Captain America: Civil War REVIEW

For those of you who have followed me for a while, you know I think the CIVIL WAR comic book was horribly written and one of the worst things Marvel ever put out.  Why that comic has gotten any praise at all from comic book fans baffles me.  It utterly screwed up the dynamic of the Marvel trinity.  It had main characters acting horribly out of character.  And the fall out from it was ridiculous.

Need a quick overview of the book, watch this.

Ok, got all that?  Cool.  Now on to the review.

PAST THIS POINT THERE BE SPOILERS, AND POSSIBLY DRAGONS, SO DON'T GO CRYING TO ME ABOUT RUINING THE MOVIE OR GETTING CHAR-BROILED!!!

Everything the comic book did wrong, the movie did right.  The book had Cap and Tony at each others' throats over a difference of opinion about government oversight on superheroes.  That element is indeed at play in the movie, but there is so much more at play here.

This is a revenge story, and a really good one.  All these little twists keep going to bring about the ultimate result of the movie.  The fanboys who love the comic have been wanting to see Captain America and Ironman kick the ever-lovin' crap out of each other, and guess what, that's exactly what the main villain wants too.  

Let that sink in for a moment, you people who wanted to see tension between these characters and wanted them to beat each other up.  

Tons of manipulation, all these little moments that seem to be a bit pointless in the film, come together to form this nasty web that catches our heroes.  And the great thing here is that it allows each of the characters to stay true to themselves and we don't have idiotic things like Cap acting like a zealot and Tony recruiting super villains after all the heroes realize he's being a douche.

In fact, Tony is the main target of the manipulation.  I have to wonder if there's scenes that had to get cut revealing the mother of the slain college student was a plant working for Zemo and that the explosion early in the film was somehow rigged.  That isn't crucial to the film, as it could just be our villain waiting for the perfect opportunity to spring his trap.  He's a patient one.

So, we have an excellent plot that greatly improved the dreck that was the comic.  On to the movie itself.

The performances were great top to bottom.  There's been a lot of buzz about Spidey and Black Panther, and how great they were, and its warranted.  Everyone had these wonderfully juicy moments, and it all meshed together so nicely.  It's a very well balanced script, and while we have a dozen superheroes running around its clear that this is a Captain America film.  That's hard because Robert Downey Jr. is always amazing as Tony Stark, but Chris Evans holds his own so well as the stanch moral rock of the movie.  

Here's the hing about Captain America: he's right.  He's the character that is when given all the possible choices is always going to make the one that's going to help as many people as possible.  So, when asked if you're TeamCap or Teamfillintheblank, if your answer isn't TeamCap then you need to probably reconsider your position.  And Evans absolutely nails it without coming off holier-than-thou.

My only problem with the movie is how some of the fight scenes were shot.  I hate shakey camera work and I hate quick action cuts.  That's how sloppy fight choreography gets covered up and it doesn't look like these scenes were sloppy fight choreography.  Let me see the moves and not risk motion sickness, please!

There was plenty of funny bits to keep folks entertained, which is good.  There's a lot of really heavy and dark stuff going on in this story.  Marvel knows when to lighten the mood without coming off cheesy or cheapening the story.  They're also a bit self aware, especially in regards to Marissa Tomei who many people have said is way too young and too hot to play Aunt May.

The trailers for this movie were really misleading on the lot of points.  Lines were cherry picked to make it seem like Tony and Cap were really not liking each other at all.  They left me wondering how two people who are indeed friends could have that much animosity over a difference of opinion on an issue that's pretty much just political.  Once everything gets put in context with the movie it makes so much more sense.  And for those who say, well there was that animosty there back in the first Avengers movie, you're refering to scenes in which all the characters were at each others throats due to the Mind Gem being in the room, so stop, you're embarrassing yourselves.

Bottom line: I went into this movie with a lot of apprehension, and am now releaved that that Marvel managed to make this story happen without it being the utter trainwreck that the comic was and having all of these heroes coming out of it with us as viewers still being able to see them as heroes.  Did the villain win here?  Some may think so, but the final scenes in the film let us know that when the time comes, the Avengers will assemble once more. 

I've become that guy?

I was gone for a while, but I'm back now.  Spent Thanksgiving up on the mountain.  Did some training.  Worked on issue 2 of A-DAY PLUS.  Ate some turkey.  Finally saw BIG HERO 6.  Dealt with one of the loinspawn getting sick.  I stayed pretty unplugged from things as I was sick of hearing about Ferguson and people just being completely stupid about it, especially the pricks in the media fanning the flames for ratings.

Upon returning, I discover that there a trailer for the impending STAR WARS movie that's been put forth.  There people that are really excited.  There's people who are saying things about a lightsaber.  Some folks seem concerned about a black Stormtrooper, and I think the main cause for concern is that they can't refer to him as an "African-American Stormtrooper" as Africa did not exist long ago in a galaxy far, far away, and their little PC brains are melting over it.

I haven't watched the trailer.  I thought about watching the trailer.  I like STAR WARS.  I've seen all the movies in the theaters.  I remember back when I had cable and sometimes USA would run the trilogy on a Sunday afternoon, and upon discovering this that's pretty much the whole afternoon right there.  Seriously, the only decision to be made after that is proper snack choices.  So, I should be excited about this new trailer, right?

I just can't do it.

I can't muster up any more excitement for anything STAR WARS anymore.  I had some excitement for the prequels being released.  For my excitement I was given Jar Jar Binks and some other miserable stuff.  Sure, there were a few high points.  Darth Maul was cool.  Yoda kicking ass was awesome.  And that third movie had... had... um... OK, the third one really sucked.

I really don't want to be that old codger who just sticks with the old movies that he loves and scoffs at the new ones, but I just can't muster up a single fuck to give about this new movie.

Have I become a bad nerd?

Movie Review: Despicable Me 2

Yes, answering all the questions left unanswered by the original DESPICABLE ME, here comes the sequel. Actually, there were no real questions left unanswered by the first film.  Pretty much a nice little self contained little piece.  The first movie was cute.  I got some good laughs at places.  Left it feeling good.  There was really only one thing that really demanded another movie be made.

Minions.

I love me some Minions.  If the movie powers that be decided that they were going to make a movie that was nothing but two hours of Minions doing Minion-type thingies, I'd go.  I doubt I'd be alone either.

However, this isn't MINIONS THE MOVIE, its DESPICABLE ME 2, and Gru is back!  When last we left him, he was going to hang up the whole super villain things and dedicate himself to being a father to Margo, Edith, and Agnes.  That's exactly what he did too.  This isn't about Gru adjusting to being a good dad.  He rocks at being a dad.  Sure he's got plenty of help with all his little, yellow henchmen, but he's completely engaged with these kids.  The interactions with them are deligthful and completely believable.

But there's trouble afoot, and Gru is called upon to use his expertise to stop a mysterious villain before things go horrible.  To top it off he's partnered with a delightfully eager and adorably awkward partner, Lucy.  Yep, we have to see if Gru can save the world and find love while doing it.  

