Friday the 13th Review

Published by M2J under Raves, Reviews on February 15, 2009

Let me start by saying, “best intro to a movie ever.” Now, this movie had one personal taint for me, which most of you won’t be bothered by. As a fan of the TV series Supernatural, seeing one of the Winchester brothers a) by himself and 2) not actually as one of the Winchester brothers, but facing a supernatural opponent, made me sad. Seeing Sam Winchester on the screen without Dean and having to accept that he was just “Clay” was rough on me. At least he was the main protagonist. I’ll tip-toe around the story to avoid any spoilers, but basically I was very happy with the movie. I think it brought Jason triumphantly into the 21st century, unlike that other movie that was released earlier this decade and shall remain nameless.

The interesting dynamic here is the audience. I’m willing to bet some people probably are too young to even give the Friday the 13th series of yesteryear a second thought. On the flip side, the rest are here to not only embark on a new Jason adventure, but compare it to the original.

Wisely, we get right to Jason and skip the Pamela Voorhees massacre of the first movie from 1980. It is summed up and mentioned, but we tag that as taking place in 1980 and move on. It was interesting to me, that in the original series, Jason drowns sometime in 1957 (if memory serves)  and his mother returns to the camp in 1979 to end those trying to open it again (the movie was released in 1980, but took place in 1979). The next movies with Jason as the killer take place all throughout the 1980s, which at the time is the present day. Although this movie appears to be a new take on the story overall, the original massacre from Jason’s mother seeking vengeance takes place in 1980. The movie, however, takes place in the present day. This may have been done on purpose to allow the audience to accept both the movie as a continuation or as a fresh start.

To make sure we understand that this is indeed the present day, they beat it into us from the get-go. Everyone has iPods, GPS, cellphones, just about anything that can establish we are up to date. There is actually some dialog about the technology and how important it is. Anyway, the way Jason is portrayed is different than before. Although Jason was always aggressive, he really seems clever and sometimes methodical in this movie. Jason is definitely very different than the mindless zombie killing machine we once knew. The movie also has a “back to basics” feel to it, the opposite direction of how gimmicky the later part of the original series became. Although watching someone in a sleeping back beaten against a tree to death is fun, the movie becomes less serious and more humorous, which is fine if that’s what you’re in the mood for. Think back to the original Nightmare on Elm Street. Most of the time, Freddy was simply trying to kill his victims, while having a little bit of fun messing with them. By the third movie, he was playing with stuff and had faces in his torso, turning into TVs, it was just a mess. There is nothing wrong with Jason grabbing a blunt object and bashing someone in the head with it, nothing!

I do wish I could experience this movie with virgin Friday the 13th eyes and see what I thought of it. If I had to compare it to the rest of the Friday the 13th movies, it would definitely be in my top 3 (following part 2 and part 6). So do you like horror movies? Do you like Jason movies? Do you like movies? Do you like pie? If you said yes to any of these, go see this movie in a theater and try to sit next to someone that scares easily, it makes the experience just that much better.

All things considered, I give this movie:

8 out of 10 Jason masks.

WWE The Best of Saturday Night’s Main Event DVD Set

Published by M2J under Raves, Reviews on February 14, 2009

This DVD set is absolutely amazing to watch as an old school wrestling fan. For those of you who do not know, WWE (formerly “WWF”) used to have a late night show which ran on NBC when Saturday Night Live was in rerun. There were no monthly pay per view events in those days and most of time, this show served as the main story progressing medium. This show ran through the era which Mean Gene Okerlund referred to as “the glory days.” For the most part, The Best of Saturday Night’s Main Event covers 1985-1992. In 2006, NBC and WWE restarted the Saturday Night’s Main Event program, although quite different and not nearly as crucial to progression as before. Luckily, there’s minimal 21st century covered on this set.

For me personally, I started watching wrestling in 1991. I back tracked heavily, renting all the videos I could leading up to the present. I watched all the ppvs I could get my hands on, but a lot of the events leading up to matches would take place on SNME, I could only get a glimpse of this action. I did not have cable in the sticks I used to live in, so seeing WWE on my TV at home was awesome. I only got to see a handful of them before they ended. The need for SNME was filled with the new, weekly, Monday Night Raw and Main Event vanished.

