Indiana Jones part IV: SPOILERS

Got out to see the Crystal skull this last weekend and thought I'd give my own 2 cents review of the movie.

About the only thing you can compare this to is the other Indiana Jones movies. And in so doing, my favorites are still the original and the Last Crusade. The Crystal skull then beats out the Temple of Doom.

But thats not to say it is a bad movie, it just had a lot to live up to.

The movie uses the same basic blue print it always has. An action scene, a quick trip back to the college (missing from #2) and then back on the trail again. Does this guy actually ever teach?

Anyway, Marion's son Mutt shows up and tells him of his old buddy and mother who needed his help. They fight off some more bad guys and hop on the first flight to South America.
Indy hunts down and finds the crystal skull and is promptly caught by the Russians.

They do a long car chase/fight scene with some of the usual Indiana Jones style and end up hitting some huge ant beds after some nifty fighting by both Indiana and Mutt.

As everyone rushes for the river to avoid the ant swarms, Indy and company are in a boat, while the Russians are swimming.

Jones makes it into the lost city, still no gold, and then on into the sacred temple. Meanwhile, the traitor from earlier, betrays them again and the half drowned Russians follow them.

Finally, they make it to the final chamber where the Crystal skull was missing. This must have only been of the original 13 who came and helped the Mayans.

So the Russians pop in and the evil chick wants all the knowledge of the universe. She wasn't willing to look into the Crystal skull, but asks for it in the chamber with 13?? Well she gets what she asked for and to thank the people who restored them, the aliens sucked them all up into their inter-dimensional ship and left with them. Of course the heroes made it out alive.

There were a few logic problems with the movie. But it did have some very good flash backs to the originals. A quick shot of the Arc, the snake phobia came into play again. It explained what happened to Indy and Marion years ago and it ties it up neatly afterwards.
The fact that Mutt is Indies son, should really come as no surprise to anyone. I guessed it as soon as they announced Marion would be returning with a son.

I also liked the final scene when Mutt picks up Indy's trademark hat and almost puts it on...

I thought the acting was top notch, even if the story was lacking. My biggest problem, was that in the past Indy movies, the artifacts he found were all what history/mythology had them as being. But this, one, I've never read anything about the Crystal skulls being anything near a alien skull. And none of the Crystal skulls are shaped the way this one was. So they kind of went off in a completely different direction than the real Mayan/Aztec mythology.

Overall, it comes down to one simple question. Did you enjoy the other Indiana Jones movies? If you did, you will enjoy this one as well. Harrison Ford is definetely showing his age but no one could have ever played Indy better than Ford. So much for that long life the Holy Grail gave him. ;)

Until next time...

Run Rat Run!!

Last night I remembered why I loved playing Skaven in Blood Bowl.

After a series of ties and losses, I went back to the basics and started another rookie Skaven team. It didn't take long for an undead player to challenge me. They just love to play Skaven.

I accpeted the challenge and we lined up. I got the ball first, but after doing a bit of running around, my thrower promptly dropped the ball when he tried to pick it up.
DOH!!

He of course beat up a couple guys and surrounded the ball.
I did a good job of knocking a couple his guys away from the ball, ran in with a gutter runner, picked it up, ran out, passed it to another runner, who took it to the end zone.

I then kicked it off to him, and was able to blitz. I had my guys all around the ball, only to see it take bad bounce after bad bounce, landing in his guys hands and away from me.
I did manage to knock it out of his hands but was unable to pick it up myself. Then on turn 7, I had 2 guys on him forcing him to block with his guy, or dodge to get away. I forgot he had frenzy and used that to prevent a dodge, and ran down field, and got a turn 8 TD.

I kicked off to him in the 2nd half and pinned him deep. But his fans, sensing my teams greater skill and speed, tied up the ref, freeing up his team to foul away. I was already short about 4 players, and so I couldn't actually risk having one of my guys thrown out.

He fouls and another player out. He then has a bad block and I rush several players down the field. A couple turns later, I knock the ball out of the werewolfs paws, a runner grabs it and scoots into the endzone for a 2-1 lead.

Another deep kick and he goes back to pick it up. He is now short of time and I have the lead. He continues to foul every turn and I'm down to about 5 players on the field. I get a double 1's on a dodge with my first player and lose my turn basically.
He moves the ball up, fouls again.
I then roll double skulls with my first player and lose another turn. I think, ok, another tie.

He moves the ball up some more, but is still 1 square from being able to put it in the endzone.

