Jackie Chan Christmas Part 2: Operation Condor

  In my last post I talked a little about Jackie Chan's Armour of God. Which is considered the second Asian Hawk film in the US, even though it's actually the first one. In this post I'm going to talk about Operation Condor, the actual second Asian Hawk film.

  Operation Condor follows Asian Hawk, aka Jackie, as he's hired by the United Nations to find Nazi vault from World War II filled with gold. He teams up with three women who seem to get into more trouble than help any situation, and a chase starts with multiple organizations fighting to be the ones to find the gold.

  This flick I enjoyed more than its predecessor. That might come from my reference point of watching Operation Condor before Armour of God, which could have possibly skewed my opinion. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed both films, just in my opinion I believe Operation Condor to be the better film. I was completely engulfed in the movie. I laughed, and/or chuckled at every little comical situation while still being impressed by each crazy stunt. It also felt more like a complete movie, with a more thought out story, and an ending that gave a better message than what I was really expecting from a movie like this.

  Overall I have to give Operation Condor a 4.5 out of 5. The fun, and great action sequences, along with the little comical additives that Jackie Chan put into this movie makes it worth while. This is a flick I plan on watching multiple times.

Jackie Chan Christmas Part 1: Armour of God

  I watched a couple Jackie Chan movies I just got for Christmas from a good buddy of mine. I'm going to talk about both of them but in different posts. This post we're going to talk about Operation Condor 2: Armour of God. Why talk about Operation Condor 2 before talking about Operation Condor? Well that's because Operation Condor 2, was actually filmed and released as Armour of God before Operation Condor outside of the United States.

  Armour of God is about Asian Hawk aka Jackie an ex-singer turned fortune hunter. In a plot to get Jackie to find the rest of the actual Armour of God, a cult kidnaps his old flame, and the fiance of his former band-mate, and uses her as ransom. Well Jackie, his old friend, and a rich guy's daughter go to help save the girl, and Jackie Chan shenanigans ensue.

  As with pretty much all Jackie Chan movies, there are a bunch of crazy martial arts, and car/motorcycle stunts, with many of them consisting of a comical twist. Actually that's one thing that I do like about Jackie Chan movies, is that they are very light hearted. You can just sit and enjoy them. Armour of God was all of that, as you would expect. It was a fun filled ride all the way through. Once in a while Jackie's buddy would start to get annoying from him going back and forth from acting like a tough guy, to being humbled, and not having the ability to learn from any of his lessons in the flick. The one thing that actually made me pause was how it ended, it felt like it happened too quickly, but the crazy jump to the hot air balloon was pretty cool. Overall I give Armour of God a solid 3.5 out of 5. I enjoyed it all the way through, and it was a true Jackie Chan flick from beginning to end. I definitely suggest anyone to watch it at least once.

Walking Dead Season 4 Mid-Season Finale

  The Walking Dead season 4 mid-season finale has come and past. Season 4 thus far has been one of the best seasons of The Walking Dead, and I really enjoy the show from the very first episode to now. The reasoning for my opinion is episode six "Live Bait", and the actual mid-season finale episode eight "Too Far Gone". To give fair warning I'm going to give a few spoilers if you haven't watched season 4 yet.

  Episode Six, "Live Bait", follows the Governor in flashbacks to what happened after his massacre of the Woodbury Army. That episode felt like a well done short film, that could practically stand alone all by itself. He barely says a word all episode, which in my opinion contributes to the talent of David Morrissey, the actor who played as the Governor. In this episode he becomes this post-apocalyptic drifter until he runs into this family who slowly bring him back to a state of caring about something. There's a little girl in this family who truly contributes to this due to her being about the same age as his daughter was before she died, and came back as a walker. It's my favorite episode since the beginning of the series.

  Episode Eight, "Too Far Gone", is one of the most emotionally rough episodes I've seen in a while. The Governor is now leading a new group of people along with his new found family. They decide to invade the prison with a tank, and kick out Rick and his crew. After Rick and the Governor exchange words, Rick basically saying they all can make things work and live together, and the Governor stating that, that can't happen, and if Rick resists he's going to kill Hershel, and Michonne, who he took hostage before he decided to invade to use as leverage. Well the Governor really does end up being "Too Far Gone" and chaos ensues after the Governor decided to take Michonne's sword to Hershel's head.

