Hoglovin' Weekend!

I'm sitting here starting my 5 day weekend off with a nice cold bottle of Octoberfest and later I shall enjoy a nice bold cigar. I plan to live the entire weekend in full fledged hedonism! It's been quite a while since I had more than 3 days off at a time and I had to use Labor Day weekend as a special excuse to expand the weekend by two days to engross myself in some very well deserved relaxation and fun!

Now, don't get the wrong idea. It's not going to be me running around my apartment naked with one of those dual beer holder hats on my head (like every other weekend). This weekend is special. Here in my hometown of Milwaukee, we're celebrating the 105th anniversary of the Harley-Davidson Company. Thousands of Harley riders/owners are converging on this fair city to celebrate in a state of black leather, beer guzzling glee. And who be it for me to not assist them in their pursuit of sheer happiness? Very close to the Zangz's Vault of Geekdom Headquarters is where a few good street parties will be taking place. Again, I feel I must assist in this endeavor! Hopefully, I may be meeting some old friends down and around these happening's. So that's what I got going on this weekend.


That gaming weekend I spoke about in the last blog didn't pan out quite as expected. We wanted to play Arkham Horror, but apparently the host didn't get the game ready before hand. So, we attempted to set it up quickly so we could get playing but our attempts were futile as setting up this game will suck at least 7 to 8 hours of your life away even before you start playing. We decided to ditch Arkham Horror and play and old card favorite Nuclear War which was a blast. An oldie but a goody.


Recently I rented a '360 game called Overlord which is a switch on most fantasy RPG's. Instead of playing a hero, you play the evil villain. You have the help evil minions you spawn and it combines action and a slight bit of real time strategy. I think I would have really gotten into this game if it weren't for the fact that it didn't have instructions with it and manipulating the correct minions for particular tasks was a complete mystery without the guide. So I played as far as I could go and enjoyed what I did accomplish, but it lacked without direction.


Ok, here are some movie reviews...

White Noise 2 - Let's see... Nathan Fillion and Katee Sackhoff (awesome smile!) in a supernatural thriller? I'm frackin' there! Though it's not the greatest horror flick in the world, it certainly fairs far better than its predecessor. Just to see Nathan and Katee goof off on the set in the behind the scenes footage was cool enough for a fanboy to rent it. Mal vs. Starbuck!

Next - This Nicolas Cage action/Sci-Fi/thriller that revolves around precognitional powers (word I made up!) and a terrorist plot isn't half bad. Though it's not half good either. Then ending goes all goofy and leaves you wondering what the hell just happened? Did the bad guys win or does our hero have another chance. If so, why the hell didn't they show it? It's another one to check out in a rental situation. It will keep you interested enough, but it's not an owner by a long shot.

The Host - Frack Dragon Wars! This is a pretty cool Korean big monster movie that Dragon Wars could have pulled from. It's not the most happy of endings, but it isn't as childish as Dragon Wars was. There's no pretty boy or stunted dialog. Rent this one over Dragon wars any day.

Batman: Gotham Knight - Hot on the theatrical release of The Dark Knight comes this little animated, straight to video gem! It features 6 separate Batman stories, each with a different animation style and created by different writers. I have to say that I was very impressed with each one in its own way. If you're a big Batman fan, you must buy this DVD!

Family Guy: Blue Harvest - The popular animated TV series lovingly lampoons the greatest movie of all time... Star wars, Episode IV: A New Hope. It's one of the most funny homages to George Lucas' galactic wonder. If you're a Star Wars fan or a admirer of great pulp culture humor, you'll definitely want to check this one out. "Don't get to penisy, kid"

Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight - The thought that kept ripping through my head as I watched this Dungeons & Dragons story was, "Geez, couldn't they have created much better animation for this feature?" It's not horrible animation, mind you. But it's not that far off from what you would have seen on 1980's Saturday morning carton shows. They feebly try to compensate with using computer graphics to animate the villains of the film, large, humanoid lizards. but, the effect becomes more detracting as the lizards look good, but everything else is a poor man's Hannah Barbarra. 'C'mon! Doesn't D&D influenced media deserve far better? I'm sure Senator McCain has this puppy in his rental club's queue.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters - Being a video game geek, I just had to check out this documentary about two rivals fighting for the world record of arcade style Donkey Kong. Mostly I'm a counsel gamer due to arcade games always kicking my ass. But I still had to glimps this movie. Though I really enjoyed this movie it should have been retitled, "Billy Mitchell is a Big Jerk Wad of a Donkey Kong Player" since the film spends most of the time portraying the one player as a egocentric nard and the other player, Steve Wiebe as the poor innocent underdog. That's the way I felt when I first viewed it, but I'm guessing the documentary's makers got a sniff of a potential angle to their story and went with a bit of a biased opinion. Sure I liked it, but I'm starting to get a little suspect of documentary makers. Worth a peak, but keep your head.


