The Blogboard Jungle

     Most of the things you'll read here have to do with simple pleasures, movies, what's on TV, some video game I stayed up late playing a few nights.  But, I am actually pretty physically active with, working out, yoga, and martial arts.  I've been training about half my life in martial arts and the reason why I love it is because there is never an end point, you always look to better yourself. I ran into this video and figured I would share it with everyone; it's pretty motivational and inspiring.  If I weren't at work I'd be at my school training for the 2nd time today, which the video brings up around after 2 minutes.  Check it out, and get motivated in the New Year:

There are few remakes that do a story good but when they do, they get their own sequels.  One of the ones I enjoyed was Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and it did well enough to earn a sequel.  The trailer is out on the web and I caught this one on The Telegraph. This teaser trailer...for the trailer was announced before and it seems it was worth announcing to people like myself that liked Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

     White House Down and Olympus Had Fallen came out not too far apart from each other and one wonders why the premise of the White House being invaded was such a popular concept at the time they where made.  If you've visited Washington D.C. you know you can't get much closer that photo op area, so to create the premise where EVERYONE sleeps on the job must've been a hard sell.  Either way, two movies of the same theme were made and one is actually worse than the other. Both movies, if you're going to sit through them have to be taken with a grain of salt in swallowing the story lines.  Channing Tatum in White House Down is pretty awful, after having been in so many films you would think he'd give up trying to act so Vanilla Ice-ish especially with the roles he's had lately but no, it sticks out like a sore thumb in his film.  You would have to look it up but it must've been made before Jamie Fox got his Oscar and in all honesty his perfo...

    I've mentioned before how the holidays seem to being out the crazies once Thanksgiving passes, and referred to it as " The Silly Season ".  That phrase was taken from a film, that sort of became an unofficial Christmas movie for myself and many others over the years through pop culture or what have you along with another film.  The films I am referring to are Die Hard and Lethal Weapon , while their genre may be action elements of holiday survival are ingrained and the message is of closeness and family are there that make them good choices for the grumpy guy's holiday. Firstly, both films start and end with Christmas music so you have your sandwich of holiday theme music right there.  Throughout both films you'll notice plenty of Christmas lights and Santa themed colors in many scenes.  Along with tinsel, and eggnog both films focus on families trying to get together for Christmas but have to deal with these pesky European terrorists or mercenaries...

     Recently got snowed in for a day and it gave me some decent time to play catch up on some video games I haven't had time to get to .  I don't know about you all, but as much of a pain it can be to be restricted to your home when the weather gets bad a part of me kind of likes it.  A lot of the games, movies and TV shows I don't get to watch normally get watched during these times and this recent storm made me reminisce about what I've done in the past to avoid succumbing to cabin fever. That's a car under that mound. This first snow was no big deal, and only kept me inside for the early part of the day but I still managed to throw down on the third part of the Uncharted series, which seems to be one of the most awesome series in a game I have played.  It's like having a box set of a film series that I  look forward to watching, only this is my first run since my PS3 is only a year old so I'm just now getting into that consoles exclusive ga...

     Apparently there is a clubhouse where very good actors meet up and plan to star in movies together.  I'm not sure but based on the cast of Out of the Furnace , this club must consist of Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck , Forrest Whittaker, Willem Defoe, and Sam Sheppard.  Yes...They are all in this movie.  Beef. The film takes place in Braddock,  Pennsylvania which I hope is a fictional town because it seemed an awful lot like Detroit.  Old school American ethics seem to take place in the town where you either work at "the mill" or join the military.  Casey Affleck and Christian Bale play two close brothers that go through a lot throughout the course of the movie and they play their roles really well. Bale plays Russel Baze who goes the route of working in the local steel mill, while Affleck plays Rodney Baze Jr.  and has bigger plans for himself. He joins the military and while they really don't touch on...

   As a fan of horror and zombies in particular, it may seem odd that I never write anything about The Walking Dead on AMC.  I'm a very big fan of the books, when I took a break from comics it was Image comics free on line issue of The Walking Dead #1 that brought me back to the hobby.  Back then, there was a lot of buzz about it being a TV show but it was only talk at the time.  When I heard AMC was picking it up I was super excited and started talking it up to people because I wanted it to be as popular as it is but after a few changes in creative with the show something went wrong, (other than Andrea ) and I lost interest. No one else did, and if you dare speak ill of the show then thicken your skin because when things are pointed out people can get very offended.  I read a Buzzfeed article that mentioned a lot that I thought was true in regards to the show dragging , making cool characters in the book very dumb on the show, and some other points of ...

This scene shot on NYC's high line.    Does anyone think Jude Law wanted to be some sort of doctor in a former life?  Or, at least in the pharmaceutical industry?  I say that because of his role in Contagion , he wasn't a doctor but he was a pill pusher in that one.  Anyway, I remember seeing the trailer for this and not really getting what it was about, plus it has Channing Tatum in it which is automatic "not for me", but I added this to my  +Netflix  queue because it was a thriller...and he get killed in it, or the character he plays dies so it's funny to me (my girlfriend likes him . So, there!). The premise of the movie is, why he gets killed.   Tatum plays Martin Taylor who we see released from prison at the beginning of this movie.  His wife, Emily Taylor played by Rooney Mara is dealing with depression over his recent stint in prison for insider trading and having to rebuild their lives upon his release has taken it's toll on her...

     I found this movie on  +Netflix  over Thanksgiving and I thought it was a pretty well made movie.  Although the film doesn't seem to have the best reviews and has an average rating of 3.2 on Rotten Tomatoes I still found it to be a good movie on a day I was digesting my turkey dinners (yes, I had more than one). Two old guys with an old grudge. Killing Season is the first movie that Robert De Niro and John Travolta have been in together and they both play veterans of a past war that have crossed swords while serving on opposing sides.  The war is over but Travolta's character, Emil Kovac is holding a grudge against De Niro's character Benjamin Ford who is retired military and has been scarred by what he has seen in the same war.  Kovac was left for dead by Ford during a raid on a prison camp in Bosnia and travolta has been spending about 18-20 years tracking Ford in order to exact his revenge.  Ford lead a reclusive life in the ...

     Remember Alien Nation ?  The TV show, not the movie.  The movie was good too but the was OK enough for a weekly series until it got tired.  That's what this show reminded me of of with a little Robocop mixed in with some I ,Robot .  Karl Urban and Michael Ealy are in this new show about future cops, where police are armed with an android partner so they can do everything that Google Now does and watch your back in shoot outs as well. Karl Urban & Michael Ealy Karl Urban plays angry cop Detective John Kinnex , he's angry because he lost his leg, lost his partner, and hates "synthetics" which are the android partners the police are required to have with them on the job in the future.  Sounds familiar right?  It is the character formula for Will Smith in I, Robot but that's not important nor does it ruin a potentially interesting show if you're looking for something new to watch in this time of awesome shows ending or tak...