(Originally posted at The BookMark Money Blog)

This post is going to deal entirely with comic books and the movies that are based on them. If you’re not interested in either, then stay tuned for more money making posts.

According to Empire Online Ryan Reynolds (Waiting, Blade 3) has joined the cast of the new Wolverine movie. Reynolds will be playing Deadpool, and fighting alongside Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). I’m actually pretty disappointed by the news. As much as I like Ryan Reynolds, I was hoping that the Wolverine movie was going to follow the story of Weapon X, which is an amazing story.

Apparently Warner Brothers and Leonardo DiCaprio are planning on filming a live action version of Katsuhiro Otomo’s groundbreaking cyberpunk tale Akira. I was taken aback at first, however short of Orlando Bloom signing up, Leo is one of the most effeminate/androgynous American movie stars I can think of - which makes him perfect for a live action remake of an anime movie.

This news comes on the heels of my finishing the sixth Akira graphic novel. 2500+ pages in 7 days. It’s an amazing series, and this is the second time I’ve read the entire series. While the movie will always have a special place in my heart, after reading the manga in their War and Peace-esque length, I just can’t bring myself to watch it again. I am impressed that they are planning on doing two movies, but there’s no way that live action special effects can compare to the animation, especially when Tetsuo loses control of his power and becomes Godzilla blob. I cannot envision that scene looking anything less than crappy rendered in CGI.

I got the tip off this morning that Columbia Pictures has optioned “The Boys” for a big screen adaptation. I have been a huge fan of Garth Ennis’ work on the “Preacher” series of graphic novels for some time now, and was recently introduced to “The Boys.”

The basic premise is that there’s a secret outfit within the CIA that keeps track of superheroes, and if necessary reigns them in. Blackmail, extortion, murder, nothing is too dirty or underhanded for The Boys to stoop to in fufilling their mission. The stories are well crafted, and chock full of Ennis’ trademark black humor and sexual perversion.

I picked it up to read the foreward, and ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting. My sides splitting with laughter, I literally couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to take in the story. The second graphic novel is due to be released in the next few months, and I’m looking forward to picking it up. I’ve been told on good authority that the Tech Knight, Garth Ennis’ parody of Batman, is a real gutbuster.

My great fear with this adaptation is that they will mangle the casting. I don’t have any strong feelings about any of the major characters except for Hugh “Wee Hughie” Campbell. Wee Hughie was based, visually at least, on actor Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), and I’m afraid that he may get passed over in the casting for a more familiar nebbish actor, such as Steve Buscemi.

I was excited to see that HBO is working on a Preacher series. Then I saw the details. The plot synopsis states: An ex-priest turned professional gambler exposes murder and corruption in a small New Mexico town. Um, WTF? Did anyone involved with the series even read the source material?

Powers Boothe has been cast as Jesse Custer (The Preacher) Powers Boothe is a great actor, but the Custer character is a twenty-something shepard to a redneck town in deepest Texas. Unless the series starts at the end of the graphic novels (which I haven’t made it to) and tells the story in flashbacks. However, the lack of Cassidy, who is integral to the series, makes me believe it’s not to be. They may have renamed the character, but why?

This makes me want to cry. I pray that HBO’s adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Fire and Ice” remains closer to the original material.

Finally, it appears that the “Priest” movie is still on, but details are scarce. I’m dreading this one. The manga tells the story of Ivan Isaacs, a priest who sold his soul to a demon to gain vengance against one of the arch-dukes of hell. It’s a gritty, intense, rollercoaster that grabs you by the front of your shirt and holds you tight throughout each 200 page installment.

The series originally ran for 26 issues in South Korea, but seems to have stalled out. I got issue 14 two years ago, and I’m still waiting on issue 15. I’ve actually given up hope on ever finishing this series. It’s a shame, since I loved the merging of the horror and western genres. It was a bloody, brutal, and most importantly - interesting series, that ended too soon on this side of the ocean.

