In Memoriam: Betty (Video Tribute)

I put together a little video tribute to the dearly departed rat Betty.

In Memoriam: Betty

May we please have a moment of silence for Betty. I've never met a finer rat, and I bet I never will. She will be missed.

In Memoriam: Charlie Callas

Charlie Callas is one of those comedians who could make an audience laugh even before he told a single joke. Callas was a naturally gifted comic who was so funny, he didn't even need material to make people laugh, since just his facial expressions and mannerisms were enough to break up most people into fits of laughter. He died today, which is made all the more sad because he was already one of the last of a dying bread of comic.

I always liked him, and even if you've never heard of him, I guarantee this clip will make you laugh:

True Grit (2010)

This is the kind of movie that I loved right up until the ending, when it made me go,
"Huh? That was it?" That is to say, it's a very entertaining and well done film that I'm glad I saw and I recommend, but I don't really understand what all the fuss is about. But that has pretty much been my opinion of every film written and directed by the Coen Brothers.

Jeff Bridges, of course, is the best American actor currently working today. Nobody will dispute this, not even the people who might not completely agree. He is just at the top of his field and at the head of his game, and True Grit features his most fun performance since he last teamed up with the Coen Brothers for the Big Lebowski. This movie is no Lebowski (which is the one Coen Brothers film I agree is brilliant), but Bridges is incredible and incredibly fun to watch. Also good were that girl and Matt Damon, but this was Bridges's film to be sure.

About the story I can say very little because there isn't much to say at all. A girl's father is murdered, so she hires a marshal to track down the killer. And that's it. It's a perfectly fine plot around which to base a film (and by Western standards, it's practically epic), but I still couldn't help feeling underwhelmed. I like the lead role, but only because the actress's performance was so charming and spirited. We never saw her father, so the search for his killer never offered much emotional resonance. It was just a long trip where people had funny conversations, and occasionally somebody got shot.

I have never seen the original film nor the novel upon which both films were based, but I can't help but feel that this film was some how missing... something. At the end of the day, I didn't care about the characters, the story was uninspiring, and nothing that happened really captured my interest at all. I enjoyed the scenery, the snappy dialogue, and the performances by the actors, but I wish the same characters and setting had been involved in a movie that was more interesting and emotionally fulfilling.

As Westerns go, however, it was beautifully shot and expertly filmed. The Coen Brothers set up shots the same way they write dialogue: with intense care and attention to detail. This is a fantastic looking film with a lot of thrilling set pieces. The second half of the film did drag on, in my opinion, and the entire coda at the end was pointless and awkward.


But it's still a pretty good western with a few wonderful acting performances, so it's definitely worth watching.

Video Clip of the Week: Rich Little's Story of Jesus

Just watch it:

Appaloosa

I enjoyed the movie Appaloosa and thought it was a pretty good western, but I just read and loved the original novel by Robert B. Parker, and think it is an absolute masterpiece.

I don't have a whole lot to say about this novel, other than that it is one of the best Westerns I've ever read. It isn't as epic in scope as, say, something by Larry McMurtry, nor is it as romantic as something by Louis Lamour or Zane Grey, but it is absolutely brilliant and incredibly entertaining. It's a novel about the dynamics between men and women, set against the backdrop of the old west. Kinda. It's also just a novel about gunslingers and lawmen who shoot at lots of people.

My main problems with the film was that Jeremy Irons was wasted as the villain and Renee Zellwegger was plain unlikable as the female supporting lead. In the novel, the villain is more enigmatic and scary than his counterpart from the film, but his role is also downplayed a bit because the novel isn't really about him anyway, so much as it is about the dynamics between the main characters. And since the character of Allie French in the novel isn't portrayed by the always unlikable Renee Zellwegger (sorry!), she's a lot easier to like, or at least enjoy reading about. Parker gives a lot more subtext and life to the character than we find in the novel, almost as though the writer and director of the screenplay didn't really understand the point of the character. Too bad, since her role in the novel is integral to the overall story.

So, I liked it, and I'm already reading the second novel about the two main leads, Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. If you like westerns at all, or just fast paced, thrilling novels, check it out. It's a good one.

