Ever since I was a kid, I was a big reader. Always loved reading books, and I am pretty sure I read every possible Enid Blyton book when I was a kid. FYI, The Mystery of _____ books starring the likes of Fatty were my favourite.
Thanks to all that reading I’m a very fast reader, and go through books very fast. I generally always have a book on the go, and usually spend the first half of it reading just whenever I have some downtime, then the second half engrossed in it and ignoring everything else around me.
I usually like to stick to fiction books in the mystery/thriller type genre. My brain is always going at a hundred miles an hour, so it’s nice to lose myself in a good novel every now and again.
I have a “must-read” list which is authors whose books I will buy blindly. That list currently consists of:
Linwood Barclay
Lee Child
Joseph Finder
Stephen Hunter
John Katzenbach
James Patterson (Alex Cross & Womens Murder Club Only)
Those are authors who I will blindly pre-order their books as soon as they are pre-ordered. Barclay is actually a new author on the list - he was recommended to me by my mum, and some of his stuff really is amazing. One of his books may actually be the best book I have ever read - although only repeat readings will tell. Lee Childs Jack Reacher series is still my favourite by far, although Joseph Finder is also fucking phenomenal.
There’s some authors who I really like but aren’t on my “must-buy” list. They are:
David Baldacci: Wrote some absolutely phenomenal books like The Winner, Absolute Power and Saving Faith. Unfortunately he got into the whole “series” books featuring recurring characters and I’ve found the quality has waned.
Brad Meltzer: His first few books were fucking awesome, but stuff like the Book of Fate and the Book of Lies really turned me off him.
John Grisham: His books aren’t that good anymore - they’re mostly just there for him to deliver a political message. I’ll get his books out the library but that’s about it
Irvine Welsh: Some of his books I love, some I hate. Filth is fucking amazing, but I was really disappointed in the follow-up to it Chrime, and a few more of his are pretty weak.
If you’re interested in trying any of the authors out I can give recommendations in the comments. Also don’t buy any without asking me for affiliate links first so I can make $$$!
This always seems to get a reaction. My ratings and brief reviews of movies I have watched recently but not blogged about. I rank based on half stars up to five, and my taste usually sucks.
These will be movies I have watched since January 12. And as you will see - I don’t watch a lot of movies.
The Firm - One of my favourite movies. Probably the 7th or 8th time I’ve seen it. I fucking hate Tom Cruise, but there are a few movies where he just is perfect for the role and wins me over - a Few Good Men being another one. Along with Cruise you have a phenomenal supporting cast. Holly Hunter was nominated for an oscar for her performance in this one. Gary F’N Busey is in it, as well as Ed Harris who puts on his usual phenomenal performance and of course Gene Hackman. The story is great too as is the musical score, and even with a running time of over 2 hrs and 30 minutes it never drags, and flows very well. *****
Extreme Movie: I love movies like this, because it takes great fucking talent to have a running time of 1 hrs 30 minutes for a comedy, and not have ONE funny thing in it at all. I mean I’ve seen a lot of bad comedies, but there’s still points during them where I’ve laughed a bit. Not so in Extreme Movie. What’s even better is it is a very very very vulgar movie, and usually vulgarity provides a few cheap laughs. That’s why this movie is so special - they manage to take the vulgarity, add more vulgarity on top of it, yet somehow manage to provide one of the unfunniest movies ever to hit the screens. Seriously Schindlers List probably gets more laughs than this. I have no idea how I managed to last through this whole movie but I did, just to see if they would slip and make me laugh. Yet I managed to sit there stone faced, through such amazing skits as Malcolm from Malcolm in the Middle fucking a chick who dresses up as Hitler, a guy who tells his girlfriend it’s okay to fart in front of him(so she does like a 2 minute long fart), and Michael Cera going out to rape somebody. Seriously recommended viewing, just to see the definition of unfunny.
