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A heartwarming tale about finding what's really important in life, unconditional (familial) love. Awww... There was also the wanton abuse of little yellow "minions" which everyone should now be familiar with since they were the center of all the marketing campaigns. There isn't a whole lot to say about this since there wasn't much wrong with the movie and it basically met expectations with respect to what it was trying to accomplish. Bottom line, I enjoyed it and it was even moving, but it didn't set any new bars.

3/5

Virginia's mountains are old, so by traditional standards, our mountains are more like large round hills. Still, there are some peaks to summit if you're looking for a little climbing. One of the best in Virginia is Old Rag Mountain. We parked about 8:00am and started the hike around 8:30. The linked article explains the progression of terrain, so I won't repeat all that. What I will do is post a few photos. The weather was thankfully comfortable. Not very warm and actually just a little cool given the time of day and the elevation. It wasn't quite foggy, but it was completely overcast and we could tell the clouds were hanging low over the mountains.

As you make the early climb through the switchbacks you see bunches of boulders like this.

We didn't see much wildlife like deer or even birds, but we did find this salamander right along our path. We pointed it out to other hikers passing through and then moved it off the trail to hopefully avoid being trompled.

There's a great overlook when you first transition from hiking the switchbacks to starting the rock scramble. Obviously this is just under the clouds, it's clear we're going to be climbing up into the whiteness shortly.

This shot was pretty much the best view of the day, and still a ways from the summit. There's a somewhat large open section of rock where you can look out over a populated valley dotted with farms spread out over the rolling hills. Looking out over all land made my heart feel lighter in a way I can't quite put into words.

Some of the best sights were the large boulders in inexplicable positions. Here's one of our group passing by a boulder.

It's difficult to describe the rock scramble and it wasn't easy to take pictures of most of it. It's usually about squeezing through narrow gaps or trying to hoist yourself up onto rocks in some awkward un-anchored position. I do have this photo of another group of hikers ahead of us navigating one of the open areas.

Finally, a shot from the summit toward some other part of the mountain not quite the summit. Obviously, visibility was low. Once we got to the top, we found an open area of rock and collectively collapsed and started eating lunch. It was probably a little after noon by this time, so probably just shy of four hours to get to the top. Though we couldn't see much, it was nice in a different way to be embraced by clouds. We felt like we were in our own pocket universe, cut off from everyone else. Not lonely, but kind of peaceful. We felt like we were truly away from everything else... except maybe for all the other hikers who were up there as well.

Check out the complete set to see the rest of the experience.

While watching this movie I kept trying to come up with words other than "awesome" to describe it. It's actually kind of tough, though, because this movie really is awesome. It's kind of a live action Dragonball movie that's about a million times better than the actual Dragonball movie (when talking about the actual fighting, which is everything that Dragonball is). Also mix in some great jokes and references to 8-bit video games and comic books and punk music and a story that pretty much everyone can relate to and you end up with pretty much a perfect movie.

Of particular note is how this movie is put together. There's a sort of beat (in musical terms) throughout the film, but instead of the thump thump of a drum you've got a joke or funny line. Every x seconds. You're basically moving from one laugh to the next the entire movie. I may have gotten that same experience with Hot Fuzz (the writer, Edgar Wright also wrote Hot Fuzz... and Shaun of the Dead... and others...), but this was better because the humor was closer to my heart (than the action movie/cop humor of Hot Fuzz).

And while looking up Edgar Wright, I found this news nugget that makes me really sad:

Proving once again that films aimed at older audiences have theoretically stronger legs than those aimed at teens, The Expendables and Eat Pray Love both had strong weekend multipliers and both performed at or above realistic expectations. With all the hub-bub regarding 'the guy movie vs. the chick flick', both films posted exceptional opening weekends and both respective marketing teams should be commended. As for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, its frontloaded and underwhelming debut proves that geek cultures is not mainstream culture, and that hardcore geek interest should not be mistaken for mainstream interest. With films like that, the only real victory should be the fact that it got made and released... -Scott Mendelton, Huffington Post on IMDB

So yes, I think geeks will love this movie. I also think everyone should love this movie because the experience is universal, but barring that, I'm okay if it's only popular with the geeks.

5/5

I am consistently surprised by the number of people who have never seen an episode of Quantum Leap, one of the best science fiction dramas of the late '80s, early '90s. Well, word on the street is that a Quantum Leap movie is in development. The implication is that the Sam Beckett character will be played by another (younger) actor, but I expect it's possible there will be a different character in the role of the leaper.

I'm a little torn over all this. I loooove the idea of new Quantum Leap anything, but I really don't think a movie would be able to adequately capture the charm of Quantum Leap without making it feel like a two hour special. I would still much rather have a regular series, say, on SyFy. Please?

Get this, the comment system here has been broken probably for the last year or so. Uhm... yeah.

So look, if you tried posting a comment and thought I just wasn't approving your comment, it's not true at all. The comment was just never posted. *nervous laugh*

Crazy.

Hilarious?

Stupid?

All of the above. Sorry about that, folks. The comment system should work now. I hope. I should probably reiterate, though, if it seems like something might not be working, please notify me by IM or email. Or, you know, just leave a comment.