Ahhh......as I sit here in the Vault of Geekdom Headquarters I can hear the rumble of a few Harley's flying down my avenue. Unlike a lot of my friends, I find it a very welcoming noise.... ok, maybe not at 3 am on a work day morning it's not so great, but I am enjoying the rumble right now.

I'm bringing this one to an end. Stay Vertical!

Zangz.

If there were a statement to completey lose my vote, this would be it...

You really want to go there, McCain?!?!?!?!

I can't believe I actually put you in a much brighter light than ol' "G.W." Well, now you completely lost my full respect, as well as a potential vote.

Read what Grandpa Walton was quoted as saying..........

"It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others."

Oh reeeeeaally......

I'll let you know that as a regular RPG player, I don't live in my Mom's basement at this time. However, thanks to your buddy G.W. and his wonderful care of our economy which seems to be driven by his oil/gas lovin' buddies, I may be living there quite soon.

So, now I know I'll be left to vote for a candidate who'll frell us over with higher taxes for special interest groups rather than yet another turd who's intolerance to the geek community seems to be the same as the rest of the socially elite minded, frat boy mentality.

I totally have nothing but mad love and respect for any American soldier who has served this country, whether it be as a POW or otherwise. Whether it be for a war that the left wing media tolerates or dubs unjust! I don't read too much into anyone's propaganda when it comes to those who serve! But, your hate speech to us gamers was completely uncalled for.

I certainly wasn't totally pro-Obama until you spewed out that dumb-assed drivel.

Sorry I had to reduce this blog into a political rant, folks. But, I'm tired of the stereotypes and pure hate that we gamers face day to day.

Note to fellow gamers and geeks: Come November, VOTE WITH A BULLET!

Zangz.

(Additional note to Senator McCain: Don't worry, no one reads this thing anyway. It's not like you've lost oodles of votes on my behalf due to your pure intolerance and stupidity)

Cthulhu commeth....maybe....sorta...?

Only a month and a half until Halloween season begins!!! Can you believe it! I know I shouldn't be prompting Mother Nature to summon up the cold weather of Old Man Winter so soon, but I'm already getting a serious jones on for autumn to show up.

I've already got my whole Halloween horror movies picked out from September through October in my on-line movie rental club's queue. In addition to that, I'm slowly but surely downloading Haunted Attraction videos at YouTube.

I don't know what the Halloween plans are for this year. We usually make it up as we go along, but hopefully there will be more than a few Haunted Attractions to visit and perhaps a party to go to. Who knows, I'm just hoping I get my annual fix of creeposity this year.


I finished yet another one of James Patterson's Alex Cross mystery thrillers. This time it was "Mary Mary" where starlets and women who are high powered Hollywood executives are being brutally murdered throughout L.A. It was nice to see Cross out of the political intrigue he was involved in with the last book and back into psycho hunting of his good old days. I'm hoping that further books will also bring him back to his pathologist talents rather than hunting down terrorists. Terrorists being the villains in books is getting to be too frackin' common place these days.


My gaming group has been on hiatus the entire summer while game master, Mad Mario and his wife, Hope, work on their new digs. And of course I've been lacking in running my own Call of Cthulhu (CoC) game which has my group grumping and complaining a lot. It's deservedly so since I haven't run a game in 2 years. It's hard to put together a mystery/adventure for characters that have become practically immortal with boatloads of percentage points. Well, maybe something for the Halloween season.... perhaps.

Speaking of Cthulhu gaming, Roberto Del Amorte is threatening to run a game of Arkham Horror. It's a very involved board game that supposedly takes 2 hours to set up and a few more to play. Like CoC, it is based in the world of horror author H.P. Lovecraft. I've always wanted to play this game since Roberto got it (a couple of years ago). We'll have to see what transpires tomorrow.

And still speaking of Cthulhu, apparently an independent film company is going to be releasing a modern day telling of Call of Cthulhu. Quicktime users can check out the trailer HERE. I'm not sure what to think just yet. It looks kinda scary but lacks in creepiness. Wait and see!

And still speaking of Cthulhu, I'd like to put together one of my podcasts on the subject for a Halloween episode. I still have to squeeze one in on GTA4 first. Right now my plate is full.


Lucky for you all, I don't have a lot to drone on about today. So enjoy you weekend and stay vertical!

Zangz.

Lobsterized!

We'll I'm a bit on the well done side of things today as yesterday I got a little too much sun than I wanted at a company picnic. I'm not too bad off as I'm just a little loberstery, but not in any discomfort. I can remember a trip to Arizona I took about 15 years ago where one whole side of my neck got scorched and I had to put about 15 layers of aloe salve on it just to feel somewhat comfortable. The problem with the salve was that it was a deep blue color and when my burn started to flake the salve stained my sunburn. So I had this odd looking red sunburn with purplish-blue flakes. It looked like I had some sort of radiation poisoning for the remainder of my vacation. Ahhh, sunburn memories....good times. Good times.

