All posts by Kev Brock

I'm a musician, singer/songwriter, blogger, writer, poet, bodybuilder, movie lover, music lover, video gamer, history/political buff, conservative/republican, etc. I like to do a lot of things.

Film Review: Robin Hood

Starring: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Max Von Sydow, William Hurt, Mark Strong

Directed by: Ridley Scott

Today, on a day off of work, I decided to go to the mall to catch a movie. Yes, I decided to turn down, “Sex and the City 2” and wait for DVD instead, I will still see it, but not in theater. I will explain why in another blog post. Other than seeing a movie, I did buy the “Red Dead Redemption” video game for the PS3 and a few music CD’s as well. So I ended up seeing “Robin Hood” instead.

Here is my review:

Plot/Synopsis: Based upon the legendary fictional hero that robs the rich and gives to the poor, this film is just an introduction to the character. The film is taken place in the 13th century in England. King Richard was killed in a battle against the French, so it forced, Robin Hood to travel to Nottingham, which is taken over by an evil Sheriff and having trouble with taxes. That is where Robin meets Lady Marian (Blanchett) and of course, falls in love with her. While there, Robin puts together his own army with fighting skills, so he can fight against the French for freedom of his people.

Critics online have trashed this movie in a negative direction. Why? Mostly criticizing the film’s arrow shooting. Hey, does the arrow shootings in the film have to be perfect? Do they have to be like “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” the Kevin Costner version? I believe Ridley’s version of the arrow shooting was to be realistic. That’s my thought exactly when I saw the film. Critics trashed the film pretty harshly, I thought I was going to hate the film too…but I saw it ’cause I’m a fan of Ridley Scott movies. I’m not much of a Russell Crowe fan ’cause I think he’s an overrated actor. Russell has been in a few good films that I liked, films like “A Beautiful Mind”, “Gladiator”, “American Gangster”, and “3:10 to Yuma”, that’s it I believe.

Surprisingly I liked him in this movie, “Robin Hood”. A LOT. Actually, I LOVED IT. Ridley Scott did a fantastic job telling the Robin Hood story the way it was supposed to be. All the other Robin Hood films were good, the Erroll Flynn stuff, Kevin Costner, the Mel Brooks, “Men In Tights” were well done, but I think Ridley perfected the Robin Hood legacy.  If you know the Robin Hood story well, Ridley stayed true to it. As I watch this film, I actually felt like watching a UK movie ’cause that’s what it felt like. The camera work seems like it was low budget, trying to get a UK feel to it. The American actors did a good job with the English accent as well as Russell did too. In the film, Russell wore green tights of course, but he didn’t yet wear the green hat with the feather on it. Maybe they will get Russell to wear the green hat for the sequel?

The acting of all cast members was very good. The musical score was different and it felt like a Robin Hood movie with the scoring. It didn’t feel like that mainstream Robin Hood movie, “Prince of Thieves” at all. I didn’t find anything wrong with the film. It was thoroughly entertaining and I wasn’t bored even if the film was almost 2 and half hours long. Ridley and Russell did quite a few films together, but I think this was their best one. I see them two making this into a trilogy for sure. The action scenes were actually a blast and fun to watch, especially the big fight scene at the beach at the end of the movie was awesome.

If you’re a fan of the Robin Hood story, you should definitely see this!

Score for “Robin Hood” = **** (4 stars as in excellent)

Kev

Arnold is too rich to make a full time Hollywood return…

I watched Arnold’s tweetcast “Q&A” session earlier today in twitter. The popular question that everyone wants to know about Arnie is, what’s next for the Gov after his politics run is over with? Will he stick with politics? Will he return to Hollywood full time? Arnold’s answer on the tweet cast, was…well, he really didn’t quite answer the question. All he said was, “The last thing I want to do is think about what I want to do next”. Then he started rambling on about it. He didn’t say whether he would stick with politics or go back to movies, he just said he will continue to help make California a better state even if he is no longer governor.

Everyone wants Arnie to go back to leading roles in Hollywood but honestly, I don’t really care. Love him, don’t get me wrong, but he had a great career run. Most of his movies were huge money makers. He ended his leading role career with the Terminator series which is a terrific way to end your career on a high note. Why mess it up? His legacy? He should stay retired and keep doing cameos of other films like he’s been doing.

He doesn’t need Hollywood anymore. He’s too loaded and rich that he can do whatever he wants now. Maybe he will decide to return to leading roles in Hollywood someday but if he does, I don’t ever see him going back to Terminator. He’s too old to be playing that character now, don’t you think?

Kev

“Naughty Bear” the next controversial game?

There have been several controversial games over the years in the video gaming world. Games such as “Wolfenstein 3-D”, “Grand Theft Auto IV”, “Resident Evil 5”, “Heavy Rain” and next here comes a game called, “Naughty Bear”. “Naughty Bear” seems to be the next game creating controversy online. Why is it controversial? Because the game is set like a children’s nursery rhyme, like in a children’s book. Instead, there is a teddy bear as you see in the picture above which who you play in the game, is a psychotic killer bear.

The game tells a story about a brown bear which is nicknamed, Naughty Bear, who is bullied by other bears on an island. Naughty Bear wasn’t invited to a birthday party, ’cause other bears thought he was too naughty. So the Naughty Bear turns into a murdering psychopath by murdering other bears. Does this mean we get to play this bear and kill other bears in the game? Yes, that’s the point of it.

According to the Best Buy website the game comes out, June 15th, available for the Xbox360/PS3. In a couple of weeks. I’ll probably get it.

More info here:

http://www.naughtybearthegame.com/

Game footage below.

