Book Review: Iceman

Iceman: My Fighting Life
by Chuck Liddell

Synopsis: Known by UFC aficionados as the Iceman, Charles "Chuck" Liddell is a former California bartender and kickboxing instructor who became a light heavyweight Ultimate Fighting champion. Liddell's no-holds-barred memoir recounts every battle of his great career, including his grudge matches with Tito Ortiz and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. The face of the UFC speaks his mind.

As a big fan of both Chuck and the UFC, I found this book quite enjoyable. The stories are told with quite a bit of detail and he not only talks about his life and career he touches on a lot of the UFC's history in it's early days to the days when it was really starting to take off. There are insider accounts of fights that I've seen dozens of times giving me new insight to what went on. He tells stories from how his trademark mohawk came about, his nickname, his rivalry with Tito Ortiz, his friendship with UFC president Dana White, octagon groupies, behind the scenes of The Ultimate Fighter reality show, how he trains and being a father.

One of the things that makes it so enjoyable is that to me, he just comes across as a likable guy. He's a guy who is a bad ass but you could really be comfortable just sitting in a pub having a cold beer with and talking about normal stuff. That's how the book reads too... down to earth. Not pretentious. Not arrogant. He doesn't take cheap shots at other fighters and doesn't claim to be the greatest ever, despite being the most recognizable fighter in mixed martial arts.

For MMA fans this is a must read.

9/10

Stuck In Traffic? It's Elementary Really...

Movie Review: The Heartbreak Kid

A newlywed man (Ben Stiller) who believes he's just gotten hitched to the perfect woman learns not all is at it seemed, then encounters another lady (Michelle Monaghan) on his honeymoon.

This is pretty much one of those films that if you like Ben Stiller, you'll probably like the movie. If you don't like Ben Stiller, there's really no point in you watching it. He plays pretty much the exact same character he does a lot, just like Greg Fokker. He's funny at times, but never really hilarious and that sort of summed up the whole movie for me. It's never really laugh out loud funny but it has some funny and entertaining moments.

There are a lot of good characters (especially Jerry Stiller who steals several scenes) and situations and the Farrelly Brothers add their trademark raunchy stuff to it, but I don't think it's as good or funny as some of their other work like There's Something About Mary or Dumb and Dumber (a classic!), but it's probably more on par with The Ringer or Stuck on You.

Funny, not hilarious, but entertaining enough to pass a couple of hours with. Maybe I'm being a bit lenient, but I like Ben Stiller.

6/10

Woo Pig Tuesday!

Mad Props #1: Former Arkansas Razorback Joe Johnson scored 35 pts, 20 in the 4th quarter alone, as the Celtics couldn't stop him last night in Atlanta. The Hawks now head back to Beantown all tied up with the mighty Celtics in the first round of the NBA playoffs in a best-of-seven series most (including me) thought would be a Beantown sweep. Go Joe! Shock the world! Well, the NBA world at least. Well, maybe just the general area around Atlanta and Boston. Ah hell, probably just the people in Boston, but that's good enough.

Mad Props #2: To a pair of first rounders, former Arkansas Razorback's Darren McFadden , who got drafted #4 overall by the Oakland Raiders, and Felix Jones, who got drafted at #22 overall by the Dallas Cowboys.

Mad Props #3: The rest of the Hog bunch, who splashed all over the draft boards.

DT Marcus Harrison in round 3 (#90) to the Chicago Bears
OT Nate Garner in round 7 (#211) to the NY Jets
FB Peyton Hillis in round 7 (#227) to the Denver Broncos
WR Marcus Monk in round 7 (#248) to the Chicago Bears

and former Arkansas State Indian FS Tyrell Johnson who went in round 2 (#43) to the Minnesota Vikings.

Football! Only in America is it a year round thing. How many months until the NFL season starts? Too many. I'm ready now. I'll even consider buying a Felix Jones jersey (and I hate the Cowboys).

