What I am doing right now.

Newest Addition To My Star Wars Collection.

2015-07-15T14:18:00.002-07:00

Been a while since I posted anything here, and what a better way to get back to it than to show this off. Melissa's grandmother is moving and they are cleaning out her house. This was one item we saved from the trip to Goodwill. 1978 Vintage Star Wars Destroy Death Star board game.

98% intact, its missing two x wing fighter pieces, that I will hunt down on a later date.

Best part of this was the trip to the past I got with the fully intact, Kenner promo booklet that is still stiff from barely being opened and in pretty near perfect condition.

This was the first of the booklets, so most of the items inside were coming soon. I haven't seen one of these in 35+ years.

Serious geek out moment, it was like being five years old all over again.

I am planning on doing a little restoration to the box, but little else. It's not that big an item that the worth is that great but it means a lot in nostalgia and coolness to me. Looking forward to sittng down with my kids and playing it. And hopefully we can keep it in good condition so they can have it in the future. Big thanks to Grandma Bertsch for letting us have this.

My Thoughts of Transformers: Age of Extinction (Some Spoilers)

2014-06-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

In late September 1984, I was 11, and one of the greatest cartoons I had ever seen had just aired. Giant robots that could change into cars, planes, guns and a few other things flashed in front of my young eyes and I was hooked. I mean what kid wouldn't be. If you add the ability to buy the toys and play with these amazing things it made the experience even better. So you could imagine how stoked I was to hear that there was going to be a live action movie made. Yes at the time I was 37 years old but at heart I am at times still that 11 year old boy. A boy who's memories were somewhat shattered as Micheal Bay's first film, while not being completely horrible, was NOTHING like I had imagined.

Bay's first film was too busy, hard to follow and the Transformers themselves were visually difficult to differentiate from each other. But it was entertaining just not great. Then came Revenge of the Fallen. Which to put it mildly, sucked. It was so bad the director himself apologized for it. The third film was a bit better than the second but it still was sub par.

One of the damning elements of all three films, in my opinion, was the casting of Shia LeBeouf as Sam Witwicky, followed closely by, and in some people's eyes surpassing it in horribleness, is the addition of his parents and the ridiculous attempts at humor by the writers (Bob Orci is one of them) using these characters. Which brings me to this statement, Good Riddance Shia! Not having the inane stuttering and fumbling Sam in the latest installment in the "Bay"formers films is a HUGE plus in my eyes.

I will say I was surprised upon the closing credits that, while it has it faults, this film entertained me. I would like to say I was blown away but I can't. The biggest flaw that I found was how long this film is. 2 hours and 45 minutes. You could remove almost an hour of the film and it would have been much better. For some reason Bay must think that his audience needs to see 20 minutes of cars driving every once and awhile to get the point across that, you know, these guys are...um...driving somewhere. The second flaw that stands out is we are introduced to a whole new group of Autobots, none of whom is given any amount of development. Two of them aren't even called by name. If you were to ask me to point out Cross Hairs or Drift, I wouldn't know where to point. Don't get me started on the confusing aspect of exactly who is the main bad guy of the film as there are multiples, none of which save one are truly fleshed out enough to even care about.

The story by Ehren Kruger is darker and a bit more "grown up" (if that's possible with a film about robots who change into cars) than the first three films in that humans are now the one of the enemies and are in league with a new alien force. This plot line is one that in the third act causes a character, to commit an act that is very out of step with everything we know about him, which left me feeling sad in the fact that it is carried out very matter-of-factly. There is a lot of evil corporation/money hungry moustace twirling thrown in for good measure so all of the cliché, bad guy human stuff is there. It is at times a bit gruesome in its portrayal of the human capacity for evil but also a bit silly and here and there bordering on ridiculous (why is it the bad robots all feel the need to announce themselves when they first appear), but it is a Transformers movie, not Shakespeare so what more do you expect. I think another thing that really bothers me is that, even with it bloated running time, this film is so obviously a set up for a sequel, it doesn't even try to hide it.

Now I ask you what would a Michael Bay Transformers film be without some young, scantily clad girl being ogled by the camera every now and then? Nothing I guess and filling those Daisy Dukes this go around is Nicola Peltz, who plays Mark Wahlbergs 17 year old daughter who, along with Wahlberg and her boyfriend, played adequately by Jack Reynor, gets swept up into the Autobot struggle. The creepy thing about it now that I think about it, save for Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in Dark of the Moon, these characters are all supposed to be minors, sheesh Micheal, perv much?

