Night of the Comet Review

For some reason my wife was trying to remember a zombie movie she had seen and used her Google-fu to find it. I believe the exact search was: '80s movie red dust zombie radio station. Which, of course, returned: Night of the Comet. I have to admit that this is one that I missed growing up and told my wife so when she mentioned it. (She was dumbfounded that she had seen a science fiction movie that I hadn't.) It then went to the top of our Netflix queue.

Night of the Comet, written/directed by Thom E. Eberhardt, in all it's 1980s glory is the story of what happens when the earth intersects the tail of a comet. The result is everyone who was exposed to the event is dead or turned into some sort of degenerating zombie. Enter Regina played by Catherine Mary Stewart (who herself has been in many classics like The Last Starfighter and Weekend at Bernie's) who happens to survive the night and finds that she and her sister may be the last two women alive.

Reg and her sister, Samantha (Sam - played by Kelli Maroney, go to a local radio station where they expect to find a live DJ. Instead they find Hector, played by Robert Beltran, who we couldn't help calling Chakotay for the rest of the film. Together they try to figure out what has happened and how to deal with it.

This film is fun and the director worked around a small budget so the special effects are pretty minimal. However, it has so many "rad" 1980s things going on that if you were growing up then and you haven't seen it you should. The argyle socks Reg is wearing while trying to top the leaderboard at Tempest are great - I had a pair of those. The Michael Jackson style shirts she was rockin' and the big hair. Of course there had to be a scene where the girls go "shopping" at the local department store.

It's probably best to watch this one in a group so that you can MST3K-it (see RiffTrax) - comments while watching might be the best part. Also, watch for the scene where Hector takes off his gloves and then magically has them back on! Points if you spot it.

Night of the Comet should been seen if only for the '80s style, music and nostalgia of it all. I polled the family and they agreed that Night of the Comet gets 3.5 Mick Happies. Watch out for comet tails out there.

Not a Review - Comments on what I want for entertainment

With the blackouts of CBS stations on Time Warner Cable and the rumors of Apple and Google deals with content providers for a new type of television, I thought I would break from the usual review format here to give some commentary. Primarily, I want to outline what I would want (in a perfect world) out of TV.

First off, I think the old model of channels bundled from Cable providers for $20 - $150/month with loads of commercials is just not fair to the consumers. The cable companies make money from the advertising and monthly fees and then have to share that with the content providers (if the show is made by someone else). This means that we consumers are basically having the pay two fees to watch a show: our cable bill and with our time for the commercials (or more of a cable bill for a DVR so that you can record and skip the commercials). Where is the benefit to us the viewers?

Second off, the alternatives to the old model are not perfect either. You can go even older with an antenna and picking up limited channels over the airwaves without a direct cost to the provider, but the offerings are limited and you still have commercials. Or you can cut off the cable and do what we have for the last two years and watch on-demand programs through Netflix (or if you prefer, Hulu or Amazon), buy individual shows on DVD or through season passes on iTunes and/or just wait for the DVDs to be released a year later and have them shipped from Netflix. Here you either have limited options, are at the mercy of the deals the on-demand sources have made with content providers or have to wait sometimes a year to see shows (often being spoiled long before then). The one thing these options get right is that you are paying only for what you want to see (not a billion channels you never watch).

Another way the older content providers and cable companies are getting things wrong is with their online offerings. Last season I tried to watch Revolution online at NBC.com - the show as fine, but the experience of watching it on the website sucked. The show would stop 2/3 of the way through an episode. To get it restarted I would have to watch the last commercial break again. Ugh. Now NBC (and this isn't just them, but they are providing the best examples these days) has the rights to all the Premier League matches from the UK, which they are offering on-line through their NBC Sports Live website or their new App. Great, watch any match all season long wherever you like. IF, if you have a cable subscription that includes NBC Sports (I think). You see, when you try to view something you have to log into your cable provider and see if you have the channel. If you don't they tell you, Sorry you can't view this content - go upgrade your cable subscription. I don't have cable and I certainly don't want to pay $60 a month to get the package that includes the sports channel!

What is the solution? Well, the rumored Apple model may be the best way, depending on cost and advertising. The rumor is that Apple is trying to sign deals with the content providers (the show producers and distributors) to have channel Apps that may be available through a subscription fee. I would be all for that. HBO GO for a $5 - $10 a month? Sold. NBC Sports Live to allow me to see English Premier League games at $5 - $10 a month? Probably do that too. Also still be able to buy individual show packages through iTunes and Amazon and get them the next day without commercials? Great. The only catch here would be commercials. See, if I am paying directly for the content - even through a subscription fee monthly, then the commercials better be in the app out of my way or non-existent. I don't want to pay and then have to wait through commercials to watch what I have subscribed or paid to. I am okay if you want to tack a commercial on to the end of a show and allowing me to exit if I don't want to watch the commercial, but putting it up front (hey, yeah, I am looking at you YouTube) or throughout the show (current online model from most channels) is just annoying and unnecessary.

