changes into a satellite orbiting the Earth. Also appearing in this film is the true Devastator who is made up of 6 separate decepticons and my all time favorite Transformer, Ravage, whose robot form resembles a panther. Most of the human cast return as well for this time around. Missing are the hot chick computer hacker and Anthony Anderson and Jon Voight. The cast performs admirably, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson are all military, Shia is running around and Megan Fox just looks hot. It was a very enjoyable film. IT made me laugh, awed me with huge explosions, and truly gave me my money's worth. The final battle alone makes up for about 45 minutes of the films 2 hour film time. A great movie to see if you re wanting some good summer blockbuster fun. I give Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen a score on the Heath-meter of 8 out of 10.

Babe of the Week 6/28 - 7/04/09

2009-06-28T03:48:00.002-04:00

The gorgeous Isabel Lucas is the babe of the week for the first week of July. She has mainly appeared in television. She appeared in her first major american movie in Transformers 2.

Wow, nothing funny like sacrilege

2009-06-21T12:38:00.004-04:00

I have to say, I wasn't all too hyped to see Year One. I thought it would be funny but I could give or take seeing it. I expected to see something that would make me laugh in what was being called the movie about the world's first road trip. Well, I did laugh a few times, but those times were few and far between the moments where I cringed at the amount of time spent making fun of Christianity, Judaism and basic good taste. Now, I'm not a hardcore christian or even devoutly religious, i was however raised in church and I still have a very healthy respect for God. Ive watched other movies that people have said makes them uncomfortable such as Dogma and I saw no problem. This movie however made me feel like I was going to be struck by lightning for watching it. Instead of being the world's oldest road trip, this movie could basically be called The Bible: The gross out joke edition. It starts out in a village of primitive humans. Zed (jack Black) a hunter who is very inept gets kicked out of the village for eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. His friend Oh (Michale Cera) decides to leave with him. On their journey they meet Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve and their family including Seth who is nothing but a 5 minute fart joke. They also manage to meet Abraham and Isaac which leads to many unfunny jokes about circumcision and other basic Jewish tradition. They end up in Sodom which the movie tries to play out like Vegas, even though in the Bible, it was destroyed by fire from heaven for being such an evil place, which they also poke fun at in this movie. All together, I felt wrong for watching this film. Even if there was significantly less sacrilege, I would still not like it because its not really that funny. jack Black plays the same spazzed out character he plays in almost every movie he's ever been in. The only good thing about this entire movie is Olivia Wilde who is pretty hot. So if you re headed to the movies to see something funny, go see The Hangover or Land of the Lost, just forget Year One. I give Year One a score on the Heath-meter of 2 out of 10.

Babe of the Week 6/21 - 6/27/09

2009-06-21T12:37:00.003-04:00

This week's babe is the gorgeous Olivia Wilde. She has appeared in several movies such as Alpha Dog and more recently Year One.

Heath List: Anime Series

2009-06-20T04:55:00.007-04:00

Ok here goes. This is the Heath List for my top 5 favorite Anime series that I have seen. If there is a series that you like that I fail to mention, please let me know.

#5 Neon Genesis Evangelion

#4 Rurouni Kenshin

#3 Naruto

#2 Ranma 1/2

#1 Death Note

Adventurecon '09

2009-06-14T04:19:00.002-04:00

This weekend in Knoxville was home to the annual Adventurecon. Evey June, fans from all over the eastern Tennessee area and beyond gather at the Knoxville convention center to celebrate everything from comics, movies and more. This year was the 4th year that I have been able to attend. This year was also the best so far of all the times Ive went. Besides the many stalls set up throughout the convention floor selling comics, action figures, and other merchandise, they also have celebrity guests and comic artists. I spent quite a bit of money at the only DVD stand that was there this year. Most of the time there are several set up but unfortunately only one this year. Besides wasting my money on movies, I was able to meet and receive an autograph from the gorgeous Christy Hemme, who was also the Babe of the Week last week. I also got a sketch for my sketchbook by the creator of The Crow, James O'Barr. I didn't get to meet but I did get to see Lou Ferrigno, Mick Foley and got to stand next to the Delorean from Back to the Future. Now that its over, I cant wait for next year.

Its never good to forget

2009-06-14T03:58:00.003-04:00

Seeing this film was kind of a last minute decision. A buddy and mine was in Knoxville for the day and decided to catch a movie before we came home. We had both heard some good things about this film so we decided this was the one to see. I wasn't hyped for this film at all. It did look funny in the trailer, but its just another Hollywood cliche movie. A bunch of guys party, cant remember what happened, they learn later how they accomplished all the crazy tasks that seem to have happened the night before and everyone goes home happy with lesson learned. The best movie like this in my opinion is Dude, where's my car? That however is no longer the case. Hangover is downright hilarious from beginning to end. Even though they do give away a lil too much in the trailer for the film, there are still many surprising moments throughout the film. Most of the questions of what happened get answered, some are left for open discussion. One thing I liked in particular is that even with all the stuff that you find out in the movie, its not til the end when you get to see just how crazy their night of partying was. All the actors in this film did great, the main guys have great chemistry together, and are actually believable as 4 friends having a wild night on the town. There are a few too many scenes that feature male nudity of some sort. I could easily do without any of that in any movie. I laughed throughout this movie and I think you will too. I give The Hangover a score on the Heath-meter of 9 out of 10.

Babe of the Week 6/14 - 6/20/09

2009-06-14T03:56:00.003-04:00

The very beautiful Isla Fisher is this week's Babe of the Week. She has been featured in many movies including Wedding Crashers.

Reading List: Hyperion

2009-06-10T05:33:00.006-04:00

I had been hearing about this book for quite some time, from friends, internet posts on forums and even reviews on other sites. I saw this book at my local used book store and decided to take a chance on it. Have you ever experienced a time when you bought something on a whim that really surprised you on how good it was? This was NOT one of those times. I hate this book so much I could scream. I wish I had done some research before buying this piece of crap and saved myself the anger and frustration that I am experiencing now. What's worse is that I was into this book all the way throughout the story until the very freaking end. First let me explain. Hyperion is about a group of 7 strangers brought together on the last pilgrimage to see the mysterious Shrike of the planet Hyperion. On the way to their destination, the pilgrims decide to each tell their tale, revealing what their goals are and their secrets. This hearkens many to compare this book the Canterbury Tales but set in space. This format actually works very well. You get to learn about the characters and their motives and more about Hyperion, its mysteries and the Shrike. Some of the stories I liked better than others but that's to be expected. In a story featuring several characters, there are always at least a few that just grate on your nerves and this book is no exception. Each of the stories reads more like separate novellas. The Priests tale and The Scholars tale both stand out as excellent and the Colonel's tale and especially the Poet's tale are just garbage. Still not bad enough to take me out of the over all story. There are also many extreme examples of technology that I don't think could have been imagined in any other tale. Worlds that feature rooms on different planets that are traveled to by teleportation and flying space trees are just two of such examples. Now here is my problem with this book. IT continually builds throughout the story. Always setting up the mysterious Shrike and the events surrounding it. Everything is leading up to this encounter. All the stories are told, almost all the wondering and secrets of the characters are now all out in the open. They are on the last leg of their journey merely walking distance of their final destination . Then they clasps arms and sing off to see the Wizard and then the end. That's it, it ENDS right there. All that build up and it just DROPS. Apparently the sequel continues the story and all the fans say that its really one big book separated into two. That's not good enough. Even if the story is to be continued, you have something accomplished. You just don't END THE BOOK! This pissed me off so bad when I read this that I totally lost all interest in this story, these characters and whatever is going to happen. I will most certainly not buy the second book in this series and I will soon be taking this piece of garbage back to the used book store to hopefully get at least a percentage of the money I spent on it back. If you re considering this book, please be informed that you will need to buy this one and the next as well. Maybe if I had known, I wouldn't feel so betrayed.