Skipping work today and bored. Found an old directory of pictures on my hard drive, and felt like doing some more lolwork. I can’t promise they’ll set your world on fire, but I only do it to amuse myself.

lolcatz

lolbabiez

It has been a while since I’ve made a lolmetal picture, but when I saw this photo I couldn’t resist. I have an alternate version in mind too, but I have to work on the phrasing.

The band is Quintero, hailing from Philadelphia, PA.

Website
MySpace
Original Photo by: Daniela Sessa at BreakThru Studios

(Crossposted to The BookmarkMoney.com Blog)

Following up on my previous post, I am starting down the path towards becoming an Internet Marketer. I have opened my AdWords account, and started my first campaign. I’m trying to remain cautiously optimistic. I’ve set a limit of $5/day, and I’m going to probably burn through $20 to $25 just testing the waters.

I don’t expect that I’m going to make a crapload of money. I’m not even expecting to make money at all. I don’t have a defeatist attitude, getting rich isn’t the point of this first campaign. The point is to start getting results. I’m eyeballing what seems to be an absolutely massive market that isn’t even remotely being tapped. The question is, how to tap into it.

Hence my first AdWords campaign. I’ve spent years now reading the latest and greatest e-books promising to teach me all of the “Insider’s Secrets” and such. The problem being is that actions are the most important thing when it comes to determining one’s future. I don’t pretend that I’m a guru, or even on the path to becoming one, but I know what my strengths are, and I intend to utilize them to the fullest.

My father is an engineer, my mother an artist. Opposites really do attract, eh? I’ve always had an innate ability to solve problems, generally thinking laterally. I am proud to say that my efforts to break the various systems that I have worked in have led to rules specifically designed to thwart my efforts. Of course, that just generally just encourages me to find new ways around my problems. I digg pissing people off. Moreso, I love to get inside of their heads and just drive them to the brink of madness. I am a psychological sadist who has the ability to observe in a detatched manner the subject I’m working on. I have the brain of a lawyer, but the heart of a used car salesman.

For all of my life I’ve had to deal with the war raging inside of me: logic versus passion. I’m very analytical in my outlook, but I tend to flip to passionate in a heartbeat. My bullshit tolerance is low as a result, and getting lower the older I get. I have a wife, a kid, and a mortgage, so I have to deal with shit, since I can’t just up and quit when I get pissed off, as I was once wont to do.

I stand out at work. I hate working. Detest it. But, the way I see it, if I’m going to be there I’m going to do as much as possible to fill the time. Once I figure out my job, I usually start coasting at about 125% of productivity. That doesn’t make me popular. The fact that I can do it using half the energy of the guy next to me who is struggling at around 80% productivity doesn’t make me many friends either. Add in that I’m a non union worker in a union shop, and it’s amazing I don’t have more “accidents.” The thing is, I’m tired of having to put forth 125% effort just to keep my mind occupied, all the while lining somebody else’s pockets. I want to fill my own pockets with my effort.

That’s why I’m embarking on this venture, so I don’t have to deal with anybody’s crap anymore.

I’ve recently become a reader of Cash Tactics. The author of the blog is “Ruck,” and two years ago he was in my place - wife, two jobs, and trying to get out. Two years later, he’s hit the big time. That’s my inspiration. The ‘only in America’ type of success story that Ruck is enjoying. I admire his honesty. He shoots from the hip, straight from the hip. When he recommends things, he doesn’t even use affiliate links, unless he’s cloaking them some way I can’t figure out.

Recently he wrote a post entitled Stop Looking For Handouts And Start Busting Tail. Articles like this really help to keep my motivation high, and this is the second post in the space of about three days that really spoke to me. I don’t believe in coincidences, but I do believe in synchronicity - the points where everything in the universe seems to actually fit.

I notice synchronicities all the time, but by the time I squash the Woody Allen voice inside of me, the window has closed, and I’m left waiting for the next opportunity. There’s a saying in certain political circles that “Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Political views aside, that sums my life up in a nutshell.