New releases in the ole stores today in a good week to be a Def Leppard fan I guess:

Def Leppard - "Songs from the Sparkle Lounge" CD
Korn - "Playlist: The Very Best of Korn" CD
Soul Embraced - "Dead Alive" CD
Walls of Jericho - "Redemption" Acoustic EP

The following rock acts will perform live on TV this week:

Tuesday:
Serj Tankian on NBC’s “Last Call with Carson Daly”
Def Leppard on The WB’s “Ellen DeGeneres”

Wednesday:
Def Leppard on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Thursday:
Stone Temple Pilots on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

New stuff on DVD today features a kid's fantasy film and a chick flick:

The Golden Compass - In a parallel universe, young Lyra Belacqua journeys to the far North to save her best friend and other kidnapped children from terrible experiments by a mysterious organization.

27 Dresses - After serving as a bridesmaid 27 times, a young woman wrestles with the idea of standing by her sister's side as her sibling marries the man she's secretly in love with.

Big Dozen Super Summer Films

I realize that Summer doesn't officially start until June, but the Summer movie season has crept earlier and earlier each year lately. Now they start launching some big blockbuster type movies the first weekend of May and usually draw some blockbuster type numbers. So far in the 4 months this year, only 1 movie has even topped $100 mil in the U.S. theaters and that's Horton Hears A Who. There will be some Summer movies that break that mark their first weekend.

I see a lot of cool stuff this Summer that I'm really excited about seeing, as usual. Lots of sequels, more animated juggernauts and some more super heroes.

Here's my Most Anticipated 12 Summer 2008 Movies, in order of greatest level of anticipation:

12. The Happening (June 13th) - M. Night Shyamalan is back, and despite his terrible Lady In The Water and so-so The Village... this is the guy that did cool films like The Sixth Sense, Wide Awake, Signs and Unbreakable so I'll be interested to see this one as well. Looks like an apocalyptic type thriller.

11. The Strangers (May 30th) - A couple (Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler) cozied up in a vacation home are terrorized by three unknown assailants in a horror movie that has a killer (pun intended) trailer.

10. Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D (July 11th) - Brendan Fraser in the first of his 2 big films, and I do love me some 3D movies!

9. Wall-E (June 27th) - C'mon, it's Pixar! You know this is gonna rock.

8. The Incredible Hulk (June 13th) - Edward Norton this time as Bruce Banner and I expect it to blow the first Hulk movie out of the water. Shouldn't be too hard.

7. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (Aug 1st) - Brendan Fraser again in the near forgotten Mummy action/horror/adventure series.

6. Kung Fu Panda (June 6th) - DreamWorks Animation throws it's hat in the ring with a really cute looking animated film starring Jack Black as a bumbling panda with lots of kung-fu fun. This can't miss.

5. Hellboy II: The Golden Army (July 11th) - Guillermo del Toro directs again and I actually thought the first Hellboy was just sort of OK. I'm hoping this one blows it away.

4. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (May 16th) - Might be the biggest movie of the Summer.

3. Iron Man (May 2nd) - Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark? Granted, the previews look almost a bit on the cheesy side, but when they hit Black Sabbath's Iron Man riff and he comes exploding out... very cool. Always one of my favorite comics as well.

2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (May 23rd) - Harrison Ford is back for his 4th big Indy adventure and he's added Shia LaBeouf as his sidekick. I don't even know much about the plot of this yet but who cares?

1. The Dark Knight (July 18th) - He's Batman. He's Christian Bale. And he's bad ass. Heath Ledger (R.I.P.) looks awesome as the Joker. I loved Bale's other Batman movie and am completely stoked about this one as well.

Well, that's my favorite looking dozen, but I left off some biggies still. The X-Files: I Want To Believe film looks pretty cool. Will Smith's superhero farce Hancock has some funny moments in the trailer, it might be pretty good. The hilarious team of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly have a film called Step Brothers coming in July that surely will have a lot of laughs. Steve Carell's version of Get Smart has gotta be pretty good, since I'm a big fan of anything Steve Carell does and also used to love Get Smart.

It definitely looks like another fun Summer season at the box office for me.

Movie Review: Warbirds

In the midst of World War 2, an officer leads a group of female pilots on a mission to deliver a secret weapon, only to crash land on an island in the Pacific after an encounter with a deadly storm. On the island, they must not only contend with a small band of Japanese soldiers but the native inhabitants of the island as well - vicious prehistoric pterodacyls.