On to more geekified news....

I've hit a snag with the Conan game I've been playing. I'm at a point where I have to climb up a cliff while rocks fall down and pummel me. There doesn't seem to be any way to avoid the rocks as it seems the designers have timed it perfectly so once you reach the second tier of the cliff, a rock knocks you back down to the bottom and takes a good amount of hit points away. There's no timing for it either. As soon as you reach that second tier it seems to set off the designer's little rock booby trap. So I've temporarily put it aside and finished off Quake 4.

Quake 4 is a real fun FPS and looks great, but is a little on the short side when you compare it to the original epic PC games. They really need to beef up these FPS games and give us single players something to chew on for quite a while!

Now I'm back to GTA IV. I FINALLY got through the Packie bank robbery mission that had me stumped for quite a while (First Hint: Don't be so obsessed with killing off every cop you come in contact with in your retreat. Just follow your fellow robbers letting them take the lead. Second Hint: Take cover and try and take out a squad car or two. That seems to clear the way at times. Third Hint: When finding a vehicle to take off in once you come up from the subway, be sure to go to your right after you open the cage door. There's a sturdy SUV waiting for you right there. Use it as your getaway car. I made the mistake of running down the wrong street trying to find a car while taking several hits from many cops on my trail. Once I found one, it was a crappy minivan that couldn't take that much damage and it blew in a fiery blaze with my fellow bank robbers still in it, just meters away from the safe house).


I'm also catching up on episodes of one of my favorite new shows, Burn Notice through renting them on DVD. I have one episode to go to finish off the 1st season.

See promo HERE.

What happens when a spy gets set up and is abandoned by his Government? He hangs out in Miami and hooks up with a psycho ex spy/ex girlfriend and his beer guzzling buddy to go on his own side missions helping needy people. This show has a great mix of many fun as heck attributes we've all seen in other shows! First of all it has a touch of The Equalizer, a dash of The A-Team and a dab of McGyver. And it also has Bruce "Man God" Campbell co-starring as his boozed up sidekick. That fact right there gets it major Zangz's Points! And you can slap on a few more Zangz's Points with the presence of actress Gabrielle Anwar. On top of all that it's very cleverly written while at the same time not at all being to deep or dark. It's a lot of fun and if you like the aforementioned shows, I highly think you'll like Burn Notice 'cause it's better than any of those!!!! Its second season has started on the FX network and the 1st season is on DVD.

In other reviews, here are a couple of flicks I checked out recently....

Solstice - This supernatural thriller with a young, beautiful people cast was just that... a supernatural thriller with a young, beautiful people cast. Though it took place in the swamp region of New Orleans, there wasn't anything even remotely creepy in this "thriller". What few "spooky" scenes there were, it wasn't anything we've already seen done far better in movies like The Grudge. Booooring. (veiw trailer HERE.)

Dragon Wars - Apparently this flick was a frggin' big-assed deal over in it's homeland of Korea. The filmaker was a first time director who, formerly was a Korean comedian. Basically, gaint dragons of Asian legend come to wreck havoc on Los Angeles. they are led by an ubber-generic, Darth Vader wannabe. In the end (yep, I'm gunna give away the ending here).....
.....a pretty-boy reporter and the beautiful "chosen one" save the day, but not without the lead female "chosen one" character giving her life up for the greater good. Her very last scene was one that was so poorly dialogged that I nearly wanted to vomit. You'll have to witness it yourselves for the overly mushy, hopelessly generic statement.
One thing barley saving this film was the 20 minute battle sequence that takes place between the evil dragons and the LAPD down a busy street, smack-dab in the middle of Los Angeles. Otherwise, I'm not sure this Korean flick translates well to American audiences. (view trailer HERE)

Resident Evil:Extinction - Simply said, if you liked the last two RE movies, you'll certainly like this one! I think it's the best of the three. Zombies chasing humans across the dessert with Milla Jovavich and Ali Larter in tow can't be screwed up too much. Lot's of well choreographed violence and action ensues throughout the flick. Definitely a thumbs up for this one. (view trailer HERE)

Jumper - Fun, yet extremely short, sci-fi actioner. I think this puppy clocked in under 90 minutes. It's a fun, pop corn flick with Hayden Christensen (Anikan Skywalker/Darth Vader) and Samuel L Jackson (Mace Windo) going up against each other (again). Defintley worth a peek, though it won't re wright Sci-Fi or action movies. (view trailer HERE)

Mimic - This 1997 horror movie was one of my favorites and I thought I'd see it again just for poops and giggles. Even though director, Guillermo del Torro (one of my favorite directors) detested the way producers revamped his vision and considers the film an abomination to this day, I really like the flick. I think it's well thought out and the creatures were very well imagined. Horror fans need to check this one out. (view frightening scene HERE)

