I Am Legend vs. The Omega Man

vs

Thanks to Netflix I recently was able to watch The Omega Man. This was actually the first remake of the movie Last Man on Earth based on the book I Am Legend. The book was originally written in the 50's and was more about zombies and vampires. Having enjoyed the Will Smith version of it (I Am Legend) I thought that the Charleston Heston version would at least be amusing to watch. I was wrong. The Omega Man was a terrible movie to sit through, and though CH has had some great acting performances, this was not one of them. He just seemed so self absorbed it was ridiculous. Then there is the dialog in this movie. It makes the script in Star Wars Episode 2 seem like Shakespeare in comparison. I was able to see a few similarities between the two movies, but hands down "I Am Legend" was so much better. You cared about the Will Smith character, it made more sense how cautious he was during the night, whereas with Charleston you just wish he'd die so you wouldn't have to hear his self-important speeches. And for heaven's sake man, put on a friggin shirt! Uggh, shirtless old men wearing jogging pants should be banned. So there you have it, I Am Legend beats The Omega Man in a landslide!

Haircutting Paradox

I took my boys to a local hair-cutting establishment last Saturday to get them trimmed up a bit. I couldn't help but notice that with the exception of the person that cut Owen's hair, ALL of them had really bad haircuits. One of them had hair that started off ok, but towards the back seem to keep growing to the point you could probably put in a few cans of hairspray inside there and you wouldn't be able to find them. The next one had a combination A-style/finger in socket look ala bad color job. At lastly, but not leastly, the look I like to describe as "1985 called and wants you to stop impersonating Pat Benatar!!!", but with dyed bangs. I should be grateful that no mullets were involved, but I'm just thinking that if it's your job to sell people on your hair-cutting prowess, shouldn't your own quaff reflect your higher sense of hair fashion?

Comic Book Movies - What's coming, what to watch and what to avoid

I'm a lot bummed out that Mitt Romney dropped out of the Presidential Race :( I guess I can take solice in the fact that 2008 will feature a few comic book movies that I'm really looking forward to. First off is Iron Man. I've been a big Iron Man fan since the late 80's and so has the director of the movie. I have high hopes for this one! Next up is Batman: The Dark Knight. This will get a lot of press with the death of Heath Ledger. The first movie was phenomenal and everything that a Batman movie should be. Next up is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It has Harrison as the main man and Speilberg directing it. It WILL be good. Technically it isn't a comic book movie, but I don't care. :) The Hulk is returning in The Incredible Hulk. I liked, but didn't love the first movie. This time he faces off against a villian that's just and strong but smarter than he is. July will have the Batman and Hellboy sequels. Hellboy as a comic didn't hold my interest at all, but I really liked the movie. Hellboy 2 should be equally fun to watch. A couple of other films I should mention, we'll have the 6th Harry Potter movie around Thanksgiving, another James Bond flick at the first part of November, and the latest installment of Star Trek. The prequel to The DiVinci Code will be out in time for Christmas. I loved the book up until the very end, then I got pissed off. If you leave with 5 minutes left in the movie you'll probably enjoy it a lot. So with that said and if you're now jonesing for some over the top comic book action, here is a list of the good, the bad and the ugly, in no particular order of preference.

The Good

Batman Begins - Christian Bale portrays the Batman in the best Dark Knight movie ever!
Ghost Rider - Nicolas Cage is the avenging spirit on a flaming bike fighting against evil.
Hellboy - A baby demon grows up to fight evil along side his unique companions.
MiB - Will Smith learns that not everything is as it seems as he saves the world from hostile aliens.
Sin City - An impressive translation of Frank Miller's graphic novels. Not for the kids.
Spider-man 1&2 - Impressive visual effects and a great story set up the first movie and made it great. The second movie was even better with incredible character development and a bad guy that you cared about. My only gripe is Kirsten Dunst. Uggh.
Superman 1&2 - Christopher Reeve as the quintessential powerhouse and more human than human icon of comic book-dom. These movies were fun to watch and rewatch.
The Mask - Bet you didn't know this was based off a comic book! The source material is actually really dark and violent, but they took the lighter parts of it, throw in Jim Carrey and made for a very funny and entertaining movie.
TMNT - This was a guilty pleasure of mine but the new CGI version that came out was a fun popcorn movie that I would watch with my boys.
X-Men 1, X-Men-2 - Great action, better characters and a plot that made you think. X-Men 2 is one of the best movies of the genre, claws down.