Next turn, dice turn around, and I'm able to run 4 of my 5 players out in front of the ball carrier, scattered around. My 5th player stands up, but is in the middle of a mess of his guys.

I figure he will plow the road with his superior numbers and push the ball carrier down the sideline. Instead he runs him into the middle of the field, but does have him close enough to make the TD with a 'go for it'.

I work it out in my head and can get a single dice blitz on him, as he stopped his werewolf right by my guy, who is now prone, in the middle of his guys. I had to run a couple players through some mess to tie up any assists, and then I blitz and get the POW!! Werewolf down and the ball bounces backwards towards midfield and behind the lines!!

His turn 8 he pushes some players forward with some really smooth blocking schemes. He gets a wight to within scoring range. But it will still require the werewolf, to get up, dodge, pick up the ball, throw it and catch it. Then run it in for the TD.

Well the werewolf failed the dodge, and I took my win to the bank.
No player was seriously injured and I won a hefty $90K purse to bring in another backup player.

Sweet, sweet win.

Until next time...

Big Bang and back to Narnia

Have to say I really enjoyed the season finale of The Big Bang Theory last night.

Leonard finally caught Penny right after a breakup and asked her out.
Both parties were very hesitant about the date. I think because both are afraid that if it doesn't work out their friendship would also be lost.

Leonard went for broke with a somewhat forced and awkward kiss and Penny decided it was worth the risk. Unfortunately, that is where the show cut off. I felt this so could have used an hour long finale. Oh well.

Also noticed there was not a single commercial for it during the 6 o'clock news or wheel of fortune. There were a ton of commercials pushing the following shows that I don't watch. So the question is, did CBS feel like the Big Bang didn't need advertising because its rating are already good, or has CBS already written the show off? Damn, I hope they bring it back.

As for Narnia, all I can say is WOW!! If you liked the first one, you will like this one. It is easily as good. Tons of action. Tons of special characters, Centaurs, minotaurs, etc... The story was simple enough, and they didn't bog it down with a bunch of crap that they easily could have.
The white witch return was a nice piece I liked. (I haven't actually read the books.) And how they win the battle at the end, was really cool. I don't want to give it away, but I was not expecting that.
The action and fighting, was really well done and nicely choreographed.

There was really only 1 part I felt was way to "huh?" at the very end and it was minor. See if you can figure it out.

But I do highly recommend going. It is worth it.

Next up, Indiana Jones. Oh yea!!

Until next time...

Whats been on my TV?

With the writers strike screwing up my Spring TV shows, and my favs of Chuck, Heroes and Pushing Daisies all regulated to next Fall, there just has not been a lot on.

I did start watching a very funny new sitcom on Monday nights called The Big Bang Theory. The story revolves around 2 brilliant nerds, Leonard and Sheldon, in an apartment, 2 friends who are also nerds, Howard and Rajesh, and a very hot blond, Penny, who moves in across the hall.

Penny believes neighbors should be friendly and quickly makes herself at home with the nerds, even though her normal company is super hot chicks and hulk Hogan wannabe's.

Leonard so wants to date Penny but can't get the courage to ask her out. Penny seems to like Leonard as well, and I think 95% of the watching audience wants to see these 2 date at some point later on.

Sheldon is the super genius who graduated college at 16 and has no sense of social etiquette. He is also a pompous ass.

Howard is mainly creepy. He is a mechanical engineer who still lives with his mom. His main goal in life is to try and get laid. Without giving up his nerdy life.

Rajesh, I love. The foreigner who cannot speak to girls unless he is drunk. But is the only one of the 4 to get lucky so far on the show. I think he is a computer engineer and really does a great job.

The writers of the show started slow, as I don't think they knew where to take the show, or how far to push it. Originally they started out with Penny as the "really dumb blonde" but have pushed past that and now she is more normal and is trying to help the "boys" assimilate into real life. But I still have to love that line, "I'm a vegetarian. Oh, except for steak. I love a great steak." Hahaha. Gotta love that.

Anyway, great writing and excellent acting make for a good little sitcom. I think it is limited in where the show can go. There are only so many nerd stereotypes you can make fun of. Still waiting on the D&D one, but I'm sure it will come.
But if you get the chance check it out, Monday nights at 7 on CBS.

On Fridays, I am trying to get through the Battle Star Gallactica series. If this wasn't the final season, I think I would have stopped watching it. They have long since gone past any battles between the Cylons and the Humans. Its now Cylon killing Cylon and Humans fighting Humans.
Way too much religion, way too much soap opera crap for me. They have been promising to reveal the final Cylon for the last 5 weeks and still haven't done it. But it does look like it is going to be Starbuck. Whoohoo, big surprise. Making the chief and the XO cylons was a surprise though. But then it seems like some stuff didn't make any sense.