Last Tuesday/Wednesday was one of those times, however instead of debating, I kicked my inner nebbish in the face, and decided to act on an idea that came to me out of the blue. On an impulse I registered BookMarkMoney.com, and actually paid for hosting instead of slaving it to my main hosting account. Then I went to work.

And that’s where I am today. I’m still working, behind the scenes. I’m splitting my time between backend stuff on this site, AdWords, some speculation on eBay, redesigning my brother’s website, snowblowing the damned driveway every two to three days, and my wife and kid. Plus I have an amazing idea in the pipeline, and if I I can wrangle it, I’m going to install the software and play around with it this weekend.

It sounds like a lot of work. And it is. But it’s 125%, and that’s nothing new. The fact that I’m doing it for myself, now that’s new.

Testing to see if w.bloggar works as promised.

*Update*

S-U-C-C-E-S-S spells yay me!

Ahoy mateys, there be spoilers ahead!

Last weekend I was able to wrangle a “Get out of the house free” card, which enabled me to see the movie “Cloverfield.” I’ve been excited to see this movie since I viewed the preview at the atrocious “Transformers” movie premier.

I spent three weeks studiously avoiding any sources of review so that I would be able to enter “Cloverfield” as a blank slate. Granted, I rarely watch anything besides the History channel and DIY Network, but still, it wasn’t easy to avoid spoilers. Hell, I even avoided RottenTomatoes.com, and I always visit them before hitting the theater.

Having overcome my information addiction (Johnny 5 need input!) I entered the theater with an open mind and high hopes.

90 minutes later I exited feeling the dueling emotions of disappointment and joy. The movie was pretty much what I thought it would be, but fell far short of what I hoped it would be.

After watching the trailer, I had guessed that it was going to be a “Godzilla” style monster movie, although filmed from a first person perspective. It had a lot of cool possibilities, and I know a lot of people that swear J. J. Abrams is a god due to his work on “Lost” which I have never seen.

The movie opens with some cool Department of Defense (DoD) graphics and proceeds to explain that the following footage was recovered from a SD card in the area formerly known as Central Park. It was a nice touch, and helped to set the mood.

The first 4-5 minutes are jumpy and disconnected, and it becomes apparent that there are two different movies on the tape. The skipping of the time stamp on the ‘video’ added a nice touch of authenticity, although the movie gives up on that convention pretty quick.

The basic premise of the story is that Jason Hawkins (Mike Vogel) and Lily Ford (Jessica Lucas) who are dating, are throwing a surprise going away party for Rob Hawkins (Michael Stahl-David) who is leaving in the morning to start a new job in Japan.

At the party Jason ditches the camera by giving it to Hudson ‘Hud’ Platt (T.J. Miller), a dim-witted but good meaning friend with instructions to film messages from well-wishers to be given to Rob at the end of the weekend. From there Hud predictably films as much cleavage and ass as he can, focusing particularly on Marlena (Lizzy Caplan).

Rob enters eventually, and is surprised by the goings on. Slightly later Beth (Odette Yustman) enters with a date and Rob becomes agitated. We come to find out, through Hud, that Beth and Rob had slept together and Rob had never called her. Bastard!

Beth leaves in a huff after her and Rob fight, with Rob zinging her with a snarky comment as she exits the door. Two minutes later there’s a massive earthquake, and everybody is unsettled. The TV states that an oil tanker capsized near Ellis Island. Everybody runs to the roof and tries to make out what happened.

Suddenly giant fireballs start heading towards the exposed crowd, which rush en masse to the stairwell, where they proceed to… the street? As they’re standing there looking around, the biggest fireball of all impacts two blocks away and makes a beeline for the camera, knocking cars around willy-nilly.

Hud stands up, focuses, and oh my god, it’s Lady Liberty’s head. Which, if you had seen any of the promotional material, should come as no surprise.

A big cloud of dust comes rolling along from uptown, and judging by the way it was staged, was filmed to evoke memories of September, with glassy-eyed business people wandering around coated in dust. Effective, but an emotional cheap shot.

