Seeking Merlin’s Apprentice
When the great sorcerer, Merlin is betrayed by one of his apprentices, Horvath, and defeated by Morgana, another apprentice named Balthazar (Nicholas Cage) must wander the Earth to find the successor to Merlin’s power in order to defeat Morgana before she can raise an army of evil sorcerers from the dead to destroy mankind. For centuries, Balthazar was unable to find the chosen one, Dave (Jay Baruchel), until modern day in New York City. Of course, the young man doesn’t want anything to do with magic, but after he helps with a small objective to save the world and casts his first successful spell in battle, he changes his mind and decides to become Optimus Prime. I mean the “Prime Merlinian.”
This movies puts another new spin on the Merlin legend, and brings some cool spells and tricks to the big screen that are really cool! The scenes from the trailer that look pretty funny where the apprentice is training are actually very funny; a slapstick humor, but still very funny. There is plenty of humor throughout, but a lot of it comes at you pretty quick and throws you off a little bit, or at least it did for me. One scene in particular that was very funny to me where I was the only person laughing until the second half of the bit came up was where Horvath was asking for records for a student who was failing one of his classes. I won’t ruin it for you, but it’s a Star Wars moment that had great timing.
There is a love story in the movie that doesn’t get all awkward and have a part where one of them discovers the truth about the other and they end up no liking each other for a while. That was a relief to see. Dave becomes the hero to his lady friend, and there isn’t really a point where the love interest fades.
I did think that the first evil sorcerer released from the prison doll, was defeated very easily and too quickly. He was pretty darn cool too! It was also pretty neat to see how a sorcerer could have gone through the years and made it to modern day society in a way that would still allow him to use his magic in public.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a very family friendly movie, with no swearing or any suggestive scenes or clothing. It is definitely a movie that I would bring my children to see. There is even a tribute to the part in Fantasia where Mickey Mouse is cleaning up!
Clash of the Titans DVD Giveaway
I am giving away Clash of the Titans on DVD! You can enter in several ways: one entry for liking my page on Facebook, one entry for subscribing to my RSS Feed, and one entry for each time you tweet the message in the following the two steps listed below!
1. Follow @BrianEarley on Twitter
2. Tweet this message to your followers:
I entered a Clash of the Titans DVD giveaway! You can enter by following @BrianEarley and retweet this! http://ow.ly/2b6lr #BE0710
The drawing will be held on July 27, the day the movie is released on DVD. Good luck!
Hunting the Most Dangerous Game
There haven’t been too many movies that have been released at midnight that have sparked my interest enough to trudge through the following day at work half asleep. However, when a movie like Robert Rodriguez’s Predators comes out, I look forward to nodding off at work and being jolted awake after my head bounces off the keyboard. It didn’t happen, but I came close several times!
Predators takes place on an alien world that is a giant hunting preserve where prey is airdropped in by parachute. The prey in this movie is composed of the most fearsome killers on Earth, including Adrien Brody, Danny Trejo, Laurence Fishburne, and the frail doctor played by Topher Grace. The movie opens very abruptly with the humans falling from the sky wearing parachutes that look oddly futuristic. I would have liked to see a brief abduction scene take place first, but being dropped right in the middle of the movie like a polar plunge worked just as well.
Then the hunt begins. The predators employ several different tactics for hunting and killing their prey. They try flushing the humans out like pheasants and even set traps that rely on our humanity and sense of compassion for our fellow man. There is even a cool back story about feuding factions of predators with neat new predator costumes and technology not scene previously.
There were a few moments in the movie that pay tribute to the original Predator movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, but unfortunately no “get to the choppa!” This one includes some very dry lines from every character, a dull inspirational speech, and characters being killed off one at a time. I was disappointed about the trailer, and I think you might be too if you’ve seen it, is there was no scene with multiple laser sites on Adrien Brody. In the film, there is only one laser site on him. Bummer! I may have seen the tail and head from an Alien in there too. Maybe Rodriguez is thinking of taking on Aliens too!
After mildly disappointing Alien versus Predator movies and even the lackluster Alien: Resurrection, this movie shines. It’s a must-see for any sci-fi fan, especially if you’re a Predator fan!
Personal Finances – June 2010
It was a rough month for my stock portfolio. All five of my holdings saw a drop in share price, although the only one to take a drastic hit were my shares of BP. I foolishly added a position in BP a week or so after the spill when the share price had dropped to around $42, and when it dropped steeply to $35, I decided to purchase some more shares. The stock dropped farther than that, and to Jim Cramer’s suggestion, I got out finally around $32. It has since gone back up, but the spill is going to continue longer into the summer, killing BP’s profitability. I am now seeking a new place to invest what was left of that position.
My new job is going very well. The branch I work at is very grateful to have me back, as operations are running a lot more smoothly now that they have another body in the building. The only part about the job that I’m not liking is the company started me out at my old hourly rate, and consider me a “new hire.” That means I didn’t receive any holiday pay for Memorial Day, and I won’t receive any for the Fourth of July either. Kind of a bummer, but I’d still rather work here than my other job.
As you can see from my numbers below, I didn’t increase my net worth as much as I usually do. That’s primarily due to the drop in the stock market, but my debts are still being paid off as much as I normally pay. I’m also looking at taking more money out of my Prosper account as it becomes available so I can start “playing with the house’s money” there and seeing a realized gain out of it.
$1,692.92 Total Income
$1,600.00 Monthly Pay Checks
$1.79 Checking Account Interest
$0.61 Savings Account Interest
$28.67 Dividends ($86.01 / qtr.)
$61.84 Prosper Loans
$1,043.86 Total Expenses
$200.00 School Loans
$192.00 Car Payment
$300.00 Food & Utilities
$100.00 Gas
$72.00 Cell Phone
$50.00 Entertainment
$129.86 Insurance
$649.06 Net Monthly Cash Flow
$92.92 Passive Income
8.90% Passive Income % of Expenses
$9,164.80 Total Assets
$716.90 Checking Account
$609.11 Savings
$521.63 Scottrade Account
$17.97 Prosper Account
$19.96 ChaCha Account
$9.05 Paypal Account
$880.78 IRA
$1,821.30 401k
$5,089.73 in Stock
$1,160.49 Loans on Prosper
$19,036.03 Total Liabilities
$11,718.09 School Loans
$6,524.60 Car Loan
$793.34 Credit Card
-$9,871.23 Net Worth
May 2010 Amazon Gift Card Winner
The winner for the Amazon gift card for May is @joannej1982! Send me a DM on Twitter with your E-mail address to claim your prize!
I will have another prize drawing starting around the 15th of this month for a DVD, so stay tuned for that!