Part II

Most of my blogs are going to cover some form of entertainment from movies to music and every once in awhile the two intersect in such different way and I can't help but smile. For example take the following song by Brad Paisley entitled "Part II":
Hollywood never fails to make a sequel
For each and every movie that does well
Why can't love be more like that
Where the best ones get a second chance
And that way though you're gone
It wouldn't be that long ('til)

I'd see you in part two
And we'd pick up where we left off
When I lost you
And we'd fall in love again
And change the way the story ends
Yeah, we'd bring back me and you
In part two

Lookin' back we had so much to look forward to
The kind of love that deserves to be continued
And if this were only Tinseltown
By now they would have figured out
A way for you and I
To give it one more try (and)

I'd see you in part two
And we'd pick up where we left off
When I lost you
And we'd fall in love again
And change the way the story ends
Yeah, we'd bring back me and you
In part two

Yeah, we'd fall in love again
And change the way the story ends
Yeah, we'd bring back me and you
In part two


...


... Oh ... excuse me... oh it .. it always gets me right there at the end .... let me wipe this .. okay...

Alright, I'm all better and just so you don't think I'm being too mushy or serious this how A LOT of sequels turn out:

 Seriously, only a very exceptional few movies have really been good enough to exceed the original, much less be as good as... (And, I"m not talking about "remakes" either, that's a whole other blog for another time...)

Thank you for your time!

The Karate Kid (2010) Review

First and foremost I believe they should have changed title to "The Kung-fu Kid". In the movie there is a quote, "It's not Karate, mom, it's Kung Fu!"

?

What was the name of this movie again? "The Karate Kid"

I thought so, so what martial art is the kid learning and using in this movie? "Kung Fu"

Confused? Well don't be, because the next line after from mom is, "Karate, Kung Fu, whatever..."

Thank you Hollywood for making Americans look even dumber and more disrespectful to the martial arts than we are already perceived to be.

Okay so that's really my only rant as far this not being a really good movie.

To me, the original "Karate Kid" was a movie that will always hold a special place inside my heart. So in order to do a proper review of 2010's version, I will be making several comparsions. The first major notable difference is that this movie is taking place in China, the auto factory mom was working at, has moved there, if you're not paying attention, you miss that, as they don't really hit on that aspect of the movie very much, which I was kind of glad of because that meant we were getting down to business. One major difference is age between Dre (2010) and Daniel-san (1984)Also another high point that was hit upon was the fact that Jackie Chan, huge multi-billion dollar box office mega-star was going to be taking on the "Mr. Miyagi" role as "Mr. Han"... a handy man of the apartment building the kid and mom are staying at.

Right off the bat, the kid, Dre, starts hitting it off with locals, both figuratively with the "love" intrest, Mei Ying and the local bullies lead specifically by Cheng. The bulllies don't leave him alone, and you really get the sense of how kids that are bullied in school, for real, feel, as Dre tries his best to avoid them, and yet they are around every corner. In the last bully session, Mr. Han shows up to defend our weak lead star and kicks a bunch 12 year old's butts... funny, yet a bit striking at the same time, now you can tell Mr. Han is holding back from actually knocking them around, as he could have easily broke bones and pulverized these kids, but once this fight is over, you can tell Mr. Han was a bit winded so it could've got both ways, right?

Anyway, as I said earlier, the "Karate Kid" formula is there: A handyman/martial arts master agrees to teach a bullied boy karate (kung fu, whatever) and shows him that there is more to the martial art than fighting. With Mr. Han reluctantly willing to train our young hero, and again its in a slightly different style than the normal classroom setting, involving Dre putting his jacket on, taking it off, putting it on the ground, picking it up and hanging it on a peg. Much like Mr. Miyagi had Daniel-san waxing his car and painting his fence. Mr. Han shows Dre the China countryside, which almost feels like a tourist guide trying to show off and get more tourism in China, but if you're filming in China you might as well make the most of it and they did. So finally we get to the tournament, which is really Hollywood-ized, meaning there tons of lights, sound, music, big screens showing who's moving up in the tournament. Which is fine, movies are escapism and I'd rather they not touch on reality that much, which speaking of that, Jackie Chan does some fine acting in this movie, normally his zany, goofy, energy filled self doesn't ever really have time to act, and most of the time his characters are all pretty much the same, not so much the case in this movie. I was impressed.

Anywho, it still gave me the same butterfly, excited feeling to see our hero Dre take on the main bully, Cheng, that antognized him through a good portion of the first half of the movie. Dre is even hurt much the same way as Daniel-san, causing him to hobble and limp around, and Mr. Han even has a similar ancient Chinese healing technique to get him back into the fight.

So my finally score would be a 7.5 stars our of 10. There were some other things that kept it from reaching that 9/10 stars mark, but again I was not disappointed, I got out of it what I expected and some things I didn't expect. Not horrible, not mind-blowingly good either...

The Book of Eli review

It's been a while since a movie hit me like this one did. From the trailers I'd seen, it was just another typical post-apocalyptic, survivor-type movie. Boy, was I wrong!

Also it's been a long time since a movie stuck with me, and I kept rolling it from the beginning to end in my mind like this one. I'm going to try and keep from putting out major spoilers of the movies and keep to what anyone could have seen in the trailers.

Basically the movie starts with our main character, Eli, killing a hairless cat for food, from that point you realize this world that these people are living in is harsh, to say the least. As Eli travels across the landscape you truly get a sense of a world that has been left to rot after a major War. Not like a war we've seen in the past, but a truly nasty one that left very few things left alive. Obviously food and water are scarce, and as Eli finally comes into contact with people, well, its every man and woman for him and herself.

You don't realize what exactly is driving Eli to travel across this barren landscape, all by his lonesome, until about thirty-forty minutes into it. But by then you also realize how he has been able to do it, without dying. As death comes quickly and in many forms in this war-ravaged world, whether from starvation, dehydration, or from a fellow human. However, since Eli's mission has been blessed, to say the least, he's meant to survive until his purpose is fulfilled.

Now, I'm not going to ruin any of the pleasant surprises the film has in store for its viewer, but needless to say after of all of the movies I've seen these past few years, the surprise moments in this film were like breathes of fresh air. Never have I felt so many emotions in a movie from beginning to very end, and felt them even after the credits rolled.

Whether you're a full-fledged Bible-toting, scripture rattling Christian, or only been to church for the holidays this year, this movie will stay with you. I gurantee it.

So I'm kind of new to all this

This will be my first actual blog using a site designated strictly for blogging and posting stuff, rather than using a social site and trying to blog on it. So yeah, I guess you could say I p*pped my blog ch*rry. That's a really gross way of putting it, but its kind of the truth. I'm entering this world of blogging for this first time. I enjoy writing and this will be a good vent for me, so we'll see what comes of it.