Let's break this down.  This movie is a lot of fun.  I enjoyed it more than the original.  Technically sound on all points with animation quality, voice acting and everything.  The story was light and fun, with just enough heart and plenty of adventure.  Took the kids, and they had a blast.  It managed to keep adults entertained without getting to heavy on the "adult" humor.

Like I said before, I love Minions.  They really were the breakout stars from the first film, and there was plenty of Minion hyjinks to be enjoyed here.  However, this movie smartly gave us more Minion-y goodness, but also balanced that very well with the overall story.  It could have easily turned into something that was Minion topheavy and just had the story there to get us from one goofy Minion bit to the next.  It didn't.  This flick really delivered.

Now, for anyone wondering if this movie suffers from "Trailer fail" (In which all the really good parts are shown in the trailer and the rest of the movie is lame), it absolutely doesn't.  Go see it.  Find a kid and take them.

Thoughts on Snow White and Huntsman

Saw it over the weekend.  Beautiful scenery.  Chris Hemsworth did his thing.  Charlize Theron was absolutely venomous.  Nice to see Nick Frost is anything.


Now, I've got a pretty good ability to suspend disbelief.  You have to when you come up a comic book nerd.


Dwarfs?


Fine.


Fairies?


Fine.


Evil queen doing evil queen spells?


Fine.


But I've got to draw the line when they start referring to Kristen Stewart as the 'fairest in the land".


That's one weird looking broad.





When the women who are supposed to look unattractive look more attractive than the star, you've got problems.

Killers, Thrillers, and Chillers

Here we go!  Its Sunday, January 22, 2012, got a bunch of stuff for you today, and this is The Side.  Yeah, I'm a bit video heavy today, but I've got some cool movie trailers for you, and of course our music section.  I'm actually haven't a pretty good weekend.  No blood (at least not mine), not much drama, kids seem to be feeling a little better, I'm not rushing to bang this out.  


I'm almost scared I'm jinxing myself.  Ah well.  Let's dive in.

MOVIES!!!

Haven't had a chance to get to the theaters in quite a while.  Fortunately, I've got Netflix and a Wii.  Been watching some great flicks with the Missus.  Been really digging some foreign movies section.  Here's a couple we checked out this week.


BANLIEUE 13: ULTIMATUM is set two years after the first film.  Yeah, we have or fun calling the French a bunch of cheese eating, surrender monkeys, but this film is completely badass.  Damien and Leito team up again to keep a crooked politician from setting into motion events that would destroy the district and kill a lot of people.  The Parkour scenes stole the show in the first film, and that gets toned down this time in favor of hard hitting martial arts choreography.  They really do it right here going with the Asian approach to fight cinematography and pulling back with limited cuts to let the viewers really see the choreography and showcase the work the actors and stunt crew put in.  The story has a hole or two in there, but for the most part its really good.  The main bad guy manipulates everything masterfully.  There were plenty of times I had to just sit back, slack jawed and take in how amazingly screwed up this guy's plans were.  Really good performances all around.  Not as visually over the top as the original, but more than makes up for it with a really tight story.





BKO: BANGKOK KNOCKOUT was a really pleasant surprise.  For the moment I saw that it was from the same production company they gave us ONG BAK and CHOCOLATE I knew I was in for a treat.  I crew of young martial artists are hoping for a shot at fame in Hollywood, but what they get is kidnapped and put through a gauntlet of vicious fighters so high rollers can bet on them.  This was a really martial arts thriller.  I was on the edge of my seat worried about these kids.  The thugs range from muay thai fights, to guy that seems more like an animal than human, and even a guy right out of a slasher flick.  The fight scenes are off the charts.  The crew of fighters specialize in parkour, muay thai, kung fu and capoiera.  The action is as beautiful to watch as it is brutal.  Plenty of twists and turns for the more story minded.  Loved this movie.

COMIX!!

MORNING GLORIES #15 is on deck this go around.  Gym class continues as Zoe, Hunter, and Jun continue trying to navigate the Woodrun.  So while things go fairly poorly for the students we get plenty on flashbacks continuing to let us in on Zoe's past.  I'm very intrigued by this story because its focusing on Zoe. Yes there's more to all the characters here than meets the eye, but Zoe is such a random factor.  On one hand she's dived right in to help save Jade, and she saves Hunter in this issue.  But on the other hand she's got that pesky habit of stabbing people to death with large knives.  She's really hard to get a bead on.  I love that because early on it was so easy to write her off as a hot Indian Slutty McSlutslut who gets by on batting her eyelashes and excellent bra selection.  That seems to be the middle ground between the altruistic girl who peeks out every-so-often and the stone cold killer.  She's really a fascinating character.  The over all story doesn't give us much more insight as to everything that's going on.  There's a trap that seems specially designed for Hunter, or possibly he's not the only person with his condition.  I do think there's a puzzle piece in here somewhere, but figuring out exactly what it is, and where it fits is the tricky part.  As always with this book, its one big load of screwed up with a psycho chaser.  Love it.

MUSIC!!

This guy's voice reminds me a lot of Sting's.  The singer, not the wrestler.  The tune has been getting a lot of air play here locally.  I dig it.





That's going to be it for me today.  Feels like I've got my mojo working, so we'll see how long I can keep it going.  See y'all Wednesday.

Merry Movies

Bleh. Its Friday, December 16, 2011, I'm sick as a dog, and this is The Side. The kids were a bit under the weather earlier this week. That got passed onto the missus. Not its on to me. I've been chomping cold medicine to keep me going. It makes me functional, but doesn't make for the best blogging. 


 Also, I'm still getting used to the new Blogger interface, so please bear with me. I think I've got a little bit of a handle on it. Of course, if you aren't reading any of this, then there's the distinct possibility that I've completely bollocks up the thing. Guess we'll have to see.

MOVIES!

Sure, there's a few of action flicks that I could list and call them Christmas movies. As much as I love DIE HARD and LETHAL WEAPON, they're not really Christmas movies. 

A CHRISTMAS STORY. Love this movie. Have to watch it every year. Used to drive my family nuts because TNT would play it for 24 hours in a row and I'd have it on the TV all day long if given the chance. Since I don't have cable anymore I do have the DVD to fill the void. One of these years I'm going to get my kids to ask Santa for a Red Rider BB gun. So many great lines and moments in this film. From the furnace fighting, to the Chinese restaurant, the Ralphie beating the snot out of the bully. I love this movie from beginning to end. 

HOME ALONE. This movie was so huge that it nearly caused a backlash. Some people were really hating on the kid and hoping Joe Pesci and his pal would one day get him. I do like this one. With all the hustle and bustle of the holidays it almost understandable that some folks would actually forget a kid at home. Of course, there wouldn't be the feel good story at the end. Most likely a visit from CPS. 

THE SANTA CLAUSE. Whoever thought to cast Tim Allen as Santa was a clever guy. I do think having the previous Santa falling off a roof and dying is a bit morbid for the kids. That's probably why I find the sequel on TV a lot more than the first film. Still, Tim Allen and the rest of the cast really sell this flick and make it a good time.

