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This weekend I went to the "Wizard World" comic book convention here in Chicago over the weekend. I've been going to the convention for over 10 years now. Last year I help a vendor sell videos and I didn't get to see much that year. Which took some of the magic out of it. I helped set up and later took apart the booth and help him move his product by giving recommendations. Which left me little time to actually look around the convention that year. That's why I was excited to go this year. As always I went for movies but found they're selection very disappointing. Every year is the same films: Storm Riders, A Man Called Hero, Versus, Alive. It's as if they don't know about all the other good films Asian cinema has to offer. Two movies that I picked up were Hero and Princess Blade. I already had them before but only on video and VCD, I thought it was time to get them on DVD. I did ask if anyone had the new Japanese movie Dororo (どろろ) but everyone said it wasn't out yet. I told them that it was and I knew it for a fact. They quickly replied that it wasn't distributed here yet,

I knew that, just because it wasn't out here yet doesn't mean that it's not out. That's because they were bootleggers and only bought Chinese disk or Thai disks, burned them and sold them again. Buying a Japanese’s disk for $50 bucks would be too much for them. Then they tried to say that most of this stuff isn't licensed here in America so they had to sell the Chinese imports. I had to bust them out by pointing to videos like The Host which i know is out in America distributed by Magnolia, along with other like Alive, Versus, which is releases by either Tokyo Shock or Media Blasters. OldBoy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance by Tartaran. But as anyone knows when you go to a convention or buy off of e-bay more than likely it’s a boot. I also found the second season of Hana Yori Dango (花より男子), but the vendor was selling it for $35 bucks. I said no way because I knew I could buy it off the next for at least $20 cheaper and it would be the very same disks.

I also bought a “Son of Godzilla” t-shirt, and a few other movies. Over the last few years I noticed a drop in Japanese toys being sold at the convention. I think one of the main reasons is that lots of comic books are being made into films again. Such as Punisher, Fantastic Four, and I mean again because if you know films you know that those films were made in the early 80’s and are still just as bad as they were then. Other movies already out are X-men (1 – 3), Spider-Man, Superman Returns, Batman Begins, etc.
You get my point. Also Japanese toys were always expensive and still are.
Nobody sold J-pop, which really surprised me. Only anime soundtracks, but I’ve never been big on too many animes.

Just in case you guys want to know what else I bought here’s my list:
Concent, Gun Crazy, Gun Crazy 2, Ghost in the Shell (SA.C.) 2nd GIG, Jade Warrior, Sazer X, Swordman 2, Time and Whispering Corridors.

This Weekend 1 of June of 2007 - 3 of June 2007

This weekend I didn't do much, as usual on Saturday night I watched one of my Favorite Korean TV shows on channel 41. I don't know the English Name only the Korean thanks to my friend Ji Suk, 여걸 6. But only after spending some time with my friend Magaly who was celebrateing her birthday. The only thing that surprised me the most was when I took her to the groceries store by the door out I saw one of the booklets about motorcycles for sale. I picked one up and I saw some pics for the new Suzuki Hayabus. Which I thought were really cool, but then I started to think about this girl I met on myspace. Her name was MIKI and she lives in Osaka. Anway in her pics she had this really cool car and a Hayabusa. I don't talk to her on myspace anymore primearily because because she deleted her account. But I do have her cellphone e-mail, at least I think, she might have changed it after I sent her a couple messages and she never wrote back. I did think she was sexy thought, me and probably all other 500 people she had on her friends section. I just thought it was funny how when I saw the Hayabusa I thought of her. Either way i'll try agian on her birthday which is coming up in about 2 months, or maybe i'll try earlier just in case.

Long weekend 25, of May 2007 - 28, of May 2007 pt3

Along with watching movie all weekend I also saw The 2007 Miss Universe Beauty Pageant, and pleased to say Riyo Mori (森理世) Miss Japan won the pageant. I think it's the First time that Japan ever won the Pageant, actually second (1959, Akiko Kojima).


Honestly I believe Miss Japan 2006 Kurara Chibana( 知花 くらら) should have won Miss Universe last year but they gave it to someone else. Now it's Japan's turn to rightly wear the crown.


Actually I believe that Honey Lee (Miss Korea) would have one the pageant this year if it wasn't for her answer. If she could have any superpower what would it be? The last thing her translator said was "to have a wallet that never dries up" even though she said she would use the money for missionary work it still made her look bad to the judges. I'm trying to ask my friends in Korea if they saw the pageant and ask if the translator did a good job or maybe it was Honey Lee's fault for answering that way

Long weekend 25, of May 2007 - 28, of May 2007 pt2

Along with watching movies I also did a bit of shopping one of the things I bought was a new Boston "RED SOX" hat. The main reason I did was because I noticed how a lot of people who use to be my friends like the "Yankees" and now that I'm not friends with those people what would keep them from saying hi to me if they saw me in the streets? Well, if they're really as big fans of the Yankees as they say they are then they should know about the rivalry between the two teams. I guess you can say this is my way of saying "hey we're not friends anymore so don't even say Hi to me", I wonder if they'll get that?