Kaitlin Olson on Conan

I am hesitant to post this here, because I really, really dislike Conan O'Brien and I don't want to give him even more exposure than he already has, but Kaitlin Olson is so hilarious that I had no choice. She's one of the stars of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and she's quite hilarious in this interview. Conan is as annoying and unfunny as ever, of course.

B Spot

This might be of interest only to my faithful readers who live in Cleveland, Ohio. I don't live in Cleveland, but my mother does, and when I visited her over this past weekend we went to B Spot, a new burger joint owned by celebrity chef Michael Symon. Symon is a Cleveland native, an Iron Chef, and now world famous chef and restaurateur. I've always liked the guy as a TV personality, and now I can say I like him as a creator of restaurants as well. Damn good burger, even if some things about his restaurant were a little less than perfect.

To begin with, it's one of those restaurants with lots of rules. Anybody who knows me should be well aware that I love rules and always do my best to abide by them, but I also never hesitate to complain about rules that make no sense and serve no purpose. Not allowing reservations is one of those restaurant rules that I find annoying, doubly so when the establishment is like the B Spot and offers nowhere to congregate comfortably while you spend your inevitable wait for your table. Also, they won't seat you until your entire party is there -- which is absolutely logical and reasonable and more than fine, except for when they went ahead and sat us before our fourth party member arrived, and then complained about how we were given a table even though our party wasn't complete.

This is Michael Symon, not me.

We attempted to order appetizers, but were told that the restaurant served no appetizers, just sides, and that all the stuff on the menu that looked like appetizers (like salads, chicken wings, etc) came along with the food. It is the policy of the restaurant that all menu items arrive at the same time. Huh? Who would want chicken wings, a salad, and a burger to arrive in front of them at once? That makes no sense. So we waited to order food until our fourth party member arrived, which clearly annoyed our server, even though it had taken him about ten or fifteen minutes before he even came over to say hello. It's not like we slowed them down, since the service was just slow in general.

However, once the food came, the awkward service and silly rules were forgotten because I proceeded to eat the best burger I've ever had in my life. No joke. I got the Lola, which came topped with bacon, onions, and a fried egg. It was divine. My mother got the Plain Jane, which is just as it sounds, but the couple bites I had showed off how amazing the actual burger was. The meat was fresh and perfectly cooked. Also, I ordered mine rare while she ordered hers medium rare, and mine came rare and hers came medium rare. This may seem like a silly thing to point out, but as a burger lover, I'm always disappointed by how rarely my burgers are actually cooked correctly to order. The guy's at B Spot are doing it right.

So while the ambiance is a little off, the service was a little wacky, and the rules were a little obtuse, B Spot delivered where it mattered: By serving just about the best burgers you'll ever eat. If I lived in Cleveland, I would be there all the time, but I'd get there early and go with my entire party in the same car.

Top Ten Characters From The Wire

Just for fun, here is a list of my ten favorite characters from The Wire. At least, these are my ten favorite characters right now. Had I made this list an hour from now, maybe it would be different. There are really too many great characters on this show to narrow down to ten. If you haven't watched the series, you might want to skip this. I did my best to avoid any spoilers, but you never know.

10. Bunny Colvin
This character was introduced late in the second season and got very little screen time... until he became the main star of season 3. He was a crusading police officer who was so close to retirement that he figured he no longer had to play it safe or worry about the politics of the department. Bunny was a brilliantly realized character portrayed to perfection by Robert Wisdom. I don't know how that guy didn't get an Emmy Award.

9. Proposition Joe
It took me a while to like this character. At first he is unassuming and maybe even a little boring... but that's part of his charm and mystique. While people like Marlo and Avon flex their muscle around the streets, Prop Joe is quickly building his own empire that rivals almost any other drug dealer in the city. Why? Because he's just so damn smart. I'd buy my drugs from this guy.

