Okay, Reign of Fire.  Movie about dragons in the post apocalyptic world.  Yeah yeah yeah, I know, dragons are gonna be big bad, evil bla bla.  Some smart human’s gonna kill them all.. Bla Bla Bla.

I tried to watch this movie with the computer nearby so that I could take notes as it played.  But, 15 minutes into this cinematic laxative, I ran out of ram with which to make snide comments.

Dumb premise.  Lots of dumb people.  Lots of stupid mistakes.  Pretty good action.  Oooh, and it takes an American to figure out how to save the day.

Well, this would have been great as a pilot for some dragon-hunty TV show.  But, as a stand-alone movie, it was pretty lame and anticlimactic.

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Last week’s question asked:

Three Aerosmith songs were played in what 1998 feature staring Steven Tyler’s daughter as Grace Stamper?

The answer was Armageddon.  Congratulations to everyone who answered correctly, and thanks to Edward G. Talbot (or half of him) for posting his answer.

Your question this week is:

What was the first feature length CGI film?

1. Toy Story
2. Shrek
3. A Bug’s Life
4. Ice Age

There’s your trivia dose for the week. Think you have the answer, leave it in the comments. Remember, just because IMdB is available doesn’t mean you should use it.  :D  I’ll post the answer with next week’s question.

All right, I admit it; I’m a closet Pauly Shore fan.  *watches the subscription rate plummet* I happen to think that the series of films he did in the early 1990s were laugh out loud funny, particularly Encino Man and Son-in-Law.

I think Encino Man was the first thing I ever saw Sean Astin do outside of The Goonies.  I know that it was the first thing I ever saw Brendan Fraser in.  There is only one word for that man, even when he’s a new thawed out ice man – YUM!

So what is Encino Man?  The movie is about two high school outcasts, Dave and Stoney (Astin & Shore) who find an ice man, Link (Fraser) in Dave’s empty pool after an earthquake.  Link thaws out and joins Dave and Stoney at school, quickly becoming the most popular male on campus even with a communication barrier.  Dave and Stoney learn to enjoy life more as they bask in Link’s popularity as they teach him how to live in the modern era.

The story is silly, but most films in the early 90s were.  Silly, but totally fun!  Shore is easily at his best and Astin proves an excellent straight man that mellows Shore out.  Fraser, however, is simply the cream of the crop in this film, his first “starring” role, and it lead him to a profitable career of corny, but sexy, characters.

Don’t let the fact that Pauly Shore is in the movie detract you from seeing it.  It’s great for a few hours time and a big bowl of buttery popcorn.  You get to see Brendan half naked for a part of it, so what’s the harm in that?  Give it a shot, I think you’ll enjoy it, and maybe you’ll see that Pauly isn’t as bad as people make him out to be.

Rating:

Ok, I think we’re going to have to go back to 3 posts a week until I get the hang of this work thing.

This does not mean I’ve given up on the blog.  I will still be doing reviews of things, and will continue with the ABCs of Entertainment, and posting as often as I can.

But the firm schedule is going to be 3 days a week.  We’ll hit you up with a new post this Thursday and another on Saturday.  Triva will remain on Sundays and will not count toward the 3 days a week.  Posts by Nick will be up when they are received.

Hate to do it, sorry to do it, but my brain is MUSH.

Ganked this off Twitter soon as I got home.  The tweets are from Emperor Hutchins in regards to Playing For Keeps by the Mighty Mur Lafferty.

I am just thrilled that Playing for Keeps did so very well and will be picking up my copies soon as the first paycheck rolls in and the bills are paid.  Seriously, Mur, you RAWK and congratulations!

Originally posted on 4/21/2008 by FlippantMoniker about the Playing for Keeps podcast(which is why the original cover is still here).  Repost value - it’s Mighty Monday, there’s no better reason than that.

Well, now I’d like to yammer a bit about Mur Lafferty’s Playing For Keeps.

Fantastic!!

This novel is set in a very recognizable future, where a small fraction of the population has developed super powers. There are the usual players: Heroes, Villains, Police.. But there are also those people who’ve developed.. Hmm.. let’s not call them “powers”. Let’s call them.. special quirks. There’s a chick who will never drop her bar tray. There’s a dude who shoots poop out of his hands. Ooh ooh, and a guy who has ultimate, unquestioned power and control.. over elevators. And then there’s our heroine: Keepsie. Her special power: nothing belonging to her can be stolen.

The story is comfortable and easy to follow. Mur’s performance and writing are really, just delightful. She’s got some teeth, and characters to buy the farm, but it’s not a slaughter fest, which I appreciated. Ooh ooh! And another thing I loved.. Occasionally things would come up in the story, and I’m all like “Wait a minute.. That’s not right because of X Y and Z!!” Then, come to find out, I was right. It’s fun, it’s well put together, and I cared about the characters. Brava! Brava!

I feel a little compelled to say at least something negative, I mean, this isn’t much of an exercise in critique if all I do is gush, right? Hmm, Well, okay, in the beginning, it’s a little hard to keep track of the heroes and their powers. Or, well, the Pseudoheroes. Everyone is very normal, very average (and I think that’s the point) but, I found myself in a couple places wishing I’d kept a list. This levels out though.

Okay, the next thing is not a complaint, so much as a “I hope in the second book she…” statement. Next time, I’d like more in depth exploration of the would be heroes’ powers. We got a great look at them in this book, but if there is a sequel and series to follow (hope hope beg plead hope) then that is one thing I’d like to see more of, How the powers feel to use, how they become instinctive- second nature.. Stuff like that.

Again, we got a great look at that in Playing For Keeps, but I’d like to see even more in the next one.

Seriously, scroll through the entries here, cause there’s a vblog story that’s a lot of fun! And there’s merchandising! That means you can go buy stuff. So, naturally, I compell you. Compelllll compellllll!(Not gonna say it’s adult, compared to other stuff, but there is some violence, some death and some kinda graphic stuff. If you’re SUPER squeamish, maybe have someone screen the “eeeew” bits for you )

Regrettably not having running water and not being in my house most of the weekend has kept me from finishing the review I promised you all about Playing For Keeps – the novel.  I’m about 2/3rds through the book and hope to have it finished tonight or tomorrow.  I promise you’ll still get the review.

For now, I want to wish Mur Lafferty the best of luck with her Amazon.com run today, and if you want to pick up your own copy of this excellent story you can do so by clicking on the Playing for Keeps banner in the side bar.  Let’s shoot Mur to the top, huh?  She definitely deserves it!

Today you’ll see Nick’s review of the original podcast and I’ll try and get the book finished and reviewed for you tomorrow.  We’ll see what’s going on with the powers that be and if there’s water and I’m not too worn from work.

Hope you all have a super day, avoid the Zupra and go enjoy Playing for Keeps.

And could someone leave a comment about how well Mur does when all is said and done?  I don’t have net access from work.

Thanks!!

I thought I knew my posters.  I collected them as a child and used them for wallpaper.  Empire Online just proved me so very, very wrong.  So I’ll pose the same question to you that I failed to answer.  Can you guess all these movies from just these letters? I only scored 18 out of 46.  Guess I need to look at them better next time.  But I wish you luck if you decide to try your hand at it.  It’s not as easy as you might think.

I will say that as a little bit of a trivia game, it’s a fun way to waste a bit of extra time.

Rating: