Real Steel Review

It’s been a couple of weeks since the last review, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been stacking up things to write about. First off is Real Steel, the film starring Hugh Jackman and directed by Shawn Levy that is based on a short story by Richard Matheson. The movie is set in the near future where the sport of boxing has transitioned from human fighters to robots ala Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots on steroids.

I watched the film in IMAX and the visuals and sounds were great. The movie hits all of the right buttons when it comes to underdog sports stories. The parallels to Rocky and almost any other coming of age story with a kid who is reunited with his absentee father are definitely there. One of the amazing things about the movie was the complete lack of anything too overtly sexual. There is a love interest, but the PG-13 lines never even come close to being crossed. There is some violence, beyond the robot-on-robot action, but not too much.

Overall, it was an enjoyable movie that leaves you feeling good about where it ends. My main nit to pick here is the relationship between the son and Hugh Jackman’s character in the first half of the film. I don’t enjoy seeing kids treated bad by people who should be their parents, but that is just part of the plot and setup. This is a fun movie and falls somewhere between 3 and 4 Mick Happies.  We’ll call it 4 for the fun ride that it is and hope that the sequel gets the go ahead in the near future. Almost makes me want to get the Xbox Live Arcade game…almost.

2011 New Fall TV Reviews

If you have read my post about Apple TV a while back, you know that I don't have cable TV. Even so, I have been browsing several of the new shows this season. I have accessed the shows through iTunes free episodes or online viewing through the networks' websites. Either way, with internet access, new TV shows can be seen for free if you want them. Here are my impressions of a few of the new shows.

The Playboy Club:
If only I knew then what I know now, I would have written this post yesterday before this show was cancelled. I may also have not finished the second episode, which I did last night. I can sum this one up pretty quick.
Pros: Attractive women in tight, somewhat revealing clothing.
Cons: Is there like no trash bins in all of Chicago? Must be otherwise they wouldn't be keeping key evidence from a homicide (albeit self-defense) under the bed or in the vanishing cream jar of a boarding house full of women who might find them. C'mon, that is just dumb.
Rating: 2 Mick Happies, just for the eye candy.

Pan Am:
Another throwback to yester-year. I watched the premiere and may watch the second episode as well. There were parts of the pilot that I enjoyed: the costumes, some of the stewardesses had interesting back stories and the captain and first officer were how I would imagine them to be in that day and age. I am not as sold on needing to add in the espionage angle in episode one. There was enough nostalgia and meeting people to have hooked viewers without the gimmick.
Pros: Costumes and that late 50s early 60s wholesome feeling.
Cons: The need to go to gimmicks early to add tension and drama.
Rating: 3 Mick Happies.

Up All Night:
Now I have to admit that I have watched a lot of TV and movies with Christina Applegate in it. I have enjoyed a lot of them: The Sweetest Thing, The Rocker, Hall Pass (to some extent), etc. I have not enjoyed most of Will Arnett's work. I gave this one two episodes to hook me and sadly it didn't. There are a couple funny moments if you have ever been a new parent, but mostly the writers seem to be trying too hard. Not nearly as good as my favorite family comedy, Raising Hope.
Pros: Some funny new parent moments.
Cons: The bleeped swearing just makes me think this would be a better comedy on a cable pay-tv network like HBO, Showtime or Starz.
Rating: 2 Mick Happies for the few laughs.

New Girl:
I didn't include it in the image above, but I did download and watch the pilot for The New Girl with Zooey Deschanel. I was hoping for quirky fun here. It was too quirky for me. I just was irritated by the Zooey's character and coupled with Fox TVs 8 day waiting period to see episodes online, I will have forgotten about this by the time a new episode hits the intertubes.
Pros: The guys do a good thing for her in the end.
Cons: Quirky and more than a little irritating lead character (and some irritating supporting characters as well).
Rating: 2 Mick Happies - generously.

Terra Nova:
Just watched the free download of the pilot 2 days ago. This completely kept my interest during the flight I was on. Enough that I was annoyed by other people in my row needing to get up to use the lavatory. The dinosaurs were awesome and scary. Kids in the future/past still do stoopid things and parents just will never understand. I would have liked to see more of the future. Wow, talk about dystopian. Hopefully we will get some flashbacks there. Not sure I needed the Commander's son foreshadowing side plot in the pilot. There was enough going on without it.
Pros: Time travel (okay possibly alternate reality), dinosaurs and, oh, dinosaurs.
Cons: Would have liked more time in the future before going through to the past.
Rating: 4 Mick Happies - I really liked this one.

