Stranger Things : Six. TPB.

Six tells the story of 6 and a little about 3.

Six has the power to predict the future. But she is not very good at it. 

Three can influence people with his words.

Thought flashbacks it tells the story of her upbringing and how she got into the program. 

The story isn't the greatest. But it surprised me that a few years before the last season came out, that it foretold Vecna and the tank 11 used. 

It was an ok read. But not ground breaking.

Han Solo: Imperial Cadet. TPB.

This TPB collects the limited series about Han Solo when he was an Imperial Cadet. A missing part of the Solo movie. Which I feel had more then a few.

The story starts out when Han becomes a cadet. From the very beginning he is a jackass to his instructors. Constantly in trouble and being insubordinate. It only gets worse when he disobeys direct orders and steals equipment. 

We aren't dealing with the rebels or smugglers, we are dealing with the empire. The same empire that destroyed planets. Not sure why they didn't shoot him or just kick him out. They explained it that the commander of the academy took a liking to solo and his skills, reminding him of himself. 

That being said. I did enjoy the story. Just didn't seem to make sense why they would tolerate it.

Side note. TPB, trade paperbacks, are not the same as graphic novels. It's a pet peeves of mine, I know it's pretty. But a froahxi novel is a complete story meant to be read in a larger book like format, while a TPB is a collection of single issues from a series of comic books. 

Top ten movies

This list is complied from my Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler and Pinterest accounts. There was a lot of movies that one for two people seemed to love but no one else mentioned.



(Votes)

1. Back to the Future Series (27)

2. Star Wars Series (25)

3. The Princess Bride (21)

4. Goonies(17)

5. The Godfather (16)

6. Rocky (13)

7. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. (12)

8. Alien (10)

9. The Shawshank Redemption (8)

10. The Prestige (6)

Honorable Mention: The Star Trek Series, Particularly the Wraith of Khan and the 2010 Star Trek.

Top Ten Video Games Voted On By You.

This list is complied from my Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler and Pinterest accounts. Altered Beast and Castlevania got equal votes. (votes)
1. Super Mario Brothers (14)
2. Legend of Zelda (12)
3. Altered Beast (11)
3. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. (11)
4. Dr. Mario (10)
5. Resident Evil Series(8)
6. Final Fantasy Series (7)
7. Portal 2 (6)
8. Grand Theft Auto Series (5)
9. Donkey Kong (3)
10. Tetris (2)

Thor

Thor. 

Thor the son of Odin, a familiar name that we have all heard about in school or on various tv shows. Here's the deal with marvels version. Odin is a all powerful humanoid from an alternate dimension where magic and science are the same. Anyone living in the dimension of assgard is immortal, which Odin can take away.  Frost giants, another humanoid race from another dimension, tried to conquer all other dimensions but was defeated by Odin.  

Odin had two sons that were raised together. Thor and Loki, unknown to them Loki is actually a Frost Giant orphan that Odin took to raise as his own. Thor was the chosen successor to the throne and given Mjölnir, a hammer that has various powers least of which is the ability to summon lightening.

When first we meet Thor he is arrogant, self centered and infaluable and the people love him. He makes the mistake of attacking the frost giants and shatter the peace they've had for decades.

Odin banishes him to earth and removes his immortality. The hammer follows to earth but a stipulation was added, only someone with a pure heart can wield it. 

The rest of the movie is basically a fish  out of water scenario. With Thor claiming to be the son of Odin and a great warrior and everyone else thinking he's nuts until Loki turns on Odin and Thor and sends a indestructible robot to kill Thor. 

This movie was fun and fast, but had the feel of just introducing us to the situations and not so much on story. 

I was never was a huge fan of Thor and if need be I wouldn't be that mad if he was left out of the avenger movie. However I have known people that are obsessed with him. I even knew somebody that tried to dig up their parents basement thinking Thor's hammer could be hidden under the dirt. 

7 out of 10

Train: Save me San Fransisco

Train:  
Save me San Francisco
Cd

This will be short. 

I have never heard a more commercial album.  Every track should sound familiar to anyone with a tv or a radio because they use it on every advertisement. The rhyming sounds like it was done by an idiot and is overused. 


1 out of 10. 

The Silmarillian.

The Silmarilian
By Jrr Tolkien 
Book. 

I love lord of the rings, that being said, the Silmarilian is dry and hard to read. Published after Tolkien died and before he finished the book. 

The Silmarilian is the complete story of middle earth, from it's foundations to it's end. 

It does explain all about Sauron and how he became so powerful, also about Gandalf and all the other wizards. Where the elves come from. More about hobbits, orcs and rings. 

