Sunday, September 28, 2008

TV Rots Your Brain

How could I let myself go a full week without another post? I was doing so well last weekend, but then I fell right back into that big ol' apathetic hole this blog usually sits in throughout the week. But I guess since we're all here now, why don't we spend a little time getting to know one another?

I know I talk an awful lot about movies, but I also watch quite a bit of television. Too much television, actually. And since the new season is starting, I figure I might as well discuss some of the shows I'm watching.

First on my list is Heroes, which returned for its third season with two new episodes this past Monday. Like a good number of people, I thought the second season of Heroes was uninspiring at best. To tell you the honest truth, I thought it sucked donkey butt. And I don't know if I can truly judge it just by the two episodes I've seen thus far, but this new season seems to be better than the previous one.

I do have a few complaints, like does a thoroughly useless character like Maya gets to stay on the show and have hot, steamy, superpowered sex with Mohinder Suresh while poor Molly Walker (who just may be one of the most adorable characters I've ever seen on television) gets written out with just a cheap throwaway line? And why does it look like Peter's cute Irish girlfriend, the one who got stranded in a dystopian future, will be forgotten about? I know there was a vocal group of Heroes fans who didn't like the character, but if they're just going to ditch her altogether, you'd think they could just tie up a loose end or two. Maybe they could do that in an eventual episode later in the season, I don't know. But it would be just plain lazy to forget about her.

And going back to Mohinder for a second, that storyline they've started with him trying to give himself superpowers is not going to end well. And I'll tell you why. Do you remember the remake of The Fly, where Jeff Goldblum is so sure his new scientific discovery will be successful that he uses himself as a guinea pig? Oh, sure, things started out cool. He was walking on the ceiling and snapping some biker's forearm in half with one hand and generally kicking all kinds of ass. But then by the end of the movie, things had taken one horrific turn for the worst and Geena Davis had to shoot him in the face with a shotgun. If Mohinder gets shot in the face at the end of the season, just know that you heard it here first.

My relationship with Heroes is on shaky ground thanks to that awful season last year, but I'm not ready to give up on it yet. The first two episodes of this new season have, in my eyes, have gotten the show back on the road to redemption. So we'll just have to see how it goes.

My Name Is Earl also started back up with two new episodes on Thursday, and I'll say it's the funniest show on television now. Name any comedy on TV, and I'll say that My Name Is Earl is funnier. Screw The Office, screw Entourage. My Name Is Earl is where it's at. The "Eye of the Tiger" bit from Thursday night's second episode was gold, and Jamie Pressly and Ethan Suplee are just fantastic. If you aren't watching My Name Is Earl, you should be ashamed of yourself.

And then there's the shows whose new seasons began earlier in the month. Like Smallville, for example. I'll admit that Smallville's writing has been consistently stupid since its inception, but I'm a sucker for comic book things, so I'll keep on watching. We're two episodes into Smallville's eighth season, and the show's new creative team are finally advancing the mythology. I mean, you could practically call the show "Metropolis" now. And yeah, this advance towards Clark Kent becoming Superman is about two or three seasons too late. But better late than never, I guess. I am bummed that the best actors on the show - Michael Rosenbaum and John Glover - are no longer on the show, but Allison Mack and the very awesome Justin Hartley still around, so that's a plus. And Kristin Kreuk has pretty much left the show, so hey, the show can only get better, right? Judging a season by only two episodes is tough, but considering the strides they've taken thus far in ushering in Clark's eventual escapades as the Man of Steel, I have high hopes for Smallville.