8. Lester Freamon
Lester's character perfectly captures the entire universe of the series. He is the smartest police officer in the entire city of Baltimore, but he is kept in the basement shuffling paperwork because he refuses to play the political games needed to move up in the department. But he is damn good police, makes excellent doll house furniture, and manages to bag a hot chick who could've been his daughter. Good on ya, Lester.


7. Kima Greggs
One thing I'll say about The Wire is that strong, female characters are kind of rare. There are a few, but considering the epic cast, just a few is pretty sad indeed. But Kima is awesome. She's the strong, silent type, who is smarter, stronger, and has bigger balls than most of the men on the show. The writers never really knew what to do with Kima, so her story arc kind of fizzles out in the last couple of seasons, but actress Sonja Sohn is so great that she's always fun to watch all the same.

6. Clay Davis
The best portrayal of a corrupt politician ever. Every time actor Isiah Whitlock Jr. was on screen, I was laughing. I loved this character.



5. D'Angelo Barksdale
D'Angelo is only in the first two seasons, but actor Larry Gilliard Jr.'s performance makes such an indelible mark that he was never really forgotten. I just loved this character, thought his overall story arc was incredibly well done, and just enjoyed every moment Gilliard spent on screen.

4. Jimmy McNulty
Ostensibly the star of the show, McNulty is unlike any cop you've seen on TV. Basically, he's a total and complete asshole, but he's good, natural poh-leece. He screws other people over almost as much as he screws himself over in order to get the bad guys... but not nearly as often as he screws lots of chicks. He is played by English actor Dominic West, who never quite mastered the Baltimore accent, but he got close enough.

3. Stringer Bell
As characters go, Stringer Bell isn't actually all that great, but Idris Elba is one of the coolest actor ever. Stringer Bell is a drug dealer who fancies himself as something of an entrepreneur who runs meetings with his associates by following Robert's Rules of Order. He's a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction. 

2. Omar
I Googled the topic before writing this list, and mine seems to be the only list that hasn't picked Omar as the all time best character on The Wire. And I can see why, since he's a brilliantly funny, engaging, and enigmatic character. Omar, as played by Michael K. Williams, is a character that lives on the streets and was created by the streets. Not quite a Robin Hood, but as close to a hero as this show could possible get. And he's just cool as hell. Indeed.

1. Bubbles
In my opinion, the entire show is about Bubbles. There's no character more fun to watch or whose entire story arc is more emotionally moving, satisfying, saddening, or entertaining. Bubbles is just a great character, and actor Andre Royo gives one of the best acting performances I've ever seen in my entire life. When Bubbles first came on screen, I honestly thought the producers had found an actual junkie and worked him into a scene, but then the character became a regular, and I was blown away. There has never been -- and probably never will be -- a better, more raw, more realistic portrayal of a drug addict than the one Andre Royo created as Bubbles.

The Wire

It took me a while, but I finally finished the entire run of HBO's critically acclaimed series The Wire. When I say it took me a while, I mean that over the course of the past two years or so, I've attempted to watch it at least three times, but always quit or got side-tracked before finishing the first episode. It just never clicked, I never had the time to devote to it, and I just didn't really have the motivation. But just this past November, my sister Tanya told me she bought the first season of the Wire and raved about it, so I decided to give it another try. Long story short, it finally clicked, and I just finished the last episode of the fifth season a little while ago.

A lot of people have called this the best TV show of all time, and while I don't really agree, I do think it's a tip contender. It's certainly the best police procedural show I've ever seen, and it may very well be the most authentic and realistic and dramatic show I've ever seen. But it doesn't have Star Trek in the title, so I can't really call if the best TV show of all time. It is brilliant, however, and also maddening, frustrating, obtuse, and at times truly unsatisfying, but I think that is all intentional, and it adds to its mythic level of intensity and reality.

Season one is a slow burn that introduces the mythology of the show at an insanely leisurely pace. The characters are slowly introduced after weeks worth of episodes, and the entire criminal investigation doesn't even start until about halfway through the entire season. The series is set in the city of Baltimore, and it is told from the view-points of the police officers as well as the drug dealers on the streets. There are no heroes and no villains, although the people on both sides of the law do things that could be considered admirable and monstrous. The first few episodes are incredibly slow paced and at times hard to follow, but once you make it about three episodes in, you'll be hooked.

