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. 

Monday, June 12, 2023

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: American Ninja 2: The Confrontation

 


This is the 1987 follow-up to the surprise 1985 hit, American Ninja. The movie brings back Michael Dudikoff as Joe Armstrong and Steve James as Curtis Jackson and was again directed by Firstenberg (who directed the first movie, as well as a couple of movies in Cannon's early 80s "Ninja Trilogy". 

The movie is set on some unnamed tropical island in the Caribbean, where Marines are being mysteriously abducted. Armstrong and Jackson (who are still in the army) are sent to investigate. From there, a silly plot about a local drug lord (played by Gary Conway, who also wrote the movie) that involves genetically engineering ninjas plays out. This time, the lead "bad" ninja was played by Mike Stone (who had trained Elvis Pressley in Karate). 

The blu-ray transfer was decent (an upgrade from the VHS version for sure), but not great. Very similar to the transfer the first movie received. The extras include an audio commentary track with Elijah Drenner and Firstenberg, which was very similar to the track they did for the American Ninja Blu-Ray, a making-of featurette, and the trailer. In the commentary track, Firstenberg again provides a lot of good nuggets about the movie, including filming the movie in South Africa toward the end of Apartheid and working with an even lower budget for this movie than he had for the first, despite the success of the first movie. 

Overall, the movie itself is bad. It definitely has the look and feel of a very low-budget 80s action movie. The script was hilariously bad, which resulted in horrible acting, and the fight sequences were not nearly as good as in the first movie. The "expendable" black ninjas could not beat anyone, and even Stone's lead ninja was pretty lame in the final fight. But, you know what you get from the movie. It is not an award-winner by any means but is a nostalgic blast from the past. 

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