Memories of my childhood are no longer lost.

2009-06-07T04:46:00.004-04:00

Will Ferrell stars in this remake of the 1970s children's show also titled The Land of the Lost. I loved watching the show when I was younger and even still more recently when SciFi featured a marathon of it all day, showing all 3 seasons. What was once fond memories of adventure and peril mixed with mind blowing visuals that no show could equal became a laughable surprisingly dark show with possibly the worst special effects to ever be utilized on television. Just as I became reacquainted with this show, I have now been treated to a movie adaptation. While there are scenes and dialogue thrown in for hard core fans of the original series, the movie take quite a few liberties with the story and the characters. Will and Holly, once the children of Dr Rick Marshall now are a redneck fireworks vendor and a lab assistant to the fumbling Dr Marshall. I wont go into any further detail about some of the others because I don't want to ruin any part of the movie for those of you who might go out and see this soon. Most of the characters do make an appearance at least once throughout the movie including Enik the Altrusion, Cha-ka, and especially Grump the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Now for those of you who might unfamiliar with the story of either the show or this new movie, let me give a quick run thru. Dr Rick Marshall and now assistant and guide inadvertently open a time portal to another dimension which features elements of different time periods and mysterious artifacts. Home to the veritable land of the lost are dinosaurs, a lizard like humanoid race called the Sleestak, a hybrid human/chimp race and many other mysterious forms of life. Our lovable castaways must survive while exploring this strange new land while all the while trying to find a way back home. I highly recommend anyone to watch at least a few episodes of the old show just so that some of the stuff in the movie will not just fly over your head. Now as far as the movie goes, Will Ferrell basically plays the same character he has played in almost every movie he has been in. he runs around sprouting catchphrases and random insanity while acting like a jackass. Playing Will is the seemingly omnipresent Danny McBride who plays the same character he plays in every movie he has been in. Joining the cast as the now grown up Holly as opposed to the young preteen of the TV show is the incredibly sexy Anna Friel. Besides the name and basic story plot and scenarios, this is nothing like the show. The show was aimed primarily at kids while this movie easily earns its PG-13 rating and barely escapes a R rating in my opinion. There is cussing, sexual language and Anna Friel gets felt up by almost every other cast member. It definitely fits with the Will Ferrell established fanbase. I liked this movie pretty well but I still enjoy the show more. I give Land of the Lost a score on the Heath-meter of 8 out of 10.

babe of the Week 6/07 - 6/13/09

2009-06-07T04:43:00.003-04:00

The gorgeous Christy Hemme is the babe of the week for this week. She was the first ever WWE Diva challenge winner and now "wrestles" in TNA. She was also featured on the Man Show as one of the Juggies for a while and has appeared in Playboy.

Reading List: The Grey Knights Omnibus and The Forever War

2009-06-06T14:18:00.004-04:00

A lot has happened in the last few weeks. Ive been sick, been off work and generally have had a crappy time for the most part. Outside of a few instances where I got to go hang out with friends and such, the last few weeks I hope are easily forgotten. Anyways during this time, I have not really felt like "blogging" all that much even though most of my blogging centers around throwing my two cents around about movies and books and other such things. Mainly because my life is boring and there just isn't that much to write about. So that's why today I'm posting TWO (woot yea two) books that I have read during that time and here goes my review. The first one was the Grey Knights Omnibus by Ben Counter. This actually collects 3 books together in one volume. The Grey Knights centers on a group of highly trained genetically enhanced super soldiers called Space Marines that fight for the Emperor of Earth in the years around 40,000. It also belongs to a much greater franchise, Warhammer 40,000, which is a tabletop war game. The Grey Knights are the chosen daemon hunters of their time. They are trained from a young age to fight daemons and to have an amazing unwavering faith. This series of books focuses on one squad in particular and the trials that they must face. Its one of the better Warhammer 40k series out there and doesn't disappoint at all. If you re a fan of Warhammer 40k or just like 9 feet tall armor clad super humans fighting the spawns of evil, then this series should be right up your alley.

The second book I read over the last few weeks is the Forever War by Joe Haldeman. This is actually a quick read as I finished in it in about 2 hours or so. This book is great. The Forever War is bout a group of soldiers chosen in the late 20th century to fight in Earth's first intergalactic war. Now the reason I say 20th century is because this book was written originally in the 70s and the technology jump was so much at the time that they thought space travel and crazy scifi weapons were right around the corner. Plus the author said he wanted to use characters that could have fought in Vietnam which this story is basically an allegory for. The story is told through the perspective of one William Mandela. A physics student who is drafted to be one of the first young soldiers to fly across space to fight the Taurens, mysterious aliens who happen to have been first spotted in the Taurus constellation. Using powerful laser weapons and engineered power suits, Humanity is pulling out all the stops to win this war. Another facet of book revolves around what the book calls Collapsers. These are mid space phenomena which allows the travel of light years in literally nanoseconds. While one may travel hundreds of thousands of light years, to them its only a second but they are actually losing time as they are aging months, Earth is aging centuries. After their first encounter, Mandela and his unit are returned to Earth after being gone only a few short months to find that over 20 years have passed. Unable to deal with this future shock, Mandela decides to return to the military. What follows is more of the same, the books goes into great detail about missions and battles while at the same time always reminding him how much time he has lost as centuries start to fly by and Earth is continually changing. This book really makes you think. The future it paints for Earth is both eerie and different, telling a future that most people probably wouldn't even imagine. The Forever War is an amazing book and should be a favorite for any scifi or military fiction fan. SO there ya go 2 reviews for the price of none actually. Ill try to keep more up to date on my future posts, hope ya enjoyed it.

Up, up and away.

2009-05-31T04:58:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-31T04:56:00.003-04:00

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

Number 4 and ready for more

2009-05-24T05:30:00.005-04:00

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

2009-05-24T05:28:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-19T05:35:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-18T05:17:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-18T05:05:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-17T18:55:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-10T17:51:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-10T17:48:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-05T00:10:00.005-04:00

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

2009-05-04T23:32:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-03T05:09:00.003-04:00

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.

Insanity caught on film

2009-04-26T04:42:00.004-04:00

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

2009-04-26T04:33:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-26T04:11:00.004-04:00

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

2009-04-19T14:53:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-19T14:51:00.002-04:00

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.

2009-04-17T05:14:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-12T05:48:00.002-04:00

So god awful it is fantastic.