A nice addition to the cast is Stanley Tucci who does a good job as the head of a Tech firm who just so happens to be...nah to much of a spoiler, lets just say it's pretty dastardly and underhanded. Another interesting casting is that of Kelsey Grammer as yet another shady human who along with Titus Welliver do a pretty good job of being guys you aren't supposed to like. The voice acting is well cast with the addition of John Goodman, John DiMaggio, Ken Watanabe, Mark Ryan and the always awesome Frank Welker. Sadly Welker is far too under used in my opinion. There are a few characters who are just there, and don't really add or take away from the film in my eyes, and I am not even going to waste any more time naming them as it would be superfluous.

Adding to the more "grown up" elements of this film is the inclusion of much more action movie language than the last 3 films. I understand in writing an action film the use of colorful language is a standard, but when your target audience are kids ranging from 7-13 whose parents are the ones you want to buy the action figures, it felt out of place in this film. Anyone remember the backlash that happened from the inclusion of the now infamous "Aww shit, what are we gonna do now" line from the 1986 Transformers the Movie? It was so bad that in the original VHS release of the film it was edited out because of the parental outcry. Now take that and multiply it by 20-40 and add a few other choice words in there and you get my point. I understand the film is PG-13 but it is still a movie being marketed to children so why all the potty mouths?

I realize that I seem to be bashing the film more than praising it, and I am, only because I am a Transformers fan from way back. But don't get me wrong, I liked this film much better than the last two sequels and would watch it more than once if and when I end up owning it on Bluray. There are obviously elements of the film I wasn't too happy with but as an adult fan of the Robots in Disguise, I was entertained enough to say go ahead and see it, just use discretion when deciding to take the little ones.

My Thoughts on X-Men: Days Of Future Past

2014-05-30T20:08:00.000-07:00

There have been seven X-Men films, some have been great (X2) and some have been awful. (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), thankfully this film has earned a place on the top of the list. I was going to write a wordy review but it would be pointless as there are plenty of other reviews that have said exactly what I would have so I will just say go see this movie.

Bryan Singer has in one fell swoop corrected most of the mistakes and miss steps that have hampered the X-Men franchise and those that were not fixed were not brought up so we can, as viewers, assume due to the films time travel elements have been wiped clean as well.

Is it a perfect movie? No but it is a good one. It holds your attention and delivers the goods from the opening scene to the final frame. My only warning would be to those who would want to bring the younger fans, this is not the Avengers. The violence and language in this film push the PG-13 rating to the limit and younger viewers might be frightened or disturbed by some of the visuals. While some hard core fans might be perturbed by the film straying from classic comic storyline by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, in my opinion, is stays true the the essence of what makes the X-Men work. My final word is that it is worth the ticket price and a great popcorn chomping adventure.

My review of The Amazing Spiderman 2

2014-05-16T23:29:00.001-07:00

This will be a short review. If you go and look at my review of the first Marc Webb/Andrew Garfield Spider-man film, you will see I truly dislike the movie. Now I went into the sequel not expecting a lot judging by it's predecessor as well as who had a hand in writing it(Bob Orci). This one is no where near as bad as the first film. Not that it is a great movie, just not as bad. What is bad is when this movie stumbles it stumbles hard. I will spoil it slightly by saying it actually has a scene that is basically copied from Joel Schumacher's first Batman film, Batman Forever, and that is never a good thing. The sad thing is this film looks great, and I mean really great. If the story wasn't as congested as it is, it would have been a nice redemption from the debacle that was the first film.

I cannot say I hated it per se, i guess it was just ok.

My review of Godzilla.

2014-05-16T23:02:00.000-07:00

Godzilla, his name brings memories of campy movies with rubbery monsters smashing miniature sets, badly dubbed acting and loads of fun. His 60 year legacy has seen him grace the silver screen in 31 films including the often maligned 1998 Roland Emmerich directed, Godzilla and the 2007 Japanese film, Always: Sunset on Third Street 2, where the big guy makes a quick cameo and marks the first time in Japanese movie history where the he was created solely using CGI. These all lead up to the king of all kaiju's return in Gareth Edwards' much anticipated remake, aptly named Godzilla.

I will say I hold a special place for the big, green, nuclear fire breathing guy, and this film was high on my list of summer movies that I had to see. Which makes this review hard to write. Now mind you this is just my opinion of the film, and I am aware that according to Rotten Tomatoes I am in the minority when I say this is not the movie I was hoping for. That being said here we go. (I am going to try and keep this spoiler free, it will be hard but I will try.)

