Synopsis:
A Viking teenager named Hiccup lives on the island of Berk, where fighting dragons is a way of life. The teen’s smarts and offbeat sense of humor don’t sit too well with his tribe or its chief… who just happens to be Hiccup’s father. However, when Hiccup is included in Dragon Training with the other Viking teens, he sees his chance to prove he has what it takes to be a fighter. But when he encounters (and ultimately befriends) an injured dragon, his world is flipped upside down, and what started out as Hiccup’s one shot to prove himself turns into an opportunity to set a new course for the future of the entire tribe.
The trailer made me want to watch the movie, but its a been while since I’ve seen an animated movie this good. I have been a fan of Dreamworks for sometime, but their bes movie was Kung Fu Panda, but now I think it has been topped by How To Train A Dragon. Hiccup is the oddball of the Viking country, not really thinking like them, having other ideas, and coming to other conclusions even though he stands out from all his countrymen. The story is original, its fun, and the characters are entertaining, watching it in 3-D is amust even though my eyes were watering halfway through the movie. I loved those dragons, if ever any kid had a dream one of them has to be to have a per dragon. The animation is so good you can see the expressions on all the different dragons, the funniest and coolest of them is Toothless, Hiccup’s dragon. Its funny how they mould together because of Hiccups mechanil skills to make such inventions to help him fly again, and bond together. I highly recommend this movie for everyone to see, it can’t be missed.
Link: IMDB
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Plot Summary:
Set in the Shinigami technical school for weapon meisters, the series revolves around 3 groups of each a weapon meister and a human weapon. Trying to make the latter a “Death Scythe” and thus fit for use by the Shinigami, they must collect the souls of 99 evil humans and 1 witch.
Soul Eater is an anime that centers around meisters and their weapons and their mission to collect 99 evil souls and 1 witch soul. Upon doing that the meister’s weapons will become a Deathscythe, which is the highest title for a weapon. Maka, Soul Eater, Black Star, Tsubaki, Death the Kid, and Patty and Liz Thompson are the characters Soul Eater revolves around. Besides taking the time to gather souls these students of Shibusen defend Death City from some of the most powerful of creatures while still attending school and trying to become stronger.
The Shinagami are an ongoing theme in Japanese Anime and stories, they are specially tasked people who make sure that spirits go to the heaven and to defeat demons. In this case Maka and the other Meisters attend Shibbusen to train and become more powerful to defeat these monsters, it is run by the Shinigami who is one cooky character. The action picks up from the start, the weapons of the Meisters are humans as well, and every Mesiter is paired with a specific Weapon based on their characteristics. In this case Maka has Soul Eater, Black Star has Tsubaki, and Death Kid has the Thompson Sisters. The combination of these characters with a lot of comedy thrown in, they face some adverse characters while in development with alot worse in store. This is one of the longer animes going for about 50 episodes but once its don’t your just not happy its done, you keep wanting more, the comedy and entertainment of the characters with the great story line keeps you wanting more.
Link: AnimeNewsNetwork
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A heroic version of Lex Luthor from an alternate universe appears to recruit the Justice League to help save his Earth from the Crime Syndicate, an evil version of the League. What ensues is the ultimate battle of good versus evil in a war that threatens both planets and, through a devious plan launched by Batman’s counterpart Owlman, puts the balance of all existence in peril.
I read the novels of Crisis On Two Earths, Infinite Crisis, and 52 which are all put together from the original comic stories. So the I knew the premise of this animated movie and I had high expectations. The look and feel of the characters is somewhat built on the animated show Justice League and Justice League Unlimited which looks very nice but I wanted more for an animated movie such as this. There is so much to this story they had a lot that they can work with but they took a bit a simpler route since the story could get real complex. The action was fast paced and lots of fun, it wasn’t what I expecting but some good twists and great fight scenes. Its always fun to see how different super heroes fight, and for an animated movie its pretty good but could have been much better.
Link: IMDB
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Everyone has heard of In&Out at one point in time, I never knew what all the fuss was about back then, when I moved to the states I lived about 2 minutes away from one. The first time I had one of their burgers it was sloppy and very enjoyable, luckily one of my friends helped out with the menu. Then I passed by every once in a while, their burgers felt fresh but I used to eat a lot of them, and their milkshake is fantastic but wasn’t a big fan of the fries. Now over the years I kept hearing of so many people approaching them for franchising and expansion in Kuwait and the Middle East but nobody had any luck with them. They seemed to want to remain local but never heard or read anything about them. Now I saw this book on the shelf and Borders in Dubai, I picked it up right away without a second thought, some incite into one of the most private companies that I know of. After going through this book I am happy that I read it, it wasn’t what I was expecting but it did give me a look in this burger dynasty. In&Out has managed to keep its reputation and continue growth year after year without any affect from other fast food companies, and they aren’t sell outs. They have had their trials and issues that they have had to deal with, it seems they went through some rough litigation outside from the years I left the states but the business is still going so thats a good sign. In&Out was a college experience for me and part of my life for a one of the best times, so it always will have good memories for me. I used to remember when we would drive over to pick some up, I always remembered their opening hours, until 1am on the weekend and 12:30am on the weekdays. This book concentrated a little too much on the history in the beginning of the business and giving you a glimplse of the industry but I was looking for more information about In&Out and their juicy information, but it did satisfy a bit of that too. A great read, some sound business practices in the story of In&Out, a look at the one company that counters all the usual rules of a regular fast food chain, always putting the customer first.