Season two was nowhere near as good as the first season, and it ranks as the worst of the entire series, in my opinion. The focus switches from drugs in the city to the tribulations of dock workers, stevedores, and union workers in the harbors of Baltimore. Oh, and they also sometimes deal drugs. And kill people. Season two sets up the only real complaint I have about The Wire: the often ridiculous use of coincidence and happenstance to bring branching plot lines together. The murder one character investigates just happens to be connected to the investigation on dock workers somebody else is investigating, which happens to be connected to a feud the major is having with an enemy at the dock. Too much! Throw into that the fact that the dock workers just weren't all that interesting (at least not in comparison to the drug dealers from the first season), and you have a generally weak season. A weak season of The Wire is still better than the best seasons of almost any other show, however, and it's well worth watching for the great character moments from the outstanding ensemble cast.

Season three is a return to form for the series, and it is where The Wire starts to establish itself as one of the best TV shows of all time. We are back to the streets of Baltimore, but the focus opens up and deals with the politics within the police cultures and drug dealers. The entire plotline about "Hamsterdam" is absolutely brilliant and thoughtful and entertaining, even if it's also completely impossible to believe. The writing and direction is so impeccable that it all somehow comes together and makes sense. Great stuff.

Season four focuses on the school systems of Baltimore's inner city, showing how broken the system is and why these kids get sucked into selling drugs, doing drugs, or just being innocent bystanders in the world of drugs. Needless to say, it's the most depressing season of TV you'll ever watch. From a structural, acting, and writing point of view, this is probably the best season of the show, which makes it a front runner for the best season ever shown on TV. It lacked a truly great resolution in the season finale, but that makes sense. It's not as though they were going to end it by having somebody fix the system.

Season five is my personal favorite season, since I think it has the best overall story and the most clearly defined plot. The central theme of this season has to do with the media and how the press and the police and the people at city hall all feed off of each other and get out of touch with what's actually happening in the streets of Baltimore. I guess none of these people watch The Wire. Like season three, the central plot is somewhat unrealistic, but it is so clever and well done that it doesn't matter. Most earlier seasons of The Wire keep you watching because you want to see what happens with the characters, but this one definitely sucks you in because the story is so gripping.

And that's The Wire. Go watch it. Maybe my sister will let you borrow season one.

Lights Out

The pilot episode of this new series by FX is available for free on iTunes. I don't have a whole lot to say about it other that that it's free and it's worth watching.

It's a show about a retired boxer who deals with life post retirement and has to decide if he gets back into the life or not. Well, that's what the pilot was about, anyway. I'm not sure what's going to happen in episode 2. It's a testament to the quality of the show, however, that I will definitely check out episode two. I enjoyed the story, but it was Holt McCallany's performance in the lead role that really won me over. I don't know who this actor is or what he has done before, but he was incredible here.

So... check it out. It's free to download and it's well worth watching.

The A-Team

Ok, enough talk about movies about feelings. Let's talk about The A-Team.

I didn't see this in the theaters because, frankly, it looked and sounded pretty dumb. That usually doesn't stop me when it comes to seeing a big, summer action movie, but I usually draw the line at remakes of old TV shows I used to worship when I was a kid. After G.I. Joe (which I did enjoy, but come on!), I figured this would just be more of the same so I skipped it, even though the casting of Liam Neeason was enough to raise an eyebrow. But then a guy with whom I work named Chris told me he saw it with his father and they both loved it, my interest was raised once again. Chris is a smart guy whose opinions on movies I generally respect and often agree with. But by then I just never found the time and it vanished.

Long story short, I watched it on Blu-Ray last night... and it was awesome. Chris and his father we're right again!

Now, it was big and dumb and loud and pointless, but it was also fairly clever, really funny, and exciting as hell. The action set pieces were completely over the top and incredibly fun to watch. The sequence where the team drove a tank out of a plan and then shot their enemies down as they fell 20,000 feet to the ground was just about the most exceptional set piece I've ever seen in any action movie. And I'm not exaggerating what happened nor my reaction to it. The entire movie was just awesome. It was directed by Joe Carnahan, whose only other film that I've seen was Narc, which was also great.