THE REF. Put the kids to bed, Denis Leary is in the house. And this is the "No Cure For Cancer" Denis Leary, and he's playing off of Kevin Spacey. That alone gets my butt in the chair. This movie has one of my favorite lines ever: "Your husband ain't dead, lady. He's hiding."

MUSIC!

He does indeed have a brand new bag, and I hear its full of toys.

That's all for me. See y'all Sunday.

SMG XTC!!!

That's right, we're not done with her yet. Its Sunday, September 18, 2011, and because you expect it, this is The Side. It rained nearly all day yesterday, which was kind of nice. It brought the current battle to a bit of a halt. Seems a hive of yellowjackets or hornets or something has got themselves a bit of nest next to the front porch and underground. I hit them with multiple cans of horrible chemicals but time is going to tell me with worked. One of the little bastards already stung the Missus. That affront shall not stand.

EXPECTATIONS

Its hard to go into anything without expectations. When you're telling stories you have to decide whether its going to be better to meet the expectations of an audience or surprise them. There's benefits to both options, but if you do nothing but meet expectations things are going to get boring and stale. You run the risk of losing the audience. I'm not talking about quality. If you have a reputation of doing quality work, that's an expectation that you're going to want to try to achieve every time. I'm talking about the type of work that you do. You can't just plug stuff into the same formula over and over and over. You don't grow that way.

Since its been a Sarah Michelle Gellar week, she's going to be our example. When we think of her there's one role that she played that springs to mind: Buffy Summers. Its easy to equate the two. She wasn't the first actress to play the role, but she played it for seven seasons on television. The show was the premier show of a network and spawned a spin off. It had legions of fans. She won awards for the role, and received a ton of nominations for other awards. We equate the actress with the role and vice versa. When you envision Buffy Summers she looks like Gellar. When you think of Gellar in a role, you expect someone tough, funny, and heroic. Not too shabby for an actor.

She then proceeded to deliver the goods to the fans of her show, but she player smart and branched out a bit. She got noticed for many different reasons for the movie CRUEL INTENTIONS. Most notably she had a steam on screen kiss with another actress, Selma Blair. I don't make the claim that that's the most notable thing about that role because I'm a big old perv who likes watching hot girls kiss. That kiss won an MTV movie award. It surprised people a bit, and folks took notice. She won best female performance at the same awards show and was nominated for "best villain". Gellar played against type here. The role called for her to be manipulative and overtly sexual. These are two traits you don't think of when you think about Buffy Summers. She pulled the role off masterfully. If you went into that movie expecting to see the same role from her as she played on TV, then you were in for a surprise and, probably, a bit of a shock.

What she was doing there was showing range. It was a different role, with different challenges to it. By meeting those challenges, she helped herself avoid being typecast.

The fact that she drastically changed genres worked for her advantage. Nobody expected her to kick an undead creature in CRUEL INTENTIONS. However, other movies she made were in the horror genre, and she was rather forgettable in them. In the movie I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER she was second fiddle to Jennifer Love Hewitt playing "hot girl in the movie who will eventually die horribly". Even worst was SCREAM 2 in which she played "random sorority person who dies horribly". I watched both these movies, and was sitting in the theater expecting her character to kick a bit of butt. I was placing the expectations I had of Buffy onto these characters. That's not to say that all of the horror movies she started in were suddenly equated to Buffy expectations. After the TV show had wrapped, her next role was in THE GRUDGE which was a horror/suspense piece but the tone and performance was so very different that she managed to put away the expectations we had of her and move on.

She's also been smart enough to do a couple of movies aimed at much younger audiences with the SCOOBY-DOO movies. I'm not going to sit here and rave about these as I skipped them entirely. I'm not a huge Scooby-Doo fan aside from the shows first season. But again, she branched out a little bit playing to a different audience. This audience wouldn't know her as Buffy, although their parents probably would. Again, she played a character in a supernatural adventure piece, and she played it to the fans not only of the old cartoon show, but from the previews the character had a few martial arts moves as a nod to her role as Buffy Summers. This is using the audience's expections to give them a wink. It acknowledges the expectations even if its not playing totally to them.

Its been a Sarah Michelle Gellar week, not because of the weird dream I had a few nights ago in which I was married to her, but because of her new TV show, RINGER, which debuted this week, and I previously reviewed. The actress is returning to television after the birth of her daughter to a show on the network that made her a huge star. Expectations were already in place from the first advertisements. The thing is that we couldn't be exactly sure what to expect because with the nature of the show and the events of the premier episode the network, wisely, didn't want to give too much away. I did go in with expectations, however my expectations didn't include her shoving pieces of wood through the bumpy-faced undead and delivering kung-fu kicks. I expected her to turn in a good performance and be watchable in the role. She did that times two with her portraying very different twin sisters.

I approach expectations as a writer. I'm no actor. I'm a ham with a lot of cheese, but no actor. But the type of expectation that an audience has of me as a writer and cartoonist are the same as type of expectations that they have of an actor. We're both there to try to deliver a, hopefully, good and memorably story/performance. Both walk a fine line of trying to give people what they want, and try to give them something they wouldn't expect from us, but will still like.

I'm struggling with it, but it looks like Sarah Michelle Gellar's got it all figured out.

MUSIC!!

What would you do for a girl like SMG... aside blog about her for a week?



That's it for me today. I've actually had the weekend off and have been enjoying a bit of recuperation time. I'm going to be getting back to that and I'll see y'all Wednesday.

The Case of the Adaptation

This blog isn't in your face, its in my hand. Its Wednesday, August 17, 2011, the game is again afoot, and this is The Side. Quick announcement: my weekly comic book reviews will be out on Sunday as opposed to Friday for the foreseeable future. Due to some personal scheduling changes I won't be able to pick up my comics until Thursday at the earliest and that's not much time to get the reviews done by Friday morning.

Well, its plenty of time, but anyone who has actually met me will attest to the fact that I need as much beauty sleep as possible.

LITERATURE

If you head into Barnes & Nobles and go into the Mystery section you may be lucky enough to find "The Complete Sherlock Holmes". Its two volumes at about eight bucks each, so for sixteen dollars you get it all including bunches of footnotes. I'm working my way diligently through volume one still. I did look into the back of the book for some of the notes and came across four questions. They were very much like the questions I would see in my literature text books in high school, but required a bit more thought.

One of these questions in particular caught my attention: "Do you think it is possible to tell an updated version of these stories considering today's technology?" Well, i think we have the answer to that...



If you haven't seen it yet, you can stream all three episodes, each about an hour and a half long, on Netflix. Its brilliant stuff.

And of course there's the big screen version which seems to franchising its way up.



I do have to say that I think they are dropping the Moriarty card a bit too soon. Then again, there's no way that he's going to be as brilliant as Andrew Scott's take on the character in the previously mentioned BBC series. There's a clip on YouTube featuring him, but its such a big spoiler that I torn between posting because its awesome and not wanting to ruin the ending of "The Great Game" because it was an incredible piece of work. As such, I'm going to err on the side of non-spoilery.

