Attack The Block

I had to wait far too long to see this movie. I was unable to see it in a theater, it never made it to a screen anywhere near me. It is the first movie I have purchased blind in quite a long time(buying without having seen it first). It is the first movie that I am watching on my new big screen plasma tv. The movie is produced by one of my favorite directors, Edgar Wright.  The movie is supposed to be a mashup of genres, a scifi, monster, comedy, movie. At the time I am watching it, it has an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is really good for a monster movie.

I must say that I really enjoyed this movie. The time really flew by, it is a short movie at only 88 minutes, but it seems like it flew by a lot faster than that, I was not bored once during it. I think the story was quite original, at least on this side of the Atlantic. What other movie has gang members as the good guys? There is quite a mysteriousness to the creatures that are attacking. The movie also does a great job of breaking the tension in between the action scenes with sufficient amounts of comedy. There really are quite a few Laugh-Out-Loud moments in the movie. There are some jumpy parts and some blood, but I thought for the most part the movie was very well done on that end, it doesn't turn into a gory Saw movie, or anything like that.

The cast and director all seemed to be relative new comers, for the most part. John Boyega, who plays the leader of the gang, does a great job. His character does a lot in the film without always needing to speaks. After seeing this movie, I would have to say that it is really hard to put it into a specific type. I don't think there are many other movies like this one. The case has a quote on it that says it is a combination of The Goonies and Gremlins, which to a certain extent I would have to agree with.

I was afraid that I would end up hating the dialogue with the gang members, I had read that they use a lot of slang like bruv, and cuz. They also say trust a lot which I found interesting, but I didn't hate the dialogue at all, I actually found that it added to the movie. 

I have heard rumors that Hollywood was going to make an American version of this movie, but I can't understand why they would want to do that? This movie was a good movie on its own, it would have been seen by more people if some distributor had actually picked it up and spread it across the country. Oh well, I guess Hollywood really does not have any original ideas left. 

See this movie! It is a great science fiction, action, comedy, with an English touch!

Diet Log Weeks 16 and 17

I have just not really felt like logging these past few weeks, but I guess I should don't have to go into too much detail, just give the stats if I have nothing new to add to these entries. Without further ado the stats for the last 2 weeks:

weight lost: 2.8 + 2.2 = 5 lbs lost in total.
weight loss total: 59 lbs lost in total
inches lost: 2 +0= 2 inches lost
Total inches lost: 31.5 inches lost

I have lost 13.95% of my original body weight.
I am 38.6% of the way to my weight loss goal.

The 5 lbs I have lost has me at 5.88% of the way to my weight loss bet.

All in all is have been a good two weeks. I need to just stay the course and keep working harder and harder.

Movie Bracket Walk-thrus

I forgot to note in the last post that Abigail Breslin went 2-0 in the play in round, both Zombieland and Little Miss Sunshine won their play in rounds.

This is the list of match-ups that I have deemed to be no contest between the two movies, and for the interest of saving some time in my life I have decided to skip watching them in this round.

Aliens over Garden State
While I really like Garden State, and it is definitely no match for my favorite of all of the Alien(s) movies. I wish I could make a graphic of an alien bursting out of Zach Braff's torso, but alas I am not good at anything artistic. Aliens is re-watchable, is very entertaining, and even though it was a sequel it was quite original and used the aliens in a very different way than the original.

The Departed over Mean Girls
I love Mean Girls more than more people do, but I can't honestly give it the edge in any way over The Departed.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 over Office Space
Office Space is a classic comedic movie that is very entertaining and rewatchable, but it just can not match the epic levels that are reached in this Harry Potter Movie.

The Godfather Part 2 over Easy A
I can't in good judgement even consider Easy A over The Godfather Part 2. I loved Easy A, but this is a completely different level of movie. I will actually have to sit down and think about The Godfather Part 2 eventually though, and who knows if I will like it when comparing it to a comedy down the line.

Airplane! over Big Fan
Airplane! has to win this matchup. Big Fan is a movie that I really enjoy from an emotional standpoint, but it really suffers from the entertaining standpoint, but the movie is supposed to be slow. Airplane is just a comedy classic that I could watch over and over gets a pass in this round.

LoTR: Two Towers over Amelie
I really like Amelie, I think it is one of 2 or 3 foreign films that have made this list. I actually noticed that all 3 Lord of the Rings movies are in the same quarter of the bracket, which is unfortunate for them. I may need to reshuffle these movies when I get down to 32 or something along those lines we will see.

I am sorry I have been so behind on posting this, but here are the first few results from the movie tournament. I plan to get another matchup or 2 done today.

