S-T

Oh, look, the next villain is health insurance companies, denying claims based on the tiniest of technicalities. Another political scapegoat. This is starting to look like pure political propaganda.

OK, I got Saw 6 from Netflix and I just started watching the movie. Right away I'm irritated. Oh, it's the evil bankers who are engaged in predatory loans. They must be punished. Yep, let's totally forget about irresponsible government policies that encouraged those loans, and let's totally forget about the borrowers that didn't have the personal responsibility to take a loan they could actually afford. It's all the banks' fault, and only the banks' fault. Who wrote this script? Barney Frank? Chris Dodd? I'm a politically active person and I have strong opinions on political issues. I keep those opinions off this site, because that's not what this is meant for. But it frankly honks me off that Lionsgate, right off the bat, is making a political statement in a horror movie and whaling on a favorite political scapegoat. I'm not saying the banks were right. I'm not defending the predatory lending practices that went on. I'm as annoyed as anyone at the billions upon billions in bailout money they got, with the blessing of both political parties. What I'm saying is it's very annoying to have a very complicated situation that led to the 2008 meltdown of the financial system boiled down to "it's the bankers' fault" by a bunch of Hollywood producers. I don't watch movies to get a political sermon. That's why I hated "The Day After Tomorrow." I watch movies to be entertained. (Or in the case of Saw VI, to be entertained by how terrible I expect this movie to be.) If I want a sermon, I will go to church. OK, rant over.

And considering Christian doctrine that there is one God in three persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) Jesus would be avenging His own death.

OK, the DQ finishes in championship matches are getting a little ridiculous. It is not a bad gimmick, and can be used to enhance interest in a feud. The problem right now is WWE is overusing it.

Compared to Squall, he's the definition of masculinity. Then again, Pee Wee Herman is the definition of masculinity when compared to Squall.

Has anyone seen Jake Roberts: Pick your Poison? I got it from Netflix last week. I was unimpressed with the fact that they held on to kayfabe way too much, especially regarding the de-fanged cobra biting Randy Savage on the arm. (My nephew was at the event. I kept scanning the crowd on the DVD trying to find him, but didn't see him. We used to have an old WWF Magazine where you could see him clearly in the crowd.) Nonetheless, I thought it was an excellent look into his career. It is really to bad that this guy was so over, and was such a big star for such a long time, and threw it away with substance abuse. As big of a star as he was, he could have been bigger. So much wasted potential there. So many years of his life wasted. That's been repeated so many times not only in pro wrestling, but other areas as well. Len Bias was a lottery pick in the NBA draft and could have been a perennial All Star. He threw it away for a cocaine high and he died. So sad. So utterly preventable.

There have been some nonsensical "Dusty finishes" in wrestling, but this one takes the cake. It's difficult to wrap my head around how mind-numbingly stupid this one is. Spoony raised a great point - what if you smack someone in the groin with a steel chair? Is that legal?

Is what he says about Undertaker/Batista true? Did Batista really have his title victory voided for punching Taker in the groin in a chairs match? Did that really happen?

The sequel was a done deal after the first weekend. No way does any Hollywood studio executive with more than one functioning brain cell not make a sequel after that kind of profit.

Which is really too bad. He used to be such a cool character. Even Scorpion has potential, though he was portrayed as such a loser. With a strong enough story, most of Spider-Man's villains could be great.

Too bad about Umaga. I hope this is a lesson. I'm sad that it won't be.

Well, that's true.

Perhaps not, nut we're talking about a woman who is supposed to be tough as nails. She's taken a beating from Beth Phoenix, and won. Many men would cry after taking some of those moves from Phoenix, but not MJ. It's not even as if she was relentlessly insulted or hounded prior to breaking down and "crying" - she had just whupped on Scary Spice. If WWE wants us to have sympathy for MJ, have her take a few 2-on-1 beatings. Have McCool play the cowardly heel and get herself disqualified a couple times to keep her title. But crying because of a minor insult? Please. The realistic response would have been to mock McCool's ear-piercing shrieking that passes for "singing." The whole angle is shamelessly misogynistic, almost as insulting as the morbidly obese Jim Ross mocking Molly Holly for being "fat."

McCool's little song about "Piggy James" made Mickey James cry? Seriously? What is this, junior high school? Wow. Way to completely undermine the credibility of your top Diva, guys. BTW - Never let McCool sing again. Never. That was painful.

Hiro refers to the waitress as "The Marle to my Crono." That is freaking awesome. Most of the audience will have no idea what he's talking about, but I marked out. That was such an awesome game.

I actually really enjoyed it. Then again, I watched Transformers 2 last week. After eating a week-old rotting turd, a slice of bologna is going to taste like a perfectly cooked and seasoned T-Bone steak. G.I. Joe was faithful to the cartoon and they even used the "knowing is half the battle" catch phrase. I wasn't thrilled with the Baroness' face turn, though. She's so much cooler when she's evil. At least they had the sense to keep Storm Shadow evil. I can't imagine what they were thinking with that face turn, all those years ago.

The battle system is pretty traditional in 2. I've never played the first one. My primary complaint is that instead of getting items and gold automatically after the battle, you have to search the corpse. It's an unnecessary time-wasting step, and sometimes you miss corpses or they sre scattered about the area. Overall, very good though.

Has anyone played any of these games? I've purchased the second one and I am really enjoying it. Old school, 16 bit RPG on the PC.

All three of them need to realize their time is past and they need to step away from the ring. If they wrestle again, all they would do is tarnish their legacies.

Including the theme from "Greatest American Hero" was a really fun tip of the hat.

Well, they did say he wasn't a terribly popular character. Since his arrogance caused a major tragedy, I can see wanting to punish himself - that was seen when Spider-Man allowed J. Jonah Jameson to beat him up in "Back in Black." But That only works for so long before he becomes "annoying emo loser" instead of a tragic character filled with pain and grief - like the Punisher. Speedball/Penance crossed that line rather quickly. I almost bought "Spider-Man: Reign." I am thankful I didn't waste my money.

Later, Bruce Wayne's mansion was burned to the ground by the Animal Liberation Front.

I agree 100%. It's annoying - "Green Lantern" was especially bad because 77 minutes is not nearly enough room for a truly satisfying story. The ending was rushed. It could have been so much better with another 20 minutes.

Remember how I said it was a bad idea to have the basis of CM Punk's heel character be that he abstains from all alcohol, tobacco and drugs? He even was mocking the fans for reaching for the "extra strength painkillers" when they have a headache. (With that attitude, he could work for the FDA and help them implement reducing the maximum dose of acetaminophen from 1000 mg to 650 mg.) He's the bad guy because he doesn't use drugs. Jeff Hardy was the good guy, he has used drugs, and punk mocked him as an enabler for the fans. Jeff leaves WWE, and then gets arrested for drug trafficking. Have Punk be a heel character, great. But for crying out loud, stop making the "straight edge" lifestyle the basis for him being a heel. I'm telling you, WWE is going to see this blow up in their face in the media. I'm surprised Brent Bozell has not already ripped into them. Politically, this is just stupid. It's like they're asking to be lambasted by the news media (which hates and doesn't know the first thing about pro wrestling anyway) followed by harassment from the federal government. We've already seen CNN butcher a video interview with John Cena a couple years ago to make him look like he was using steroids. Imagine what they'll do with this.

God of War provides a good template for a Thor game. Not the blood and gore so much as the atmosphere (changing from greek to Norse mythology, of course) and game engine.