Magnets and the Superhero Flavored Candy!

Two stores, two amazing discoveries in the past few days.

First at a dollar store in Allen Park, I discovered a bunch of Superhero candies.  Some were gummies (my personal favorite variety of candy) others were these crunchy tart candies that are shaped like heroes. There were also candy sticks, or what used to be called candy cigarettes and then there were the taffy pieces. Iron Man, Spider-Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine each adorned different flavors of taffy.  The best part of these taffies though, is that normally I would pay a quarter a piece for them, but these come in packages of 10 for $1. There was also some Spider-Man candy rope type things, I haven't tried them yet, but they look good.

Other candies discovered, were gummies and crunchies based on Super Mario Bros. characters, and also more candy sticks based on some Hanna Barbara characters.

At anther store, not all that far from the office that has recently opened, I found some other cool things, namely some Superhero themed magnets that will be used to decorate my space at work.  I'll have magnets all over my desk, and some lawn gnomes on top of my desk from here on out.  I'll save the gnome discussion for another day though, for now it's all about the Superhero magnets.

My mother was with me as we stopped at Five Below, that's where I bought a few cool things a couple of weeks ago, and also where I found the gnomes and magnets, and some other stuff.

The magnets are the coolest thing so far though, I got two cool bigger Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ones, as well as the 'normal' ones with Captain America (three variations), Spider-Man (2 variations), Thor (2 variations), The Punisher, The X-Men (2 variations), Iron Man, Superman, and another Ninja Turtles one. There is also one there about gnomes, which was funny to me that I was able to get that the same day I got the gnomes.

As the name suggests, everything in the store is $5 or less, and they have a lot of cool stuff, I will be back again.

It's Hammer Time!

No, this is not a post about MC Hammer, but rather a review of the Thor Blu-Ray and DVD combo pack that was recently released (Sept. 13 in America).

   Synopsis: The powerful but arrogant warrior Thor is cast out of the fantastic realm of Asgard and sent to live amongst humans on Earth, where he soon becomes one of their finest defenders.

   The movie was just as good as it had been in theater, which I saw with a group of my friends on the opening weekend.Chris Hemsworth, who I can't recall seeing in anything prior to this was an amazing casting choice for Thor. Tom Hiddleston turned in a fantastic performance as Loki and Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings andStellan Skarsgård were all well above what I expected from the film. Anthony Hopkins and Rene Russo seemed to be more cameo appearances that actual roles in the film sadly.  Each had less than 5 minutes screen time. The script was done well enough that it was believable in this universe that Thor and the other Asgardians were real and not simply a toss in just to get the character into next summer's Avenger film. I'll leave a film review out of this for now, since I am reviewing the DVD and not the film proper.

   For the purpose of review, I bought the BluRay 2 disc edition of the film, and am working off of that.  There is also a 3D version, which I chose not to go for since I do not yet have a 3D TV or a 3D DVD player, key on the yet there. I want one of each badly.  Not that I am a huge fan of 3D films, but I am a huge fan of technology and it's never bad to have options to watch more stuff and different stuff.   I'll start with the visuals. The film is visually stunning, beautiful backdrops and believable special effects.  The frigid visuals of Jotunheim going against the beauty and grace of Asgard, all tied in together with the stark nothingness of the New Mexico desert, put it all together mix in one part ageless beauty from Portman, and add in the hulking mass of a man in Hemsworth for the ladies and this film has it all visually.  The transfer to the disc, while not flawless is fantastic.

   Moving on to the audio aspect, the transfer is fantastic.  The sound mixing has a 7 channel mix for Region 1 and a 5 channel for Region 2.  The film has many dynamic thundering sounds that are all mixed in well enough to seem realistic. Sure no one truly knows what it sounds like when an ice giant dies, but the audio mix here is pretty darn believable. 

   Now for the stuff you really came here to read about, the special features.  This set is jam packed with stuff. Director Kenneth Branagh gives us great insight into the film with his commentary track.  There are 11 deleted or extended scenes, all of which have commentary from Branagh.  There are also no less than 7 featurettes that detail every aspect of the film.  Though standard on nearly every DVD these days, the teaser and full length trailer are also included.  Subtitles are included in several languages other than the standard English and Spanish, and several other trailers are also included. The best part about all of these special features is that they are all in HD quality, something most extras on other DVD's are not.

   

   Overall I'd give this DVD a 4.25 rating out of 5.  There aren't a lot of areas that need improvement, but it could have done better in some regards.  All in all it's a fantastic fun experience for both the casual observer and the hardcore fan.