300 - Another Frank Miller graphic novel made into a movie. Based loosely on real life events, this is about 90 minutes of guys killing stuff. Again, not for the kiddies.

The Bad

Daredevil & Elektra - Ben Afflect and Jennifer Gardner may make a cute couple in real life, but their characters were one dimensional and not entertaining.
Catwoman - This wasn't even based on Batman's classic foe. Look up craptastic, you'll see a picture of this movie.
Batman & Robin - Not even George Clooney could save this one. Featuring the Governator and Uma Thurman, this movie had horrible lines, awful costumes (can you say bat-nipples?) and the most disappointing villian with Bane. Bad Bad Bad.
Superman IV - If someone asks you to watch all 5 Superman movies, just politely ask to see the first two. The third installment is bad, but this is just awful! Please, don't watch this one!
Howard the Duck - George Lucas + Talking Duck = Lame
X-Men 3 - I was sad to see this movie. X2 was one of the best, only to be followed up with this pathetic attempt at tying in the Dark Phoenix saga.
Spawn - One of the most popular comics in the 90's was also one of the worst movies too.
MiB 2 - This felt like watching a commercial with all the blatant product placements in it. Rumor has it Will Smith wants to do a third. If it's as bad as the second, please use a neuralizer on me.
Spider-Man 3 - Once again a great franchise that tried to do too much in a 2 hour time frame. Having too many villians was what killed it. You could have made two more movies with the material you had. Venom - cool character, Sandman - great performance that was almost as good as Dr. Octopus. But throwing them all together with the "New Goblin" and it was woeful. I'm sure you'll see a Spider-Man 4, but the series may have jumped the shark.

The Ugly

These are movies that didn't suck so bad to be bad, but weren't good enough to be good, or they spawned several comic books after the movie came out.

Fantastic Four - The first one was almost good, but not quite. The second was was much better, but they screwed up portraying how powerful the Silver Surfer and Galactus are.

The Hulk - Visually this was a great film, but the rabid poodle and super sized Hulk were a bit much.

Superman Returns - Almost as bad as X-3 or Spider-Man 3, I just don't think the Man of Steel was done justice.

Alien vs Predator - Alien 1 & 2 and Predator 1 were awesome!!! Every sequel since then hasn't been as good.

Robocop - Overly violent in the first two installments, and too silly in the third, the series as a whole was lacking. However, one of my favorite comics of all time is Robocop vs Terminator, written by Frank Miller and drawn by Walter Simonson.

Terminator - T1 - ok, T2 - Fantastic, T3 - somewhere inbetween. It's definately time for Ahnold to hang up this role. He's just too flabby. I think they're doing a T4 so that might be kind of fun.

And there you have it. Lots of movies, lots of action and lots of stuff to avoid.

It's Super Tuesday, go vote for Mitt Romney!

I want low taxes, strong national defense, reduced government, improved border strength, stronger economy and someone to run the country that believes that a stronger America depends not on governmental agencies, but the strength of its citizens.

To that end I believe the best candidate out there for President of the United States is Governor Mitt Romney. He has proven time and again that he is an effective leader when it comes to running businesses and governments. Of course as a Utahn I have a soft spot for him for all the great things he did for us with the Olympics, but that was just another feather in his hat for an outstanding career of taking an ailing business and turning it around to make it profitable. I really do admire the way he analyzes problems and comes up with solutions. I can't help but think our government is way too big with a lot of excessive spending, useless and failed social programs, and not enough support of education and energy needs. We are also paying too much in taxes and need to simplify the process. I can't tell you how upset I get when my work wants to reward me for my hard work and give me a bonus as a way of saying thanks, only to turn around and have the IRS take out almost 50% of it! That's MY hard earned money that MY employeer wants to give me for MY efforts. Mitt Romney wants to put more of my paycheck back into my wallet.