  After episode eight, the mid-season finale, we are left with the prison in shambles, the Governor dead, Hershel dead, Carol has been kicked out for murdering a couple sick people, Rick's baby "little ass kicker" possibly dead, or at least missing, and everyone else completely split up, and running from the prison. This episode felt more like a season finale, not a mid-season finale. Now we have to hurry up and wait for February to see what happens next.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

  I finally had a chance to play Batman: Arkham Asylum. Yes I know, I'm a little behind the times, but none the less, here are my thoughts on the game.

  Batman: Arkham Asylum takes place at Arkham Asylum. If you don't know much about the Batman universe, I suggest that you look it up. The actual story and game play were great. It kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next. In Batman: Arkham Asylum you go through Arkham Asylum trying to capture The Joker before he executes his crazy plans in which you need to figure out, while you're also trying to contain everyone else he sets free to run amok in Arkham, or to do his bidding.


  I played on the PlayStation 3, and the controls on that were great. There was only one part where I got annoyed with how the controls worked. It involved my needing to get over a little fence type thing, that was on a platform, and I couldn't just run and jump over it, I actually had to stop and then hit the action button when I got to it, just to climb over it. But as I said, that was only an issue on one part of the game.

 The random Easter eggs, or secrets, are what they are called in the game, were a cool addition. I kept going back and forth trying to find as many secrets as possible while still wanting to continue the story in the game itself. Using Arkham Asylum as the location for the game allowed the developers to include a bunch of the Batman Villains without making it feel like they were trying to hard to include them.

  I tried my best to talk about the game without giving spoilers. At this point I probably should care due to how old the game is, but if someone had told me how Arkham Asylum went, I probably wouldn't have played the game, and enjoyed it as much as I did. Overall I have to give Batman: Arkham Asylum a 4.9 out of 5 on my gaming list. It's definitely a game worth playing.

Zombie Killer Squad IOS Game

  Zombie Killer Squad is a newly release IOS game. It's a free game found in the App store. I found out about it because of SeaNanners, and Syndicate, a couple of entertaining commentators, that post game play on YouTube.

  The game play for Zombie Killer Squad is pretty simple, you have to go through different obstacles which are zombies, go around metal shipping containers, go up ramps, or under other structures in the road. The point of the game is to collect as many of these coins as possible while trying to survive as long as possible. The concept makes it sound easy, but it's a tougher game than you'd expect. You have to swipe left or right to dodge any obstacles, you can also jump over zombies instead of shooting them by swiping up, and if you need to, you can swipe down to go under certain structures.

  Before I go on talking about certain perks you can get, you can play as three different characters. You start off with Luke unlocked, with Luke you get a mount you can use. His mount is a mule, or donkey. It's actually quite entertaining shooting zombies while riding a donkey. There are two more characters you can play as that are locked, you can either collect 100,000 coins to unlock each of them, or pay $.99 to unlock them ahead of time. They are SeaNanners, and Syndicate from YouTube. If you play as SeaNanners, you can ride a cat as your mount, and Syndicate rides a motorcycle. I downloaded this game just for the chance to play as these two characters. One point I'd like to say about needing to unlock these other two characters is that they don't force you to pay extra to play as them. The game actually allows you to work towards unlocking them instead. It drives me crazy when you download a free game and then to get anything worth while to use in the game, you have to end up paying extra, and a lot of times it's more than just $.99 to get them.

  While you're going through the game you get to run into different perks. The first one I noticed was the magnetic perk, if you pick this up, for a limited of time all the coins and some additional items get picked up by your character. The next perk I found was the Bull Mount. The Bull lets you ride through anything. Basically if you happen to pick it up, you ride a bull for a limited time, and nothing can stop you, you just take all obstacles out that are in your way. The last perk is the flight perk. It has you ride a bird over everything and you can still pick up coins that are in the air for a limited time, just like everything else. You can spend coins to extend the duration of these different perks/mounts, and to buy more ammo, ect...