When I requested people name three literary characters I got a wide variety of answer, and Sherlock Holmes was in the top three. I do believe that this character will indeed stand the test of time and continue to be an inspiration and influence. One thing I do find fascinating is that the character works even if modernized. He's not like Batman who has been published regularly for decades. He had his stories. Then he had more stories. Then movies came along and he had movies. Then television came along and he had shows and cartoons. I've seen him in his natural 19th century setting. I've seen him in a cartoon in the far future in which Watson was a robot. I've seen him in the present.

He works because he's a person. For all his flaws and quirks, he is a brilliant and capable who strives to see justice done. And he's not an ideal person. He has a drug problem. He's obsessive. He's not terribly sensitive. Yes, I'm still talking about Sherlock Holmes and not Greg House. As you can see from that last line, what Holmes is and what makes him tick still resonates with audiences today.

I do find it interesting, especially since I heard the recent flap about the impending WORLD WAR Z movie, is that no one really gripes that the original books aren't being followed closely. After all, the Robert Downey Jr movie wasn't "A Study in Scarlet". Maybe some people passionate about Holmes realize something that's important when considering any adaption: its an adaption. Its not going to be the same. You can stray, but as long as you stay true to the characters and the intent of the story, then things can still turn out alright.

I do think there's a direct relationship to the amount of content from the original source and the willingness of readers to go along with adaptations. In the case on smaller projects like novels or short series of comic books (ex: WATCHMEN) any variation from the source material is frowned upon. Subjects with more content to draw from (ex: BATMAN, SPIDER-MAN, SHERLOCK HOLMES) tend to get a little more leeway from fans.

So don't be a hater. At least until you see the movie or TV show or whatever. Then if it sucks, go ahead and hate all you want.

MUSIC!!

From "When I was Cruel".



Alrighty, I'll see y'all back here Friday. Be prepared for foul language.

Evidence of Nerd-dom

Its elementary. Its Friday, July 29, 2011, the game is afoot, and this is The Side. This was one of those days in which it all sort of came together. I didn't really have a theme for today, but when a particular movie trailer popped up and the comics I got this week contained a particular issue. Sometimes, these things just happen.

MOVIES!!

Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law return this December as Holmes and Watson.



The trailer does look exciting, but I'm not completely sold. I love Sherlock Holmes. I absolutely adore the SHERLOCK series from the BBC. I'm just not a huge fan of Downey's take on the character. I spent too much time in the first movie trying to figure out what on earth he was saying. Still, I'll likely check it out. I'll need something to hold me over until THE AVENGERS next May.

COMIX!!

Scott Snyder and Jock are bringing things to a boil in DETECTIVE COMICS #880 James Gordon is on the prowl and it seems no one is safe. To make matters worse, the Joker is on the loose. Jim Gordon races to save his ex-wife, and she's not the only one in peril. This book has struck a perfect balance with Jim Gordon and Dick Grayson as the leads. There's so much going on here that I don't want give too much away. The twist here was pretty easy to spot coming for those of us who have following the Snyder run on the book. Regardless of that, Dick's confrontation with the Joker alone is worth the price of admission. Combine that with an ending that twists the knife and makes having to wait a month nearly painful and you've got a real winner of an issue.

There's so much going on in KIRBY GENESIS #2 that its really hard to keep up. Its totally Jack Kirby Bombardment. There's at least twenty characters running around this thing. Yes, its an unwieldy bitch, but somehow Kurt Busiek holds this bad boy together. I'd have something snap loose in my brain if I tried to do this. With all this craziness going on Busiek inserts these brilliant forth wall breaks that really give us an insight into our main characters. It caught me off-guard in a really great way in issue #1, and I was glad to see it back in this issue. Right now, there looks like a ton of chaos going on. I wish Dynamite would release a collection of some of the comics this books borrows from. For now, I'm along for the mad ride. There's big bad stuffs going, and I'm hooked to see this come together.

ACTIONS COMICS #903 continues the battle with a group of Doomsday clones. The Superman family takes point, leading other heroes to battle clones as Superman goes after the Doomslayer. Its not a bad issue, but I'm having a really hard time getting excited about anything DC is doing, since with the impending reboot its all getting flushed away. This storyline is a swansong of ACTION COMICS. There's a lot going on with Superman and his allies which all made their debut in this current continuity. Doomsday is the most well-known baddie to come along since CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS so its fitting that he's the baddie here. The whole thing feels like a send off that shouldn't be happening.

MUSIC!!

Because somebody needs to keep an eye on them.



That's all for me today. I'm going to be doing my bast to stay cool and yet still get stuff done. Weatherman says its supposed to be cooler next week, but that's what they said about this week. Insert eyeroll here. See y'all Sunday.

All Who Chose to Oppose His Mighty Shield Must Yield!

If you didn't know, the title today comes from the old Captain America cartoon theme song. You doubt me?



Its Sunday, July 24, 2011, this post is brought to you by powder milk biscuits, not really, but this is The Side. We're on the tail end of the heat wave here. Yes I did go out and work in it. There's one big problem with being online in that saying stuff can net a response from unexpected places. I posted that I might have sweated something important off and the first response I get is from an Australian firefighter telling me "toughen up, sunshine".

You can't come back from that! This guy goes out and fights a brush fire and the heat and when he starts getting dehydrated goes "Oy! Gimme a beer."

Pesky internet.

MOVIE REVIEW: CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

When I think of Captain America I think of three main points: he's the best pound-for-pound fighter in Marvel, he's a hero's hero, and he's a stand up guy. The last point was the one that Chris Evans really brought home when he played Steve Rogers in this movie. Yes, he completely looked the part. The special effects that were used to make him look skinny were remarkably well done. He also did a great job with the action scenes required. Most importantly, I completely bought into him as Captain America. He really brought his "A" game as an actor.

This was just one great performance among many. Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull was menacing and eeeeeeevil. Hayley Atwell was phenomenal as Peggy Carter bringing a classic beauty and real strength to the character. Tommy Lee Jones played to his strengths which I love it so when he does it. He was responsible for most of more humorous lines in the film. Sebastian Stan as Bucky did great and really showed the friendship between Steve and Bucky. I loved Stanley Tucci in this. He plays the scientist behind the super soldier process and brings such warmth and charm to the role.

Let's get down to it. For those who don't know the story, in World War II America was going to create an army of "super soldiers" to take on Hitler. A spy kills the scientist responsible after the process produces only one test subject. From there, Cap goes to war. Director Joe Johnson sticks to these key points, and the key points of the character. It works. The best way to describe this film is "simple", and I mean that in the best way possible. I love Johnson's other period superhero film THE ROCKETEER for the same reason. The good guys are good through-and-through. The Nazi bad guys and just dripping evil. You want to cheer for Steve the whole time. He's got an amazing "can do" grit in everything except how to talk to women. There's a lot of charm here making this movie a lot of fun. At the same time we see the stark comparison with Hydra and villains. They aren't likable at all, and you want to see Cap and the Howling Commandos take them down.