2009-04-12T05:22:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-12T05:19:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-10T03:01:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-07T05:16:00.004-04:00

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

2009-04-07T04:36:00.004-04:00

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

2009-04-07T04:23:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-06T04:26:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-05T05:09:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-03T02:52:00.003-04:00

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?

2009-04-01T05:19:00.004-04:00

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

2009-04-01T05:09:00.003-04:00

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.

We need Monsters!

2009-03-29T15:20:00.003-04:00

Yep, went and seen Monsters vs Aliens. Following the success of many animated movies the last few years such as The Incredibles, Madagascar and the yearly movie from Pixar, Monsters vs Aliens proves that an animated movie can appeal to both adults and children. This movie had great voice acting with the talents of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen and even Stephen Colbert. It all starts out on the wedding day of Susan. While outside getting some air before she goes in to go through the ceremony, she is inexplicably hit by a meteorite. As a result she absorbs the strange energy that was pulsing through the meteorite and grows to an astounding 50 feet tall. This leads to her being captured by the government and placed into custody along with other monsters that the government has captured over the years, including The Missing Link, Dr Cockroach, Bob the gelatinous indestructible blob, and the enormous Insectosaurus. When an alien invades Earth trying to find the energy that was in that meteorite and now in Susan, he begins the attack to get it back. Monsters vs Aliens, is full of action, and is hilarious for both kids and adults. Bob the blob totally makes the movie and has the best monster origin story Ive ever heard. SO go and take your kids if you have any, but still go even if you don't, you ll enjoy this film. I give Monster vs Aliens a score on the Heath-meter of 8 out of 10.

Babe of the Week 3/29 - 4/04/09

2009-03-29T06:55:00.003-04:00

The beautiful Sarah Chalke who can be seen regularly on the hit show Scrubs. She was also the second Becky on Roseanne and also starred along Jim Varney in the smash hit movie, Ernest goes to School.

Need to boost your magic level?

2009-03-28T02:12:00.003-04:00

Then try a mana drink or health energy drink that can be found at http://www.manapotions.com/. I haven't myself tried one yet but that's going to change this weekend. Not only can you order them straight from the site but also at most local Hot Topic stores. They include a search engine on their page to help you find the closest retail place near you that sells them. Go check them out and live your RPG dreams everyday, every time that you need a boost. Besides they just look cool.

Rock the Vote

2009-03-28T02:05:00.004-04:00

Just letting you guys know that this weekend is the end of the voting for the Streamy awards. The Streamy awards are an awards ceremony for web series. You can vote for best actor, best actress, best comedy series, best dramatic series and many others. Its also a good place to find links to many of the best web series on the Internet. Even if you don't vote you can also go check out something good to watch. Here's the link: http://www.streamys.org/splash/

Reading List: Beyond the Shadows

2009-03-28T01:52:00.003-04:00

A week or so ago I "reviewed" the 2nd book in this series. As soon as I finished that one I jumped straight into this book, the conclusion to the series known as The Night Angel Trilogy. I highly recommend this series to anyone reading this. The first book is all right, the second starts slow but builds to a good leaving off point for the third to pick up and run with. The whole series is building up to the final battle that takes place in this book. Every little thing throughout the first two books conclude here. Its kinda like watching a speed painting and then realizing what it is seconds before the artist finishes. Like I stated in my review of the second book of this series, I wont ruin anything for any of you that might be interested in reading this series. All I can say is that Kylar learns more of his power and the history of his former master Durzo Blint. The nation of Cenaria is picking itself back up after all that has happened to it and the nations of the world in which this story takes place are coming together to take the fight to the oppressors. People die, monsters are raised and prophecy is fulfilled and almost all your questions are answered. And seriously, this book has an outstanding ending. I would like to see more authors follow Mr Weeks example. All I will say is if you re a fan of George R R Martin cause hes not afraid to kill off characters, then you will love this guy. I just hope that Mr Weeks has more books down the line and I dare hope that he expands this world even more.

Finally!

2009-03-22T03:52:00.005-04:00

I cant believe it! After 4 freaking years of delays, rewrites, and dismissal from local theaters, I have now seen Fanboys. I had pretty much given up all hope of seeing this movie until I found an illegal bootleg at some comic convention in the near future. A buddy of mine called me up and let me know that the Carmike in my area was showing this film this weekend. Not taking any chances, we decided to go see it, knowing my luck this will probably be the only weekend its here and judging from the audience that payed to see it, I don't doubt it one bit. Fanboys is the story of a group of childhood friends in 1998 that surprisingly all love Star Wars. 3 years after a falling out, Eric who has "grown up" finds out that former best friend Linus has terminal cancer and has about 3 or 4o months to live. With Star Wars episode one still 6 months away, the friends decide to find a way for Linus to see the movie before he dies. The plan to drive cross country to the Skywalker Ranch and steal a copy of the film. What follows is the usual Hollywood flair about young guys on a road trip. After crazy hi jinks with a gay bar, crazy pimps in Las Vegas and the nerdiest Star Trek fans on the planet Earth, the finally make their way to the Ranch to place their names in destiny. Featuring recognizable young talent such as Sam Huntington, Dan Fogle from Balls of Fury, Seth Rogan in two of the best roles in the film and Kristen Bell. There are also cameos by Jay and Silent Bob, Carrie Fisher, Ray Parks, and Ethan Suplee. This movie is pure geek greatness to anyone that may love fictional characters just a bit too much. I'm just glad I was able to finally see it in a theater, even if it was one as bad as the local Carmike. I give Fanboys a score on the Heath-meter of 8 out of 10.

Reading List: Shadow's Edge

2009-03-22T03:40:00.004-04:00

One of the coolest looking book covers ever in my opinion. I admit is was the very similar artwork on the first book that caught my interest in the first place. Shadow's Edge is the 2nd book of the Night Angle trilogy by Brent Weeks. This is also a pretty hard book to find nowadays. I spent several weeks scouring the bookstores of whatever town I happened to be in trying to locate this book. This book continues the story of Kylar, former city rat (thief) who was trained to be a wetboy (think magic assassin) by the city's greatest wetboy, Durzo Blint. I wont go into detail because I don't want to ruin anything for those of you who might want to check these books out one day. The first book in this series was mainly about Kylar or Azoth as he was called in that book, learning and accepting the fate that he chose for himself. This book has Kylar fighting that fate, trying to decide what he wants in life. All the while, his freinds are at war in the now war torn country of Cenaria and he has to choose whether to accept his role in things or to throw it all away for a simpler life. This series so far has not let me down. There have been some plot points that I wish had been avoided but they have yet to ruin the story for me. There are some very interesting parts of the story yet to be revealed. One thing Mr Weeks does right are his twists. I can mostly guess where the story is headed but I have been continually surprised at several points throughout the first two books. Overall its a decent book, I liked the first one better and I hope the third one is just as good.

Babe of the Week 3/22- 3/28/09

2009-03-22T03:37:00.002-04:00

The beautiful Minka Kelly who can be currently seen on NBC's Friday Night Lights.