  Overall I really enjoy playing this game, whenever I have a little bit of free time, I pull my iPhone out and play a round or two, at least. I have to give Zombie Killer Squad a 5 out of 5. It has everything I would expect from an IOS game, and more. Remember it's FREE, and you can find it in the apps store.

  If you'd like to see a few of the videos SeaNanners, and Sydicate post on YouTube, here are links to their pages:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SeaNanners
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSyndicateProject

State of Emergency Movie Review

  State of Emergency is a small film I discovered on Netflix. Actually it was more suggested to me because I happened to be re-watching the first season of AMC's The Walking Dead on Netflix, but that has nothing to do with this post.

  State of Emergency follows Jim, the main character, after a chemical facility explodes which releases a deadly toxin into the air. This toxin causes people to turn into flesh eating zombies. These aren't your traditional George A. Romero zombies, these are more like the 28 days later zombies, where they run. Another difference is that these ones can talk in State of Emergency. Personally I wouldn't call them zombies, they don't even seem like they are undead. Continuing on with the plot of the film, Jim find out others are holding up in a warehouse, and he joins them. He meets what could potentially be a love interest, but she's passed out for half the film.

  After watching the film I felt like I hadn't learned anything, nor did I feel any connection to any of the characters. It felt like a film made to be a film, where there isn't anything wrong with that, but it also didn't keep me captivated. I found myself constantly waiting for something big to happen, but that never came. The major plot point that I thought would bring at least some sort of on the edge of your seat suspense, and possible action, didn't go in that direction. The possible love interest for the main character is apparently diabetic. He finds out that she needs insulin or she's going to die. The characters talk about a pharmacy at the other end of town, but conveniently enough there happens to be some in an air drop near by. When Jim went out to the air drop container, I didn't even feel slightly worried. He ran into only one "zombie" which he shot in the leg first which made it fall, then he slowly walked up to it and shot it in the head. They did make me think for a second, "yes, he's going to have to go into town anyway", when Jim couldn't fine it at first, but as you know now, that didn't happen.


  Overall I give state of emergency a 1 out of 5. There were certain minor aspects, and shots I did like, but nothing big enough that's worth mentioning. I also wasn't able to connect to the movie enough to care about the characters. It lost points in my opinion for referring to the chemically intoxicated crazy people as zombies in the description. They may have been undead, but zombies don't talk, nor do they run.

Defendor (2009) Movie Review

  Over the weekend I had a chance to see a less known movie named Defendor. Yes, that's the correct spelling, it's Defendor, not Defender. Even in the movie the main character corrects others on how to say it.

  Defendor is about a normal average every day guy by the name of Arthur Poppington, also know as Defendor by night, played by Woody Harrelson (know for his role in Zombieland), who goes out on patrol at night protecting people from the criminal "punks". His goal is to take down "Captain Industry", who's supposed to be head of the city's biggest criminal ring. Defendor has no super powers, just is trench club, marbles, angry wasps, and above all else his courage.

  At first the flick felt like it was going to be this director's version of Kick-Ass, and depending on your perspective, it could be looked at in that way. They both came out about the same time frame, Defendor in 2009, and Kick-Ass in 2010. Also Kick-Ass did come out as a comic book first. In my personal opinion, I'm going to give it a pass one reason, who hasn't come up with their own "Batman" like hero, and wanted to actually go and fight crime when we were kids? Especially those of us who enjoy reading comics.

  Defendor is a dark comedy, a side of heart. It actually did make me laugh quite a few times while watching it. One of my favorite moments, is when Arthur shows up to work bruised and beaten, and his friend asked him who did it to him. Arthur tells him he fell down stairs, and his friend proceeds to push him asking who did it, and what did they look like, Arthur then proceeded to draw the shape of stairs in the air. I ended up liking the main character Arthur as a person. He made me feel like he truly did care about the people in his life, and the citizens of the city. He's quite likable. There were certain aspects of the flick that I felt didn't really need to be explained, the best example of this is when Arthur's psychiatrist explains to him why people in his life love him so much. Woody Harrelson, and the rest of the cast portrayed this well enough where I didn't need it to be explained to me. A cool little note to add, the actor who played Casey Jones (Elias Koteas) in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles plays a dirty cop in it.