Link: Amazon
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Now this is something I have been waiting for a while, a remake of the old Japanese Animated tv show which we all knew and enjoyed. I expected a lot for this movie, its probably a build up from childhood memories but the story isn’t exactly what I expected or the voices, honestly Nicolas Cage was a bit annoying as Dr. Tenma but Astro Boy was a good character. Astro Boy is built from the memories of Dr. Tenma’s son and he set off to find himself after he discovers that he is a robot. Now the story has some twists and turns, but always entertaining, humoring with the laws of robotics and the attitude that humans take to robots even though their artificial intelligence allows them to understand humans clearly. An entertaining movie, I honestly expected something a little edgier but it was a lot of fun to watch.
Link: IMDB
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I think this is a classic story that a lot of us are familiar with and I was happy that Tim Burton took the project and turned it into a film. From all the previews and Johnny Depps presence I knew that I wanted to see this movie. The funny part is we all know the story from our childhood and what is the story with the caterpillar with so many hookahs, they said the director was on LSDs at the time. Then there are all these kids in the theater see it for the first time, it was a mix of a crowd. The story is in bland England with a odd Alice seeing things when others dont, then she falls into the hole and it takes a different twist. The whole adventure is a lot of fun, so many funny characters, the Red Queen was hilarious, and I loved Chester the cat, always smiling and disappearing and reappearing when needed. The story line is fantastic, just to be expected from Tim Burton, but I wanted more of Johnny Depp, and Alice fit the bill perfectly. The fun never stops, there is always something going on and you know what is supposed to happen at the end but not how its supposed to happen and things just keep popping up, it was a really fun movie and I loved the Mad Hatter, he was really mad.
Link: IMDB
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It’s the 21st century, but the gods of Mount Olympus and assorted monsters have walked out of the pages of high school student Percy Jackson’s Greek mythology texts and into his life. And they’re not happy: Zeus’ lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Even more troubling is the sudden disappearance of Percy’s mother. As Percy finds himself caught between angry and battling gods, he and his friends embark on a cross-country adventure to catch the true lightning thief, save Percy’s mom, and unravel a mystery more powerful than the gods themselves.
A new twist on Greek Mythology, Percy Jackson is thrown into a world of monsters and Gods, and he is tasked with a mission which he must accomplish or earth will be a casualty of war between Gods. Percy Jackson is a normal highschool kid with a few problems here and there, the last thing he expected to be was the son of Poseidon. The story has a creative style to it with a thin line between reality and the realm of the gods which exists around us. It was an adventure to see all these Greek characters come to life and who they would be embodied by as actors and their nature. Lots of fun as the movie progresses and he develops his powers trying to accomplish the mission while trying to protect his family and fight off other creatures and demons. A lot of fun for any fantasy movie fan, not the Harry Potter they were expecting at the Box Office but worth watching.
Link: IMDB
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Iraq. Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.
Its one of those movies which you really feel it, its a very raw movie, you get to feel what these guys are going through. It isn’t as smooth or nice as some movies make it, you get to feel the rough life and what some of these guys suffer mentally. It isn’t a movie meant to glorify American soldiers but meant to show what these soldiers face, having a job which calls on you to risk your life on a day to day basis takes a toll on any man. You have a team who want to be systematic to disarm these bombs with one guy who is a cowboy out for the adrenaline since he can’t feel life, and might not survive the next encounter. Surprisingly there are a lot of famous people in this movie playing side roles, I knew about this movie since 2008 so I’m surprised it got all this build up for 2009 and the 2010 Oscars, but it is well deserved.
Link: IMDB
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I am a happy user of the Sonos Multiroom music system, and the best part is the consistent quality of music. I bought it when I had the larger CR100 remote which had a click wheel and wasn’t touch screen but extremely durable. Now with the CR200 Sonos has really made advancements in the remote technology and user interface is so much better then before and smoother to work with.
The best part of the new user interface is the new search functionality which makes it very easy to go through large collections of music. You can type in what your looking for and it does a smart filter of possible matches as you are typing. Sirius and other music services are fantastic to work with on this unit, better then even the desktop software. Its smooth and seamless and I get to access all my Sirius music without a hitch and changing between them is easy enough.
I have the Sonos application running on my iPod touch but the difference is that the Sonos CR200 runs on the Sonos mesh rather then the wifi, so if wifi doesn’t reach its working on the mesh network of the music units. The feel and quality of the unit is unsurpassed, very good feel with a solid build and high quality screen. This unit is worth every penny for something of this quality and experience.
Link: Amazon
Price: $349
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Heaven has come down to destroy earth so that it may be reborn, God is not happy with how man has turned out. Only one Angel stands against God’s orders and Battles the Angels with the human beings who might have a fighting chance to change the end. With the case of Dennis Quaid and a few others, I had high expectations for the movie. Heaven isn’t all its cracked up to be and Angels are warriors of God rather then those who are kind to humans, and its the end of the world. The storyline just had too many side stories and the build up just wasn’t believable. I feel that the show Supernatural has done a better job of dealing with these different creatures then this movie. Overall it was somewhat enjoyable but still disappointing as there was so much potential.
Link: IMDB
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