The Wedding Planner: Ouch. Pretty piss poor movie. Absolutely no comedy to it, and just some crap romance throughout. McConaughey and J-Lo had some chemistry which was the only thing saving this movie from a big fat dud. But the story itself was just horrendous. I hate how romance movies nowadays seem to want to throw in like 60 twists, rather than going with the formula that works. *
Boondock Saints II: Pretty fucking awesome movie. Bit rough around the edges in spots, and Julie Benz(Rita from Dexter) was someone I could not get into, and dragged the movie down a bit. Maybe on repeats I’d like her more. Anyway easy **** and would be higher if not for Benz.
Old School: Still Rocks. ****
Soccer Dog: See this for the most ridiculous, contrived pathetic plot ever. Absolutely amazing stuff. The evil dog catcher. The boy in a new town. The stray dog. The boy that won’t accept his new father. The orphan. The MAFIA GUY THAT FIXES PEE WEE SOCCER GAMES. The Jamaican kid that says MON all the time. Dramatic music. David Hasselhof burns. This has everything. Watch the amazing trailer:
Taking of Pelham 123 - ***1/2. Decent enough, Washington obv made it, Travolta wasn’t too shabby. Really needed some sort of awesome twist to get it a higher rating tho.
The Promotion: When I saw who was in this - Seann William Scott, Jenna Fischer and John C. Reilly, I thought I’d love it. Even when every review I read talk about how shitty it was, I figured they were WRONG and it was gonna be good. Turns out they were right. It is just a horrible movie. Fischer is barely in it, and adds nothing to it. Reilly totally phones it in. He is from Quebec, and he has this alleged Quebec accent that sometimes he appears to drop throughout the movie, other times plays it on really strong. And Seann William Scott - well, he should never be cast in a role where he not only is he not allowed to swear, but he goes the opposite calling a “pussy” a “p word” etc. This is seriously awful stuff. Complete dud.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: I might lasted 40-45 minutes? Up until he goes with a whore. Seriously fucking awful, one of the worst films I’ve ever seen, and on my next meetup I am going to give Hun a severe fucking booting in the balls as he highly recommended this trash to me.
Kick-Ass: Pretty fucking amazing. ****1/2
Orphan: I liked it. I think if you sit back and analyze it then you can see a lot of flaws. Also I found the direction was real bad - didn’t flow well etc. However it was a good enough movie, freaky enough, and the twist was great. ***
Law Abiding Citizen: They should’ve stayed the same way it was portrayed in the trailer, rather than turning everything around 15 minutes in. Also anyone that thinks this movie has “shades of gray” are retarded. Does have one of the best scare moments in recent movie history though. ***
Couples Retreat: Had its moments I guess. Wouldn’t really recommend for anything other than a background movie. **
Hot tub time machine; good but man, with some tlc it could have been brilliant. ***
Toy Story 3: Great movie from start to finish, very well put together, some great callbacks. I’d put it on par with #2 and behind #1. ****1/2
The Invention of Lying: woeful and pretentious. A few laughs stop it from being godly awful. *1/2
The Stepfather - pretty sure someone read writing horror movies for dummies then wrote this. Every cliche in the book in this one including the hot blonde that parades around in underwear and bikinis the whole movie. Still I don’t watch much horror or thriller movies so it hasn’t really worn itself out on me yet although I did let out a few groans during the obvious climax. **
Grown Ups: So much potential wasted. *1/2
American Virgin: never heard of this movie, saw rob schneider was in it and figured it would be good for a few laughs in the background while I play xbox. It wasn’t. It was fucking horrendous. I lasted an hour and that was me done. God so fucking bad I want that hour back.
Funny People: One of the worst things I have ever seen in my whole fucking life. Absolute goddamn dud, and who knew Seth Rogan could get even more unlikeable? Yet he becomes thin and just makes you hate him even more.
My good friend Vin wrote a blog post Let’s talk some more wrestling. I hate wrestling these days, I really do. It’s boring as all hell, and there is never anything interesting happening. Discounting Wrestlemania which I order every year on principle, I’d say I have watched less than 10 hours of total wrestling in the last 8 years, which is rather scary considering how it was my religion for awhile.
