Since I saw the original Karate Kid movie – It would be only fitting to have my son watch the remake. And since it has THE Jackie Chan on the film, all the more reason to watch it. The not so goods: The movie spent too much time showing how the protagonist (Jaden Smith) had a hard time adjusting to his new life in China and how he was severely bullied in school. It also had a romantic angle to it, they even kissed – which felt a bit awkward to me because Jayden looked so young and even smaller than the Chinese girl on the movie. It’s like showing a kid hero smoking Swisher Sweets, pretty awkward. All in all there was simply more talk and less action. There should have been more fighting scenes. The goods: Jackie Chan! All his scenes were as usual nicely choreographed and the points that his character was trying to express was clearly laid out. Too bad he did not get as much action as he deserved – I would have wanted to see him beat the crap out of the dojo master! Well the action scenes of Jayden were good, but some – including his final move were borderline impossible and ridiculous. The worst part of the movie though – like most chinese and action movies, it ends IMMEDIATELY after the last fight. That killed it for me big time. I wanted to know what happened to the other characters and issues which they spent so much time on at the beginning of the movie – but they just pulled the plug! Well that’s classic action movie for you. While I didn’t really dig it, my son loved it to the core and was excited with every scene. Bottom line: 4 out of 5, just because Jackie Chan was part of the movie and my son loved it.  Here is Z doing the high kick:

Here is a quick cover I made of “Lifelines”. This is an unreleased song by John Mayer, sang around 1999 – so the song is actually really old but he has not included it on any of his studio albums, hence the term unreleased. The song has a nice groove and has been a favorite of mine way back. A fitting song to cover using my new found friend “Martina”. Good thing the video was a bit blurry because this was taken before we get another facial to clean out those pesky blackheads. Enjoy music – enjoy life!

Earlier Z and myself watched the latest subbed episode of our favorite anime – Naruto!  On this particular episode – Naruto Shippuuden 161 – we have quite a twist from all the rampage.  This was a fun episode for Z, because Konohamaru fought with Pain.  The first part of the episode showed Pain as someone really powerful, and you can see in Z’s face that he was quite intimidated by Pain.  I was “narrating” as we were watching so Z felt the excitement as Pain charged to attack Konohamaru. And to his surprise – Konahamaru defeated Pain and using Z’s favorite ninjutsu – the “Rasengan”.  He was so ecstatic that we had to replay the scene a couple more times before he said we could finish it. Hehe, that’s Z for you.

I have posted this review also at my other blog: Dadedidodu.com

Loaded with a box of popcorn, a bunch of fast food takeouts – we raced our way to the cinema. We got there just in time, advertisements featuring new movies are still rolling.  I was not too excited about the movie because I was not too much of a fan of the first film.  But here is hoping that the second installment would be good, and ofc ourse we wanted to see what the hype was all about.  To my disappointment – the movie turned out to be much like how the first one was, full of high grade special effects and visuals, but lacking in the story department.  Just like part 1, somebody AGAIN copied  Iron Man’s suit and became the villain – there goes my hope for originality.  The only real thing that made the movie bearable  was the graphics – and the funny antics of Robert Downey Jr.  I was also disappointed at the fight scenes… the enemies were bleh.  The only good fight scene was between War Machine and Iron Man, the final fight with the antagonist was not even worth mentioning.  To the creators of future comic book adaptation movies - PLEASE PLEASE and again PLEASE EXTEND and CRAFT great fight scenes – it should be the heart of any comic book super hero adaptation movie!!!  GRRR!!!  OK… now that I got that off my chest, I will give my final rating:  4 out of 5.   It should be lower – but since Z was happy about the movie, I gave it some bonus points.  I’m guessing with Z’s reaction to the movie that we would be present again in the next installment of the film.

Reminder: One thing worth mentioning was Nick Fury’s more prominent role, so word of advice – wait for the end credits roll, you’re in for a small but nice scene.

Do you know a movie by heart that  you can recite ALL the lines of ALL the characters?  This is that movie for me and my son.  Z, when he was around 3 years old, he would play this movie at least once everyday.  This movie was literally his favorite and the song “Life is a Highway” is his favorite song.  It is a common sight on TV in our home for months! And rightly so, because the graphics and story of Cars is still just as relevant and exciting as it was when it was shown on theatres.  I’m sure I need not expound on it because this movie is one of Disney’s most popular.  I guess it’s popularity is one of the reasons why they are having a hard time completing a sequel. Maybe they are still looking at a better auto insurance quote before they allow Lightning McQueen to run the tracks again. Anyway this movie gets a perfect 5 out of 5. If you haven’t watched this yet, get out under that rock!

Yesterday I spent almost the whole day just playing the guitar and recording videos and audios. Time well spent I should say . Good thing the upcoming John Mayer concert is still giving me some sleep, if not I’ll have to consider good acne pills if I want to make videos. Anyway here is one of the videos I was able to record yesterday, it’s a cover of one of John Mayer’s song, just in time for his concert!

I have been looking forward to John Mayer’s concert. But being the thrifty me, I was having second thoughts on getting any good seat tickets.  My wife surprised me yesterday, that she bought 2 tickets for the best seats (VIP). Not only that but she got the first available seat after the sponsors, she was the first one in line when the tickets went on sale at Channel V’s office. When she told me that and showed me the ticket, I couldn’t believe it. All the time I thought she was planning to buy a new laptop for herself with her online income, but instead she opted to spend it on the ticket. Ofcourse it made my day, and right now I am so excited to get to the concert with her and experience something that only a few filipino’s could. That is great music from the main man live – John Mayer.