I admit I'm a sucker for these Sci-Fi Channel movies and I watch a ton of them. Usually they're just sort of campy fun if taken sort of tongue in cheek. The problem with this one is it seems to really try to be serious with itself, and it's just way too incredibly awful to do so. It was hard to even get a laugh out of the overall idiocy of the whole thing.

Where to start? I don't know... how about the bad (but expected to be at least) special effects. Or the simply dreadful acting, although with some of the terrible lines they had to say I'm not surprised. Or I could just mention how ridiculous so much of it was... from crash landing a plane on a small island, to fixing it up again and taking off without issue, to giant pterodactyls that can apparently fly as fast as planes, to a man and a woman repeatedly lifting 500 lb barrels into the back of a truck with ease, to the silly political correctness sprinkled throughout, to the most mind-bending stupid ending ever... the list could go on.

But at least the ladies never have a shortage of make-up. It's smeared on their faces the entire movie despite being trapped on a south Pacific island. I guess it was supposed to give it more of a period feel of the old USO type look, but it was closer to a porno look. That said, a porno would probably have better acting... and come to think of it a better plot.

Easily one of the worst Sci-Fi Channel stinkers ever.

2/10

Sunday Funnies

Movie Review: Hitman

A gun-for-hire known only as Agent 47 hired by a group known only as 'The Agency' is ensnared in a political conspiracy, which finds him pursued by both Interpol and the Russian military as he treks across Eastern Europe.

This movie is pretty much what it says it is advertised as, a fast-paced, ultra-violent thriller based on a video game, but damned if it's not actually entertaining. The plot gets a bit convoluted I thought and the dialog was a bit weak, but the action is what it relies on and it's got plenty of that. Most of it over-the-top but it's very stylistic and looks sharp without a lot of dull moments.

I find the idea of a group of assassins that all have shaved heads, wear suits and have bar code tattoos on the back of their heads a bit ridiculous I must say, since don't you think they might want to blend in with the public instead of stand out like a sore thumbs? But hey, I didn't go into this thing for deep thinking. I'm not even a big fan of the video game it's based on of the same name, although I did log some hours on the Hitman 2 game a few years ago.

So don't expect deep, insightful characters or meaningful conversations... do expect a lot of violence and action. You can also expect plenty of drooling over Olga Kurylenko, who plays the Russian sex slave. Well, if you watched it with me you'd see plenty of drooling anyways.

7/10

Movie Review: The Pixar Story

The Pixar Story website

Documentary about the history of Pixar's animation studio charting the meteoric rise of the company with its groundbreaking effects and animation taking the world by storm with each new release.

I can't speak for everybody, but as for me this is one of the greatest studio's on earth. I've loved every single release they've done and anticipate each release more and more. This documentary takes you from the first origins with Lucasfilm to investor Steve Jobs providing funding and despite the studio being in the red in the first few years, one short clip leading to a short film, and with Disney on board in an initial uneven partnership, Toy Story was born. It's an amazing and interesting story.

There's a lot about the history of Disney animation, time focused on directors from John Lasseter to Brad Bird to Pete Doctor plus an inside look at their facilities and just what it takes to put together these great computer animated movies, then and now. The computer animation creation from early stages is fascinating and there is a lot of great old footage from the early days.

After touching on some shorts they spend a lot of time on Toy Story, their first big hit, and then touch on all the releases through Cars. Hit after monster hit.

This is just a fascinating movie for animation fans letting you see behind the scenes of a the greatest success story in motion picture history. I loved it.

With Wall-E set to debut this June and Up and Toy Story 3 on the horizon, I'm curious to see how they can sustain their massive box office magic. Look how their releases have done, it's nothing short of phenomenal really:


Lifetime Gross Total (8 movies): $1,908,004,933
Average: $238,500,617

Wow.

9/10

Lucky Friday!