  Overall, I give Defendor, a 3 out of 5. That's how I rate a pretty average movie. It wasn't mind blowing, and it isn't the most memorable film. But I did enjoy watching it, laughing with it, and I enjoyed the progression story. It's worth a view at the very least.

BLOCKBUSTER Closing?!

  It looks like Blockbuster will be closing it's doors in January 2014, as well it's DVD mail distribution. This is some rough news, especially for those who still like to go rent physical movies instead of using digital distribution such as Netflix. According to DISH, they will be retaining the licensing rights, for possible digital distribution. Places like Blockbuster, and especially the local video rental places, have a special place in my heart. Growing up there were three places my father used to take me, that have always felt like a constant in my life, going to the movie theater, going to hockey games, and going to the video rental store.

  Now that Blockbuster is officially closing it's doors, this marks a true end to the experience of walking in and seeing wall to wall movies to choose from. Some of you may be too young to really remember the local movie rental stores, those usually went out of business because of the Blockbusters, and other big movie rental places out there. I can't remember how many times I'd force my dad to rent movies like The Goonies, and Star Wars, at our local movie rental store. Those are some great memories to have, and we are now at this point in society, our future children wont have that experience.

  At an end of an era, I give a toast to the good old movie rental store, and have a drink for them.

Earn to Die Mobile Game Review

  I've been talking a lot about zombies in my past few posts so I thought it would be a good idea to change the pace of things, and write a review on another zombie based game, Earn To Die. I actually discovered this gave because one of my buddies was playing an web based version of it online.I started with that, and it was fun enough for me to actually find the Earn To Die mobile game for iPhone.

  Earn to Die was developed by Toffee Games, and published by notDOPPLER. The whole premise of the game is to modify your vehicle and get as far as possible through hordes of zombies. The farther you go, the more money you get to modify your vehicle. Different mods help you get farther in different ways. You can buy more gas, add spikes to your bumper to make it easier to get through zombies, to adding a jet engine to give you speed boosts. As you play through the game, you also get to purchase bigger better, and faster vehicles, which you can also modify.

  After you get through every level of Earn To Die, you open up two other sections to the mobile app. There is a Halloween play through, where you drive through each level, and you try to destroy all the pumpkins placed on the map. The other section has you do speed runs through different levels using a specific vehicle, but any of the mods you want to you within a specific price range, and you can try to beat records anyone else has gotten online.

  Overall Earn To Die, is a fun game to play, when you have a little bit of time here, or there. It does lend itself to some replay value with the new sections that open up, especially for those who enjoy the competitive edge to a game. I give it a 3.5 out of 5. For those who'd like to see a trailer to the game here's the video below.

 

Top 5 Things with ZOMBIES!

  Well today is Halloween, and it only make sense to talk something horror based. As many of you know I enjoy most things zombies. We've actually talked about this on a previous podcast. This list is going to include movies, games, ans whatever else I feel like. These aren't really in any real order, but if you like zombies, and you haven't seen, and or tried these, it's worth while to check out. Remember that this is just my opinion on things I've viewed, experienced, and/or played. Leave a comment, or e-mail me with your Top 5 Zombie Things.

  1. All films George A. Romero has directed.
George Romero is the grandfather of the modern day zombie. He's he reason we have pretty much all great zombie things. I would suggest starting with Night of the Living Dead, and going on from there.

  2. The Walking Dead Comics
If you like the TV show, you'll enjoy the comics. Things get even more intense, and crazy in those.

  3. The Walking Dead TV Show on AMC
I actually tried to start a Zombie based TV show before walking dead came out because I wanted one to exist. I couldn't be happier with having one now, and with a great story to it.

  4. Munchkin Zombies
Many of you may never have heard of this game. It's a table top game definitely worth playing. This is an offshoot of the original game Munchkin, but still made by the same company.

  5. Left 4 Dead 2
I was having trouble choosing number 5, and I figured I should choose a video game. I've only played a few zombie based video games, so my exposure is limited. I enjoyed playing Left 4 Dead, and Left 4 Dead 2 online with my cousin, more than the few other zombie games I've played. If you haven't played it, check it out.

  Well that's my top 5 things with Zombies. This list tends to continually change due to my love of zombies, and how I'm feeling that day. Feel free to comment, and send me an e-mail with you top 5 zombie things.