If I had to use one word to describe Godzilla, the word would be,"boring". I wish it wasn't but unfortunately in my opinion it is. I have read some of the glowing reviews and wonder if I was watching the same movie as those reviewers as there were many times I caught myself zoning out because there was literally nothing happening on screen. Now the same can be said about the original 1954 Toho classic, Gojira and it's Americanized version Godzilla, King of the Monsters as in all reality the title character only shows up for a short amount of screen time, but there is a difference. The original, even with all it's flaws, has a pacing and poignant story that when he does appear it feels menacing and helps move the story. The same cannot be said about Mr. Edwards take on the monster. It seems as if in trying to remain faithful to the original, the director lost all of the heart that made Godzilla what he was.

The first act starts out fairly decently, introducing us to the characters played by Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Bryan Cranston, and Juliette Binoche along with their son, who would be played later in the film by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and we get a bit of back story on key elements of things to come, but things start to slow down and by the beginning of the second act it plods along so horrifically that even a scene where we are introduced to the main monster antagonist, or MUTO, that should in all intents and purposes get the blood flowing again, ends so anti-climatically that it drags the pacing down even further. One of the biggest complaints I have is no one character, not a single one, is fleshed out enough to make you care about them. Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins have so little to do besides just standing around staring at maps, screens and other inanimate objects they seem just as bored as those of us who were watching it. Bryan Cranston,(who is deceivingly advertised as the lead in this film by the way) while giving probably the best performance in the movie, is severely under-utilized, no, wasted is a better word, that he could have been replaced by a zip drive disk and dot matrix computer printout and the story would have lost nothing save for about 15 or so minutes of drama that by the end of the film seems completely unnecessary anyway.

One of my hopes for this movie was that it would focus on Godzilla, you know the gigantic monster in the title and leave the human drama to a minimum, save for people trying to get out his way. Sadly that is not the case, as the movie trudges along we are subjected to watching Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Navy Ordinance Officer, struggle to get back to his wife, portrayed by Elizabeth Olsen and son, played by Carson Bolde all while some monsters do something, somewhere else in their march to the exact city our "hero's" family lives. I would be remiss if I did not point out that Carson Bolde's acting or lack there of made me actually hope he got eaten. This struggle is more or less happenstances in where our lead luckily finds himself in the exact spot with the exact skills the he needs or not to keep the half hearted script moving along. Again this character like the rest (including the title character mind you) is so under developed and at times annoyingly so, that you could care less if he lives or dies.Yet we are forced to watch and wait patiently for what we hope will be the big pay off in the third act.

Wrong! How is it possible that Godzilla is a background character in his own movie? There is no big payoff, all the big monster action is either half hidden by smoke, darkness or bulidings, that the 4-5 minutes of actual screen time devoted to showcasing the big G comes too little too late. The focus unapologetically remains on the ridiculously dragged out scenes of the military's attempts to avert a disaster of their own doing as Godzilla and the MUTO battle in the background.

Visually Godzilla looks incredible, sort of. The actual CG model is great but he has no gravity, no weight, he is just there. Movies like Jurassic Park and even the 1998 Godzilla, have a sense of realism because the characters moved and interacted with the world around them in a sense that you could feel the footfalls of this giant creatures as they walked, they seemed like they were really there. It is this problem that leads to another issue with the film. The lack of any sense of real danger. No one ever seems in peril since the actors and the creatures don't appear to occupy the same space. The sound mixing has a part in this as well, there is very little realistic noise when any monster action is taking place, its as if you had your fingers in your ears when there should be deafening rumbles or crashes. Sadly even Godzilla's iconic roar is only used sparsely here and there. You add this to the little and I mean little development or explanation of why Godzilla is even in this movie, aside from "let them fight" reason, and lack of screen time and you are left wanting more, a lot more.

A great way to judge a film is the reaction of the audience around you. In the showing I attended there was little to no reaction save for the few murmured comments around me of "that's it?", "it needed more Godzilla." and the like. No one said a word actually through out the entire film, which in an action film, is a rarity in my experience. No cheering, no whooping, nada, zip, zilch. We all just got up an left, no one saying how cool a certain scene was, or complimenting anything about the movie. No one said anything. I find this odd since in 1998 leaving the theater after seeing the Emmerich film, the entire audience was whooping it up, sure the movie was at times completely ludicrous, but it had two things this film is sorely lacking, it didn't take itself to seriously and it was fun.

Marvel's Agent's of S.H.I.E.L.D.

