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Friday, June 20, 2014

Trading In Danger by Elizabeth Moon


This is a nice far future space ship based science fiction story by Elizabeth Moon. She has several series out, some pretty lengthy, this is one of the less popular series but still very strong. This is book one. It follows a young scion of a trading guild on her first voyages as a starship captain. It has a bit of military edge to it and isn't too heavy on the hard side of science fiction, which makes it my favorite type of science fiction story.

There are a few confusing passages using trade jargon that might confuse you, but it adds to the story by showing just how much the main character knows about trade ships and so helps add a bit of depth to the character.

So far there are half a dozen novels in this series. I plan on reading them all.

Alien - Movie Review


Yes! Alien. What a great horror/sci fi flick. A classic by director Ridley Scott. If you want to see some of the best of HR Giger, a great performance by Sigourney Weaver and some fantastic practical effects before everything started going fakey looking digital then this is the movie for you.

This is the movie that launched an entire franchise, including 3 sequels, 2 cross overs with Predator (which I'll review soon) and now a sort of spin off (Prometheus). It all started here folks.

This movie along with Event Horizon is probably my favorite scifi/horror tale. I highly recommend for fans of both genres, as well as fans of seeing Sigourney Weaver strip down and put a space suit on.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Steel Panther


These guys are awesome. I don't do a lot of music reviews, but the story here is great. A bunch of over 40 dudes totally kicking ass. Their style of music is the big arena 80's sound of Motley Crew, Van Halen and Def Leppard. The difference being they are a bit of a joke, a lampoon perhaps. A satire?

Can you really satirize a music genre that did so much to become a joke all by itself? Like if I walked around with huge metal teeth spitting rap lyrics would I be making fun? No, I'd be paying tribute to an image and sound that I enjoyed.

That's what these guys are doing. Also their lyrics are fun and hilarious.

Check them out on you tube.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Edge of Tomorrow Review


I really really liked this one. A ton. It probably won't crack my top 5 due to a kinda weak final act, but for scifi lovers and Tom Cruise fans this is where it's at. Crazy aliens, time travel and awesome freakin' battle suits.

Also it has that one thing that all truly great movies aspire to...Bill Paxton. He's so great. He should just be in every movie. Every. Movie.

The one thing I didn't like so much was that they had to shoe horn a love story into last act. It felt forced and weak to me. You can have a big movie like this and just have everyone be an epic badass without turning it into a guy gets girl retread.

Definitely a top 10 movie this year. I'll definitely see it again sometime. I strongly recommend it to the action and scifi crowd.

Movies 2014 - Top 5 So Far

Alright people, so far it has been a great year of movies. I tend to favor the big action movies, science fiction and fantasy preferred, but I love all movie genres for what they are.

So far here is my list of top movies:
1. The Lego Movie - Such a great one, for all ages really. Everything is awesome!

2. Captain America: Winter Soldier - This is what super hero movies should be. Just great tone, great costumes. A lot of fun.

3. X-Men: Days...- Another solid entry into the X-Men franchise. With some brain burning time travel and the introduction of Quicksilver. The highlight of the movie for me.

4. Godzilla - Good monster movie, the human drama was a bit weak for me, but this is easily a top 5 Godzilla movie (I have a weakness for Mecha Godzilla).

5. Maleficent - I don't know why this movie didn't get great reviews, it was a ton of fun for me. I recommend anyone go check it out. Jolie is fantastic!

Honorable Mention: Chef - Just a low key family movie about redemption and being an artist, taking the plunge to go out on your own. Really great.

That's it for now, those are the ones that have really grabbed me so far. I've seen a TON more movies though. About one or two a week.