The Silmarilian itself would be better served as a reference guide to the published series instead of the stand alone book people want it to be. 

There is a overwhelming urge for people to declare everything that Tolkien touched a masterpiece. When in actuality a lot of it is hard to read and unfinished. His published works is great and definitely a masterpiece. 

If you can find a copy of the first print of the Hobbit it has a lot of differences. Tolkien rewrote parts of the book to fit into Lord of the Rings for the 2nd printing. For example, when Bilbo gets the ring, Golem agrees he was bested a wishes Bilbo a safe journey.

4 out of 10
Taylor

Shrek forever after.

Shrek Forever after.
DVD and BLU-Ray,

It’s been a long time since Shrek first came on the scene.  Computer animation has changed a lot; it makes me wish they would remake the original with the new tech.

Shrek longs for a simpler life without all his responsibilities and his swamp back to its original state. The plot of every Shrek movie by the way. Making a deal with Rumplestiltskin, he ends up never being born alter the world and everyone else for the worse.

The fat alternate reality Puss is one of the funniest parts of the movie.

Eddie Murphy’s voice acting sounded very unconvincing.

Cameron Diaz seems to have just phoned it in.

Mike Myers seems to have better luck with his voice then he does with his physical acting.

The story wasn’t so great and seemed like just random filler.

This is supposed to be the final Shrek movie. But they all have been worth a few laughs and made a ton of money so we will just have to see. I doubt it will be the last.


6 out of 10
Taylor.

Star Wars: X-Wing: Wraith Squadron.

Star Wars: X-Wing: Wraith Squadron. 
By Aaron Allston. 

(Previously published on Goodreads.com.)

Wraith squadron is one of the worst Star Wars books in the series. Allston is one of the least original authors currently writing books. It is a shame he is still writing star wars books.

A good author tries to continue a series, adding to the overall narrative. Allston tries to rework the series to be his own. 

A lot of his characters and stories are flimsy reworkings of characters from tv shows or movies. A particularly obvious example that I like is his latest books and the almost scenario to scenario similarities to Doctor Who episodes.

I still read his books but I consider them at the same level as good fan fiction and not part of the official Star Wars cannon.

This author is what killed my obsession with Star Wars years ago. I used to buy anything and everything Star Wars. I had a collection of over 45 thousand pieces. Now I maybe have 100 pieces left, and no longer buy things.

1 out of 10
Taylor 

Toy Story 3.

Toy Story 3. 
DVD and Blu Ray

Let me start off by saying always read the fine print. Commercials and the movie box advertise that Toy Story 3 is the 1# animated movie of all time. That's all well and good, but it isn't. 

If you read the fine print in the commercial or on the sticker it reads " according to movieguide.com". 

This kind of advertising trickery really makes me mad because it wasn't even the best of the trilogy let alone the 1# money maker. Most people read this and assume it's true. 

But on to the movie. 

This is actually the second Toy Story 3. Disney decided to make 3 without Pixar who didn't want to do it. The story involved the Buzz Lightyear toys being recalled and sent back to the factory in Mexico and the group of toys go on an adventure to rescue him. 

I know voice recording was done. But I am not sure how much animation was made. 

Toy Story 3 was a good movie, but not the best. Tim Allen's voice sounds a little aged. The story seemed a little bit forced, being that its animation you can keep Andy young forever. So why make him grow up. It had some minor problems but worth watching. 

Little known fact: In high school I was offered college and a job at Pixar. I turned it down, thinking that computer animation was just a fad. 

6 out of 10
Taylor

Diner for Schmucks.

Diner for Smucks. 
DVD and Blu ray. 


Man I wanted to like this movie. The previews showed it to be a laugh a minute comedy, it was not. 
 
The main story of the movie was about a guy played by Paul Rudd who tries to get a promotion and marry his girlfriend and about 30 minute into it he accidentally hits Steve Carrel with his car, who tries to be helpful but ends up screwing up Rudd's life. 

The actual diner didn't even happen until around the hour mark and was full of extras and  cameo stars that have been overplayed in other movies. 

Zack (insert name here) played (insert name here) who comically controls people with his mind. A role which could have been really really funny fell short of expectations. 

Paul Rudd's girlfriend runs an art gallery and works exclusively which an artist named Keiran who think himself sort of a artistic god. Creating pictures where he is half man half goat, or demon like. His character actually works in this movie, his persona is so over the top that's it very comical.  

I hate when comedy movies try to teach us lessions. Are we supposed to walk away and think "I guess we know who the real schmucks are, the people who judge others too harshly."