In the time slot immediately following Smallville is the second of only two shows I watch on the CW Network, Supernatural. I missed a lot of the first season of Supernatural due to scheduling conflicts (My Name Is Earl was on in the same time slot, and I had yet to discover downloading episodes), but after finally getting to watch the show on a regular basis, it's become one of my favorites. It's been consistently strong, and the two episodes of the fourth season have been no different. The fact that they'll do episodes that go back and reference even minor events from the show's past episodes a real sense of continuity that I can respect. The season's primary story arc - the Winchester brothers are charged by an angel with the task of stopping a demon from letting the devil loose on Earth - could make for some interesting television, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Another returning show I'm watching rather faithfully is Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I really enjoyed the previous season of the show, because I thought it was a fun spin on the Terminator mythology. Besides, at its worst, it's still a teensy bit better than Terminator 3. Summer Glau and Lena Headey are both very good, and Brian Austin Green is solid in his role, as is Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson (though you can tell she's not a seasoned actress). But in my eyes, Thomas Dekker still hasn't fully shown that he was the best person for the role of John Connor. I don't know, maybe I'm still seeing him as the dorky kid that hung out with Hayden Panettiere during the first season of Heroes. Maybe I'll warm up to him, I don't know.

And of all the shows I'm following, the only new one of the bunch is the HBO series True Blood, based on Charlaine Harris's series of "Southern Vampire" books. I'd seen the advertisements for it in Wizard Magazine, and I thought the concept - vampires reveal their existence to the world and end up being looked upon as second-class citizens - was an interesting one. But just my luck, I unfortunately don't have HBO. So thanks to my good friend known as the Internet, I get to watch it after all. I'm three episodes into True Blood, and I'm really enjoying it thus far. The writing is entertaining and lead actors Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer are both really good, but then again, so is the supporting cast as well. The show has already been picked up for a second season, so I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who likes it.

And that's about it for this one. Just thought I'd bring everyone up to speed on what I'm watching, and what you should be watching. Because as we all know, my opinions are law. (Wait, why are you laughing at me like that?)

Saturday, September 20, 2008

A Holiday Triple Threat

The toy section wasn't the only part of Wal-Mart I visited today. I also noticed that they had an aisle or two dedicated to Halloween products. I guess that means that not only is autumn actually upon us now, but my favorite trimester of the year is coming up soon as well.

The span from October to December, as I'm sure you may be aware, covers the three holidays I anticipate more than any others: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I'm a big kid at heart, and if any of the 365 days on the calendar can get my inner child excited, it's those three. I'm a little surprised that they're rolling out the Halloween stuff in the middle of September, but the big shocker is that I was in a store the other day that is already putting Christmas items on the shelves. Does that seem a wee bit premature to anybody else? It isn't even October yet, and they couldn't wait to put the Christmas decorations up?

But as weird as that comes across, I actually can't complain. As a matter of fact, I enjoy seeing the holidays up like that already. Like I said, I'm a big kid, and Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are the three most kid-friendly holidays out there. At least, that's how I like to view them. There's so many fun memories from my childhood that center around those holidays that I can't help but love them as an adult. I'm sure I'll have more to say about each holiday individually once they finally arrive, but as for now, I'll just say that I can't wait for the holiday triple threat. They'll be here before you know it, and I can't wait.

Escape From The Island Of Misfit Toys

Whenever I'm at Wal-Mart, I like to venture into the toy section so that I can check out their selection of action figures. I very rarely ever buy any, mostly because I don't really feel like purchasing any of the 3,000 varieties of the action figures I'd typically want. I don't want Aquamarine Iron Man with the special scuba gear built into his suit, or the Ultra-Stealth Batman with the camouflage costume. I just want the regular, standard versions of the action figures I'd want to buy, but the toy companies apparently don't make them. They must figure that instead of buying just the regular old Batman like he appeared in the movie, people would much rather purchase a Batman figure with a million useless accessories that you've never seen before (and more than likely don't want).

