This past weekend I saw two excellent movies. First up was Iron Man 2. The whole family went to see this. As a primer I had the kids watch Iron Man the week before and man were they loving it. Avery was pumped and cheering all throughout the first one. Page gave the sequel two thumbs up. It was a blast. It’s great seeing some of my favorite characters from comics on the big screen.

Nick Fury had more of a screen presence this time, not relegated to the post-credits clip. Speaking of that, make sure you stick around for the surprise clip to see the next big event. It’s probably no secret if you are a Marvel fan but it is cool as all get out. I cannot wait.

Yesterday I took in the 5:04 showing of Kickass by my lonesome. I don’t like going to the movies by myself but I wanted to make sure I voted for this movie by my dollars. I loved the comic and the movie was a very true adaption. I highly recommend this but not for the kids. It is extremely violent; you’ve been forwarned.

Next up I hope to get in Nightmare on Elm Street before it leaves the theaters.

Well I was ecstatic to find out on Friday that the Netflix streaming service to the Wii was live and that I was getting my Wii disc on Saturday. As expected, it arrived in the mail mid-afternoon and we promptly popped the disc in. It was a simple matter of entering a code provided on the screen into a form on the Netflix website and we were browsing the instant queue, along with all the other stream-able movies. Eager to try this out we settled on the Never Ending Story.

The movie started just fine after a 15 second load and played great for about 15 minutes when it stopped. Hmmm… I thought, bandwidth issues? I hit play again via the Wii Mote and it continued on. About three minutes later, same thing only this time it would not accept my Wii-mote input. We waited, and waited and waited and then I figured, what the heck? Maybe it was the wireless router. So I checked all the inputs and kicked it. A few seconds later it started up again. Odd I thought, my phone connected phone. Then it did it again a third time and no amount of fiddling would fix it. Well, I thought for a second that maybe I needed to get the primary Wii-Mote as this one was coming up third. So I set for a frantic search for the primary Wii-mote and where do I found it? Between the couch cushions with Paige leaning on it activating it and pausing the movie. There was no problem with the streaming service at all!

We watched the Red Balloon Saturday night and throughout the day Sunday the kids were watching movies. So, of course, we give the Wii Netflix streaming service 2 thumbs up.

We saw Avatar in 3D yesterday, not in Imax though. Man was that an awesome movie. The story was not unique but they did put an interesting spin on it. What pushed this movie ahead of the pack was the awesome cgi. Unlike most movies heavy with CGI, Avatar did not leave me feeling a bit tired afterwards. The movie was beautiful and most of the time I did not even notice that it was computer animated. The facial art has come a long way.

I highly recommend seeing this movie in the theater and do try and see it in 3D at the very least. Man, it is worth it.

It’s Saturday night and I go to put in Pirate of the Carribean: At the World’s End so we can put an end to this trilogy once and for all. The disc won’t load and I notice it has a crack in it. Darn! Well, I pop on the Netflix website today and let them know the disc is damaged. They promise to send out another copy the next business day and ask I return the damaged disc as soon as possible. I then receive an email apologizing for the inconvience and promising to send another copy out right away.

Now that is nice. No hassles about the damaged disc, no blame, nothing; no questions asks. Another disc is on the way, please return the damaged one and have a great day. I like that. Thumbs up to Netflix.

The beer that made Milwaukee famous is back! Kick back a six pack and relive the good old days. Well, those good old days were not for me, I was much too young then. Maybe you old folks can remember more than me.

Anyway, it was a nice Christmas Eve present the wife brought me. That’s one more notch on my belt on the tour of good old American beers. What will be next?

Cinemassacre.com is doing a 29 part series reviewing the history of Godzilla for this years Monsterfest! I cannot wait! Relive your childhood memories and stop by each day!

Sorry for the delay in posting this; it’s been over a week since the holiday. Anyway, for Christmas this year I got the wife Superman 2 – The Richard Donner Cut and she got me The Death Of Superman. I must say, while I am not the biggest fan of Superman, these were both very excellent movies.

The Death of Superman is a straight to DVD animated feature based on the Graphic Novel of the same name. Now not having read the graphic novel but the original run the the comics, I must say there are some differences in the story from how I recall it. I guess that will lead into my one disappointment with the movie: It contains only Superman and none of the other DC heroes. The Justice League never makes an appearance; which bums me out because they were and integral part in the original story. I can understand that though as it may increase production costs and while I think the rest of the heroes are equally important, for this movie that did not deter the story at all. Aside from that, the only other detour from the original story would be the Reign of Supermen arc. This did not occur at all but kind of mushed the Superboy and Cyborg Supermen story lines together. Aside from those two qualms, the rest is great. But don’t take this the wrong way; the Death of Superman movie is awesome.

I was surprised with how violent it was. When Doomsday broke free from his prison ship he just set straight to his rampage. Nothing stood in his way for very long. This movie earned the PG-13 rating for the brutality of Doomsday.

The special features on this DVD were well worth the viewing; especially the preview and history behind the upcoming Justice League New Frontiers – That is going to be awesome.

The whole making of the Death of Superman and the how the original story line and subsequent arcs were developed was very interesting. All-in-all this is a great DVD!

Now on to Superman 2 – The Richard Donner Cut. Let me say this, the reviews about this movie had said the Richard Donner Cut was a completely different movie. You know what? It was, and the resulting movie is awesome. If you have seen the original theatrical release you must see this version!

Richard Donner filmed a lot of Superman 2 during the filming of Superman 1. Apparently most of the footage with Marland Brando had to be removed from the original cut due to negotiation issues on Brando’s part. Long story short, a new director was brought in and many parts of the movie re-shot. Following the Brando’s death a few years ago permission was given to pull the original movie back together.

I cannot recommend this movie enough. From start to finish I was in awe. Again, I have to reveal; this is pretty much a whole different movie. Wow! Amazing stuff. I will add, on a less positive note, I took issue with part of the ending. When you see it you’ll know what I mean.

In addition to those two movies the rest of the holiday’s were great. Hope your’s was a festive and cheerful as mine!