Tom's Blog Archive Page

The LiveJournal Archives - September 2008

September 7th, 2008

WWE: Greatest Wrestling Stars of the 80's

Well the school is going to be in full swing starting tomorrow and I will try really hard to juggle all the reviews I normally do and actually finish them and have them ready on time. I am talking about TPL, any trades I review for TPL, and the massive amount of DVD's I have that haven't been reviewed yet (38 titles, and a whopping 121 total discs) and we'll see how it goes. I actually made a little chart for myself on what order I should be finishing these DVD's in, and I have it planned out until October, and that includes new DVD's I plan on purchasing the next few months. Enough of looking forward, let's focus on today, and today we have a brand-new review posted to the DVD reviews list, another WWE production, this one called WWE: Greatest Wrestling Stars of the 80's, a 3-disc collection focusing on 15 wrestling superstars from the 80's. New content was posted on TPL so you may want to check that out as well. That's all I have for you today, see you next week.


September 14th, 2008

WWE: Most Powerful Families in Wrestling

Well, it is the second week of September, I finished my first full week of teaching after the summer off and I feel exhausted. I literally napped on Friday night and slept way more than I needed on Saturday and Sunday morning. On the plus side, I didn't have any school work to do so I finished two reviews this weekend, one that I started on Monday and finished Friday, and one that had 6 hours of content that I banged out in two days. Yeah, I'm awesome. I have the Heroes Season 2 DVD that I need to finish in a week (luckily its only 13 episodes) and I want to at least get through the season shows and some of the extras before the season premiere next week. This week I have a review that I actually finished over a month ago, WWE's Most Powerful Families, which looks at, obviously, the most powerful families in wrestling history. I really liked the main program but check the review to read the whole thing. If you can believe it, I have 11 more DVD reviews I have finished to post, which makes it so I am pretty much good until November for content on this page. Not only that, but the new seasons mean new Heroes, Family Guy, American Dad and NHL posts. I love writing and now its getting to the big season for myself.


September 21st, 2008

WWE: Monday Night Wars

I have been battling internet connectivity issues all day today so I am just gonna post this review so it is out there for all to read. It's something called, WWE: The Monday Night Wars, and it is a look at the WCW/WWE battle for rating supremacy over a 7 years span from 1994-2001.

That is what is going up this moment. I will write more, but if it doesn't show up you will know I dropped connection again.

Anyway, so I have been having problems with connectivity, probably something like a DNS issue, and it's been a pain in the ass, as I need to do some SJU HW and all. It was working fine last night as I updated the old online gradebook. Oh well, I'll live. I have been working on the Heroes Season 2 DVD review, and I actually am finishing it as we speak in time for tomorrow's premiere. I can't wait.

In sporting news, today is the last ever game at Yankee Stadium. Sucks that they aren't in the playoffs, but oh well. I have the game in the background and can't say I am terribly interested in it right now. I have kind of tuned out baseball this summer, mainly paying attention to the Olympics instead. The mediocre play of the Yanks and Mets didn't help, either. One of my favorite sports started up again recently, Women's College Volleyball. I love the SJU team and last year was a dream season, making it to the sweet sixteen and mere points away from the elite 8. They lost three really key seniors, and this year it shows. They had one home game, against Hofstra, and they looked terribly trepid, losing in 5 sets to a team that they would've beat in a laugher last year. Last year they lost four games the whole season, 3 of them to top 10 ten teams. This year they have already lost 6 before they even got into conference play. Definitely a rebuilding year. They could probably make it to the Big East Tournement based on the competition in the Big East, but it won't be anywhere close to next year. They are currently 8-6, and my prediction is they will be 9-8 by the end of next week and finish the season at


September 22nd, 2008

Heroes Season 3 Season Premiere


Heroes 09/22/08
Episode 0: Pregame Show
This is hosted by the cast of Heroes, including Masi Oki, Jack Coleman, Hayden Pannatierre and I’ll do this play-by-play style. We get a quick preview of Season 3, as well as clips of previous seasons. For new fans, we rundown the different characters, including Claire and Noah, as well as scenes from the new season. Cut to commercial, where Zachary Quinto talks about Star Trek references in the show, including actors who have been on the show (George Takai most notably) and of course, Zachary is Spock in the new movie. Dania makes an appearance and she introduces more characters that are profiled: Mohinder, Niki and Micah. Ali Larter makes an appearance, introducing the fans of Heroes. Sendhil Ramamurthy appears, and a scene including Claire and the scene from Season 1 where the Bennet house is blown up. Adrian Pasdar and Milo Ventimiglia introduce a scene from the new season and we head to another commercial break. We come back and hear about Masi’s actual black belt in Kendo, as well as the great content Heroes offers outside of the TV show. Christina Rose (Angela Petrelli) introduces a segment on the Petrellis. The guy who plays Ando now introduces a special feature from Heroes Season 2 DVD, which I already bought and reviewed. Malcolm McDowell (Linderman) is here, meaning he must not be dead, and he introduces another segment from Season 3. We head to another break and return with Jack Coleman with fans from all over the world, then Ali introducing Parkman and Hiro Nakamura, who runs afoul of a speedster this year. The Petrelli brother actors introduce another scene, of Hiro first stopping time from the first season. We return to look at the villains, including Sylar, Elle, Angela Petrelli, Adam Monroe, and Maya. Maya is more in the misunderstood file I would guess. Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah) introduces the create-your-own hero. Santiago I think is the best one, with accelerated probability powers, as the speeding/slowing up time seems too much like Hiro. Of course, that is the power that Hiro’s father was to have. Ali shows more of the new Heroes footage. We return with about 5 minutes remaining, and it should be awe-some. Masi introduces a segment on the special effects of Heroes. Finally, Zachary introduces the events of last season who shot Nathan Petrelli. People on the net say it’s Peter Petrelli who is bending space and time (its been done before, future Hiro met present Hiro). Hayden finishes things off, and she looks different than she usually does, maybe a bit older?

