The first official trailer to the upcoming (May 2009) Wolverine movie has just been released.
I was especially glad to see some scenes from Wolverine’s childhood in the 17th century that was superbly described in the 6 issue limited series “Origin” (2001-2002). I just hope that they also have enough character development of Rose, which had a great influence on his early years. On the other hand, there are so many good Wolverine stories that all made a big impact on him before meeting X-Men (remember Mariko?), and it would be hard to fit them all in and still do them justice.
I think they are focusing too much on modern day characters in the trailer (Sabretooth, Gambit, Storm, etc.), and I would prefer if most of the movie would revolve around his beginning as a child, and the time up until (and of course including) Weapon X – In Canada this time, not the United States! Cramming as many mutants as possible into this one will not make it better, quite the opposite! A focus on the actual story of James Howlett (or Logan, as you might think his name is) would instead be more engaging.
Even so, I still have a good feeling about this one.
Hercules in New York is a movie from 1970 starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (under the name Arnold Strong) as Hercules. Tired of Olympus, he goes against his father Zeus’ will and travels to New York where he befriends a timid pretzel salesman and an aristocratic young woman and her father.
Adventures arise, and we see Arnold fighting thugs, gangsters and the worst fake bear on film (a man in a bear suit who walks and looks more like a gorilla than a bear).
The acting is incredible stiff, especially from Arnold (this was his first movie) who has absolutely no feeling whatsoever when he is speaking. In the original theatrical version, they actually had a voice actor dubbing over his audio track. The original soundtrack with Arnold’s voice wasn’t reintroduced until the DVD release, by the time Mr. Schwarzenegger was already a well known actor. Speaking of sound, this has to be one of the worst sound mixes in a major (if you can call it that) movie ever. The scenes in Olympus is shot in a park in a city, and you can hear heavy traffic and car horns in the background. There is a loud hiss/buzz in many scenes which suddenly disappears and comes back – this is from when the director was shouting something to the actors and only that sound was cut out. This is particularly obvious when a scene is cut back and fourth between two angles. When this happened, the camera was also out of focus from time to time.
The props are terribly done; when Zeus is throwing lightning, the lightning arrow is made out of bent concrete steel rods. The makeup is also very bad, and Zeus’ fake beard is obviously made from wool.
All in all, this is a lousy movie. But that doesn’t make it unwatchable – quite the opposite! Me and my friend Martin (with whom I watched this movie) laughed a lot and were grinningly shaking our heads even more.
Hercules in New York is a perfect example of a movie that is so bad that it becomes good, almost on par with Batman: The Movie from 1966.
I got home from Ã…re last night, where I’ve been since Thursday on a conference with my job.
Since around Tuesday my throat has been feeling a bit sore, getting worse and worse.
On Thursday, I started coughing.
On Saturday afternoon, I was beginning to become hard to speak. That night I also woke up and felt feverish, taking hours before i could get back to sleep.
On Sunday morning, I couldn’t get a word out. Later in the afternoon I could half-whisper and speak in a low, broken voice.
This morning I couldn’t make a sound. Just whispering hurts, so I have to communicate in other ways. Coughing is a real pain, and I do it a lot. But as long as I don’t move, it is easier. So I plan to stay in bed all day. Lucky for me, I have my Eee 1000H so I don’t bore to death. Perfect time to watch a bunch of movies just waiting for me! (I currently have around 90 unseen movies on the netbook)
I just found these fantastic HDR photographs of the Icelandic coast, and thought that I should share them with anyone who has not yet made up their mind as whether or not to join us to Iceland in April 2009 (so far I think 8 people are coming).
Unfortunately, I do not know who the original photographer is, but I found the pictures on this site.
For the last two months, I’ve been on a diet consisting mainly of Nutrilett and Naturdiet based shakes and Varma Koppen soups. It is a type of diet called VLCD, or Very Low Calery Diet. The fundamental idea is to eat less calories than your body consumes (like most diets). You are supposed to drink about six shakes a day (a powder that you mix with water yourself), but I have not been a rigid follower of the rules. About half of the time I have been eating some solid food after work, mainly drinking the shakes and soups up until 5PM.
Results are in: Minus 10 kilos in weight and minus 5 cm around the waist.
The longer I have been on the diet, the slower the weight loss. On the other hand, I have probably been eating (and drinking) a bit more in the last month as well.
I am dead tired of the shakes, so I will now have a week eating only solid food before continuing substituting some of my meals with shakes again. I still have a bit more to go.
Also, next year I will get back to training Kung Fu, and swim a bit more.
They will all go to the frankjohansson.com. Eventually, I might move the hosting from my own server to a dedicated web hotel. But nothing is decided yet.
Do you want to join us on a trip to Iceland this Easter?
Due to the economic crisis in Iceland right now the trips there are extremely cheap. You can fly there and back from Stockholm for about 2500SEK, and hotels are not very expensive. And since we will likely go around Easter, you will only need half a day off from work.
The preliminary plan is as follows:
9/4 The afternoon before Good Friday – Flight from Stockholm Arlanda to Reykjavik
10-12/4 Time for Icelandification
13/4 Easter Monday – Going home.
Preliminary budget (per person):
Flights (incl. VAT and fees): 2500SEK
Hotel: 520-1900SEK depending on standards and location. For 480SEK/night you get a four-star hotel with pool and spa. You can also live in a hostel for about 130SEK/night if you want to.
Food: 1500SEK if you eat out and have a few drinks every day.
Transports: 500SEK if you want to travel around Iceland a bit.
Total: around 4000-6000SEK per person. If we go on Good Friday instead, the price will drop about 1000SEK.
We were thinking that if we are a few people the trip will be even better! That doesn’t mean that we have to stick together all the time unless you want to, and everyone can go about to do what they please.
Does it sounds like fun? Let us know! If the trip happens, we will probably book it in December while the extremely low prices are in effect and the tickets remain. Does it sound interesting but you are uncertain if you want to go or can afford it in four months? Let us know anyway!