Reading List: Small Favor

2009-03-19T20:39:00.003-04:00

There are good things and bad things about getting into a book series. Continuation of favorite characters, being able to immerse yourself into a world on multiple occasions. There is also the wait between novels, sometimes up to a year at a time. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series is one of my favorite series. When the next one comes out, it is one of my favorite days. Small Favor is the 10th book in the series and there is no sign of it stopping anytime soon. Small Favor returns Harry Dresden, Chicago's only Wizard to be found in the phonebook against old enemies. He is dropped into the middle of a situation involving both of the courts of the Sidhe and trying to find an abducted crime boss that leads to major concerns for the White Council and humanity as we know it. Jim Butcher has a tremendous hold on his world and he writes supernatural better than most of today's authors. Harry is one of today's best characters in fiction, being able to juggle life threatening occurrences without losing what makes him human. If you like detective novels with a side of magic and supernatural monsters, then Dresden Files was made just for you. Hopefully it will not be such a long time until the next book in the series is released.

Team Fotress 2

2009-03-15T05:32:00.002-04:00

Anyone who knows me, knows that first person shooters are just not my kinda game. But ever since I first saw the commercials for Half Life 2 for X-Box 360 that includes the games Portal and Team Fortress 2, my interest was piqued. I have always liked games that leaned more toward cartoony graphics instead of making everything life like. I think that's one reason I may not be able to get into games like Call of Duty that much. A stupid reason I know, but that's who I am. Anyways, I finally purchased this game tonight after my very unsuccessful attempts to locate a drafting table (seriously, if you know someone who has one, let me know). In Team Fortress 2, you choose 1 of 9 different characters to play as, and you can switch on the fly if you want to, and you fight online in matches against other players. I haven't played it too much but what I did play of it, I loved. Its very fast paced and the graphics and sound quality is fantastic. The controls are easy and the voice chat is crystal clear. The only thing that bothered me about the game is that it does have some loading time here and there, and if your team loses a match, you sit and watch while another team takes your place for the next round. But its fun and that's what counts. I guess I wont be wasting all my free time in the future on World of Warcraft, some of it will be on Team Fortress 2.

A nice surprise

2009-03-15T05:07:00.006-04:00

Sometimes in life you are pleasantly surprised. I wasn't all too hyped over this film, heck I had even put it out of mind as to going see it. I was planning to go see Street Fighter but due to the hick town mentality that the theaters in my area suffer from, I was unable to do so. However, since I had heard of this movie and knew that the 2 main characters (pictured above) are both part of one of my favorite comedy groups, The Whitest Kids u Know, I decided to go see it. My expectations held true. This movie while granted the premise is pure Hollywood cliche, is pretty funny. There are a few jokes that fall flat, but most work and the one thing I loved that's been missing from recent comedies is that the jokes keep setting up for future story points. No joke it seems is a one and done. The story revolves around two life long buddies, Abstinence minded Eugene who is in love with his high school sweetheart and Tucker, who is addicted to playboy magazines and tries to emulate that lifestyle in his own life. Eugene promises his girlfriend that he will finally be ready to have sex on their prom night. Just when the moment is to happen he instead of going upstairs to be with her ends up getting wasted with Tucker, falling down a flight of stairs and ends up in a coma for 4 years. When he wakes up he comes to find that his girlfriend is now playboy model and he and Tucker roll out to find her. A lot of things on the way go horribly crazy, including Eugene's atrophy, foul named rappers, revenge driven Firemen, Russian lesbians and of course if you have seen the trailer, a girl getting thrown out of a moving bus. Definitely cliche driven but clever and funny enough to be a good movie. I give Miss March, on the Heath-scale, a score of 7 out of 10.

Babe of the Week 03/15 - 03/21/09

2009-03-15T05:05:00.002-04:00

Lucy Pinder. Not sure how she got "famous". I haven't seen or heard of any movies she may have been in and right now I'm too lazy to look her up on IMDB.com. All I know is that she's hot and that she's British.

Reading List: The Name of the Wind

2009-03-14T04:52:00.003-04:00

Very good books are hard to find anymore. For every decent book I have found or been told about. there are like dozens of crappy, cringe worthy novels that just overpower the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section at my local bookstore. A friend of mine heard about this book and after hearing his views on it, I decided to try it out for myself. The Name of the Wind is easily one of the best fantasy books that have come out in recent years. It tells the story of Kvothe(pronounced "Quoth") as told by himself to a "Chronicler" who finds him hiding in normalcy as a tavern owner. The story switches between Kvothe's story of how he became the legend that is alluded to and the very strange happenings that have occurred as of late in the town where his tavern is located. At first I thought that I would not be able to get into it, but after the first several chapters, I got hooked. The "now" part of the story remains mysterious and reveals small hints on things to come, while the "then" part shows just how some of the legend myths are misconstrued and merely rumor instead of basic truth. This shows our hero Kvothe is both very powerful and vulnerable at the same time, a thing that is heads above most characters in the fantasy genre. The Name of the Wind is a great coming of age story mixed with mystery. I for one cant wait for the next in the series.

My Knoxville experience

2009-03-08T17:11:00.002-04:00

Its not often I get to go out of town, even if it is just a few hours down the road. A couple of buddies and myself planned a while back to go to Knoxville for the day yesterday. Mainly to go see Watchmen in the IMAX theater down there. I had never before had the IMAX experience and it is something I have been looking forward to for quite a while. We had almost went down to see The Dark Knight last summer but gas prices being what they were, it was just a little too much. Anyway, I got to say that I am ruined on going to the theater up here in good old Johnson City. IMAX is awesome. When you walk in and see that screen it just amazes you. I guessed it was like 48 feet high by 60 feet wide and I was confirmed on the width by the promo announcer before the previews started. I don't know if every IMAX theater is like this, but the one in Knoxville has attendees stationed inside that will take your order and go get you drinks or snacks or whatever and bring it to you at your seat. It was crazy and I cant wait to go back and see another movie in IMAX. Right now the plan is to see the new Star Trek movie down there when it comes out. A very strange thing happened while we were in line to go in. We arrived at the theater about an hour before the movie was slated to start. A line had already formed with one row of people already in and a second row forming. My friends and I got in line in the 2nd row and the row was shut off right behind us so that they could start a third row. Now, there had to be some kind a transporter or something hidden in line in front of us or something. In that hour that we stood in line for the movie, we moved from being against the cutoff at the end of our row to the middle almost front half of the line. The weird part is that NO ONE was being allowed in yet. The lines were not moving! How half of our line disappeared is beyond me. We spent much of the time in line trying to figure out how the people in front of us kept going missing. Anyways, it was a good trip. We got to eat at TGIF which is like the only big name restaurant that doesn't have a location in Johnson City and we spent some time probably one of the best used book and cd stores in the southern region. We Also stopped at a beef jerky outlet on the way down, where I was able to purchase some reindeer jerky and a jar of moonshine jelly. I haven't tried it yet but ill let ya know what its like.

Who watches the Watchmen?

2009-03-08T16:27:00.005-04:00

This is a day that I thought would never arrive. I never imagined I would gaze my eyes on the day that I could see this story in a film format. Like many, the original graphic novel to me is one of the best stories period in any format. I have been looking forward to seeing this movie ever since we were first treated to a trailer for it at The Dark Knight. I was also kinda dreading it. I was worried about what the changes would be from the graphic novel to the big screen. Would these changes destroy the original message of the book?

