True Blood: Season 5 Commentary (With Spoilers)

Anyone watched the 5th season of 'True Blood', which just concluded last Sunday? I am so done with this series. It sucks so bad, especially when compared to other HBO series such as 'Boardwalk Empire' and 'Game Of Thrones'. SPOILERS: I stuck with this show based on the return of Russel Edgington, a character both fascinating and had an awesome back story from season 3...only to have him killed off easily before the opening credits on the season finale... WTF???!!! Bill is now the T-1000 of vampires? I am done, done DONE!! Not even Alexander Skarsgaard can keep me interested. Attention HBO: Give Eric Northman his own spin-off series!!! Focus on his past, present and future, he is the only good thing going on with 'True Blood'. I may check out the first couple episodes from Season 6 because show-runner Alan Ball is leaving after season 5. Maybe with the right Captain at the helm this show can be made great...but unlikely...

If HBO is looking for a cool Vampire property that should be adapted for TV, adapt the Vertigo Comic Book series 'American Vampire'. Scott Snyder and Stephen Kings comic creation would be so much better as a series for HBO then the 'Sookie Stackhouse Chronicles'. 

And getting back to 'True Blood' enough already Anna Paquin: KEEP YOUR CLOTHES ON!! Being an X-Men movie fan I was very excited and fascinated at the prospect of seeing this fine actress naked, but now it is over done. She is a pretty girl but is definitely not as hot as they make her out to be on the show. I never understood why the Vampires were so obsessed with this girl when there are far more attractive women in the world, but they were after her sweet 'Fairy' blood.  Am I the only one who felt the whole fairy angle to the series was beyond lame. It was stupid and ridiculous and the acting involved was beyond bad.

I guess the reason why I get worked up when it comes to this series is that it had potential. This show could have done so much more to change TV and bring the genre of Vampires/horror to a whole new level, but they sold out for cheap story telling and T&A. Very sad indeed.

Blog #38: Old Stores in Barrhead

Remember the second store in the Fort Assiniboine? Guess if your not from that are you have no clue what the hell I am talking about. Sorry for that, this blog entry is geared towards people who lived and grew up in the Fort Assiniboine-Barrhead area. Anyway That was Ainsfort store which was where the Fort Post Office is currently located. I believe it closed in 1989 or 1990 I'm not quite sure. My Mom worked at Ainsfort store for a time. I remember they had the best ice cream, best candies, they had arcade games and they sold He-Man colouring books and other stuff that kids loved to buy. It was a great store and it sucked when it closed but it was a sign of the times. The Fort was just too small of a community to support 2 general stores, plus Barrhead was only 20 minutes away and had 3 larger stores there.

Another store I used to love shopping at was the old "Tom-Boy" here in Barrhead. It was located where the Barrhead FCSS is currently located. They turned in Extra Foods in the late 90's and closed in the late 90's..98 or 99 I cannot remember for certain I only remember that I was out of school at that point. They just couldn't compete with CO-OP and the new IGA.

Remember the "MET" store in Barrhead. The best way to describe it is to say it was like a small version of Wal-Mart. They had everything that you needed and then some. They were located where the Mall and Servus Credit Union are now. I loved shopping there and that is where I used to buy most of my He-Man toys and later my Ninja Turtle toys. They had the biggest store in town. I remember one time when shopping with my Granny Lockhart, Aunt Elaine and cousin Irene in Westlock. My Granny had bought me a toy there and later we went to Barrhead and the Met store. I unwisely took my new toy bought in Westlock into the Met. Anyway I was in the toy department when a punk looking guy, who was listening to metal music on a Walkman, grabbed me by the arm and accused me of stealing. He told me he was an undercover store security guard, now looking back he might have just been a paedophile...who knows? My cousin Irene seen him grab me by the arm and told him that my toy was in fact bought in Westlock so he let me go...thanks Irene for saving me from that dude. If he was a weirdo paedophile she may have saved me from something very bad!! But the Met, especially in the 80's was a huge store for a small town so it is possible that they had security. They too closed in the mid 90's.

 

Those were the days...man I sound old. But the 80's and 90's were such simple times for me, I really miss sometimes how things used to be. Granted things are pretty good now, but back then things were just simpler, guess cause my biggest concern was getting up at 7am on a Saturday to watch He-Man on channel 12. 

 

Need to build myself a time machine...

Check It Out: Announcement!

