Talking about the Movies

I originally posted this on an old blog back in 2014, I've decided to re-post it here.  

I recently took some time to watch a few movies instead of my normal TV shows or wrestling and I would like to share my brief thoughts on said flicks with minimal to zero spoilers. 

Theatre

Anchorman 2 – Kate and I went and saw this at Regal Cinemas in Augusta.  It was exactly what I expected it to me.  Crass and over the top stupid humor!  If you like the first one then you will like this one just as much.  The standard multi news team rumble at the end is just as cameo laden as the original. 

47 Ronin – John and I took this in at Flagship in Waterville.  The trailer looked awesome, supernatural sword play fighting and some great martial arts.  Sadly they trailer showed us all the cool sequences in the flick leaving us with a slow drawn out story.  It reminds me of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, where trailer is loaded with some epic fight scenes and when you watch the movie you realize that yes the fight scenes are cool but the majority of the movie is a slow drawn out love story.  However, in the case of Crouching Tiger it’s a good enjoyable story that doesn’t leave you disappointed, unlike 47 Ronin.

Saving Mr. Banks – Kate and I watched this at Regal in Augusta.  It was wonderful!  It was the first time I’ve ever gone to the movies and heard the audience openly crying during a film.  Tom Hanks as Walt Disney was excellent as was Emma Thompson as the PL Travers the author of Mary Poppins.  This movie is the story of how Walt Disney convinced Mrs. Travers to allow his company to adapt her beloved Mary Poppins to the silver screen.  You should definitely check it out!

During these flicks I was, of course, treated to several film trailers.  The one that stands out to me that I saw twice is the new Liam Neeson flick Non-Stop where he plays a bad ass US Air Marshal on a flighty where a bad guy is killing people for ransom.  It looks cool!

Home Viewing

These are in no particular order, just what I recall checking out the last several weeks

The Way Way Back – A coming of age flick about a teenage boy played by Liam James forced to spend the summer in Cape Cod with his mother, her new boyfriend and his daughter.  Steve Carell plays the boyfriend and is and asshole.  It also stars Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph and host of other people you will recognize.  It’s just a good wholesome flick.

Riddick – I really like Pitch Black, wasn’t a huge fan of Chronicles of Riddick.  This returns to the Pitch Black premise of a bunch of people on an Alien Planet with a population of creatures looking to kill them all.  It ties into the other two flicks nicely and sets us up for a 4^th one. 

We’re the Millers – Hilarious!  Jason Sudeikis plays a small time drug dealer who through reason you’ll discover has to travel to Mexico to smuggle drugs.  So he enlists a fake family to travel with him in an RV to aid in avoiding suspicion at the border.  Hijinks and mishaps happen along the way.  Sudeikis is absolutely hilarious in this flick!  Just watch it!

Pacific Rim – Pretty cool Monster movie were the Kaiju battle giant man made monsters.  Kind of reminded me of Godzilla vs Megalon that featured giant robot Jet Jaguar who teamed with Godzilla to battle Megalon and the Kaiju cyborg space monster Gigan.  I thought it was a decent flick and if you like monster movies and people dealing with emotional trauma then check it out.  It really is good.

Speaking of Godzilla this May a new Godzilla film is being produce and released by an American film company.  It’s a reboot to the series that first debuted in 1954.  I plan on taking this one in at the drive in! 

All is Bright – Starring Paul Giamatti and Paul Rudd this should have been a much funnier movie than it was.  It’s not a bad movie, but at the same time it’s not what we expected.  Giamatti just gets out of a Quebec Prison, his wife is dating his friend played by Rudd and his daughter thinks he’s dead.  The two travel to New York to sell Christmas Trees to make money.  Again not bad, just not what I expected.

Origianly posted 1/7/2014

 Don Jon – Written, directed by, and starring Joseph Gordon Leavitt.  He plays Jon who loves sex but not as much as he loved porn.  Billed as a romantic-comedy, I wouldn’t go that far but I would say it’s a decent flick.  Also starring Julianne Moore, Scarlett Johansson, and Tony Danza, it’s basically about a man trying to find himself and thrown in a lot of discussion about sex and porn.  Solid flick.

The Last of McGuinness– Wrestling documentary about the retirement tour of Nigel McGuinness.  McGuinness grew up with the dream of wrestling in the WWE.  Even though he accomplished more than 99% of the guys who set out to become professional wrestlers he feels he’s a failure for not reaching his goal.  It’s a moving and very raw emotional story that every wrestling fan should check out.

