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The LiveJournal Archives - February 2009

3 DVD Reviews to make up for no reviews in January
February 1st, 2009

I've mentioned before how I haven't written as much as I would like and January saw no DVD reviews posted. Well, to make up for that, on the very first day of February 2009, I will post three DVD reviews that deal with larger than life characters, in three very different types of DVD's. Up first is the Second season of Heroes. While many deem it a disappointment (and rightly so) I don't think it was as bad as many made it out to be.

The next review is a bit of a rehash of an earlier review I did. This is the classic company policy of releasing a DVD with a couple extra minutes added in, calling it an Extended or Director's cut, and charging $20 so idiots like myself would buy it just so they know they have the whole movie. Yes, I just admitted to being an idiot. It doesn't happen often so make note of that. This is the Extended Cut of Punisher, not the new one that came out recently and made about $15 in the gross, the good one from 2004 with Thomas Jane.

Finally we have a wrestling DVD review. This is for the double-disc edition of Wrestlemania III, the Championship Edition or something like that. I wouldn't buy this normally (since I had it as part of the Wrestlemania Anthology) but the extras looked cool and I picked it up for less than $5 on E-Bay. No matter what, this is the biggest PPV extravaganza or event WWE has ever, or will ever, put on and it's notable in that regard.

That's all for now (I never know how to end these things). I will definitely be back next week with another DVD review.


One More Week...
February 8th, 2009

I don't know if I mentioned it, but I took on the yearbook at my high school and it has been kicking my ass to start off 2009. Luckily, it will be over by this time next week and I will have so much more time available to post on here. Who cares about my SJU work, this is what I really care about! So, I apologize for the lack of updates but I have some cool things ready to post, like the first two episodes of Heroes, as well as two new American Dad episodes, and a ton of DVD and comc reviews waiting in the wings. One more week...

I can finally breathe again...
February 15th, 2009

When I decided to tackle making my school's yearbook last year, I didn't think it would be a problem. Of course, I didn't start right away (my fault, I know) and as the deadline quickly approached I knew a lot of work was in store. How much work was another story. In the first two weeks of February, I didn't leave any the school building any earlier than 5:00pm, except on my birthday. At least three nights I was there until 9:00pm. In conditions like that it made it impossible to do any of the reviews I like to do at home, or even post on here. Luckily, the yearbook is finished (save for one page, I'm just waiting on pictures) and I can finally breathe again. I can finish some DVD reviews I have been working on, I can post the TV reviews I have (as of this Monday, three episodes of American Dad and Heroes and one of Family Guy) and I can just relax. Coupled with the fact I have all next week off, I am in good shape for some major rest and relaxation (and reviews, hehe).

So, that brings us to today's posting. I have not been good with putting up DVD reviews and I will make up for that with another three-fer right now. There are two animated films, and another WWE collection. The two animated films were actually pretty decent. The first, Futurama: Beast with a Billion Backs, the second animated film to come from the under-appreciated series. Next up is Next Avengers (no pun intended), an interesting future version of the Avengers, with a more PG-rated Young Avengers vibe. Finally, there's the man himself, Curt Henning. The Life and Times of Mr. Perfect was the WWE's offering on Curt, a wrestler who died much too young. Three more DVD reviews for your reading pleasure. As an aside, just to show you how much can change during the school year with added work, those three DVD reviews were completed in less than three weeks in October. Yeah, I still have reviews from October kicking around. I did a bunch of them in Oct, Nov, Dec, but none since then. That will change this week for sure! 

Take care for now, check back tomorrow for some TV reviews! 

TV Show Catch-Up
February 16th, 2009

I have a whole bunch of episodes of American Dad and Heroes to catch up on, as well as this week's new shows.

Family Guy 02/15/09
Episode 7: “Ocean’s Thee and a Half”
Bonnie finally has her baby, a girl named Susie who Stewie instantly falls in love with. Joe can’t pay the bills and soon has to turn to a bookie, and soon he can’t pay the bookie. So Peter hatches a scheme to steal the money from Carter Pewterschmidt. Lois eventually convinced Joe not to do it. The running b-plot sees Stewie writing a song for Susie. There’s some great stuff here, from the Christian Bale/Peter Griffin tape, and Brian doing the rising voice when talking about Stewie’s music video made this one of the funniest episodes I’ve seen in a while. A.