Now the real fun begins. Definite spoilers ahead.

Heroes 09/22/08
Episode 1: The Second Coming
I am stoked by the opening Volume Three: Villains intro, and it starts in the four years in future, with Peter running away from someone and running into an evil dark-haired (and very sexy) Claire. Peter wants to go back to the past, to prevent the revelation to the public that heres were around. Peter takes the gun from her, heads to the past, and shoots his brothero nthe podium. A-ha! We now know who the shooter was. Claire calls saying she should help, since her blood heals and all. She’s too far away, and Nathan ends up dead. But wait, if Claire’s blood can heal, couldn’t Peter’s? He has her power now. Nathan pops back up, still looking quite dead, but I guess he’s alive. Is this a Petrelli power? Parkman investigates and finds Peter’s prints on the gun and confronts him about it, and it turns out the Peter here is the future Peter, and he sends Parkman away, probably to the future where current Peter is. We see later that Parkman was actually in the middle of a desert. Nathan leaves the hospital and delivers a message of peace. Nathan wants to be an angel, but of course, won’t tell of his powers because Angels don’t do that. Linderman shows up as the one who healed him. Hiro is in Japan, now running his father’s company and receives a note about his destiny. His father’s last recorded words to him was to not open his father’s safe due to the secrets contained. Hiro opens it anyway. It seems to be half of some formula to safeguard light against darkness. Hiro must guard the document with his life, so of course it is stolen by a speedster. Cool effects on that end, too. Hiro goes to the future to see what happens, and sees Ando using powers to take the formula away from Hiro as the world literally explodes. Claire walks out of her room, right into Sylar. Sylar finds out about Level 5, where a band of villains are kept, then captures Claire and starts ripping away at her head to steal her powers. He actually opens her brain, as Claire is still alive and cognizant. Sylar takes her power, and the information for level five, and Claire still lives. Interesting, so Sylar doesn’t need to kill them, only acces part of their brain. Claire doesn’t know why Sylar won’t kill her and Sylar tells her she’s not like the others and that he couldn’t kill her. She’s immortal, and now so is Sylar. Maya gets mad when Mohinder says he’s leaving to go back home, when he power manifests and Mohinder gets a breakthrough from Maya’s power and its based on adrenaline. Of course, its not what Maya wanted to hear, as Suresh found a way to give people powers, and not take them away. Suresh considers dumping the serum, but takes it anyway, and he gains super-strength. Niki is a new personality now, this time bedding a governor. Angela visits Nathan in the hospital, where she reveals that she knew Peter was fake, since she foresaw it in a dream (which are her powers, the first ones Peter inherited). Angela wants to know where Peter is, and we peek into Level 5 with all the rest of the super-villains, and where Bennet is emprisoned as well, and a crazy guy yelling that he’s Peter. Well, there were no new Heroes here, but a great start to the season, much better than Season 2, as Sylar has literally become invulnerable, Claire has lost her childhood, questions were answered (who the shooter was) and more questions were asked (what is with the images of the world exploding, which we saw twice at the end; what will happen to Claire, and where is Peter?). Great opening episode.

