Batson's Blog

I was on vacation last week and for a change I thankfully (or maybe not?) had Netflix access. I was addicted to it for most of the last week, watching Greedy (not Michael Fox's best film), Pretty Ugly People (which got a deserving low score of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes ), and Hart of Dixie (a review of that show to come at a later date...). While watching Hart of Dixie I couldn't help but notice a couple of instances of celebrity look-a-likes. On the left: Jaime King On the right: Emma Stone First there’s Jaime King, who plays Lemon Breeland, a southern belle from a small town. For most of the first episode of the hour-long drama, I was convinced that Lemon Breeland was played by Emma Stone. If Emma hadn’t dyed her hair and played Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man , I wouldn’t have given it a second though. After seeing Stone in her blonde hair, however, she really could be King’s sister. It's all in the dimples with these two. I think that's what m...

I was going to see the sequel G.I. Joe flick earlier, but I unexpectedly found that the normal rate for a evening ticket to a movie is at least $10.00. AMC and Regal Theatres were actually more expensive than $10.00. So, I decided to wait and go to a mid-day showing. $5.00 ticket? Much more reasonable. The medium pop and popcorn still cost about $12, but oh well. Popcorn has always been part of the movie theatre experience for me. Evidently is just now a costly one. I was worried for a moment that I wouldn't get to see the movie. There were projector problems throughout the previews. The Wolverine, opening in May, sounded very cool. The black screen I was watching left me eagerly listening to the entire trailer. Maybe it's better that way. It'll be more of a surprise when I watch it. Thankfully they fixed the video issue before the movie started. There's a pretty fun action sequence that kicks off Retaliation involving Duke (Channing Tatum), Roadblock...

Last week Disney-Pixar announced a follow-up to the mega-successful Finding Nemo , released in 2003. Finding Dory will be in theatres by 2015 . After the Finding Dory announcement, I saw lots of happiness on Facebook. As a big fan of the original movie, I was really excited by the news myself. It's not one I was expecting though. It's been 10 years since the original movie was released. Despite being very successful, there never seemed to be any serious talk about doing a sequel. There's actually quite a few unexpected sequels that are coming to theaters soon. Star Wars: Episode VII (sequel to Star Wars: Episodes I-VI ) Release Date: 2014 Did anyone see this one coming? I was shocked when Disney made the announcement that they'd purchase LucasFilm's Star Wars and that they'd be making not one, but several new follow-ups . In some ways it's kind of cool, but I'm not sure if they'll be as successful as the original trilogy. It w...

I watched Men In Black 3 the other day (pretty good movie...a review likely to come at some point) and saw their completely awesome....uni-motorcycles, for lack of a better term. The one, large wheel was on the outside and the seat was inside of it. The design allowed easier maneuvering than your typical two-wheeled motorcycle. The bikes also made for a pretty fun action scene. Mostly, though, they made me want to ride on one of those for real. If only... It got me thinking about some of the other things in movies and TV shows that should be real. There's actually several things that came to mind pretty quickly. Here's the list I've come up with. From 10 to 1, these are the totally cool items that should definitely be real: 10. The Turtlecom ( Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ) For those not familiar with the TMNT universe, the TurtleCom was a way for the turtles and their pal April O'Neal to communicate with each other in times of emergency because let...

I'm a big fan of Mickie James, but I won't be able to go to this event. For any other Mickie James fans in the Charlotte area, however, here's the info you need. Going back to the 5 W's for this blog post: Who: Mickie James What: Mickie James will give a performance of her single "Somebody's Gonna Pay," she'll throw out the ceremonial first pitch, and she'll take part in an autograph signing. When: Friday, April 12 7:00 PM Where: Knights Stadium 2280 Deerfield Drive Fort Mill, SC Other Info: Tickets are on sale at www.charlotteknights.com or by calling 704-357-8071 (ext. 2106). Mickie's album is scheduled for release on May 7.

After the success I had in Cornelius last week , I figured, why not try and make it two for two. When I Googled 'cupcake shops cornelius' a shop called SweetCakes showed up -- just off I-77 at Exit 21. It's located in a shopping center that was surprisingly crowded for my mid-week trip during the middle of the day. After navigating through a bit of congested traffic, I stepped inside the shop. It looks exactly like it does on the website. The cupcakes look the same too. Cookies & Cream It seems like strawberry is one flavor that every cupcake shop has. The other flavor is cookies and cream. This version -- all of the cupcakes at SweetCakes for that matter -- looked different than any other cupcakes I've run across. They have a square, block-ish type of look to the frosting. It's almost like the head of a hammer. I was worried there would be too much frosting, but that wasn't the case at all. It was balanced very nicely. This cookies and...

Let me say, first off, that I want CM Punk to beat The Undertaker this year and end the streak. I think he's a great candidate to do so. He's young enough to still have several good years left in WWE, he's a big enough name to make the win shocking, yet not unrealistic. He'd also get even more heat as a heel than he previously has. That being said, with Wrestlemania 30 next year, I don't see it happening. I think CM Punk is destined to suffer a couple of tombstone piledrivers and taking a pinfall. I'm alright with that too. After all, next year is Wrestlemania 30. It would be a nice, round number to have a culmination. For that very reason, I think it would be epicly cool to have CM Punk pull out a win at MetLife Stadium. I'm not optimistic about it happening, but I'd mark out if it did. Assuming Taker does defeat Punk on Sunday and assuming he does wrestle another match, that means he'll have another opponent for next year. I know ...