I’ve got a bunch of movies on tap to check out that I just have had time to watch.  In the new future though I will be screening; Carrie, The Conjuring, Insidious 2, and some others.  Right now I need a good horror flick fix, I haven’t had one in a long time. 

I work a lot, mostly overnights, and my time to watch flicks has drastically decreased so I spend most of my time watching my shows and wrestling.  But with most everything in hiatus for the winter it’s afforded me some time to watch some flicks.  I think I’ll keep with the flicks and but the shows on the back burner.  Except for Sherlock, that show is amazing!  Not really a show it’s season consists of three 90 minute episodes.  It’s amazing!

Until Next Time!

Jolly Rancher Stix

Growing up in Litchfield we had a small store just down the camp road from my house.  It was called
Whip-Poor-Will Variety because it was on the Whip-Poor-Will Road. The owner Roger, was a great guy,
and would let us rent movies for free as kids.  The store was very small but he had the essentials; gas, milk,
bread, soda, beer, chips, candy, and even a kitchen that made delicious pizza and italian sandwiches.

One of the best things he sold was the 10 cent Jolly Rancher Stix candy.  Jolly Ranchers are still around but

the stix candy isn’t which is sad. The stix was about 6 inches long, 1 inch wide, and like an eighth of an
inch thick.  Similar to that of today’s Airhead.

Roger carried six to eight flavors: apple, grape, cherry, watermelon, fire, strawberry, and punch to name a

few. I can also recall lemonade and pink lemonade but Roger never carried those. The stix was great
because it lasted such a long time there was just something about biting a hunk off and pulling the
wrapper back up to put it in your pocket.

Currently they come in little inch long rectangular pieces and the flavors are primarily blue raspberry, apple,

watermelon, grape, and lemon.  Yes they offer other flavors in specialty bags I don’t see those flavors in
stores.

There was something special about the classic stix that I miss and the current batch of Jolly Ranchers

just aren’t the same.

For those wondering what an italian sandwich it’s called a sub or a grinder elsewhere, but trust they are

not the same.

Until Next Time!

Eight Weeks Post Op

This morning, Monday April 20, 2020, it has been eight weeks since my gastric sleeve surgery.  What a two months it has been at that!  This morning I weighed in at 328 lbs, which is a loss of 42 lbs since surgery and 64 pounds over all since I started this long journey a year ago.

It was a February 2019 that my doctor recommended that I have this surgery, she stated that I checked all the boxes for someone that should have it and would benefit from it health wise.  On top of being very overweight I have sleep apnea and was a type 2 Diabetic.  She put in the referral and away I went.

I had to have the initial visit, met with the nutritionist seven times and the appointments had to be at least a month apart, met with the psychologist twice, met with the surgeon twice, had to have an EKG, chest x-ray, full lab work with 13 vials of blood, and and EGD.  This was all before my insurance would approve me for surgery.

For those that don't know an EKG or Electrocardiogram is test that takes and 8 second look at your heart.  It takes like 10 minutes for them to put all the electrodes on you.  I had to have one done a week after surgery and a different person did it.  The first time they had me take my pants off and put two electrodes on each leg, second time just one on my lower legs only so I only had to pull my pants  legs up.  The upper body was the same both times.  I'm always curious why things like this are done two different ways, who did it right, who did it wrong, does it matter either way? 

An EGD or Esophagogastroduodenoscopy is a procedure where they put a camera down your throat to look at your esophagus, stomach, and top of your small intestine.  Luckily I was put under for this procedure.

Six months prior to surgery I tried really hard, harder than I had ever tried before to lose weight on my own and only lost 6 pounds.  It was so frustrating, but my doctor was right when she said because of my medications and how messed up my body is from my years of abusing it that I just wasn't going to lose weight.  In those six months thought I took my daily blood sugar from near 300 to 120 and my A1C from 9.6 to 6.8 so I know what I was doing was making me healthier even if the scale didn't reflect it.

My doctor took me off my insulin just before surgery, and on April 10th I had my A1C checked and it is 4.9!  So I am no longer diabetic and off all my diabetes medications!  Next month I have to have full set of labs done again before me three month follow up. 

Gastric Sleeve surgery was not an easy road, it was not the easy way out, and that first month post surgery was miserable. Today I don't regret it at all and I'm looking forward how this continues to progress.  It's weird to discover how much easier it is to do certain things that I was able to do before but didn't realize how much effort I had to put in to do them. 

Until Next Time! 

 

The Rise & Fall of Kevin Smith, in my opinion Part 2

If you haven't read part 1 yet, you should go back and read it before you read this.

