What Vinnie Thinks

I admit that it has been awhile since I posted anything on the Hercules: the Legendary Journeys franchise. Young Hercules (Keep) was based on Hercules’ early years. It’s interesting to see how Hercules (Ian Bohen) grew up to become the hero we all know so well. He went to an academy, where he met Iolaus (Dean O’Gorman) and Jason (Chris Conrad) of the Argonauts. They all trained in combat together by Cheiron (Nathaniel Lees), a wise centaur instructor.

Soon Jason finds out that his father is dying. In order to save him, Jason, Hercules, and Iolaus gather a team together and head off on a quest to find the Golden Fleece.

There were a few different cartoon shows that had an episode with the Golden Fleece as part of the story line. It wasn’t until I saw this movie when I finally understood the actual story behind it. The Golden Fleece is a magic ram skin that can heal anyone by being wrapped in it. Now that’s amazing.

On their way over, the wicked goddess Discord (Meighan Desmond), as a siren, lures Hercules and his friends onto an island, which by the way is a terrific idea as part of a story about sea travel as well as the cliché of struggling through a bad storm.

It becomes more exciting later on when Hercules and Ares (Kevin Smith) battle it out in a stick fight over fire, much like what Hercules was trained to do, only with fancier moves. It was incredible.

This movie was only the beginning. Shortly afterward, Young Hercules was a TV series, which starred Ryan Gosling instead of Ian Bohen as the lead. Unfortunately, it only lasted from 1998-1999.

I think this version was just as well made as Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. After seeing this film, I have a different outlook on that series. I’ll tell ya, it’s definitely been a long road Hercules has been on as a hero.

On the night of July 21^st 2010, Weird Al Yankovic came to Orlando and performed a concert at the “Hard Rock Cafe” at Universal Studios City Walk. It’s been awhile since I last went to one of his concerts, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I got a T-shirt and some trading cards there. Good thing my sister and I arrived early.

These are only a few from a set of 50.

Weird Al opened with a polka medley with songs from Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, and others. Then came some classic songs like “You Make Me” and “Good Old Days”, both of which come from the album Even Worse. They weren’t among his bigger hits, but I remember them well.

Of course Weird Al also performed other big hits like “Smells Like Nirvana”, “Fat”, “Eat it”, “Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies”, “Amish Paradise”, “Dare to Be Stupid”, and “White and Nerdy”. He even included some new songs like “Skipper Dan” and “Craigslist”.

Weird Al was a really smooth dancer when he performed “Wanna B Ur Lover”. He came down from the stage and sang to the ladies in the front row. It was so funny. Then while performing “Ode to a Superhero”, a guy had to hold a harmonica for Weird Al while he was playing the accordion.

In between songs there were many channel flips on the screen. Among them are “interviews” with celebrities like Celine Dion, Avril Lavigne, Snoop Dog, Eminem, and Jessica Simpson. (Or is it Sampson?) I figured that Weird Al needs that time for all those costume changes.

There were also plenty of short segments, where Weird Al was animated on other shows like Johnny Bravo, The Simpsons, Futurama, and Celebrity Death Match. That even includes other shows that so much as even mentioned Weird Al as a reference. I never realized there were so many. It was set up very well, much like Robot Chicken.

Weird Al also mentioned that July 21^st was an anniversary of when UHF premiered. Everyone was cheering, including myself, because we know that movie is a real classic.

After the concert, there was an encore with a Star Wars theme. I thought it was appropriate with Star Wars Celebration V coming up in August 2010. But first, Weird Al sang about cell phones. There wasn’t much to it, but if you had a cell phone, you could hold it up while hand waving to the song.

Then came Weird Al’s two Star Wars songs, “The Saga Begins” and “Yoda”. Just before finishing “Yoda”, Al and the band did some other kind of singing that sounded like random chanting. I admit, that choreography was tight, as it had appeared unexpected.

I’ll tell ya, Weird Al Yankovic is better than ever. I wonder if he has a new album coming out soon.

Even though disco is dead and has been for years, there’s still an exception. And that is in the hearts of Muppet nostalgia. Back in the 70s into the early 80s when disco was all the rage, it was featured a lot with the Muppets and on Sesame Street. Even the classic Disney characters once had a disco album called Mickey Mouse Disco, but that’s another story.

Here’s a YouTube video that I found which features a compilation of various Muppet characters at the disco. Don’t worry, no one was drinking or getting into bar fights, not even the monsters. Enjoy.

Welcome back. Kill Bill – Volume Two begins right where the first one left off. The Bride (Uma Thurman) is back and on her way to hunt down Bill’s (David Carradine) brother Budd (Michael Madsen), who is number 3 on her “Death List Five” as part of her quest for revenge. We didn’t get to see much of Budd earlier, but we do now.

