Devil (2010– 80 mins) C. Messina, L. Marshall-Green, J. O’Hara, G. Arend  

Devil was written by M.Night Shyamalan… yeah I heard you snicker. Relax it’s not goofy or effects laden. What it is, is a short-ish film-ette more along the lines of a short story/fable. The best way to explain the movie itself is to use a quote from early in the movie by one of the security guards.

When I was a child, my mother would tell me a story about how the Devil roams the Earth. Sometimes, she said, he would take human form so he could punish the damned Earth before claiming their souls. The ones he chose would be gathered together and tortured as he hid amongst them, pretending to be one of them. I always believed my mother was telling me an old wives’ tale.

So the film is basically people on an elevator and one of them is the devil. The tension and mystery leading up to the reveal and trying to figure it all out makes it a pretty good little film. It doesn’t try and drag things out much and doesn’t try to cloud things up with too much details. Sure, some might argue that the lack of details might detract from it, but I don’t think so. If we get too much back story of the characters it will detract from the mystery and suspense. Instead we get information only when it is truly necessary. It has some minor horror elements to it but I would say it’s more of a thriller vibe then a true horror movie, so if you don’t like horror movies don’t get too turned off by the label. This could be what M. Night needs to stick to for a while, writing. He directs and the whole world is out for his ass to give him crap about every scene and every slight imperfection. He might not be my favorite director either but he has been getting a crappy wrap lately. This is a well written idea and executed well, so lets get Mr. Shaymalan to pump out some other decent stories and go from there.

Verdict—> If you have any liking for thriller/mystery/light horror type movies then this is a good one. I don’t claim to like “horror” movies and I thought this was good. It’s short so pick it up for a first half of a double feature. I think most people might be surprised that while it’s not Oscar worthy it’s a decent little film.

Welcome To The Rileys (2010- 110mins) J. Gandolfini, K. Stewart, M. Leo

James Gandolfini plays Doug Riley, a man who can’t seem to avoid death and loss in his life. It’s left him a hollow shell of himself and even the simple things he once loved don’t quite do it for him anymore. This all started with the loss of his teenage daughter in a car accident, and continues on and on in his life. A great metaphor for how he has routines himself through the years is when he hears how many years he has been coming to the same diner after his weekly poker game. His wife Lois (Leo) is slightly worse off then he is, turning into an agoraphobic after the accident. Their lives have turned into one of slightly more then roommates in life and it appears dull and sad. Doug ends up going to a convention in New Orleans where he meets an exotic dancer at a seedy club named Malory (Stewart). Doug ends up becoming friends with the girl and they form a type of bond a-kin to a father daughter type bond over the course of the movie.

That’s the basic premise of the movie but of course it’s not all that simple. Each character is flawed and the three of them come together and have a sort of growing and co-dependance. I really enjoyed this journey and the ending was a good wrap up. (Semi-Spoiler—>) I like how it’s a good wrap up but more of a realistic ending. It works well with the story and you feel good about the whole thing. It doesn’t go down a too predictable track and doesn’t go totally out into left field. Well done Jake Scott, It could lead to some more good movies from Jake Scott, the director who, until now has mostly done music based documentaries.

As for the actors in this…. First we get Gandolfini in a semi-sad sack role. He’s done some of this before but he evolves well as the movie does, which I give him some great credit for. He never over does it with anger or volume which could lead the character into different parallels. Instead he’s a man who knows what he has lost, knows what he is trying to attain and yet learns more of what he actually wants in life. Stewart, while good in the film doesn’t break any molds that she has. She plays the same type of character a lot. I am not saying she is Bella all the time, but I am saying she always has this certain edge to her with the normal stubbornness, and never with any inkling of giving in or morphing to her characters. I would like to see her do something with a bit more softness or vulnerability, the bad ass chick she always plays has been done by her, it’s time to grow.  Melissa Leo however, is on a roll. She continues to make her name skyrocket to the heights of great supporting actresses. She is brilliant in The Rileys, playing a woman who goes from completely broken and bringing her on a long road back to semi-normalcy and yet never loses the character’s personality in the transformation. She is never too strong needing more screen time and never too meek blending into the background. She deserves the  nomination she got this year (for a different movie) and we could see her talent get rewarded with the golden statue.