2014-03-11T23:37:00.002-07:00

Wow, is this getting better! If you wrote this show off I would say give it another shot. It took a few episodes to get its traction, but it is full bore Marvel now. So much comic book/geek stuff going on. Extremis, AIM, Asgardians, Kree...that last one was a spoiler....sort of. Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson has had a lot of character altering situations as of late. He is still the Captain of the team, but I Marvel at the amount of crap he has had to go through and the amount still left to sift through. It's almost Inhuman. Any of these rumor innuendos working??

Not a review but thoughts on Star Trek and Into Darkness.

2014-03-11T23:17:00.000-07:00

This was a post I meant to publish months ago after seeing the film for the first time. I have seen it a few since then, and my opinion is not as forgiving as I was back then. That said, here is my initial thoughts.

As I was sitting here staring at my computer screen, reading the various views on Star Trek Into Darkness, I began to ponder what Star Trek is, was and what it seems to mean to people.

I saw Into Darkness opening night/morning and I went in completely aware of every spoiler and was prepared to hate the film from frame one. Oddly that never happened. I caught myself watching with interest, laughing at the humor and was unexpectedly entertained. Entertained is the perfect word to describe how I felt. I wasn't blown away by any means, but neither was I screaming for my money back. That said, there are many things I find wrong with the story and film, but there are also so many things done right. I am not going to spoil anything for anyone, if you have seen a trailer or commercial what I will say from here on will be no surprise.

To bring this back to the reason I am not reviewing the film but commenting what Star Trek is, I think back to watching so much raging that enveloped my twitter feed. Anger, hatred, malice and the oh so clichéd "raping of memories or childhood,etc." speeches where rampant. Now mixed in to all of the negativity were comments of approval, some even praising the film. How could this be. How could people who all claim to be Star Trek fans have such different opinions? How could I claim to be a Star Trek fan and dare to be entertained by what has been called by many as "Not My Star Trek".Sadly I don't have an answer. I just don't know.

"Not My Star Trek". I looked at this statement and wondered. My Star Trek. Now for me, my Star Trek was fun, it had humor, action, emotion, and drama. It came in many forms, TV, movies, books, games, toys, even cartoons and fan films. All of which were very different but still Star Trek. Some of it was good, some was really bad. (To this day the words Pagh Wraiths and Kost Amogen make my ears bleed, and I am sorry but Seven of Nine was WAY over used.) But still it was Star Trek. Some of it contridicted itself, some of it stretched the limits of suspension of disbelief, but it was still Star Trek. So why does this new version bother so many?

OK, I know JJ Abrams has said he wasn't a fan of Star Trek, and new reports show him to be an ego maniac, who wanted to make it his own vision and left when he didn't get his way. SO I say see ya, don't let the turbolift doors hit you on the way out. (And if you screw up Star Wars so help me...) That said, his two films are Star Trek, just not the one we are used to. Some of it bad but some of it is good.

Take James Kirk, Iconic, Heroic, So...very...wooden. A joke, I kid, Kirk was the captain everyone loved. He had it all, the ship, the women, he was cocksure and determined. He was the product of his upbringing. His Father was the reason he joined Starfleet, he was a bookworm, a stack of book with legs. He was strong willed, and bent the rules when necessary. Why would anyone want to mess with such an icon. Someone had the courage to ask what if you took that all away. What if James Kirks past was one of turmoil and loss. What if he never knew his father. What if he was raised by his far from understanding uncle. How would he turn out, knowing that his core personality, his intellect were the same just shaped by a different set of circumstances. You would have the reboot version of Kirk, a brilliant but flawed young man, who needed a push now and then, who's self assuredness would grow to arrogance with out guidance. A Kirk who was dare I say it, a bit more human. Is he "Your James Kirk" no but he is still James Kirk. I like the new Kirk, there are hints of greatness, they are just covered in a lot of other less admirable qualities.

A few one sentence movie reviews.

2014-03-11T23:16:00.001-07:00

RoboCop (2014)
A truly uninspired, lackluster attempt to recreate a film that didn't need to be recreated.

The Lego Movie (2014)

Everything is Awesome, not just a song in the film, but a good review of it as well.

Iron Man 3 Review (Minor Spoilers)

2013-05-04T19:43:00.002-07:00

I will start this review by saying that Marvel can not make a bad film. They can however, make a film that, although well done and dare I say awesome, pales slightly to the films that proceeded it. Now I am quite aware that the Avengers film was going to be a hard act to follow, and perhaps it is for that reason that Iron Man 3 in my opinion seems a bit empty.

