To The Highlands

After 4 months of chopping foam, I am done sculpting on Land Of The Lost. I got to work on many different stages, meet Sid and Marty Croft and spotted Anna Friel and Will Ferrell on sets I helped build. Lots of hard work, but a fun job. Big Peace out to a great sculpting crew.

I will apologize now for a lack of updates for the following couple of weeks as Akiko and I are off to Scotland.



We've been talking about the trip for years and finally decided to hit the Motherland. It sucks that the dollar is extremely weak right now, but what the heck, you only live once, right?
We're starting out in Edinburgh, spending a night in a castle, then Glasgow, followed by Glencoe, Isle of Skye and Inverness. We're pretty darned stoked. Expect an updated with pics on our return.

Happy with Hairy

When I was a kid, I was a huge Universal monster movie freak (still am) and Frankenstein and the Wolf-man were always my favorites. So I was excited to see this shot of Benicio Del Toro from the currently in production film, The Wolf Man.



I'm just so glad when Benicio's character turns into the Wolf Man, he won't be just a CG animated cartoon. He will be a flesh and blood actor in plain old make-up like the original was. Special Effects master Rick Baker has done a great job as usual and I now have hope for this film. Next, show me a creepy set, turn on the smoke machines and have Wolf Man ready to pounce from behind a tree.

DOOMSDAY

First off, if you're not a fan of Escape From New York and Road Warrior, then the just released film Doomsday is not for you. On the other hand, if you like grade B, post-apocalypse action films, then Doomsday is a blast.

This is the ultimate "homage" film from Director Neil Marshall who previously gave us low budget gems Dog Soldiers and Descent. Marshall "borrows" from so many movies that you would expect Doomsday to be a complete mess, but he ends up making it work extremely well. Here's a list of movies that came to mind while watching: Escape from New York (complete with some bouncy John Carpenter-eske soundtrack music), Road Warrior, 28 days, Casino Royale (Astin Martin DBS vehicle), Apocalypse Now and believe it or not, King Arthur and Gladiator. I'm sure there's even more.

Doomsday begins April 2008 Glasgow, Scotland when an unstoppable virus epidemic hits resulting in a 30' wall being built around Scotland to avoid spreading the virus. (This part was weird because Akiko and I will be on vacation in Scotland this April. Uh oh.) 30 years in the future the virus shows up again in England so they send a team into Scotland to look for a cure led by super soldier, Eden Sinclair. Mayhem ensues when they run into the survivors. Gore aplenty with limbs flying, several decapitations, explosions, gunfire, car chases, sword fights and a guy being roasted alive for some good old fashioned cannibalism. Marshall does most of the shots here in old-school in-camera style and his action scenes really do offer some blood pumping excitement.
This type movies is as good as its villain and actor Craig Conway pulls out one of THE great over the top Crazed-Maniac-Psycho leaders ever.


Although Marshall makes Rhona Mitra look good playing the anti-hero, Eden, she just seems a little too slight to come off as the Ultra Bad-ass who could beat the crap out everyone in the room. She tries ,but isn't quite there even when wearing a Snake Plissken eye patch on occasion, due to a nifty removable bionic eyeball.

Overall there is nothing original here, but Doomsday is a near perfect mish-mash of grade B action films. Loved it.

Almost another hole in one

Arroyo Seco par 3 Golf Course, hole 12, 117 yards.
I hit a 9 iron off the tee, the ball landed high on the green, rolled down towards the hole and stopped a mere inches from the cup. Tap in birdie, that's the kind of shot that keeps you coming back to the course.



Of course, on the very next hole I was 3 over par, but didn't bother to take a picture of that one.