Verdict—> While not flashy, not a whole lot of action, and maybe a little slow at times, Welcome to the Rileys is a good movie. It won’t get a whole lot of recognition out there but I think it’s well made and most people will ultimately like it. Not a huge “date” movie for the dating crowd but it is for those who like movies, a decent double feature movie, or a good adult movie. Recommended by the GeekJock!

Buried (2010– 95 mins) Ryan Reynolds 

Ahh yes, another review of a movie with one of my favorite actors which isn’t very good. Buried keeps your attention for…. a while. That is, until you realize that A) the whole movie takes place in a box/coffin underground and B) you realize that you can walk out of the room for 10 mins and not really miss a whole lot at all.

Reynolds plays Paul Conroy, a civiliancontractor (truck driver not a military type) working over in Iraq, who wakes up tied up, in a wooden box/coffin underground. He has very little knowledge of how he got there and very little to help him get out. He finds a cell phone and this basically begins the movie. It’s all the interaction and his trying to get out and dealing with his “captors” and their demands. That’s really about it. All that is left to say is how I felt about it to be honest. One thing I have tried to stay away from in my blog is getting too political. And one thing I hate that TV or movies do in some respects, is get too political or try and send their own spin on current political or world events. (For example this is one reason I cannot stand Green Zone with Matt Damon) To me one thing I hated about Buried is how they portray everything about the US. (Semi-spoiler here) Everyone Paul talks to relating to the US is either Inept, assholes, or just plain don’t care. He even goes so far as to get FIRED while in a coffin hours away from dieing. I don’t think this is necessary to the film and I think the foreign director could have done a better job in this movie, and that is precisely why I consider that to be on purpose and political in nature. I won’t go too much into how I feel about the ending, b/c again don’t want to spoil it too much but I wasn’t 100% happy with it. And the “scene” after the credits doesn’t help the cause at all either. There are minor twists here and there that don’t help the plot much but make it a bit more ridiculous. There is one good a-ha twist to it which is decent (I will give credit where credit is due) but it’s still goes back to being political in nature and ultimately when paired with the ending I still say “BOOO”.  Bottom line??? —> You are getting a movie about a guy in a box, nothing more nothing less and it’s not even as exciting as it sounds.

Verdict—> Wait for Green Lantern to see Ryan Reynolds in a good film, b/c this one isn’t it. Oh and any time you see ass-hat Rodrigo Cortes’ name attached to a movie, run from it too. Save your money, catch it on cable if you are bored. Other then that it will be a big waste of your time.

Edge of Darkness (2010– 117mins) Mel Gibson, R. Winstone 

It’s possible that the Mel Gibson that we all knew and loved in great amovies like The Patriot, Signs, Braveheart, and all things Lethal Weopon is a thing of the past. His idiotic behavior has likely shattered any further chance of getting good roles like those. Edge of Darkness is somewhat close to the detective actiony Mel from Ransom or Payback, but it falls real short. It lands only slightly better then Conspiracy Theory, which in itself was quite an annoying movie with it’s own conspiracy.

Gibson plays Craven, a detective in Boston who has decided to try and reconnect with his daughter. Upon her visit she is murdered in his arms with Craven having no clues as to why. He then ust try and piece together what he can of it all and find her killers. It tries to be a detectivey story, but it ends up throwing a bit of revenge flick ideas to it. However, it really never gets that whole Payback vibe to it.  And it’s awfully hard to get over that god-aweful Bahhhstton accent Mel is trying to pull off. I think the directors, after one day of filming, should have made up some way in the story so Mel didn’t have to fake such a bad accent.

The movie is an “OK” watch but it suffers from erratic pacing and a crazy-complicated back story for the conflict. They throw so many theories of why so and so did such and such, and speed it up and slow it down so much that you cannot settle into the story and enjoy it. It seems like a cheezy role to try and get some more love for Mel and it falls too flat.

