Iron Man 3

So this came out today...

Needless to say, I'm excited.

Training Log - 15 OCT 12

15 OCT 12 - Review for stripe test.

BJJ - scissor sweep; felt better about the material

18 OCT 12 - More review for the stripe test.

BJJ - feeling better about the material.  Hopefully this is an upswing.

Moonraker

Keeping things close to home after his adventures on the other side of the Atlantic, James Bond is set on the path of wealthy inventor Sir Hugo Drax.

One slow day in the offices of MI6, M invites James Bond, 007 to join him for dinner and cards at the most exclusive of clubs, Blades.  Turns out there is a prominent player that has decided to cheat at Bridge.  Which is odd, because he's loaded and something of a national hero.  Turns out he's good at designing missiles, and went a created one heck of a missile for the United Kingdom.  So why cheat?  After enjoying an excellent dinner, Bond proceeds to take quite a bit of money from Drax.  Because that's what Bond does.

Turns out that there's been some shenanigans at Drax's base.  Bond is sent out to investigate under the guise of becoming Drax's new head of security.  He will be helped by Gala Brand, a Special Branch agent who is already working undercover at Drax's base.

And clearly, because this is Bond, nothing is at is seems.  As Bond digs deeper into the mystery of the base he learns that England is about to get one heck of a blow dealt to it.  See, Drax is not the upstanding British citizen that he claims to be.  Turns out, Drax is actually a former German officer that managed to get into this high position by effectively switching bodies with a British civilian.  So obviously, the missile is not going to be a harmless test fire.  Oh no, fellow readers.  Drax has reprogrammed it to land in the middle of London carrying a nuclear bomb.  Cause that's what evil madmen do.

Bond escapes the trap, saves the girl and saves the day.  Moonraker is probably one of my favorite of the Bond books.  Well written, and with a... I was going to say plausible plot.  I think that's slightly inaccurate.  Given today's lens of plausibility that is.  I can see this when it was first written and the tech, and fears of Nazi uprisings and Soviet Russia takeovers how this would be completely plausible.  Given how much I like it, its really sad what they do to this book with the movie; but that's a rant for another time.  Third book in, you still don't feel as if you NEED to read the previous books to catch up with whats going on.  So, if you have not yet, pick up a Bond book.  You won't be disappointed.

Training Log - Week of 8 OCT 12

9 OCT 12 - Did a double tonight, which was double fun because it was abs week.  There were medicine balls involved.  New gun defense technique and the second part of our Muay Thai combination.  Everything felt pretty good.

The Cabin In The Woods (2012)

To the Summary!
Five college kids head to a remote cabin for a weekend of intense studying and higher learning.  Or they head there for a weekend of drinking and partying.  Either way, nothing is as it seems.

To the Cast!
Kristen Connolly - Dana Polk
Chris Hemsworth - Curt Vaughan
Anna Hutchison - Jules Louden
Fran Kranz - Marty Mikalski
Jesse Williams - Holden McCrea
Richard Jenkins - Gary Sitterson
Bradley Whitford - Steve Hadley
Amy Acker - Wendy Lin
Sigourney Weaver - The Director

To the Deeper Thoughts!
What if you have a horror film where, quite literally, everybody dies?  How does one approach this in a meaningful and believable way?  You create a mythos where the world has been offering sacrifices to the Ancient Ones so they don't rise and take the world over and reshape it in their image.  Obviously you don't use willing sacrifices   You create elaborate scenarios where the intended victims chose the manner of their demise.  Oh, and you try to manipulate the situation so that you can ensure everybody dies.  But watch out for that left hand plot turn, cause it turned everything on its collective head.

I really liked this movie.  I'm not generally a horror film fan, so I almost gave this a pass.  I started hearing good things about it though, and that it had the involvement of Joss Wheddon.  So I gave it a go; and I was glad that I did.

Training Log - Week of 1 OCT 12

1 OCT 12 - First night of new material.  First part of our Muay Thai combo and our first of our new Krav defenses for the cycle.  All I'm going to say is that I'm quite excited for the start of the new cycle!  BJJ however...  I don't know.  Part of my really does enjoy it.  But a much larger part of me is worried that I might perhaps hurt myself in a way that might hurt my ABD training.

Farscape: Season One

Well, I just finished the first season of Farscape.  I was...underwhelmed to begin with.  It was not really until the last three or four episodes where the series picked up for me.

Farscape tells the story of John Chriton, an astronaut that is shot across the galaxy when his prototype ship hits a black hole.  There he joins up with a crew of escaped prisoners as they try to find their way home.

I found the first season to be... uneven at best.  I thought the puppet work was great, and the special effects good as well.  I'm not sure why I'm so ambivalent to it.  I didn't dislike it to the point that I won't watch the rest, but it did not grab me quite like I thought it would.

Well, onto season two.  That's where I hear it really gets going.

Live and Let Die (1973)

To the Summary!
Roger Moore makes his debut as the MI-6 agent, James Bond.  Bond travels to the states to track down what happened to three fellow agents.  What he discovers is... the undead!  And heroin...

To the Cast!
Roger Moore - James Bond
Yaphet Koto - Kananga/Mr. Big
Jayne Seymour - Solitaire
Clifton James - Sheriff Pepper
Bernard Lee - M
Lois Maxwell - Moneypenny

To the Deeper Thoughts!
Roger Moore has not always been a Bond that I held in high regard.  But Live and Let Die is not the reason I think this.  Those movies come later.  Here though, Moore plays Bond very well.  James bond is tasked to go to New Orleans and check out why some of his fellow agents have been... liquidated.  He stumbles across the operation of one Mr. Big, a gangster who owns a series of restaurant/night clubs called 'Fillet of Soul'.  Obviously, these are fronts for the criminal organization.  At one, he meets the fortune teller Solitaire, whom Mr. Big uses to see the future.  But, this being Bond, he eventually, uh... removes Dr. Quinn's Solitaire's fortune telling abilities.

Now, about that undead business.  See, Kananga (who is the dictator of a random island in the Caribbean) is actually Mr. Big, the crime boss.  So since he is one and the same, he grows poppies on his island.  (I'm getting to the undead!)

Ok, its taken me way to long to finish this one up.  Short version:  Roger Moore does really well in his first outing as James Bond.  Its one of my favorites and the closing scene is just perfect.

Oh, and there really arn't any undead.  Just a crime boss playing on local superstitions.

Link of Interest

Added (or will add) a new tab to the top of this here blog.  Its a collection of links that I find interesting, and want to share with all of you fine folks.  I'll have it organized in some sort of rational order.  I'll start with fitness related links.  Keep looking out for more!

Fitness
America's Best Defense - Norwich - The main web page for the school I train at
Norwich Krav Maga - Web page specific to Krav Maga/Muay Thai at my school
Norwich BJJ - Web page specific to Brazilian Jujitsu at my school
McShane Training - Training log for my Sensei.
Jay Pawlowski -Training Partner
Michael Park - Training Partner