Dinner for Schmucks seemed like someone had a good idea but it wasn't long enough or funny enough so they kept adding elements different from the main theme. This is a not unheard-of technique in hollywood. It happens all the time. 


Taylor 

4 out of 9. 

Knight and Day.

Knight and Day. 
DVD and Blu Ray


Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz star in a comedic spy movie. Sounds like a hit. Yet when I saw a advertisement for the DVD release I was a little stumped it seemed funny and action packed. But why hadn't I heard of it. 

After reading online that the movie went through 5 directors and a series of rewrites and casting changes, I suspected it was terrible. I still sat down and watched it. 

Tom Cruise plays a secret agent who supposedly went rouge stealing a perpetual energy source the size of a battery. Cameron Diaz gets involved by forcing her way onto a airplane filled with agents and Tom Cruise. She doesn't know who to believe because Cruise acts totally insane for the majority of the movie. 

This movie is really fun, packed with a lot of decent jokes, funny sayings, satire and espionage. Like when Tom Cruise shoots a fireman in the leg and tells him he'll be a hero and probably get a promotion, and that it's just a flesh wound.

Peter Scarsguard plays protagonist to the two main characters but had no real character development and his whole character seemed to be a glorified extra.

It really is too bad that this movie didn't do so well in the theaters, a sequel would have been fun to watch.

I don't really know why it is called knight and day though. 


7.5 out of 10
Taylor

Blythe Watch 2.

Rom Howard to appear in the movie. Read this article.

http://m.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news/a299085/ron-howard-could-appear-in-arrested-movie.html

Doctor Who: Christmas Carol.

Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol. 
TV Special. 

The 2010 Doctor Who Christmas Special, for those of you that don't know, marks the half way point between the last season and the new season of Doctor Who, dating back since the 2005 series revival. 

Sometimes a new character is revealed, who later appears in the series or the Doctor regenerates into a new actor. 

This year's saw Amy Pond and Rory on their honeymoon aboard a spaceship that is starting to crash into an alien planet. The Doctor arrives in the TARDIS and discovers that the planet is protected by an electromagnetic machine that is controlled by an old miser Kazran Sardick. Despite the fact it's as simple as pushing a button, he refuses to save the ship. 

The Doctor decides to travel back in time to change Kazran past to make him a better, more caring person. The Doctor shows an old home video of Kazran to himself. As Kazran watches himself as a child The Doctor suddenly appears in the video from his childhood. 

This is a typical Doctor Who story, but lacked a lot of what is expected in a typical Who episode. There wasn't a lot of adventure just a straight forward story which was very predictable with no real surprises. 

It felt that Amy and Rory were in it as an afterthoughts and didn't really add much to anything except to add to the continuity. 

It was kind of a let down. But worth watching. 

6 out of 10
Taylor 

Futurama volume 5.

Futurama Volume 5. 
DVD

Futurama is the brain child of Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. It was marketed as the Simpsons in space and appeared on TV in 1999. Sadly it was pulled from the air around the same time as The Family Guy.

Years went by and Futurama continued as a comic book and a lackluster video game. Occasionally, Bender would appear in a Simpsonís episode but never for very long.

Family Guy was brought back on the air and soon hopes that Futurama would return soon filled fans heads.

No network seemed to want to take the reins and bring it back, even though in reruns it did very well on several different stations.  

Soon a series of four straight to DVD movies were released a few months apart and were split into 12 TV episodes that aired on Comedy Central.  The success of the DVDs and the newer split up episodes had Comedy Central order 13 new episodes.

The new series is a continuation of the original series and the four movies. In fact the last movie ends with a cliff hanger which is where the first episode starts off. Episodes take on modern subject as evolution, politics, iPhones, Twitter and robots/humans marriages, with some episodes making a parody of Leonardo Da Vinci and time travel amongst other topics. 

Fry and Leela now know how each other feel about the other and are dating. We see Amy Wong finishing school and having relationship problems with Kiff. Other than being a little short of episodes Futurama volume 5 fits into the Futurama series like a missing puzzle piece.  It was a little hard to start in on new Futuramas after so many years, but after a few episodes the new writing and episode flow seemed like old hat. 

There was a rumor for a while that a new series would be called "Fry Loves Leela" and that it wouldn't be a continuation but a 2nd series with not all of the characters returning. 

I didn't like the carbon neutral box that the series came in. I'm all for saving the environment, but these are paper cases and do not hold up very well.