Verdict—> It’s a mediocre Mel Gibson movie that tries for the “man with nothing left to lose” vibe but falls real flat to being a movie that is just trying to get Mel back into movie lovers good graces. Sorry Mel, it’s only avg at best. It’s worth a 1$ rental but not worth overlooking other movies to get. If nothing else is there then fine go for it, but make sure it’s a double feature b/c by itself it will leave you unimpressed. But coupled with a comedy or rom-com then you might be able to get thru it. Not bad not great.

Catfish (2010– 87 mins) Ariel & Yaniv Schulman

—-NON-SPOILER PART OF REVIEW——

I wanted tostart by  specifying that to fully talk about this movie there has to be a spoiler free part and a spoiler part. B/c I cannot fully describe my feelings about the “documentary” without giving away some details of the reveal.  The film is about 3 filmmakers in NY who film one of theirs relationship with a family from a small town in Michigan. Niv then starts to get into a long distance romantic relationship with the 19 year old girl from the family. However, when some inconsistencies occur in their conversations, questions among the 3 filmmakers start to arise and they want to see if everything and everyone is what they seem. What happens from there is what makes the documentary one to watch. I won’t give anything away cept that I will do something I normally do not do i nthese reviews. I will put the official trailer for the doc in the review. This is mainly to give those of you who don’t know what movie I am even talking about an idea of what it is and also to give all the info that I don’t want to reveal without me spoiling anything before my warning for spoilers has been made.

I will give some thoughts first here and my verdict of the movie, b/c it won’t change even when I give my thoughts on it all. First don’t worry about one thing that comes across on the trailer. This is in NO WAY a horror movie. It’s just suspenseful. It does a great job keeping you glued to the story and making you want to keep watching. The trailer makes it seem like there is some horror elements by mentioning Hitchcock. Don’t worry there is no part where a bunch of people from Children of the Corn start killing these guys.

Verdict—> I was fairly surprised that I liked it as much as I did. I will urge you to come back here after watching the movie and read the spoiler section below to get some more thoughts on this documentary. None the less I think this is a flick that whether you think you like it or not you will both not want to miss any of it and also think about it after it is over. Pick it up at the Red Box as a good part of a double feature. Not something I would watch by itself, documentaries tend to be ok but they leave you wanting more in the vein of movies.

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—– SPOILER PART OF REVIEW—-

Ok first off I will reiterate, I think it was a good film and really kept me wanting to continue to watch and see it to the end. And after all that’s the main point to making or watching a movie. However, I think there is two ways to look at the documentary and I will give more of my thoughts after this since they kinda are independent of what kind of production this really is.

First I think these 2 guys are likely completely full of shit. I am not going to list off a bunch of ways why I think this but I do. This is more of a Blair Witch then a true documentary. There is however, part of me that has some willing suspension of disbelief to think that there is likely part of this story that has some truthful elements to it. That, or it can be “based on real events”. Which can mean either someone started to try and con them or they heard of a story where someone went thru this and elaborated and then thought it would make a great movie. Take that premise and then put in the idea of putting it into a doc form then you get a cheaper way of making it into an Indy movie.

One thing that stands out and sticks with the viewer is the character of Angela. When we first start to realize the whole idea of the little girl artist and the perfect love interest is one big sham,we think the lady is just bat shit crazy. However, as we delve more into the everyday life of Angela more ideas start to take hold. It’s not just a woman who has created 16 lives and facebook accounts for the fun and whimsy of it. She’s a woman with a pretty rotten lot in life who is using this whole escapade to live a life she never had. She never was able to enjoy her painting or become the dancer she wanted to be. So she created the other people to have their lives be what she couldn’t be. She’s not a rotten mom or bad person. She takes good care of the severely retarded twins who are not even her own children. She cares for them and her husband well. It’s hard work and would drain any persons will. Yet she goes about her business and escapes through the hobby that is maintaining the vise of the relationship with Niv and maintaining the multitude of facebook pages. It’s the looking further into Angela that gives us the roller coaster of feelings for her. We can care less about the snotty jack-ass film makers who ultimately just want the beautiful woman to be real so Niv can ride away into the sunset and live happily ever after. We just care that this woman, her sadness that even tho she was deceiving she now has to go back to her monotone life, but not she has no outlet for happiness. We ultimately are left to feel bad for her and wonder what next? Sure the filmmakers try and make the viewer feel better by saying she now has a website for her art blah blah, b/c they now apparently can care less. But the character of Angela is left lonly and unhappy. That’s the real tragedy of it all. Not the underlying lesson of hey everyone out there make sure you google everyone you talk to on the internet b/c no one really is who you think they are. Sure an important life lesson, but not really the issue that hits home the most. I tend to contradict myself a bit here (what else is new), but I think that even tho I feel the movie is a work of fiction, I think the film makers do a very good  job of making us buy into the character of Angela and making us feel for her 10 seconds after we think she is nuckin futs.