They tortured the XO while on New Caprica, why not shut him down and download the data. Of course they probably didn't know he was a Cylon. This whole bit of the 5 unknown Cylons is a bit weird. I wouldn't be surprised at this point, if the entire fleet was nothing but Cylons, in some big experiment to find Earth.

I have to say at this point, I am only watching to finish it off. There are several questions I'd like to see answered. But if I jumped in the middle of this, I'd stop watching it. It has sunk badly.

Well Until next time...

Final Four

The MAWL held its final four last weekend and we had a total of 9 people show up and that was including myself. I had 6 tables set up and ready to go, and 2 more ready to go up if there were enough players, but with such a small turn out, we only used 4 of them.

So I have to admit I was pretty disappointed in the event. It didn't keep us from having a good time though.

The Doubles tournament did a quick switch to a 600-750 point round robin tournament with some really cool twists on it.



Eric Smelley went on to dominate it winning all 3 games, and using his loot to buy half the items at the Hogs Head thrift store.
It was really tight for 2nd-4th and Mike Bauer got a one point win over Eric Langford, who had a 1 point win over David Caldwell.

The final four pitted Edgar and his Emporer Dragon High Elfs against Aaron and his new book Vampire Counts who were considered the favorites going in.



But the surprise Null Stone came into play and the High Elves buried the Vamps.

The other Semi-final round pitted Justin and his Slaanesh Daemonic Legions against Jesse and his Orcs and Goblins:



The Daemons were too much for Jesse and his Orcs and goblins couldn't pass a fear test.

So Jesse was stuck playing against Vampires and more fear tests in the next round and fared no better, giving Aaron the Consolation 3rd place.

In the Finals that left Justin and his chick daemons against Edgar and his dragon led elves. This game went back and forth with a Dragon Prince unit blowing through both of the Daemon Princes. At the end of turn 6 we added up the points and the High Elves were only ahead by 296 points. Not enough for the win.

So they went to a turn 7. You only had to win by 200 now. Justin was able to break and run down a unit of white lions and capture their banner, but Edgar was able to destroy a unit of Pleasure Seekers. This gave the High Elves a 300 point win.

1st Place: Edgar Betancourt
2nd Place: Justin Gibbs
3rd Place: Aaron Chapman

Lore Master: Eric Smelley
Best Sportsman: Billy Van Osten

Chosen of his god: Eric Smelley
Hogs Head Tavern Winner: Mike Bauer

There were a ton of door prizes and everyone walked out with something. Some people with more than 1. There was also plenty of pizza, cookies, popcorn, sodas, bottled water and good times to be had by all there.

Until next time...

Brutal wins 2nd game

After a close loss on Saturday, Brutal broke out with a dominating 16-0 win this morning.

My wide receiver Eldorado had 5 catches for 45.5 yards and a Touchdown.

The TD was so sweet as I just blew past the corner back and the Quarterback hit me in stride for a 10 yard score. The strong safety had a shot at me, but a quick spin move and I trotted in for six and a sweet celebration dance.

Made the Top Performers board for the 4th time and the 2nd time in a row.

So Brutal is now 2-3, and in a 6 way tie for 8th place. The last playoff position. Still have some tough games to play. But we look like we are on the right track, having won 2 of our last 3 games.

Until next time...

Brutal Wins!!

Well after starting the League 0-2, we finally pull off a 14-3 win.

I have to say it is a bit bitter sweet.

In our game 1 loss 3-10, I had 4 balls thrown my way and I dropped all 4!! Ugghh.. I was still useful returning 9 punts for a ton of yards.

Our game 2 we were blown out 21-0, but in this game, it was not my fault as I caught 6 passes for 40+ yards. And had 3 punt returns for a ton of yards. Only our kick returner had more yards than me. And only because he was a running back and got 4 kick returns.

In this game, I not only caught no passes, I didn't even have any thrown in my direction. I was open a lot, but with a run pass ration that was 80% run, we only had 16 passes. They were playing a soft pass cover and our running game took off for the first time this season and we won 14-3.
I did handle kick return duties but only had 2 for around 60 yards. Giving us great field position at midfield with both kick returns.

By the way, my guy is a wide receiver named Eldorado Owens. He is a speedster and is the #1 wide out. Now if we could just be a bit more consistent with him.

Until next time...