Superheroes

Movie Review: The Incredibles (2004)

Another fantastic CG animated adventure from Pixar. Much like the comic book Fantastic 4, this family features a super strength dad, super stretchy mum, invisible force field casting daughter, and speedster son. The only missing character is the Human Torch. This action flick contains a lot of patented Pixar style humour. And you can only laugh when Samuel L Jackson voices a super cool ice hero. The story does seem awfully close to the story in the graphic novel 'The Watchmen' but it is a great watch. 8/10

Movie Review: Fantastic Four (2005)Well at least it's much better than the Roger Corman version. Like a lot of comic book adaptations this one falls pretty flat. The whole premise seems a little sketchy. Our cast of characters go into space to a privately funded space station that resembles the thing in Deep Space Nine. They're supposed to be monitoring a cloud of radiation that passes by. They miscalculate the time it will take to arrive and fall prey to the cosmic radiation. It's a little hard to understand why there are only the 5 people onboard the station, 1 of them being the owner of the company. With the majority of them running the experiment who is running the station? They certainly could have used another person to keep track of the radiation cloud. If someone had been checking on it at least intermitently it wouldn't have snuck up on them.
Otherwise, the Fantastic Four never look all that fantastic as they really don't do much adventuring here. I think the Incredibles showed off their super powers in much more exciting and interesting ways. The rumour is that the 2nd F4 movie will feature the Silver Surfer so hopefully it will be better. 6/10

Movie Review: Sky High (2005)

I don't remember why I was interested in seeing this one in the first place. The son of world famous superhero parents enrolls in a highschool just for future superheroes and sidekicks. There is some actual tension early on as the boy doesn't have any super powers and must deal with the shame and practical problems of super powered bullies. When his powers finally due bloom the movie turns into a stock young teen action movie. Kurt Russell is good as the super powered father and it's always fun to see former Kids in the Hall alumni Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald messing around in too-small parts.
6.5/10

TV Review: The Tick (Live Series 2001)

And I thought the animated series was good. This live version of the Tick is just hilarious. What a shame it only lasted 1 short season. Patrick Warburton (Elaine's thick boyfriend David Puddy from Seinfeld) is perfect as the moronic but nigh invulnerable Tick. Every episode is very funny and the main cast are all great. Check this out if you get the chance.

Book Review: The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales - Oliver Sacks

This 1985 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks describes the case histories of some of his patients. The title of the book comes from the case study of a man with visual agnosia. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat became the basis of an opera of the same name by Michael Nyman, which premiered in 1986.

The other essays in this book include:

• "The Lost Mariner", about Jimmie G., who has lost the ability to form new memories due to Korsakoff's syndrome. He can remember nothing of his life since his demobilization at the end of WWII, including events that happened only a few minutes ago, and must struggle to form an identity. (The main character of the fictional film Memento has a similar condition, and obsesses with the identity of a certain "John G." or "Jimmy G.")
• "The President's Speech" - about a ward of aphasiacs and agnosiacs listening to a speech given by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Each group saw flaws in the president's content and presentation respectively, flaws which escaped the notice of 'normal' people.
• "The Disembodied Lady" - a unique case of a woman losing her entire sense of proprioception (the sense of the position of parts of the body, relative to other neighbouring parts of the body).
• "On The Level" - another case involving damaged proprioception. Dr. Sacks interviews a patient who has trouble walking upright and discovers that he has lost his innate sense of balance due to Parkinson's-like symptoms that have damaged his inner ears; the patient, comparing his sense of balance to a carpenter's spirit level, suggests the construction of a similar level inside a pair of glasses, which enables him to judge his balance by sight.
• "The Twins" - about autistic savants. Dr. Sacks tries to connect with twin brothers by joining their game of finding very large prime numbers. He cheats and uses a book; neither of them can read or even do multiplication. They instantly count 111 dropped matches simultaneously noticing that 111 is three 37s. This event, with toothpicks in place of matches, and other of Dr. Sacks's observations on autistic savants, were used in the film Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman.

The above was copied from a wikipedia.com page. This is a great read that I recommend for anyone interested in some of the more unusual aspects of human psychology.