If you read the spoiler parts beforeyou watched it well, now you can go watch it. You will prolly like it, at the very least it will hold your attention longer then The American will.

The American (2010– 105 mins) G. Clooney, Violante Placido 

Clooney is one of those big stars that I am a huge fan of. He’s in the GJ’s top favorite actors . He’s up there with guys like Bruce Willis and Ryan Reynolds as the top of the class. I will make a point of watching pretty much all of what comes out for these guys. Don’t get me wrong tho, if a movie blows I will call a spade a spade. The American unfortunately is a spade. I am not sure if it’s just  b/c of the marketing that tried to make it out to be a spy action movie, and it turns out it’s a spy flick, but with no action. Or is it b/c there is a real lack of any story. Either way it’s just not very good. I tried and tried to sit back and think about it to take a second look at the movie, but when all I can touch on as being good are the beautiful women and how nice they looked (especially the ones who disrobed) then sadly the movie has failed.

Clooney is an assassin who we first meet while near the end of one mission. A mission in which he is found and he must shoot his way to safetly. It’s this getaway that leaves him thinking he is done with the profession and wants out. He takes one last mission, which he is lead to believe will be move of a hands off mission. It’s during his prep that he meets and starts to fall for a local lady of the night(Placido- looking truly beautiful… and being naked a bunch doesn’t hurt). There is some complications in it all and that’s where the conflict comes in. And THAT’S.. ABOUT … IT… Yep, not a whole lot of story and it goes REAL SLOW. I can’t even claim that it’s slow b/c of character development or building up some suspense. Nah, I just don’t buy it. Sorry George this one is smelly. 

Verdict—> Again, when the best thing I can say about this movie is the 4 women in it are all beautiful and we get to see some skin in it, it doesn’t make for a great movie. If you think about seeing it, I would recommend you just rent Up In the Air again for a good watch. Save your money it’s just not that good.

The Fan Fair was great and a fun night with the kiddies for sure, but after dropping the kids off at the in-laws it was time for what generally is the best part of any NHL All Star weekend. The Super Skills competition. This is on top of the usual Canes fan tradition of the pre-game tailgate which we were going to do in the usual grand fashion.

While Mrs. GeekJock headed to the in-laws my best friend (The Redheaded Pharmacist) and I went to the local Target for some necessities. We grabbed some bacon cheddar burgers (my God were these good!), the usual assortment of chips and cookies etc, and of course some ice cold beers. We got to the parking lot and as expected the festivities were nearly in full swing. There were grills a plenty, cornhole boards everywhere, people lining up to see the players and celebs on the red carpet, and tons of Carolina Hurricanes flags. Yes it was time for some fun! Although it was supposed to be in the upper 50’s like more arena parking lots, it was windy as all hell, so I had to park accordingly. It’s not only an art to tailgate but an art to find the right spot which combines using the car for wind protection and still have plenty of sun for warmth. Before you knew it the grill was started, chips and dip out, and beers opened…. Time to relax and soak it all in.

The doors to the RBC center opened about 90 minutes before the event, and since we had great seats to it, we wanted to get in as early as humanly possible to check everything out. There were plenty of people with the same idea so it was a bit packed but kudos go to the RBC staff as everyone got in faster then on a usual Canes game nite, so there was no complaints from me. There will be a whole lot less to say about this day and the next then the fan fair b/c well, it was a skills competition and game. It’s not the fair which is a bit variable so more can be said through my pictures then I can write so you might see less words about the events and more pictures themselves.

