Watch Kingdom of Heaven

We went to the Great Lakes Medieval Faire this summer and it really peaked my interest into authentic medieval attire, combat, arms and armor.  I've seen many movies and most of them depict knights and warriors as being able to things that would be so physically hard to do while wearing a full set of armor most would not even attempt it.  In my internet searches I came across many redirections to costumes and replicas of Kingdom of Heaven.  It seems this movie took great pains to be historically accurate as possible.

History provided all the action and drama movie creators would need for this film.  I am not sure which crusade this was set in (I'm no expert on medieval history) but it ends when King Richard is headed to the holy land, if that gives you history buffs a time frame to work with (so right around the Robin Hood era).  When the movie begins it opens on grave diggers burying Baelin's (sp) wife.  A column of crusaders pass by and ask directions to the blacksmith and it happens to be the baron's bastard son Baelin whom he has come to take with him to the crusade.  After a fight in the forest the baron is injured and we all know that medieval medicine is not quite up to modern standards and Baelin succeeds his father and heads to Jerusalem to serve the Christian king. 

I don't want to give much away as there is much political intrigue that happens especially between the various orders of knights, but I was entertained through this very long (over 3 hours) movie.  I like how they didn't depict either side as "bad" just both wanted something and both felt entitled to it.  Pretty much how the various religions feel about it to this day.

Watch Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition

I watched Fellowship of the Ring when it first came out in theaters quite some time ago (I'll have to check IMDB and get back to ya on that one) but I watched the extended edition for the first time this past weekend and was pleasantly surprised. 

I read the books just before the movies were done filming and was really impressed at how well they did on putting feel of the books on the screen.  With books as epic as the Lord of the Rings there will be parts left out to streamline the movie so the audience isn't sitting through a 6 hour movie but most books get made into terrible movies.  Harry Potter series and the Lord of the Rings are rare exceptions. 

With that being said, the movie is still amazing but as I was watching it it was fun to see what was left out of the original cut.  There is a whole sequence that is easily 10-20 minutes long that is new.  I'll grant that it wasn't uber important to the story and there is no detriment to it being left out in the original, but it was nice to see it there as someone who has read the books.

I love these stories and really enjoy the movies.  If you haven't seen them or read them please do yourself a favor and do so!

Read Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth

I finished up the next installment of the Percy Jackson series and I'm still really enjoying it.  This time the heroes head down to the Labyrinth of Minotaur fame.  In the Percy Jackson universe it has grown over the years and has spread over the entire of the US.  It is still really neat to hear about the mythological heroes and monsters in a new setting.  It really developed a character I don't particularly care for, but he is necessary for the development of the over arching story.  I can't wait to pick up the next one, I believe that will be the last one!!

Watch Cop Out

I picked Cop Out due to my long time enjoyment of Bruce Willis.  This was a fun comedy about a two cops who get in over their heads and get tangled up with a drug cartel while Bruce Willis' character is trying to give his daughter the wedding she always wanted.  There really isn't anything groundbreaking in this movie and my favorite scene happens in the first 20 minutes while they are interrogating a drug dealer and quoting movies.  It was fun, predictable, and felt a lot like the old cop comedies from the 80's.  Fun for a rental.

Watch repo men

When I first saw the title Repo Men I thought it would be a bad movie about some hilljack driving a tow truck. Turns out it's about a highly trained corporate organ harvester. In the future if your heart or kidneys or whatever go bad you no longer have to wait for a donor, science has made artificial organs available. But what happens when you can't pay for it? They get repo'ed out of you. How long can you live without your heart that someone just ripped out of you?
This was a pretty entertaining if gory action flick starring Jude Law and Forrest Whitaker. Good rental, dunno if it makes my keeper list.
~Klint

Read titan's curse

I just finished Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse and couldn't finish it fast enough. I enjoyed every minute of it and look forward to reading the next one in the line. This is just about as entertaining as the Harry Potter series. It is good to see the Greek gods modernized and thrown into main stream culture. I really recommend this series.
~Klint

Play Alan Wake

I started my GameFly subscription back up and the first game I received was Alan Wake.  I have read/heard many rave reviews about this game and they are justly deserved.  I've only gotten to the third episode as of this writing but the story, graphics and gameplay are amazing.  The thing that really amazes me is that instead of levels each interval is structured like a TV episode complete with theme song, title shot and "previously on Alan Wake...".  This is an amazing game about a writer who comes up to the pacific northwest to get a break and try to re-energize to get his creative juices flowing again and mysterious and firghtening things begin to happen in the dark.  He must fight people and creatures who are shrouded in darkness to try to find his abducted wife.

AWESOME game, you owe it to yourself to play this if you own a 360!!

Make something

Last weekend we went to the Great Lakes Medieval Faire and had a BLAST!  There was so much to see and do and eat it was amazing.  Looking around it got me to thinking that I can make some of these costumes as I did really good in home ec when I was in high school.  After cruising around the merchants it really got me wanting to try my hand at leatherworking.  So that's it blogosphere!  My make something is going to be something leather; be it a pouch, belt, or some medieval attire, I'm on my way! 

Watch Brooklyn's Finest

I sat down to watch Brooklyn's Finest with the expectation of a good cop/bad cop or a dirty cop getting his justice type of movie in mind.  There is some of that but there is very little of the satisfaction curve most people are used to in movies.  There's not a lot of the conflict and the satisfying resolution type of thing going on, it's mostly a depressing take on how much it sucks to be a cop.  There's not a lot of the "I'm glad I'm a cop and I'm helping people" vibe in this movie at all.  This was just a very long downer type of movie for me.

Here's the link to it on IMDB Brooklyn's finest

I don't have a lot good to say about this, maybe because it hits close to home on a few subjects, but I also think that cops in big cities have a bad enough reputation and they don't need movies like this to bring it down further.