Movie Bracket to date: http://challonge.com/weckpd

Diet log Week #15

Well I have started using my kettlebell, as well as some new kinds of crunches. I need to work those all in on a regular basis, not just once or twice a week.  I would like to do them every other day and walk/jog every day on top of that.

My entry this week will be pretty short.
I lost 3 lbs this week
Up to a total of 54 lbs lost

I am now up to 35.34% of my target weight loss.

I post these diet logs on twitter just Like I post them on Facebook. One of my followers had mentioned that she also wanted to lose weight. We made a "bet" to see who could lose 23% body weight the fastest. So this will be a number going forward from this most recent weigh in. I need to lost 85 lbs to lose 23% of my current body weight. I think it really is just a way of pushing each other to keep working hard, not really a bet. There is nothing actually on the line. We both just want to live healthier. I will update this regularly as well as all of the other numbers.

That is all for this week.

Diet Log Weeks #13 and 14

Well it has been a slow few weeks for weight loss. I lost a little, but I am going to incorporate new items to my usual workouts in order to add some muscle and burn fat faster.

My numbers for the last 2 weeks have totaled:
2.8 lbs lost
0 inches lost

I am over 50 lbs lost now!
I am up to 33.38% of my goal weight loss reached.

While 2.8 lbs in 2 weeks is nothing negative, it just wasn't anything amazing. I want to lose more than that so I will need to make some additions to my routine.

The additions are kettlebell swings 3 times a week, and 2 different types of crunches. I can already feel the difference from the kettlebell swings, it really worked my legs, back, shoulders, and arms. I will slowly build up the number of reps/set and the number of total reps per workout. It honestly does not take that much time to do, and it feels good to be slightly sore from those exercises. It makes it seem like I am making progress.

I will hopefully show an increase in weight loss for next week

Moneyball

I really can't write about Moneyball without looking at it from two angles. I will look at it as just a movie, then compare the movie to the book.

The movie, on its own, was quite good. I was not sure how they would make a compelling movie about a book like that. The dialog was definitely improved for more laughs and just generally better conversation overall in the movie. The characters were very likable, and there was quite a bit of emotion in the movie, which was definitely not that true for the book. The baseball action was quite enjoyable even though it was a little bit prolonged. I was not really sure how they would make the book into a movie, but they did a pretty decent job. I would recommend the movie to anyone, baseball fan or not. I was weirded out by Phillip Seymour-Hoffman playing Art Howe, but I actually thought that Art Howe was older than he actually is. He it only 64 now, I wouldn't have been surprised if he was 65 back then. He just looked that old I guess.

The movie really didn't go into the advanced statistics in the book, pretty much focused on walks. Much of the more in depth things the book goes into like the history of Sabermetrics, the development of the stats, Chad Bradford's life growing up, The draft that year, among other things. I thought the draft was a big point in the book, but it was literally not even mentioned in the movie. I would have loved to hear Brad Pitt say "Span fucked us!" referring to Denard Span who is currently on the Minnesota Twins, just for the simple fact that I like Denard Span and I think it would be a cool name drop. Billy Beane was not as likable a character in the book and I suppose real life as he is in the movie. I think they really needed to make him likable to drive the movie though.

I guess I just wanted this movie to do more preaching of advanced statistics, which would expose them to a new audience. I am not saying everyone would take them as gospel, but more people would have an idea where that half of the fans is coming from. I still think it was an interesting book, that was turned into an interesting movie that is worth seeing.

Diet Log Week #12

Even though I said I was going to exercise more last week, I didn't. It was still a good week numbers-wise but it should have been better. This week I have already worked out as much as last week with a walk on saturday night, and a jog on Sunday ngiht, and I will be going out pretty soon here tonight. I can run much longer distances than I used to be able to, but I would like to be even better. I am still terrible at running, but less terrible than before.

I have been getting into a groove when it comes to making food. I have made chili for the 2nd time this summer/fall already, its just so good, and it works so well with my diet. I have also been having marinated chicken breasts on top of salads pretty regularly. I mad a turkey meatloaf with some steamed veggies to enjoy as well. I might need to make some adjustments if these things get old. I can always switch to tuna salads as well, but might want to do that at home and not at work, for fear of stinky tuna breath.

The numbers for this past week:
Net weight lost this week: 3.4 lbs
Total weight lost to date: 48.2 lbs
Inches lost this week: 0
Total inches lost: 29.5 inches

Percent of target weight loss: 31.5%
Percent of bodyweight lost: 11.4%

I am over 30% of the way to my goal number for weight loss, which is just a percentage, I would like to be over a third of the way there by the end of this week. I have lost over 10% of my total bodyweight, and I am just getting started with this. These amazing numbers just continue to encourage me to keep going and push harder.