Jason, Rob, Lily, Hud, and Marlena make a beeline towards the Brooklyn Bridge and safety. Halfway across the bridge Rob gets a call from Beth. The crowd seperates Jason from the rest, and he climbs a light pole to see them. At which point a massive tail comes swooping in from off screen and pulverizes a 20 foot span of bridge.

The remaining members of the original group flee towards solid land, and make it, just before the bridge collapses. Completely ignoring the fact that his brother was atomized two minutes previous, Rob enters an electronics store that’s being vigorously looted, with Hud following on his heels to document his friend’s theft of a new cell phone battery, which died in the middle of his conversation with Beth. Alas, no cellular service!

Rob decides to head uptown, to ground zero, to check on Beth. Some sense of loyalty, or perhaps a longing for familiarity, drive Hud, Lily, and Marlena to follow Rob in his insane quest.

The intrepid group bypasses several military convoys leading lines of citizens to safety. As they’re having a discussion about leaving, two surface to air missiles come flying overhead at an altitude of 15 feet and rising. The camera pans as they impact on the monster, which is approximately two blocks away.

How a 900 foot tall monster was able to sneak that close without rattling cars out of their parking spots is beyond me.

Everybody dives for cover as a platoon races down the street, front-line infantry firing M16’s, missiles, mortars, curse words, pithy comments, and anything else they think may hurt the monster. They’re backed up by several Abrams tanks, which managed to sneak up within a block before making any noise. Amazing stealth technology the Army has.

Our heroes dive into a conveniently located subway entrance, which collapses after they enter. After sitting around for a while Rob receives a call. While underground. In a war zone. I can’t even get decent service when I go to Wal-Mart, but he gets it two stories underground while the Apocalypse rages overhead? I need to switch carriers I guess.

After an hour or so of cooling their heels, Rob decides to walk the tracks to the next station. After fumbling around in the dark for a while, they decide to use the built in light on the camera. I will point out that this camera has been in more or less constant use for roughly three hours at this point, and it still has enough juice to record and light the way. That’s a pretty amazing battery they’ve got there.

As our heroes bravely tromp forward, they’re inundated in an ankle deep swarm of rats. Rather than acknowledging the rats fleeing a sinking ship behavior, they stand around pissing and moaning until they hear some weird sounds coming from behind.

Rob messes with the camera, and flips on the night vision, which, shockingly,  reveals two somethings hanging from the ceiling, which I will refer to here as ‘Zerglings,’ which I will explain later.

The Zerglings look like spider/parrot hybrids the size of a German Shepard, with a temperament to match. A brief struggle ensues, and with the help of some rebar our plucky goth girl Marlena bashes a path through to a rather conveniently located, as well as unexplained door.

The crew tumbles into a small break room and struggles to shut the door. Excepting a large gash on Marlena’s back, everybody is ok. Another hour or so passes, before they decide to check out what’s on the other side of the 2nd door to the room. Gasp, a station!

They exit into the basement level of a department store, where they’re intercepted by soldiers. We learn that this building is being used as a triage center. Rob keeps repeating stupidly about how he has to get to Beth, and by this point I was hoping the CO would actually deck him.

Marlena pipes up that she doesn’t feel well, and when we look at her, she’s bleeding from the eyes, kind of like an Angels and Airwaves album cover. Two people in biohazard suits grab her and escort her behind a conveniently opaque curtain. Two seconds after the curtain drops there’s a big gush of blood, and the soldiers panic.

My friend Adam and I disagree on what happened. He thinks the bites just make people explode. I figure that seeing as how they ripped off a bunch of other stuff from the “Aliens” franchise, that they reproduce in human hosts. That explains, in my mind, the exploding humans, and panicked soldiers. But I digress.

A grunt takes pity on our (now) trio and leads them to a back entrance. He gives them the time and location of the evacuation zone, pushes them out of the door, and leaves them to their own devices.

This part I actually liked. So many times I’ve seen some plucky hero survive impossible odds to reach the military, where he is able to convince the CO to dispatch a platoon to follow him to their inevitable demise, regardless of the fact that they’re outnumbered, their positions are being overrun, and they passed FUBAR hours ago. So to me, it was refreshing to see them turned out on their proverbial ear.