One little bit I completely nerded out on. Early in the film, Steve and Bucky go on a double date to the World's Fair. Keep your eyes open to catch a look at The Human Torch! Its the original Human Torch, which was an android superhero the Marvel (then Timely comics) had going back when Cap first came on the scene. Cap, the Torch and Sub-Mariner were their big three back in the day. That Human Torch was the inspiration for the modern Human Torch that Chris Evans played in THE FANTASTIC FOUR. That was such a neat little circle for a movie Easter Egg.

Bottom line: this was a really really good movie. Great performances by all the actors. It looks great. Its a lot of fun. The ending is a gut wrencher that really makes you feel for the characters. They really did an amazing job in this all the way around. This is the classic Captain America I grew reading and not the Mark Millar HaRdCoRe douchebag. Thank goodness for that.

And finally, make sure you stay through the credits for a sneak peak of next years THE AVENGERS. Its the same one that got leaked to YouTube this week, but its really awesome to see on the big screen.

MUSIC!!

When I kick it old school, I mean reeeeeeeal old school.



That's it for today. If the heat is still on you, go catch a movie and enjoy some air conditioning. We'll see y'all Wednesday.

Must type or goblins will eat me...

Its Wednesday, June 8, 2011, I'm lacking something clever to say, and this is The Side. Time is working against me, so let's just get to it.

WRITER BOY

I'm pretty sure that sometimes there a little animated face that pops up on the "new post" page that stares at me when I'm staring at the keyboard try to think about what to write. Friday's are easy. The little animated goblin doesn't come out to make faces at me and mock me for not knowing what to type about. I can do my comic book review and get on with my life. Wednesday and Sunday and much more difficult. While I find great comfort in familiarity of routine I also have a need to create.

Creating routinely works well in theory, but its not like exercising routinely. Both require discipline. Both require time. However if you have time and no health problems you can exercise. You can be healthy as a horse, have all the time in the world, as well as a ton of mind altering substances, and that doesn't guarantee anything is going to happen. However, when you have a deadline, it can make something happen. It forces the matter. There are people who say you shouldn't force creativity, but these are people who either don't create, spend tons of time waiting for inspiration, or have so many ideas popping out of them that the rest of us creative types want to stab them.

I figured out long ago that I'm much easier to be around when I'm creating. I'm actually rather pleasant when I'm drawing regularly. Unfortunately, I'm not drawing regularly, and I haven't done much by way of fiction writing in a long time. Blogging helps, but its like taking medication to keep the nastier symptoms from coming out. Unfortunately time isn't on my side. You can have the best ideas in the world, but when you don't have time to sit and work on them nothing's going to happen. I don't mean time as in, well we're all here and the kids are playing, I mean time as in everyone get out and let me work. There's an old saying that writing isn't a dirty process, but its best done privately and its good to wash your hands afterwards. When you work and have kids, its hard to get that alone time.

And that's when the little goblin pops out: when there's a blank page and a deadline looming. Its different for everyone in that position. Most of them probably don't hallucinate. But then again, if they did, it might give them something to write about.

MOVIES!!

Not a review of anything of the sort this time around. Just a nice little bit from what has to be the greatest movie theater ever.



Speaking of movies, Here's a bit of the theme song to the upcoming remake of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.



That's it for today. Thankfully, I've got some work today. See, being creative is cool, being able to express that is great, but paying your bills is frakking important. See y'all Friday.

For Now I Shall Smite Fed-Ex!!

FOR ASGARD!! Its Sunday, May 8, 2011, I'm one happy nerd, and this is The Side. Spent the day cleaning up around the house, so no Free Comic Book Day for me, but last night I was totally getting my geek on.

MOVIE REVIEW: THOR

Marvel's first movie of the year opened this weekend. Chris Hemsworth plays Marvel's Norse god of thunder with Natalie Portman playing love interest Jane Foster. So, right off the bat: is this movie any good? Well, now we've got so many superhero movies out there that I, as an avid comic book reader and lover of movies, can be discerning about what I think about superhero flicks. I don't feel any need to try to defend a superhero movie like I'm circling the nerd wagon from those who like to mock geekdom. In fact geek chic is currently hanging in pretty well in pop culture. So, that said: THIS MOVIE WAS FREAKING AWESOME!!! This is easily, EASILY the best comic book movie I have ever seen.

The scale and magnitude of this movie can only be described as epic. The effects in this movie were remarkable. This is one of those movies in which you have to use CGI to pull off what the vision of this movie is. I'm not a fan of CGI, but they used it so well here. As good as the effects were, the acting was better. Hemsworth is amazing as Thor. You see such amazing character growth in him through this movie. People were a bit surprised by the folks signing on to this project. Anthony Hopkins playing Odin? Believe it. He completely owns the role. There's been a bit of guff towards Portman as Jane Foster, but I thought she was great. She was fun, feisty, and pretty sharp. There's been a bit of controversy over some of racial casting in the movie, specifically Heimdall being played by a black guy when the character in the comics and in the mythology is white. Many were saying its a bit of forced diversity, but damn was this guy good!

The story is a bit different from the classic comic stories. Jane isn't a nurse here, but a scientist studying a strange phenomenon in the desert and (literally) runs into Thor who has been banished by his father from Asgard for his arrogance. She's not sure what to think of him, but he's a big, charming stud so she's digging him. Meanwhile, Thor's brother Loki (played by Tom Hiddleston) is up to no good and making a play for power. Hiddleston is so brilliant here that I could tell whether whether Loki was being portrayed as a jealous brother questioning his own origins, or just a completely manipulative bastard. The answer is somewhere in the middle, but he's so good at this role its nearly impossible to nail it down. Thor does a lot of growing up on Earth as Loki makes his play in Asgard. There's huge battles and great fight scenes. We get to see a really powerful guy become a really great, and likable hero.

SPOILERS! Hawkeye makes an appearance. He doesn't do a whole lot, but its pretty damn sweet that he showed up. Lots of SHIELD stuff going on. Stan Lee's obligatory cameo was hilarious and a good old boy who tries to move Thor's hammer with his truck. Sif and the Warriors Three are there in full force, well maybe not full force as it looks like Volstagg did a stint on The Biggest Loser. Make sure you sit through the credits!!! Marvel has been putting in little scenes after the credits to get folks hyped for their next movie. Its always been something kinda cool, like Sam Jackson showing up in IRONMAN or seeing Thor's Hammer in IRONMAN 2. Not this time! This was major!! This has me wanting to time travel into next year and see THE AVENGERS right now! Nick Fury has the Cosmic Cube! Holy crap!!!

END SPOILERS. The wrap up? Best movie I've seen in a long time. I'd go see it again today if I could. Flat out great from start to finish.

YOU SUCK!!

