The new Karate Kid

First of all I must forewarn you that the new Karate Kid movie contains 0% Karate, well there is one scene where there is Karate on a TV in the background. It's all Kung Fu this time around.

The story follows young Dre (Jaden Smith) who relocated to China when his mother is transfered to Beijing. While trying to cope with his new life, the local Kung Fu Prodigy school bullies he meets un-assuming handyman Mr Han (Jackie Chan) then eventually becomes his Sifu and teaches him the ways of Kung Fu as thought to his by his father.

 There are lots of nods to the original Karate Kid movies, but all in all this remake is it's own movie and can stand alone. You could comfortably see it without even knowing there was something similiar back in the 80's and 1994. So its not relying on the seeing it only for nostalgia dollar and can introduce a whole new generation to this story.

Its a great movie to enjoy for the grown ups and the kids, although some of the fights were surprisingly brutal for 12-years old. Some of the more vicious impacts were cut away but still maybe not for the more faint of heart.

Some of the kids seemed a bit too good for just normal school kids who go to Kung Fu class after school, granted I haven't personally fought a bunch of Kung Fu Trained 12 year olds, but then again they had to go toe to toe with Jackie Chan.

Jackie Chan, this is the best I've seen him in years,  this is the kind role he needs to be playing now that he is too old to be the young hero. The old master who can defeat all comers without breaking a sweat. He isn't quite there yet but in about 5 years, and a little more grey in his hair, he will be the perfect choice. Although one this I must mention for any Chan Fans out there, There is no ladder based fighting from Jackie (Maybe there will be extended scenes on the BLU-Ray, cause I did see a ladder in the background and was almost cheering him on to pick it up.)

"I'm not this young any more"

It's really young Jaden that really carries this movie. He even has first name billing which was kinda surprising Chan didn't get. Definitely no need for a paternity test here, this kid really is Will Smith's son, trust when you watch it you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. His Kung Fu is also pretty convincing much more believable than Ralph Macchio was, but I don't think they'd be as concerned with realistic training back in '84

"I'm still this young."

I'm sure there will be a sequel if not sequels, Jaden is the perfect age to watch him grow up through these movies.

Definately worth seeing, so go see it now! Thanks for reading See you next Post!

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IOS4 WARNING!

I just realised that after updating to iOS4 all images in my Camera Roll are gone! Ones I has in folders are fine, it was just the ones in Camera Roll! All my personal images gone. I still have the pictures I took of my Gundam Unicorn Model, for all that's worth!

Thought they were safe syncing them with my PC via iTunes, didn't think i'd need to back up the back up!

So anyway take heed before you update!

EDIT: Well apparently iTunes no longer keeps multiple backups! it used to but they took that functionality out, I guess they thought there software so infallible it wouldn't be needed right? I mean any software that offers back-up and restore functionality should keep multiple back up as default, for all the negligible space an iPhone backup file would take in this day and age of cheap storage its just down right appalling!

my grammar and spelling are probably atrocious in this post, but I cannot help that for it is fuelled by rage at finding no chance of restoring the old pics, since the most recent back up was of the newly updated iPhone sans my "precious memories" on the Camera Roll.

I know teething problems happen, and no long term harm is done, just would have liked a warning.

So prepare yourself if you haven't updated yet.

iOS4 on the good "old" iPhone 3GS

Yesterday I synced with my iTunes clicked update and some 300-odd megabytes later my phones OS was updated to version 4. Just wanted to share a few of my first views on the software.

As of June 21st in the year of our lord 2010, Steve Jobs opened the doors and loosed his new creation iPhone 4.0 along with a new OS, now re-branded as iOS4 instead if iPhoneOS. They apparently made the thing backwards compatibly (to varying degrees) with older version of the phone, which was nice of them. In this post ill share my first impression of this backwards compatibility.

Now at first glance the UI looks sharper and brighter, the first thing that catches the eye is now you get background wallpaper, It is quiet nice to now see my wife behind my application icons when I slide my "slide to unlock" bar. The new live  5x digital zoom is nice, up to about 2.5x then its not worth looking at.