I really enjoyed Zack and Miri Make a Porno, it was a classic Kevin Smith style movie, but it was in this movie that Smith meet Seth Rogen who introduced him to marijuana.  As in Smith knew about it and played a petty drug dealer as Silent Bob but he didn't start smoking marijuana with regularity until he met Rogen.  In my opinion, marijuana has ruined Smith's career.

Zack & Miri came out in 2008, followed by Cop Out in 2010, Red State in 2011, Tusk in 2014, Yoga Hosers in 2016 and most recently Jay & Silent Bob Reboot in 2019.  Smith has stayed plenty busy with movies, comic books, appearances, podcasts, and acting in several films.  I'm sticking to the movies he has written and directed.

Cop Out starred Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, this is the only movie Smith has directed that he did not write.  He took on directing duties to work with Bruce Willis which he later regretted.  Smith claimed Willis was difficult to work with and Willis claimed that Smith smoke too much pot and was anti-social and left the actors to fend for themselves.  Smith rants about this in his 4th Q&A special.

Red State was Kevin Smith's art film where he wanted to get back to making an non-studio independent film.  I didn't care for Red State, the film was some sort of social commentary that apparently was lost on me.

After screening the movie at Sundance film festival Smith decided not to auction the rights of the film and distribute it himself.  It caused quite the controversy and many studio's felt lied to and insulted.  It should be noted that to date Cop Out was Smith's last film that was given a wide theatrical release.  From Red State on he self distributed the films touring them around the country himself.

Tusk was the first of his True North Trilogy, horror movies taking place in Canada.  Justin Long is the star of the film, his character is a podcaster who flies to Canada to interview a kid that accidentally cut of his leg.  Upon arriving in Canada he finds the kids has killed himself.  Long meet's another man who essentially kidnaps Long and transforms him into a walrus.  It's wicked fucked up and the scene at the end I found really disturbing.

The second of the Trilogy was Yoga Hosers.  Smith's daughter Harley and her friend Lily-Rose star in this film as the Colleen's, two girls who work at a convenience store.  They had a cameo together in Tusk and were the stars of this.  This film features Nazi's, yoga guru's and other nonsense.

Johnny Depp is in it, he was in Tusk too because Lily-Rose is his daughter.  This film is tied to Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back because in the film Smith's wife Jennifer plays one of the cat burglars, Missy Mackenzie, in these films his daughter Harley plays Missy's daughter Colleen Mackenzie.

The third film has yet to be filmed.  This movie titled Moose Jaws is about killer moose on the loose in Canada, like Jaw in the ocean off Martha's Vineyard.  It's confirmed that the Colleen's will star and that Smith and Jason Mewes will appear as Jay & Silent Bob.  Johnny Depp is also slated to return.

Instead Smith went back to the beginning with Jay & Silent Bob Reboot.  This movie brought back almost all his characters from Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Strike Back.  Also Justin Long reprises his role of Brandon St. Randy from Zack & Miri Make a Porno playing an attorney at the beginning of the film.  This, essentially, makes all of the movies Smith has written all part of the View Askewiverse.  Except Red State.

I can't say I enjoyed this film, it didn't feel like a Kevin Smith movie.  Once scene, with Holden McNeil have a heart to heart about being a father with Jay is excellent.  I actually got emotional and it showed that Smith could still write that way, he just doesn't.

It feels like Smith wrote these films while he was high.  The jokes of lower brow, there is no meaningful dialogue, and everything about his style that I fell in love is simply not there.  He's been talking for the last couple years about making Mallrats 2 and Clerks 3, I'll watch them but I have no hope that they will be good.

Smith has another film slated to come out in 2020, Kilroy Was Here, set to be released this fall.  It is a horror anthology that is based around the graffiti Kilroy Was Here.  I'm don't have high hopes.

Until Next Time

Bloodlust Zombies movie review

I originally posted this back in 2012 on an old blog.  I'm reposting it today as the film was release was 9 years ago today on April 17, 2011.

Low budget flick about a military weapons manufacturer who created a chemical weapon that is released into the building turning the employees in to mindless "Bloodlust Zombies"!!
It's billed as a comedy horror, but I would more run with comedy gorefest.  Starring porn star Alexis Texas as our heroine along with an unknown cast of supporters this overall, is a solid flick.

For my, the two best characters in the flick are Libby the Temp, played by Lauren Todd and womanizer Darren played by Adam Danoff. this is Todd's feature debut while Danoff has been in a few other flicks.

It's streaming now on Netflix and if your looking for a quick and enjoyable flick I would recommend checking this out.