But I'm going off on an unnecessary tangent. Back to the point. I was visiting the action figure aisle of the local Wal-Mart earlier this afternoon, and what caught my eye were their selection of WWE figures. As a wrestling fan, it always strikes me as weird that every Wal-Mart I've ever been to carries an incredibly outdated selection of wrestling toys. By "outdated," I mean that most of the wrestlers seen on these racks in toy form were fired by WWE long ago. The Wal-Mart I was in today had figured representing Big Daddy V, Balls Mahoney, Nunzio, Stevie Richards, Marcus Cor Von, and The Gymini. I could understand seeing the figures of Mahoney, Nunzio, Big Daddy V, and Stevie, since they've only been on the unemployment line for less than six months. But Marcus Cor Von? The Gymini? Cor Von was fired a year ago yesterday, and The Gymini were fired right at - get this! - 21 months ago. Nearly two years they've been gone from WWE, and every Wal-Mart I've been in during that time period usually has one or two sets of Gymini figures. And I think they only wrestled three televised matches, to boot. It'd be like if they made figures for the Gobbledygooker or the Heartthrobs or somebody lame like that.

The Gymini figures really blow me away. It's not just the fact that they exist to begin with, but also that these poor unloved, unwanted figures have been sitting on store shelves for nearly two years and nobody even bothers to look at them. Yeah, Gymini was an incredibly lame, forgettable tag team, but come on. You'd think that somebody at Wal-Mart would notice that these figures have never moved and get the hint that they probably never will. Just shove them over into the clearance aisles, then ship them off to the Island of Misfit Toys to go hang out with Hermey the elf and Yukon Cornelius. Or at the very least, they could just invest in wrestling figures that kids would actually want to buy.

And while I'm thinking about it, I've got to hunt down a Yukon Cornelius figure. He rules.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Vampires, Zombies, And Quickie Reviews

Remember how I said I'd acquired some movies from the Internet? I've been watching a few more of them today, so why not have a replay of last Saturday and discuss them? Sure, I could be doing other things right now. But sometimes, the same old stories are better than no stories at all. Am I right?

Anyway, first up on today's checklist is the direct-to-video sequel Lost Boys: The Tribe. Basically, the movie is a remake of the original, hidden beneath the guise of a sequel. Sure, there's little acknowledgements to the prior movie, but other than that, there aren't really all that many differences between the first Lost Boys movie and its sequel. The sequel is basically a carbon copy of the original only with enough changes made to qualify it as a sequel. And as both a remake of and a sequel to The Lost Boys, the movie doesn't exactly live up to the original movie's legacy.

But when viewed in the context of a stand-alone movie, it isn't terrible. There are a few parts that don't really hold up, and it doesn't really have the same sense of whimsy that the original has. But it's good enough for what it is. The acting is acceptable, and despite a few instances of lame jokes and corny dialogue. the writing is sufficient. The only truly bad thing about Lost Boys: The Tribe is the inherent "been there, done that" feeling. If you've seen the original movie, then you'll end up thinking you've seen it all before once you watch The Tribe.

That's why I called it a remake earlier. The plot is nearly identical, albeit with a few alterations. Wouldn't it have just made more sense to do a straight, unabashed remake instead of this remake in sequel's clothing? Or why not do that Lost Girls movie that was rumored a few years back? But in any event, anything bearing the Lost Boys name is cool by me. Lost Boys: The Tribe gets three stars on the Sutton Scale. And after that scene during the credits, I really want to see Lost Boys 3 now.

Up next on the movie-watching agenda was the remake of George A. Romero's Day of the Dead. This was another direct-to-video movie that came out back in April, and it boasts the unenviable distinction of having the worst DVD cover art I have ever seen. Luckily for me, my copy of the movie was downloaded off the Internet, so I can easily bypass that whole "ugly DVD cover" thing. But enough about that, let's talk about the actual movie itself. The original Day of the Dead is my favorite of Romero's five zombie movies, so I was both nervous and curious to see how the remake went. As it turns out, I was actually mildly surprised.