So there it is. Make a set-top box or integrated TV that has the ability to provide season passes to shows or subscription based channel apps at a reasonable price (and reasonable isn't $30 a month). Or just have everyone sell their episodes the day after they air over cable - I'll gladly pay to see them the next day without commercials (not a year later, HBO - still haven't bought a single episode of Game of Thrones, because after a year of waiting I just get the discs from Netflix by the time they are out). Stop the advertising and high costs of cable for channels I (and no one else) will ever care about. The channels that have compelling content (or the producers/distributors with good shows) will thrive and we will get more of that. Those that aren't good will wither or adapt. Either way we will get what we want to see at a more reasonable price. Hopefully someone will get on this before I am too old to enjoy it. I'll try to get back to a regular review next time. Have a Mick Happy day.

Plants vs. Zombies HD (iOS) Review

With the release last week of Plants vs. Zombies 2 on iOS, I thought I would put out some thoughts about the original Plants vs. Zombies (PvZ) from PopCap (maker of many awesome games). The wildly successful PvZ is a tower defense game where you protect your house (and brain) from wave after wave of zombies using plants. The game has been released on virtually every platform you can imagine since its original Windows/OS X release in 2009.

The game is played with your house on the left of the screen and zombies approaching from the right along lanes in your front lawn. Using sunlight points picked up by tapping on a sunburst icon on screen, you can buy plants for your yard that each have their own unique ability. A sunflower to add more sunlight, pea shooters to fire at and kill zombies, potato mines that explore on contact with a zombie, etc. The right mix of plants will keep you safe (and if you need to you can also use your lawn mower to clear a lane once).

The great thing about PvZ is its accessibility with easy touch screen controls and quick to learn gameplay. It is simple in concept, but ramps the complexity with new and more varied zombies and lots of different plants. You will have zombies who call other zombies to join them in attacking your house, pole vaulter zombies who move toward your house faster than other zombies, etc. The graphics are cute and a great counter point to body parts falling off zombies as you shoot at them.

PvZ also turns the typical tower defense game by using lanes in the yard to direct zombies toward your house rather than a single track or two that you place towers along to defeat the enemy. Probably the highest complement I can give PvZ is that it has completely sucked my wife in. She enjoys hidden object, match 3, mahjong and solitaire games, but has loved PvZ to the point where it is currently her go-to game. She was interested enough in it that she downloaded PvZ 2 the morning after it released - this is practically a first in our house. All for someone who would look at me quizzically if I said PvZ was a tower defense game. Next I am going to see if I can get her interested in Tiny Heroes.

Easy to learn, increasingly complex game play in a graphically appealing package. This is a classic and available on any platform you might want to try it on. You should have played PvZ by now, but if you haven't or you have someone in your household who plays games but has never tried tower defense games, go get PvZ or PvZ 2 - or play online for free here. Plants vs. Zombies gets 5 Mick Happies. Now, I am off to protect my brains (what's left of them).

Grown Ups 2 Review

Last night the whole family went out to the movies. We don't usually get out to the theatre, mainly because the movie-going experience is often so poor. Luckily, there is a playhouse near us that runs new movies and we were 3 out of about 12 people at the show. Great seats, no lines and only $8.50 a person. Why we went also had to do with the movie playing, Grown Ups 2.

We loved Grown Ups when it came out in 2010 and own a digital copy we rewatch on occasion. It is the story of 5 friends (played by Adam Sandler, Chris Jock, Kevin James, David Spade and Rob Schneider) getting together with their families to say goodbye to their basketball coach and reconnect with their youth. Laughs and hilarity ensue. Grown Ups was billed as a slapstick comedy and delivered on that well.

Some of our '80s favorites all in one backyard

Grown Ups 2 takes place after Lenny (Sandler) has moved his family from Hollywood back to his home town and shows the events of the last day of school before Summer break. The day is spent with four of the friends (Rock, James, Sandler and Spade) doing various insane things they are probably too old for and enjoying being together again.

Nothing wrong with a good ol' tire roll

Grown Ups 2, which has been panned by critics, is silly, outrageous and over the top. However, it is fun and provides laugh-out-loud comedy. At one point, my wife couldn't breathe she was laughing so hard. We all had a good time and probably the best comment (again from my wife) after the movie was, "They should just keep making these and stream them right to my house, I'll watch them." There really isn't any major tensions in the movie, they are all lightened by the antics and humor. It is just a family, partially gross-out, coming-of-age, reconnecting with your youth comedy and, if you can suspend your disbelief and aren't expecting a take-itself-seriously type movie, Grown Ups 2 is well worth your time.

Wait, is that Shaquille O'Neal?