Day Watch - Though its predecessor was pretty frickin' interesting to watch, this Russian film about two clans of vampires doing secret battle against each other is a complete mess! The introduction of the film gives it some promise, but from then on it's just a plot that has been crapped upon from a very great height. Maybe Russians have a different way when it comes to story telling and plot cadence, but this thing just didn't make any friggin' sense what-so-ever. While viewing, my co-hort, Roberto fell asleep. I fast forwarded the last 45 minutes of the movie since I was lost anyway. Unless you're a Russian vampire fan, you may want to pass on this! (view trailer HERE)

The Seeker - A fantasy film aimed solely at the Harry Potter crowd. I had a bit of trouble getting into it as there is a lot of the back story to everything going on that is not told. A bunch of aging magic users find the "Chosen One" (yep...another one of those!) in a 14 year old boy. They then go up against The Rider. It's never really explained who this Rider is. He may be an evil mage or nasty wizard or darkness personified. Just call him the Big Bad Guy. Dr. Who fans will appreciate that he's played by Christopher Eccleston. Deadwood fans, such as myself, will like the fact that Ian McShane palys the part of the mentor/good mage in this film. (view trailer HERE)


Well I gotta get scootin' as I have yet another cookout that will involve meat, beer and hoepfully cigars. See you all later and stay vertical!

(Note: If you or your friends are interested in obtaining Zangz's Points here on my Blog of Geekdom, you can either send money c/o Zangz's Blog of Geekdom or buy me stuff like Xbox 360 games or perhaps a PS3, while a widescreen HD TV will get you loads of Zangz's Points)

Zangz.

Who watches the WATCHMEN?... The lucky b@$%@?ds at Comic Con, that's who!

As I sit here in the Zangz's Vault of Geekdom Headquarters on a Satruday morning, thousands of lucky bastages are all converged in San Diego to take part in what can only be described as heaven on earth. I talk of course of the huge San Diego Comic Con. It is the largest and most celeb filled event for comic book/Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror/pop culture lovers of all walks of life who have the time and fundage to travel and attend.

It has become the new hot spot for Hollywood to promote their upcoming films for the next year. They usually drag in big name celebs. Last year both Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny from this summer's X-Files movie were there. That's just the tip of the iceberg! This year Hugh Jackman, Rose McGowan and Marky Mark Wahlberg have already made appearances to promote upcoming flicks. The studios have recognized the power of geek interests and their association with internet buzz. They know that immediately after these promotional panels for these films, fellow geeks will tear into their laptops and send out oodles of buzz on these movies across the world wide web!

One movie that is being promoted is Robert Rodriguez's remake of Red Sonja which will showcase the talents of his trophy/slampiece/actress/girlfriend, Rose McGowan. Word is that even though they didn't have any footage shot yet to show the crowd, Miss McGowan was lookin' darn fine. This is one I'll keep my eyes open for as Rodriguez's movies are some of my favorites.

There's also a lot of buzz on the upcoming epic movie based on Alan Moore's graphic novela to end all graphic novela's, WATCHMEN. There was some footage shown and reportedly looks even better than what is shown in the trailer (view HERE). To bring this baby to the big screen takes a huge set of nards as the story is sooo huge and epic. I hope they'll be able to translate it all on film!

Many of the cast of WATCHMEN showed up, including the so beautiful it should be illegal, Carla Gugino. She's starred in many geek-lovin' genre pics. Apparently she's also promoting the Walt Disney remake of Escape to Witch Mountain. I remember seeing the original way back when I was a wee one. I developed a bit of a crush on actress Kim Richards. Ah... the good old days of prepubescent attractions.

From THIS little story of happenings from the Punisher: War Zone panel, things don't look too bright for a real gritty, ass kicky Punisher sequel. That's not good.

You know, I used to go to GenCon every year before it moved out of state and I miss going to cons quite a bit. One of these years, very soon, I'm going to have to invest in traveling somewhere and go to one. I don't know about San Diego Comic Con (if I win the lottery, perhaps), but maybe DragonCon in Atlanta (They're even bringing in MSI to play!!!!) or Chiller Con in New Jersey. Horrorfind Weekend in Maryland isn't out of the question either. If not for emptying my bank account on cool dren and collectables, then to just hang around like minded freaks such as myslef. I really have to break down and do that real soon.


In other news, I saw Stepbrothers last night! After seeing the trailer (view HERE) I was a little nervous that those were going to be the only funny scenes in the whole movie. I was happily proved wrong as myself, Roberto and Iris wiped constant tears from our eyes from laughing throughout the movie. Admittedly, it is plain and stupid humor. But it's soooo well done by Will Farrell and John C. Reilly that you just can't stop laughing. It's a perfect comedy that celebrates the man-boy in all of us! I'm sure there was more than one time that Iris, who was sitting between me and Roberto, looked at each of us and thought, "Holy Crap! This is my life!" It's not quite nearly as funny as Anchorman, but is a lot funnier than Semi-Pro. I would say it's even with Taladaga Nights. If you need a 90 minute chuckle fest, go see this movie!