I then noticed that the email client was a little slower checking my mail (G mail, IMAP) I chalked this up to all the new fangled updated they have done to the mail software business level encryption and the like, but then an overall sluggishness seemed to descend upon my phone. Its bearable but almost noticeably, after a few weeks I'll be used to it. I assume its to do with the iOS4 being optimised to the tech of iPhone 4. Its just got more power under the hood than the older models.

One slight annoyance was the App-specific location settings, after the update every App I opened asked me about location, but only once and never again.

App folders is very nice, you can have you can set up folder that contain Apps up to 12, give it name up to 13 characters. allowing for Up to 2,160 instead of 180 visible Apps.

The Multitasking is nice, you can now double click the home key to open up a slider bar with a list of your Apps to choose so you can switch back and forth, this will probably diminish performance on older models, iPhone 4.0 probably not since it was built for it. But its a nice little feature.

I'm not really sure but I think my battery is draining faster, but that may all be in my head.

Click here for a comprehensive list of features of iOS4.

There are many more features that I will have to sit down to examine and test out but haven't had a chance yet, These are just my first opinions after a day of normal use and are subject to change. 

Well anyway thanks for reading, you can check out my tweeter for my more up to that minute opinions.

See you next blog.

 - Rigas

Roughnecks the Starship Trooper Chronicles Volume 1

Recently Amazon has a sale on Sci-Fi DVDs so I decided to pick up a bushel of em, This is the first one i'll review.

Now I have fond if hazy memories of this series from way back in 1999. Now at first glance the CG has held up remarkably well, it looks as good as any other 100% CG shows of the genre you'd get today.

Now its based on the 1997 Paul Verhoeven movie, which in turn is based Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel of the same name. Its not a direct continuation but combined elements from both to make a more "Kid" friendly Saturday morning cartoon show.

The story follows a Mobile Infantry Unit "Razaks Roughnecks" During the war with the "Bugs" an insectiod alien race with genocidal intent towards Humanity.
The show tried to be true to an adult-oriented science fiction franchise without being too violent, mature or controversial for the age group it was aimed at Saturday morning cartoons, leading to to it not being watching by either age group during its inital run. Adults didn't know it was on to see and it was bit over the head of the audience in the time-slot.

But re-watching it again 10+ years later I find it very entertaining and very watchable, It's well written, voiced and the music is alot better that one would expect.

As in the original novels the Mobile infantry have much better technology that in the movies, such as Powered Armours, Mechs, Orbital Drop Pods and so on. Its got the same feel as the Battletech cartoon did, Sadly another show that was underrated as a "kiddy" show back in the day.


All in all its a very entertaining watch, for all ages kids will like the ships and aliens but there is plenty of story and character development to hold an adults attention also.

Definitely worth picking up, I will definitely be getting other volumes at my first oppurtunity.
Thanks for reading, See you next Post!

Iron Man 2 Review

Now, before we start I should inform you that I am a bit of an Iron Man Fan-Boy from way back.

From the second I saw the first trailer, I was counting the days until I could see it. I went in with big expectations. Some were a let down, some were not over all was entertaining as a movie. I’m not sure if it’s a worthy addition to the Iron Man mythos.

"Bad Mama-Jama"

First of all Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko, The Crimson Dynamo/Whiplash Amalgam was amazing. That guy sure has screen presence, his Russian was very convincing, but alas his screen time was a bit lacking. I feel he should have been there a bit more and the final fight was anti-climactic and cut short, but over all Ivan Vanko was a bad mama-jama! If they made a movie or just this guy duking it out with the Colonel from Avatar I would definitely pay to see it.

Tony Stark/ Robert Downey Jr was great, But if you seen Iron Man then there is nothing really new from him. I felt they needed more moments of Tony just relating to his friends, he spends almost no time with Rhodey or Happy, just fawning over Pepper! I would have liked them to explore his alcoholism a bit more. I thought Yes! they are doing it when they showed his blood toxicity level but it just turned out to be something else, and I would like less of the forced Tony/Pepper romantic relationship its just wrong, no chemistry and I don’t like it. In the comics she is fact married to Happy Hogan.