Plants Vs. Zombies 2 It's About Time

  Plants Vs. Zombies 2, who would have thought that they would make a sequel to the ridiculously addictive game, Plants Vs. Zombies. The second one is the first game and more. I've been playing Plants Vs. Zombies 2 for the past couple days on my iPhone 5, and I felt the need to do a little review on it. I haven't played completely through the game yet but these are my thoughts thus far, at the very least.

  As I said above I've been playing it for the past couple days, and they've made a few changes between this one and the first one. The first one was pretty straight forward, and fun. Well in the second one you travel through time with Dave (the guy with the pot on his head), to find Dave's taco, so he can eat it again. Yes I said "again". It's actually quite entertaining how they go about the story. The actual title of the game is Plants Vs. Zombies 2 It's About Time. Basically you travel through time fighting zombies in different eras. You start off in present time, then you go back to Ancient Egypt, and you move from there.

  There are the basic similarities, you plant different plants to either get more sun rays, or to fight zombies. The biggest differences I've found so far, other than the time traveling thing, are that there are new plants to play with, and now there are different power ups. The first one you'll see is the plant food, that boosts the rate of fire for the different plants. The next biggest difference I noticed was that now the user can interact, and fight the zombies with different abilities. One is the pinch, you literally pinch the screen to kill zombies. The second is the throw ability, you toss them off the screen. You swipe across the zombie, and it kicks them in the air, you swipe again and it throws them off the screen. The third is the zap ability, once you activate it you just swipe across the screen where the zombies are, and it zaps them into dust. It's quite entertaining to do all of these.

Overall I'm enjoying the game, and suggest it to anyone who played the first one. As I play on in the game, and if I notice any other big things about the game, I'll do another post about it.

Walking Dead Vs. Walking Dead

  A co-worker let me borrow The Walking Dead comics recently. I was actually surprised about a lot of the differences between the two. Even though I'm still reading some of the ones I'm borrowing, I thought it would be fun to write up some of the differences I noticed between the comic and the show. Fair warning, if you haven't watched the show, or read the comics there will be some spoilers. I'm not going to get too deep into this only because there are so many differences, I could go on for a while.

   I've started my Walking Dead experience with the TV show on AMC. Which I believe was one of the best things to ever happen to television. This will give you my reference point for this post.

  The first thing I realized was that both story lines follow similar almost parallel timelines which cross with certain points here and there. I already had an idea of this just from things I've heard from different places, but you really can't completely understand until you've experienced both.

  The next thing I noticed was how Andrea, and Dale ended up being an item in the comic, where in the show Andrea basically looks at Dale more like a father figure. Actually they become the adoptive parents for a couple kids that aren't in the show. It really is interesting the differences between the two characters, and how they look at each other. One similarity between Andrea in the comic and the show is that she does end up becoming a pretty good shot with a gun.

  The third thing is that Carol, as far as I have read up to, hasn't lost Sophie yet and she end up hitting on Rick, and Lori Grimes. She even tried to convince Lori that they all should be married together. But all of this came after her and Tyrone didn't work out. Oh and yeah Carol and Tyrone had a thing going for a short time.

  The difference between the Governor in the comic and the show is similar as to how the timeline situation. In the comic he's a lot more ruthless, and barbaric than he is in the show. In the show he's no saint either, but he doesn't seem to start off as a murdering rapist, where in the comic, you find this out very quickly.

  The last difference I feel the need to say something about is the fact that Daryl from the show, isn't in the comic at all. At this point in the game I feel like it's common knowledge, and there really isn't any need to bring him up, but I know there are people out there who will say something if I don't bring him up. He is quite an important character in the series, and I happen to like his character.

  There are so many things that are different between the two. As I stated above, I could go on, and on. There are certain key details I've avoided talking about because I don't want to give away to many spoilers. I honestly enjoy both the comic and the TV show. I know many people are taking side, I for one can't, I enjoy zombies to much.

Star Trek Into Darkness

  I picked up Star Trek Into Darkness when it came out, and I finally had a chance to watch it. It took a lot for me to avoid any spoilers from the point if was released into theaters. This was probably one of the most successful times I've had of avoiding any spoilers about a movie. I have to say, it was pretty hard to try not to look anything up about the flick during this time, and I even avoided looking at the back of the Blu-Ray. Yeah, that's some devotion. So my first viewing of Star Trek Into Darkness really was a completely untainted, and spoil free experience.

