Movie Review: Iron Man

I hesitate going to movies of comic book heroes I enjoyed as a youngster, because some of the movie adaptions have been just horrible. Case in point: the Batman movie with George Clooney. Ugh! And last few Christopher Reeves Superman's. Zzzz! Then one of my all time favorites... The ThunderBirds. What a disaster! So, with Iron Man being one of my all-time favorite characters (I had over 250 issues of Iron Man starting from #6), I was a bit worried about what Hollywood would do to Tony Stark's armor.

I've seen the Iron Man movie twice now. And it was just as good the second time around. In fact, Excellent! Great job of staying true to the original origins of Iron Man, yet updated to the issues and current world economy. Originally Tony Stark is injured in the Viet Nam war (in comic book land), and invents a chest plate to keep his heart beating. In the movie it's Afghanistan. And it's the original grey armor. Nice! Once back in the States, Tony perfects his design with the classic gold and scarlet titanium armor. With the villain of the piece, Obadiah Stane creating the massive 'War Monger' battle armor. Great storyline. Very realistic.

Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of the womanizing booze hound, yet electronic genius of Tony Stark was spot on. The quick witted humor and jabs were fast paced, and nonstop.

The flight scenes were amazing, and perfect for the big screen. I couldn 't get enough of them.

Gweneth Paltrow brought a softness to the character of Pepper, which in light of Tony's brashness was a good counterbalance.

The second time through I did stay past the credits to view the 20-30 second bonus clip, but wasn't sure if it was really worth it. I've never been a fan of Nick Fury, nor the Avenger's. This snippet appeared to be a teaser for an upcoming Avengers movie, which doesn't especially excite me. I'm anxiously waiting Iron Man II however!

Grade: A! I loved it!

McDoogle

PS. Your challenge: Get down in that basement tonight, and build a battery powered suit of armor. Include a searchlight, terrain following radar, and a Heads Up Display (HUD). Post pics of your creation in the Comments section.

Review of Anansi Boys

Enjoyed this Gaiman novel quite a bit. But not as much as 'American Gods', which I felt had more mystery and suspense. Both books have the same concept. You have a regular guy as your main character who discovers he's related to god-like beings. The novels revolve around those revelations and how the main characters adjust to their new founds 'roots'.

In Anansi Boys, Charlie discovers his father is actually the spider god - Anansi. Anansi who is a trickster, and whom all the other animal gods have found themselves as the butt of his devilish pranks from time to time. Anansi also owns all of the stories, due to weaving more creative upbeat yarns than Tiger, which creates conflict for Charlie further down the road. Anansi also enjoys singing and Karioke.

Alas! Anansi is no more. Charlie makes these discoveries after his father's funeral, at the home of some eldery old women still haunting Charlie's old neighborhood.

The crux of the story however is when they reveal to Charlie, that unbeknowst to him, he also has a brother - Spider, who apparently inheriated all of the Godlike genes of the family. Spider comes to pay his long lost brother a visit, and doesn't leave. Not only has Spider attached his monsterously large dream room to Charlie's closet for the long haul, but he's also stolen Charlie's fiance - Rosie (who can't tell the two apart).

It's a fun globel romp romp from there, as Charlie tries to put back the pieces of his former life.

One thing I liked about the ending <* spoiler alert - close your eyes! *> was that Charlie decided to remain his current self and not to merge back with Spider. Both 'Charlies' had grown in positive ways through the story and it was nice to see continue on in their separate ways.

Overall, I enjoyed the book.

Grade: B

Pirate Name?

My pirate name is:

Iron Sam Rackham

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Tennis anyone? Tennis... EVERYONE!

The weather has finally improved enough it start getting outdoors once in the while and smacking those fuzzy yellow spheres all over emerald concrete surfaces again!

Having played for a few years now as a middle aged person, that even at my age, I can still run, swing, hit, and score an ocassional point. It's healthy. Not too much wear and tear on the body. But the best part of all about tennis I have found is: Stress reduction!

Whacking those balls all over the court is a great relief. And a good way to work off all of those pent up frustrations. So give it a try.

McDoogle.

PS. Your challenge: Dig that dusty old racquet out of the closet and head for the court nearest to you today.

Review of 'Eldest'

Just finished reading 'Eldest' last night at 11:30 PM.


<* Spoiler Alert! Don't read if you plan on reading 'Eldest' in the future *>

My general opinion was that the book was a bit of a long and winding road. After some initial action packed storylines to start the novel, the plot really drags with descriptions galore as Eragon travels to the forest of Elves. It takes quite a while to arrive for Rider Training. I found the training intriguing and interesting however. And Eragon's affection for Ayra which always ends in frustration is also interesting. Why does she really spurn him? There's something more than age difference going on here. For a while I thought she was secretly related to Eragon perhaps. But we learn Eragon's ancestry later near the end.

I thought the introduction of the new Rider and new dragon Thorn interesting. But that Murtagh had switched allegiances and was now fighting for the Empire was disappointing and discouraging, and I felt, not true to the character. That he let Eragon go in the end does not make up for his betrayal to Empire when he was so set against the Empire in Book 1. Very poor.

I expected Eragon to fair better after all of that Rider training from the Elves also. Murtagh really handed it to him, with less time spent training and with less time with his dragon. The explanation that 'well Galbatorox is just such a skilled Rider - heads above everyone else in the land...' doesn't make up for how quickly Murtagh's skills could supercede Eragon's.

Still, looking forward to reading book III, 'Brisinger', which is scheduled for release Sept. 20, 2008. Hopefully Eragon will man up, and defeat the Empire in a courageous battle. Not some back handed default victory of some sort.

Grade: B-

McDoogle

~

PS. I thought the lines: "Barges? We don't need no stinkin' barges!" while slightly humorous were very unprofessional, as this was not a parody.

Start Up

Welcome to McDoogle's Doogles.

And may all your doogles be happy ones!

As you can immediately tell this blog will be a lot of random nonesense.

But that's OK - nobody's going to read this anyway!

Today is April 1st, and it is officially the first day of Spring! Today in Valley View we had our first sighting of... 'Sad Walking Man'. Last seen in December of '07. Although I heard a report of a sighting yesterday, it's not official until you see it for yourself. SWM is back! And better than ever! In a sad sort of way.

McDoogle.

PS. Your challenge: Write a short report on what you think of potato chips.