Bloody Fantastic!

I'm one of the few in the Blogosphere who actually enjoyed the first Fantastic Four movie. I've seen it since on DVD, shown it to my students and lent it to co-workers. They all agree with me that it's a pretty good flick. So today, I saw the sequel with a shiny Silver Surfer. All the flaws of the first movie are still there, but the good stuff is better! Ben & Johnny's bickering is tremendous, Reed is a little sillier, Doom is more evilish(?), Norrin is just RADDical and Sue Storm gets nekkid again. If I have one qualm about it, I was really distracted by the thickness of the makeup on Alba's mug. They really caked it on with a trowel (almost as much as Ben's!) Ahh, I loved it. Short and Sweet with about 30 minutes less of a running time than the first movie. Stan Lee's cameo was very tongue in cheek, though I don't recall seeing a nod to Kirby in the credits this time.




Recommended. (Now, I expect to hear from all the naysayers out there and maybe a few well-wishers too.)



















The Japanese title is ファンタスティック・フォー
銀河の危機 (not sure how to pronounce it) and click on the link to go to the site with trailers and games and stuff.

The Fantasti-Car was cool.



















This is, of course, the iconic Lee/Kirby comic that started the Surfer craze. Is he Jesus/ a pacifist/ a war-monger/ a bald guy? You be the judge. (Check out Breathless, Reservoir Dogs & Crimson Tide for references to him.)














I didn't buy many goods apart from a Clear File folder and the program, but here are a bunch more FF goodies. The cap looks cool, but not for 2000￥.
















This has been sitting on my TV with a several other Marvel character mini models acquired from little capsules. I have some other toys but it's getting late and I don't want to go hunting for them.















Apart from TV commercials, I haven't seen much merchandise in the stores (or UFO Catchers), but click if you want a milk mustache . Alex told me about a Domino's Pizza campaign where you can get spicy hot Torch wings, Thing chicken nuggets, stretchy cheese or Invisible Clear tea. Mmmm.

Proof: Garlic Kills Vampiric Leeches!

In this article that I've affectionately entitled "Attack of the Leeches", it mentions that little vampires are attacking Japan. They are in fact those cuddly little annelids called ヤマビル (yamabiru or Mountain Leech) that love to suck your blood. The good news is that if you smear garlic all over your body, you are likely to kill the little buggers, and copious amounts of beer has some effect. So if you choose to get drunk and smell of garlic, you're safe, otherwise...

Thank goodness there's some protection against these and other insidious beasties! On the other hand as these guys attest, leeches have positive attributes as well. They're not all the nasties stuck to the scrotum of our least favourite STNG character, Wil Wheaton in Stand By Me, but physicians have long used the wiggling worms to cure what ails you.



Finally for an enjoyable download of one of the worst movies ever, go to Google video to slug it out with the nasty suckers.