I guess it should be noted that Day of the Dead is really only a remake in the loosest way possible. The "zombies vs. the military" concept remains, as do the names of certain characters and the idea of an intelligent zombie. But other than that, the Day of the Dead remake is its own movie. Boy, is it ever its own movie. It's basically the most insane Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie ever made. I say that not only because the movie looks decidedly low-budget, the acting is hammy at best, the CGI blood is laughable, and the script is atrocious, but the zombies are unlike any other zombies I've ever seen in my life. It's far beyond the simple running zombies. These things make the running zombies look tame. The Day of the Dead remake's zombies not only run at ninety miles an hour, but they can leap up into second-story windows in a single bound and crawl along walls or ceilings. Go back and read that last sentence. I swear that every last word of it is the absolute truth. Seriously, these are the most relentless zombies I've ever seen. And I've seen a heck of a lot of zombie movies in my day.

Steve Miner, the director behind the second and third Friday the 13th movies and Halloween H20, is in charge here, and the whole movie is basically a document of his efforts to polish a turd as hard as he can. If there's one thing that can be held up and acknowledged as the worst thing about this movie, it's the script written by Jeffrey Reddick. How do you go from writing Final Destination to this mess? There are a few things brought up that you think will be explained later, only to just have it blown off with the phrase "it's complicated." Mena Suvari's character curiously doesn't keep her gun loaded. Why? It's complicated. She and her brother don't get along. Why? It's complicated... and something about bicycles was thrown out there that I didn't really get. Why even bring these things up at all if you're not going to resolve or explain them? Were the necessary scenes deleted, or was Reddick just being incredibly lazy?

But the point of this whole thing is that there are many reasons why the movie should suck, but so help me, I couldn't bring myself to hate it. I actually had fun watching it. I'm so conflicted right now. Do I actually want to give the movie a good review in spite of its lameness, only because it managed to be fun? Oh, what the heck. The Day of the Dead remake gets three stars and a thumbs up.

And that's it for this one. I probably shouldn't be watching all these downloaded movies when I've got movies in from Netflix. I've got one in from Netflix that I need to watch in order to review it for the long-delayed "Super Saturday 2" project, but I've been neglecting it for the last week or two. I really need to fix that so I can get this stinking project done. I'll jump right into that tomorrow.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Would The Sequel Be "Thailand Perilous"?

Just figured I'd preface this post by saying that the power came on about 45 minutes ago, right when I finished writing the last words of the previous post into my notebook. So I figured I'd go ahead and post what I'd written in my notebook, then continue the story in this post.

Anyway, I was going on a pretty decent writing roll with that last post, so let's keep that momentum going. As I was saying before the electricity kicking on interrupted me, Moses and I were reading selected issues from the Spider-Man portion of my comic book collection when we were hit with the idea to go see a movie. The theater is in the next county, so we figured that if the power outage affected them to, then at least we got to kill some time.

We ended up seeing Bangkok Dangerous, Nicolas Cage's newest action movie. The movie has been less than successful, combining negativity from the critics with a lack of money made at the box office. But I'll readily admit that I'm a fan of Cage's work, no matter how bad or how cheesy his movies can get, so what did I think of Bangkok Dangerous? I liked it. I didn't fall head over heels in love with it, but I thought it was a flawed yet fun movie.

There isn't a whole lot going on in regards to plot or character development or any of that stuff. But as someone who enjoys the occasional nonsensical action movie, especially one starring Nicolas Cage, I thought it was endearing in a goofy kind of way. All I really expected was a movie about a hired assassin who shot lots of people in Thailand, and that's exactly what I got. I guess I'll give it a score of three and a half stars on my patent-pending Five-Star Sutton Scale, along with an advisory to go see it soon if you're interested in it at any way. Considering the movie hasn't really been financially successful, I doubt a lot of theaters will carry it for much longer.

So I think I can say without much exaggeration that it's been a weird kind of day, to say the least. I don't know if I would care to repeat it, outside of the trip to the movies, but I think it might be a day worth remembering. I also have to say that I enjoy writing posts during power outages. I don't know why exactly, but it makes me feel like I have more of a chance to use more of my imagination while I'm writing these things. Not once in the nearly seven years since the MSX's initial launch have I ever really considered myself all that talented of a blogger. I don't know what it is, but these rare instances of the electricity going out, it feels like I'm writing a different kind of post than the ones I usually crank out. As much as I hate to say it, maybe it would be in the best interests of this poor blog if the power went out more often?