Virginia "Pepper" Potts/Gwyneth Paltrow, Now I don't know if she researched her role at all, but again she delivered a weak and awful performance. She comes across weak, unintelligent, ditzy yet somehow runs Stark International. While in the comics she is a much stronger character infact she was a the leader of a Super-Team for a while and even wore a suit of Armour designed by Tony.

"R.E.S.C.U.E or the Iron Pepper Armour"

James Rupert "Rhodey" Rhodes/Don Cheadle was a breath of fresh air compared to Iron Man 1, I didn't even realise until about half way through the first one that he was meant to be Rhodey and now just random military escort guy ferrying Tony around. Cheadle gave a much more convincing performance, I felt the actor was a bit too scrawny for Rhodes but thats just my opinion and that’s neither here or there, but can't tell since he was barely on screen at all.

Justin Hammer/Sam Rockwell Oh dear how where do I start on this guy. First of all in comics Justin Hammer is a much older man, the movie version is much younger to make him a more contemporary rival for Stark, but he is too young to be position he finds himself. ( some sort of military weapons manufacturer/Government contractor) Also Rockwell is terrible in this role, I hadn't heard of him before now and hopefully wont be hearing of him again. His performance was almost laughable at points. It would have been good if he was trying to be a parody but alas he was not . . . . I could probably fill an entire post just about his poor abilities in this role but I won’t ill just leave him here.

Natasha Romanoff/Scarlett Johanson Why does she have front line billing? Infact why is she even in the movie her character doesn't seem to fill any role and Johanson's acting was wanting to say the least. I kept expecting her to end each sentence with "Like You know, Whatever!" like the Queen Bee/Prom Queen stereo type thing in some high school teen movie. Again like Hammer was cast too young. Romanoff is meant to be a Russian super spy who defected and now is a super spy for S.H.I.E.L.D. The fight scene she has was like something from W.W.E or something, after the movie my wife and I were in Video Game store and saw a wrestling game and joked that if you defeat the game on hard mode you unlock Johanson as a playable character. At one point she kicks down a door it was so unconvincing her foot got barely above knee height.

"I am Iron Man"

Okay acting aside the visuals are great, the armours look great, they move great, they fight great, over all they are just great but that’s what we have come to expect so I won’t dwell on it too much, but one thing I will mention is the Mark V Briefcase Armour! I nearly fell out of my seat when they I saw it. It’s just one of the silly iconic things from the comics that I never thought would make it into a movie but was also short lived. One visual aspect I didn't like was all the deliberate product placement. Like the Iron Man kiddy mask and Posters in the background etc. it was just too much blatant advertising for my taste.

As the story goes there was no real tension and I didn't feel the characters were in peril at all, sure Tony got roughed up a bit and had the crap kicked out of him but It barely slowed him down so you didn't get a sense of danger at all really. But still the fights were entertaining. It did lay more groundwork for the upcoming Avengers Movie pencilled in for 2012 and references to the Captain America Movie coming out next year.

The climactic battle between Iron Man, War Machine and Crimson Dynamo/Whiplash was anything but and  kinda anti-climatic really, much too short for my liking.

Overall it was pretty entertaining and I would recommend it, It's not perfect and the things I mentioned above do take away somewhat but it’s a good summer movie.

So I will leave you with this.

Spoiler Alert below

One has to wonder why you would reveal your new super Mandroid weapons at a civilian science expo instead of a senate sub-committee, also why build 10 suits of Mandroid armour when they don’t work?

Also why do the normal Las Vegas PD or wherever they were Arrest Hammer? I mean on what grounds?
He didn't set the Mandroids loose, He didn't even know his crime was harbouring a Super Villain which is probably a S.H.I.E.L.D or federal matter so wouldn't agents of some sort be the ones to arrest him?

Anyway . . .

End Spoiler

So hope you enjoyed it, See you next Blog!