Mike

The Rise & Fall of Kevin Smith, in my opinion Part 1

The other day I introduced my son to Kevin Smith by when we screened his first film Clerks.  My son, Canaan, loved it!  I remember twenty years ago I was working at the video store Movie Gallery and it was then that I was first introduced to Clerks and I to love it.

I quickly watched Mallrats & Chasing Amy to close out his then titled Jersey Trilogy.  I bought all three on DVD and considered getting the DVD slipcase that he was selling on his website to house the three of them together.

I watched all the special features of the films, listened to the directors commentary tracks and even really dug the original Mallrats opening.  What I loved was how the three films all tied together with their backstories and relationships both family and friendship between the characters.

I missed seeing Dogma in the theaters but I remember when it was released on home video, which I also bought the DVD and devoured all the bonus content.  What I loved about the Jersey Trilogy was that all the stories were very believable.  Dogma was cool, but the story was much more fantasy, but I still loved it.  It was full of all the things I love about Kevin Smiths early film, great dialogue, intriguing characters, great humor.  What I had grown to expect from his movies.

In 2000 we got Clerks the Animated Series, only 2 episodes aired on ABC before it was cancelled but I dug them.  Eventually the series with all six episodes was released on Home Video.

In 2001 we got Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, which I did go see in the theater.  At that time this was supposed to close out the Jersey stories and featured Jay & Silent Bob going to Hollywood to shut down the production of a movie based on the comic book Bluntman & Chronic who are based on them.

We got to see all the characters from Clerks, Mallrats, & Chasing Amy back again, with some actors like Jason Lee playing both his rolls of Banky Edwards and Brodie Bruce.  It was a campy and over the top but a wonderful homage to his characters of the past.  I really enjoyed the movie and was a bit sad that he was closing the doors on those characters.

An Evening with Kevin Smith came out in 2002 and was the start of a series of DVD releases with Smith doing Q&A sessions.  This first release with a run time of 3.5 hours was two discs and featured him speaking at five universities.

Kevin has an amazing ability to tell stories and I found there first three DVD release's to be fantastic.  The fourth was him answering one question about Bruce Willis and Cop Out that left him ranting for 2 hours.  Apparently they released a DVD that was the full 3.5 hour special.  The fifth I never saw.

Smith's first film outside his Jersey-verse was the critically panned Jersey Girl released in 2004.  I didn't think it was that bad.  Can't say I've watched it more than once, but from what I remember it was decent.

It was this negative experience that drove Smith back to friendly territory and the 2006 Clerks II.  I fucking loved this movie!  Dante & Randal back together with some new characters and all the Kevin Smith genius that I loved.

Up next for Smith was Zack & Miri Make A Porno.  It featured Smith regulars Jason Mewes and Jeff Anderson, not playing Jay & Randal though.  This is a great film with the standard Smith style of writing and dialogue that I've always loved.

However this would prove to be the final Smith movie, to date, that featured his unique style that he built himself on and that I was a fan of.  I blame Seth Rogen for this which I will talk about in part 2.

Until Next Time

My son's introduction to Kevin Smith

This past weekend was my weekend with the kids.  My son Canaan asked me if on Saturday night after Kate goes to bed if I wanted to watch a movie or play some Xbox, I went with movie and he chose wanted something funny.  Then it became what to watch, I mean he is 14 years old and he's at the right age to start sharing him with what I think are fantastic classic movies.

In what can only be called a rite of passage I busted out my Clerks 10th anniversary edition.  The first time I watched Clerks was, ironically, when I was working at a video store, Movie Gallery, when I was 20 years old.  I fell in love with the flick and became a huge fan of Kevin Smith.

I quickly rented and later bought Mallrats and Chasing Amy his then named Jersey Trilogy.  I loved how different each movie was and how they all tied together.  It was unique and long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe became a thing and other companies started doing it, Kevin Smith had created his own cinematic universe.

My son's first reaction was "is this whole thing in black and white?"  I answered yes but explained why, how Smith had financed the movie himself and how black and white film was cheaper than color.  At the end he laughed at the right moments, got the long winded jokes, and loved the movie!  Mission accomplished.

He's excited to check out Smith's other movies and I have the good ones for us to watch!

Until Next Time

Snow Day in April

With this Covid-19 pandemic going on in my office at work we are rotating one person in the office and the other two working from home so we can socially distance ourselves.  Today, Friday April 10th, was my day in the office.

Yesterday afternoon a storm rolled in and when we awoke the morning we went from no snow on the ground for the last couple weeks to 8 inches of HEAVY wet snow.  I get to the office about 715 am for and get my settled in as the only person in the office.  About an hour later I get the text notification that the State is closed for the day.  Would have been nice to get before I left home.