I draw things from time to time. Haven't done it lately, but I probably should be getting back to it. I have drawn one thing lately and that's a picture for a vlogger I follow to put on his wall. Right now there's not much behind him when he shoots his videos, and some folks have complained about it, and I've chatted with the fellow a bit and told him I'd draw him something. I finished the picture and got his address, and he's in the UK, which I already knew because he has a little bit of an accent.

Now, I've done artwork for people and sent it to a few places. I usually use Pak Mail, and have had nothing but great results. Well, its been a while since I've send anything and they're now closed. Crap. But there was a Fed Ex/Kinko's right by there so I went in. Sure they could send it. It would get there Wednesday. The price?

$91.87

I thought they were joking. Its basically a large envelope they're sending. I've sent bigger stuff to Hawaii, which is further away from me, for a fraction of that. So I walked out, obviously.

Lee will be getting that picture one way or another even if I have to find the biggest, baddest carrier pigeon in existence. Moral of the story? Fed Ex: you suck.

YOU SUCK: PART DEUX!!

The Nozz Compound fell on a bit of hard times last year. The Missus lost her job, and I was scrambling to make up for it. We contacted our mortgage company to see about getting a loan modification, because we could pay our principle, but the interest rate was a bit high. We were told that there were programs just for people in our situation who have hit a bit of a rough patch, and we would be put through for a loan modification. The process would take about three months, and we were told not to make a payment until its put through, which was great because we would need to bank whatever we could.

Couple of months later we were told we were not approved for the modification and they wanted their money. You see, even though we were hoping to get a modification because were were in a rough spot, we didn't make enough money to get a modification. Since then we haven't missed a payment. We wouldn't have missed the ones we did if they hadn't told us not to pay them. Of course now they say that they never said that.

There's law firms of course to help with these matters. They're all useless. Most of them are scammers anyhow.

So Suntrust Mortgage: you suck. Thanks for lying to us and putting us behind the eightball. Jerks.

MUSIC!!

Theme song from THOR by the Foo Fighters!



That's it for me. I'm going to out and get some breakfast for one hard working mom. Happy Mother's Day to to all the Mom's out there! See y'all Wednesday.

Toy, Toys, Toys From the Attic

YO JOE! Its Sunday, April 10, 2011, I'm kickin' it old school, and this is The Side. Its been a bit of an oddball week. However with all the stuff swirling around my nerdy brain one thing kept popping back up: toys. And old ones at that. Sure enough I got an old toy chest from my neighbors for the little loin spawn, and there was a couple of really beat up TRANSFORMERS in there, that'll likely never roll out again.

That's a sign if I ever seen one.

PRODUCT PLACEMENT

Stopped off at a Farm Fresh to use the bathroom because when your commute is about an hour long then you do what you gotta do. Walked by the DVD bargain bin and found DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH for about four bucks. That is the great thing about blu ray, I can get DVDs really cheap. This show came out in 1985, which was while I was overseas, and as far as TV goes you didn't have a lot of options. So I'd only caught a few episodes of this show. I got the DVD and have checked out a little of it. Fun stuff.

There's been a lot of blasts from my past this week. A house I was doing some painting in had some old "choose you adventure" type books. I always take a peek at bookshelves if I get a chance. One of the books was the old G.I.JOE ones in which the reader is the new member of the team and they have to decide about the mission they go on against Cobra. My brother had a few of those when we were kids.

There was also the radio phone topic Mike and Bob did this week about which did the listeners like more G.I.JOE or TRANSFORMERS. It was a pretty even split, but I think the Joes had a slight lead.

So it seems like a whole lot of 80s nostalgia going on, and looking back I think it had a lot to do with the toys. The majority of cartoons back in the 80s were shilling for toy lines. What was interesting is that each of these toy lines had their own very detailed canon. The back stories to some of these things was phenomenal, and you could play along. You not only could get the little Bumblebee Transformer, but you could watch his adventures on TV, and read about him in the comic book. Same with a lot of the different toy lines.

There was more successful series and toy lines like THUNDERCATS, SILVERHAWKS, MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, and of course the previously mentioned G.I.JOE and TRASNFORMERS. But there's also ones I really liked that didn't catch on quite as well like THE INHUMANOIDS, THE BIONIC SIX, THE CENTURIONS, and THE SKY COMMANDERS. I loved all the fluff stuff surrounding these toy lines even if I never bought any of the toys. Although loving these shows and their comics did make me want the toys. I really dug THE CENTURIONS and THE SKY COMMANDERS, but it was a serious chore to find the toys around here.

I do think the big winner from all these 80s toy lines was G.I.JOE. They had more stuff. It was relatively affordable, at least the figures were. I think it was a bit a tie as far as quality of their cartoon show in comparing it to TRANSFORMERS, but the old Larry Hama comic book from MARVEL really blew the doors off all the other toy related comics back in the day. I still remember the big hunt over issue 21, "Silent Interlude". Snake-Eyes are already a big favorite among fans of G.I.JOE but that really put if over the top. Then came Storm Shadow and every kid out there had to have that figure. I never had any G.I.JOE stuff myself, but I have to say it was pretty cool. My brother was a big collector. I got a kick out of reading all the little file cards that gave details about the characters on the back of the packages.

G.I.JOE and TRANSFORMERS both have received the big Hollywood treatment in recent years. I saw the first TRANSFORMERS movie and didn't like it. I just couldn't shut my brain off to enjoy it. I skipped the G.I.JOE movie, but it didn't really look great to me. Fans still went out to see it them all though. If I had my way I'd make a G.I.Joe movie that was a little less over the top. No dodging missiles in power suits or that other silliness. We have all the elements there for a really cool spy-fi/shoot 'em up flick. I'd reign in some of the more over the top elements and have another go at it. It would probably do better at the box office and get better fan reception. I think the problem is that they tried going too big, and sometimes that's good, but you've always got to be careful of going over the top with it.

Good old childhoods. I'm not saying the stuff I had around as a kid was better than previous or later generation, but it was definitely some cool stuff. It was to the point that even the toy catalogs were entertaining. I kinda feel bad that there's not things like this for my kids. Ah well.

MUSIC!!!

Presenting Stan Bush: King of the cheesy 80s movies power ballad themesongs. BOW TO THE KING!!



Alrighty, that's the ball game for today. I'm going to go transform and roll out to fight for freedom wherever there's trouble. See y'all Wednesday.

Perfect, Black and Blue Swan

Get out of your mind! Its Wednesday, March 30, 2011, my brain is going a bunch of different directions, and this is The Side. The reason for my brain going so many different ways will be apparent soon considering my recent viewing habits. Fortunately, I've got a good audience to keep me rooted in reality.

ASK NOZZ DAY #3

Darren Brown had questions. I have answers.

Hey Marty, is the Uraken Uchi a fake or a nose buster?
The Uraken Uchi, or back fist, is a favorite technique of mine. It works much like a jab in western boxing. Its great for setting up combos and creating openings. It can be used as a fake or feint to try to open a hole in an opponent's defenses, but when I throw it, I'm throwing with force. The technique can work great for stunning someone. Pop them in the eye, nose, or upper lip and you'll definitely get some good results. You're not likely to get good,reliable knockout power from it, but its still a great technique. But then again, the missus put her previous sensei in a hospital with an Urakan Uchi so there's always exceptions to the rule.