I am very happy to say that the movie version of Watchmen stayed true to the comic. There are some changes, many insignificant and a few very significant and one really monstrous change at the end. In spite of these changes, the story plays out just as well. The message stays the same. What is it worth to get what we need, or want? This message is played out through the movie in the lives of the 6 main characters that the story revolves around and the human race in general. Are we able to sacrifice what is necessary to achieve the greater good? The story also remains in the "gray" area on the subject leaving it up to the viewers, in this case, to decide for themselves.

The story takes place in 1985 in a world where vigilante heroism is outlawed. The apparent murder of former hero The Comedian, begins an investigation that leads to an ultimate climax where our world is in the balance. We see the story unfold through the eyes of 6 heroes, how there lives have been affected by the world around them and what they hope to accomplish. The tale ends with the question of sacrifice and what we do in the face of compromise.

Everyone associated with this movie did tremendous work. Director Zach Snyder really captured the feel of the story. Ive got to give Kudos to all the actors. Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Matthew Goode. The top honor goes to Jackie Earl Haley who seemed to be tailor made for the role of sociopath hero Rorschach. No other actor on Earth could have performed that role better.

Watchmen is easily the best "superhero" movie ever. And I use the term "superhero movie" very lightly. It is a very deep, philosophical story that really makes you think and question yourself as well as the characters in the story and their decisions. There are a few things that you should know if you haven't seen this film yet. This movie is R rated. IT has many scenes of intense violence, mature themes, and very provocative sex and nudity, and by nudity I mean both female and male nudity. This is definitely not a kids film. Not all comic based films are for kids. Anyways, I give Watchmen a score on the Heath-meter of 10 out of 10.

Babe of the Week 3/08/ - 3/14/09

2009-03-08T16:26:00.003-04:00

The gorgeous Malin Akerman who can be currently seen in the movie Watchmen, now in theaters. She also was featured in Harold and Kumar go to White Castle as Freakshow's wife.

Reading List: A Fortress in Shadow

2009-03-05T06:46:00.003-05:00

I actually finished this book last week, I just haven't really spent any time on here so Ive not yet posted my review. This was a prequel of sorts to the first trilogy in Chronicles of the Dread Empire by Glen Cook. This collection collects 2 books that go into the origins of the friendships between and help play out events that lead up to the story in the first 3 books. These books tell the story of the El Murid Wars that first brought together Haroun, Bragi and Mocker. While I'm a big fan of Glen Cook, the first 3 books in this series didn't really grab my fanaticism like his other series the Black Company did. This collection helped bring me there for this series. While his first trilogy seemed like it was too big for him, he easily sidesteps that problem in these by keeping the focus on the main 3 characters instead of hopping all over the world and time periods. IT is really apparent that he learned a lot from his previous work and brought that experience to these books. These books continue the tradition of Glen Cook's work, a very realistic look at high fantasy warfare that while epic in scope keeps it down to Earth and really explores the people involved and not necessarily the events around them. I highly recommend this entire series to anyone.

America's Best Dance Crew Finale tonight

2009-03-05T06:35:00.002-05:00

Down to the last two, Beat Freaks or Quest Crew. Be sure to check it out on MTV. Probably the only good show that is on MTV. Definitely the only good reality program they have. They need to bring back the music.

You know, you learn something new everyday

2009-03-05T06:29:00.002-05:00

Ive got to say that if you need to go to Walmart, the best time is like between 2am and 6am. There are no crowds, barely any people in the whole store. You can park right up at the door, and you don't even have to wait in line to check out. I just got back a lil bit ago from such a trip and it was very insightful. I learned that you can purchase Mardi Gras beads at Walmart. The very same beads you can in turn give to a young lady so that she will show you her ta-tas. For such an uptight organization that wont even sell uncensored music, you think that this would be something that they wouldn't sell. Oh well, guess you cant buy an album that has cuss words but you can buy boobie beads. Who knew? I sure didn't.

Babe of the Week 03/01 - 03/07/09

2009-03-01T14:24:00.003-05:00

The beautiful Jessica Chobot, who is a contributing reporter for IGN on the net.

Its a sad day G4 fans

2009-02-25T05:47:00.005-05:00

Layla Kayleigh is no more. She sent out posts earlier tonight on Myspace letting all her fans know that she will no longer be employed at G4. She goes on to state that she will still be focused on her career in television, so we shall see her in the future on new shows. Maybe she's going into acting? She does still work for MTV's America's Best Dance Crew so you can see her there every Thursday night. Taking her place on Attack of the Show's The Feed segment will be Alison Haislip, who has been the fill-in along with Kristin Adams for the last several months. So, good luck to Layla in all her future endeavors.

Pure awesomeness

2009-02-23T04:23:00.003-05:00

100% pure awesomeness indeed. This movie was released last week straight to DVD, which is a shame because I bet that this movie, while winning no attendance contests, would definitely draw enough money to justify it opening in a theatre. Like most projects that feature Bruce Campbell, this movie is pure gold. Its also a really bad movie but it is a blast to watch. While most "B" movies fall apart right after the explanation is given to the whys of the plot, this movie really shines. Its low budget, it amkes fun of itself and has many laugh out loud moments. It even starts with 2 guys singing a folk country song about a chinese demon, how can that not be awesome. The movie begins when Jeff, uber Bruce Campbell fan and his friends enjoy a night out at the local ancinet chinese graveyard located in the samll town of Goldlick. Jeff unwittingly releases an ancinet chinese god of war loose from his resting place, a mine that collapsed and killed over 100 migrant workers. Quan Di, the ancient chinese god of war and patron saint of bean curde arises and swiftly starts a killing spree in the town. Jeff turns to the only man he can think of that could help in this kind of situation, "B" movie actor extraordinaire, Bruce Campbell. Of course this makes sense to everyone in the town and they welcome him with open arms to lead them against the evil menace. Bruce Campbell does a great job acting, playing himself as a cowardly asshole. How close this movie version of Bruce is to the real thing one wonders. This movei was great fun, and anyone who is remotely a fan of Mr. Campbell will love this film. Its no Bubba Hotep but hey nothing is. I give My Name is Bruce a score on the Heath-meter of 9 out of 10.

Well at least one thing went right

2009-02-23T00:49:00.004-05:00

Heath Ledger wins the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. One of the few I was pulling for to win. I was also pulling for Mickey Rourke to win best actor for his work In The Wrestler and for Marisa Tomei for Best Supporting Actress for her performance also in The Wrestler. Slumdog Millionaire was the big winner of the night. Benjamin Button also won a few awards, all technical including visual effects, art direction and best makeup. Dark Knight won best sound effects to go with Heath Ledger's win. Unfortunately, The Wrestler was only up in the two I mentioned earlier and won neither. Best Actor went to Sean Penn for Milk and Best Supporting Actress went to Penelope Cruz for Vicky Christina Barcelona. I'm not planning to watch either one of those films.

Should be at least nominated.