Now before all the fanboys start writing me hate mail, I will say I really, really liked this movie. (Love is something I reserve for my friends and family, a movie is liked in various degrees.) It starts with a bang, literally, and although the pace slows when necessary it never drags. Robert Downey Jr. is flawless as Tony Stark as usual and is given a bit more to chew on this go around, emotionally and physically. He is out of the suit more in this film which I think is refreshing, and it is great to see the brain behind the brawn. Also in the limelight a bit more is Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts, who when on camera has a bit more strength than in the previous Iron Man films. She gets her chance to prove her medal, oops, I mean mettle this time. Now I hope someone at Marvel reads this, GIVE DON CHEADLE/JAMES RHODES/WAR MACHINE/IRON PATRIOT his own spin off movie!!! He is great and I would love to see him spread his armored wings in his own film. Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin...nuff said, if you need more you obviously need to watch more of this man's films. Now I like Guy Pearce, but here I feel he falls flat and is a bit generic. It is obvious there is supposed to be more, but it just doesn't come across for me. Rebecca Hall fills the role of Maya Hansen well and does a good job with it. James Badge Dale plays Savin the extremely self assured leader of the Mandarins troops with just the right amount of bad, as to not make him completely unlikeable but you still want to see him get his in the end. And what would an Iron Man film with out Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan (who was sorely missed in the Avengers in my opinion), and Paul Bettany as Jarvis. I do think both get to shine in this outing, with Bettany's Jarvis being able to stretch his humor muscles a bit as well as, dare I say, bring a bit more humanity to the role.

I am not going to drop a whole synopsis of the film in here as it would be to hard not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it. What I will do is make a few points on why I feel the movie is a bit empty. Now I didn't think about it until my friend Brian pointed out that one of the biggest problems this film has is the lack of acknowledgement of the other Avengers. The US is under attack by a terrorist and never once is Captain America or Nick Fury even mentioned. I wasn't sure but after I saw it a second time, it is a big hole that needs to be addressed in more than a throw away line over drinks. Another point is that I feel that there is a HUGE hole left by the absence of Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson. Spoiler alert! If you didn't know already, Coulson is not dead and will play a part in the new Shield television show next fall, this would have been a great way to bring him back and explain the reasons why no other Avenger is dealing with the Mandarin threat. It was reported not to long ago that Shane Black had stated that he edited over an hour and fifteen minutes of footage out of the final film. I can believe it. There are a few places where responsive looks and glances are made although no comment was made to warrant them, conversations at times almost seem like there was missing information. Not horribly distracting but I would love to see a 3 hour directors cut of this movie to fill in what I felt where gaps.

That all said, again I really do like this movie, it was fun, it has the perfect amount of humor, it has some great action scenes, it has Ben Kingsley, and it has 47 different Iron Man suits. 47 suits...yeah of course it was a way to justify 47 different action figures and toys to sell. But who cares it has 47 DIFFERENT IRON MEN!!!! Sorry, sorry, my inner geek took over and...THE HULK BUSTER ARMOR....sorry that was the last time, I promise. Oh yeah I forget I have seen this in both 3D and 2D, and to be honest it works in both formats, the 3D isn't at all distracting and at times it seems almost negligible, which is good since it's there and you don't realize it is. So please don't take my criticism to mean that you should not see this movie. If you are a fan of the other Marvel films, then by all means you will be thrilled with this one. If you haven't seen the other films, first shame on you, second, go watch them because this one will make a lot more sense if you know the back story a bit. So out of a total of 10 stars this film rates a solid 8 in my book. SO run down grab your popcorn get a good seat in the middle of the theater, if you have 3D glasses throw them on and tell Jarvis to drop your needle.

My review of GI Joe:Retaliation

2013-03-31T20:52:00.000-07:00

Please be aware there will be some slight spoilers involved in this review. I will start by saying I was not expecting anything good from this film. I had read the reviews that were popping up all over the Internet and having seen the mediocre offering that was "G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra", my outlook for this outing was understandably grim. So the previews end, the house lights dim and the Paramount logo flashes on screen followed by the logos of the production companies involved including the Hasbro logo which makes me chuckle every time I see it. The film starts off with a small team of Joe's on a mission in a North Korea, I chuckled again due to all the saber rattling coming from that country in the past few days. And just like the 80's cartoon, the team of Great American Heroes does what they do best, shoot things, beat people up and get away. So far so good. The director, Jon M. Chu, actually handled the action scenes fairly well, the camera moving when it needed to but never being a huge distraction. Of course this being a modern action film the scenes of combat have the familiar kinetic flavor made popular by the Bourne series. From here on out the film has some real high points as well as some extremely low. But as I have always said, if you go to see an action film expecting Shakespeare, then yes you are going to be disappointed, but if you are going to see stuff blow up and bodies flying then you will be entertained.

