Remember when filmmakers had talent? Remember when filmmakers didn’t have to rely on shock and gore to try and engage the audience? Either Mel Gibson has no talent, or he prefers to ignore whatever talent he has. I certainly did not find this film to be “visceral” or “gripping” as some reviewers have found it. Instead, I found it a trite film trying to make a point which is lost in its violence and subtitles. There are times where the film is mildly entertaining, but in the end, it is a lemon.
January 29, 2007
January 28, 2007
UFC Fight Night Live Results
It was an interesting night for the UFC on Thursday. For the first time in a long time, not a single fighter I wanted to win won a fight. Sigh. Heath Herring looked like a chump for his entire fight. How disappointing. I’ve watched him in Pride for years and was very excited to see him in the UFC. Hopefully he’ll work on his ground game and show us something his next time out. I’m not a big Hermes Franca fan; I really like Spencer Fisher, but Franca dominated that fight. I was great disappointed they did not air the Dean Lister vs. Nate Marquardt match; I was looking as forward to it as any of them. Let’s hear it for Rashad Evans, however. After a mind-numbingly dull start to his career, he is actually starting to be entertaining to watch. The question now looms… is he ready for Chuck?
January 24, 2007
Pride Second Coming Card Updates
Pride has announced some interesting fights for their Second Coming event on February 24th. The main event is still Wanderlei Silva vs. Dan Henderson. It also seems that Nick Diaz, a fighter who just couldn’t get the momentum going in UFC, will face Takanori Gomi. Diaz is a good fighter, but Gomi is very impressive. I have a feeling this will go to Gomi, and quickly. In other fights, Hayato Sakurai takes on former KotC lightweight champ Mac Danzig. Kazuo Misaki will fight Frank Trigg. Should be some exciting fights.
January 21, 2007
Dragon Dynasty
The Sci-Fi channel has been airing one of their made-for-TV films called Dragon Dynasty. Unlike the vast, vast, vast majority of Sci-Fi direct-to-crap films, this one is moderately entertaining. The special effects are pretty good, especially the dragons.
January 19, 2007
Game Results for January 18, 2007
It was game session 24 of Age of Worms and my 200th game as Dungeon Master for this group. After consulting with Yellowknife in Daggerford, the party made haste back to Cromm’s Hold. They found the undead contained and debated strategy for a long time. Eventually, Lyrin used unseen servant to clear debris from the stairwell and grant access to the basement. As the party moved into the basement, things fell apart.
Finding the spawn of Kyuss, in their full glory, was a mind-shattering event of terrifying proportions. Several of the party members could not handle the supernatural fear and ran screaming about the basement in blind panic. While they ran about, the spawn covered them in worms which began eating into their brains. Evo had made an effective use of a necklace of fireballs (hitting the enemy and allies, however) and tried to follow it with a melee attack with a flask of alchemist’s fire (the first time that tactic has been used, anywhere, to my knowledge). Sadly, he succumbed to the fear and dropped the flask on himself.
Grot, despite the worm in his body, managed to injure the spawn and bring one down. Lyrin came in with spells a-blazin’ and laid out the other two. The party regrouped on the main floor, and Camthalion (who had numerous worms in him) fell face first onto the floor. Morak extracted a worm from Grot’s skull with his dagger. After a short while, Evo went over to dig the worms out of Cam with his dagger and found the great elf had died!
The entire party looked on in horror as Cam’s eyes burst and worms boiled up from within his brain, pouring out of his empty sockets, mouth and nose. Hands flew to weapons as his corpse sat upright in their midst…
January 18, 2007
Lunchtime Dungeons & Dragons
Here’s an interesting “journal” of the events at a Wizards of the Coast lunchtime Dungeons & Dragons game DMed by Mike Mearls. How, in an hour, they have the time to make any progress is beyond me. But, they do it. Interesting. See the details here.
January 17, 2007
UFC Fight Night Live Bouts
I’m not sure why UFC really does a competition in their hit show The Ultimate Fighter. It doesn’t seem to matter how badly you get beaten or when you get eliminated, you still end up being a UFC fighter. And let’s face it, most of the people who end up on The Ultimate Fighter are not UFC-quality fighters. You can watch the lackluster low-technique fights and tell that immediately. But that doesn’t seem to matter because we get to be bombarded by many of these losers over and over again. For example, look at the fight card for the next Ultimate Fight Night Live.
- Hermes Franca vs. Spencer Fisher
- Josh Burkman vs. Chad Reiner
- Rich Clementi vs. Ross Pointon
- Rashad Evans vs. Sean Salmon
- Nate Marquardt vs. Dean Lister
- Heath Herring vs. Jake O’Brien
- Ed Herman vs. Chris Price
- Din Thomas vs. Clay Guida
There are a whole lot of “shoulda, woulda, coulda” fighters in that list. Here’s an idea, if you can’t fill a fight card with descent fighters, maybe you are having too many events? Many of these will be good fights. The rest of them will waste part of the evening. Quality does matter.
IFL Gets Television Deal
The International Fight League has partnered with FSN and MyNetworkTV to air 66 hours of IFL competition this season. See more about this here.
January 14, 2007
New Fight Organization
If you can’t beat them, join them? The Gracie’s have gone and created their own championship promotion, the Gracie Fighting Championship. It appears off to a rocky start, with their first fight being delayed from January 20th back to mid-March. The fight card looks interesting though, here are some hi-lites:
- Jeff “The Snowman” Monson vs. Wes “The Project” Sims
- Frank “Twinkle Toes” Trigg vs. Ivan Jorge
- Nick Diaz vs. Thomas Denny
- Jack Shields vs. Renato Verissimo
Dan Henderson Gets Second Chance
“Dangerous” Dan Henderson gets his rematch again Wanderlei “The Axe-Murderer” Silva at Pride FC: Second Coming on February 24th.