He wants to use a free market approach to provide health care for those that can't afford it on their own. Having the government run health care is a really bad idea. Think about it, do you want the same governing entity that fills in potholes to help take out your appendix? Using a similar approach of what he did in Massachusetts, Governor Romney will help those that can't afford it to have private insurance to get covered.

I could go on and on, but if you are undecided which candidate to vote for at least look at what Mitt Romney is running for and see if that's what you want too. I don't think the other folks that are running are in the same league with business acumen and experience. I don't want higher taxes or more government agencies or someone who's afraid of increase our own energy output. What makes America great are people that lift themselves up decide to take their destiny into their own hands. I think Mitt is one of those kinds of people that can help our wonderful country continue to be the shining light of liberty and hope to the rest of the world. Vote for Mitt!

Super Bowl wrap up and amazing new discovery

Congrats to the Giants! Of course the game got a lot better after I go to bed :( I caught up on a few of the commercials I missed too. Favs: Will Ferrell's Bud commercial, Iron Man trailer, Doritos mouse trap, and Dalmation/Clydesdale. Lame commercials: Charles Barkley phone, Super model and lizards doing Thriller, GoDaddy.com, Underarmor.

I realized today that after years of eating them, I just don't care much for Crunch bars.

Another day, another 2 feet of snow

I woke up this morning and noticed near white-out conditions out side. Then it got worse. I shoveled my driveway, then the neighbor that has to go to the doctor tomorrow, then another, then another, then another, then another, then mine, then one more. It snowed so bad they canceled church today. I'm guessing the Super Bowl gods really wanted us to stay home today :) Anywho, we've had snow off and on today, we are supposed to get some more tonight, tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday. My neighbor did the right thing. He and his family are enjoying perfect weather in Hawaii right now. At least he let me use his snowblower!

Super Bowl update. It's now halftime, Pats are up 7-3, the commercials have been ok, but overall the game is kind of boring. I'm guessing New England is going to win it. At least the food we made was delicious, though I will admit my guacamole was a little too limey.

Tagged by Melissa

Rules: Read and enjoy. Everyone that I would tag has already been tagged.

10 years ago:I was a bright eyed student at Weber State University persuing a career in medicine. I was also working at UPS and would later get a job at Clarke American where I would meet my wife. I also weighed about 40lbs less.

5 things on my to-do list today:1) Figure out why a query still isn't working 2) Successfully drop off my boys and pay for Owen's day care. 3) Make salsa for work tailgate party. 4) Buy some Doritos for said party. 5) Spend time with family before I got to all night teachers quorum activity at 24 hour fitness.

I Enjoy: Sleeping, eating steak and potatoes, listening to my ipod, playing with my family and massages.

What would I do if I were suddenly a billionaire:Pay off my debt, Pay off my family's debt, Buy all of my family new homes and cars, except for my father-in-law, he just got a new Corvette. Set up Trusts for Jesse and Owen. Invest for retirement. Donate a bunch to church and to other organizations! Buy a SWEET car. Buy another one just in case. Buy my buddies the same car, but different color. Buy a race track to race our cars. Go on vacation and visit every temple on the planet. Buy an ATV with a snow plow in case we have another never ending winter like this year. Get a gym pass.

3 of my bad habits:1) Bad Temper 2) Occasionally get food on my face while eating. 3)Not calling Melissa if I'm going to be late.

5 places I have lived:1)Bountiful 2)Provo 3) Mexico 4)West Jordan 5)South Jordan

5 jobs that I have had:1) eBay Business Analyst 2)Echopass - Helpdesk guy 3)Geneva Pipe - Night Shift Crew Man and Hand Impalement Specialist 4) Blue Coat System - Internet Filter guy. 5)Home - Baby sitter. All of these happened in the last yer.

5 things people don't know about me:1) I want to run for Congress when I'm older. 2) I want to publish some stories I have bouncing around in my head. 3) I want to rewrite Episodes 1-3 for Star Wars. Maybe I'll do that in a separate blog. 4) I have a bottle of antacid tablets at my desk. 5) I named the two crows I see at my other job "Jack" and "O'Neil".