  Now that I'm done beating the dead horse about how I was able to avoid spoilers here's a brief description of the movie from IMDB.com: When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew. 

  Star Trek Into Darkness was an action packed ride of Sci-Fi and Awesome! I really enjoyed it, if you couldn't tell. J. J. Abrams' alternate time universe really has come to be something that makes me want more. He really does keep the Star Trek fans happy, while appealing to audiences Star Trek has never had before.

  At this point in the game, I'm not going to worry too much about having spoilers in my review. Anyone who's familiar with Star Trek the Original Series, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn could see the references to these throughout the film. The best one in my opinion was the scene where Jim Kirk died, which references the iconic scene in the original movie where Spock was the one who originally died in the main timeline. In my opinion both scenes where the hardest scenes to watch in Star Trek history. Another little reference that I got a kick out of was having the Tribble in the lab that Dr. Mcoy was experimenting Kahn's blood with. This of course references the Trouble with Tribbles episode in the original series.

  Another cool little added bonus was when we got to see the Klingons. I really liked the helmets that they wore, but the actual klingons ended up reminding me of the alien from Enemy Mine, Jeriba "Jerry" Shigan, played by Louis Gossett Jr.

  Overall, I give Star Trek Into Darkness a 5 out of 5. I really enjoyed it, and I was giddy the entire time I watched it with all the references. The story itself kept you sucked into the movie. It's definitely work checking out, especially if you're a Star Trek fan.

Oblivion Review

  I had a chance to finally see Oblivion. Actually it was John's post that gave me the push to see it now that it's on Blu-Ray. It was quite a convincing post, considering how he looks at it.

  Here is a brief synopsis of Oblivion from IMDB.com: One of the few remaining drone repairmen assigned to Earth, its surface devastated after decades of war with the alien Scavs, discovers a crashed spacecraft with contents that bring into question everything he believed about the war, and may even put the fate of mankind in his hands.

  Oblivion is a Sci-fi/Action flick which takes you for a mental ride. The movie pulls you along, and hits you with something new as you get deeper into the rabbit hole. Honestly I believe the reason why I enjoyed Oblivion as much as I did was because it made you think. I would describe it as this years version of 2001 A Space Odyssey. At leas at the moment that's the closest film I could compare it to, but that still isn't a good comparison.

  Overall I give Oblivion a 4 out of 5. I enjoyed the ride every moment of the movie, but I still felt like some things were spoon fed to me that didn't really need to be. It's a good flick and worth at least one view.

Oblivion: new birth to a dying Genre

When it comes to Genre films it's hard to do something that tastes like something new! Now almost 100 years into film what can you put on screen no one has seen before? 

 

That's a question most of us have been asking in the last 7-10 years with all the remakes reboots and Sequels. A film that is totally original with no Scenes borrowed or stole from films before it! 

 

Then comes Oblivion, with Tom Cruse, which had it came 10 years ago it probably broken box office records and been calls a masterpiece but in a film world in which we have seen so much, it's a film that is left in the dark! 

  

I'm here to shine a light on this masterful film! I'll be spoiler free and give no plot points away! I'm going to Solely blow this movies "dick"! This film is a action scifi film with limited action and scifi, it's that rare case in which huge action and tons of aliens are not needed to show what happens when earth is invaded! 

  It is all show by showing the outcome of true Nuclear war on earth and why the moon is so important! it's all threw the point of view of one man, and Tom cruse has never been better, easily his best acting job. That's all I can say it's his best performance.

 Now that it's out I highly recommend it rent it buy it do something because if you don't or haven't seen Oblivion...your gay!  

World War Z Movie Review

  World War Z was based on the book World War Z by Max Brooks. When I first heard about a movie being made based on Max Brooks book World War Z, I couldn't have been more excited about zombie movie news. After some time passed I kept hearing about issues with them finding and keeping a director and I had started to worry about them actually getting the movie done. Once they were finally able to get all that sorted out they released a trailer for the film. I went from being excited to suddenly feeling like someone had screwed it up. Here is the trailer to the film so you have an idea as to what I'm about to refer to.