Ok, kiddies, if I can't geek it up in San Diego with Carla Gugino and Rose McGowan, I'll have to settle with some rented movies and my newest Xbox 360 title Conan. See you all later.

Stay Vertical!

Zangz.

BAT-FRACK CRAZY!

The next week or so is going to be pretty busy for me, so I just had to log in here and tell you about THE best movie of the summer.

Now, I've seen Indy, I've seen Iron Man, I've seen Hellboy, I've seen a slew of really fun, geek-lovin' movies this summer.  I loved every one of them.  There was not one that I was disappointed in at all.  But, I have to say that Batman: The Dark Knight has found it's spot at the top of my summer movie list!

View the trailer HERE!

Note:  There may be things in this review that are considered SPOILERS.  Do not read if you haven't seen the movie!!!!  I would have blackened them out but for some reason Blogger isn't cooperating with me.

I went with my friend Spanky on Friday night.  It was a 10:15 PM showing at a local entertainment center located on the second level of a town mall.  The theater was slightly more hoity toity than others as it was smaller, had a digital projection screen and you could bring your beer from the bar in there.  Very nice.  Plus, there was a frell of a lot of eye candy there also.  Another bonus to the evening's Bat-festivities.  I, being a geek, had on my Batman T-shirt a bought umpteen years ago when the Batman hype was going nuts before the opening of the first Tim Burton Batman movie.  So the geek flag was indeed flying.

This sequel to Batman Begins, the film that rebooted the Batman Franchise, is far better than it's predecessor.  That's a huge feat since Batman Begins was an incredible film in itself.  Dark Knight is darker, more action packed and the acting performances go beyond being top notch.

I have no clue as to where to start with this film.  There's so much about it that I loved.  I guess we'll start with the obvious and most hyped of the movie... The late Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker.  

I will admit it.  I wasn't too thrilled when I heard he was cast as Batman's most diabolical arch-nemesis.  I felt that it was simply due to his Oscar hype from his work on Brokeback Mountain.  Not a movie that a lot of us closed minded, heterosexual geeks were flocking to see.  But,  I was put out of my worries about Daniel Craig being Bond when Craig kicked immense amounts of ass in the role. Ledger's performance of the Joker does the same for me.  It is THE ONE Joker that will go down in Bat-history as being the most disturbing.

Unlike the past Jokers (Nicholson, Romero, Hamill), this is the first one where you feel a real sense of pure dread about him.  He's out of his mind nutters.  You have no clue as to what he's going to do to his intended victims.  What you can bet on is that his victims will have a nasty, untimely demise.  He's up there with Hannibal Lector when it comes to unpredictability.  He doesn't do it for the money.  He doesn't do it for the power.  He seems to do it because he likes to watch people suffer.  And that, folks, is messed up!  You'll certainly feel very uneasy when his character is on screen menacing people.

The little freaky nuances he brings to the character make the Joker all the more creepy.  The lip smacking, the eye rolling, the constant lying about how he got his smile scars.  It's all just disturbing and Ledger pulls it off wonderfully! SPOILER BELOW...........

One thing that both disappointed me while, at the same time added to the freakiness of the Joker, was the fact that his origin is never explained in the film.  He just starts to make big trouble in Gotham City one day.  I was expecting, and maybe hoping for an origin story in the same vain as Alan Moore's "Killing Joke" graphic novella.  But, by not explaining where he came from and why he is the way he is makes it even more disturbing.

In any case, Heath Ledgers performance will go down in history as being one of the greatest film villains of all time.  Sad that he's gone.

All the other perfomances are spot on.  Especially Gary Oldman as Detective / Commissioner Gordon.  I wouldn't be surprised if he sat and read every DC Batman comic that Gordon ever appeared in.  He really gets the heart and soul of the idealistic and driven Gordon, the one good cop that truly wants to make a difference.

Christian Bale is every bit as good as Batman as he was in the last film.  He has a lot more to chew on with his acting chops in this one also.  Morgan Freeman, Michael Cain, Aaron Eckhart,  and Maggie Gyllenhaal round out a phenomenal ensemble cast.  There's not a bad apple in the bunch.  Special kudos go to Aaron Eckhart's role of Harvey Dent, Gotham's Kight in Shining Armor D.A.  SPOILER......

I thought his character/s were going to survive this movie so as to set up the inevitable 3rd Batman movie of the Bale era. But, I guess it's not to be.  Too bad as Eckhart did an excellent job in the role.

Though this movie is seeped in lots of drama filled dialog, there's also lots of action to boot.  It is well crafted and quite brutal at times.  The violence that the Joker puts Gotham City through is pretty destructive to say the least.  Though, it's not gory violence it is pretty non stop and, as I said before, BRUTAL.  Every punch has a jaw being broken and every explosion causes more damage than one would believe.  At the same time, it's all well shot and pretty awesome.  There's a chase scene through the streets of Gotham that involves a semi trailer that is full on ass-kickery!  I shat you not!!!!