American Dad 01/25/09
Episode 8: “Chimdale”
Steve needs to wear a metal back-support for his crooked back and suffers from severe depression and feelings of being an outsider, until he finds his father is bald. Yep, Stan has no hair. Stan tries to convince Steve he’ll go around without hair to make him feel better but of course lies. Steve finds out and heads to the spa (where Francine, Roger and Hayley are staying, and trying to get away with three people using two tickets) when the rest of the family admits that they knew Stan was always bald. I don’t know if the spa story was resolved, but this was a harmless enough episode to start off 2009 with. B.

American Dad 02/04/09
Episode 9: Stan Time
Stan doesn’t like that he doesn’t have any time for himself. He gets a pill from a friend at work that allows him to not sleep and viola, he can devote all his nights to Stan time. Of course, things fall apart when his family learns about the pills. Francine vows to not bother Stan and she actually becomes a noted marine biologist. It sort of reminds me of the episode of Seinfeld when George goes without sex and gets smarter. Soon Stan realizes he would rather be with Francine than have too much Stan time. The B-angle sees Roger and Steve writing a porn film together. The B-story sucked, but the main portion was quite good. B+.

American Dad 02/15/09
Episode 10: Family Affair
The Smiths don’t know why Roger ducked out on family game night, until he tells them of the play he’s in. So the Smiths decide to go see the play, against Roger’s wishes of course, and find out he was lying. Not only was he lying, but he was cheating on them with another family. Not only that but that he was cheating on them with multiple families. Luckily, a quick trip to the psychiatrist reveals that Roger is still harboring feelings of abandonment thanks to getting dumped by the first family he lived with years ago. Roger’s back to normal by the end of the episode. The running side-story sees Klaus getting pumped for a Fabulous Thunderbirds concert which the rest of the family could care less about, but one that Klaus ends up missing. The homeless Koala bear bit at the end was different. B+.

Heroes 02/02/09
Episode 14: A Clear and Present Danger
This is the start of Volume 4, entitled Fugitives. I don’t know if there’s any reason why the Volume title and this episode title are both references to Harrison Ford films, but that’s probably just a coincidence. I doubt we’ll have Air Force One this season. Anyway, the title of the new volume is pretty transparent. It’s called Fugitives, and that’s what our Heroes become. They are rounded up and placed in internment camps, just like what happened in the “Days of the Future Past,” storyline that was referenced by Hiro way back in episode 1. So, Nathan wants to lock up all the super-powered people, except himself of course, Claire finds out and walks out on Angela (who is in on everything) and Sylar has daddy issues. Basically, we see all of the heroes get captured except Sylar, and Claire bring down a plane with a bunch of heroes on them (Hiro, Suresh, Peter, and Ali Larter’s character) as well as Bennett. So we have Lost meets Heroes? Ooooh boy, I don’t know how this is going to pan out. After the last two volumes were a bit underwhelming, I am apprehensive. Considering Days of the Future Past is one of the my favorite X-Men storylines and seeing how this is basically a copy of that, I don’t know if this season will live up to what I loved about that original comic series.

Heroes 02/09/09
Episode 15: Trust and Blood
The plane lands, prisoners escape (including Hiro, Parkman, Suresh, Claire, Tracy and Peter) while the wreckage is destroyed to cover everything up. Eventually, everything turns into a bloodbath as people try to escape, and it looks like only Claire is left standing. Meanwhile, Sylar takes a family hostage to learn more about his brother. Sylar is the best character here right now. Peter manages to escape but Tracy is captured by Nathan, who is looking more and more like a two-faced liar the whole time. But what is his real ambition? He wants to keep them imprisoned probably for their own good, or is there an ulterior motive? Anyways, the Heroes start mobilizing to plan an offensive against Nathan and his plan.

Heroes 02/16/09
Episode 16: Building 26
This was quite a subdued episode, focusing mainly on the relationships of our Heroes than anything else. Sylar continues to look for his father with Luke, his brother, and even saves him at the end from the secret agents Nathan has been sending out. Nathan needs the death of an agent at Tracy’s hands to keep his project alive, Noah can’t keep Claire in check and is later kidnapped by the rebels (Peter, Suresh & Parkman) and Ando and Hiro chill in India. Like I said, a really subdued episode with not too much action, but storylines were built up. The Sylar stuff is my favorite so far.