How's the toe?
Diseased! Or infested. It ended up being a case of athlete's foot which I'm currently dosing and hoping will go away soon. Looks like I'll be wearing shoes to the dojo for a while. I think One spot on my toe got rubbed raw when I got sand in my work shoe and had a hole in my sock. From there it make catching a nasty fungus that much easier. It had a hole in my mighty foot callous armor.

HEAD GAMES!!

A while back I went to the movies and saw BLACK SWAN. For those who haven't seen it, its a psychological thriller centered around a repressed ballet dancer. Its a very, very good movie and quite a head trip. We currently live in a comparative society, meaning when we experience something we automatically try to compare it something else. I'm guilty of this too. The movie I could best compare it to was an anime feature from the 90s, PERFECT BLUE. There's been a bit of back and forth as to whether PERFECT BLUE was an influence is creating BLACK SWAN, but one way or another there's a lot of similarities.

PERFECT BLUE was a complete head trip. It centered around a young pop star who was venturing into acting. Both films featured likable, sweet, young women as protagonists. Both also had their protagonists being put through a change in character. Both involve performing arts. Both have a heavy sexual element to them. I have a copy of it which I hadn't watched in probably ten years. I had a VHS player hooked up the other night and came across the old tape so I fired it up.

I do have to say that this movie is a lot more graphic than I remember. While the fake rape scene stuck in my mind, I had forgotten about the brutal murders that took place. That's another thing the two have in common: quite a bit of stabbing.

Now, this movie came out in 1997 in Japan. It was loosely based on a novel and was originally going to be a live action film but a major earthquake damaged the movie studio. Now, let's keep this time in context. 1997. The internet was still fresh and new. One of the pivotal points in this film is the main character, Mema, discovering a website called "Mema's Room" which was pretty much a blog for her. In it she talked about what she did, and shared her thoughts with her fans. The problem was she didn't write any of it. This is way before the social media boom, back when e-mail was the hot new thing.

So we've got an early version of a blog as well as a case of identity theft going on. In this respect its almost as if the movie was ahead of its time by about ten years.

The main thing the stories both revolve around is aspects of a performance have a major influence in the performer's real life compounded by hallucinations. BLACK SWAN is good with this to the point that I was questioning whether or not the mother even existed. However, as good as BLACK SWAN was at making me question what I was seeing PERFECT BLUE does it ten times better. It ratchets it up to Hitchcock levels to the point where the viewer is completely thrown barely having any idea what it real, what is imagined, and what is on the TV show Mema is on. So people really don't like being confused by the stories they're working through, and as a general rule its not a good idea to confuse your audience, but stories like this are the exception. It gives the audience a better understanding of what the character is going through.

MUSIC!!!

This is my jam, yo!



OK, that's all for the whiskey portion of your week. I'll see y'all on the foxtrot.

When suckage attacks, counter with awesome.

Jumpin' Jiminey Christmas! It's Wednesday, March 9, 2011, NBC hates me, and this is The Side. I was pretty stoked with NBC, and especially their show, THE CAPE. It's not the greatest show ever, but its really a lot of fun. They had a spiffy "create a villain" contest which I entered, and was really excited about.



But my entry didn't get picked, which kinda sucked, but the one that did get picked looks cool, so I'm alright with that. Then I come to find out that the show is getting canceled. So, they cancel a fun show, but they keep horrible, insulting crap like HARRY'S LAW. Of course they say its about the ratings, but if they showed THE CAPE three times a week like they do HARRY'S LAW then it would probably so a much different story.

SCIENCE!!

Everyone loves to be listened to. So it makes me happy that after bitching that science had stopped being awesome and really started sucking lately, I'm very happy to report that its started turning up some interesting stuff!

For instance, they've found the fossil of a nuclear reactor. That's right it seems that these did occur naturally a long time ago, which is how Fred Flintstone was able to power his TV. The Earth really is a fascinating old gal. All sorts of interesting things go on beneath the surface. Naturally occurring nuclear reactors from before recorded history. It really does sound like crazy science fiction, but there they are. Of course these are completely dormant now as the radioactive materials are long since spent.

This brings to mind a lot of comments people make that are just stupid. "How can Superman be hurt by a rock from his own planet?" Try holding a piece of uranium for a while, and see how you're feeling. "How can marijuana be bad for you? Its natural." You know what has a really killer buzz? Hemlock. Go try it, stoner.

Of course now that we know about these ancient reactors, now we know what really killed the dinosaurs: Pre-historic Geo-Nuclear War! Couldn't be a rock from the sky!

Hey, speaking of rocks from the sky, guess what they found in one? No, not Jimmy Hoffa! They found evidence of alien life! Yep, fossilized bacteria were found in meteorite. Now, these findings are still being poured over like no finding were ever found before, but its looking legit. Fossilized bacteria, and I'm glad they are fossilized as I hear Alpha-Centaurian Flu is an absolute bitch.

So its not a flying saucer or anything like that, but now we have proof of life not of this Earth. This of course has sent quite a few people into a tizzy. It shouldn't really. There's a lot of real estate out there. Somethings got to be out there. And some people are still waiting for them to show up. Of course if they do get close enough to pick up on our broadcasts, I'd expect them to flee are far from this planet as they can. I fully expect that if we do have an alien invasion, like in SKYLINE or this week's BATTLE: LOS ANGELES, that it'll be because the aliens had seen JERSEY SHORE and have a pressing need to vaporize Snooki.

And, of course, there's those people who are determined to make science suck, like the other NASA group saying that the fossils inside the rock from space are from Earth contamination. They're saying that they fossils being from space somehow implies that life on Earth didn't originate here, which is pretty stupid. Some people have some kind of weird notion that life must have originated in only one spot. Its like the notion that life spawning in more than one place is impossible. That's fairly stupid. Ah well, the findings are still being poured over, and we'll see what's up.

MOVIES!!!

Its a movie with Kevin Bacon AND Nathan Fillion!!! Kevin and Nathan! Nathan and Kevin! This is destined to be the greatest movie of all time!! OK, maybe not, it'll probably be more like KICK-ASS if KICK-ASS was funny and enjoyable.

MUSIC!!

Mumford and Sons has been getting a ton of radio airplay around here, especially on the local rock station. I don't think this tune will make their play list, but for whatever reason Dave Matthews did, so we'll see.



That's all for today. More work for me, which is cool since that's what lets me buy some comics. See y'all on the Foxtrot.

Movies, Music, Mayhem... and Math?

Its Sunday, January 23, 2011, I'm scared of Natalie Portman, and this is The Side. Its cold outside, but onward we go. I've got my money in for the NWA's Superbowl pool. This years party should be a blast. I really don' care much about football, but there will be food there, so GO TEAM!

On to stuff.

BAT-FLICK COMETH!!