Announcement: 

Normally I do a monthly segment called 'Beer Goggles' for the blog, but that is going to stop. Why you ask? Well that's a good question, you see for the last couple months I have had a project in the planning stages, and well hopefully next month said project will be done. That project that is in the works is one that I hope will be well worth the wait, and that project will have a segment on it called 'Beer Goggles'. Well that project is: The Random Nerdness Podcast! Yes a real life podcast which will hopefully be out in September, maybe October. It will (hopefully) be free to download on iTunes. It has not been recorded yet, and I don't want to get too far ahead of myself if it doesn't work out, but I am hoping to launch a twice monthly podcastbased on this blog. My brother-in-law Sebastian will be my trusted sound engineer and co-host along with my little sister Brianna. We're hoping to have a rotating '4th' chair co-host filled with friends in studio or ones skyped in. I'm really hoping it works out, more announcements to come in the future. 

Check it out: I finally just watched the movie 50/50: The film about a cancer patient (Joseph Gordon Levitt) and how he and his friends and family deal with the cancer he has. Well I must say that this movie was fantastic! It literally made me laugh and cry in and hour and fifty minutes. JGL is an amazing actor, he was fantastic in 'The Dark Knight Rises' which is why I finally decided to watch 50/50, and I am so glad I did. He truly was inspiring in this film, well worth the viewing. 

Check it out: Been watching 'The Nerdist' TV series based on the podcast. Chris Hardwick and company are freakin hilarious. If you are into geek/nerdy culture check this talk show out. It's on once a week in Canada Wednesday nights on the SPACE Channel. Also check out 'The Nerdist' channel on YouTube, he does a show called 'Celebrity Bowling' which is also freakin awesome. 

Check it out: Be sure to listen to 'The Atomic Geeks Podcast', the 'Nerd Lunch Podcast' and 'The Classic Film Jerks', all are great podcasts worth your listenin and are all a part of the 'Atomic Geeks Podcast Network'. They are also free to download from iTunes. And be sure to leave them an iTunes review. 

TTYL

Blog # 37: 15 Great Books

1 "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown: Easily the best book I have ever read. I couldn't put it down on the last 200 pages, I read for almost 6 hours straight, which is a world record for me!

2 "The Da Vinci Code" again by Dan Brown. Not as good as 'Angels and Demons' but still a hell of a read!

3 "Heir To The Empire" by Timothy Zahn. I am a Star Wars nerd and this was the first book that continued the adventures of Luke Skywalker and company. It is an awesome book and changed Star Wars forever. Zahn also created the best book villain I have ever read, Grand Admiral Thrawn, who was the only alien ever to have served the Emperor and the Galactic Empire. He had blue skin and glowing red eyes...really cool character.

4 "What Savage Beast" by Peter David. It is a novel about the comic book character "The Incredible Hulk" and it should have been made into a movie!!! David wrote the comic book for 12 years and made the character and supporting cast awesome and relevant. Awesome book.

5 "Too Fat To Fish" by Artie Lange. Artie is a comedian and part of the 'Howard Stern Show' and this book is his autobiography. It was a great read, he is both funny and a tragic guy, a lot of sadness in the book to plus a lot of laughs.

6 "3001: A Space Odyssey" by Arthur C.Clarke. The final and most interesting chapter of the 'Odyssey' books.

7 "Beam Me Up, Scotty: Star Trek's "Scotty" in his own words" by James Doohan with Peter David. I loved Scotty from Star Trek and had a blast reading his book. Did you know he is Canadian and fought for Canada overseas in World War II. He tells a lot of amazing stories from the war in his book. I actually met him once when I was 15 at a Star Trek convention in Edmonton which was cool and made reading his biography extra special to read.

8 "The Last Command" by Timothy Zahn. The second sequel to 'Heir to the Empire'.

9 "Vision Of The Future" by Timothy Zahn. Takes place 10 years after 'Last Command' and features the last battle between the New Republic and the Empire and their eventual peace...

10 "Star Trek Memories" by William Shatner. Shatner is a great actor and awesome person/personality. His first memoir about being on 'Star Trek' is both hilarious and interesting to read.

11 "Why We Suck" by Denis Leary. Leary is a hell of a comic and I am a fan of his show "Rescue Me" so reading his take on life, family and Hollywood is fascinating to read.

12 "Conquerors' Trilogy" by Timothy Zahn. This is actually 3 books but they must be read together, they are almost like 1 book divided into 3 separate parts. In a space opera setting, a botched first contact leads to an interstellar war between humanity (nicknamed by the aliens The Human-Conquerors) and an alien race, the Zhirrzh (nicknamed by humans The Conquerors). In the background, other alien races try to take advantage of the conflict between the two powers. (Novels: 'Conquerors' Pride', 'Conquerors' Heritage' and 'Conquerors' Legacy').

13 "Marvel (Comics) Encyclopedia" and "DC Comics Encyclopedia" published by DK. These are 2 books that are almost the same. They are the definitive reference to those two comic book company's and their characters. I am a total nerd and loved reading these books.