Undeterred by everything up to this point they continue walking, and filming, until Rob stops in horror as he gazes at a building that has broken in half 30 stories up and is leaning drunkenly against a nearby building. Any guesses as to where Beth lives? If you guessed the broken building, your brain cells are apparently still firing.

At this point I would have bid Rob a fond farewell. Assuming that I had followed him this far at all. I’m willing to kill for pussy, but not to die for it. I’m pretty sure that Rob isn’t planning to cut Hud and Lily in on the action anyway.

Stupidly soldiering on in the face of implausibly overwhelming odds, Dudley Doright and his band of amateur medics walk up 60 flights of stairs, cross a pile of rubble 18 inches across to the roof of the broken building, and descend 30 floors to Beth’s apartment.

They break in to discover Beth, impaled on rebar, on the left side of her chest. She opens her eyes and has a moment with Rob, at which point he uses all of the knowledge he gained from playing Operation when he was at summer camp, and convinces the gang to pull her off of the rebar.

Beth has been laying impaled for around 5 hours by this time. If massive blood loss hadn’t killed her, shock surely should have. Barring (no pun intended) all that, she would be suffering from at least a punctured lung from her impalement, and exposure, having lain buffeted with the winds that come from being 30 stories into the sky.

Thinking back to Cub Scouts, and all of the basic first aid he learned there, Rob wraps the gaping wound in Beth’s chest with a t-shirt, puts an arm around her shoulder, and marches her up to the top of the building.

As they’re crossing the scrap bridge they spy the monster a half mile away and heading right for them at a good clip. They descend the intact building, and reach the street where the monster sneaks up on them again as they’re about the reach the landing zone.

Assuming it took them less than, say eight hours, to haul an injured woman up and down 90 flights of stairs combined, judging by the speed and trajectory of the monster it should have been crossing into Vermont by the point they actually reached ground level.

Anyway, they reach the drop zone and Lily boards the second to last helicopter while Hud remains with Rob and Beth. The helicopter flies off of screen, and 35 seconds later flaming metal comes streaking across the plaza and impacts a building. Adam contends that it was a tank the monster kicked, while I prefer to think that it was Lily’s helicopter, since at this point I hate all of them and am actively rooting for their demise.

Somehow the Army holds the monster for our (again) trio to board a helicopter.  They take off, and the pilot makes a slow circle around as we see a Stealth bomber unload several metric tons of whoop-ass on the the beast. There’s a big fireball, some cheering, and then the creature appears and swats the helicopter down.

Now the helicopter was about a half mile in the sky, and at least a mile away from the monster when the bombing commenced. I suppose it just teleported there or something. Since my suspension of disbelief has been suspended since about the subway tunnel, I had just given up on trying to make sense of some stuff.

The helicopter crashes. All dead. Yay! But wait! Miraculously Rob, Beth and Hud have all survived. Rob’s leg is broken so Beth helps him from the wreckage, which surprisingly isn’t burning. Hud leaves but then comes back for the camera. He looks up, into the looming maw of the monster. It picks up the helicopter, chews on it for a while, and spits it out. Hud is dead. About damn time.

Of all the characters, Hud was the one I was most rooting for to die. His inane, nonsensical commentary was grating at the best of times, and at the worst made me want to grind my teeth. I have nothing against the actor, but I swear that Hud was really short for Chud.

Rob and Beth make their way over to check on Hud. And. Grab. The. Goddamn. Camera. Again.

They run to a bridge in the middle of Central Park where they film their final goodbyes, profess their love, and die in a massive fireball that collapses the five tons of ornate brickwork above them. Finally.

I was relieved that everybody died. I know that’s mean of me, but I really hated everybody but Beth, and that’s only because she had all of 8 minutes of screen time. In time, I’m sure I could have hated her too.

