If you know me, you know of my passionate love for comic books, and things comic-related. So with this trend of turning comic books into movies gaining more and more momentum, I've been having to go and see more and more movies. I'm not complaining.
Kick-Ass is one of the latest comic book movies to hit theaters, and it does not disappoint. The trailers leading up to it all made it out to be this kid living out a pipe dream of becoming a real-life super hero, and then he and other costumed vigilantes fighting bad guys. The movie itself is pretty much that, but a lot, a lot more violent. And by violent, I mean awesome.
There are a couple of good fight scenes, and they were all pretty graphic. Being a big fan of graphic violence, I was enthralled by these scenes. Watching these people do fancy acrobatic combat combined with guns, knives and batons was really enjoyable.
The movie's story was really good, and bar a kind of deus ex machina ending, I thought it was all within the realm of realism. The characters were surprisingly well written, with comical quirks and lines for everyone. You feel for these people. The nerdy protagonist is one of those characters you almost can't help but like.
If you like comic book movies, awesome fight scenes, and Nicolas Cage being a bad ass, you're gonna like this movie a lot. I certainly did. Giving this movie 8.5/10.
Oh man. It's been one of those weeks. Classes. Tests. People. You're just all set with this week in general. The only thing keeping you going is that you know that after you finish up school/classes/work for the weekend on Friday afternoon, you're free. Well sort of.
Ah... the weekend. Ever since kids have been going to school, and even after we've moved on to work we've thought that three day weekends should become the standard instead of this B.S. five day hell that we've been subjected to since Preschool. We're all about equality man! 5:2 is a crap ratio. Even the Bookies in Vegas don't like those odds. With a four day work week, and a three day weekend, the world would become a better place. Follow me on this:
No More "Mondays" - Well, yeah, we're not going to entirely buck the system, and rename all the days of the week. That would be silly.What I'm talking about is no more of this, "Ugh it's Monday I feel like killing myself just so I don't have to go to school/classes/work today," feeling. Studies show conclusive proof* that a big part of this feeling comes from people not getting enough rest out of the weekend. With only two days of rest and relaxation, people need to "make the most" out of their weekends filling it up with two days of partying (for the youngsters) or two days of family trips (for those with youngsters) or two days of catching up on all that reclining and watching TV you missed while you were working (for everyone else). With a three day weekend, people can really settle in to their relaxing stride and mellow out, so that they can party, go on trips, and watch TV all weekend, but be ready to get back at it on the new, improved, and less sucky Monday.
3 Day Weekends Save The Economy - Think about it. If everyone is working five days out of the week to get money, they only have two days to spend it! Simple math here people! Three day weekends give everyone more time to go on vacation, go to the mall, or just waste time online! Any way you cut it, more money is being spent outside the desk/lecture hall/cubicle than in. Another prestigious study has shown conclusive evidence** that stores always have huge sales on three day weekends because they know that people are going to spend more money! These sales could then last all the time, dropping prices, putting spending up, and getting more money circulated into the struggling Economy.
More Time To Exercise - One word: Obesity. Two words: Playing outside. Studies have shown that one of the main reasons that people are getting fat is due to lack of exercise***. If we were to have three day weekends, people could still spend two days sitting by the warm LCD of your computer screen, and the third day running through meadows or skipping through fields. Or playing football or baseball. Even the nerdiest kids feel bad shut inside for three days straight without seeing the sunlight. I would know. However, with three day weekends, you can just go ahead and make yourself a little video games, playing outside, and video games sandwich every weekend. Hell, if you're feeling a little energetic you could even make an Uh-Oh Oreo out of it and go outside two days out of the weekend! The world would be your oyster!
So I think, that what we all really need to do, is just start not going to school/class/work on Friday. When your Teacher/Professor/Boss comes up to you on Monday, to reprimand you for not showing up on Friday, you can just say with a nice relaxed brain, and a tank full of energy from your glorious weekend, "Three day weekends are the way of the future." Sure, you might get detention/nothing/fired, but when this movement comes to pass, you shall be heralded as a Visionary, or a Prophet. Or just a Bad Ass who plays by his/her own rules. But if we act in unison, the Man will listen, and see the wisdom of our words. REBEL MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS! TOGETHER WE SHALL BRING THIS GLORIOUS REVOLUTION TO PASS! VIVE LE TROIS JOURS DE FIN DE LA SEMAINE! OR JUST YAY THREE DAY WEEKEND! THE POWER IS YOURS!
Seriously. How did I get this old?! People talk about things from '99 and I think to myself every time, "Oh that was what one-two years ago?" before I remind myself, "No it was 11 years ago, it's 2010. Oh yeah, and we still don't have flying cars yet."
Sometimes it really seems like it was only a few years ago when I'd get up bright and early Saturday mornings, sometimes too early, and watching cartoons on TV, sometimes causing my Dad to come out and tell me to turn it down, as it wasn't even 6:30 yet. Then later after everybody was up, and my cartoons started, my Mom'd bring me a glass of Apple juice and a Strawberry Nutri-Grain bar, and threw a blanket on me while I nibbled away, captive to my rigorous schedule of hopping from Fox Kids to watch Digimon, back to WB Kids to watch Pokemon or Yu-gi-oh before returning to Fox Kids to watch some other shows I've now forgotten.
Other times it seems like it could've been a year ago when I was hiding out in my basement, playing away at Donkey Kong 64 on my N64 or Final Fantasy IX on my PSOne, on this crappy TV where you had to turn a knob to get to the plethora of channels such as "3, 4, and 7," but trying to get as much time in, while being as quiet as I could, so maybe Mom and Dad would forget I was down there and wouldn't tell me to go to bed. Even when they knew I wouldn't be able to sleep, and would just sneak out and watch whatever Dad was watching on TV from behind the fireplace where he couldn't see me.
I remember the long hours spent at the huge honking monitor of my ancient desktop computer in the Computer Room in the wee hours after my Mom had gone to sleep, playing some fan-translated Game Boy Advance rom or looking up some strategy on how to complete this epically hard side quest in Kingdom Hearts, like it was only a couple months ago.
I've spent a lot of my life in front of one screen or another. Most of the time with my Mom telling me to turn a light on so I don't go blind, still don't wear glasses by the way, and my Dad probing my thoughts on whether I thought computer programming or video game design, more recently video game reviews, were my future. But nonetheless I wouldn't be me without all those geeky things I've done. So thanks for being enablers Mom and Dad!
Still at other times I feel as though I'm hurtling through life at 88 miles per hour, and I'm going to be out of school and in the real world sooner than I can say "1.21 gigawatts." Pre-school, Kindergarten, Elementary School, Middle Schools, High School, and now College. All in no time at all.
Time is a fickle thing. It seems like yesterday I was in PJ's on my couch, and tomorrow I'll be graduating college. But yesterday I was sitting watching the Red Sox game here at UMass, and tomorrow I'll be figuring out the best way for me to waste the 7 hours between my Comm 222 class and my Comm 297S Action Film Screening. Wasting time is something I've gotten pretty good at over the years.
I just googled "time wasted quotes" because in this future-society that we live in that's all I had to put in before one click brought me to the Bertrand Russell quote I wanted. It's no robot butler, but it'll do.
"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."
I've enjoyed almost every second of wasting my time on video games, novels, comic books, T.V. and movies. Both by myself, and with friends. So here's to everyone who I've ever talked nerdy to, talked geek with, shared single player with, played multi-player with, or completely nerded out with. Whether it was only for a second, or whether we can't remember when we weren't; Thanks. For everything. I mean it.
And I think that there's only one suitable way to end this post so, "Play me off Keyboard Cat!"