The night started with plenty of energy as the players came on the ice for some warm ups and the place was already 80% filled and people were loud and excited to see the players. Then after the opening introductions the guys were ready to get started with events.  The first event being the fastest skater competition. There were main highlights here. The first was the fact that the NHL included a goalie vs goalie matchup this year. We got to see Cam Ward and Tim Thomas pumping hard around the turns to see who was faster and to see who’s team would get the point. The race was fairly even with Ward having a slight edge, until Thomas fell and that gave Ward the fairly easy win. I think even if Thomas didn’t fall I think Ward would have the edge but it was a good thing that Thomas was ok after the slight tumble into the corner. But the biggest matchup was between rookies Taylor Hall and Michael Grabner. They were paired up for the rookie vs rookie skate, and both ended up with the best times and went at it again in the finals for the fastest skater. Grabner would get the best of Hall twice in 2 real fast heats and ends up as this years NHL’s fastest skater.

The next event up was the breakaway competition. This is more of a spectacle then a competition (yeah I know the whole weekend is but bare with me) mainly b/c rather then going to the numbers the fans voted on who would be the best. So you have more showboating and guys being clowns then anything else. Right off the bat we saw some comedic anti

PK Skinner?

cs with OK Subban borrowing teamate Jeff Skinner’s Jersey to get the crowd on his side, and it sure did work. The crowd loved it and was standing laughing and cheering the defenseman on the whole time. We also got to see some great puck on a stick, stick work from guys like Corey Perry, Anze Kopitar and Ovechkin. Natrually not wanting to be out done the goalies got into it a bit as Thomas and M-A FLeury did various lay downs and spin-o-ramas of their own trying to get a few laughs. The whole thing was great and enjoyable, yet started to get a bit stale after a while as each player had 4 chances, and the worst part is, most guys didn’t even manage to score once. So we ended up with the fans voting for Ovie to win it (don’t ask me why) with a repeat of his but end of the stick, stick handling down to change to the right grip then score. Meh, yawn, Corey Perry in my mind deserved to win it with his high flying puck on the stick moves which dazzled a bit more then Ovie, but then again I am an admitted Ovie hater.

The next one up was the accuracy competition. The teams had some great shots but ultimately no one could beat Daniel Sedin’s 4 for 4 in lightning fashion to take home the top honors. Which brought us to the event that seems to change each year, the relay. It’s always a fun watch b/c you end up with a bunch of different guys doing a few different things. From skating hard to shooting one timers to stick handling to accuracy. The first part had one player passing the puck to 3 guys down the same side of the ice for one timers into an open net. The catch was the net had a barrier at the bottom so the guys couldn’t just slide easy shots in to get it done. The other tricky part was the 3rd man was about 6 inches in front of the goal line in the corner for a tough shot. Some of the guys here and there had trouble with these shots but this still showed how amazing the pros are as most guys got all 3 of their goals in pretty quickly. The next part of the relay was precision passing. One player was standing in the neutral zone on the boards, roughly at the penalty box and had to pass the puck into a few nets which were only roughly 1 foot across and about 6inches high. The catch was after the first net, each other one had barriers about 3-4 inches high that you had to pass over to continue to the nets. All the guys again were amazing, with Canes rookie Jamie McBain getting a loud ovation after he netted them all in a real quick time. After completing that the next player up had to go thru a dangling/skating course. There were gatorade bottle signs up 2 by two for most of the offensive zone where the player had to dangle through them left to right and skate around it and back as fast as possible. This lead to the other stick handling part where the player had to stick handle a puck back and forth between a single line of markers at roughly the same length as the previous relay. The final player had to knock down the same four targets as the previous accuracy competition to finally stop the clock. All of the teams were great to watch and no one truly cared in the building who won b/c of how great it was, but ultimately Toew’s group on team Lidstrom took away the points for the fastest time in the relay.

Not much to say about the hardest shot other then, Shea Webber and Big Z Chara have ungodly shots and yeah, Chara won again this time hitting 105.9 MPH. I still don’t want to be in front of either guy’s shot. Webber has that knack of hurting SOMEONE each week who gets hit by it.