I wouldn't exactly call it faithful to the TV show, however, although it certainly wasn't an insult to it either. The TV show had a lot of action, but nothing as over the top as what we saw here, and I usually felt like Hannibal's plans from the series required a lot more subtlety and intellect than what we saw here. I generally think of the A-Team as more MacGuyver than Rambo, but this film definitely skewed more toward the action hero archetype.

The series really worked, however, because of the exceptional cast they assembled. George Peppard was a highly respected actor when he took on the lead role of Hannibal Smith, giving the series a little more gravitas than it maybe deserved. Clearly, the casting of Liam Neeason was inspired and served that same purpose, and it worked perfectly.

Bradley Cooper was no better or worse than Dirk Bennedict as the smary yet charming ladies man, but I'm going to give the nod to the original if only because he was the one I grew up with and always wanted to be. Although Cooper was fine, and he definitely looked like he was working out a lot for the role, so ladies take note.

The role of B.A. Baracus was obviously a tough one to fill, since Mr. T made it so iconic, either because he was playing himself, or just because he choose to play that same role in real life. Who can say at this point where B.A. ends and Mr. T begins? So, really, there was going to be no pleasing long-time fans with this one, so they smartly went with an unknown (at least to me), who had that same mix of charm, boyishness, and toughness. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is the guy's name, and I actually thought he was great. He's no Mr. T, of course, but nobody is. He wisely decided to play B.A. as an actual character instead of as a copy of Mr T.'s persona, and the film is the better for it. His big fight scene where they introduce the character was one of the best fights I've seen in a long time. I liked him.

My favorite character has always been Howling Mad Murdock, not only because he was the funny wildcard who got all the best lines, but also because Dwight Shultz is one of the best and most underrated actors ever. So when I heard that the guy from District 9 was taking on the role, I was worried. Sharlto Copley was fine in that film -- more than fine, even -- but I just couldn't see him doing justice to one of my all time favorite TV characters, and I didn't think he could fill the shows of one of my all time favorite character actors. But he was phenomenal. Like in the original series, his character got all the best lines, and Copley showed masterful comic timing and a skill with accents and mimicry.

Oh, and Jessica Biel was in there two, but I'm not sure why, since her character served no real purpose and didn't do anything. I guess they stuck her in the film for the same reason I stuck her picture into this review: She's gorgeous. There are also appearances from that guy who played Major Dad, that guy who played Night Owl in Watchmen, and Jon Hamm from Mad Men. 

So... The A-Team. Who knew? Well, Chris and his dad, I guess. Two thumbs up.

Revolutionary Road

I don't normally watch movies like this. Revolutionary Road is a movie about people with feelings, who talk about feelings, and feel different feelings. Normally, I watch movies like the Chronicles of Riddick, The Fast and the Furious, or xXx. One thing I like about Vin Diesel is that he never talks about his feelings.

However, if you are into that sort of thing, Revolutionary Road is a pretty good film. This was a movie about people with feelings. I couldn't really tell you what it was about or even what happened, since I'm not entirely sure if it was about anything or if anything ever happened. It was just a movie about people talking. Sometimes the conversations were friendly, sometimes romantic, something angry, and sometimes none of the above. But it was always entertaining and well done.

This film was something of a Titanic reunion, since the two stars were Kate Winslet and Leonardo DeCaprio, both accompanied by Kathy Bates in a supporting role. Winslet and Leo have come a long way since Titanic, and their performances in this movie were impeccable. If you're a fan of either actor, this is worth seeing, since I don't think I've ever seen them better than they were here.

So... I like it, for the most part. This was a well done movie about people with feelings made for people who care about that sort of thing. Check it out.

Jonah Hex

Piece of shit.