 
  Now that you've had a chance to see the trailer I'm going to talk a little about what worried me. If you read the book you'll notice that it's not following the book 100%. The book is a compilation of interviews with people after the actual epidemic. The movie takes place during it. I understood why they approached it that way for the idea of following one story instead of multiple stories. If the followed the book 100% it would have been setup like a documentary instead. The next and the biggest issue I had when I saw the trailer was that the zombies ran. I follow the George A. Romero thought process as to how zombies should walk. On top of that in the book World War Z, the zombies didn't run, they walked, and/or shambled, and staggered. So as you can see I was worried they were going to ruin something I genuinely enjoyed reading.

  Here is a little synopsis of World War Z  from IMDB.com before I give my review:  United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments, and threatening to destroy humanity itself.

  Now that I was finally able to see World War Z in theaters I can finally give my opinion of the movie as a whole. The actual story wasn't bad, it keep you engaged and at the edge of your seat. It also wasn't a bad approach to stick with one story line to follow that happened during the actual event as opposed to the book. At least I understand why it was approached that way. Ignoring the idea of the running zombie, the CG of the zombie hordes wasn't the worst I've seen, and they used it sparingly which helped to suspend your disbelief of it all. The actual "jump" moments were done pretty well also, I don't usually jump from one of the cheap scare but I did it a couple times in World War Z. Overall I have to give World War Z a 4
out of 5, I actually enjoyed watching it from beginning to the end, and I'll definitely be picking it up on blu-ray when it comes out.

My new loves

The Shadow (1994) Review

  This past weekend I had a chance to watch any random movie. It was brought to my attention that my wife to be had not seen The Shadow starring Alec Baldwin. So after finding this out it was necessary for us to watch it as soon as possible.

  The Shadow (1994) is based in 1930's New York City. It's about Lamont Cranston (Alec Baldwin) also known as The Shadow who is pitted against his arch nemesis Shiwan Khan (Jone Lone). Shiwan wants to take over the world, so he has an atomic bomb built to hold the city as ransom. The Shadow has the power to cloud the minds of men, which allows him to become invisible accept for his shadow.

  This is one of those fun 90's movies based on old pulp-fiction and radio drama series. This might be coming from nostalgia but The Shadow was one of my favorite characters Alec Baldwin has played. When I was a kid I used to beg my dad to rent it over and over again when it came out on video.

  The Shadow is pretty much a typical 90's comic book type movie. It's fun but you still run into some campy lines that seemed epic back then. Overall you have to go into watching The Shadow thinking you want to have fun with it. The closest to the modern day equivalent would probably be The Green Hornet starring Seth Rogen, if The Green Hornet took itself more seriously. I'm sure my score comes from nostalgia, but I give it a 4 out of 5.

Game of Thrones Seasons 1-3 (My Thoughts)

  This isn't really a review of Game of Thrones, it's more of a reflection, and maybe even a little warning to anyone who hasn't watched it yet. I recently finished watching the first three seasons of Game of Thrones. That is a show that I can't help but love and hate at the same time. It's actually caused me to start reading the books. It's one of those shows where you eventually become afraid to start rooting for any characters because you're afraid of what's going to happen to them in the next season.

  I've read a few reviews on Game of Thrones, and most people love it the same way I do, but there are those out there who seem to hate it with a passion. Those people I can't blame for not liking it, especially if their reasons are what I was talking about above, with the fear of what might happen to your favorite characters. It's a pretty rough show to watch, especially as you go through each season.

  When I first heard about Game of Thrones, I was warned ahead of time about how the books, and show are, so it was easier for me to get into the show. The show and books aren't for anyone who's into more traditional story telling. In my opinion I think it's worth checking out.

After Earth Review

  Over the weekend I had a chance to see After Earth in theaters. After Earth is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, staring Jaden Smith, and Will Smith. I was going to write up my own synopsis for After Earth, but the one from IMDB.com really describes it best.

  Synopsis form IMDB.com: A crash landing leaves Kitai Raige and his father Cypher stranded on Earth, a millennium after events forced humanity's escape. With Cypher injured, Kitai must embark on a perilous journey to signal for help.

