The Blogboard Jungle

      Ocean's Eleven ( the Clooney one) , meets The Prestige in a failed attempt to make tweens look at magic the same way the latter film did in the most unbelievably expensive heist film made with actors that are stuck between the A and B list.  With the exception of Morgan Freeman, Michael Cain, and Woody Harrelson this movie seemed like a rushed mess of a wannabe heist, X-men type of film. It's OK of you don't them... "The Eye" is supposed to be a secret society magicians club and only the cooled David Blaine level magicians get in!  You have to be invited to get in and you have to be hazed like in a frat to get in based on the films premise.  Only the hazing to the lucky magicians known as "The Four Horseman" is to put on an elaborate Vegas style magic show and become YouTube sensations by putting on ridiculously unbelievable magic acts that are so obviously done with special effects it's just corny.  There is a twist in the film, most of...

     I know I've written about a few new shows I have gotten into after looking to fill the void left by Breaking Bad.  One of the ways I found them was using Google Now in the phone I got when I upgraded off of a much outdated phone running on Gingerbread, (Android 2.3.4).  It helped me find Almost Human , and I got the correct time to set my DVR for the recent Doctor Who special The Day of the Doctor .  I kept seeing a list of shows, when I selected them it had an option to listen to my TV, then boom a list of stuff on popped up.  You can also say the name of a show or movie you're interested in and get info sent to you on stuff you're looking forward to. Google Now does give you a lot of help in the initial set up but knowing what to say, and when to say it to get the info you want can be tricky and take some time to learn.  I had to play around with it a but to get the info on my new favorite shows, luckily the people at trendblog made ...

     I am a big fan of great story telling no matter what genre it is, although I do have my favorites .  I have written before about trying to find shows to get into when the one's you like end , what I didn't mention is what I stumbled across in my search.  I met The Doctor when he was in his fourth incarnation as a kid when he was played by Tom Baker.  I didn't know that the thing would still be on the air some 32 years later... When you get socks for a show...that's hardcore. If anyone knows how to tell a story and keep any continuity errors to a minimum, if at all it has to be Steven Moffat.  This guy was already in my good writer list when he did his re-imagining of Sherlock , little did I know he was the show runner for Doctor Who as well and his 50th Anniversary episode did not disappoint. The intro used in the beginning was the classic Doctor Who intro form when the show first started and if you watched the docu-drama the night before...

     I love a bargain as much as anybody else, but it seems there is a fine line between being greedy and being a savy shopper.  I've read a lot about stores opening on Thanksgiving, bypassing the early morning black Friday craziness so they can give shoppers earlier access to door busting deals. This would only make the insane behavior that starts on what I call "The Silly Season", start earlier. Thanksgiving is the only holiday that is about being grateful, and appreciating where you are and who your with...and now that's being cut short. I read this article and have heard about other situations like this where people that thought they would at least get this one day with their families, despite the profession they work in.  Retail, used to be safe when I was younger.  You knew you were going to have the same time as most people had on that day, excluding emergency service workers.  I can understand Mr. Rivera's position having worked ...

    I haven't read a Spider-Man comic book since the Brand New Day story line and the Disney acquisition of Marvel.  I gave up on comics, mostly because the story lines seemed to be changing too much to target an audience that did not age with it's characters.  That's besides the point, Spider-Man has always been one of my top reads as a kid, he brought me back to comics during Marvel's Civil War story line when I thought I was done reading, and when they changed his life by resetting him, I washed my hands of comics. I heard about his recent death from a friend and his "Doc Ock" replacement on line and it didn't matter because he was already murdered by greed as far as I was concerned.  Then I read today that Turn Off the Dark was leaving New York City today, Spidey is being moved to Vegas like some unpopular crooner from back in the day that has lost his popularity.  Maybe if he wasn't ruined so much people would still be interested.  How ...