Another cool thing about this movie is the fact that it's not just a costumed super hero movie.  It's mostly a crime drama with a little Mission Impossible and James Bond put in also.

Did I have any issues with the movie?  Very few indeed.  It does run a little long.  There were parts that could have been condensed.  And Harvey Dent's role towards the end of the movie could have been saved for the next Batman movie rather than strapped on to this one.  And now that we've seen the legendary Heath Ledger performance of the Joker (who sadly will not reprise the role), where the frell are producers / writers / actors going to go from here????  Any performer who will have the daunting task of being the next Batman villain will have to step up their game several notches to parallel the performance Ledger gave.

Which makes me wonder who will be the next villain?  The Penguin?  The Riddler?  Perhaps a darker version of Catwoman (NOT BERRY!!!!) is in order to fill the villain shoes for the next movie.

The movie isn't just about great performances and action.  There are a few morality issues that are investigated here.  How far are the powers of good going to go to fight evil?  Are they going to have to go to the same level as evil and fight fire with fire?  Something to think about when walking out of the theater.

In a nutshell, Warner Bros. succeeded in giving us one of the greatest Batman/Joker stories ever told, on film or anywhere else for that matter.

I'm going to go out and have a beer and cigar before diner.  Until next Bat-time, stay Bat-vertical!

Zangz.

"Fanboys" is freed from greed / The Big Red One

The weekend is here, so lets get right into it!

There's some really great news about the Star Wars influenced comedy movie, Fanboys. It looks like greed machine has relented and we're going to get to see the movie as it was originally intended to be seen, as a fun filled, touching comedy, not the American Pie, schlock filled T&A movie the Weinstein Company were going to turn it into.

So there won't be any self-love pie scenes. But, there ain't nothin' wrong with Kristen Bell in a Slave Leia outfit.

You can read the announcement right HERE!


I recently finished Alice Cooper's autobiography, "Golf Monster" which I tore through pretty quickly. If you're a big Alice Cooper fan, it's a damn good read. If you're an Alice Cooper fan who loves golf, you'll REALLY enjoy this book.

Since I find watching, let alone playing, golf about as much fun as watching paint dry, I'd say it's a damn good read!

Now I'm onto yet another James Patterson Alex Cross mystery novel, "Mary Mary". I'm blowing through these Cross novels like nobody's business lately. This is my third of the summer.


Here are some more movies I've checked out!

HELLBOY II: The Golden Army - Of course I made that font big and red! Just like the main hero of this movie.... ya putz. Myself, Roberto and his lovely wife, Iris, got together after work yesterday and went out for dinner and a movie. After stuffing ourselves full of dips, salads and an enormous meatloaf dinner, we waddled our way to the movie theater to view a visual cornucopia of full-on geekosity! This movie has everything a fantasy lover could dream of. A secret underworld inhabited by ancient mythical beings, settings and sights that quench the optical thirst of anyone who has a love for the fantastic and loads of well choreographed action sequences are all represented here! There's even a couple of love stories that are being told. One may tare at your heart strings a bit towards the end. The movie got three thumbs up from all of us...... (though, Iris did have some time-out sessions while she tested her digestive fortitude from the aforementioned dinner). But what she did see, she liked. Though I can't say I liked it every bit as much as the first Hellboy movie (that one dealt with more of a Horror story, this one's all about Fantasy), I still hope they don't wait another 4 years to make the 3rd flick. Director Guillermo del Torro has a lot on his plate with the Hobbit films coming up. So he better get Pearlman back in the big red suite ASAP. If you have a soul and a love for the fantastic, like me... SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!
(view trailer here)

Casshern - This puppy could have been one of my all time favorite movies! It could have! This Japanese film, shot much in the style that is a mix of anime and something like the film Sky Capitan and the World of Tomorrow, had all the makings of a flick I'd totally jones over. Excellent and fantastical art direction and some great action sequences with a cool super-hero/savior to boot. However, this movie lost me due to one big draw back. The plot crawled slower than a hick farmer driving his tractor down the country interstate while you're stuck behind him in a "no passing" lane. Rat-Bastage!!! Anyway, this movie is riddled with far more dramatic dialog and longing glances scenes than the few action sequences that are done so well. On top of that the dialog is of course in subtitles which completely pulled me away from the grander of the visuals. Ya know, sometimes an English voice over doesn't hurt. It had loads of potential, but I'll have to pass on purchasing this one. One viewing was enough.
(view trailer here)

MirrorMask - Put the minds of the Jim Henson Company along with famed fantasy writers, Neil Gaiman andDave McKean and you're sure to come up with something pretty interesting. And that's just what they do with this fun little artsy fantasy tale. Here's another movie that visually brings you into a completely bizzar fantasy world. Except this world has kind of an art-house feel to it. The plot and story are very parallel to that of The Wizard of Oz. A young girl who is a juggler for a failing circus finds herself traveling to a world that mirrors the artwork she draws on the walls of her room. I had a good time with this movie and if your a fan of Neil Gaimen's work or your looking for something that's far more artsy fartsy than the standard fantasy/fairy tale movie, it's worth the rental.
(view trailer here)


And that about does it for this entry. I'm off to watch Mimic. A favorite I haven't seen in a long time and one of Guillermo del Torro's first movies he's brilliantly directed. Perhaps some video games and a cigar later.

