Sure was hot yesterday! Glad my brother and sister-in-law have a pool! Aaron came by and we had a blast with Evan and Samantha. Sammy's turning into quite the thrasher in the water, while Ev has perfected his flying "Marvel" pose.

-steve

I'm speaking of course about the new Fantastic Four movie that came out yesterday. Aaron and I went to see it. My expectations have been below ground level since I first heard they were making this film. The FF is my all time favorite comic book since I was a kid. I wanted to see a big budget special effects version of FF for a long, long time. Trouble is, more often than not, these Hollywood blockbuster's almost always suck! So it was a mixed blessing when I heard the film went into production.

No that I have seen the film, all I can say is, it could have been a lot worse. Most of the effects were pretty good. There are a few right towards the big finale at the end that could have used a few more weeks of work. I think Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm (aka The Thing) really pulled it off. Even though the design of the mask really needed much more of a prominent brow, I thought he really brought the character to life. The banter between him and Johnny Storm (aka The Human Torch) worked well and reminded me a great deal of the wisecracks they would exchange in the comic. This is by no mean a great film. It has a lot of problems. Some of the dialog is excruciatingly painful. Other things, like the way they get their names seem like throw aways.

I was one of the people who got a hold of the Corman version of FF back in 1994. Don't believe what people tell you. It was horrible! As far as this new version of FF? Overall this new film is a mixed bag. It's no Spider-man or X-Men. It's much closer to the Daredevil, Hulk and Hellboy movies. Great stuff mixed in with some not so great stuff. It's mediocre at best. As far as recommending it? I'd say if you are a FF fan, go see it. It you are not a fan, skip it.

-steve