The final competition of the night was a last man standing breakaway competition. Each round every player would take a breakaway. Simple, you score, you move on, you don’t, you are eliminated. For a while it looked like Marty St. Louis would come away with the title b/co f his creativity and ability to make the goalies look completely foolish. Yet, he finally missed somehow and Corey Perry came away with the win. Call it a good make up for losing the voting breakaway challenge.

Ultimately it was a great night as the pros showed why they are the best at what they do and showed they could laugh and have a great time doing it. I am going to put some pictures below here of the night as well. Hopefully I can find a good plug in for the blog so I can put a huge amount of pictures ina  gallery for everyone to see a lot more of what we took that night.

Players salute the crowd at the end of the night.

Next up the round up of the 3 part posts, the Game itself! Be Well all!

–GJ

More pics

The NHL All star weekend took forever to get here and, as expected, it went entirely too fast. It was a HUGE hit, not only for the city of Raleigh but for the NHL as a whole. Everyone around the league was a buzz and I have read nothing but praise for the host city. I am proud not only of the fans in the area and the city but of the franchise. I can only hope this means things like the draft and the All Star game come back sooner then before I die. I am still in awe of the game and the skills competition and of the fun that was the fantasy draft on Friday night. I was even overwhelmed with how great of a job the Guardian  project 30 people did with exposing the fans to something completely new, Super Heroes based on all 30 of the beloved NHL franchises. Oh yes a fun weekend was had… oh yes!!

So without dragging out my intro to the weekend let’s get started on day by day recap shall we? I even threw in some pics I took of the weekend. With any luck I will try and get up a gallery of more then the handful I have here b/c I took over 1000 pictures last weekend with the beautiful Mrs. GeekJock’s camera.

After I took my son to his skating lesson early Friday afternoon, it was off to the Raleigh Convention center home of the NHL Fan Fair. The Convention center had the big layout inside with all sorts of fun, and outside on the Fayetteville St. Mall they had it blocked off and a ton of things going on including, exhibitors, player and celebrity autographs and food/beer. But who are we kidding, I was there to see the inside exhibits and try and score some tickets to the All Star Fantasy draft going on that night! The line to get in the hall was fairly long but the organizers had their stuff together and the line went fairly quick for a line as long as it was and we were in there in roughly 20 mins tops. When we got to the bottom of the stairs we were greeted with a couple of members of the Hurricane’s Storm Squad. The Storm Squad are basically in the stands cheerleaders, who, from uneducated commenters like those in Edmonton take a ton of flack for what some teams have done with this idea. Some teams took the idea of the indoor hockey cheerleaders and turned them into glorified Hooters chicks on the ice to scoop up the shavings during time outs. They will go down with their shovel’s and do a spin or two and bend over for the eye candy they are and get off the ice. Look good? Sure. But give them grief not the Storm Squad. The Storm Squad not only are always glassily dressed (a little mid drift showing but nothing drastic and never in shorts) but they are not only cheerleaders in the arena but enormously successful charity workers out side of the RBC center. They do a ton with and for the Kids and the Community Foundation, the Hurricanes primary charity of choice. So bite your tongue when you try and take issue with our Storm Squad. Ok back on subject… We were stopped before going into the Fan Fair by 2 members of the SSquad for roughly 2 mins. I am assuming this was due to the audio presentation resetting in the walk in hallway to the Hall. This hallway was my first glance at the Guardian Project 30 in public.

The Entrance Hallway. Guardian Pictures on both walls to either side.

The Hallway was impressive. All the pictures of all 30 Guardians stood roughly 10 feet tall and were beautifuly drawn. I got a couple of pictures of these and the presentation was great to listen to, but what was more impressive was that my 4 year old son and 7 year old daughter were pointing at some of these and screaming. “Hey daddy look, THE LEAFS, oh look there is the BRUIN, that must be the I

SLANDER!” I was stunned. I considder my kids so so fans of the sport but to see them actually recognise the logos and/or cartoon representations of the teams into super heroes was truely amazing. I won’t eggagerate and say they knew them all but what I did notice was they knew a handful and the ones they didn’t know the HAD to know who they were. This little bit of curiosity and excitement for the teams and heroes gives the Guardian Project 30 a Win for the 1st impression. Now to see what is around the corner in the hall. 

