In which you get several reviews

So, we did a whole lotta movie watching at Casa del 'd' last week. Here are the reports.

Moon was indeed brilliant. It really should have gotten some Oscar attention. I don't think I'll say too much about this one other than it was really good. Sam Rockwell gives an amazing performance and Kevin Spacey was quite good as well. (In fact his role was one of the nice little twists of the film, I was expecting something quite different out of him.) So, if you've not seen Moon and you consider yourself a sci-fi fan, go watch it now or turn in that badge buddy.

GI Joe was a bit of a surprise. Mostly in that I thought it was pretty good. For a dumb action flick. Which it is (both good and a dumb action flick). I didn't have any real expectations for this one going in so that might have helped. Also, I don't think I've ever seen such an action packed movie. Good grief this thing one was set piece after another. It did suffer some from trying to cram every back story it possibly could into the film, but otherwise it's pretty decent.

Law Abiding Citizen was good until the ending. It's a fairly typical we want you to root for the bad guy until the ending when we're going to let the good guy win sort of movie. They really should have just gone with the bad guy. Gerard Butler was a lot more fun in this movie than Jamie Foxx. I suppose part of the problem is they had no idea how to end it and let the bad guy win, but really... So, watch it up until the end and then pretend Butler gets away with it.

We also took in the most recent Celtic Woman concert on DVD. All I really have to say about this is they still have great voices, but they're really not very Celtic any more and that's a shame. That was the bit I liked about them. And really, when it's in the name of your group, maybe you should focus on it some.

And this brings me to Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth. I think the first thing I should mention is that this was an advance readers copy. What caught my attention was the tag line for the book: The Ultimate Secret, The Ultimate Agent, The President's Vampire. (And really the book should have gone with The President's Vampire as the title, I get why he chose Blood Oath, but the other is a little more fun.) The next thing I should point out is that this is very much the first book in a series - while the main plot does wind up, there are a slew of loose plot/character threads. And while I suppose it's not really that big a deal, it is a little frustrating. But having said all that the book is a lot of fun. There are several sly references in the book (if you're a horror buff) to things like Night of the Living Dead and the Vampire/Werewolf feud so that's a plus. It's also quite readable, a nice page turner sort of book. And it certainly beats the glitter off Twilight. Even lovely wife enjoyed this one (in fact she read it before I did - saw it when I brought it home and practically ripped the thing out of my hands). It's a little silly, a little gross and a good read. Farnsworth even manages to mostly leave vampires alone. Most of the "changes" he makes get explained in terms of old vampire lore. I'll have to take his word for it. I remember most of the references, so it's probably pretty close.

I also finished off that third volume of Hellboy. And it was great. It's Hellboy, of course it's great.

And I think that's all the stories I have for now. Next up are viewings of The Vampire's Assistant and New Moon. Three guesses which is the better vampire flick...

In which I wax Parental and a few other things

I was listening to Radio Free Burrito the other day (Wil Wheaton's podcast) and he was relating a story about his son and those times when you recognize parts of yourself in your kids. And that got me to thinking a little bit about my own kids and some of the experiences we had this week and so, for a Very Special entry here on letter 'd', I thought I'd take a very brief moment to relate said experiences. And then add in some of my usual ramblings. Feel free to skip to the end.

Anybody who has spent any amount of time on this blog knows that I am a gamer. I have been for a long, long, long time. (Longer than that) And while my current habits trend relatively highly to board games I spent years fascinated with video games. (I enjoyed board games while younger but it was the flashing lights and chiptunes that really held sway in my soul.) I never owned any sort of gaming console while growing up, but I had friends that had them and I also grew up during the glory years of the local arcade. And we had a pretty nice one for a small town. I relay this mostly to say that there is some bit (or byte) of gaming in my genes. It probably distilled from the engineer in my Dad into a techie geeky gamery goodness in me. And I have managed to pass that along quite nicely to G.