Back to movies another that I saw was SMOKIN' ACES, which I thought was awesome!!!! I remember seeing the trailers for it and that I really wanted to see it. Then when some of the actors started to promote the film on TV shows I heard that it was a comedy then I lost interest and never saw it. It wasn't until recently I saw the Japanese movie trailer for it and it sparked my interest in it again. Well, I saw it and like I just said I thought it was awesome; there's a few things that I would have done differently. For one I would have left out the scenes where the one cop survives the encounter with the "Tremor Brothers" and crawls to the house for help. The scenes with the Kid in a Karate Uniform, talking back to the cop with missing fingers. Also I would have killed off more characters like the ones played by Alicia Keys and Common. I think it would have been better if they died in the film. Other than that I thought it was a good film, lots of action. I love action, plenty of gunfights but I would have like one or two more. I totally recommend this film.


Another I saw this weekend was SPIDERMAN 3, which I heard was getting a lot of mixed reviews. Most people either liked it or hated it. For the most part I liked it but there were parts that I truley hated. Fist of all I can understand that movie writers have to rewrite some of the material for the film. It's just I hate the way they do it; for example if you've read the comic books or know anything about Spiderman History you know that "Gwen Stacy" used to be Peter Parker's girlfriend and that she was killed by the "Green Goblin" which later led to his down fall. Also that "Venom" depending on comic book or second animated series had something to do with either the "Secrect Wars" or attached itself into a space ship that later crashed into earth and.... Anyway, like I said if you read the comic books you know the history. Okay so the things I hated the most was when Peter Parker started dancing in the Jazz club to make MaryJane upset. It reminded me too much of Jim Carrey's The Mask (which is another bad film). Also most of the Film was done in CGI, do they even need actors for that film? I think it would have been done better if they done the whole film in CGI. Take FINAL FANTASY: ADVENT CHILDREN, a great film done in all CGI, way better than any Disney Pixar film made to date. Also most of the acting was pretty bad; James Franco (who I think wants to be compared to James Dean), is usually a good actor (SONNY) did a terriable performance in this film. Also Tobey McGwire acting I think was totaly unbeleiveable. The only acting that I actuallyed liked from him was when he was talking to his "aunt" and how he didn't propose to MJ. Other than those rew minor (or major) details I thought it was an okay film. I really wouldn't recommend it but if you have nothing else to do go ahead.

Long weekend 25, of May 2007 - 28, of May 2007

Well, Usually I have a lot to say and Last weekend being a holiday and a four-day weekend gave me a lot to say, and a lot more reading to do. Since I left my flash drive at home I had to google all the pics I'm about to post in this blog showed me a lot of sties I want to read. First off it game a lot of time to catch up on some movie watching.

The first movie I think I should mention is "28 Weeks Later", which I thought was a good film except for some of the filming in the beginning, which used a lot of hand held shots. At first I thought I was going to get a head ach form all the movement, but after they played the flash back scene it was pretty much over. They didn't come back to the hand held stuff till near the end of the movie with all in the tunnel. The only thing I really didn't believe about the movie was the access pass the farther had. Would the military really give a pass like that to a civilian? I think not. Other than that the rest of the film didn't bother me. Not even the scene when they were in a little sport car and they were speeding faster than an army attack helicopter.


The Only thing that really disappointed me was that I thought there would be more scenes with soldier’s. There wasn't enough for my liking, I actually thought the move would have more of a soldier’s perspective. Ya know, like soldiers saying "cover me, I'm gong in". Stuff like that, but there wasn't. Then most of the characters died off too soon, just when you were getting to know one and like another they ended up getting killed. As another person told me "I wasn't interested in these new survivors", really I wasn't either. I think the film would have been better if they showed the soldiers being bad Asses and shooting infected.

That's one thing I don't like about action movies with soldiers; one thing that I will have to change. You can't show soldiers being cowards. With all the training they go through and the weapons they have, you don't want to see a solider afraid. One example I can give is in ALIENS, with Bill Paxton's character. He's a marine, marines are known to be bad assess and he had a big ass machine gun. If that was me with a gun like that I wouldn’t have been afraid of an alien. I would have man(ed) up and went out shooting. Like the one lady in the group of grunts in ALIENS, who ended up blowing up. If you've seen the movie you know what I’m talking about. She was a real man, no offence intended.

The Next Film I saw was the new "Pirates" movie, which I thought was better than the second. You actually needed some back story to this one to know what was going on as to in the second one you didn't need to know. The only thing that I didn't like was that there was more than one "Jack Sparrow", in some of the shots. This was done I think because most of the audience from the first two didn't like seeing Jack talk to him self. Which was because he was crazy, in the third you saw either smaller versions of him self or full size that no one else saw but Jack. I think that took away from some of Johnny Depp's acting, I mean those who were smart enough already knew he was crazy and that he was talking to himself. I just don't think that was needed for the film and it insulted intelligent audience members.