14 "Dark Force Rising" by Timothy Zahn. It is the second sequel to 'Heir To The Empire' and feature's Lukes first encounter with the insane Jedi clone Joruus C'Boath.

15 "Murder Most Foul" by Max Haines. He is the guy who writes the 'Murder' story in every Sunday Sun newspaper. He has written so many stories about true crime that the re-publish his stories in book form and I read 'Murder Most Foul' while vacationing in Germany in 2001. I bought at Pearson airport in Toronto while waiting for my connecting flight to Germany, I was hooked on his writing after the first page. I have bought and read many of his book of collected stories. I made the mistake of lending them to my mother-in-law so I'll probably never see them again. He is a great writer and his stories are all true stories!!! Humans really are sick and twisted, just read his book and you'll agree.

The Amazing Spiderman Review (Spoilers)

 

 

So I finally saw 'The Amazing Spider-Man' on Wednesday, almost a month after it's release. Guess it took me so long because I was not overly excited about this film. Although the Sam Raimi films had their flaws, overall I was happy with what he was doing and I felt he would do better with Spider-man 4 after the disaster that was Spider-man 3. I definitely was not ready for a reboot 5 years after S3, but I found time this week to give the film a watch and I liked it. Is it better than the 2002 Spider-Man film... yes and no. There were pro's and con's to both films, so I decided to break them both down and compare.

 

'Spiderman' (2002) Pro's:

- Great story. You saw Peter as a high school kid all the way to him working at the Dailey Bugle. As far as origins go Raimi kept this very close to the source material including Peter 'wrestling' for money and his not stopping the robber that shot his Uncle. But instead of Gwen Stacey they had Mary Jane Watson as Peter's high school sweetheart. James Franco was great as Harry Osborn.

 

- Everyone was (almost) perfectly cast including Willam Defoe as Norman Osborn and Tobey Maguire was great as Peter and Spider-man. JK Simmons stole the role of J.Jonah Jameson, not sure who can beat his performance in this new 'Trilogy' as JJ was not in 'Amazing'.

 

- Having Norman Osborn/ The Green Goblin as the villain was great. Very cool to have their origins linked. Defoe was great playing a tortured man suffering from a multi-personality. I especially liked the scenes where he was talking into a mirror or talking at the mask.

 

- CGI was great. At times it may have seemed too 'cartoony' but I liked it and felt it fit well in this comic book inspired movie.

 

'Amazing Spiderman' (2012) Pro's:

 

- Great story. He remains in high school for this film so you don't get to see the Daily Bugle. Gwen is in this film and his love interest and her father NYPD Captain Stacey is in it too.

 

- This film had the (almost) perfect Spider-man cast thus far. As much as I liked Maguire as Peter I feel that Andrew Garfield was much better in the role. Emma Stone (oh Emma Stone... sweetness...) she nailed the role of Gwen. She is an amazing actress who was absolutely awesome in the role. So much so it makes me sad to know the tragic fate of Gwen Stacey in the comic book... NOOOOOO!!!! I am a huge fan of Denis Leary and having him play Captain Stacey was very cool. He fit perfectly in the role. Martin Sheen and Sally Field were perfect in the roles of Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Even the guy who played Flash Thompson was good.

 

- CGI and special effects were good overall.

 

 

 

 

'Spiderman' (2002) Con's:

 

- Kirsten Dunst was poorly cast as MJ, but would have made a great Gwen Stacey, although not as good as Emma Stone. Dunst is blond, Gwen is blonde. Dunst has the 'girl next door' vibe about her, which Gwen was. Dunst just couldn't pull off the red head look. Also, at the risk of sounding insensitive, in the comic book MJ is the most beautiful woman in the world. She is a world famous actress and model, an absolute bombshell, which Dunst is not, sorry.

 

- As much as I loved the Green Goblin his costume looked ridiculous. He really looked like he belonged on 'Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'. Really not frightening at all.

 

'Amazing Spiderman' (2012) Con's:

 

- I wanted to see more Spidey than they provided. With the story they went back to the origin and I think it wasn't really needed, especially with only 10 years since the last time the origin was told on film. I realize this is a different franchise and they want to build a foundation here, but wasting time on an origin most people know already is wasting time.

 

- Norman Osborn seems to be the man pulling the strings here yet he remains unseen, kind of like the Emperor on the first Star Wars film. I wanted to see this guy. Also who was that guy in the credits scene who was talking to Conners? Electro maybe? He seemed to speak for Osborn but was not Osborn. At least I hope it wasn't Osborn.