It's a little amusing to me to see just how deeply gaming is ingrained into G. We occasionally tried to get the girls into gaming as a family with things like Mariokart and so on but it never really took. They are the epitome of casual gamer, but G is a gamer in his very soul. And I find myself in the odd position of trying to nip some of it in the bud. Mostly because he's still so young. I don't want him to spend all day playing Link or Smasher Brothers or Little Link. So we had to sit him down the other day and try to explain that really, one game a day was going to have to be enough. You could see the wheels turning in his head, "One game? How is it possible to play only one?" And then there was the chin quiver and little tears. Truly it was quite the sight to behold. The gamer in me rallied to his cry, but silently and as parents we held the line. 30 minutes a day kiddo - you can break it up into smaller pieces if you want to play a couple, but that's all you get. If you help around the house or do something extra nice you might earn a few more minutes, but that's it. And that includes playing New Super Mario Bros. with us.

Truly a sad day in his little gamer soul. But hopefully he will use some of his new found free time on things like books and cars and terrorizing the neighborhood. He seems pretty good at that too. And it was pretty nice to see that bit of me reflected in his eyes. One game?! Indeed.

McK is starting to weave her teenager cocoon. It won't be long now and we will be faced with this pod person that we thought we knew that looks like her in some respects, but acts nothing like her. Lovely wife got her first real glimpse the other morning while trying to get laundry ready and the kids out the door for school. McK decided that she really needed to wear the exact same shirt from the day before and lovely wife had to convince her otherwise. Apparently World War III will be started over an argument concerning a shirt from the day before. I don't think science fiction has accounted for this yet. Anyway there was a nuclear meltdown and words exchanged in a less than civil manner and ultimately lovely wife resorted to some shock therapy. And once she left the room McK decided to take matters out on poor M caught in the crossfire. Lovely wife reasserted with McK that this too was unacceptable and nuclear winter settled in. Now at this point in the story you're probably wondering why I'm bothering to tell it. Other people's kids are at most cute at the best of times and typically awful the rest of the time. No the point of the story occurred after school. McK came home and all on her own apologized to lovely wife. Apparently at some point during the school day the haze of chemicals starting to course through her brain cleared some and she realized that she had made a mistake.

And she owned up to it. Truly a moment to be latched on to in what will be years of head banging, eye rolling, mind numbing teenager. It's good to know that in there somewhere is a kid that knows better and will do the right thing. I blame lovely wife. I'm pretty sure I'm not to blame for her good behavior...

Alas, I don't really have a story about M. She's pretty good at blending into the background of our lives. A little chameleon she is. Devious. But at least always willing to try new things. She discovered asparagus this week as we had some for dinner. She and G (and lovely wife for that matter) found a new vegetable they liked. Mmm. Asparagus.

So. Enough of that. On to important things. I'm currently working through Volume 3 of the Library Edition of Hellboy. And it is delightful. I'd like to frame some of this stuff and put it on the wall. I'm almost through Blood Oath. Expect a report soon.

We watched Zombieland again last week and it was still brilliant. This week we'll watch Moon and a couple others. I'm very excited for Moon.

I should also point out that I managed to catch a glimpse of the last level of Shiren. And then I died. So back to the drawing board. I will get this sorted...

And I think that about wraps it up. Go check out The Sound Test. It's great.

November

October has been vanquished in a series of trick or treaters and sugar highs. Kids had fun dressing up and now we move on.

G had a pretty good birthday. Lots of dinosaurs, some fish, popup castles, and a couple Mariokart R/C cars. That finally work. And are admittedly pretty fun, if not the best construction.

Made some Chocolate Monkey Bread for breakfast. It was very yummy. I highly recommend it. It's worth the effort to make. Mmmm monkey bread...

So. There are (for the purposes of this post) 2 kinds of Westerns. The action-y kind (think classic Clint Eastwood spaghetti) and the sprawling, slow paced kind. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (and a title that's too long) is the second kind. It's a beautiful piece of work, no doubt. But exciting gun-slinging Western it is not. Which is fine. There's room for both, but if you want the first, look elsewhere. I'd really like to know how much of this story was true. It's apparently based on a book. It is an interesting show in some ways, and the cinematography really is gorgeous.

Currently devouring the second Library Edition Hellboy volume. It's wonderful.

The Host was on G4 last night. Taped it. If you've not seen it, it's a decent Giant Monster movie. Still have a few more Horror movies to make our way through. Silly patrons checking out the movies I want to see.