Beating Boredom

[Thus continues the latest addition to my "Blackout Manifesto."]

The time is almost 11:00, and yeah, the power is still out. Whoopee. My search for that portable television turned up fruitless, sadly. Though considering that I had to limit where I searched - I couldn't really go digging through bedroom closets out of fear of waking up everybody else - I'm not surprised I couldn't find it. I probably could conduct those searches anyway, but since I have all the grace of an angry bull in a china shop, I would probably awaken a sleeping giant or two and get chewed out for rummaging through closets for no good reason. Besides, I'm not exactly 100% sure if we had the proper batteries to go in it. It's not like I can plug it into the wall or anything right now.

And now that I think about it, that portable TV will probably be useless come February after the digital conversion is finalized. At least it has a radio on it. And I do have a battery-powered radio beside me, so at least I have something to keep me from climbing the walls right now.

Anyway, while I'm writing, I might as well write about something worth reading about later. I spoke in the prior post that I'm in need of constant entertainment, lest I go loony from boredom. I guess I'm incredibly susceptible to cabin fever, I don't know. But maybe thirty minutes into the power outage, my buddy Moses came over in order to ease his own boredom by giving himself somebody to talk to. And after an hour or two of raiding the Spider-Man section of my comic book collection for some entertainment, we decided to get out of the house and go see a movie. But I'll continue talking about that in the next post.

Lights Out

[You devoted readers, all none of you, may or may not remember what I jokingly called my "Blackout Manifesto." To refresh your memories, the series of posts comprising the Blackout Manifesto were basically things I scribbled into a notebook during power outages in order to pass the time. This post is another chapter into that series.]

The time is in the neighborhood of 10:30 p.m., and here I am sitting in the dark, pen in hand and notebook before me. The power went out about 1:30 this afternoon thanks to the ultra-high winds coming through the area courtesy of that pesky hurricane passing through the Gulf of Mexico. At least I have a flashlight handy, but who knows how long the batteries will hold out.

As much as I hate power outages, I can tolerate them so much more when the sun is up. I enjoy being able to see what I'm doing and where I'm going without a flashlight or candles. Know what I mean? This is why I could never survive as a blind person. I enjoy being able to see way too much.

My real beef with being stuck in a power outage is what I constantly find myself needing to be entertained. Maybe I have ADD or something, I have no idea. But yeah, I can get restless rather quickly. And since I usually don't have all that much to do besides watch television and goof around on the Internet, I find myself being quite bored. If everyone in my house besides myself weren't asleep, I would be hunting down some board games or something. Though we do have a portable TV around here somewhere. Maybe I should go hunt it down.

[To be continued...]

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Saturday Afternoon Matinees

Today has been really slow, so I figured I'd kill most of my free time by watching some of these movies I'd downloaded. So why don't we kill some more free time by talking about them, hm?

First on my plate today was The Ruins. Released back in April to not a whole lot of fanfare, The Ruins is an adaptation of Scott Smith's novel about a group of tourists in Mexico who, while adventuring to some ancient Aztec ruins, become trapped and are systematically picked off by the flesh-eating vines that have a stranglehold on the area around them. I'd read and enjoyed the novel in the past, and I thought the movie complimented it well. There's some differences that turn up in the translation, like events that happen to certain characters in the book happening to other characters in the movie, along with a different climax. But considering that the book's author wrote the movie, I suppose it shouldn't be that big of a deal after all.

The Ruins is a solid horror movie, one that is both quite graphic and engagingly scary. The only bad part is that since I'd read the book before, none of the movie's scenes really came as a surprise. Nothing is shocking if you know it's going to happen. Other than that, I will say that I did enjoy The Ruins. With decent acting, well-done special effects, and effective scares, the movie earns three and a half stars on my patent-pending Sutton Scale.