The next Batman movie from Christopher Nolan is getting all set to go. The big news this week is the villain casting. Anne Hathaway has been cast as Selina Kyle (better known as Catwoman), and Tom Hardy has been cast as Bane. I don't have any real problem with either actor in these roles, although despite having a large portion of my brain dedicated at all times to things Batman, I doubt I will go see the movie. I like BATMAN BEGINS. I loathed THE DARK KNIGHT. I am going to have get won over in a big way to go see this next movie.

Let's look at this news, starting with the casting of Bane. You could actually make a decent case for Nolan "white washing" the villains in his films. Ra's Al Ghul originally hails from the Arabian peninsula, yet in the movie he was played by Irishman Liam Neeson. Well, no one had a problem with that be cause its Liam Neeson and he's just awesome. Now we have Bane, who is from South America. Tom Hardy is British. Now, if this was years and more years ago I'd be on my high horse yelling about movies staying true to the comics and so on, but now I don't really care anymore. Its an adaption. Things are going to get changed. Fans should stop griping about the changes that are made and just be happy that they are getting a Batman movie and hope its enjoyable. But still, this is kind of weird in casting. They didn't cast a Hispanic or Latino for the role? Really? I'm not saying that Hardy won't do great in the role, but this is pretty weird.

But let's move on to Hathaway. She broke out onto the scene with those THE PRINCESS DIARIES movies. She's done quite a bit of work in various roles. She's quite pretty and has definite acting chops. The role of Selina Kyle is perfect for her and where she is in her career right now. If she does well in this role, and i have no doubt that she will, she'll have expanded her fanbase out even further and demonstrated how broad her range really is. Before Heath Ledger was cast as The Joker in the last bat-flick he was best known as a former teen heart throb and then as a gay cowboy. Then he creeped everyone right the hell out with his portrayal of The Joker. He demonstrated his range and if he were alive today he'd be considered one of the top actors working. This role could be what really cements Hathaway as a great actress, as weird as that may sound. She's tackled all these different genres so remarkably well. Now its time to conquer another.

DATE NIGHT WITH NOZZ!

Actually got to go out with the Missus without the kids. Hootie Nozz (who still hasn't become a cyborg) watched the little terrors and even sprung for our night out as a late Christmas gift. We got out the door a bit late to make dinner at the Winchester (no the actual name of the place, that's the Red Dog Pub, but its our Winchester) so we agreed on grabbing a bit at one of the restaurants in the mall where we were going to movies.

I'm in line for tickets while the Missus was ordering our food at Johnny Rocket's. Took a bit to get the tickets as even though it was Friday night there was only one person behind the ticket counter. Ordering for me is easy: bacon cheeseburger plain and cherry Coke. So I get the tickets and plant myself over at the restaurant. It was the waitress's first night.

The Cokes were not Cherry. But they got changed fairly quickly.

We were waiting for our burgers knowing that we had just enough time to eat and get over to the theater. Well the burgers come out with everything on them. So, those got taken back. We're down to five minutes until the movie starts. I hate being late for movies.

The burgers come out along with check, which was knocked down quite a bit in price to make up for the mix-ups, so I'm not complaining, but the movie was going to star in a minute. The manager brought us a couple of foil thing-a-ma-doodles to wrap them up in and into the Missus's purse they went.

Why do women carry large purses? For smuggling cheeseburgers.

The Missus headed into the theater to find us seats. I grabbed a soda from the concessions stand for us to share and spotted an old buddy from high school. So i was temporarily torn between saying "hi" to my old buddy or getting into the movie. Sorry Leigh.

We watched THE BLACK SWAN which was the best movie I've watched in a long time. Excellent film. Natalie Portman was incredible. The scary thing is that I actually managed to keep up with what was hallucinations and what wasn't. It legitimately creeped me right the hell out. If you're on the fence about seeing it, and really want your head knocked sideways, go. The closest thing I've seen to this is PERFECT BLUE, which I love. So, five stars from me.

There was a bit of a break for me as I was overcame by Cherry Coke and that seemed to overcome the urinal, and flooding ensued. Its not a date night without flooding.

POLITICAL MATH

Paul Krugman did an piece about the healthcare debate and the move to repeal it, and basically a bunch of one-sided claptrap that included this lovely chart.



Thank goodness it wasn't a piece about education because that might be really embarrassing. Math has shown that Mister Paul Krugman is not smarter than a 5th grader.

MUSIC!!

Pete Yorn covering the Buzzcocks. That sounds kinda dirty.



That's it for Sunday. Remember: "Ask Nozz Day" is Wednesday, so send me any questions you might have that you'd like me to answer. Hit me up here, my Buzz, my Twitter, or e-mail me at martynozz@yahoo.com See y'all then.

GSP is #4?

Its Sunday, December 12, 2010, I over slept, and this is The Side. I hate over sleeping. Its a pet peeve of mine. Its one thing if I wake up utterly exhausted and decide that I need another hour of shut eye. Its another if I wake up to discover that the kids have been playing with the volume on the clock radio and we forgot to check it before hitting the sheets.

I did probably need an extra hour of rest since I was up late watching George St. Pierre punch Josh Koscheck in the face about two hundred times. I was hoping for a broken face for Koscheck to the point of him not being able to talk, but after the whuppin' he was surprisingly incredibly gracious.

In Karate I preach to my students that if someone comes after you with circular techniques, use straight line techniques. Koschecks biggest weapon is his right hand which he always throws in a circular motion. Its devestating and has knocked plenty of guys out. So, what does the Kyokushinkai Karate Black Belt GSP do? Straight jab and repeated as necessary. I sat at my cousin's house, watching the clinic on "how to defend you welterweight title belt" smiling not just becauseone of my favorite fighters won, but because good Karate tactics got validated yet again.

MOVIES!!

A trailer for I AM NUMBER FOUR got featured on YouTube the other day and i checked it out. This was my first time seeing anything about this.



On YouTube, for those of you who have never been there (I heard you exist), there's a place to comment about the videos. Browsing through the comment I saw that many were comparing this movie with TWILIGHT. So I obviously had to read every TWILIGHT book and watch every movie to see if this comparison is accurate.

Yeah. Right.

Many people prefer to compare then describe. Maybe it stems from not being able to accurately describe what we've witnessed so we revert to using well known experiences as a shorthand to give a representation of what this new experience input made us feel. Maybe some folks have an inability to use adjectives. I don't know.

Both properties stem from books aimed at teenagers. Both feature protagonists that try to hide in high schools. Both have the protagonists fall in love with someone they met in that high school. But after that, they seem to both go on very different paths. I'm not sure how vampire struggling not to eat his loved one equates to alien guy trying not to get ganked by other aliens, but there we have it.

So, the comparison has a little merit, but is flimsy at best. That said, I AM NUMBER FOUR looks like a fun flick and one I wouldn't mind checking out.

MUSIC!!

These fellows bear consideration.



Yeah, I know it was a short one this go around. I'll try harder next time, coach! See y'all Wednesday.