The Warriors

The Warriors originally came out in 1979, and I was a too young to see it in the theaters. However, I totally remember the movie because the concept was so cool: a story about battling New York gangs, all with their own names and distinctive looks - it was like a comic book come to life.

Since then, I've always had a soft spot for the The Warriors. I've seen it many times on TV, and it never fails to disappoint. When a video game based on the movie was released late last year, I knew I would play it...eventually.

I've finally played the game, and holy cow, this game was a lot of fun. Usually, video games tied into movies suck because the developers rush to release the game at the same time as the movie. With The Warriors, they clearly took their time to make a great game.

75% of the game is a prequel to the movie, where you learn the origin of the Warriors, and spend a lot of time establishing your turf and your rep. It's a lot like Grand Theft Auto, where you and your gang go around different parts of New York, beating up on other gangs, mugging people, and spraypainting a lot of walls. By the time you get to the actual story in the movie, the game is almost done. It actually works well, because you pretty much know what's going to happen, as long as you can make it to the end.

Baseball Furies! Ack!

This is the kind of game that I want to keep playing until I can't anymore. Usually my vision gets really blurry because I've been staring at the screen too long. You can pick up this game for a measly twenty bucks (in both Xbox and PS2 versions), so it's a great value for some 70's style fun.

Waaaarrrrrriiiorsss, come out to pla-ay!

Turnbull AC's! Aiieeeeeee!

Snakes On A Plane

There were only four movies I really, really wanted to see this summer. We already saw three of them (X-Men: The Last Stand, Nacho Libre, and Clerks 2), and finally, we saw the last one: Snakes on a Plane. I was not disappointed. Ah, life is good.

Unless you've been living under a rock, it was hard to escape the hype of this movie. The title alone had the internet buzzing at the beginning of the year, because it perfectly captured the gist of the movie. Actually, Bad Motherf**cker Samuel Jackson Fighting Snakes On A Plane would more really capture it.

This obviously is not a movie for the highbrow crowd. It's a big, dumb movie, and it isn't ashamed of it. The key is to have low expectations before you see this movie, and just be swept away by the sheer spectacle of it.

You get Samuel Jackson yelling in his uniquely Samuel Jackson way. You get CGI snakes moving a whole lot faster than real snakes could. You get Nurse Hathaway from ER (Julianna Margulies, who I personally haven't seen since another "classic" movie, Ghost Ship). You get a snake biting a poor guy's johnson. What more could possibly ask for?

Actually, I would ask for a slightly better ending. I thought the whole surfing thing was pretty lame. Also, what was the deal with the music video during the credits? Who were these people? Why did they have to suck so bad?

Beyond that, thumbs up! Bring on the sequel! Ssssssssss!

Jeepers! Let's get out of here, it's Samuel Jackson!

Reach Cleanpaste Blows

So I'm going about my day, humming a happy tune, when I realize that I haven't posted anything in over a week! Great googly moogly!

Here's my advice for today: don't use Reach Cleanpaste, it totally blows.

Reach Cleanpaste is the latest innovation in dental floss, which claims to be like "brushing between your teeth". You may have seen the ads for it, which look something like this:


What a load of crap. I really don't know what came over me, but I wanted to try it. So I bought recently bought one to give it a shot.

Cleanpaste is basically a blue & teal-colored floss with a toothpaste substance embedded into the fibers. Its thick, soft, and colorful, like a piece of yarn. It was fine when I flossed my front teeth, but the floss shredded in my back teeth, leaving these blue & teal-colored threads stuck between my teeth. I had to use my regular floss to get it out, and I ended up flipping out a filling from one of my back teeth.

It turns out that I can't get a new filling for this tooth, and I need a partial gold crown, which will cost me a pile of money. I lay blame for all of this on Reach Cleanpaste.

I found out later that they have two versions of Cleanpaste, one for "regular" teeth and one for "tight" teeth. So I'm supposed to use two types of floss for my teeth? No way, man. I'm sticking to my old floss, and so should you.

Sucks.

Coke Black

I finally got my hands on Coca-Cola Black (or "Blāk", as the bottle says). I heard about it several months ago, but it apparently took a while to reach our neck of the woods. According to Coke, it's the "fusion of Coke effervescence with coffee essence". Tempting, huh?

So how does it taste? It's essentially Coke with a coffee-candy flavor. It's OK. It wasn't a party in my mouth. Would I have it again? Maybe, considering this: one 8 ounce serving of regular Coke has 23 mg of caffeine. Coke Black has 46 mg in an 8 ounce serving (there's about 100 mg in an 8 ounce serving of regular coffee). So if you need a quick pick-me-up during the day, and you want to mix your soda and coffee together, now you have Blāk.

In this age or Red Bull and other high-octane energy drinks, there might be a place for this new twist on Coke. There's no way I'm going to give up drinking Coke or coffee, but if you offered me Coke Black, I wouldn't refuse it. How's that for a ringing endorsement?

Sea Spiders

In general, insects don't really bug me ("bug" me - ha ha ha!); but when I read this article, it kind of creeped me out. Naturally, I must share it with you: sea spiders are tiny multi-legged creatures that live on the bottom of the sea. They are in the arthropod family, so they are more or less related to insects, arachnids, and crustaceans. They don't spin webs, but they do prowl around the ocean floor, feeding on other smaller creatures.

The freakiest and largest varieties of sea spiders live in the Antartica region. Here are a few tasty examples:

Luckily, we have no plans to vacation there anytime soon.

Jury Duty Not!

Hopefully I won't jinx myself for the next time, but today I was scheduled for jury duty. When I called to check in, no jurors were needed today. Hah! Civic duty done! In honor of all the brave jurors who have served, here's a comic strip courtesy of This Modern World:

Actually, California now pays $15 a day starting on the second day of service. That blows.

Jet Li's Fearless

I just watched an imported DVD of Jet Li's latest movie called Fearless, and all I have to say is: this is one of the best Jet Li movies ever.

The film is based on the true story of Hou Yuanjia, a martial artist in China during the early 1900's. Hou is an arrogant, headstrong, and misguided young man who only wants the glory of being the top fighter in his region. After a string of victorious matches, he accidentally kills another martial arts master. The retaliation against him results in the tragic loss of his family, and he abandons everything to wander the countryside.

Hou ends up in a small village in the country, where he learns the true meaning of life & martial arts and comes to understand the errors of his ways. Upon returning to his home, he enters a tournament to fight against a series of foreigners to defend the honor of his country.

In my opinion, Fearless has got to be one of the best martial arts movies ever made: the camera work is top notch, the pacing of the story is perfect, and even the music score is great. Everything really comes together for this movie.


The fight scenes in this movie are something to behold. They use a little wirework and CGI, but it's not overdone. Even though the story has its share of quiet moments, there are more than enough fight scenes to satisfy everyone. Although Jet Li is in his forties now, he is still in top form, and he kicks ass like no other.

This movie is coming to US theaters in September; it's being billed as Jet Li's final martial arts epic, and I don't know what that really means. He's Jet Li - what else is he going to do in movies except martial arts? Is he going to sing and dance? Someone please explain this to me.