I followed The Ruins with George A. Romero's latest zombie movie, Diary of the Dead. I'd really wanted to see this when it was released theatrically back in February, but I didn't really have a chance to because it only played in 48 theaters. And here I thought Midnight Meat Train was the one that got screwed by its distributor. Anyway, Diary of the Dead essentially works as a modernized side-story to Romero's original Night of the Living Dead. The movie follows a group of college students in the middle of making a horror movie when the zombie plague begins. Their horror movie quickly ends up becoming a documentary about their attempts to survive the blossoming zombie apocalypse. So in short, Romero's pretty much taken Cloverfield, replaced the crummy Godzilla wannabe with zombies, and set the whole thing in Pennsylvania.

And I'll admit that I did enjoy Diary of the Dead. I'm not sure if I liked it as much as I liked the stylistically-similar Spanish film [Rec], but I still think it was a very entertaining movie. The crazy thing about Diary of the Dead is that it simultaneously feels and doesn't feel like a typical George Romero zombie movie. The filmmaking style is unlike anything I've ever seen Romero do, even if the slow-moving zombies are the same. I think it all comes from the writing. Romero's zombie movies have always had some sort of subtext, some kind of hidden social commentary that completely changes the movie if you can pick up on it. Diary of the Dead is no different.

With this chapter into his zombie universe, Romero takes a look at our media overindulgence. From governmental spins on news stories, to bloggers, to those particular folks who have to record every waking moment of their day so the footage can be uploaded to MySpace or YouTube, the whole shebang is Romero's focus here. It's basically a movie about how my generation would handle the end of the world. Do we we deal with things rationally, do we revert to our ancient primal nature, or do we fire up our camcorders and use it to shield ourselves from reality?

And I'd be remiss if I didn't note the little digs Romero gets in on the super-fast zombies that have gained popularity through movies like The Return of the Living Dead, 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, and the Dawn of the Dead remake. Considering that Romero has been pretty vocal about his, shall we say, "lack of enthusiasm" regarding zombies that can run, I can't really say that I'm surprised he added the quick little "dead things don't run!" lines of dialogue. As a fan of the horror genre, I got a kick out of it.

Diary of the Dead marks Romero's fifth zombie movie in as many decades. The four that came in the past were all entertaining in their own way, and I thought Diary of the Dead was just as good. And if this whole Blair Witch style of filmmaking continues, it could surely be considered one of the best in that genre. All things considered, I believe I'll score it with another three and a half stars on the Sutton Scale, and give it a thumbs up. I'll more than likely end up doing a full-blown review of it for Sutton At The Movies one of these days. Perhaps when Quarantine comes out in about four weeks or so, I can lump these two, [Rec], and Cloverfield all together and review them at the same time. Maybe I could even throw in Blair Witch 2 just for fun.

So yeah, that's pretty much all I've been up to today. The only bad things are that my air conditioner is broken, meaning I've been sweltering in 90-degree heat all day, and that I'm going to have to miss the midnight showing of the original Friday the 13th movie up in Lexington tonight. That normally wouldn't bother me, but considering they're actually having members of the cast there to introduce it, I'm really bummed. The Friday the 13th franchise has always been really special to me, and how many other opportunities like this would I have? Sigh. Maybe whenever they invent time travel, I can come back in time to tonight and buy myself a ticket. Does anybody have Doc Brown's telephone number handy?

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Can I Get A Celebrity Endorsement Too?

With the race to the White House now in full swing, I guess it's inevitable that we're going to be seeing an incredible amount of celebrities coming out to support Barack Obama. (Because let's face it, the only Republicans in Hollywood are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stephen Baldwin.) But I really don't see why it's so important for celebrities to publicly endorse a Presidential candidate.

Yeah, I can understand that maybe they want to use their influence to sway people to vote. But what makes a celebrity's opinion so important anyway? Why should anybody care who Oprah Winfrey is voting for? Some stupid women out there may view Oprah as God Herself, but just because she's pulling for one candidate over another doesn't mean a thing to me.