The concept of the movie was interesting, but there was too much that just kept taking me out of the moment, and ultimately ruined the experience. The biggest annoyances to me were, in no particular order:

1) Camerawork. It was jittery because they were on the run. Except, who runs with a camera in hand at face level? That’s going to slow you down massively, and you’re probably going to trip over all the shit that isn’t showing up on your viewfinder.

2) Infinite batteries. 10 odd hours of taping, plus using the camera as a flashlight, and it was still going. Until it got crushed. And burned.

3) Infinite memory. I realize that they didn’t film their entire narrative. Thank god. The fact still remains that that must have been at least a one terrabyte memory card. Using a one gigabyte SD card my digital video camera can take around 10-15 minutes of video at low resolution (320*240)  under the best of circumstances.

4) No 20-something professional in New York City is going to act so selflessly, especially not for a one night stand.

5) If this movie was a DoD training film, it would have been edited for content. 6 minutes of blurry footage of the creature from a distance, some of the zerglings, and that one crystal clear shot of its anal sphincter from central park. Your government cares, just not about YOU, and certainly not about your interpersonal relationships when national security is at risk.

I understand what they were trying to accomplish with a lot of the stuff that annoyed me, but in the end it was a failure. I will die for friends and family, if it serves a purpose - like taking a bullet or falling on a grenade.

On the other hand, charging into the slavering maw of an unknown creature the size of Wrigley Field is right out. I would like my death to be meaningful and serve a purpose. Ultimately actions speak louder than words, and I don’t want my last actions to scream “Bob Saget should make an inane joke at my expense in a funny voice on national television.”

If you enjoyed this movie, more power to you. In the end, I couldn’t turn the logical side of my brain off long enough to lose myself.

Oh yeah. If you’ve ever played Starcraft you’ll understand the Zerglings references when you watch this movie. They have to be experienced to be understood.

This election season is seriously underwhelming. The only candidate that I found even remotely palatable on the right side of the aisle threw in the towel. It was a good fight Fred.

As it stands, this is what I see as being the problem(s) with the current contenders on the Republican side:

John McCain: The ‘Maverick’ candidate. Maverick my ass. Try narcissistic, self-serving to a fault, petty, but not maverick. He may be doing well at the moment, but I think a lot of that is due to the fact that he has the name range. The media loves him and have been churning out fluff pieces for years dedicating their love to him.

The problem is, the base hates him for the same reason the media loves him: if there’s ever someone making back room deals to stick his thumb in his party’s eye, John McCain is always at the forefront of the effort. The party may not ask for blind loyalty, but the constant undercutting of one’s peers does not build a good image.

Combine that with the anecdotes circulating about how petty, how mean, he can be if he is, or even feels slighted, plus his ‘legendary’ temper, and that just doesn’t make me comfortable with him dealing with the world in general. If George Bush was a ‘Cowboy,’ how would having a ‘Maverick’ president look to the world?

My prediction is that someone’s going to rub McCain the wrong way, and he’s going to have a meltdown when he thinks nobody is watching, and faster than you can say ‘Dean Scream!’ he’ll be out of it. If it happens, it’s going to be way more impressive than Bush’s “he’s an asshole” comment he made in front of the open mike in 2000.

Mike Huckabee: There’s a lot of problems I have with Huckabee, but it all boils down to one overwhelming problem: religious fervor. This man was a preacher. Not just any preacher, mind you, but a Southern Baptist preacher.

A man who once lead congregations of a denomination that takes attendance at mass, to be certain of who the true true believers are. A denomination that believes that regular Baptists are going to hell for not being Baptist enough.

From the speeches I’ve heard him give he seems to believe that the Bible tells him to spend our tax dollars on more compassionate endeavors. Bush tried that, and look how well it has turned out so far.

I’m not bagging on Huckabee because he belives in god. I think it’s great that he has faith. The problem is his faith is bordering on the “I can step off the ledge and Jesus will save me because he’s like Superman, only with sandals” level, and that scares me.

What’s to stop him from using his executive orders to force people to take their kids to church on Sundays? If it’s for the children, it must be good right? I mean, it’s for their precious widdle souls.