44 Years of Fantastic Four

I picked this up the other day at Half Price Books for two dollars. It is a DVD-ROM containing every issue from the first 44 years of the Fantastic Four comic book. That's every issue (and annual) from the very first issue in 1961 until the last issue published in 2004. All 550 issues are complete with the original ads, letters pages, and covers. This was a bargain at $2.00 (used, obviously), since it amounts to about a third of a penny per issue of the all time best comic book ever published.

However, it still leaves a little to be desired. It's basically just a collection of Pdf files, which is fine, but they can be a little annoying and obtuse to read. If I had an iPad or similarly shaped table PC, I bet these would look great, but on a normal widescreen monitor, they look a little awkward. It's just not the ideal format for reading a comic book, but there is really no other way to do it so I can't complain too much about that. The interface is easy to use and the issues are all easy to find in their various folders or through the main Pdf page. Some of the scans look perfect, while some look a little dirty and show some wear and tear on the original issues. They are all readable, however, and generally look pretty good.

My only real complaint is that when I first loaded it up, every single page had a water mark right in the middle. The watermark somewhat transparent so it doesn't completely block the artwork or word balloons, but it is an eyesore all the same. I bought this set because I wanted to appreciate the stories as well as the incredible artwork by Jack Kirby, John Byrne, Walter Simonson, Jim Lee, et all, and having a big watermark in the middle of the page kind of ruins the entire thing. However, as soon as I updated Acrobat, it made the watermark invisible, so that solved that problem. Once I got that sorted out, the pages were perfectly readable and looked awesome.

If you see a copy at Half Price Books, I definitely recommend a purchase. Even with the some of the scans being less that perfect, these are still some of the best comic book stories of all time.

In Memoriam: Pete Postlethwaite (1946-2011)

Oh no!

Sometimes celebrity deaths really hit hard. Not because you know the person, not because you feel for their families, and not because of any regrets they might've had about the things they left undone. Sometimes it hits hard because they were so good at what they did that their films and performances brought joy to the world and it's heartbreaking to think they'll never do that again.

Pete Postlethwaite was one of the best, and he will be missed. I think I'm gonna go watch Jurassic Park 2.

Video Clip of the Week: Muhammad Ali Cartoon

This is the weirdest thing ever. And if you've seen any of my other video clips of the week, you'll know that I've posted a lot of truly weird stuff. You won't watch the entire thing (it's only ten minutes, but that's longer than you'll last), but stick with it at least for the first few minutes. I need somebody else to watch at least part of it so they'll know I'm not lying when I talk about a cartoon where Mohammad Ali plays an astronaut. Even saying that much won't prepare you for how strange this cartoon is.

Top Ten Posts of 2010

2010 was a good year for the ol' Blessed Are the Geeks Blog. I started to hit my stride as a blogger, got emails from Robert Davi and the director of Bikini Bloodbath Christmas, created a bunch of high-concept theme months/weeks, and even started getting into video editing. So, just for fun, I'm going to run down my personal picks for the Top Ten Posts I wrote in 2010.

In descending order:

10. New Logo
This was where I created and debuted the new logo seen above. All things considered, it's a poor photoshop job, but I was still happy that I was able to think of a concept and actually carry it out to completion. But if any actual graphic designers out there want to take a shot of making one that's even better, feel free. And by "feel free," I mean that I won't be paying you.

9. Image Comics
In September, I wrote a bunch of posts about Image Comics. These didn't gain a whole lot of popularity, but they were very personal and important to me. These were thoughts and opinions I felt about the company for close to twenty years or so and I finally had a venue where I could share them. Nobody seemed to care, but I enjoyed writing them.

8. The Lost Finale
This will be of interest only to people who obsessed over Lost as much as I did, but it will only be enjoyed by people as disappointed in the finale as I was too. I was pretty hard on it, but as time went by and I rewatched it a few more times, my opinion actually sunk even lower. This is also notable for being the longest single post I've ever written. I think, anyway. It's pretty damn long.

7. The Expendables Review
Nobody read this one but me, since it was way too long and overblown. But still... I felt that a film so epic needed an epic review. And, really, it was actually short all things considered. I could've gone on even longer about this incredible movie.