2009-02-22T00:35:00.006-05:00

Finally I got to see this movie. It officially came out last year but due to the inadequacy of my local theaters I have not had the chance to see it until this weekend. One of the theaters in my area started showing it this weekend, and that was only because Mickey Rourke is up for an Oscar for best actor and Marisa Tomei is up for best supporting actress. Now it is a crying shame that this film is not up for best picture. This movie is easily one of the best movies I have ever seen. It clearly tells the story without the story getting out of control and that is a very hard thing to do. Most movies that try to show a second chance kinda story fail simply by taking it over the top or more easily disappointing the viewers when the supposed outcome just isn't met. The Wrestler stars Mickey Rourke as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a former champion wrestler now in the twilight of his career. He spends most days working at a local grocery chain and the weekends wrestling for small or local shows. As his career is threatening to end he turns to his outside life to cope by trying to upgrade his relationship with a stripper played by Marisa Tomei, who welcomes Randy's affections but wont cross the line that separates him from any other customer. Randy also tries to reconcile with his daughter who he walked out on while she was growing up. He tries to replace the hole wrestling left in his heart and he struggles with it at every moment. Easily one of the best movies about second chances and the decisions we make in out lives and how they affect not only ourselves but those around us too. This movie proves that Mickey Rourke is one of the best actors in Hollywood today. I seriously doubt that anyone could portray Randy any better. I also have to give props to Darren Aronofsky who directed the movie. At first I thought I was going to be annoyed throughout the film due to the camera. The movie is shot in many scenes with the camera following the characters as they go along but after the first few minutes, I saw that this actually helped the movie in my opinion, it gives you a very close feel to whats happening and really brings your attention in to the scene. If you haven't seen this yet, go out and hopefully you will be able to find a theater showing it, and see this film. This along with Dark Knight is probably the two best films that came out last year. I give The Wrestler, on the Heat-Scale a score of 10 out of 10.

Babe of the Week 2/22 - 2/28/09

2009-02-22T00:32:00.002-05:00

The always beautiful Lynda Carter. Most famous in her role as Wonder Woman in the 70s TV series. She has appeared in many movies including Sky High and The Dukes of Hazzard movies that came out only a few years ago. Not even time can keep her from looking good.

The End of an Era

2009-02-21T06:05:00.005-05:00

After 16 years, Late Night with Conan O'Brien is done, finished, kaput. Televison lost tonight one of the best programs ever to be put on the air. The Late Night show will start airing new episodes on March 2nd with Jimmy Fallon as the new host. I think that he will do a decent job, he wont be as good as Conan, but thats not really why they brought him in either. Conan will be getting ready to take the reins of the Tongiht Show starting in June. I can only hope that they can recreate half of the goodness that was Late Night. From what I gather, most of the staff and crew are making the move to LA with Conan including Max Weinnberg and the Max Weinberg 7, who have been the Late Night band since the beginning. I for one cant wait to see the new Tonight Show and I will definitely be looking forward to watching regularly starting in June.

Another Heath List

2009-02-21T05:48:00.004-05:00

This time its my top 5 favorite fantasy book series'

5) Books of the Change by S.M. Stirling

4) A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

3) The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

2) The Black Company by Glen Cook

1) The Gentlemen Bastard Sequence by Scott Lynch

Reading List: The Automatic Detective

2009-02-21T05:33:00.004-05:00

A. Lee Martinez is quickly rising on my list of favorite authors. The only gripe I have with his books are that they are too short. For those of you that do not know, I only read at work, when I'm on a break. I rarely read at home mainly because I'm not usually here and when I am, I'm usually busy doing something else. Anyways, I finished this book in two days at work, that's basically an hour a day so, two hours and this book was toast. The Automatic Detective takes place in Empire City where Mack Megaton, one of the few privileged robots to be up for citizen status struggles through his day as a taxi driver. He spends most of his down time trying to find ways to release his inner rage and trying to adapt his programming to be more socially active. He is after all programmed to destroy humanity as the brainchild of a mad scientist. He turned on his maker and rejected his programming. When a human family he is friends with disappears, he sets out to find them and is quickly surprised at how detective work is more to his liking. His journey takes through a thrill ride of the underworld of Empire City as he deals with Giant Apes, Rat cops, Mutants and many others. Like I said earlier, it is a fast read, quickly jumping through the story at blistering speed while entirely engrossing the reader into the story. As most books by A. Lee Martinez, it is very quirky with some well thought out, slightly crazy situations and can make you laugh and think at the same time. While I enjoyed his previous works more, I really liked this book and I would highly recommend it to anyone. The best thing about the works of Mr Martinez, is that most of them are in paperback and can be found pretty cheap at your local bookstore. So if you re looking for something to make you laugh and present you with a zany enjoyable story, check out any of his books, except maybe the Nameless Witch, that's the only one of his books that kinda left me let down, still a decent book, just not as good as the others.

This whole economy situation just plain sucks.

2009-02-18T05:24:00.004-05:00

Apparently TV channels have been hit really bad with the whole economic status our country is currently facing. My favorite channel G4 announced today that due to budgetary reasons, Attack of the Show will start March 3 scaling down to 4 new shows a week and X-Play will reverting back to its old schedule with only 3 new shows a week. Meanwhile I am sure we faithful G4 viewers will be bombarded with multiple showings of Fight Club and marathons of Cheaters. I hope our new government can get this thing turned around quickly so I can once again enjoy my 5 days of both X-Play and AOTS.

Reading List: A Cruel Wind

2009-02-18T05:12:00.007-05:00

Man it seems like Ive been reading Glen Cook forever. After reading the first two omnibus of the Black Company which in total collected 6 books and now I just finished This collection of his earlier work based on his Dread Empire series. This book collects the first three books in the series that he wrote, and a second one collects two books he wrote later but are prequels to these books. While I enjoyed reading this collection, the series doesn't hold a candle to his Black Company novels. The story revolves around a small cast of characters spread out in a very confusing world, with the story jumping back and forth when needed. He also likes to jump time periods and if you're not paying attention, its very easy to forget when the events you are reading are taking place against the parts of the story already told. One thing Glen Cook shines at is his characterization. You would be hard pressed to find similar characters in any other fantasy novel. He does a fantastic job keeping the reader on his toes and doesn't label his characters into defined roles of hero and villain. Each character in the series could easily fall into either role and often do based on the view point given at the certain time. That alone is what makes me a fan of Glen Cook. He brings a sense of realism into the fantasy genre. No more Princes, or Champions or evil Sorcerers, just people, some extraordinary put into intense situations. I would gladly recommend this series to anyone who is a true fantasy fan. I doubt any one who's not would enjoy it very much.

