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. 

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Ant Man

 



Ant-Man is one of the 2015 entries into the MCU slate of movies. It continues the MCU storyline and is set after the events of The Age of Ultron. It even ties back somewhat to the Agent Carter TV series, with Hailey Atwell and John Slattery appearing as aged versions of Peggy Carter and Howard Stark at the beginning of the movie as a setup for the rest of the plot. There are even tie-ins to the next Captain America movie (with a post-credits scene) and, ultimately, to the Avengers Infinity Wars movies (which will include Ant-Man). Without giving too much away, Michael Douglas's character Hank Prym, one of the original S.H.E. I. L.D. agents and inventor of the ant man suit, a technology that allows humans to shrink to the size of an ant, and gain the equivalent of an ant's strength to its size hires burglar Scott Lang, played by Paul Rudd to break into his former company and steal a second suit being developed by Prym's one time protege now rival Darren Cross (played by House of Cards' Cory Stoll). Evangeline Lilly plays Hope van Dyne, Prym's daughter, who reluctantly helps Lang train to become Ant-Man.

There are multiple physical media releases of the movie now. The Blu-ray's A/V quality is very good, as has been the case with the other MCU movies, especially the more recent ones. For extras, the single-disc version includes a few short behind-the-scenes and making-of features, about 10 minutes worth of "news" footage that helps flesh out some of the characters' backgrounds, some deleted scenes, and a gag reel. While the extras that were included are good, they are not as extensive as the releases of some of the other movies have received.

I think those who are fans of the Marvel Universe movies and TV shows will enjoy this. The tone of the movie is different enough that if you are having superhero movie fatigue, you can find it enjoyable because it is definitely not like any of the ones that have come before it. While some of it is a bit silly, to be sure (but really, all the superhero movies are to some extent), this movie embraces and even plays on the silliness in a tongue-in-cheek manner. The acting is very good, and the movie does well staying on the fringes of the larger MCU storyline while telling its own story. At its core, the film is a heist movie wrapped up in a superhero movie. It is like Oceans 11 meets The Avengers. It does very well as the origin story for the various stand-alone characters yet blends into the existing Marvel Universe, with the biggest cross-over being the meeting between Ant-Man and Falcon about halfway into the movie. Paul Rudd does a great job of being a hero who is willing to break the rules or the law to do the right thing. He also brings an air of every man (he did not have to get ripped for the movie like Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth did for their roles) and brings the smart-ass quality that he is known for from his other work. The movie has a good blend of action and humor (probably more humor than the other MCU movies combined) and is absolutely worth the time to watch.


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