Definitely pick up this set if you're a fan or if you just want a good comedy to watch. Plus, good DVD sales will help keep it on the air for several more years.

There is a sticker on the cover tha reads, "Back by popular harassment."
8 of 10.
Taylor

Fred Claus

Fred Claus
Blu ray and DVD. 

Vince Vaughn stars as Santa's older brother Fred, who is tired of having to live up to his example. Paul Giamoti plays Santa and because he is a saint no one in his immediate family (or their spouse) dies. So the story starts hundreds of years ago when Santa was born and after a showing how the rift between the two started, picks up in modern times.

Fred is a wheeling, dealing, friendly con man who has no one left to borrow money from to open a betting parlor. So he turns to his brother, who uses tough love and makes him work for the money at the North Pole. 

His arrival coincides with Kevin Spacey who is sent to see if Santa's whole setup is worth the trouble anymore. And in the typical Spacey way turns out to be diabolical and wants to shut down the North Pole. 

One of the funniest scenes I have seen in a movie was when Fred goes to the "living in my brothers shadow" support group. Frank Stalone talks about losing his identity when the Rocky movies came out. Then Roger Clinton talks about being brothers with Bill. Fred mouths off and upsets Stephan Baldwin who calms down by stomping the floor and reminding himself "he's not Alec."

Kathy Bates and Rachel Weisz play Fred's mom and girlfriend but they could have been played by anyone.

All in all this is your basic unethical guy learns a powerful lesson and saves Christmas movie. But it is fresh, updated and a little in your face funny. 

Every December, while going through Christmas boxes I inevitably find the list I made comparing my father to Santa Claus. 
1. Both are old. 
2. They both eat all the milk and cookies, leaving none for anyone else.
3. They both have big, food catching beards.
4. Both have bowls full of jelly. 
5. Both work about a day a year.

7 out of 10
Taylor. 

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. 
Blu Ray and DVD. 

Indiana Jones is one of the most iconic figures in movie history. The first three movies are some of the best... uh, maybe not so much on the Temple of Doom. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark took Harrison Ford from being that guy in Star Wars to a legitimate actor. 

When word came down of a fourth Indiana Jones, I got really excited. It had been almost 20 years since the Last Crusade and I was ready. 

First reports stated Harrison Ford and Sean Connery were back. Plus, Tom Selleck was cast as his older brother. George Lucas was writing and producing and Steven Spielberg was  directing. Perfect, right? Wrong. 

Sean Connery dropped out, stating,

"I thought long and hard about it and if anything could have pulled me out of retirement it would have been an Indiana Jones film. I love working with Steven and George, and it goes without saying that it is an honor to have Harrison as my son. But in the end, retirement is just too damned much fun."
―Sean Connery in 2007

Then Tom Selleck dropped out over script disputes. So the script was heavily rewritten and the brother was removed and replaced with the character of Harold Oxley played by John Hurt. With no Connery, Jim Broadbent was introduced as the Dean of the College. 

The movie itself starts out rather typically of the series with a military unit driving down a dusty desert highway being harassed by some local 1950's stereotyped teens in a hot rod. The military unit turns onto a base remonisiant of area 51 and are revealed to be Russian spies who kill everyone and take over the base. Tossing Indiana Jones from a car with his sidekick Mac, this is where the movie starts to go wrong. 

The only bad guys more overplayed than the Nazis are the Russians. This movie is chalked full of them led by Cate Blanchett with a very bad accent and even badder wig.

During a nuclear explosion at the beginning of the movie, our has-been hero hides in a lead refrigerator only to get launched free of danger. At this point my thought was maybe the rest of the movie will redeem this scene. It didn't. 

The debriefing scene was used to fill in the gap between the movies. He was a spy in WWII... neat. But too much time has passed and to many things have changed like his secretly tratorous sidekick. 

Shia LaBeouf plays Mutt, no surprise, Indiana Jones' son and a greaser bike rider. For some reason his character quickly turns from a street smart brawler to a sword fighting scholar that the movie really could have done without.

John Hurt over acts in his role, making him hard to watch. As for Karen Allen returning as Marion... let's just say time wasn't on her side. 

Here's what it come down to: the feel of the originals was not there. The jokey, cocky way he does things didn't seem to make it into this movie. Scenes such as Indiana facing down a line of villains only to shoot all of them with 1 bullet are really missing in this movie. 

The original three movies were based on religious beliefs such as the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail and the Thugee cult. Beliefs with written records and thousands of years of culture. This time around the movie is based on theoretical, new age beliefs about current pseudo theory that aliens came to Earth and taught the ancients technology. A theory based on little to no facts. 

