Here you will find things about fitness and nutrition, mainly (but not exclusively) in relation to the Beachbody programs like P90x and Insanity. And, I will start adding reviews for Books, DVDs and Blu-Rays, and other products. All views and opinions on this blog are my own.
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.
Sunday, February 12, 2023
Blu-Ray/TV-Series Review: Charmed - The Complete Series
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
4k-UHD/Movie Box Set Review: The Godfather Trilogy
This is the latest and probably the last, restoration that The Godfather series of films is likely to ever get, given the age of the movie and the fact that physical media is being phased out. My guess is that anyone interested in getting the set has seen the movies multiple times, so this will have minor spoilers in it. Of course, this is the trilogy of three movies, two of which are definitely iconic and one that is pretty divisive, that tells of the rise and fall of the fictional Corleone crime family. There are a couple of different sets, one that just has the discs (which is the one I have) and one that comes with a commemorative book. The set I have has four folding cases that have the UHD discs (one for each movie) and one for the older versions of Part III and the bonus disc, which is a regular Blu-Ray disc and contains all of the special features.
The first disc is The Godfather Part I (set between 1945 and 1955), which starred Marlon Brando, James Caan, Robert Duval, Talia Shire, John Cazale, Diane Keaton, and Al Pachino. That movie basically tells the story of an aging Don (played by Brando) and the war between the "five families" (the various heads of the NY mafia) that is set off by Vito Corleone's refusal to expand his family into the drug trade. At the end of the ten-year period depicted in the movie, his son Michael (Pachino) who initially wants nothing to do with the family business has taken over and proven himself to be as or even more ruthless than his father.
The second disc contains The Godfather: Part II (set in 1958-1959) sees the Corleone family headquartered in Lake Tahoe, and set to take over pretty much all the casinos in Nevada (despite Michael's insistence in the first movie that the family would be completely legitimate in five years). The movie jumps back and forth between the story of Vito's rise to power (starring Robert De Niro taking the role of Vito in his early 30s) and a plot to take out Michael, similar to the plot to take out Brando's Vito in the first movie. The intertwining of the father-son storyline is done very well, and the end of the movie again displays Michael's ruthless nature as he wipes out all his enemies.
The third disc contains the recently reconfigured Part III, which is titled The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, which is set (mostly) in 1979, and details the final days of Michael as a gangster as he tries to finally get the family out of the life. He keeps getting pulled in however by another plot to take him out and his hot-headed nephew's (Vincent; Sonny's illegitimate son with the fugly bridesmaid in the original movie; played by Andy Garcia) desire for revenge. This version of the movie basically changes the beginning, so the plot involving the church and the real estate corporation is introduced first (which is an alternate scene in the original "Coppola restoration" that was released a handful of years ago on Blu-Ray, and then has an alternate version of Michael's letter to the kids (I think in large part so that the shot of the Twin Towers could be removed from the opening sequence) inviting them to the party. Then some of the scenes are extended a bit and the ending is changed so we do not see Michael's literal death, and it has a more metaphorical meaning. The movie still has the same story and has the same issues the original cut had, mostly the fact that a 19-year-old Sofia Coppola (who did not want to be in the movie in the first place) was cast after the actress that was likely to be offered the role was killed and Wynona Ryder backed out, to play a mid-twenties, Mary. And, even more than Sofia's acting (which was not great) was the horrible writing for her character that made a mid-twenties woman sound like a teenage girl pining after her first love.
The fourth disc (also a UHD disc) has both the theatrical version and the 1991 re-release version of Part III (which are nearly identical aside from a couple of scenes including the one in which Al and Connie give Vincent the go-ahead to take Zaza out. All of the versions of Part III really focus on Michael's guilt over the things he has done, especially having Fredo killed, and his attempt to seek redemption. Part III is definitely not as good as parts I or II, regardless of which version you watch. I do not think there was a huge need to see Michael's literal death in 1997 like we do in the theatrical and 1991 versions, but seeing him die alone to end the series is as the culmination of all his mistakes did make a powerful point. But, just knowing he ends up alone makes that point. None of the versions of Part III is as bad as those who shit on it make it seem, but I think anything they did with the story would have been hard-pressed to match the first two movies.