In the end, evangelicals may vote for Huckabee in droves, but South Park conservatives are either going to stay home in droves, vote 3rd party, or just vote for the local guys, and leave the president box empty. I just don’t see a Huckabee nomination leading to a win.

Rudy Guiliani: Of all of the candidates, he would scare me more if I thought he had a chance. His divorce and stance on abortion makes him unpalatable to the social conservatives, and his authoritarian bent gives libertarian conservatives shivers.

When Rudy was mayor of NYC, he did clean it up. But he didn’t go about it the right way. It was all about results, and who cares if he ran roughshod over a few mafia families and their civil liberties in the process?

Rudy wholeheartedly supports the use of torture in interrogation, which makes most sensible people leery, but willing to overlook it as long as it’s only happening to brown people on the other side of the world who believe in the wrong god. What happens when it starts happening on our soil to drug dealers, just to speed up investigations.

Rudy likes the Patriot act. Strike that, he LOVES the Patriot act. I think it actually gets him sexually aroused when he considers the possibilities of its uses. Considering all of the furor and hyperbole slung around about Bush destroying our freedoms Guiliani, with his track record, should have the week kneed among us shaking in their boots.

Mitt Romney: Of the front runners, he seems to be the best chance the Republicans have, which isn’t saying much. He’s pretty business minded, but not as gung-ho as a lot of Republicans, which is good, since restraint should be used at times.

He managed to balance the budget in Massachusetts. A politician who can balance anything besides his lies is pretty impressive to me.

Romney’s main weaknesses are the fact that a Massachusetts Republican would be considered a liberal anywhere to the west of Massachusetts, and the fact that he’s a Mormon.

He doesn’t come out and slap you with a Bible like Huckles the Clown, but Mormonism is so alien to the rest of the country that he might as well be a Branch Davidian. What we do attribute to Mormonism is usually practiced by splinter groups, but most people probably won’t make the distinction.

Romney’s fiscal conservatism is a definite plus. Of all candidates running, he seems like he might actually be responsible with tax revenue, or at least less irresponsible than his contenders.

From what I’ve been seeing and hearing, Romney also seems to have a lot of female fans. Women seem to be drawn to him, and that may factor in heavily when push comes to shove.

Ron Paul: I like a lot of his ideas, and he does appeal to the Libertarian in me, but he never had a chance. There’s so much fear, uncertainty, and doubt surrounding him, that I’m not even going to try to get into it.

If he has any sense, he’ll give up on the Republican race and run as an independent. He may split the vote like Perot did in ‘96, but honestly, the big-tent days of Republicanism are over, and there’s going to be a fracture between evangelicals and everyone else.

In the end, I’ll probably end up voting Libertarian this election, like I do every election season. I realize that it’s basically a protest vote, but eventually I’m not going to be the only voice shouting in the darkness.

It was for this reason that I joined my county’s Republican delegation this year. Complaining won’t solve anything, so I decided to help attempt to steer the party back towards its small ‘l’ libertarian roots.

Now, I’m no political prognosticator, but unless Hillary Clinton gets the nod, the Republicans are pretty much hopeless when it comes to maintaining their hold on the White House. I do see them recapturing the majority in at least one of the houses of government.

With popularity numbers hovering in the sub 20% range, the Democrats stand a pretty good chance of being turned out on their collective ears. If that comes to pass, it’s not because the Republicans deserve to be in the majority because they’re better; it’s just that they’re not any worse than the Democrats.

If they do re-take the majority, it would be nice to see them act like they actually own the position instead of acting like beaten dogs that shied away when anyone raises their voice.

Seeing the obnoxious murderer Ted Kennedy bluster his way into co-writing an ostensibly Republican education bill that actually makes things worse sickened me to the core. Everyone blames George Bush for No Child Left Behind, but I haven’t heard anyone holding Uncle Teddy’s gin soaked feet to the fire for writing that abomination.