This movie was just too out there. The story didn't fit into the Indiana Jones mythos. Too many stupid plot twist and bad ideas. I really wanted to like this movie. I kept trying to rationalize my way through this. I kept thinking, maybe the next scene will get better, which turned into 'it can't end like this'. 

Avoid this movie. Even hard core fans will have a problem with this film. There is a theory about this movie series, Raiders was good, Temple was bad. Last Crusade was good, Crystal Skull was bad. Therefore, based on the alternating quality, the assumption is that the 5th one (which they are working on now) will be good. 

Tom Selleck was originally cast as Indiana Jones. It was after he did the pilot for Magnum P.I. but before the series got picked up. He couldn't do it while the series started shooting and felt obligated to decline.  So when Tom Selleck moved to Hawaii the writers guild went on strike and no filming was done for 6 months. In that time, production of Raiders of the Lost Ark filmed in Hawaii and only took 6 months. 

2 out of 10
Taylor 

Look Me In The Eyes.

Look Me in the Eye. 
John Elder Robinson 
Book

This book is about a child who grows into adulthood without knowing he had a form of autism known as Aspergers syndrome. It is autobiographical and is written in the style of his younger brother Augusten Burroughs. 

From a very young age John Elder knew that he was different. His reactions and interactions were different then those around him and often times adults would ridicule him. For example, he writes of a time when someone was killed in a terrible car crash and his reaction was to smile and laugh. The adults were mortified and thought that he was crazy. When in fact John Elder goes on to explain his thought process. He was happy because his parents weren't involved and no one he knew was dead and then thought about them all having fun togather. 

The way he peels back the layers of Aspergers to explain the different thought processes to the reader, as well as the struggles to talk to people like what calls normal people, really made you feel for him. 

He was raised at a time when there was no diagnoses for what he had. People thought he was psychotic, stupid or just retarded. He left school and  as soon as he realized he could and found himself working on Pink Floyds' equipment before touring with KISS to design special guitars and amps. 

He delves into relationships and marriage with his disorder. He found it much easier to call people by nicknames then actual names. He referred to his Dad as Stupid and his Mom as Slave for most of his life.

If you've read any Augusten Burroughs books then you'll want to read this book to see their parents from a different, yet similar point of view. You also get to see their parents younger, happier and even in love. 

This is a good read, especially for those that have always felt like they were a little different. 

I was always told "look me in the eye" when I was younger. I always laughed at how weird it was when you had to stare into people's eyes... which inevitably make the situation worse. 


8 out of 10
Taylor

Super Mario Bros. Classic review.

Super Mario Bros.
NES, Wii. Classics Review.


This was the first real video game I ever played outside an arcade. We had an atari but those games didn't play very well besides Pacman and Donkey King. I was a little late coming to the scene, 1988, considering the game came out in 1986.

For 20 years, Super Mario Bros. was the best selling game of all time. Almost 45 million copies have been sold. It has been released in every format Nintendo that has been made since the original NES.

Super Mario Bros. is a sequel to the 1983 game Mario Bros. which itself is a sequel to 1981's Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. Mario has appeared in almost 100 games that altogether have sold 220 million units.

The game itself is a side scrolling adventure through the mushroom kingdom. Players take on the role of Mario or with 2 players, Luigi. Depending on which block you hit you can get certain power ups, fire balls, invulnerability or super size. Coins were also placed in blocks and after collecting 100 you got a free life.

It came free with Duck Hunt for most of the original NES systems. So almost everyone got a copy of it.

Along his quest to save the princess, Mario fought turtle shelled Koopa Troopas, mushroom Goombas, snapping pipe pants and a giant lizard named Bowzer. There were other badies, but only my brother took the time to memorize them.

This game introduced gamers to the warp pipe. Basically, hidden in the game are several pipes that skip you ahead in the game to a whole other level. This made it do I could beat the game repeatedly before my brother even got a chance to play Luigi. This was a whole new way of cheating, a legal way to beat the game.

All in all this game is fun and brings back a flood of memories. My only complaint is that recent Mario games have additional power and abilities that I instinctively have tried to do, such as the wall bounce, on the original game.

I used to get in trouble for two reasons with this game.

1. As mentioned earlier, I would be told to play with my little brother and so we took turns playing Super Mario Bros. But I was so good at it and I knew all the warps so well that I could play through game over and over again before giving him a chance to play.

2. My brother and me referred to Mario dying on the game as dying. For example, "oh no, I just died." My Mom got very upset that we joked about life and death at such a young age.


9 out of 10
Taylor