When we came into the hall we were absolutely amazed at the quality of the booths and activities set up for the kids and adults alike. The NHL hit one out of the park for sheer number of things to do under one roof and I knew it was going to keep us busy for hours. We went to the first activity spot and waited on line for the 3 hockey activities. This one had

"Look the Islander Daddy!"

 an accuracy shot, dangling (stick handling) drills and hardest shot booth to see how fast your slap shot is. The kids loved them all and I even got my stick going on all three of these and had a blast. I didn’t do too well with the accuracy shooting, I think it was a combination of my lack of accuracy, the race vs the clock and being passed pucks by an attendant rather then having them sitting there for me. Yet, I still loved doing it. I did the stick handling course in 23 seconds under the 30 they give you on the clock, which I was pretty happy with. And finally, the GeekJock slap shot clocks in at a tick over 56 miles per hour. Not too bad considering not on skates or on ice and no real head start. Those, and well, normally my shot wouldn’t break a pane of glass so I was happy with what I did. Seeing that most people who were on line in front and behind me weren’t the hockey types I got some good ooohhhs and ahhhs when I did it so ego successfully buffed! I’m just glad no one was around who knew better hahah.

Future NHL star

The booth took a bit of time to get through so I didn’t really want to stand in another one of those lines again but since we were right next to the Guardian booth, and my kids wouldn’t stop asking (another good sign for the project) we went over there to take in their booth presentation. The booth had some goodies with posters and such and TV’s talking about the project and some behind  the scenes things but the big attraction was being able to put on some virtual reality glasses to see some images come to life. My kids are a bit nervous when it comes to those things but I got to put them on and boy was I impressed. I probably could have sat there and watched it 2-3 more times but the kiddies were pulling me and the wife to the next ohhh ahhh station so it was time to move on. Again my mouth was open with the quality of work the Guardian people had done.

We then decided to take a lap of the hall to see everything the place had to offer. There was a decent size store for jersies of the 2 NHL teams. The blue jersey for team Lidstrom and the red for team Staal. Each team had some jerseys made up of the team captains and the 2 alternates which were decided before hand. The other players would be pick later at  the fantasy draft but this is one thing that I was severely unimpressed with. Even after the teams were picked unless you went at the arena to one of the shops in there for pressing the numbers and letters on you couldn’t find anything other then the captains and alternates jerseys. The NHL should have had teams of people and companies at the ready so that the second a player was taken the teams were hard at work pumping out the jerseys of those guys for sale the rest of the weekend. In stead I was told the NHL didn’t want to be “stuck with them” from a manager of the store in the fan fair. A bit of a missed opportunity in my eyes. Not only would these have flown off the shelves but all you would need to do is send them to the players home arenas after the fact and they would be gone in one home game. Easy peasy. Shame on you NHL for not having this readily available and done. Can you imagine how many Skinner jerseys would have sold on Sat and Sunday? WOW.

We next got to see the NHL awards and the Stanley cup on display in its only little corner. They had the other trophies encased in an area around where the cup was so you could check them out while you wound through a Disney World sized maze to get your free picture with the cup. We had done this a few years ago and didn’t want to waste 2-3 hours just for this picture so we skipped it. What we did do though, was go to the area where upper deck was making your very own hockey card. So the family and I got to get our pictures put on our own card. Everyone from upper deck was awesome. So polite, smiley and just a pleasure to talk to. I did notice this all day with all the areas. It was like the second happiest place on earth! (we all know what # 1 is, if not google it) While we were on line waiting for the hockey card pictures I took a few laps with my son around the hall. First to just see what was going on, and well honestly I had hoped that since the wrist bands for the Fantasy Draft were supposedly going to be given out at “random” during the day, I figured a cute as hell 4 year old on my shoulders could only help my cause. I even saw the occasional celeb and player walking through the hall going to an interview here or there or possibly even checking it all out for themselves. I also caught a spot the NHL network was doing with a hockey card vendor where they had Jeremy Roenick going up there to “Trade” a card with the guy and have some banter. JR is such an amazingly nice and charismatic guy. He yucked it up a bit with the fans and signed some autographs and had smiles for everyone. See even when retired NHL players are the best in the business!

