Toy Story 3 (2010)

by D. Jacob Ryals

imdb  trailer

Can Pixar fuck up?!!!

In a movie age where we keep rekindling franchises, you might think this has a small potential to fail.  Not so.  This movie was just as good as you could ever expect it to be.  I found the plot to be simple to digest and yet exploding with flavor for a complicated pallete.  If I was a parent I would be using this movie as a teaching tool with my kid(s) for a whole bunch of stuff.  From the acceptance of homosexuality (Ken) to the meaning of Love and Loyalty and how to deal with being hurt by either.  

I cried at the end and am not ashamed to say it.  

I CRIED AT THE END OF TOY STORY 3!!!!!!!!

There I said it.  This studio is so good at touching and stimulating every part of your brain and heart that no one can judge you for reacting to any of their movies.  

The villians were great, I loved the creepy baby doll enforcer.  I thought Ken was a great character as well.

Even though, I DID NOT like Cars.

Kick-Ass Book One (2008)

a book report by D. Jacob Ryals

ComicBookDB  Wiki

Why fanboys make shitty superheroes.

This was a great book.  It lost me for a little while, when Hitgirl showed up, but it never loses its grittiness.  This is definitley a cautionary tale for all those comic fans who ask "Why not me?"  John Romita Jr is not the most realistic artist, but even with his stylized art he does a great job of conveying the gore this story requires.  The twists are never rainbows and Dave replaces Peter Parker as the biggest loser in comics.  The girl he wants thinks he is gay, he spends as much time in the hospital as he does on the streets, and he has his balls electrocuted.  This is a breathe of fresh air though from the usual comic that has over the top drama as much as over the top powers.  Superhero stories usually put all the violence and the consequences to us on the ground in the background.  This story puts all of it in your face and reminds you of what being a crime fighter would actually mean.  If this were Peter Parker trying to pay the rent and pay for more web fluid, in Millar's world he would get evicted by page 3 and have to suck dick to buy the supplies for web fluid.  We have seen what fighting crime would do to your mind in the Watchmen, but this is what it would do to your life.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (book)

a book report by Nicki Mahle

amazon.com

There are so many reasons this book is absolutely worth taking the time to read. I could list all of those reasons here.  I could go on for ages about how well written it is. I could touch on how the language used in Abe's fake diary passages is period perfect. I could also rave about how well researched this book is, how wonderfully the author wove his fiction into the reality of the civil war. However, I think it would suffice to simply say that Abe Lincoln uses a fucking axe to slaughter vampires in the most gloriously gory ways. Go read it.