Some honorable mentions:
I watched the first two episodes of Two and a Half Men. Amazing how little that show needed a second Alan character, but Ashton Kutcher's character seems to be Alan if he was handsome and rich. I am glad I don't watch this one regularly as I probably couldn't take it.

Great to have The Big Bang Theory and Raising Hope back. I love both these shows so much I bought the Season Pass on iTunes for them so that I would have them delivered directly to me and I could stream them to the big TV for viewing enjoyment.

 That's enough for this post. Back to watching more internet?

Moneyball Film Review

I was very interested to see how the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis would turn out on film. So on opening night for those of us who aren’t in the media and don’t have friends, I went to see it. And…it was good.

For those who don’t know, Moneyball was an interesting book published in 2003 about the Oakland A’s and their General Manager Billy Beane. The book looked at the statistical tools that Beane and his colleagues brought to their selection of players and how those methods helped them compete with teams who had much larger budgets.

The movie, Moneyball, directed by Bennett Miller and starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill covers the same topic with Pitt playing the part of Billy Beane. I read the book several years ago and enjoyed it, but didn’t have all of the details fresh in my mind, so I can’t say if the movie is veers far from the material in the book. I do think the movie creates a story out of the underlying premise of the book and the dialogue and character interactions are often funny. You feel for this team and these people as they try to compete. You also get a sense of the demons that have hounded Beane throughout his career in baseball through the flashbacks that intersperse the main story.

I enjoyed the interplay between Pitt and Hill and everyone in the theatre laughed many times at Hill’s straight man responses. This is a fun movie, with tension, humor and some seriousness all wrapped up together. There is no reason that you couldn’t wait to see this on home theatre, but the big screen does make the stadium and game shots more impressive. It’s the story that makes this movie and the interesting characters. Overall, I give Moneyball 4 Mick Happies. Play ball.

Space Viking Review

Space Viking by H. Beam Piper was first published as a serial in Analog Science Fiction Magazine from November 1962 – February 1963. Since that was before I was born, my first exposure to the book came with the 1983 reprint by Ace Books. I enjoyed the book thoroughly when I first read it in my early teens and have re-read it (and re-purchased it) several times since that first read. The book is currently available in printed form through Amazon or for free through Project Gutenberg on iBooks or Kindle.

Space Viking is set in the distance future after man has populated the stars. At the point where Space Viking starts, mankind have seen galactic empires have rise and fall and a small number of planets and systems enjoy civilization while most of humanity has devolved back to various degrees of pre-space flight cultures – from barbaric to worlds similar to ours today. The story revolves around one man’s quest for revenge and where his trek across the stars takes him and those around him. I won’t give any other details about the plot since there are a couple good twists and turns along the way. What I like about this book is the action and world-building aspects of the story as the main character tries to rebuild himself and the world around him as time passes.

H. Beam Piper authored several books and many short stories before he ended his life in 1964. Of his stories and books, the Fuzzy Series is probably best known. Today, more and more authors are mining the worlds Piper left behind with John F. Carr publishing authorized sequels to Space Viking (The Last Space Viking and the forthcoming Prince of Tanith) and John Scalzi rebooting the Fuzzy Series with Fuzzy Nation.

There are a few aspects of Space Viking that don’t hold up today. Things like smoking by the main characters and people on spaceships picking up phones to speak with others aboard ship. The underlying commentary on man and our struggle to develop and/or devolve as a community are still relevant today. I give Space Viking five Mick Happies.

Quick Update

You can follow MickHappyReviews on twitter. Due to character limitations, the twitter name is MickHappyReview. Tweets are currently being limited only to notes about reviews posted on the site, which should reduce the chatter.

I am currently finishing a re-read of Space Viking by H. Beam Piper. A review should be up soon. After that, I have How Firm a Foundation by David Weber and The High King of Montival by S.M. Stirling in the queue. Who knows, maybe there will be a movie or tv show in there somewhere too.

Crimson: Steam Pirates Review

In June 2011, Bungie, the developers of HALO, announced a new venture to help small independent developers launch their social/mobile games. This past week saw the release of the first game from this venture, Crimson: Steam Pirates. Crimson was developed by Bungie Aerospace and Harebrained Schemes. Harebrained Schemes is the latest company from game industry veteran, Jordan Weisman (FASA, Wizkids).