First off, guess who won a sweet prize? I'll give you a hint, it's a guy who rarely wins anything. If you said me you would be correct as I signed up in an online contest about a month ago on the Sub Zero Fighting website and they called last night and said I was the grand prize winner! I get two round trip airline tickets from Little Rock to Las Vegas, two nights hotel stay at the MGM Grand for the nights of May 23rd and May 24th and two tickets to the UFC event at the MGM Grand on Saturday. That's UFC 84: Ill Will if you don't know, and it's got 3 HUGE fights on the card. B.J. "The Prodigy" Penn Vs. Sean "The Muscle Shark" Sherk, Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva Vs. Keith "The Dean of Mean" Jardine and "Bad Boy" Tito Ortiz Vs. Lyoto Machida. That is a STACKED top of the card. The Penn vs Sherk fight alone is worth going to Vegas for but I also get to see Wanderlei and Tito? I am completely geeked about this! I'll be taking my laptop and blogging every cool thing from the weigh-in (hopefully, if I can get in it) to the fights at my first ever UFC event! It seems like it's been months since I've been to Vegas... well, actually just 3 months. It's on. It is so on.

Went to see my favorite local band last night at Juanitas, Bombay Black. Great set as usual by them and it kicks off my long weekend of music as a friend of mine pulled through with some killer V.I.P./backstage passes for tomorrow's Edgefest 2008 in North Little Rock on the banks of the river. Some of my favorite bands of the last decade will be cranking it up... Disturbed, Sevendust, Kid Rock, Saliva, Five Finger Death Punch and Black Stone Cherry. I've seen every band on the bill, most more than twice, and I can already say it's going to be a great day for music. V.I.P. tix even? Am I the luckiest dude on the planet lately or what? Don't answer that, it may blow my streak I'm on.

If you don't care about heavy metal bombarding you all weekend, 3 new movies hit the theaters as 2 comedies and a thriller try to take over the top spot from Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Let's take a closer looksie.

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

The Plot: Aboard their flight to Amsterdam, Harold and Kumar are caught trying to sneak a bong onboard, the first step in a misadventure that finds them mistaken for terrorists and sent to Guantanamo Bay.
My Thoughts: You know exactly what you're getting here, and this will probably open at #1. Lots of fans of the first Harold and Kumar film.




Deception

The Plot: An accountant (Ewan McGregor) is introduced to a mysterious sex club by his charismatic new lawyer friend (Hugh Jackman). But in this new world, he soon becomes the prime suspect in a woman's disappearance and a multi-million dollar heist.
My Thoughts: Jackman (Wolverine!) and McGregor give this thing some punch. I've heard it's pretty racy.




Baby Mama

The Plot: A career-driven single woman (Tina Fey) hires a surrogate mother (Amy Poehler) to carry her child to term.
My Thoughts: Looks pretty stupid, but Tina and Amy are both hilarious so ya never know. Greg Kinnear is in it too, and I love that dude.

A Great Day

Posting the pic of me and Lemmy yesterday reminded me about the rest of that day in Hollywood. We got into the Roxy on Sunset Strip to a private event that was being filmed for MTV and they wouldn't say what it was. The only reason I got to get in was that I was with 3 hot women and we were walking by and they asked if "we" wanted to come in, knowing full well I was just a tag-along. Heh heh didn't bother me one bit of course. I'll let the wave of someone else ride me in anytime.

Turned out they were filming a show and DVD of Jay Z performing with Linkin Park, which they called MTV's Ultimate Mash Up. Linkin Park did a short set alone then Jay Z joined them onstage and they did a bunch of duet type songs incorporating both of their music. It was awesome. The place was going ape wild the entire time too, the floor felt completely alive. I also remember it being hotter than hell with everybody packed in there and all the activity, but nobody seemed to mind. I was probably the oldest dude in there and they all thought I was a narc or something I bet. Wacky kids. To this day it's still one of the better concerts I've ever seen in my life.

I have the DVD and I can see myself a bunch of times throughout, since I know right where to look and all, but here's a screen shot of me at the show that appeared on MTV:


My best camera appearance is right at the 5:16 mark of this video for Jay Z's 99 Problems "mashed" with Linkin Park's One Step Closer:



Ah good times.