I finish up and head home where my wife has been working at home for three weeks.  There are six people in her division and she was the only one that had both power and internet to be able to work.
I dug out the snowblower that I had put away last weekend and was able to get the driveway cleared up.  Worth it because the pavement dried up enough by the afternoon for the wife and I to play some basketball with my oldest son Canaan.

I had a doctors appointment today as well that I had to go to.  I've had some health issues for a while and like I mentioned in another post had gastric sleeve surgery back in February.  Today I got some fantastic news!  My A1C, which in July 2019 was 9.6, was 4.8 today!  I've been off my insulin a few days before surgery, but Dr. C took me off the rest of my diabetes medications today!  Basically a sustained level of 6 and higher makes you a type 2 diabetic.

I'm focused and I'm going to make this procedure work the way that it is supposed to!

Don't worry, not every post is going to be a health update or what I did that day.  However if that's what I feel about writing about that's what I'm going to write about.

Until Next Time!

Current Happenings

There is so much going on in the world right now, it's an unprecedented time for all of us dealing with this Covid-19 pandemic.  Back on February 24th I had gastric sleeve surgery after being in the process for almost a year.  I had some complications and ended staying two extra nights in the hospital which lead to me extending my sick leave from two weeks to three weeks.

During those three weeks I couldn't do a whole lot and I was actually looking forward to going back to work.  My first day back at work I was told that the three of us would be rotating one in the office and the other two working from home.  Kate is also working from home full time with her job and we pulled Wesley from daycare.

I thought with the three of us at home it would be difficult, we would get annoyed with each other and have little fights.  None of that has happened, it's been really great.  We are able to get out work done, and we take out breaks going outside to play basketball when the weather allows it.

I've gotten a lot of little projects done around the house that I've been meaning to do.  Most of them deep cleans on things like Canaan's room, the play room closet, Gram-Gram's desk.  The pantry as Kate calls it is this weekend, it has become a catch all and I am not looking forward to it if I'm being honest.

The oddest part about what is going on right now is the stay at home order we are under.  Kate and Wesley never leave the house, other than to go for walks or play in the yard.  I only leave to go to the office or our once a week grocery shopping.

I'm not sure when like is going to get back to normal.  Then again, I don't want to go back to how it was.  I like the positive changes that I have made and I want to continue them.  I miss going to wrestling and the movies and being around people.  Honestly though it really hasn't been all that bad.  I think it helps that I have friends that I'm in contact with like Jay, John, Brandon, Mikey and others.

I hope everyone else is doing well and making the best of things

Until Next Time

Hello Again

Hi there!  For those that don't know, my name is Mike.  However, if you are reading this then you probably know who I am. 

This blog initially was one I created in 2016 after I had my first and to date only story published in a book. I had big hopes and dreams of getting more publish, and I have tried but alas I may be a one hit wonder.  Writing has taken a back seat the last couple years since I started taking college classes online through a free college benefit that my union offers.  In 7 shorts weeks from today I'll finish my final two classes to achieve my Associates Degree in Business Management. I never thought I'd have a college degree. 

Over the years I've had a few blogs, The Wrestling Insomniac being one that I have actually been able to maintain for the last five years with help, and it's almost at 500 posts!  I've had other blogs, but nothing that I have been as dedicated too.  My first blogspot blog was Superstar Review, which is why I'm stuck with that terrible email.

I knew someone that was able to start a product review blog and was able to make money off of it.  I was not able to do that.  It became a catch all blog for anything that I wanted to write about, but then it transformed into what is now Labbe Family Voyages.

My other blog is Hot Dogs of Maine.  I put a lot of work into it at first and I've gotten some serious traffic on a couple of the posts.  My initial plan was to travel around the State of Maine and eat hot dogs and other foods and report on them.  However, work, life, weight issues, and now gastric surgery makes that hard to keep up.  Maybe someday I'll go back and do something with it.

All of my blogs have a theme and I'm a stickler for keeping to them.  I didn't have a place to just write and post random things, which is something that I've been wanting to do.  I've always enjoyed writing and I find it therapeutic.  Recently I found a blog my buddy Brandon started simply titled Brandon Writes Stuff, and that's what he does.  He writes about anything he feels like and he doesn't care if anyone reads it because he writes for him.  So I guess you can blame Brandon for this blog because I too want to write for me, my Thoughts & Ponderings, and I don't care if anyone reads them or not.

This one is for me, and if others like it cool, if not, well that's cool too.

Until Next Time