Retro Review: Die Hard

2009-02-15T23:28:00.003-05:00

Recently, I finally bought a DVD copy of Die Hard. Just got done watching it with a friend of mine who had never seen it. I cant say much, I watched it for the first time just a few months ago. I still have yet to see the third and I'm not sure if I even want to see the latest one with it being PG-13 and not rated R. I mean seriously how can it even try to live up the first one without the rated R violence? That's what makes Die Hard so freaking awesome. After watching it again, I decided that Die Hard is one of the all time best action movies ever. It still holds up even after 21 years. The only fault I can find is how silly the big fight scene is with the blond German guy karate chopping at McClain. The story would work with our time and not need much altered at all. This movie put not only Bruce Willis on the map as a bankable action star and all around tough guy, but also Alan Rickman as one of the best Hollywood bad guys. Forget him as the sheriff of Nottingham or as Snape in Harry Potter. This film shows just how bad ass he can be. Today's directors need to go back and watch this film and learn how to make a good action movie. I give Die Hard, on the Heath-Scale a score of 9 out of 10.

Soon to be in the NBA Hall of Fame.....

2009-02-15T04:42:00.007-05:00

Chris Mullin! Hopefully anyway. He definitely should be in my honest opinion. My all time absolute favorite ball player growing up. He is easily one of the best all time shooters in NBA history. He was a featured member of the original Dream Team that won gold in Barcelona. He was also voted as one of the 50 greatest players of all time in the NBA. Its just sad that Golden State could never get it worked out to win a championship. Every time they came close something would always screw it up. Chris Mullin was one third of, in my opinion, the greatest back court trio ever, along with Mitch Richmond and Tim Hardaway. He also was able to shoot with either hand even though he is naturally left-handed, which actually threw a lot of defenders off when trying to guard against him. He was announced as being eligible this year for entry into the NBA Hall of Fame along with greats such as John Stockton, David Robinson, and Michael Jordan. I for one hope that the voters remember how good he was and vote him in. Here is a link that can show you in depth all of his stats, http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/mullich01.html which in itself is a great site to find anything you re looking for NBA stat wise.

Babe of the Week 02/15 - 02/21/09

2009-02-15T04:40:00.004-05:00

G4's gorgeous Alison Haislip. Mostly seen filling in either for Layla Kayleigh or Olivia Munn on Attack of the Show and also as a G4 field reporter. She has also been featured in several movies and is currently in works to appear in a brand new Internet show.

One of the coolest things I have seen in a while

2009-02-08T03:20:00.004-05:00

Hey I was informed of a website that you guys should checkout. It is http://www.pixlr.com/editor/. It is a free photoshop kinda deal. I found it linked from Olivia Munn's website, http://www.oliviamunn.com/ where she posted it for fans so they can photoshop pictures she is going to post every friday for a contest where she picks the winners and posts them on her site. Ive played around with it some, I still require much training on many of the tools but I am sure I will learn them soon. I used this site to make the Liam Neeson pictures I used for the Heath-Scale on my review of Taken, located right below this post. So need a pic to touch up, try it out.

Best so far, but it wont last long

2009-02-08T02:57:00.003-05:00

Well I can honestly say that I wasnt at all hyped for this movie. I mean the first time I saw the trailer for it, I thought it might be interesting but after that in the weeks that followed, I just kinda lost interest. I didnt even have any plans to see this film until a buddy of mine stated that he wanted to watch it and another buddy raved on about it at great lengths on how great it was. After thinking about it, I decided that I didnt mind going to see it so why not. I can honestly state again that this is the best movie I have seen in a theater this year. Now of course its only competition has been Underworld 3 and Paul Blart: Mall Cop, so its not like this film has won anything of extreme accomplishment. Besides Im pretty sure that in about a months time that honor will go to Watchmen. Anyways, This film is pretty good, Im glad I ended up watching it and I dont feel cheated on seeing it at all. Ill probably never buy it but it is indeed worth checking out. The story revolves around a man now retired from a career in the government apparently as a spy or a "preventer" as he states in the film, played by Liam Neeson. He is now retired because he wants to spend more time with his daughter Kim, played by the annoying Maggie Grace of Lost fame. Playing his bitchy ex-wife is Famke Jannsen. After allowing his daughter to travel to Paris against his wishes, she is kidnapped and he starts immediately trying to get her back using his extensive set of skills honed into him by our government. The action for the most part is plausible, and like most action movies there is indeed the incredibly irritating shaky cam that has now somehow become a hollywood staple in these kind of films. There is no crazy way over the top scenes and it is nice to see something while inplausible at moments, someone could actually do. There are indeed shoot outs, chase scenes and several moments of Holy Crap that make this movie worth watching. My main grievance beside the shaky cam is the characterization. Now I think everyone involved played their parts to the best of their ability, I have nothing against the actors themselves, but if she was my daughter, I'd probably let her go after she is taken and then I'd ask the kidnappers if they wanted the ex-wife too. They were both extremely annoying, but they were just parts in a film and I'm sure the actors had no choice on how they had to play them. I would indeed say this was a really good film and I recommend it to anyone out there who wants to see a pretty decent action thriller. I give Taken a score on the Heath-meter of 8 out of 10.

Babe of the Week 02/08 - 02/14/09

2009-02-08T02:54:00.004-05:00

The very beautiful Brittany Murphy has appeared in many movies. She has been in quite a few chick flicks that I have not had the pleasure of viewing, but she was in Sin City which is an awesome movie. You may not know this but she provides the voice for Luanne on the animated show, King of the Hill.

Im starting to get pissed off

2009-02-06T16:56:00.005-05:00

Ok, How many of you have heard of the movie Fanboys? It was first slated for realease in theaters like 3 years ago. At first it was just being delayed, which Im ok with. THen it was delayed again, Ok fine, and then delayed to further notice. At one time it was slated to come out straight to DVD, which would have been fine, we could have at least seen it. So after 3 years of this crap, it has finally been released. Now heres the part that gets me, No theater in my area is showing it. I cant find one within 5 hours of a drive thats showing it. WHAT THE $#*& MAN??

A movie is finally released and nobody is showing it?? Im going to have to end up pirating this freakin movie and watching it that way, because they apparently dont want my money so they should be ok with it. Right now, Im not sure if I would even want to watch it anymore, it just keeps aggravating me. Just like the Fox and the grapes man, thats all it is.

And another Heath-list

2009-02-06T16:36:00.009-05:00

The last post got me thinking, there are a lot of hot women on some of these sitcoms, so here goes another list, the 5 hottest sitcom ladies:

5: Patricia Heaton, Debra on Everybody loves Raymond

4: Jean Louisa Kelly, Kim on Yes Dear

3: Leah Remini, Carrie on King of Queens

2: Julia Louis Dreyfus, Elaine on Seinfeld

1: Jami Gertz, Judy on Still Standing

Agree or Disagree?

Week at home and another Heath list

2009-02-06T16:30:00.006-05:00

Ive realized something this past week. I usually work 2nd shift and I miss all the TV I could be watching. After being home this entire week, I've come to the realization that there is NOTHING on TV before 7pm. When I wake up in the afternoon, I mainly just leave it on TBS and watch old sitcom reruns or flip it over to Sportscenter. So in lieu of that here is a new Heath-list for you, my favorite 5 sitcoms of all time:

5: Coach

4: Still Standing

3: That 70's Show

2: Married with Children

1: Seinfeld

Agree or Disagree?

Heroes is back!

2009-02-02T22:10:00.003-05:00

Wow, just a few weeks after Lost, Heroes has also returned to weekly television. While I feel they havent captured the essence that made the first season so good. Ill still be watching of course.