My Favorite Storyteller

Here's Paul Thorn on Jimmy Kimmell Live Tuesday night:



The son of a Pentecostal preacher, Paul tells stories like nobody else. The first time I saw him live was actually at my birthday gathering about 10 years ago. He was opening for the guy we were really there to see, Todd Snider, and I was immediately hooked. He visited with us a while and even signed his debut CD to me with "Happy Birthday Scott" on it. I've seen him about a dozen times since then and have never been dissappointed. Cool guy, great songwriter and he puts on a super live show. He's got plenty to write about, but a lot of it is about the south. He shares a birthplace with Elvis, Tupelo, Mississippi (an area rich with musical tradition), and he was also a professional boxer (he actually fought Roberto Duran on a nationally televised card). He's never really hit it "big" I guess some would say, but he's opened and toured with people like Sting, Jeff Beck and John Hiatt.

"My music's kind of like going to church with a six-pack." ~ Paul Thorn

Part R&B, part gospel, part country and part folk... seek out his tunes. Immediately!

Official Paul Thorn Website
Paul Thorn Myspace
Recent Interview

I Love This Woman

Meet Gina Joy Carano AKA "Crush" on American Gladiators, bad ass daughter of former Dallas Cowboy back-up QB Glenn Carano. She also happens to fight in EliteXC and is a Muay Thai specialist.

And oh yeah, she's hot. Smokin' hot.

When you're done staring at the pic, there's a video or 2 below.

Also, here's another post with some more sexy pics you might like.

Hump Day Indeed

This is easily the coolest band that I know from Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia... Airbourne. This is their newest vid called Runnin' Wild and it's a straight-up rockin' video with none other than Motorhead's Lemmy at the wheel of the truck. You can't get cooler than that. Have I told you about the time I met Lemmy? No? then I will. My friends Stew and Dick in Hollywood knew him and we were at the outdoor bar at The Rainbow and Lemmy was just chillin' at the bar with a brew and I got to chat for a few minutes with him. Very cool. That's Big Brother's Evel Dick in the background.

Let me ask you this... who would win a fight between Lemmy and God? It's a trick question. Lemmy is God. (name that movie for bonus points)

Anyway... yes, these kids sound a lot like AC/DC, but I just can't see that as a bad thing. If it rocks, it rocks.


If that ain't enough, get you some of this too... Airbourne's Too Much Too Young Too Fast



And a super bonus... Motorhead's Killed by Death!

Movie Review: Aliens vs Predator: Requiem

Warring alien and predator races descend on a small Colorado town, where unsuspecting residents must band together for any chance of survival.

I went in to this expecting the worse really, being quite a fan of both franchises and let down by the first Alien vs Predator film... but it really wasn't all that bad. Sure, not original or smart and the whole storyline is wearing a bit thin but there's a lot of violence and gore (I watched the unrated version) and some decent action sequences.

For my tastes, we probably learn too much about the townspeople's backstories. Their dialog is pretty crappy and I never really grew to care about any of them. I really just wanted to see aliens and predators kicking butt and taking names, and there is plenty of that. The face sucking creatures make a lot of appearances and even the good ole chest bursters do some serious blood-letting as not even a pregant woman or child is safe. The baddies ring up quite a body count as well as nobody is safe from instant destruction.

Visually it's a bit too dark sometimes I thought, as I couldn't really tell what was going on during some action sequences. The special effects and the creatures looked good so I'm not really sure why they decided to do this. I don't think it's for the suspense factor, as this movie plays much more like an action film than a horror movie.

So while it's not exactly William Shakespeare, take it as a Smackdown episode between 2 outer space baddies and roll with it. It's a pretty fun B flick with mindless, relentless carnage. Better than the first one I will say.

6/10

Cover Mania

OK, so Michael Jackson's "Beat It" once again makes it's way up the charts, this time covered by Fall Out Boy and John Mayer. I've got to admit though... I sort of dig it. Alien Ant Farm also had a hit with a pretty cool cover of MJ's "Smooth Criminal" years back. Chris Cornell's version of MJ's "Billie Jean" is getting very popular as well thanks to some American Idol guy giving it airtime. All this got me to thinking about cover songs.

