I was up late Wednesday night cleaning and sorting the junk mail, so I watched Zack Snyder’s Watchmen film from 2009. Before it came out, I’ll admit that, judging from the trailers, it looked amazing. I’ve never read, nor was I familiar with, Alan Moore’s Watchmen comic book series. Still, if the film is executed well, the audience should get the gist regardless. The only Zack Snyder that I’ve seen beforehand was 300, which was more about the visual vs the story or being grounded in reality.

I won’t go to detailed into the plot. Basically, the Watchmen were a group of superheroes who have since now retired.  One of the superheroes is murdered, and the rest try to find out who may be trying to kill them off. It takes place primarily in an alternate 1985, but there are flashbacks to events in the early 20th century when certain key backstory events occurred. It’s an overly long movie, clocking in at 2 hours and 45 mins. I do feel that it was a little bloated, and could have been a little compressed. I believe the general was, “What does it mean to be a superhero, to have super powers?” They aren’t perfect people, so what is their responsibility? What do people expect from them?

My favorite was Rorschach, but it was enjoyable to watch the ass-kickin’ scenes. If the movie wasn’t so overly long, I think I would have enjoyed it better. It’s still interesting to watch, so I’d recommend it.

Watchmen (2009)

I went to one of my local bike shops that I frequent to research a new helmet, new pedals, and new shoes. While I was there, I checked out a 2011 Trek Madone that they had on display. The frame is carbon, so it was very light. It’s a beautiful bike, but certainly out of my price range!

2011 Trek Madone 6.5 Project One

2011 Trek Madone 6.5 Project One specs

After 2+ years, the battery in my key fob for our Toyota Highlander was running low. After a few too many warnings, I considered taking it to my Toyota dealership to replace it. However, you know it’s going to take too much time and a little too much money to have them replace a simple battery. I researched online, and found out it was extremely easy. You need to use the valet key to pry open the fob, then replace the battery, which can be found at your local Radio Shack. It was fairly easy, and the battery cost me about $5.00. Much better than driving all the way to the dealership!

Toyota Highlander key fob innards

Toyota Highlander key fob (battery)

With some of Josh’s birthday gift cards, we picked up some new movies for home use — How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3. I know video streaming (Netflix, Vudu, Amazon on Demand) is the new thing, and don’t get me wrong, I like the instant availability. However, not every film is available at your every whim. I used to purchase a lot of DVDs for my personal library during the heyday of DVDs — that time in the late 90′s and early 2000′s when everyone was convinced that you should be building a DVD library. Times changed when consumers realized that not every film is worth owning. How many times are you going to watch Miss Congeniality 2? I think video rental services help serve that once-in-a-while need.

I still think buying movies does fulfill a need when you know you will be rewatching a movie over and over again. Kids will rewatch their Disney/animated films relentlessly. I have my own favorites too. I think those films that fit that category would be better off in your home collection. To make the most of my money, I’ve also become a fan of Blu-ray discs (1080p, TruHD 7.1 surround sound) and movies combo packs. If I’m going to purchase a movie, the best ones include a blu-ray disc (home use), a DVD (car), and a digital copy (for viewing on my iPhone/iPod.) I think that’s a pretty good deal.

New movies -- Dragon, Toy Story 3

For an inexplicable reason, I haven’t seen Pixar’s Up yet. It’s been out for two years, received critical and audience acclaim, and been availabe via Netflix streaming for about a year now. And yet, I never sat and watched it from start to finish. Oh, I’ve watched the first 10 mins a few times, but that’s it. Today, I sat with the kids, and we watched Up together.

Wow, what a great movie. The first 10 mins of the film tell so much about the friendship and marriage of Carl and Ellie, presented so well, and so moving. The animation was good, the story was good, and the usual Pixar magic regarding the characters. This was a nice adventure story, a sweet little film about aging and life. It has so many elements — adventure, fantasy, comedy, suspense, and certainly a sentimental aspect. I need to see it again.  I watched this over streaming video, but I read that the blu-ray is excellent.

BTW, seriously, how funny was Dug the doug? “Squirrel!!!”