  Recently I've been a little out of the loop with movies coming out. I work full time, I'm working on a house, and helping to plan a wedding. So sometimes it just gets tough to keep up. Now having said this, I was quite disappointed in myself when I realized After Earth was directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and had no idea until I saw his name pop up in the title sequence. That was a moment where I felt like my finger couldn't be further away from the pulse of Hollywood films. Usually the only time something like that would happen to me, I would be in the middle of a film project, and in those cases I'm okay with it because I'm working on bringing a story to life. I knew After Earth was coming out, but some how I missed who was directing it. I've always enjoyed M. Night Shyamalan films, and he's one of the few I try to keep up on.

  When I saw the previews for After Earth, I wasn't really sure what to think about it. It felt like the film was more about Will Smith trying to make sure his son's name gets out there.While it still may have been something along those lines, I actually enjoyed the flick. It was definitely better than I thought it was going to be, even though I already while I watched the movie I was able to figure out how it was going to end. It was surprisingly more predictable than many of M. Night Shyamalan's other films. He tends to have twists at the end of a lot of them such as The Village, and Signs. It could also be that I'm too used to his films. Overall I give After Earth a 3.5 out of 5. It's worth seeing at least once, and it doesn't need to be in theaters when you see it.

John Carter of Mars Three Book Review

  I know that I have already posted about John Carter of Mars but I just finished the third book, and I wanted to write up a review. Yes, I'll tell you some story from when I was young, but sometimes this is how I like to approach some of my posts.

  The first time I heard of the John Carter series was from my father years ago right after my grand father passed away. At the time I enjoyed reading, but I was too preoccupied with other things I wanted to do and read than some "old books". My dad had the entire series in hard cover, which we had found in my grandfather's house. Now lets fast forward to more recently. As you know I watched the new John Carter Disney movie, and with that, I was reminded of the time my father had told me about the series. Of course now I can't find the books my father had given me when I was young, and I regret that, but I have purchased the first three books and as you obviously should know at this point, I read those.

  Now onto my review of the books. I should start off with the title of each of these books, they are A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars, and The Warlord of Mars. It's hard to do a book review on any of these books by themselves. The reason for this is because the first two end with cliffhangers. You feel the need to move on the the next book right away so you know what happens. I have to say, it was a clever device for Edgar Rice Burroughs (The Author) to use. The third book ends in a satisfactory fashion, where you feel like you can relax a little before moving to the next one. Which is why I felt it to be the best point to do an actual book review.

  John Carter of Mars is about a civil war veteran from Virginia named John Carter. He some how gets transported to Mars and nothing but constant adventure ensues. Much of John Carter's motivation comes from his love for the Princess of Helium Dejah Thoris. She tends to be in constant danger through these first three books. These first three books take place over a 20 year period of time, which at points was hard to comprehend because of how quickly you can go through the books.

  While reading the books, I always wished I had more time to keep reading, and hated being interrupted because of how much I enjoyed them. Over all I have to give John Carter of Mars a 4.5 out of 5. I enjoyed each one, and still wanted to read more. If you like classic Science Fiction you'll probably enjoy at the very least the first three books A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars, and The Warlord of Mars.

From Podcast Episode 6 The Quickie 6/6/2013

Last night John and I talked about a couple of our old videos we did years ago. Here they are below, and if you haven't listened to our newest podcast you can subscribe to them on iTunes, or right here on the website.

GHOSTBUSTERS Mobile Game for IOS

  I have discovered a newer game in the Apps store. Considering the title of the post I'm sure you already know what game I'm talking about, GHOSTBUSTERS. Yes there finally is a GHOSTBUSTERS mobile game!

  The GHOSTBUSTERS mobile game takes place after the movies. Do you remember at the beginning of the first movie when Venkman kept giving the one guy electric shocks? Well the game takes this guy and makes him a the reason crazy stuff is going on in the city again. I don't want to go into too much detail on the story, but it's a cool, and fun concept.


  The developers are still working on the game, and they've made some changes since I've started to play it, so it's a work in progress. Overall it's a fun game that you can see and play for hours. I give this game five Slimers out of five.