The fifth disc has all the special features. There are several features that specifically discuss the restoration process for the 4k-UHD discs. It is interesting to see the comparison between the various home video releases over the years and how the UHD quality blows even the last Blu-Ray restoration out of the water. The rest of the extras are the legacy features that were put together for the original DVD and Blu-Ray releases. So, there are hours of bonus material a lot of it very interesting, including the behind-the-scenes feature that was made about the time Part III was filmed in which Francis Coppola discusses the fight with Paramount's executives to get the first movie made. Apparently, the Paramount executives did not want Brando cast at all (presumably because Brando was a pretty notorious pain in the ass by that point) and wanted anyone but Pachino to play Michael. It was very interesting to hear how Coppola fought to make the movie he wanted to make and was followed by a "backup" director when making the first movie who was ready to step in if he was fired.
Thursday, June 23, 2022
Blu-Ray/Movie Collection Review: Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures
The A/V quality of the movies is great, with each film getting a very good HD transfer. There are a ton of extras, including a new hour-long on-set documentary for Raiders that includes interviews, bloopers, outtakes, and deleted scenes mixed into the behind-the-scenes material. The rest of the extras are ported over from the DVD releases, including a five-part making-of documentary and then several featurettes that range in length from a few minutes to about twenty minutes. Each movie gets a lot of material, but Raiders gets the most.
Overall, this is a quality set. There are some who complain that Crystal Skull is included, which to me is just silly. If there is going to be a collection of the movies, it is going to include all of the movies. If you don't want Crystal Skull you can buy the movies individually and get just the ones you want. I personally have never understood the hate for Crystal Skull. Yes, it has a plot that involves aliens, but Radiers had people's face-melting, and The Last Crusade had someone turn into a skeleton. So, the movies have not exactly been based on total reality. While I do not think it is as good as some of the other movies in the series, it is not nearly as bad as some make it out to be. My only complaint about the set is the packaging. It does appear that newer sets have updated packaging, but if you end up with the older sets, it has the horrible paper sleeves that you have to pull the discs out, which can cause the discs to get scratched. That is what knocks it down a star for me, but content-wise, the movies range from good to great, and there is hours of bonus content if you like watching that. So, it is a great pickup.
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Parts 1 and 2 (2-Movie Ultimate Edition)
This is the Ultimate Edition of the last two Harry Potter movies, which split the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, into two movies. In the first movie, Harry, Hermonie, and Ron, try to track down the remaining Horcruxes (with a bit of help from items that Dumbledore bequeathed to them in his will), while trying to evade the death eaters. The second movie is the showdown between Harry and Voldemort which takes place at Hogwarts. I will not spend a ton of time reviewing the movies themselves as most people who are likely to read this by now have seen the movies and/or read the books multiple times. However, as you can imagine, not every character makes it out unscathed, and more characters, including major ones, die in the movie. The movies do deviate some from the books. I would say that Part I follows the story from the book's first half closer than Part II follows the book's second half. I do think that the final battle (and the setup to it) at Hogwarts, including everything involving Snape and the Harry v. Voldemort confrontation, is done better in the movie than it was in the book.
The A/V quality of the Blu-Ray transfer was great. The parts of the movie where the scenes were visually dark (and there are a lot of them) are very dark in the transfer, but in the portions where it was not, the colors really pop, and it shows off the great cinematography. And, the special effects look nearly seamless. Where the set really shines is in all the extras and bonus material you get. First, there are two physical extras in the package. A set of lenticular image cards and a hardcover book with images from all the different movies showing how the actors literally grew up during the course of filming the movies. As for the discs, there are six in all, each movie on a Blu-Ray disc and a DVD disc, and then two Blu-Rays with extras/bonus features, one for each movie.
Each movie allows you to play them in Maximum Movie Mode, in which picture-in-picture behind-the-scenes material pops up during scenes as well as sidebar "focus points" that have some interactive material while you watch the movie. For extras, each movie has over two hour's worth of making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes (11-minutes for part 1, and 7-minutes for part 2), then there is an almost hour-long conversation between J.K Rowling and Daniel Radcliff, a preview of the Pottermore website, the trailers, and more. So, if you like going through extras, there is a TON there for you, all of it very good.
Overall, the set is really for the most hardcore Harry Potter fans, because you are going to be paying much more than just getting the individual movies, but you get a lot more. My only real quibble is that unlike the Ultimate Edition sets for the first couple of movies in which the deleted scenes were incorporated into the movies in an extended edition of the movie, on this one (as well as I believe movies 3-6) there is no extended edition. You can only watch the deleted scenes separately and not see how they would have been incorporated into the movies. It is only a small nitpicky point about an otherwise perfect set, and not worth dropping it down a star, but it would have been nice if both the theatrical versions and extended versions of the movies were included. But, if you are a fan of the Harry Potter franchise, this is well worth the pickup.