Sunday, January 26, 2014

Riding and movies

Today I put all the eggs in one basket; I rode only. It needed to be a big ride, perhaps bigger than anything I've yet completed this year. After last week's fiasco, I wasn't looking to overdo it. Time to do the smart thing - decide what was the priority and stick to that.

Originally I thought I might run and lift in the morning, then ride after church. There was a schedule conflict for later in the afternoon, and when I woke up this morning I was very tired. That's pretty much when I made the call to can the run and lift, start the ride a little earlier, and go farther.

It was the right call. I got 90 in before the saddle was too much to bear. My legs, though tired, are normal tired, not the completely blasted stumps I had last week. We'll see how sleep goes, but my guess now is it should be more or less normal - at least for me.

As for the movie aspect of the post, I rented three for the ride.

First was "RED 2". As sequels go, this breaks no new ground. The rule is "more of the same", and that was the case here. However, as sequels go, this one did a fairly equivalent job of entertaining. "RED" will never be known as a masterpiece, and neither will "RED 2", but for mindless shoot-'em-up, they both serve well.

Second was "Machete Kills". Ah, this IS a masterpiece! It is a wholly unapologetic homage to '70's exploitation genre, tapping on, no, GLORIFYING the Mexicano stereotype in an unabated fountain of blood so cartoonish in scope as to avoid any real squeamish reaction. Danny Trejo is the protagonist, and this muy macho hombre slices and dices his way through the bad guys. From the opening moments of the film to the end, it offered laughs and action. Perfect for a spin.

Third was "Ironman 3", which I'd seen before, but had apparently forgotten was an unwelcome departure from the first two. If a film is called "Ironman", it should probably have a lot of Ironman in it. This movie is more about Tony Stark and his psychological duress, and compared to the other two movies in the franchise, this one is utterly forgettable.

I guess I would finish by reviewing "I, Frankenstein". If you are a fan of the "Underworld" series, this is for you. It features the same director, style, and for large part, cast. The skinny is the Frankenstein monster is still alive, and for some reason is sought by demons. Here, "Adam" (as he is called) is caught twixt a war between gargoyles (angelic guardians) and demons. Adam is hell-bent (see what I did there?) on staying out of the war, but events will soon make that impossible. It's a good film, worth a matinee at least. 

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