Crimson is a free iPad (iOS) turn-based strategic naval battle game following the exploits of Thomas Blood as he begins his notorious career as a pirate. The world of Crimson is set in a steampunk version of the Caribbean of 1888. As Thomas Blood, you will work through 8 missions that make up the first chapter of his story. At launch, the game has an additional chapter of 8 missions available for download for $1.99. A third chapter is planned, but not yet available.

The game uses the iPad touch interface well, giving you the opportunity to choose each ship and move your finger to direct where the ship will move or to give specific instructions. Each ship has multiple special actions that can be taken each turn based on the abilities of your crew. Actions like full steam, increased speed and movement, or the lash, increased rate of fire. During a mission you can also select your ship to see more of its weapons and details on the specific crewmembers. The crew actions and the size and number of ships at your disposal vary from mission and can include both naval and sometimes air ships. The missions move you along the engaging plot of Thomas Blood’s journey to become a notorious pirate.

The game is beautiful and plays very well on an iPad 1. The first chapter of Thomas Blood’s saga will take you about 2 hours to play. There is some replay-ability through trying to improve your score on missions or playing one of the two “pass-and-play” multiplayer missions. You can also connect to Bungie.net for stats and leaderboards. The only minor downsides for the game are the relative ease of the missions in chapter 1 and the short amount of gameplay for each chapter. I assume chapter 2 will be harder and it does promise additional ships and actions to try. Hopefully it will be a little longer as well.

For an iOS game and a free one to start, Crimson: Steam Pirates is great. Beautiful, intuitive and with a good story as well. I highly recommend you pick it up and play even if you never download chapter 2. I give Crimson: Steam Pirates 4.5 Mick Happies. Arrr, download on iTunes, me matey.

Star Blazers: Quest for Iscandar Part I Review

If you are old like I am and were a kid in the late 1970s, your first introduction to Japanese anime may have been Star Blazers. The first season of the Star Blazers tv series was called The Quest for Iscandar and aired weekday mornings. I remember the series very fondly as it was the gateway drug for other shows like Voltron and, of course, Robotech.

The story of Star Blazers starts in 2199 with the Earth dying from radioactive pollution caused by bombing by an alien race, the Gamilons. Just as things seem most bleak for Earth, its last major space fleet defeated by the Gamilons near Pluto, a message is received from another alien culture from the planet Iscandar. The message states that if Earth can reach Iscandar, they will provide a cure for Earth. To help humans reach Iscandar, the message also provides details on a technologically advanced engine. Earth forces build the engine and place it in a sunken battleship from World War II, the Yamato. After rebuilding the Yamato for space, the newly formed Space Force takes off for Iscandar with only 1 year to get there and back to save Earth.

A year ago, my wife bought all three seasons of Star Blazers in DVD box sets and I hadn’t taken the plunge to watch them. However, the addition of season 1 on Netflix instant watch made it silly to wait any longer. The first season is split into six parts (DVDs) and the first part covers the first five episodes of the series. You can find a plot synopsis of each episode on Wikipedia or watch the shows on your own.

Star Blazers is an adaptation of a famous Japanese anime called Space Battleship Yamato. I have never watched Space Battleship Yamato, so I am unsure what, if anything, changed between the original anime and Star Blazers. However, on this re-watch after over 30 years, what stood out for me was how much more adult the show seems than most “children’s” shows. There are deaths, though mostly from a distance, and the characters in the story deal with those deaths emotionally. Characters have depth and everything isn’t just great and easy, there is tension and a little suspense. Additionally, the theme of a ravaged dying earth and some of the dialog seems more adult than Y-7 focused.

Watching the first five episodes, I noticed that some of the animation is dated and some of the visual effects are jarring compared to what we would find today. Overall, the plot and story are holding up and interesting and I am looking forward to revisiting the rest of the series. If you have Netflix instant watch, put it in the queue. If you don’t, the DVDs are a little steep at ~$135 for season 1 on Amazon or you can get the full season through Amazon instant video for ~$22. I give Part I of Star Blazers: The Quest for Iscandar 3.5 Mick Happies for the great nostalgia, more adult themes and decent plot. Only 361 days left for the Star Force to save Earth.