"It's not so much me as it is Roenick. HE'S GOOD!" --- Swingers

Once we got through the hockey card line it was just about time for them to start letting into the area/bleachers for the fantasy draft. Alas, my quest for a bracelet was unsuccessful but I was able to stand about 3 feet behind the podium where the NHL Network guys were broadcasting and was front and center between Weekes and JR on camera, which prompted a ton of texts saying “Smile idiot you’re on TV!!!!” It didn’t turn out to be inside the fantasy draft area but the view I had was still great and the banter among the fans was probably as much fun as among the players inside of it.

I couldn't resist putting another great Guardian 30 image in here.

After the draft I caught up with the family who were just getting off of another line to do some hockey drills booth. They had been standing there the entire time Iwas watching the draft so Mrs Geekjock gets a huge Mommy of the year award for that patience. We had driven separate cars with the intention of her leaving if I got into the draft but the fair was so great that we couldn’t pull the kids away to leave at all. But, after meeting up with them again and hitting a booth with some real goalies (I think it was Bridgestone?) and another radar on your shot (53/56 mph again Woot woot) it was time to hit the road. After all sat was the main tailgate day and the thing I was looking forward to the most… The Skills Competition!

One Last chance for the GeekJock to break 60... Nope this one ends up hitting 56.

Hope you enjoyed the day one recap. The rest of them should be a bit shorter, but still as fun and filled with pictures!

Stay Tuned!

I guess the only thing we can say about this is as usual Blur Studios doesn’t disappoint. They consistently do amazing work on cinematics and have just a ton of potential in what they can do. I beg you guys please get the permission from the DC team and make a real feature length movie. To see their talent in animation for longer then 3 mins with iconic characters we love would just be amazing. (Thanks to IGN for the movie)

As for the game, I still cannot commit a monthly sub on this game without trying it first and as usual they don’t have a 10 day trial out yet. Which is fine for now, I have 1000 things to do in WoW right now and am not sure when I want to get a 16 GB download either to get the DCUO client (which is just insane for a download). So for now I will just have to read up on how it is, with most reviews being in the 70-75% range and hope that maybe it will come to the X-Box at some point (doubtful) so I can enjoy it with a controller I already own rather then buying something else to play it or learning to use the mainly twitch based combat on the mouse and KB.

As far as board games go, one game that is responsible for turning tens of thousands of nay sayers into gamers again is 2008’s classic Dominion.  It’s now responsible for the whole new game push of the Living Card Games (LCG’s). LCG’s basically take all the fun of Collectible Card Games (CCG’s) and turn it into a self contained game.

I won’t go too much into the rules of dominion but to say that ANYONE can learn it in 1 round of play, or 2 if they are the SUPER non-gamers. For those of us who just love playing dominion, there comes my latest addiction— Androminion app. for the Android phone. It’s a pretty bare boned app to the casual eye, but for those of us who just love to play Dominion, your eyes will light up when you first open the game.

It is basically a no graphics app which enables you to play Dominion with a couple of the expansions against 3 AI players. It even does all the randomization of the 10 card piles itself and no 2 games will be alike. Best of all it’s FREE to get. I do however, ecourage you to get the pro version (I think it was $1.99) to donate to this brilliant developer in hopes that he will put it out for the iPod touch/ iPhone as well. I only say that b/c it will keep me from stealing Mrs Geekjock’s phone when she’s not looking to grab some playing time with this awesome game.

The AI players are pretty good yet a bit predictable. Maybe it’s because I have only played a handful of the orig game and haven’t come up with that all powerful main strategy. I am more of a grab some treasure cards and get some deck cards and build from there. The main game is more of go high gold/silver and pound out the province cards. To me I just like building a fun deck etc. and that’s prolly why I don’t win much in real life or on the app too. But I love every game I play of both and just can’t stop stealing my wife’s phone.

If you have an android phone and even remotely heard of Dominion I urge you to do yourself a favor and grab Androminion now!

(One tip tho, when you have the card names you can push on the names for a sec and the phone will vibrate and tell you what the card does is you are not 100% familiar with the names. It helps a ton)