Well this sucks

2009-02-02T00:40:00.004-05:00

I was going to do a Heath List on my top 5 Super Bowl commercial picks, but apparently I cant add videos from anywhere on here without downloading it to my computer and then uploading it. That's just a bit too much work for me just to voice an opinion. There were barely any good ones this year anyway. I had to work to find 5 that I really liked. Doritos easily had the best in my opinion. Both of theirs was very funny. The Career Builder one was also hilarious. Bud Lights commercial with Conan O'Brien was their only really good one, all their other ones were trying to be cute and most failed in my opinion. Also got to see some decent movie trailers. Land of the Lost and Year One both looked like they might be worth watching. Transformers 2 of course looked awesome and I missed the GI Joe trailer due to the fact that I was in the bathroom fighting the Nachos I had ate previously. My friend Matt found it online and let me see it later and I have to say that it looked better than I had thought it would, so maybe it wont be complete crap when its is finally released. I was hoping to see a Watchmen and a Wolverine trailer too but apparently they decided not to advertise at the most watched television event of the year. Oh well, I'm still going to go see both.

Well It didnt go as I had hoped.

2009-02-02T00:24:00.003-05:00

But I do have to say Congrats to the pittsburgh Steelers on winning a good game and doint what was necesary to win the game. I of course was pulling for the Cardinals but a Steelers win does not bother me at all. They do become the first franchise in the NFL to accumulate 6 Super Bowl wins. I am also glad that Santonio Holmes won the MVP, I was afraid that it would be that linebacker that ran the interception back 100 yards at the end of the first half. After seeing him act like an ass in the 2nd half throwing down players who were not doing anything other than trying to get to their feet at the end of the play, I was releived to find out that Holmes was indeed picked as MVP. So congrats Pittsburgh, enjoy it because next year is the Titan's year.

My official Super Bowl prediction

2009-02-01T04:00:00.002-05:00

The title says it all. Almost everyone is picking the Steelers. Even the people Ive heard that are pulling for the Cardinals are saying that the Steelers will most likely win. In the end, it doesnt really matter to me who wins. I would like to see the Cardinals win just because I want to see the underdog victorious, but if the Steelers do win, its no skin off my back. SO my official prediction is:

The Pittsburgh Steelers - 21

The Arizona Cardinals - 24

No longer denied

2009-02-01T03:58:00.002-05:00

Just an update for you, I will in fact be "vacating" this coming week. At first it was unclear whether or not I would be able to take this week off due to the amount of work that had accumulated but I was able to get a lot of that done and my time off was cleared. As for how I am going to spend my time off, probably laying around the house and playing some Warcraft.

Babe of the Week 02/01 - 02/07/09

2009-02-01T03:54:00.002-05:00

The one time wrestling diva and almost dancing with the stars winner, Stacy Keibler is embarking on an acting career. She has been in a few feature films and I hope we will see more of her in the future.

50k and some change

2009-01-30T05:30:00.002-05:00

Just to let you guys know, the online petition that would name the last week of January to National Pie Week has reached and surpassed the 50k mark that was set as a goal. So today at 7 on Attack of the Show, you will get to see Olivia Munn, in a "naughty" french maid outfit, jump into a giant pie. So make some popcorn, lock the door, turn off the phones and prepare to enjoy some darn tootin original american entertainment.

Reading List: The Black Company, The Books of the South

2009-01-30T05:03:00.005-05:00

The Black Company is one of my all time favorite series of books. What started as a likeable read when I read the first collection, The Books of The North which collects the first three books of the Black Company, quickly became one of my all time favorites as I tore through the 2nd collection, The Books of the South. This book collects the 2 part story that continues the adventures of the mercenary group, The Black Company after their part in the world changing war between the Empire of the Dominator and the rebellion of the White Rose. They quickly find their way wormed into another war, in which they have no stake only to learn that their being there may not be so coincidental and may have implications that go all the way back to the Company's conception centuries earlier. The third book in this collection, The Silver Spike, tells the aftermath of the previously mentioned war that the Company no longer has a part in. Thats really all I can say because I dont want to ruin anything for anyone who might be interested in reading it. The best thing about this series is easily the characterization. Yes, its a fantasy story that features magic, crazy creatures and power mad wizards but the story revolves around the people in the story, not the roles they play. This series is so good that even if it followed the classic fantasy recipe of archtype characters, it would still be one of the best series in the fantasy market. The other big thing is that you cant take anything that happens at face value. Somethings may seem rushed or contrived but as you keep reading, you realize that there was always a little more story that you werent privy to yet. In most cases I find that kind of thing annoying but it works perfectly for this series. I have to give this series my highest recommendation, especially if you like epic fantasy but are tired of cliche characters and reworked group up with the lovable loser who all of a sudden is the fabled most powerful guy alive now as they barely manage to find and kill the super bad guy storyline. Even if youre not a fan of fantasy novels, I dare say that you could still find the Black Company books entertaining. Now all I have to is wait for the next compilation that will hopefully collect the remaining 4 books of the series.

Sometimes, you just need to know when to stop.

2009-01-28T01:54:00.007-05:00

Oh yeah, as a big fan of animated movies, I have been waiting for this ever since I heard it was coming out. Not one but TWO movies all together on one DVD. I went straight to Wal-Mart after work monday night and waited for the stock crew to put up the new releases at midnight and I bought me one. When I got home I realized that the whole thing was like an hour and 15 minutes. Kind of a rip but I wasnt about to let that get me down. Ive decided to review these 2 films separately, so first off:

Hulk vs Thor

I was pretty disapointed with this movie. I dont know I just couldnt get into it. My main thing is that Ive never been a big Thor fan or a fan of the whole Asgardian part of the Marvel Universe. Truthfully, Ive never been a fan of ancient mythology in comics to begin with. I think its kind of a cheap out, where a writer cant think of a good origin story for a character so lets just make him or her a god and say they have whatever powers we can think of. Anyways, the story itself for Hulk vs Thor was good. I liked the whole Hulk gets sent there by Loki to kill Thor and he fights all the gods and everything. I love the animation style they used. I just dont like the characters that much, Im sorry, I know thats not a good reason to not like it, but thats what it is. I personally think that the idea was great but the execution of that idea could have been handled better. So for Hulk vs Thor, on the Heath-Scale I have to give it a 4 out of 10.

Hulk vs Wolverine

Now this movie, I loved. I thought the flow was better it had better fighting and the supporting cast was more to my liking. I know its favoritism, but I just cant help it. My only complaint is that it was too short. I feel like they should have had more fighting between Wolverine and Hulk. I do love the fact that they added the Weapon X guys. Deadpool is one of my favorite characters and to see him in an animated movie is just unbelievable. I thought this movie was written better and the characters was just more interesting. Again, not a valid reason but thats just the way it is. I have to tip my hat off to Mr Nolan North, the actor that voiced Deadpool. I know he probably had nothing to do with the script, but he had me rolling throughout the film. He really brought Deadpool to life and the same to the rest of the guys. This was easily one of the best movies that Marvel has put out lately. I give Hulk vs Wolverine on the Heath-scale a score of 8 out of 10.