Cover songs can either be great and really take me back to the original or make me want to vomit and curse whoever defiled a classic. Some should never be tried by certain artists just because it's wrong. Here's some of my cases in point, these people should not be trying these songs but dammit they did:

Britney Spears - Joan Jett's "I Love Rock N Roll"
Hillary Duff - The Who's "My Generation
Dolly Parton - Led Zep's "Stairway To Heaven"
Sheryl Crow - Guns N Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine"
Judas Priest - Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode"
Paul Anka - Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Evanescence - Korn's "Thoughtless"
William Shatner - any song ever written

I vomited just typing some of those.

But sometimes, the cover song is actually better, and you end up not even knowing it was a cover song. You think that artist actually did it originally. Cases in point:

Joe Cocker - "With A Little Help From My Friends"
Aretha Franklin - "Respect"
Cream - "Crossroads"
Black Crows - "Hard To Handle"
Eric Clapton - "After Midnight"
Santana - "Black Magic Woman"
Manfred Mann's Earth Band - "Blinded By The Light"
Elvis Presley - "Blue Suede Shoes"
Soft Cell - "Tainted Love"
James Taylor - "You've Got A Friend"
Rolling Stones - "Time Is On My Side"
Nazareth - "Love Hurts"
Cheap Trick - "Ain't That A Shame"

All those tunes were cover songs. Can you even name the original artists? Most people can't.

Sometimes an artist takes a song and makes a near copy of it, which can be cool at times but other times it might be so close to the original, I wonder why they even bothered. Other times an artist completely reworks the song and makes it their own, as is the case with Chris Cornell's "Billie Jean" or Run DMC's "Walk This Way". This is risky, but can actually turn out really cool at times. A song's entire mood and meaning can change and it can be reinvented or modernized with wonderful results.

So anywho... here's a list of my favorites, for one reason or another. Seek them out, make a CD, ignore them, what the hell ever. I'm just throwing them out there.

My All-Time Favorite Cover Songs

Marilyn Manson - Eurythmic's "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" (Manson took a beautiful haunting song and made it feel evil as hell)
Killswitch Engage - Dio's "Holy Diver"
Shinedown - Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" (Brent Smith just nails the vocals on this)
Guns N' Roses - Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"
Rage Against the Machine - Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm"
Great White - Ian Hunter's "Once Bitten, Twice Shy"
Metallica - Black Sabbath's "Sabbra Cadabra"
Van Halen - The Kink's "You Really Got Me"
Tesla - Five Man Electical Band's "Signs"
Johnny Cash - Alice In Chain's "Rusty Cage" (this blows his version of NIN's "Hurt" away in my opinion)
Avenged Sevenfold - Pantera's "Walk"
Anthrax - Public Enemy's "Bring The Noise" (actually more of a duet probably)
Foo Fighters - Prince's "Darling Nikki"
Gary Jules - Tears for Fears' "Mad World"
Black Tide - Metallica's "Hit The Lights"
Disturbed - Tears For Fears "Shout" (the Tears for Fears version was more of a whisper than a shout, Disturbed took this song and added a dose of pissed off to it)
Rage Against The Machine - Bruce Springsteen's "The Ghost of Tom Joad"
Iced Earth - Alice Cooper's "Dead Babies"
Anthrax - KISS' "She"
Ingram Hill - Boston's "More Than A Feeling"
Sevendust - LL Cool J's "Goin' Back To Cali"
Motley Crue - Brownsville Station's "Smokin' In The Boys Room"
Primer 55 - N.W.A.'s "Appetite For Destruction" (who would even attempt this?)
Rage Against The Machine - Eric B & Rakim's "Microphone Fiend
Atreyu - Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name" (the original was candy pop, this one is pissed off)
Eighteen Visions - Guns N Roses "Paradise City"
Hair of the Dog - Kiss' "I"
Tantric - Fleetwood Mack's "The Chain"
Nonpoint - Phil Collin's "In The Air Tonight"

Sunday Funnies

Movie Review: Odysseus: Voyage To The Underworld

Synopsis: The Greek hero Odysseus and his warriors are attacked at sea by a group of flying, blood-sucking creatures which causes their ship to strand on an isle of mists and more creatures, overseen by an evil queen. She tries to trick them into her bidding, which is to retrieve the "hellfire cross" from inside a volcano, which happens to be home of the flying creatures.