Kev

The bench…

Today at the gym, I did a little more benching. Regular barbell presses on a bench. I lifted 75 lbs for three sets and 10 reps each. Yes, I had a spotter. Everytime I bench, I’m gonna have a spotter, just to be safe and be careful. I used to disagree with benching, now I’m thinking it’s good. After today, lifting 75 lbs bench, I can feel the pump in my chest and it has gotten a little bigger, just a tiny bit. If I keep doing benching and various chest workouts throughout the summer, I could look like a mid-card wrestler or a welterweight boxer in no time.

As for certain rumours of me wanting to become a model, I didn’t exactly say that. I said if the opportunity came up and if many people want me to do it, maybe I’ll think about going for it but for now, my goal is hopefully wanting to get into some kind of physical sport. I never played sports in high school for my own reasons. Now that I can do anything physical I want…I’ll want to take up martial arts, boxing or wrestling…whatever I can take.

There is a martial arts school in Greenwich, and I plan to look into it soon. I’ll give them a call this week and find out the pricing. I feel that I’m strong enough to get into martial arts, I think.

Another one of my goals is to change my weekly workout program around ’cause you don’t want to be doing the same exercises all the time. I’m slowly trying to avoid the weight lifting machines, and going to dumbells/barbell stuff more often. I would avoid the lat pull down machine and do only pull ups for lats. Pull ups is a powerful workout for your back. I do those all the time at home too with the chin up bar.

I didn’t ask the gym owner about percentage bodyfat yet, ’cause he was busy with other things, training other people so I didn’t want to bother him. I’ll talk to him about that stuff next time whenever it’s not busy there. I could avoid the local gym too, but the only reason I go is because the subscription is cheap, $39 a month. Can’t say no to that. There are ways to get jacked without even going to the gym. All you need is a set of dumbells and your own bench press, and wallah, there’s your home gym. I go to the gym ’cause I don’t have my own barbell sets yet which I plan to start collecting in the future.

My blog site has been slow, been doing other things. I’ll have another busy weekend this week ’cause of work and I have to attend a local Benefit event this Sunday, so I will try to blog as much as I can and catch up with the news I’ve been missing.

Kev

Summer fitness goals…

Summer is the time when you need to set goals of what you want to achieve for the next three months.

Here are mine:

  • Find out how much percentage bodyfat I have: This is something I haven’t learned yet and will soon. Next time I go to the gym which will be tomorrow, I’ll ask the trainer/owner of the place to teach me how. It’s probably pretty simple. Anybody out there is welcome to teach me how in this blog. I shouldn’t be that bad.
  • Need to tan more and get darker skin: A reader here is right that I could be a little darker to show more muscle definition. I would tan the natural way by laying under the sun and would avoid those electronic tanning bed things at the tanning salons. The tanning beds are dangerous and could kill you I’ve read. You can get a good natural tan just by laying under the sun. I’ll be doing some reading about this as well.
  • Try to improve the chest pecs all around, upper and lower: I’ll be doing more benching and more dumbell decline flies. Incline dumbell presses and dips helps too. Also, push ups is a very important pecs exercise. I’m always doing pushups at home all the time.
  • Avoid cardio machines in the gym, do more outside cardio: In my opinion, the gym is possibly the worst places to do cardio in. Too noisy, and people bothering ya when they want to talk to you about fun things. It’s better doing cardio outside with the fresh air, the sun and more peaceful concentration for yourself. For outside cardio, I like bike riding and light jogging. Hopefully I’ll do more swimming too.

I can think of more but these are the top 5.

Kev

RIP: Dennis Hopper 1936 – 2010

Sorry for the delay. I’ve been busy this weekend. I was very sad to hear the passing of Dennis Hopper. One of the best actors of all time who sadly never won an Oscar when he should have…but at least he finally got the Hollywood Walk of Fame which is well deserved and he should have gotten it long ago. He’s a very talented actor and one of those actors that I respected. In his film career he played mostly villain type of characters, I think everyone knows that.

I think his best role that he has ever done was his role in “Blue Velvet”. I love the movie “Blue Velvet” so much. The movie is so dark and very intelligent. It’s a David Lynch film by the way. “Blue Velvet” maybe a very dark and intense film, but that’s what I love about it. It’s really good storytelling and Dennis Hopper’s acting in that movie really sent chills down my spine. If he were to win an Oscar for something, it would have been for this role in “Blue Velvet”. His acting in that film was so powerful. It is a special film and if any of you haven’t seen it, I’d suggest you check it out. I’m sure you can get it at any DVD store at $10.00 or under. I like his other movie roles, sure, “Speed”, “Easy Rider”, “True Romance”, etc. were pretty good stuff, but “Blue Velvet” is what I like the most.

Hollywood have lost another very important talent. Heath Ledger and Patrick Swayze maybe important guys, yes, but they weren’t in Dennis Hopper’s league. Dennis was a legend who wasn’t recognized by Hollywood much. It’s a shame how Dennis was taken so soon, cancer sucks. RIP, Dennis Hopper.

Kev

Cool Video: The Spirit of Johnny Cash with Harold Ford…

Just last Friday night I went to a local music show in Greenwich, called Hootenanny. It’s a local show full of Greenwich musicians getting together playing folk songs all night. There were acoustic acts and had a headlining full band act. The show started at 7:00 p.m. until around 11:00 at night.

I videotaped most of the entire show.

I finally got my chance to see “The Spirit of Johnny Cash” tribute with Harold Ford. It was amazing. I was surprised and shocked to see how much Harold Ford is almost identical to Cash. He looks like him and sings like him. Check out a few videos for proof!

I videotaped all this myself.

Kev