Heroes 09/22/08
Episode 2: The Butterfly Effect
Claire discovers a horrifying side effect. She feels no pain. She liked the pain since that when she knew she was human, but her humanity has been taken away. She gets hit by a train and still doesn’t feel anything. This is probably where her evil turn starts. Angela has a very bad dream, where all the heroes are dead, including Claire, and we see the villains at work, Niki, Nightmare Man, Adam Monroe, Sylar and a new one we saw in Level 5. For those interested, this was in the Heroes S2 DVD. She tells future Peter to go back to where he belongs and he has his string timelines up that we saw in S1. Peter is told that he messed up and Claire was not supposed to be at home when Sylar showed up. So Peter goes to Claire, who is trying to get hit by a train to see if she can feel something, but Peter flies by and saves her. Claire just wants help, but Peter won’t do it. Maya comes to see Suresh, and he tells her that he took the serum, and he’s feeling good right now. He has no shirt on and he’s ripped. Suresh can seemingly climb walls, too, and has the power to hit on Maya, and rip her clothes off (and as we heard mentioned in Family Guy, there’s a side boob). I don’t think I’m ready for Suresh, the sex fiend. Suresh starts having side effects, and he deserves it. Elle gets the business from Bob for allowing Sylar to escape. Elle thinks that Sylar is coming to Level 5, and she’s right, especially when she finds her father dead. Elle goes to Noah for help when Sylar shows up to reveal his new powers, which he stole from Claire. Sylar readies to kill Elle now, but she explodes in an electric explosion. Elle wakes up to see all the villains escaping, and Sylar in bad shape. Angela shows up at the facility, and she’s in charge now. The inmates are gone, and Angela fires Elle. Noah returns home to get some files, where he runs into Claire, but he can’t stay. Noah shows us the heroes who were released, inlcuding one who takes people’s fears and turns it against themselves, someone who control magnetism, and two others who were just as evil. Noah also brings back Claire’s real mom, the flame-thrower, for protection for the Bennet family. Tracy Strauss is the new identity of Niki and I ask, where is Micah and Monica? Anyway, Tracy plans on reaching out to Nathan, but someone confronts Tracy about her stripper future. Tracy shows up at the room of Nathan, who is praying, and doesn’t he know who she is? They did sleep with each other in S1. Nathan calls her Niki, and she has no idea what he’s talking about. Peter considers the offer, talking to Linderman (is it someone only Nathan can see?) and then Peter, who reveals he’s the future version. It is revealed later that only Nathan can see Linderman. Tracy is pissed about seeing the footage of herself and Nathan in Vegas and the man who gave it her gets frozen and shatters into pieces. Whoa, a new power? Is this how she survived the fire? Hiro finds out who stole the code, and shows up at her apartment, where she has other stolen goods (including the Mona Lisa). Hiro takes something of hers and offers a trade, the code for the medal Hiro stole. Ando is upset that Hiro has resentment towars him based on what happened in the future. Parkman wakes up in Africa and meets a sage of sorts, and talking of a spiritual walk. We end with Peter showing up at Level 5, and Angela says it is all Peter’s fault. Peter says he put current Peter into the body of a guy namesd Jesse. As Jesse he’s with the villains as they just kill people and steal a car. He decides to go with them, too. Sylar is still comatose (guess Claire’s powers do have limitations?) and Angela reveals she’s Sylar’s mother? WHAT? Cool ending, and another good episode, as there were great oh crap moments, and I am loving the villains introduced. I don’t care for the Suresh story (yet) and I just don’t buy him as a super-powered guy and he worked better as a normal guy. Nathan’s religious revival is interesting, but I’m not convinced yet. And where is Micah and Monica? Monica was the best thing (next to Elle, of course) that was introduced last season. I can say for sure, Season 3 is off to a great start.


September 28th, 2008

WWE: Royal Rumble Anthology Vol. 1

Oh how I long for the days of summer when I could finish a 5-set DVD review like this in less than a week. Well, those days are over and I struggle to get 2 DVD's done (not titles, two actual DVD's) done in one week. Such is life and I can'
t complain too much since I do have time to keep this and TPL up with not real problems. Anyway, this week's DVD review is the First Royal Rumble Anthology. A great collection of the first five Royal Rumbles from 1988 to 1992. Check out the review to see if these events still hold up 20 years later.

In other reviewing news, Family Guy and American Dad debut tonight, so look for those reviews either later on tonight or tomorrow when I post the Heroes review.

In sporting news we have the Mets collapsing (again), the Yankees getting eliminated from the playoffs for the first time since 1993, the Jets crushing the Cards today, and my favorite winter college sport, volleyball, in full swing. My favorite team is the Red Storm and they picked up a huge win over Louisville this afternoon. Louisville was picked number one in the Big East, and they played like it today, coming back from two sets down to force a fifth set. The Red Storm prevailed, and now they are 2-0 in the Big East. In a 14-game conference season it may not seem like much, but they beat the teams voted #'s 1 and 3 in the preseason polls (STJ was #2). Their real only threat left is Notre Dame towards the end of the season but St. John's could feasibly go 14-0, for the second time in the last three years. As it stands, they've only lost one conference regular season game the last three years. I am going to enjoy this run while I can since the team is losing an incredible amount of starters (5) due to graduation. I hope next year's recruiting class is awesome, or it will be a long year next year. Anyway, this year is sure rolling along and we could see a three-peat as Regular Season champs, and a repeat as Big East champs.



September 29th, 2008

My TV Shows 09/28-09/29/08

Family Guy 09/28/08