I do still enjoy talking about wrestling, even if I don’t keep up on it. The days of the new Observer and Figure Four newsletters used to be a huge day for me. I’d get them, print them off, then go take a long lunch at a local restaurant downtown called the Golden Rooster. I’d order two of their famous sandwiches, a ginger ale, then sit back and read both newsletters from front to back.
Now I don’t even read the newsletters for the most part. Sometimes I skim them but that’s about it. However I do still enjoy talking about wrestling. Vin wrote his big article which I highly recommend you read and in it he posed himself some questions. I’ll answer the very same questions.
What is your favourite show of all time?
Wrestlemania 7. Period. This was the first wrestling show I was ever exposed to, and it was amazing. I still have fond memories of it. Plus it had possibly the greatest match in the history of wrestling in Ultimate Warrior vs Randy Savage.
Who is your favourite wrestler of all time?
There’s a lot of wrestlers I like for a variety of different reasons. Tazz for his gimmick in ECW, Santino for his comedy, Cena because - well he is awesome. I’d say my favourite wrestler of all time is Kurt Angle. He hit the ground running when he started, and he covered all the bases. He was funny. He was great on promos. He was involved in great storylines. He was an amazing wrestler that made it seem real. He was a joy to watch. Yep, I’d say Angle is without a doubt my favourite wrestler of all time.
What is your favourite match of all time?
HBK vs Undertaker at Wrestlemania LAST year is up there, just due to the emotion. As is Mankind vs Undertaker Hell in a Cell, again due to the emotion. To me that is what a great wrestling match is - one that makes you react. One that makes you sit there and cheer like crazy. One where you are interested in the match from the BEGINNING, not just near the end when they start pulling out finisher after finisher, and a variety of close pins.
So yeah, I’d say the two I just mentioned, HBK vs Flair, and of course Warrior vs Savage.
Had some “grunt work” to do over the past few days, so been watching movies while I work. Here’s my opinions:
Been watching a few movies lately. Thought I’d write out some brief reviews:
What Women Want: - Man, this is one of those movies that I always enjoy, and put at the top of my movies lists. Yet watching it for about the 6th time in my life I really started to not enjoy it. I mean the first 2/3 of the movie are good bordering on great - but the final third of it is just goddamn awful. ***
The Terminal: First half of this is amazing. Easy ****1/2 if not *****. Great premise, great story, Hanks is fabulous. Then it all goes to hell, as they completely americanize it with typical Hollywood BS. The love story and all the other shit - god, how can one half of a movie be so good, and the other half SO FUCKING BAD? I can’t even rate it it was that horrible.
Shaun of the Dead: Dunno what the big deal is about this movie. I mean it was good, but some people treat it as the second coming of christ. Hot Fuzz was better. ***
Just Cause: Definitely not a movie for repeat viewings. I read the book about 10 years ago and watched the movie right after and I think I enjoyed both - might have watched the movie since then - but just watched it again and found it fairly boring. Basically something that has been done much better in other movies. Still, the performance of Ed Harris as the psychotic killer on death row is fantastic. **
The Wedding Singer: Must be about the 9th time I have seen this movie now. Still a classic, also it gets bonus points for having Journeys “Don’t Stop Believin’” playing when Sandler attempts to get married but dumped at the alter. One of Sandlers best. *****
The Client: This movie has PRECIOUS MEMORIES for me as it was the first time I read a book then the movie. Basically I didn’t read that type of novel back then so it was my first ever Grisham book too. Overall it’s an alright movie, nothing spectacular but a solid performance from Tommy Lee. ***
Gran Torino: Fuck, YES! I had the ending spoiled for me so I couldn’t watch it for awhile until I forgot about it - 13 months and 2 days after getting it spoiled I couldn’t remember the specifics so watched it again. A seriously fucking awesome movie - the performances of everyone bar Eastwood are pretty blah - but Eastwood is just AMAZING in this. The way he growls etc - god, so great.
SPOILERS AHEAD: I’m still disappointed in the ending though. I get it - the only way to stop the gangs was that - but man, I just wanted Eastwood to go all RAMBO on their fucking asses. Completely get what he was going for, but still not what I wanted, especially considering how bad the American justice system is. I’ll go with ****1/2.
