Random Stuff in no particular order.

LIGHT FANTASY

Not sure what it is about the Snow White story that is making it so popular all of a sudden. I guess its true what they say about Hollywood that as soon as one studio decides to do a story another one is sure to follow with something similar.  My roommate Christy likes this story so not only do we watch “Once Upon A Time” on tv but we have seen both “Mirror Mirror ” and ” Snow White and The Huntsman” in the theater.  I was looking forward to “The Huntsman” movie as the previews looked interesting and appeared to be a bit of a different take on the story.  “Mirror Mirror’ came out first and is a pretty good movie. Above average and worth going to see in the theater. It’s a bit over the top at times but overall it’s a funny retelling of the old story and at least in this movie they do a better job of explaining  how their Snow becomes a fighting bad-ass unlike The Huntsman where were supposed to believe Snow becomes this Joan of Arc style fighter after one brief knife fighting lesson all of this after being locked up in a tower for twelve years as well.  But back to Mirror Mirror , of the two movies I liked this one the best. Which was a bit of an unexpected surprise for me.  Mirror Mirror at least knows what it is and sticks to its story if it falls short a few times. Those moments never last for long and your soon laughing and enjoying yourself again. Kudos to Nathan Lane as the put upon Queens helper. The Huntsman on the other hand can not seem to make its mind up. At one point it’s a comedy, then an action adventure and at the end wants to be an epic Medieval War Story.  Again it’s not a bad movie , all the actors do their parts well. But it really could have used some serious editing and tightening up. It spends so much time using every fantasy cliché available that the important pieces never really have time to develop and your just supposed to take everything on faith without any really good character development or reason to believe. In final analysis go see Mirror Mirror in the theater save The Huntsman  for a rental or at least go see it at a cheap theater like we did.

Once Upon A Time the TV show has been the best retelling of the Snow White story so far though. It’s  well thought out and the story has revealed itself at a good pace throughout each episodes story. Obviously the luxury of not having to shoehorn the story into a ninety minute time frame helps this story but they have managed to keep each individual story interesting something many TV shows fail to do.  It has kept me wanting to see more every week as you watch the overall story head towards its obvious conclusion. I guess this is why the writers of the show decided to throw a curve-ball in the season finale. The evil queen was beaten and love had cured everything as usually happens in a Snow White story but in the last-minute Mr. Gold sends an ominous black cloud over the proceedings. I hope the writers on this show haven’t screwed things up with this idea. I realize they needed something to give the second season some excitement and a reason for people to keep watching I am just not so sure this sudden curve-ball was the right way to go about it. But I will be there watching when the show comes back from hiatus to see just how it all plays out. A shout out to Bill Willingham as    Once Upon A Time obviously borrows its basic  concept from his “Fables” comic book  and then goes off on its own from there.

DARK REALITY

I am sure you all have heard about the Trayvon Martin George Zimmerman case. A sad tale in all respects. Two people’s life’s needlessly ruined.  I think Mr. Zimmerman will serve many years in jail and rightfully so as  he killed an unarmed person in a fight that he had no reason to cause. Mr Martin may have been up to foul play that night or he may have just been going from one place to another. We will never know now because Mr Zimmerman decided to ignore the only link to the true authorities he had when he was told that it wasn’t necessary for him to follow Mr. Martin. If Mr Martin was up to no good Mr. Zimmerman had already done his  duty as a neighborhood watchmen and kept anything from happening and alerted the police to what he believed to be a suspicious  person. You can spin it anyway you want but after that point he looses all claims of self-defense in my book.  If a strange man came up to be at night hollering and shouting and carrying a gun. I would defend myself as well and regardless of what Mr. Martin may have been doing that night in this particular situation we have an unknown adult male attacking a young man in the middle of the night. Seems to me Mr. Martin would be the one who had any rights under this   Stand Your Ground law not Mr. Zimmerman. The fact that Mr. Zimmerman apparently got in over his head and was getting his butt kicked still does not excuse his shooting of Mr. Martin as he started the whole unnecessary fight.

I don’t like the idea of these Stand Your Ground Laws. To me they seem unnecessary and potentially more harmful to honest citizens than beneficial.  Americans have always had the right to defend themselves from any attacker. What you do not have is the right to start a fight and then claim self-defense.  This law just seems ripe for abuse  to me.  It seems like a rule that would allow more crimes than it prevents. What happens when some gangbanger shoots an undercover cop and then claims he didn’t know it was a cop?

TRIVIA QUESTIONS

Yeaaa. It’s the return of the trivia contest.  As usual prizes will be a mish mash of whatever I have on hand and I am judge and jury on any questions or problems that might arise.  So the first question for this month is a bit of a doozy. In the following picture use the images provided to find the name of a classic Japanese manga. Jeez I am to nice to you guys. I practically gave it away there.

BONUS TRIVIA QUESTION

YEAAAA( in my best Kermit the Frog voice) two questions in one day.

Name where the following quotes come from.

“still searching for the answers to life’s most persistent questions.”

“working on mysteries without any clues.”