Until next time, as a wise man once said to me, Stay Vertical!

Zangz.

The Hounds of War on Independence Day.

Happy 4th of July to you all!

So far my holiday weekend has been quite wonderful. Yesterday I took a half day and started the weekend off early. Since we have a huge 3rd of July fireworks display that I can view from my parking lot, I took a folding chair, some beer, cigars and a good book and hunkered down for the afternoon/evening. Quite the spectacle. The fireworks lasted about 50 minutes and were being shot off of a barge down in the harbor as well as a tall downtown building. The cigars and beer were pretty decent also.

Today's fun involves helping my mom walk a dog that she's sitting for then hitting the food store for provisions I'll need later today. 'Cause once again Iris and Roberto have graciously offered to hold the annual, impromptu 4th of July Hullabaloo. Last year's quickly became The Great 'Squito Siege of 2007! I'm bringing two cans of OFF to do battle with the little sh*tz this year. HAVE AT ME BASTAGES!!! THEN GET READY FOR THE HOUNDS OF WAR!!


Last weekend I went to our local huge music festival, Summerfest and checked out a showcase of female, solo, local musicians called Chick Singer Night. Then I went into "dirty old man" mode and stuck around for country artist Miranda Lambert who actually stayed away from the usual pluck, pluck "my dog died and lover left me" crap that plagues country music and she stuck with a lot of good old rock 'n' roll tunes (Did an awesome cover of Zep's "Rock 'N' Roll). Then after a few cigars and beers I waddled over to another stage were I saw the closing number of a Rock chorus/alternative/happy-feel-good group called Polyphonic Spree who were a lot of fun to hear. At the end of their show they even came out and danced around in the audience. Now that's audience interaction!!!! Look into it Miranda!


So I've put aside GTA4 for just a smidgen of time to pick up on Quake 4. So far the game is quite challenging and looks great. I also still have to finish Mass Effect as well as Oblivion: Shimmering Isles. I'll get there, I'll get there.


Well, here's something I haven't done for a spell. Here are a couple of movie reviews of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror and Pulp movies I've rented lately........

Cloverfield - Put together a dash of King Kong and a splash of Blair Witch and you have a small inkling of what Cloverfield is like. At first I was a little annoyed at the cast of characters that were being introduced in the beginning party scenes of the flick. They were all of the typical, young, beautiful yuppie people that quickly got on my nerves, save for one goofy cameraman character. But, once the shat hits the fan and the Big Nasty is released, it becomes a no-holds-barred, heart pounder of a movie. Definitely worth the rental, if not for purchase!

The Covenant - Remember how cool the movie The Craft was about young witches learning to deal with their powers? Well this similarly themed movie about young Warlocks learning to deal with their powers. There's also a bigger cheese factor to the story in this one as it's more action orientated than The Craft. I tended to enjoy the Craft far more than The Covenant since I enjoy watching cute Goth chicks far more than a bunch of teen magazine looking pretty boys use magic to thwart evil. Good for a few chuckles as a rental.

Rise: Blood Hunter - Lucy Liu stars as a journalist who finds herself transformed into vampire and hunts down those responsible. Not the most original theme or vampire story out there and not as well executed as the Blade movies, but still watchable, especially if your a big Lucy Liu fan.

Skinwalkers - Yet another modern/action tail of broods of Werewolves doing battle with each other. Far from being at all original, it was still a fun filled cheese fest to watch. Rent it.

Undead or Alive: A Zombedy - I'm still on the fence on this one. This mixed the genres of Western, Comedy and Horror all together. It stars Chris Kattan and James Denton as two cowboys who find themselves in a town that becomes Zombie central. Sadly the two main actors have about as much chemistry as two bricks. Sure, there were a couple of scenes where I chuckled a bit. Plus, I'm always a sucker for anything involving zombies. Then there was the striking female lead as well. But there were also a few things that bugged me. It was a no budget production that kind of came off as just that. Especially the "score" which was made up of just one song played over and over and over and over and over again. By the end of the film the lyrics were scorched into my brian, "Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive, Undead or Alive" over and over and over again. That was the whole score. And it's not even a really good song to begin with. For that reason alone this film went down several notches in my own opinion of the film. Rent it if you like zombies.... I guess.