One of our favorite characters is Kurt Mackenzie's (Rock) son Ronnie played by Kaleo Elam. Ronnie is cute and fun and scrappy and steals most of the scenes he is in. Taylor Lautner is also in the film, playing a college frat boy who is one of the main antagonists for Sandler and crew. Grown Ups 2 has plenty of innuendo, fart jokes (including the burp-snart) and too tight clothing shots (on men and women) but delivers exactly what it advertises: silly humor that is fun without being serious. A popcorn movie worth seeing. I give Grown Ups 2 four Mick Happies. We will see it again and again in the coming years when we need a fun laugh.

The official movie trailer

Starbuck Review

Last night we watched a Canadian film by director Ken Scott called Starbuck. It is the story of David Wozniak, a habitual screw up, who finds out his sperm donations as a younger man were used to father over 500 children. Those children now want to know who their biological father is and are suing the fertility clinic to find out David's identity.

The rest of the movie is a load of laughs as David, played by Patrick Huard, decides if he wants to reveal who he is while trying to prove he is worth being in his girlfriend's life. David is a sympathetic character and his efforts to learn more about these children he fathered and his interactions with his best friend lawyer are hilarious. The lawyer, portrayed by Antione Bertrand, practically steals every scene he is in. In all, Starbuck is amusing and fun without sex and with relatively few cringe-worthy moments.

The film is in French, so if you don't care for subtitles you may want to wait for the English-language remake starring Vince Vaughan, Delivery Man, coming in November 2013 and also directed by Ken Scott. Additionally, it can be a little odd to see people speaking French while wearing clothes depicting American sports teams. I, however, liked the old school San Diego Padres baseball cap.

This is a feel good movie right up there with The Intouchables. It is out on DVD through Netflix and other sources and you should see it. I imagine that it will be the better of the two versions when the remake comes out (the remake will likely be more slap-stick than Starbuck). Well worth your time, Starbuck gets 5 Mick Happies. To quote my wife, "It is so nice to watch a good movie".

A Kingdom for Keflings (Xbox 360 - XBLA) Review

For this review of A Kingdom for Keflings from NinjaBee on the Xbox 360, I have to start by stating that I have never played the game. However, I have watched my daughter play for hours and as such feel I can provide a good indication on how good the game is.

A Kingdom for Keflings is a kingdom (city) building simulation where you play a giant (either a character from the game or your own Xbox Live Avatar) help a small race of people, Keflings, build their kingdom in a peaceful little valley. The game revolves around assigning the Keflings to various tasks of collecting resources or working in the various buildings that you make for them.

In A Kingdom for Keflings, you are responsible for assigning each Kefling to their particular role and training them on how you want it performed. Want them to cut wood and take it to the lumber mill, you can do that. Training is done through picking up the Keflings (they sometimes scream when you do) and carrying them to where you want them to work. You also have the option of drop kicking them there too. Once placed, a light bulb comes up over their head indicating that they get the training and then begin performing their task.

A well developed Kingdom

The goal of the game is to create a castle and set one Kefling up as King or Queen. To get there, you will need lots of resources and will have to complete a sizeable building tree (think technology tree). To get some buildings built, you will need the output of others, creating a large infrastructure of resource movements and Kefling activity to get to the later buildings.

The game is cute and straightforward and fun. My daughter has spent hours building up her little village and getting closer to the castle. For her, this is the first Xbox game she thinks she will be able to complete all of the achievements. The base game isn't hard and there is a sandbox mode for those who just want to build the perfect kingdom for their people. There is also downloadable content for more kingdoms to build (some intending to provide a harder challenge).

For those who like building simulations and placing their homes and industry in all the right places or just bossing around people smaller than yourself, A Kingdom for Keflings is a great way to relax. I almost forgot to mention that the soundtrack is very nice, upbeat and takes a long time to get repetitive (at which point it will be stuck in your head). This is also a good entry point for those with younger children that you would like to expose to the real-time building strategy genre.

A Kingdom for Keflings has been around for a while, released for Xbox in 2008 and on Windows in 2010, but still fun. It is regularly $10 (800 MS points) on Xbox Live Arcade. If that is too much, it will probably be on sale on and off in the future. There is also a sequel available, A World for Keflings. Having watched my daughter enjoy herself with the Keflings, I can easily give A Kingdom for Keflings 4 Mick Happies. Go out there an get yourself from Keflings.

PC Trailer

Happy 4th of July

Independence Day here in the United States. A day off for most to spend time out of doors, usually with Fireworks. Our 4th has been spent walking a local cemetery full of veterans and others, many of whom died more than a hundred years ago. Some of the people buried there were even born before or during the fight for independence in the US. Quite an interesting experience.

Tonight we will watch National Treasure. You may argue whether or not it is a great film, but it is fun and one of those movies that when it is on you have to watch. It was the best holiday themed movie idea and with some popcorn and family, what could be better.

Here's hoping you have a good day wherever you are.