OK, let's start with a few high points. First up, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. I really like him as an actor, and from everything I have seen and heard the man seems like a really good guy. In this film he is pure Rock, he plays the character of Roadblock. Now Roadblock in the original toy and cartoon series of the 1980's was an African-America mass of muscle with a heart of gold who was also a gourmet chef. In this film he is Africa-Canadian/Samoan born in California mass of muscle with a heart of gold who is mentioned in passing as being a chef. Fortunately for the audience the writes did not include the formers per chant for rhyming everything he said. Now of course Johnson has the physique and demeanor to pull this off, of course, we have seen him do it before, but who cares, this is an action film, the whole big guy beating people up rule is in full effect. Second is the portrayal of Roadblocks friendship with Channing Tatum's Conrad "Duke" Hauser. You really do believe these two men are like brothers.

Now on to Channing Tatum. He is really good in this film, unlike the wooden acting that was seen from his first outing as Duke in The Rise of Cobra. Here is where I spoil things a bit so please be aware. The afore mentioned friendship is one of the films high points but unfortunately it is short lived. After a quick snatch and grab of a nuclear warhead from insurgents in Pakistan, the Joes are ambushed by Cobra in the first strike in their plan for world domination. In this attack Duke and all the other Joes, aside from Flint, Lady Jaye, Roadblock and Snake Eyes are killed. The attack having been authorized by the President of the United States to eliminate the Joes. Of course those who saw the first film know that this is not the President, but Zartan, who has been impersonating POTUS.

This brings me to the third high point in my opinion. Jonathan Pryce as both the President and Zartan in Disguise. I have read other reviews that have said he was bland. I didn't see it that way. Pryce chews the scenery with such glee in his eye as the maniacal Zartan. He seemed to really enjoy being the villain in this film. We do get to see Arnold Vosloo as Zartan but only briefly, it was more of a cameo than anything.

OK so some low points. Flint, Lady Jaye and General Joe Colton. While I can say as a kid in 1984, Flint was my favorite G.I. Joe, in this film he is just sort of there for name recognition. The character is given no real development aside from being a brash officer who likes to rush headlong into things. D.J. Cotrona does an OK job with the script he was given but he is fairly forgettable. Lady Jaye. Adrianne Palicki is easy on the eyes and does a good job with the role, but again we are treated to little development of her character. The way she is written, Lady Jaye is one of the scripts low points. She is portrayed as a woman in a man's world constantly fighting for her place at the table. She complains that she isn't taken seriously as a soldier but has no problem flaunting her body in tight shorts or a low cut dress at the drop of a hat. I feel it weakened the character in that as soon as she was back in uniform she was fighting for her place again. Gen. Joe Colton, Joe as in G.I. Joe. Yes I am going to say bad things about Bruce Willis in an action film. Well I don't think it was all his fault, but Bruno seemed to be, well, bored. Again no character development whatsoever, and Bruce just seems like he is there because, you know, he's Bruce Willis.

Low point number two, what the heck is this ninja crap? It is an established part of G.I. Joe lore that Snake Eyes and Stormshadow were trained by the same master and it was Stormshadows betrayal and murder of that master that split them and started a blood feud between them. This was shown in the first film and is revisited here. But it gets bad quickly, very bad. While I think Ray Park's Snake Eyes and Byung-hun Lee's Stormshadow are both awesome on screen, we saw Stormshadow stabbed in the chest and fall into an abyss in the first film. But he just appears here, with no explanation as to how or why he survived. And then there is the convoluted story of who killed who and why that revolves around these two as narrated to us by the worst part of this film, RZA as Blind Master. RZA does his best to look and sound like a 1970's Kung Fu master, bad dubbing included. I have seen children read off of cue cards and be more believable. Sadly this story arc has a MAJOR part in the third act of this film, but I am not going to spoil that. Following a close second for worst part of this film is Elodie Yung as Jinx. I cannot say if it was the script, the editing or the actress, but nothing good ever comes out of this character. Sure she is a ninja but sweet sword skills and jumping around only goes so far if every time she opens her mouth, you want to hand Bill Paxton an Oscar for best actor. I will say the action scenes involving martial arts are well done and exciting, including the ridiculous swinging through the Himalayas sword fights, but hey, you need a bit of over the top action in films like this, in my opinion.

