Ian Fleming's Post Mortem 100th B-Day.

If he were still living, James Bond creator, Ian Fleming would have been 100 years old today. Instead of digging the old guy up to put one of those goofy, pointy, cardboard birthday hats on him, his estate instead decided to release a brand new James Bond novel with spy-like fanfare.

Author Sebastian Faulks penned the new Bond adventure, "Devil May Care", and brought Bond back in time to the good old days of the cold war. This is the first adult Bond adventure since Raymond Benson wrote "The Man With The Red Tattoo". I think I may wait a spell before reading it. I have so much to read through yet.

Well, happy B-day to the late, great Ian Fleming.


I bet you're all wondering what I thought about....

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Well, there will be a review forth coming. And you can look for it within the next Zangz's Pod of Geekdom that is coming up real soon. Keep your ears and eyes open for it!

This was a quickie, so I'll be back sometime this weekend to regale you with more useless geekified, pop-culture information. So stay tuned and stay vertical!

Zangz.

I'm Jonesing on a 5 day holiday weekend high!

Today starts my 5 day break from monotony! I'm off Thursday, Friday Saturday, Sunday and of course Memorial Day Monday. It's the first time I've had 5 days off in a row in about 11 months, and I'm going to have one heck of a good time, by hook or by crook! I deserve this, dammit!

And as for Jonesing, by this time tomorrow I will have laid mine eyes upon the new Indiana Jones movie.....

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL

I'm hearing mostly positive reviews of the film, but there are a few disappointed people who have obviously geared themselves up for having a similar experience as they had the first time they saw Raiders of the Lost Ark. There's no friggin' way anybody is going to walk out of that theater and say "That was just as good as Raiders!" It's completely impossible to compete with the first Indy movie! All I'm expecting is a fun thrill ride that will reunite me with one of cinema's all time favorite heroes. I'm looking for some good pulpy fun and I have a pretty good feeling that I'm going to get just that!

Look for my review somewhere soon.

Also keep your ears open for a new....

Zangz's Pod Of Geekdom

That's right! We may be back in business. It took a year to get back on track, but we may have our next podcast up by the end of next week. So check back here and here to see any developments!


I only have one movie review for you that is geekworthy....

The Golden Compass - Though I dug the visuals and the performances of the fantasy flick, I found myself a little lost at times since I haven't read the series of books that it is based on. There's an awful lot of history and mythos to swallow in a small amount of time so that you can catch up to the viewers who are acquainted with the book series. Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman are wonderful in it. Sam Eliot is always a treat to watch and hear! The sets and special effects make you feel that you truly are in a new and exciting fantasy world. The anti-conservative theme is pretty blatant, yet the anti-Catholic message that is prevalent in the books is very much downplayed. Probably due to the studio wanting to not ostracize potential ticket buyers. There's not much action until the very end battle, which is pretty cool, but also pretty short. Though it came up pretty short as being a big name fantasy film, I guess I'll be interested in seeing the next one as this movie ended on a very unfinished note. Just to see what happens next. Not a keeper, but a renter.

Short, but sweet. I'm outta here for a pre-Memorial Day cigar and beer to usher in the 5 day weekend I have comin'!

Stay vertical and be sure to remember hug someone who has served our nation this weekend (unless he's that creepy uncle who makes odd grunts when he's hugging you).

Zangz.

Quick and brutal...just the way I like my blogs.

The summer cometh with a promise of beers, cigars, cookouts and bonfires... and wonderfully geeky movies for my brain to consume like a mutha trucker! I'm just hoping that we'll start to get a decent warm up sooner or later. It's a bummer waking up to 40 degree weather outside when it should be in the high 50's at least.

But, what am I complaining about? The summer season kicks off officially next week with a 3 day holiday weekend (that I'm going to extend to a 5 day weekend with vacation days) that will feature (drum roll please)......

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!

Hellyeah, I'm psyched! too bad most friends aren't quite into it as much as I am, since I've been bugging them about when they want to see it. Of course they ignore my cries for geekosity and don't reply or answer. Hopefully we'll have this resolved by next weekend.

One summer blockbuster I have seen and enjoyed the frell out of was Ironman! I'd give a review, but mine would be exactally like the ones you've probably have read already on the internet. Robert Downey Jr. is frackin' brilliant as Tony Stark, the action sequences (the few that there were... one gripe) were frackin' brutal and the fact that Gweneth Paltrow comes off as being frackin' adorably hot in the roll of Pepper Potts rather than slightly aloof which seems to plague the actress a bit was quite welcome. If you're a fan of the comic, definitely go see this mutha as it has a very interesting way to be very loyal to the source material without being dated. If you're not a fan of the comic, go for an excellent fanboy experience!