These are just my personal observations, based upon anecdotal evidence. Don’t ask me for sources. If I didn’t care to google anything for this article, I’m not going to do it by request either.

Do the world a favor, and actually look into your candidates, instead of relying on sound bites. You might be surprised when actions speak louder than words.

My wife and I watched ‘Death Sentence’ earlier this week. I remember it piquing my interest when it first came out, but never really had the chance to see it when it was in theaters.

Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon), is an assistant VP at a Fortune 500 company with a McMansion in the ‘burbs, a beautiful wife Helen (the MILF-a-liscious Kelly Preston), and two perfect sons.

His whole world is shattered when his oldest son, Brendan, is killed during a botched holdup at an inner city gas station. Numbness turns to grief, grief to resolve, resolve to action.

When faced with the reality of his son’s killer, Joe (Matt O’Leary) working the system, Nick refuses to testify at trial, and the killer gets off. After trailing the killer home, he returns that night to confront Joe, and accidentally sparks a war with Joe’s gang.

When I heard that this movie was directed by the same guy who did the ‘Saw’ movies, I was worried. I’ve never seen any of the ‘Saw’ movies, and torture porn doesn’t really do much for me. However, I was willing to give it a chance, since Kevin Bacon is an actor who can transcend whatever role is sent his way.

The shooting of the movie is very close and personal, and the way the camera ducks and weaves, at times it almost feels as if you are following Nick, instead of just observing him. The parking garage scene is a perfect example of the camerwork.

The cinematography is excellent, and the contrasts between the bright, plastic, pre-packaged world of Nick, and the dark, gritty, urban settings that Joe and his gang haunt are very marked, and really help to set the tone.

At its core, ‘Death Sentence’ is a revenge film. Revenge movies tend to resonate with audiences because of the strength of the emotion when it comes to the human animal. The problem with revenge movies, is that they can come across as just plain mean spirited in the wrong hands.

Chuck Jones had a rule for his pictures: Bugs Bunny had to be provoked. Otherwise he was just a sadistic asshole. That’s why we love Bugs Bunny - he never starts the fight, but by god he will finish it.

This movie hits on multiple levels: the death of the prodigal son, the need to avenge a pointless death, the need to prove one’s self a man in a society that has completely removed coming-of-age rituals.

In the end though, it all comes down to making the bad people pay. The story starts in black and white contrast, but slides into gray very quickly.

The acting is top notch all around, and John Goodman’s portrayal of ‘Bones’ is truly chilling. Garret Hedlund’s portrayal of Billy Darly is also very strong, and former host of E’s ‘The Soup’ Aisha Tyler turns in a great performance as Detective Wallis.

If you’re a fan of thrillers, action movies, or revenge flicks, this movie will be right up your alley. As I watched it I was put in mind of ‘The Salton Sea,’ and ‘Old Boy.’ If you’re familiar with those movies, then you know that’s high praise indeed.

Just finished ‘Shoot ‘Em Up.’ Holy crap.

Take one part Matrix, one part ‘Sin City,’ a big heaping spoonful of meth, toss in a blender, and serve. ‘Shoot ‘Em Up’ is the story of a man who has to protect an unlikely target - a baby.

The action in this movie is intense and non-stop. In fact, over-the-top probably comes closer to the truth. Amazing choreography during the fight scenes, closer to a ballet than a bar room brawl.

As for the story, don’t pay too much attention to it. It’s there, and it makes some sense as long as you don’t think too hard on it. Otherwise it doesn’t even come close to passing the refrigerator test. Check your brain at the door since, honestly, you’re not here for anything more than the gunfights.

Clive Owen’s character is a poor man’s James Bond. Monica Belucci is the hooker with a heart of gold. Paul Giamatti is the quirky criminal mastermind.

Overall, the characters are pretty one dimensional as written, but the actors really help flesh them out. You could tell that the actors were just having a hell of a good time during this movie.

I  recommend this movie to anyone that’s looking for a fun, mindless action movie. Plus I can distill the greatest draw down into four words: Monica. Belucci. Running. Corset.