Up (2009)

As a child of the 80′s, I grew up on a few, critical, pop culture icons — The $6 Million Dollar Man, Knight Rider, etc.  Saturdays were the best. I’d get up at 5am on Saturday mornings to watch Rocky & Bullwinkle, all those nutty cartoons (Smurfs, Chipmunks, Looney Tunes), and whatever was popular at that moment. Saturday afternoons were hit-and-miss, but sometimes there was something good on, primarily 70′s kung fu movies and Godzilla.

Ah, Godzilla, my childhood friend. You were the big monster hero, out to battle aliens, space monsters, and freaks of nature. There are three eras of Godzilla films, and I’m completely ignoring that stupid Emmerich. Let me elaborate:

• The Showa era (1954-1975) — my favorite series, starting with the 1954 original classic.
• The Heisei era (1984-1995) — begins with the 1984 film, but I’m not a big fan, so I haven’t seen them all.
• Millenium era (1999-2004) — I haven’t watched any of these.

Although I watch a few of the 1990′s Heisei era films in college, I wasn’t enamored. I supposed I had a soft spot for the old kitchy films of my childhood. I watched a few clips with Joshua last year, but we sat and watched two entire Showa films this month — Godzilla vs The Thing (1964) and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974). So far, Josh likes them, but he prefers the later ones where Godzilla is a hero, not a villain / force of nature.

Apart from the big birthday party last Sunday, Josh wanted to eat at IHOP on his actual birthday. Apparently, he’s a big pancake fanatic. Who knew? After we got back from work, we took the kids out for dinner. To pass the time, Joshua devoured one of his new Magic Treehouse books (birthday present), and Lily & I made faces.

Joshua loves his books

Making faces

A Star Wars family

Joshua celebrated his sixth birthday this year. Trying to find something different to do, we opted to rent a nearby community room, and entertain the kids ourselves. We decided on a space / Star Wars theme for the party. Since Joshua was in kindergarten now, we invited friends and children from both kindergarten classes at his school. Out of 40 kids, I’ll never understand the folks who never RSVP. I mean, really, can’t you pick up the phone?

Handmade lightsabers

As the party attendance grew to around 25 kids plus the parents, we decided that maybe we weren’t going to be able to successfully entertain all those kids (and their parents), and run the overall party simultaneously. A few days earlier last week, we opted to hire someone else to professionally come in and do it. In hindsight, great idea. I can handle entertaining my two kids, but 25 kids? Recipe for disaster, and me fleeing through the fields. We made a call to Dynamic FitKids, and they were available on Sunday afternoon.

My wife had some cool ideas, such as us wearing Star Wars t-shirts. As part of the goody/gift bags, each kid would take home their very own handmade lightsaber (made from a pool noodle.). Finally, Namita made a pretty awesome Star Wars birthday cake with a mini Death Star on it.

A Star Wars cake

Two years in a row, the day called for rain, but we dealt with it. We got to the hall about two hours before to set up and decorate. The kids and parents promptly began arriving at 3pm, but we were fairly ready. The kids ran around, then our entertainment arrived, set up quickly, and we were off. It turns out that 25 kids is a lot of children to handle, so we’re doubly glad we didn’t try to do it ourselves. I think everyone thought the cake was pretty cool, and the kids seem to enjoy beating each other with their lightsabers.

Joshua’s 6th birthday party – Rocket Ship Activity from Joel Ipe on Vimeo.

A week or so ago, I finally watched the fourth and final Futurama direct-to-DVD film Into the Wild Green Yonder. This movie segues into the return of Futurama to the small screen with season six in 2010. Featuring the same cast voices, the Planet Express crew must stop “dark forces” from destroying any chances of a “green, new age.” There a few concurrent plot threads running in this film before merging at the end. Leela joining a feminist movement, Fry being challenged to go undercover to stop the aforementioned “dark forces”, and well, whatever.

The jokes that hit were good, but the jokes that fell flat weren’t so good. It’s a decent rental if you’re a Futurama fan, but not the strongest of the four installments. As a matter of fact, looking back through my four reviews, I’m not a big fan of any of the four films. The first few seasons of the tv series were great, but the quality has certainly dropped overall.

Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009)