Let's see. What else? Oh, I finally finished Jim Butcher's first novel of the Dresden Files, "Storm Front". Though I enjoyed it, I kept finding myself going back to the character of John Constintine, also a magic detective of sorts. Unfortunately Constantine is a bit more up my alley rather than Harry Dresden. Constantine is far more darker and off beat. Though I certainly plan to revisit Harry Dresden's world one day, reading Storm Front made me yearn for the days when Garth Ennis wrote the John Constintine comics. I can't say Ennis' version of Constantine is better than Butcher's Dresden. He's just slightly more my kind of mage who tries to solve problems of the paranormal.

I'm still working on "Sister of the Dead". I'm also going to hacking through the Alice Cooper autobiography "Golf Monster", the short story anthology of one of the very first pulp action characters, "The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane" by the late, great Robert E. Howard. Then I still have to get back to the world of pathologist Alex Cross in James Patterson's "Big Bad Wolf". Lots of reading to do this summer.


There's also lots of time that will have to be spent on GTA4 this weekend. I love this friggin' game!!!! I do have a couple of quibbles with it. First, the control of the automobiles is a little to limiting compared to the last games. Just try and make a sharp turn while being perused by the law and not fly out of control! I'm hoping there's a way to get a hang of it to make the experience more enjoyable. There's also the fact you're being bothered all the time by contacts you make in the game. Just try and float around the city while discovering new sights when suddenly you're girlfriend, Michelle calls you on your cell phone for a date. Or your dumb-assed cousin calls you to go out drinking while you're in the middle of trying to do a stunt jump. It gets a little monotonous at times. But, I still love this friggin' game.


Ok, I'm gunna head out and smoke a cigar while I get a little more reading done before the sun goes down. Until next time, as a very wise man once told me, stay vertical.

Zangz.

Tomorrow Liberty City Falls.....

Well, kids, I grabbed my copy of Grand Theft Auto 4 the day it came out (this past Tuesday) and I have to tell you, after playing a full 5 hours of the game (not in one sitting...honest. Well, ok, maybe 4 hours of full sitting and one hour sometime there after) I've hardly scraped the surface of what the open ended sandbox game has to offer! I haven't even gotten out of my neighborhood yet! This game is huge and incredibly epic. The graphics are so incredible I feel that I'm damn near visiting New York rather than playing a game that is based off of it!

What I have played so far is just incredible. Not only can you do the usual car jacking, causing havoc, fleeing the law and all the other accoutrement's that the GTA series has to offer, I've also played a bowling game, played a dart game and gotten completely hammered at a bar and had to try and walk back to my car without falling on my face! Yep. They replicate what it's like to be drunk! How crazy is that?!?!

Already the "Puritanical Police" have condemned it for it's crime simulation content just to get their names in the media. Wil Wheaton has nice blog about that which you can read HERE. They can kiss my lily white A$$! "Cause this game rocks my world!

I could go on and on, but I haven't even gotten to a point where I can review it since I'm hardly that far in the game.

Tomorrow I plan to immerse myself more in depth into the fictional Liberty City and see what more it has to offer.

I'm sure I'll be bloggin' more on the subject at a latter time. So stay tuned.


In other news, I've found myself very envious of my mom as she just recently bought a nice Mac and set up for DSL. Here I am stuck with a PC and dial up. I spent an evening at my Mom's downloading YouTube videos of movie trailers and music videos 'cause they download as they play rather than taking 30 minutes to download a 5 minute clip. I may have to upgrade to DSL very soon. We'll see.


Also concerning family matters, things are finally looking good. My one relative finally got in touch with me and is doing fine after a very serious operation. They're at home recuperating and in very good spirits! thanks for the good vibes you sent their way.


Movie reviews, why the hell not.....

3:10 to Yuma - It's not quite up there with Silverado or The Unforgiven, but it certainly holds it's own as a cool as hell western! It's a bit slow at times, but the performances are spot on and the action scenes are pretty good. The story is quite good also. If you're a fan of westerns you'll want to check this one out!

Hostel Part II - Again, I'm not a big torture porn horror fan, but they seem to pull this one off with a cool story. There are a lot of parts that will not scare you , but piss you the hell off. But, in one particular scene one psycho get his come-uppence in a way that will have guys closing their legs closed for dear life. A decent flick, but if you're more into paranormal horror rather than slasher flick, you may want to avoid this.

Closure (Straightheads)- This movie about a doomed sexual relationship and revenge may be a cliche of a lot of sexually driven thrillers and may have a plot that is as half-assed as any ever put on film, but card carrying members of the Gillian Anderson Appreciation Society. will revel in this flick. I won't get into too much detail, suffice it to say, there's the female lead is topless in a couple of scenes and there is an anal rape scene involving a sniper riffle. Who the frell thinks up this dren? Male X-Files fans might want to check it out on a lonely Friday night.


I'm gunna call it quits for now as I have more Torchwood, season one to catch up on right now (Yep. Another lonely Friday night).

Zangz.