Batson's Blog

Can we talk Iron Man 3 ? I was told by a friend of mine on Twitter that Iron Man 3 stopped being cool on Sunday. True, I was not one of the many people who saw it opening weekend, but better late than never right? The third installment in the Iron Man series (and the sequel to The Avengers ) was definitely very cool! I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had high hopes after the first two Iron Man movies, Thor , Captain America and The Avengers . Marvel has been on a role the past few years, so I was hoping they’d deliver a kick-ass movie in order to keep that momentum going. Based on the one trailer I saw for Iron Man 3, it seemed that Tony Stark faced a threat like never before. The preview I saw showed some of the Iron Man suits getting blown up. Iron Man 3 almost immediately started with that very same image. It wasn’t all explosions though. In fact, perhaps more than in the previous Iron Man appearances, this movie had a back-story, characters with different al...

Jack Reacher is available on DVD today. It's one of the few recent DVD releases I'm intrigued by. Tom Cruise is not my favorite actor, by any means, but he does a decent job in certain roles. It seems this could be one of them. The Jack Reacher character is the main reason I may have to make it a Redbox Tuesday tomorrow. Reacher is a character from a book series by British author Lee Child (real name: Jim Grant). Here's the back story: Reacher served 13 years in the Military Police, but eventually became part of the 110th Special Investigations Unit. He's no longer with that group though. Now, as an ex-military investigator, he gets roped into a plot that requires his military skills to get out alive. Sounds like it could be a decent action movie. Will it be a one-time role for Cruise or will the movie turn into a trilogy or series? There are apparently several Jack Reacher books out there already. I'm sure some could be adapted to movies as well. Of cour...

This week I went to The Bakery Shoppe in Huntersville. I called ahead because I didn’t know if they had cupcakes there. They said they’d just put about two dozen cupcakes out 15 minutes before, so I was in luck. I used the GPS to get to there, but there’s a series of mini-malls in the same parking lot. There is no sign on the building – just one on the window – so the shop doesn’t jump right out at you. Basically, if you’re going to The Bakery Shoppe – look for Showmars and then go South, across the driveway. It’s a quaint shop inside, with some tables to sit at and a couple of large armchairs that look like a nice spot to relax if you have a smart phone to keep you entertained or some reading to do. There’s a wide variety of pastries, cookies and cakes in The Bakery Shoppe, but not a wide variety of cupcakes. Although the shop spruces up their cupcakes and offers a variety for events , there were only two different flavors in the case, so it made my selection easy enoug...

I had wondered why Flight didn’t do better at the box office. It seemed like it had a decent enough plot – a pilot saving a crew in dire situation. Turns out it’s no hero movie. After watching it, I can understand why it didn’t do well at the box office. It isn't exactly the kind of movie a family would go to. Although the story wasn’t at all similar, it kind of reminded me of something along the lines of Girl Interrupted . There were a couple moments that made me laugh, but overall it was a slow and fairly depressing movie. It started with Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) in a hotel room with a flight attendant, who goes full frontal for the camera. As Whitaker and his lady friend make their way to their flight (despite being hungover and coked up), the movie shifts focus to a red-headed druggie ( Kelly Reilly ). She and Whitaker eventually cross paths, but they don't know each other at this point in the movie. I assume someone with decision-making authority ...

It was Redbox Tuesday for me this week. That’s the day when they update their machines with new releases. I was in the mood to watch something new, so I made a trip to Walgreen’s to check out what Redbox had to offer. I didn’t have a particular movie in mind. I really wasn’t impressed with Tuesday’s releases, so I got one that’s been out for a while: Taken 2 . Except for the bad acting on the part of Maggie Grace, Taken wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t amazing, but it was a new concept and, really, any movie where Liam Neeson is kicking someone’s ass can’t be that bad. As you can probably guess (or maybe you’ve read already), this movie is about the family of the men who were killed in the last movie. Now that family wants revenge. They track Bryan Mills (Neeson), who ends up on assignment in Istanbul. He offers his ex-wife and daughter a trip there, to help them cope with a few things. It’s not long before Mills realizes he was tracked, which results in a car chase. There...

I realized it’s been a few weeks since my last movie review. Before that, it was even longer, so I decided: it’s movie week. All week, a new movie review each day. It starts off with Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow . I remembered seeing a few previews years ago, but it never peaked my interest enough to see the actual movie. It was on my Netflix list, however, so last week it ended up in my mailbox. Turns out, it wasn’t a bad movie at all. Sky Captain was a lot like Sin City in the sense that it consisted of a lot of very impressive artwork and graphics. At first I didn't realize there was so much animation involved. The movie starts off with a scientist getting killed. From there giant robots attack New York City. The Sky Captain, Harry "Joe" Sullivan (Jude Law) ends up swooping in (literally, with his Sky Captain plane) to save the day.  During the entire scene with the robots, it becomes clear that a good portion of the movie was filmed in f...

With the premiere of the third Iron Man just a few days away, there are several questions to be answered: who is the main villain? How will Iron Man survive what appears to be (based on the previews anyway) his greatest threat yet? Will there be an Iron Man 4? Just as important, though, is this question: what will Stan Lee’s cameo be? He’s made an appearance in almost every Marvel movie in the past decade. It’s become a tradition. Even his least memorable cameos have been very fun to watch. To prepare you for Iron Man 3 , here’s the top 15 Stan Lee cameos: 15. Stan Lee as an eyewitness to the Avengers saving New York City Stan Lee’s last cameo, in The Avengers , was fun, but not particularly clever or overly memorable. He made a minor appearance towards the end of the movie as a witness to the scene in New York. To be fair, The Avengers was such an action-packed movie that finding a cameo for Lee was probably a fairly difficult task. 14. Stan Lee as a heroic bystan...