 

- Despite 'Spider-man 3' being less than stellar I enjoyed Sam Raimi's take on the wall crawler. Had he stayed with the series I'm sure he would have taken us to some very cool places. I had hopes that by film 6 we would see 'The Sinister Six'  take on Spider-man, but now with this reboot we are starting from scratch. Also apparently this new film series will be a 'Trilogy' which makes it less likely that the S6 will appear, and many other villains and supporting characters will fall through the cracks. I want them to build up to the Sinister Six the same way Marvel Studios built up to 'The Avengers'.   

 

- With the first 3 Raimi films we saw Doc Ock, Green Goblin, Venom, Sandman... will we see new versions of these characters in future 'Amazing' sequels or will they be lost. Alfred Molina was superb as Doc Ock, it's gonna suck to see that role recast.  

 

- The Lizard is the big bad for this film? As far as Spider-man rogues go he is not one I really cared to ever see on the big screen. The CGI for the Lizard was not the best and he looked more like the Hulk than the Lizard from the comic books. And Rhys Ifans really did not add anything to the film as a villain, not in the same way Willam Defoe did 10 years ago. I would rather have seen The Scorpion, Mysterio or the Rhino in this film.

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

Not sure which origin film is better, both had their strengths and weaknesses. But Spider-Man (2002) may have the edge over the new film as I would give that 10 year old film a rating of 4 stars out of 5. 'Amazing' just had a few too many more cons working against it than the 2002 flick.

 

Overall despite everything going against it I would give the 'Amazing Spider-Man' film 3.5 stars out of 5. It was good, but not great and still definitely worth seeing.

 

Till next time Spider-Friends!

The Dark Knight Rises (Spoiler Free Review)

Last weekend I was out visiting my Dad who lives by the Saskatchewan border, and I decided to take some time and go see a little film called 'The Dark Knight Rises', which i had been meaning to see but didn't have a chance at that point. So my son and I made the short trek into Saskatchewan to watch the film, my first film ever watched in that province, and I must say it was well worth the trip!

First off I am a huge fan of Christopher Nolan's Batman films (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) so when I had heard that this would be his last film in this 'trilogy' I was very disappointed. But DKR (Dark Knight Rises) was a great film and a fitting end to this Batman saga. I still wish they would keep going with this series with all who is involved, but sometimes it is best to end on a high note which is what they did with this latest film. Here's a few spoiler free pro's and con's:

Pro:

- Bane made for an excellent villain and was used very well, unlike his first feature film appearance in 1997's 'Batman & Robin'. Tom Hardy did a great job as the character despite having to act through a mask. After Heath Ledger's historic take on 'The Joker' in the last film Hardy had very big shoes to fill and he did so nicely.  

- Anne Hathaway was excellent as Selina Kyle (Catwoman, but very actually called that in the flick). I really wasn't sure if she could pull of the character but she did and perhaps did the best interpretation of Selina ever seen on film. Really hope she gets her own film...

- All the supporting characters were great once again and  Joseph Gordon-Levitt made a great addition to the cast.

- I love Christian Bale as Batman/Bruce Wayne. Definitely the best actor for the role by far.

- Nolan did a great job making Batman a 'real' character. You watch this film and you cannot help but think that this could happen. Batman/Wayne is a regular dude and is vulnerable just like anyone else.

- There were some great surprises in this film, story elements that surprised even me and certain actors making surprise appearances. Very cool.

Con:

- Probably my biggest con with this film is the complex story. Without giving anything away certain things were established in the last film, but then it just got tossed out the window just too easily to be believable. The story has a lot of holes in it's logic. Problem wit the last 2 Bat films is that Nolan created too complex of a story. It was still an enjoyable story but there were times I was scratching my head saying "What?".

But over all I would give this film 4.5 stars out of 5. It is a great film, but not as good as 'The Avengers' in my humble pie opinion.

See ya in the future!

The new 'Dallas' Season 1 Review

The first season of the new 'Dallas' just wrapped up it's 10 episode arc. What are my thoughts: I loved it! This series was not a reboot but rather a continuation of the original series and TV movies. For a first season where they were establishing new characters and re-establishing old ones (JR, Bobby, Sue Ellen, Cliff Barnes) I think they did a great job. It's fun primetime soap goodness, which reminds me of being a kid watching the original series with my folks. The original actors were great and the new ones they brought in were great too. Can't wait for season 2, and hopefully it will run longer than 10 episodes!

It was great to see Mitch Pileggi do a guest appearence as a bad guy. Pileggi for me is best known as playing ADA Skinner on 'The X-Files' and as Darby on 'Sons Of Anarchy'. Also having Ken Kercheval return as 'Cliff Barnes' was an awesome touch and I hope he comes back in season 2.

If you ever watched 'Dallas' in the past and enjoyed it on any level you will like this new series!