   I caught this over the weekend as well because I didn't know it was out on home video.  I think it's safe to say Ryan Gosling liked doing weird movies because this film has an odd but interesting plot line.  To sum it up quickly, it's a combination of Drive , Copland (if they replaced any dirty cop actor with Bradley Cooper), and Chronicle ...because the kid from Chronicle is in it playing another emo kid. This whole movie is Eva Mendes's fault! If you saw the trailer for this film, they show you a lot of action, and Bradley Cooper holding a gun and bank robberies.  What they didn't show you is what the actual film is about, and that it takes place in the span of about 15 or 16 years.  You will get the action you see, the bank robberies and the motorcycle chases but what you will also get is the story of a weird family feud that spans about fifteen years.  This is not necessarily a spoiler, but be informed you will not see some of the actors...

     Books that get made into movie's and depending on the fan base and how hard core they are the movie about the book can get ruined for them .  I have fallen victim to this a lot, and have been pleased or displeased depending on what is done when changing mediums.  Ender's Game seems to have done well a well enough job putting the story on the silver screen and even with some minor details from the book changed or left out it still makes for a good movie. Note to bullies, don't pick on a kid named "Ender". Ender's Game like many sci-fi films takes place in a future where the earth gets attacked by aliens and although earth won, feels the need to prepare for the next wave.  The film is narrated from the perspective Alexander Ender Wiggins, the title character played pretty well by Asa Butterfield who seems like he's just transcended into his adolescence and fits well into a character of the same age.  For some reason, younger tweens are ...

   Being pretty busy I do not have the time I would like to get into games the way I used to.  For that reason I have a huge back log list of games I would like to play.  The next-gen console wars are going full blast and are about to be released so I have decided to remove myself from that since I am so behind.  But, I can't not get anything either so...I went with the cheapest alternative, The Gamestick.  Packaging was really well done. I had first heard about the Gamestick through its  Kickstarter campaign  and it is one of three things I backed just to see what it was like to fund something that you would hope could be potentially successful.  I received my Kickstarter edition Gamestick just this week and so far...I have yet to play a game as I type this. Fully charged!!! With your Gamestick console you get a lot of accessories, for set up, storage options, and charging.  Let me tell you, it has to be charged 100%...

The Iceman (2012) Starring Michael Shannon and Ray Liotta     I had a chance to watch Michael Shannon in the biopic film about Richard Kuklinski , The Iceman   this week and it was not a bad film.  It is based on the life of the convicted killer and his various interview he gave detailing his history and criminal activities for various books and documentaries. I remember seeing the America Undercover documentary on HBO in the 90's and had known of him since then.  He did several other interviews for follow up documentaries and psychologists because of his disconnect with the crimes he committed.  In one of the interviews a law enforcement officer says that Kuklinski was not a serial killer since he had no " modus operandi " or M.O. and he actually did what he did for work not for any other psychotic reason. The film stars Michael Shannon from  Man of Steel  and Board Walk Empire  as Kulkinski and if you've seen his other work...

     The character of Deadpool has been deserving of a  movie for a while, Ryan Reynolds can play him correctly since he's got a good reputation of playing wise-cracking characters and has been "championing Deadpool for years and several directors enthusiastically circled the project – chief among them were Robert Rodriguez and music video helmsman (and current Videodrome remake shot-caller) Adam Berg." according to the web site Geeks of Doom . Let's hope they make it before Ryan Reynolds gets old. If you don't know much about Deadpool, that's fine he breaks the fourth wall with his readers a lot and I for one am looking forward to seeing this transition to film.  I have personally stopped reading Marvel comics since the whole Disney thing and it may be just a personal thing that I think their influence can potentially ruin a film .  That may be the hold up for this one as Deadpool would need plenty of violence and gore to play on the exaggera...

   It's November, Halloween is over turkey day is around the corner, and soon our shows will take their holiday break that seems like forever.  What do you look forward to now?  Breaking Bad was our show of shows, anything else came second to it but now that it's over it's been pretty "ho-hum" in TV land.  So, what are you watching? If you've been too busy to get into things your friends are talking about, streaming technology can be a life saver when the cold weather comes and leaves you to occupy yourself with something new on TV.  Other than re-watching Breaking Bad its a good chance to find something new to get into.  We, for instance have just re-discovered Doctor Who after not watching it since the 80's, and +Netflix has all of them.  Another very good show is Hell on Wheels , that takes place during the reconstruction era of the United States post Civil War times.  That should be enough, but what if you need a genre break?...