The Simpson's Movie - I'm probably the only geek on the face of the earth who doesn't wet dream about the Simpsons' when he goes to bed on Sunday night. Sure, I like them just fine. I think their longevity has a lot to do with the comedic relevance of their association and understanding of both pop and geek culture. But, at times, I get a little sick of the Simpsons (WHAT!?!?! THAT'S IT, ZANGZ! TURN IN YOUR GEEK MEMBERSHIP CARD!!!! PRONTO!!!) Seriously, I have to take a break from the Simpsons every now and then. So when I heard that they were going to be going to the big screen I was hoping for something far more funny than what we all get to watch on TV every Sunday night. Well, that wasn't the case. The movie was no funnier than one of their TV episodes. Sure, there were a few chuckles (Spider - Pig), but I feel that if you're going to put the Simpsons on the big assed screen, it better be an out of the park hit rather than the same old same old. Good for rental for die hard Simpsons' fans.

Nightwatch - This Russian made Matrix meets Highlander freak fest is wonderfully crazy as hell. A lot of fun filled action sequences riddle this film and make it visually fun on the peepers! Though the movie can be quite a bit hard to follow at times and does have some dragging moments, it's definitely worth checking out!

I have a few more that I have to get to and will do so once time lends itself. But for now, I have to get ready for the day's festivities. So until next time, as a wise sage once told me, Stay Vertical!

Zangz.

Some not so great news / Some really friggin' great news!

First, the not so great news....

Click HERE

I had the pleasure of meeting him one year at GenCon. It was about 6 years ago. Did ya know he started out as a stunt man before he got into acting? (Useless information #3006!)


Now some really friggin' great news! Check out the new Bond trailer while you can....

Click HERE

In brief other news, you may have noticed I've given the blog a bit of an upgrade. Lots more crap to read through on the left hand side of your screen now. Yep. I'm that desperate for attention.

I'm out to try a cigar I've never had before, but heard good things about, Ashton.

I'm outta here.....Zangz.

"I like my coffe black, just like my METAL!"

I know it's been a shat-load of time since I last wasted your valuable time by blogging, but work has ramped up its production which is a good problem to have in today's economy. But it's also quite grueling on the stress factor as well as the mental well being as I'm finding.

Have you ever thought you've done a stellar job on something only to find out later that you may have fracked it up? That's the kind of week I've had. God hates me!

I'm also quite saddened by the passings of both make up/special effects artist Stan Winston as well as comedic god, George Carlin. He got arrested in my home town over 30 some odd years ago for doing his routine, Seven Dirty Words. Hopefully they're both up in heaven scaring the frell out of the lord (since the bastage hates me so much!).

Don't fret for this geek, though. I've found a few ways to relax and attempt to purge out the nasty work-a-day stress factor.

Reading outside after work, sitting in my parking lot that overlooks Lake Michigan. A nice smooth cigar in one hand and a good read in the other can smooth out the stress nodes like you wouldn't believe. I finished off two books in under a month and a half (a record for the dullard that is I). Of course my humidor is slightly more empty, but well worth the herfs!

I blew through both of the Alex Cross mysteries that I was reading. "Big Bad Wolf" was quite good as Cross goes after one of the highest ranking members of the Russian mob, The Wolf, who's wrapped up in a sex slave/kidnapping plot to satisfy the needs of wealthy perverts. Then I went to the direct sequel, "London Bridges" where The Wolf goes from being a leader of the Russian mob to being a Bond villain-esque terrorist. A bit of a stretch for a villain between direct sequel novels, but what the frell? The Alex Cross series are such interesting reads that you gotta give author James Patterson some slack when it comes to suspension of disbelief. Just take it in and let it roll!

Now that I'm done with those books, I'm reading two more books at once. One is an anthology of Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane short stories that Mad Mario lent me. The other is Alice Cooper's autobiography, "Golf Monster". Both I'm really enjoying so far. We'll see how long it takes "ADD me" to get through these.

I've also herfed through one too many cigars this season. Which reminds me that I have to pick up a few for the 4th of July weekend next week. Sorry Iris, but get ready for the hermaster that is Zangz!.

I've also taken a break form GTA4 (perish the thought!) and finally finished Bioshock! A truly great game! Who could of thought a quasi-abandoned, post modern, undersea city could be so frackin' creepy. Any video game that can merge action, first person shooter, survival horror with a tinge of RPG is a class act in my book. And I have to thank Iris Von Beaverhousen and her ever faithful man servant, Roberto DelAmorte, for getting it for me for Xmas!!!

I've also gotten into a new band. If you like powerful punk-rap-metal-alternative with a very nasty-assed sense of dark humor, please delight yourselves to Mindless Self Indulgence. Any punk band that does a cover of RUSH's Tom Sawyer are pretty damn fun!

I could do a bunch of movie reviews, but I'm too friggin' lazy tonight after a weeks worth of mental beating from work. So check back here again when I'm not as wiped out.

Until next time, Stay Vertical!

Zangz.