Typical sword and sandals type fare from the Sci-Fi Channel, with all the usual cheap effects, bad acting and unintentionally funny dialog. It reminded me a bit of the old Jason and the Argonauts movies or Sinbad films, which I used to love on Saturday afternoons. The men seem to trek for a while and face various creatures/obstacles, then camp for the night and face some evil during the night, then back to trekking again!

It's a bit dialog heavy at times, trying to get us to believe it really has anything at all to do with Greek mythology, but this isn't a good thing as most of the dialog is bad. One big annoyance for me was the character Homer, who they apparently felt would be good for some comic relief. Most of his relief wasn't comical though and I sort of wanted one of the creatures to rip him to shreds not 5 minutes into the movie. All of the other characters are pretty interchangeable as I'm assuming the only decisions for their casting were based on the ability of the actors to grow a good beard.

Again too, it's a Sci-Fi Channel original so don't expect the creatures to be very cool and you won't be disappointed. They look very CGI and not remotely scary. Overall there aren't that many special effects, which is probably good because right off the bat during a night scene on the ship, it looks like they're standing in front of a dark backdrop with little lights for stars as you might see in a high school play. So less is probably better.

All told though, if you like this sort of stuff as me, Sci-Fi Channel has done a lot worse. It's kind of watchable.

4/10

Foul Ball(s)!

Perhaps I'll just make it a whole week of tasteless beer commercials? Here's Rolling Rock's contribution.

Stripey, NOOOO!

Movie Review: P2

A businesswoman (Rachel Nichols) is pursued by a psychopath (Wes Bentley) after being locked in a parking garage on Christmas Eve.

I think the most ironic thing about this film is the tagline: "A New Level of Terror". What's funny about that is that it's really my biggest problem with the movie... there's not 1 single thing new about it.

The bad guy, Wes Bentley, is the typical loaner, crazy dude who just wants some love and the hero girl is the typical cliched businesswoman without any time for love in her life and get's pushed too far, becoming some sort of bad ass.

Alexandre Aja wrote the story so I figured it had potential as he wrote 2 recent movies I really like, The Hills Have Eyes remake and High Tension, but I just didn't feel there was enough suspense to keep this movie that interesting. Bentley plays a pretty good psychopath and Rachel Nichols looks sexy in what little clothing they have her wear. There's a bit of gore and blood, a few tense car chases, people chases and even a dog chase scene. At the end though it's just not that memorable and becomes a pretty predictable, standard stalker/slasher movie.

Not bad really, just not that good either.

5/10

Sunday Funnies

Movie Review: Street Kings

Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves) is a veteran LAPD cop who finds life difficult to navigate after the death of his wife. When evidence implicates him in the execution of a fellow officer, he is forced to go up against the cop culture he's been a part of his entire career, ultimately leading him to question the loyalties of everyone around him.

While it's pretty much just a standard, formulaic, violent, dirty-cop movie... I actually enjoyed this. It felt a whole lot like a really long episode of The Shield, but that happens to be one of my favorite shows so that's actually a good thing.

What pushes a bit over most of the similar movies like this lately is the cast. Believe it or not, and I know it's hard to believe, Keanu Reeves is pretty good as the only cop in the entire movie that resembles a "good guy" (and he's pretty corrupt himself). The other roles are filled by great actors like Forest Whitaker, Jay Mohr and Hugh Laurie (TV's Gregory House). The dialog is solid and the scene where Forest and Hugh go toe-to-toe is pretty much worth the price of admission. I could have used more of Hugh and Forest both though, as to take a bit of weight off Keanu, who is pretty much in every scene.

The action scenes are solid and there's some brutal violence, but the story sort of let me down a bit. There are a few twists, but I saw them coming a mile away. It's all so corrupt as to not give you anyone to pull for and it makes it sort of depressing. Surely there is 1 good cop on the force? Maybe just a guy who is sort of good? If there is, we don't see him.

But again, it's an energetic film that I found moderately intriguing for fans of stuff like Training Day, Dark Blue, L.A. Confidental or The Shield.