Bill warns Budd about the Bride coming for him, but Budd isn’t worried at all. He even sold his samurai sword at a pawnshop. “You pawned a Hattori Hanzo sword?” Sounds a little silly, doesn’t it. If the Bride had overheard this conversation, she’d think that Budd would be an easy target to take out.

Budd works as a bouncer in a bar. Though he’s always late, he thinks it shouldn’t matter because no customers ever arrive that early in the day, which is understandable. Budd’s boss is hilarious when he gets mad at Budd for it. Was that Sid Haig as the bartender?

Later that evening, the Bride arrives at Budd’s trailer for a sneak attack. Unfortunately, Budd takes her down with one shot of rock salt to the gut. Not so easy after all, was he. I guess that proves that the gun is mightier than the sword, even a Hattori Hanzo samurai sword.

Then Budd buries the Bride alive. That wasn’t much of a battle. As the Bride works her way out of this peril, we go into another big flashback. Bill sends the Bride to train under Pai Mei (Gordon Liu), who is a very strict instructor. The training was brutal and hard to watch, but now we know where the Bride learned some of those extraordinary skills, which includes the instant eye gouging. Soon the Bride escapes by the skin of her teeth (or should I say hand), and heads for Budd’s place again.

Meanwhile, Elle (Darryl Hannah) is already there and she doublecrosses Budd by killing him with a black mamba snake and makes Budd suffer by reading info about that snake aloud to him. Some killers have no mercy.

After that, the Bride arrives and fights with Elle. How convenient, since she was number 4 on the “Death List Five”. This battle also gets interesting as new secrets are revealed. The Bride’s name is finally revealed to be Beatrix Kiddo and the story behind Elle’s eye patch is not a pretty one. The catfight ends with Elle losing her other eye. I can still remember how everyone in the theater reacted when Beatrix stepped on that eye and crushed it. Ewe! Elle is defeated, but is she really dead like the other three?

Beatrix may have lost her list earlier, but she doesn’t need it anymore because there’s only one target left, Bill. She soon finds Bill along with another little surprise, and a very likable one at that. This final confrontation drags a little bit, but I liked Bill’s philosophy on Superman compared to other superheroes.

Overall, this two-volume movie was very creative. Action, humor, strong gorgeous women, it’s got it all, which makes this film a masterpiece.

Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed Kill Bill. This amazing two-volume adventure story was inspired by old martial arts movies. Uma Thurman stars as a former assassin simply named the Bride. Oddly, whenever anyone mentions her real name, it’s bleeped. That makes no sense.

As the story goes in Kill Bill – Volume One, the Bride was about to be married. Then suddenly four other assassins crash it and shoot everyone. The Bride wakes up from a coma four years later and hunts them all down one by one before heading for her former boss and lover, Bill (David Carradine).

This film is featured in chapters, but many of the basic points of the story line are out of order. For instance, at the beginning, the Bride seeks out Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) and defeats her. After that, the Bride marks Vernita off of her “Death List Five” for she was number 2. Then the rest of the movie goes into a flashback.

Number 1 on the list was O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), but the Bride has to wake up first. Little did she know that Elle Driver (Darryl Hannah), who is number 4 on the list, tried to kill the Bride by herself, but Bill stopped her just in time. It was hilarious how Elle reacted angrily. You’ve also got to admit that Elle looks hot in that nurse outfit. Oh, yeah.

It takes awhile, but after a very violent animated sequence (I think it’s Anime), the Bride was able to recover. Now it’s off to Japan to find O-Ren. However, she’s not so easy to get to because she is a top underworld boss in Tokyo, but was the easiest on the list to find because of her reputation as a top underworld boss in Tokyo.

Soon the Bride arrives at O-Ren’s place. It seems peaceful at first because the joint is jumping as an all-girl band called the 5,6,7,8s is performing. Those lovely ladies can rock and their skimpy outfits are hot too.

Then it becomes exciting as the Bride fights her way through O-Ren’s army called the Crazy 88. However, the battle is brutal because the Bride’s new samurai sword, made by Bill’s old sensei Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba), easily chops off many body parts. In a way, I can see this like a video game. After a group of enemies there’s a mini boss, who is O-Ren’s personal bodyguard, Gogo Yaburi (Chiaki Kuriyama). She’s very pretty, but deadly with that spiked ball and chain.

After Gogo is defeated by a board with a nail in it, more enemies come along. As exciting as this was, this battle is turning into a major gorefest. Yuck! Then it all comes down to the final confrontation between the Bride and O-Ren. It was a good sword battle, but I was expecting more of a catfight.

The first volume stops here as the Bride goes to look for number 3 on the “Death List Five”, Bill’s brother Budd (Michael Madsen). And just when this film was getting good, but not to worry. Check my blog for part 2 when I’ll be talking about volume 2.