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. 

Saturday, August 17, 2024

4k-UHD/Movie Review: Avengers Endgame

 


Endgame is the 2019 MCU entry that was the direct sequel to Avengers: Infinity War and a conclusion to the first decade of Marvel movies, which started in 2008 with Iron Man. It stars the main Avengers cast members, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Jeremy Renner, all of whom survived Thanos' snap in Infinity War. I will not spoil any specifics for any of the few who may not have seen it by now, but the basic plot is that the team tries to find a way to undo the effects of "the snap," which wiped out half of all life in the universe at the end of Infinity War. It is a great blend of action, dramatic moments, and comedy (mostly involving Thor), and finds a way to tie in many of the moments and characters that have been involved in the MCU throughout the course of the 23 movies. And, even finds a fun way to do a quick shout-out to one of the TV series.

The 4K set is a three-disc set with a UHD disc and two regular Blu-Ray discs. The UHD disc only includes the movie, which looks and sounds outstanding in the UHD format. One of the regular Blu-Rays has the movie with an intro by the directors and can be played with a commentary track featuring the directors and writers of the film. The other regular Blu-Ray disc has all of the extras. There are seven different featurettes, the longest of which is a featurette on Captain America, and the shortest of which is about Thor. Then, there are about five minutes of deleted scenes and a short gag reel. If you are a fan of the other movies, this is a must-get. It is one of the best (if not the best) of the entire group of 23 movies. It is well-written and acted that is funny at times, emotional at times, and action-packed from start to finish.  It is a good send-off for some characters and a good reset point for others. I will not spoil which characters fit into which category, but chances are anyone who has read about the future plans (or attended comic-con) will know.

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