6. Stephen King Career Retrospective
This was my long, two part look at every novel or short story by Stephen King that I've read over the years. I kept meaning to do a sequel where I talk about all of the movies based on King's stories, but I forgot about it. Maybe I'll get to that in 2011.

5. The Goonies Tribute
I just started writing something about the 25th anniversary of The Goonies, but somehow what came out was something more heartfelt and poignant than originally intended. But I was happy with how it came out.

4. Comic Book Movies
Here I discussed every comic book movie I've ever seen. Maybe the longest post I ever did, since it stretched out to three separate posts and discussed I would guess well over 100 movies or so.

3. Videogame Console Round up
Another fun, personal post where I talked about every videogame console I ever owned. This is the most popular post I've ever written, with over 1880 individual views.

2. James Bond Week
I spent an entire week just talking about different aspect, characters, and trivia about the James Bond movies. This was fun and got me a lot of hits on Google. By the time the week was up, I still had no many ideas that I nearly stretched it out to James Bond Month, but that just would've been ridiculous. Oddly enough, the most popular Bond post from that week was the one about Miss Moneypenny, with over 700 views. The second most popular was my recap of all of the film teasers, which had only 302 views so far.

1. Christmarathon
This was my magnum opus. I reviewed a different Christmas movie every day in December leading up to Christmas. It was arduous at times, but mostly a lot of fun and I appreciated it as a writing exercise that taught me a lot of discipline. I also learned a lot about video editing, since I put together a few different video reviews. Considering the insane amount of hours I put into this, I wanted a lot more hits to my blog, but most of the feedback I received was positive. I liked it.

Resident Evil: Afterlife

Well, I have nobody to blame but myself for watching this one.

I actually liked the first three Resident Evil movies. They were dumb and had nothing much to do with the videogames on which they were based, but they were good fun all the same. They looked great, had good action sequences, and lots of really good looking people. Afterlife has lots of good looking people, but the action sequences were super lame and visually everything just looked dark and unimaginative and boring. I didn't like it.

I don't have much more to say than that the one dollar I paid to rent it at the Redbox was way too much. It just made no sense, relied way too much on the backstory from the previous films (all of which also made no sense), had no real storyline that I could follow, and had lots of good looking, talented actors doing absolutely nothing.

Skip it.

Best of 2010

Happy new year, everybody. Today I'm just going to look back and list my favorites of the year. I'm not going to do anything too in depth or or anything. I'm just going to pick one favorite of 2010 from various categories I think of.

Best Movie of 2010: The Expendables
You can read my full review here, but I'll just keep it short by saying this was the ultimate action movie to end all action movies. It was awesome, and one of the most entertaining movies I've ever seen, let alone this year. I loved it.
Runner Up: Inception

Best TV Series of 2010: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
I don't have cable, so I didn't watch too much TV this year, but I did buy a season pass to Sunny on iTunes, so it pretty much wins by default. Having said that, this is one of my all time favorite TV shows, and this season was pretty fantastic. I thought it was maybe the best season yet, containing some truly brilliant moments. Good stuff.
Runner Up: The Walking Dead

Best Album of 2010: Marc Cohn's Listening Booth: 1970
Mock me if you want, but this is the best album I heard all year. It's a collection of covers from the year 1970 performed and reworked by Marc Cohn (you know... the Walking in Memphis guy). I must officially be an old person since I picked this easy listening album as my best of the year, but there you go. I think it's really good.
Runner Up: Together by The New Pornographers

Best Book of 2010: Um... I don't think I read any books that were published this year. None that I can think of anyway. Sorry.

Best Comic Book of 2010: B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth
This mini series has been going on forever now, but it keeps getting better and better, and 2010 saw some of the best stories yet. If you aren't reading this series (along with the various Hellboy titles that come out), you're missing some of the best comics ever.
Runner Up: Ultimate Thor

Best Videogame of 2010: Splinter Cell: Conviction
This game was straight up awesome. A lot of people complained that it was too action-oriented compared with the previous Splinter Cell games, but that's why I loved it. It was just fun and exciting and the most fun game I played all year. Check it out.
Runner Up: Final Fantasy XIII

And... that's all I can think of.