7/10

The Good Kind of Arkansas Twisters

Made it out to opening night of our Arena Football team last night, the Arkansas Twisters. We had some really cool seats where we were sitting up high at a table, more like being in a bar (there was a bar in there actually) looking down over Alltel Arena and the game. It was pretty sweet. The Twisters blasted out to an exciting 23 point lead and had the place rockin' but unfortunately ended up losing 64-60 on a touchdown with 7 seconds left the game. Helluva fun game to watch though. If you've never been to an arena football game and like football or just sports in general, I highly recommend it. I usually hit a few games a year and always have a good time. Lots of hard hitting, hot girls in tiny outfits, loud music, beer... what's not to like?

Here's a few pics from last night with some of my good friends:

Movie Review: Tooth And Nail

A group of people in a post-apocalyptic world fight to survive against a band of vicious cannibals called the Rovers as they look to add them to their dinner menu, one by one.

Been there, seen that... but this time the apocalypse is caused by running out of fuel. Yep, really. The cast of baddies looks straight out of The Road Warrior (or I guess Doomsday or about 20 other movies very similar to this). There is a bit of acting punch here with Michael Madsen, Vinnie Jones, and Robert Carradine (Lewis in the Revenge of the Nerds!) but none are really used much. Rider Strong (every time I say that name I giggle just for the record) is in it also as he's becoming the man in these indy films lately and I enjoyed his part. For the guys, sexy little Rachel Minor (Dani on Californication) is in it and a couple of other hotties as well.

The kills and the gore are pretty good, there are a couple of thrills and a twist or 2, and of course the always entertaining cannibal aspect... but ultimately it's just sort of deja vu from so many films like this recently. The good guys have a rifle and some weapons, the bad guys have bats and knives... not sure why they weren't picking them off while they were watching them out the windows at several points really. I wish the dialog would have been a bit stronger as well.

Not bad by any means, and I was actually pretty entertained for the most part, it's just really nothing that memorable.

5/10

Plight Of Missing Hikers

I've Found Beervana

I love beer. Anybody who knows me already knows that. Not that crappy, cheap stuff and no I don't try to see how fast I can drink it and get drunk all the time, I like good beer. Every time I travel out of town I hit the local liquor store to try to find some local flavor that I can't get here in Little Rock and bring it home to sample and share. Well, when I was in Paducah, Kentucky over the weekend I struck gold.

I'd already hit some little store and found a couple of types of beers from the Lexington Brewing Company so I figured that was good enough for the trip. But when I noticed a little sign on a window downtown at a restaurant saying they had Dogfish Head beer, a beer I'd been wanting to try for some time but had never found anywhere, I nearly tore off the door to get in and check it out.

I got to chatting with the bartender while I was drinking the sweet nectar known as Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, a tremendously hoppy and flavorful gift to the planet, and he told me of a great beer haven just down the road that I'd driven past multiple times already and not stopped to check it out called Roof Brothers. Needless to say, I did so as soon as I paid the fine young man (complete with nice tip) for the brew.

Advertised as "Western Kentucky’s only in-store wine cellar, and the largest selection of import and specialty beers within a 150-mile radius", it lived up to the hype. Simply put, it was the greatest beer store I've ever been in, and I've been in a lot. A magazine that I'm a subscriber to (of course) called All About Beer Magazine named Roof Brothers one of the 79 best beer retailers in the world. They ain't lyin.

I can't even begin to name all the brews they had, but click on this to see a list for yourself. It's unreal. Needless to say, I grabbed a shopping cart, had a smile like a fat kid in a chocolate factory and barely escaped for under $100 30 minutes later. I was calling people from the parking lot to tell them I was bringing home Dogfish Head IPA. It was a great moment in my life.

I recommended anyone within driving range of Paducah to make a special trip for this place. You won't be disappointed. Well, unless you like Budweiser and Miller Lite and stuff, no need to waste your gas of course. They should just put in some rooms and run it like a "beer, bed and breakfast " cause I'd book a trip for it. In a way I wish we had a place with as great of a selection here, but in a way my checkbook is sort of glad we don't. Drinking good beer isn't cheap, and all those options would be hard to pass up. I just want to check every single beer out, at least once. I'd want to hit all their scheduled beer tastings and probably get to know the employees on a first name basis. I've already signed up for their mailing list, although why I'm on the mailing list of a liquor store 5 hours from me I'll never know. Or do I already?



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