Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Friday, May 20, 2022

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Gremlins 2: The New Batch

 


This is, of course, the sequel to Gremlins, the 1980s movie that was a combination of horror movie and comedy. It brings back stars, Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates as well as Howie Mandel voicing Gizmo and Dick Miller, Jackie Joseph, and Keye Luke reprising their roles from the first film. It also adds cast members like Robert Picardo, John Glover, John Astin, and Christopher Lee, as well as has cameos by Hulk Hogan and film critic Leonard Maltin. The premise of this movie is that Gizmo is subjected to being a lab rat by a billionaire in NY. Billy and Kate, who conveniently happen to be working in the same building in which he is being experimented on, manage to rescue Gizmo, but he gets wet of course causing him to spawn Gremlins who take over the building.

The movie is much campier than the first one, which itself was not without campiness. It is pretty much a straight comedy with a bunch of comedic violence, but the Gremlins are not a sinister murderous threat in this movie as they are a threat to damage property. The Gremlins are really the stars of the movie (Gizmo is not as major a character as he was in the first movie), and there are a lot more of them in this movie than there was in the first.

The extras all carry over from the DVD. Those include a commentary track by the writer, director, and Galligan, in which they admit that the movie is a totally unnecessary sequel. Then there are some deleted scenes, a gag reel, and the trailer (along with a couple of smaller, minor extras). The A/V quality is okay, but it did not get a great video restoration that some older movies get when released on Blu-Ray.

Overall, the movie tends to garner mixed opinions. Some people like it more than the original movie and some, like me, think it is okay but was not really needed. The overall plot was kind of dumb, but the plot of the first movie took a lot of suspension of disbelief too. But to me, this went beyond that and was a far more typical 80s comedy than the first movie was. I liked it far more when I was a little kid watching it than I like it as an adult.

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