The look of this film is leaps and bound better than it's predecessor, the production designer stayed much closer to the source material, giving us H.I.S.S. tanks, The Water Moccasin swamp boat, Cobra Commander in all of his chrome faced glory as well as a few little bits here and there that fans of the original cartoon will recognize and smile when they see it. Unfortunately for us the late Chris Latta's voice is sorely missed, as Cobra Commander is more Darth Vader than screeching mad man here. Another sorely missed part of the Cobra cadre (Spoiler) is the lack Chris Eccleston's Destro. I am not sure if Mr. Eccleston didn't want to reprise his role or the writers felt they had enough characters but for me it just didn't seem right that Destro was not at Cobra Commanders side while the world burned. The script has some large flaws through out the film, going from tightly written dialogue to mundane and cliched. We are treated to at times extremely realistic action and dialogue followed almost instantly with implausible scenarios that take a large effort to suspend disbelief to get through. Thankfully there are no superhuman exo-suits or physics defying underwater battles to be found, and the action and violence is much more grounded and realistic. Not that there are not a few cartoony and tongue in cheek moments, but on the whole, this just felt more real.

As you can tell by now I am of two minds when it comes to this movie as a whole. I really enjoyed parts of it while I was disappointed by others. I guess it comes down to would I recommend the film, and yes I would. If you are willing to go in grab a popcorn, some Raisinettes and a Coke, sit down and just have fun watching toys you played with as a kid come to life doing things that can't really happen. If you are looking for a film that will broaden your mind or make you think about the human condition, I am sure there is something on IFC or Sundance you would find more your speed. So on a scale of 1-5, I would rate this film a solid 3.5, a good popcorn movie that you can escape with for 110 minutes.

In support of my friend in the VFX industry.

2013-02-25T21:26:00.001-08:00

To anyone out there who dabbles in, works in or has a love of visual fx. Current Hollywood practices have crippled the VFX industry and good people, hard working people are losing their jobs. I have joined these talented artists,many of whom I call friends, by changing my profile image on all the social media I currently use to a green screen. Which is exactly what Hollywood films will look like without these hardworking men and women.

Icy Day

2013-02-22T06:55:00.001-08:00

Woke up today to a nice icy morning. Schools closed so Tyler is home and hopefully things will improve before Missy has to head to work this evening. I have a few commissions to work on so it will be a busy day. I also need to make a copy of my life cast. Need to do some make up sculpting, more as practice than any other reason. Well off to work I go!

Face Off application and audition video

2013-02-08T20:43:00.001-08:00

Well I did it. I submitted my application and video to Face Off. http://youtu.be/WSleE66ydR0.

News and some fun stuff

2013-01-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

So a bit of news, it would seem I am heading to Florida at the end of the month for 2 weeks for some contract work. I am not at liberty to say what it is or for who. That's the beauty of contracts, not allowed to say anything. I can say it will be a lot of work in 2 weeks time and I am looking forward to it. This should be the first trip of many, well not many but a few. I will say it will be hard to leave the family for the extended time, but gotta take the work when it comes. On a different note, Melissa and I took the twins out today for their first sled ride. Big Brother Tyler rode in the sled with them. Jacob was all smiles and giggles, Charleigh on the other hand was not impressed. It would appear she does not like the cold. Well at least cold wind, because she did lay down and make her first snow angel.

I do have a few commissions I need to finish before heading south so I should be pretty busy for the next couple of weeks. I never know how to end these things, I need a catch phrase like "Live long and Prosper" or "Hasta La Vista Baby". I am going to need to work on that. How about.....

"Don't let the door hit ya, where the Good Lord splitcha." I don't know. Maybe not.

New Deals

2013-01-03T09:47:00.003-08:00

Sitting here waiting for a phone call about a possible gig. Proposal was sent now just need to hammer out the details.

My little Superman

2013-01-02T14:09:00.001-08:00

My son Jacob rockin his Superman track suit!

Ugggg

2013-01-02T00:59:00.001-08:00

It's 4 am and I am awake...why?!?

Good morning...

2012-11-26T06:29:00.001-08:00

So this is my first talk to text blog post from my iPhone. This morning has been quite slow the twins were late getting up so I decided to have breakfast and watch an episode of Star Trek the next generation on Netflix. The twins now up and having finished their breakfast are also watching Star Trek the next generation with me this morning. Have to head downstairs and restart the sculpture I was working on due an error in my part in making the armature. The anatomy was way off and really revealed itself after I was about a quarter of the way into it. So I will have to start the sculpture from scratch but it should be easier as the anatomy will be alright and I made the armature actually better than the original and it shouldn't take me no time to get back to where it was. I hope every else's day goes good and I am out here to go work. Talk to everyone soon.

So this is odd...

2012-11-15T19:34:00.002-08:00

The RSS feed from this blog has stop working. Now I have to figure out why. Oh the joys of working on your own website.