Now for this DVD set, hours and hours of big matches from Main Event, in full, with wrestler interviews about the action. Too keep it relevant to today, some of the active roster are on the DVD. The cast of characters is simply awesome. Hulk Hogan, Macho Man, Jake Roberts, Junk Yard Dog, Roddy Piper, Big Boss Man, Dusty Rhodes, Mr. T, Honky Tonk Man, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Ultimate Warrior, and of course, Andre the Giant are just some of the superstars you see throughout the set. Yeah sure, John Cena is there too, but again, that’s the 21st century stuff that may appeal to you, but I’m content with the “glory days.”

Anyway, if you couldn’t tell, I’m high on this DVD set. I have yet to tell you just how high, however. BUY THIS SET. Seriously, buy it now! This DVD set is by far the best collection the WWE has released, period. They have captured a great deal of action for the era that I grew up on and loved. I’m unbelievably happy with this set and it put a huge smile on my face multiple times. Wrestling was so colorful and larger than life back then and drinking it all in was quite an experience. All I have to say about this DVD collection is: 10

Christian Returns to WWE

Published by M2J under Raves on February 11, 2009

To my fellow wrestling fans, we knew this was coming. The WWE swerved us big time with Christian’s roster placement, however. Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, and Edge are all on Smackdown. They make a pretty explosive trio as it is, adding Christian to the mix would practically make it nuclear. On the surface, placing Christian on ECW seems like a bad move, but maybe it isn’t.

Consider this, now you’re probably going to watch ECW a little bit more. Now we already have Christian back, but now the anticipation will continue a little bit longer for him to rejoin his comrades over on Smackdown. We all know it’s coming sooner or later, we just did not get an instant payoff. We now will keep our eye on this situation even more closely. We were holding our breath awaiting Christian’s return. Now we aren’t breathing just yet, but have been allow to take one more nice and deep breath to hold out a little longer. Sooner or later, Christian will cross paths with Matt, Jeff, or Edge. This will give Matt and Jeff some time to soak up the lime light before we detonate this whole thing. Christian is probably expected to pay some dues for his time in TNA anyway. Hopefully we won’t be looking at this in a few months saying “WWE ruined something else.”

Michael Phelps – Proof at Last!

Published by M2J under Rants on February 11, 2009

Michael Phelps (as most of you know) was recently exposed as a pot smoker. Maybe this was an isolated incident, maybe not, but instead of focusing on stuff like his sponsorship losses, suspension, etc., how about this one: marijuana is okay!

For years, I’ve had to endure this smear campaign against marijuana. It was beaten into me begining when I was a wee tot. I had to watch after school specials (ok, I guess I didn’t have to), dumb movies about how marijuana ruins your life in school (those I had to watch), and dumb commercials about how horrible pot was. At first pot made you bad, changed you into a monster and would bring you down and everyone around you. The bad kids smoked weed. When that campaign failed, it was changed to a “Weed makes you lazy and do nothing”  type of message. Now you could be nicest guy in the world, but weed would take away your life by making you lethargic and boring. This didn’t work either. Then, they tried to play up the simple fact that it was illegal. Of course, this message held some truth, however, any person with a 10 cent brain would then question, “why is it illegal?” I won’t go into the particulars, but this history of marijuana and the events leading up to its illegality is a heaping pile of malarkey. Now they try to market that weed somehow compromises your goals and makes you not cool. You will wear a lot of shirts with dumb crap on them, or stand in the middle of a room while people pose you like doll if you smoke weed (you know damn well what I’m talking about).

Enter Michael Phelps. Phelps can probably pat himself on the back for a job well done in anyone’s book. He’s won more gold medals than anyone in history. He inhales…

So now, you people who preach nonsense about marijuana can take all your babbling and shove it! Phelps is proof that weed poses no real threat. What are you going to say, “Maybe he would have won more medals if he didn’t smoke weed?” Well that’s speculation. “Maybe he stopped smoking for the Olympics.” Then marijuana is not addictive and is even less dangerous than cigarettes and alcohol, both of which are legal.

It’s time to face the fact everyone, marijuana is only a problem for one reason: it’s illegal. Why is it illegal? As far as I can tell, there’s a vast majority of people in this country who are active users. Majority should rule in this situation. If alcohol and tobacco are ok, then so must be marijuana. Marijuana is ok! I can’t say it any more simply.

Bands Update, Kinda

Published by M2J under Bands I Suggest on February 2, 2009

I’m changing “Bands of the Month” to “Bands I Suggest.” Why? Because I’m LAZY!