Batson's Blog

It's Oscar weekend! What better way to celebrate than by watching the 16th President of the United States hunt vampires? Lincoln seems like a shoe in to win some awards (it leads the ceremony with 12 nominations), but I haven't seen it yet, so I can't put up a review on it. Instead, what I offer you, is Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter . It wasn't half bad. I was confused for about the first half hour, however. I was browsing through the Redbox selections and saw Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies . I fully intended to get Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter -- and I did -- but, for some reason, I had zombies on the brain. So there I was watching the movie about vampires thinking I was watching, thinking, "Boy, these zombies sure act like vampires." Well, that would be why. I was watching Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter . The movie quality kind of reminds me of Twilight -- in that it's not a spectacular cinematic experience, but it's not quite ...

After a break from the cupcakes last week, I was back on track this week. This time I chose Cupcake Delirium . It was a little tougher to coordinate because you can't necessarily swing by Cupcake Delirium as easily as some of the other places I've tried. That's because Cupcake Delirium does business off their website or out of their food truck. They have free delivery in Charlotte with a $30 minimum order. I didn't need that many cupcakes, but there's a $5 charge if you order anything less than $30, so rather than ordering off the website, I tracked down their food truck. It wasn't too hard to find because Cupcake Delirium is active on social media. They post the daily location of their truck on their Facebook page and on their Twitter account . I was going to get just a couple of cupcakes at $3 a piece, but then noticed they have a deal to get four cupcakes for $10. So I could get two cupcakes for $6 or four cupcakes for $10. Their deal suckered...

If you're looking forward to celebrating Valentine's Day, but not necessarily by watching a completely mushy movie, then here's a list for you. Here are five of my favorite romantic comedies that have a nice, romantic story, but also have the chops to be a good comedy. You won't need a box of Kleenex for these, but do have moments that leave you going, "Awww." 5. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) Who says super hero movies are limited to just fight scenes with villains? The romance in Captain America was a subtle one but ended up building to a very dramatic moment at the end of the movie. The sparks were there between Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell…the Kate Beckinsale look-a-like) and Captain America (Chris Evans) when the Cap was just Steve Rogers, the small guy from Brooklyn. When he became Captain America there was a lot more to be attracted to. There were a lot more girls who were attracted to him, but Captain America, being the faithfu...

J.J. Abrams is about to go from Star Trek to Star Wars . "Yes, J.J. Abrams will direct Star Wars: Episode VII, the first of a new series of Star Wars films to come from Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy," was written in a statement published on StarWars.com. While I'm not a mega-fan of his work like some are, I thoroughly enjoyed the 2009 Star Trek movie. If Abrams can bring that kind of work to the Star Wars films, it'll only mean good things. I've been in a sci-fi kind of mood recently, as I just watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Wars: Episode II . Both movies left a lot to be desired, so I'm all for Abrams taking a shot at re-creating Star Wars (even if it doesn't need to be revived). Related Content: • Star Wars: Episode II - reviewed. • Star Trek: The Motion Picture - reviewed.

I'd never seen the original Star Trek, but J.J. Abrams' 2009 movie gave me an itch to watch a little more of the Star Trek franchise. I figured the best place to start was square one. Turns out that may not have been the case. The effects in the movie weren’t too bad – despite being several decades old. Granted, they kind of played it safe. They didn't have the cast involved in a lot of the special effects. Much of the effects were done in the outer space setting, so it was probably easier to incorporate graphics into that than it would be to mix with actual human beings. There were some primitive green screen spots as well, however, like when Spock was floating into the invading alien's ship. The story is what was lacking. It lacked a little bit of logic (this alien ship seemed more friendly than threatening), but most of all it lacked excitement. The alien ship, which was operated by robotics (no humans or other races aboard), didn’t really both to at...

I first saw this movie when it was released in the early 2000s. I don’t think I’ve seen it since then. I was going to start with Star Wars: Episode I and go through the entire hectlogy (trilogy x2), but Episode I was on a “Very Long Wait” status on Netflix. I had the same issue with the movie this time around as I did last time: bad acting. Hayden Christensen gave such a stoic performance . After watching the movie again I have to wonder if that’s what George Lucas was going for. Natalie Portman’s performance wasn’t much better. Ewan McGregor wasn’t much better than Christensen. Their performances were a mixture of campy and unenthused. Even Samuel L. Jackson was bland. The delivery of their lines lacked the conviction they should’ve had to make the movie truly epic. Maybe that’s how Lucas wanted it, though. Maybe it wasn’t the actors. Portman went on to win an Academy Award , so it’s hard to argue that she can’t act. She delivered a believable and enjoyable perfo...

After trying store-bought cupcakes from Target and Wal-Mart last week, I went the opposite direction this week – literally and figuratively. I made a stop at Sunflour Bakery , off The Plaza. It’s a bakery that is dedicated “to creating fresh baked goods every day from scratch with ingredients that are organic and local whenever possible.” “At Sunflour, our products are real food made without artificial ingredients, hydrogenated oils, preservatives, or dough conditioners so that you can trace the food back to its basic ingredients and origins.” - sunflourbakingcompany.com I stopped Saturday afternoon – less than 10 minutes before closing time. They have new winter hours. Despite me stopping in at a point when they were probably cleaning up, the staff gave me a friendly greeting. I didn’t have a lot of time to look around, but thankfully I took a look at their Facebook page ahead of time. I knew they had a Rolo cupcake – a dark chocolate cake filled with house made caramel...