A second viewing of The Amazing Spider Man

2012-11-14T18:40:00.000-08:00

Now if you know me even casually you know I have no love for the film The Amazing Spiderman. I have been fairly vocal on the films flaws and pacing, the plot holes and more. Which is why I took a trip to the local Redbox and rent the bluray, just to give the film a second chance as it were. The following is my opinion after watching the film again.

First let me say there was no epiphany, no moment of clarity in which I saw the great film that so many others saw. What I did see was an OK comic book film with a lot of problems. The biggest of all was the films lead actor, Andrew Garfield, but I will touch on that in a bit. I will start with the story, which seemed rushed in some parts and dragged in others. Most adults in the 21st century know the Spiderman origin story. Young uber-nerd Peter Parker gets bit by a radioactive spider and gains the powers of said spider. Then taking a feather from Batman's, hat he loses a parent figure, his Uncle Ben, and takes it on himself to avenge his death. This film gets it right for the most part, radioactivity is replaced with genetic manipulation(the same as Sam Raimi's film), but there is some downright horrible story changes as to why Uncle Ben is killed. Bluntly put Peter's uncle is killed because Peter didn't have enough milk money. It is what follows that bothers me. Peter is never really fleshed out as a science phenom. It is quietly addressed that he attends Midtown Science High but he is never shown as an overly intelligent student. In fact he is shown as a skinny jean wearing, emo skater loner. Which is why when he solves a problem that trained geneticists have been working on for years in a matter of hours, it seems beyond implausible. I realize that it was a way to keep the story moving but a little character development would have made it more believable.

Again as in Sam Raimi's film we are expected to swallow the fact that a high school student can produce an obviously manufactured costume in his bed room. Again it is something we can look past. Now we have a suited up Spidey who is hunting down the man who killed his uncle. He begins stalking criminals who fit the profile, but none of them turn out to be the man he is looking for. He attracts the attention of the NYPD who put out an APB on his webslinging butt. This is all fine until...Professor Conners uses a serum that out came about thanks to Peters amazing skills and becomes the Lizard. The Lizard, a passable but no where near perfect CGI monster who looks like he walked out of the 80's crapfest that was Super Mario Bros. the movie. It is here where Peter just gives up his manhunt, as if it never happened to chase down the Lizard, because as he puts it in the film "I created him." What? I am sorry this again seems forced and unnatural, and to me just screams of bad story telling. If you add in the fact that there are characters we are introduced to that are one dimensional, a weak love story with two actors that have NO chemistry and all of the action taking place in obvious CG cityscapes at night, you have a mediocre film in the same category as Superman Returns and Green Lantern.

Now on to the main reason this film just doesn't work for me, Andrew Garfield. When I first heard of his casting in the role I thought ok he looks the part, well have to see. Well looking the part is one thing and having the right persona is another. Again I refer back to Sam Raimi's film and Toby Macquire's Peter Parker. Macquire played the nerdy unsure, intelligent Parker extremely well. He had the quirky nature I feel is necessary in the role. Now on to Garfield. His take on the role turned Peter Parker into a smirking idiot. Every other shot was him acting cutesy. I hope there was a large supply of chapstick on set because he bit and chewed his lip so much it caused mine to chap. Peter was shall I say pretty sure of himself when it came to women it seemed because although we saw a bit of awkwardness for a brief moment as soon as he is alone with Gwen Stacy he becomes Tim Meadows Ladies Man. Ok I will admit his wise cracking Spidey was a bit better than Macquires, it still doesn't negate all his other short comings.

So my opinion hasn't changed much. I still don't like this movie. It's not as bad as I remember but it still is pretty bad.

Why is it so early...

2012-11-14T05:00:00.001-08:00

Ugggghhhhhh.....I mean good morning. It's early and it is cold! So I am reflecting on the season and such and think a longer blog post is in the future. But for now here is a picture of the Enterprise F model.

Late night ramble...

2012-11-13T23:24:00.000-08:00

So it's 2:30 am and I am off to bed in 5 minutes. Eyes feel like they are falling out of my head. Website is coming along should have it done in a few days. Well night all.

Just an image test...

2012-11-13T23:19:00.000-08:00

So I wanted to test and see how images look on here. Here is the Enterprise F concept.

Working on my website....

2012-11-13T21:11:00.001-08:00

So I have been working on this all day and it seems like I have so much still to do. A little bit more work then off to bed.

My first blog post

2012-11-13T20:34:00.000-08:00

Nothing to exciting happening. I just started this blog so keep watching it will get better.