Friday, February 17, 2012

Maybe it IS time for a reboot

I had plenty of gripes about Spider-Man 3. Pretty much anyone who saw the movie had 'em. Even so, I think that Sam Raimi was forced to cram too much into one movie and that he still does a great job with the franchise. From what I heard, he wanted to do 3 as mostly Sandman with the black suit added into the mix. Venom would come in the next movie. That would have been perfect. Would he still have had the cringe-inducing bad boy change coming from a hair flip or dance sequences? Maybe, but it would have been a better movie and the next one with all Venom would have kicked ass. So, 3 aside, I think the Spider-Man movies could have picked up just fine.

Seeing that the one coming out this summer is a reboot made me cringe as well. Come ON! I'm a huge Spidey fan but even I'm getting sick of the whole origin story thing. Between the movie, the cartoons, the iterations of the comic books and video games, I've seen that spider bite his hand so many times that I just want Uncle Ben to hurry up and get killed so we can GET ON WITH IT. Even with new actors, directors, and the whole bit, we could have just continued with more Spidey stories. The only reason to do a reboot is to give the whole thing a fresh look and feel. So...here's the newest trailer for this summer's Spidey offering...




I gotta admit, the teasers had me intrigued and this pretty much seals the deal. I like a good reboot. Casino Royale made James Bond f'ing cool again and Batman Begins...well come on. I don't have to mention how nerdgasmically awesome the Nolan Batman movies are. Looks like this new Spider-Man has plenty of promise. The Lizard looks great and the whole thing has that Spider-Man feel that still gets my geeky toes a'tappin'. Between this, The Avengers and Rise of the Dark Knight, it looks to be a great summer. Hell, I'm still pumped for Ghost Rider!

Monday, February 13, 2012

The Good, the Bad and the Snotty


Time for scratchy throat / cough / headache season. Yippee. Let's weigh some of the pros and cons as far as hacking up bloody mucus every few minutes is concerned.

Pro - I get to take all kinds of medicines, some of which make me feel delightfully dizzy.
Con- All those meds combine deep within my digestive plumbing to form a noxious stew.
Pro - That stew tastes like honey and cherry
Con - I'm allergic to cherries
Pro - No, I'm not.

Con - My appetite is going down.
Pro - That's got to be good for me on some dietary level, right?
Con - Not really

Pro - I don't get funny looks for being in my pajamas and robe at 7pm.
Con - The robe has dried soup on the labels and crusty sleeves.

Pro - I get a little more time to blog
Con - The blog posts turn out like this one.

Back to bed.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The Big Game

No, I'm not talking about Arkham City (which I'm still working my way through one glorious side mission at a time). I'm talking Super Bowl here. Ever since I traded in my overpriced cable/DVR combo for Netflix and Hulu on Xbox Live, I haven't been able to watch much in the way of sports. I catch the occasional game here and there, but not enough to keep abreast on what's what. All in all it's a good trade-off for not having  40 hours of stuff in a DVR waiting for me to watch. This way, I actually get some work done. I do still have my favorite teams when I am able to watch a game and let's just say the Giants or Patriots ain't one of  'em.

I don't have a very good reason for this. Maybe, since I'm a Midwestern boy, my loyalties drift more toward teams in those regions. Ok...I actually WAS rooting for the Giants. Mostly because they're NOT the Patriots. My reasoning for this? I could spout some anti-Brady sentiment or various disputed plays, but that would just be my attempt to sound like I know what I'm talking about. In fact, I hate the Patriots because of Madden NFL for the XBox. Not the 360. I'm talking the original XBox. I think Madden NFL '05 was the last one I played and I played the HELL out of it with Webmaster Steve on Live. I would pick a team because of the skulls on their jerseys or their proximity to my house and he would actually pick teams based on skill.

Well, in Madden '05, if you picked the Patriots, you could pretty much put the controller down, walk away from your TV, get something to eat, hit the bathroom and STILL win. Every pass, no matter how well it was covered, was caught. Defensive players bounced off of Brady like bullets off of Superman's eyeball (one of the very few cool moments in Superman Returns). Their defense consisted of Mack trucks and bulldozers with jerseys stretched over their freaking backs. And the other teams just wilted. I guess the makers of the game wrote that one off to "momentum" or "shifts in the game's atmosphere". Lob a 70 yard pass to a receiver who'd already been brought down somehow? No problem he'd make the play anyhow. I threw down my controller, traded the disk in at Game Stop for about 75 cents and ended my Madden career.

Even Steve had to admit the Pats were ridiculously overpowered. It got to the point where he'd pick them just to get under my skin and I never picked them because I hated the sight of their stupid digitized faces!! So thanks, EA Sports. Thanks for making it easy for me to pick a team to root for in this year's Bowl. It actually was a pretty entertaining game to watch and when the Patriots lost...I couldn't help but smile. Video game vendettas NEVER die.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

The Site / Blog Combo

Hey everyone. In case you haven't noticed, I've taken down my old website and routed all traffic from http://www.marcuspelegrimas.com/ here to my blog. Part of this change was to cut down on expenses, but most of it was just streamlining. Webmaster Steve did a GREAT job of making the site what it was and I enjoyed having it there. I just didn't have the time to devote to making it really great and felt that, instead of having it stagnate, I'd just consolidate the two sites into one that I could periodically tweak and update. That being said, I'll be looking into adding more stuff to this blog over the coming months.

I appreciate you all stopping by and PLEASE continue to check in with me over here. And let's all give it up for WEBMASTER STEVE!!! Great job, man! By the way WS, think you could advise me on tweaking this blog?

This is what happens without editors

I'm Marcus Pelegrimas, author of the SKINNERS series. Here you'll find various ramblings about movies, video games, TV, and...oh yeah...those books I write. If there's anything you'd like to discuss, just let me know. I try to update whenever the mood strikes me, so feel free to leave comments. There may be some occasional foul language, but anyone who's too easily offended probably doesn't read my stuff anyway.

Free Stuff

Here's how it goes. As usual, I've got my truckload of promo covers from EOS Books. I'll be going to some conventions, so I hope to see you there and I'll gladly sign your books. If you can't make it to a con, just email me your name, address and any inscription so I can send you a signed cover.


BONUS ---> If you would be so kind as to write up a review for any or all Skinners books and publish it on a site like Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders, or any other major review site, I can send you something extra. I made up some bookmarks (which I'll sign) and I've even put together some Shimmy's VIP passes (which I'll also sign). Can't guarantee the passes will get you into a real strip club, but I think they look pretty cool. Send me a link to your review along with your name, address and inscription, and I'll get these out to you as well.