Am I really supposed to vote for someone just because a celebrity says I should? Screw that crap. That's stupid. I'll admit that I've never voted and I'm not really in a rush to register, but if I did, my vote would not be based on who Oprah or George Clooney or whoever told me to vote for. I'd vote for the candidate who I thought would screw up the least. Maybe I'd even throw my vote away by picking Ralph Nader. Things could go in any direction, and that's what makes the democratic process so awesome.

And do you remember Puff Daddy's "Vote or Die" campaign from four years ago? Total crap. Maybe it should have been "Vote or I'll Kill You." If Puff Daddy started threatening to kill people if they didn't vote like in that one episode of South Park, more people would get out there and do it. Maybe I should become famous and do something like that.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Missing Summertime Superheroes

So I just now noticed that Fox Reality Channel has been running a marathon of the first season of Who Wants To Be A Superhero? today. But just my luck, I didn't notice until they started running the last episode. How could I let something huge like this go on without my full and undivided attention? Why was I not informed?

If you were reading the MSX during the summers of 2006 and 2007, you might remember that I really enjoyed Who Wants To Be A Superhero?. I'm actually really bummed that the Sci-Fi Channel didn't run a third season of the show this summer. Yeah, I know that nobody who has seen it will ever accuse Who Wants To Be A Superhero? of being the best reality show ever. And as much as I hate to say it, I doubt it'd even make the top five. But what I loved so much about it was that it was just unabashedly silly, harmless entertainment that was actually really charming in a goofy way. Even when it was at its most lame (I'm looking at you, the entire second season), there was still the sense that it was never supposed to be taken seriously in the first place.

I don't know if the show's been cancelled or if it's taking a year off, or anything like that. But at least Fox Reality Channel's showing reruns, and I can live with that. Now if there's nothing about the show next summer, that's when I'm gonna raise a big ol' stink.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Twelve Dollars Of Punishment

Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the month of September here at the MSX. I hope everybody had a fun Labor Day weekend, but now it's time to get back to business. And by that, I mean you'll only see posts from me after I go see a movie and come back here to talk about it. (I kid, I kid. Though it does seem like the majority of the posts I write nowadays are like that, doesn't it?)

But although I actually didn't see any movies this weekend, that's not to say I didn't do anything. To make up for no movies I was interested in being out, I went and did a little shopping this past Saturday instead. My dad and I went out to the flea market over in Shelby County, which is always a mini-adventure in and of itself. Once you step through its doors, it's like walking into another universe. If you've seen Hellboy 2, think back to the scene where the heroes go down to that secret underground promenade populated by all those fantastic creatures. It's a lot like that. Definitely a wacky place, I can say that much. And as an aside, I've never seen so many head shops in one place in my life. I counted at least three in this one flea market. If I ever wanted to start smoking pot, I know exactly where to go.

So while we were at the flea market, I found and bought a copy of the Punisher video game that was released on the original Xbox back in 2005. Yeah, there's a PlayStation 2 edition of the game too, but the Xbox version is the one I came home with. And it only cost me twelve dollars, too. After spending all weekend playing it, I must admit that I thought it was a lot of fun. It has a flaw or two, but none of them get affect the game's quality. Truth be told, I had so much fun playing the game that I actually had a hard time putting it down for more than an hour or two at a time. I ended up beating it late last night, but I'm thinking of jumping back into it sooner or later, just to see if there's anything in the game that I missed. That's how much I got into the game.

All in all, the game was worth more than just the twelve bucks I paid for the game. I'd been hunting for it for a while, and I'm happy to have finally found a copy of it. I'm a little curious as to why THQ haven't released a sequel, but I guess there's a good reason why. If they ever announced that they were making Punisher 2 for the Xbox 360, I'd go get in line right now. Now if only I could find a copy of Grand Theft Auto 4 for that kind of money, I'd be set.