I usually write my reviews in order of when the movies were seen, but since I always seem to be falling behind, I think I'm going to start posting about new releases as top priorities. That will start with Get Smart, since I actually saw The Incredible Hulk over a week ago.

I'm not sure if there were many people who enjoyed Ang Lee's take on the Incredible Hulk, starring Eric Bana and Jennifer Connolly. I think I rated it as the second-to-last worst movie of 2003 (right above Anger Management). So it was safe for me to assume that I'd like this version better unless someone did something incredibly wrong. I was also interested because the movie stars Edward Norton and Tim Roth, who tend to make movies that I enjoy.

While the last version focused on how the Hulk became the Hulk, this version skipped through the How and jumped forward to show Bruce Banner's attempt to live a life without incident (without letting his heart rate to reach 200 and trigger Hulkification). One thing I didn't like about Lee's Hulk was that we never really got the feeling that the Hulk was becoming a superhero. He just had a lot of strength. By the end of this movie, I got the feeling that I had seen the beginnings of some real superhero fighting and catchphrases. I liked hearing "Hulk Stomp" shouted out during a climactic battle.

Like Iron Man, this comic book hero movie uses the desire for technological advances in military weapons as the bad guys' goal, and the accidental result is a superhero. Just like in Iron Man, the bad guy (Tim Roth with William Hurt's help instead of Jeff Bridges) is a bigger and badder looking version of the hero, and they will ultimately fight each other in an impressive battle. I liked the development of Roth's Emil Blonsky, whose progression from soldier to grotesque thingamabob somehow seems reasonable in the hands of a good actor. Likewise, Norton is more likable than I ever would have expected, and does a great job as Banner.

The movie's one weakness, for me, was Tim Blake Nelson (whom I usually admire). This movie is mostly grounded in a realistic setting and the fights are supposed to feel a little bit more real-life. It doesn't feel like Spider-Man or X-Men, and while there are a few laughs here and there, it's mostly more serious. Tim Blake Nelson jumps in as a physical realization of Goofy himself, and is so incredibly annoying that I thought the whole movie was ruined for a while there, when he was on screen. It reminded me of John Turturro in Transformers (maybe not quite that bad). Thankfully, his role isn't a large one, and if you hang in there, he goes away after a while. I'm just not sure if it was a casting issue or direction, but he was a sore thumb in the middle of an otherwise good movie.

I like the settings of this movie a lot better than the first as well. Rather the middle of nowhere, it moves around in location, but is always in the middle of a city. At first it's cramped Brazilian streets and a bottling factory, and then it's in well-populated areas of the U.S., including a university and busy city blocks.

Overall this movie was tens of times an improvement when compared with Ang Lee's take on the Hulk. The script is a lot smarter (minus one too many of Hulk's big yells), the Hulk is better realized as a character, and the action is better too. Of course, this movie comes standard with your expected Stan Lee and Lou Ferigno appearances, and yes, the promised appearance of Tony Stark (and Nick Fury's name flashing in the opening sequence) is there too. It's got so much more to offer, and is well made. It's not my favorite comic book movie (I tend to prefer the less realism-based ones), but it's a respectable entry and has promise for future movies.

P.S. Work is affecting me more than it ought - I was sitting in the middle of this movie thinking.. "Bruce Banner is the Hulk. We're converting our software to Banner and we've been calling it the beast... we should be calling Banner the Hulk!"

Wow, it's been really hot lately. Thank goodness for sunscreen and a condo and workplace with central air! Working out has been a lot more of a chore lately. There were a few days where there was no breeze at all. On those, the sun just beat down and gave me more of a farmer's tan (even though I wear sunscreen). Honestly, though, I'm thankful for the days when I successfully get out there and do stuff. My back has been making things difficult lately, so I'm always excited when it lets me do things.

Well, on Friday I went to a birthday party/Arbonne presentation at a friend from work's apartment. It was fun to see her place and even to get inspired to make our place feel a little bit more like home. It was hot, though. When I left it was 105 degrees out and my car had been sitting out there for a while. The seats were almost unbearable, even when wearing jeans. I rushed home to the coolness of my bedroom and watched tv and napped with Pip. Ric and I stayed in that night, although we did make a little trip out to Target to kill some boredom and pick up a few food items. I finished watching King Kong (the Jessica Lange edition) and we watched more 30 Rock on the Roku.

Saturday I slept in, then got up and started working on paint touch-up in the kitchen. I swear, I just touch up with white along an edge and then need to do more touch up with beige. One of these days there will be a crisp-looking edge. Anyway, I got through a lot of The Last of the Mohicans over the weekend while painting. I'm really enjoying it. In the evening Ric and I went to Shoe City to get him a new pair of shoes and then headed over to Brea to go see Get Smart. Our theater was packed and everyone had a great time. At home, we finished season one of 30 Rock (only took us a week).

Sunday we went to church. The high school pastor kicked off a series called Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, which is a series that features lessons from children's ministries being brought to the main sermon. It's kind of fun, but a little bit more milk than meat for my tastes. We'll see how the rest of the sermons go. After church we tried out Sansei, a new Japanese place over where they're renovating the old SuperK to make a Target and Circut City. There are a bunch of new restaurants over there, so we decided to get out of the rut and try new places. Well... meh. I'd rather pay $5 for a bowl at the Flame Broiler, which is much tastier. I'll have to give it another try sometime and try something besides their spicy chicken breast bowl.

We went home and I worked on more touch up until it was time for our weekly trip to Lowe's. We bought doors for our hallway closet, new fixtures for the bathroom tub/shower, and more painting supplies. I spent the next several hours painting and listening to TLOTM. When I was done I realized I had done too much. Oops. Well, we watched the opening hour to Helvetica until Ric had to go to bed for an early morning, and then I watched The Lady from Shanghai. I tried to read after that, but Pip interrupted me every paragraph or so for attention, so I gave up and went to bed.

Up this week: grocery shopping, painting, maybe a night at Disneyland with my sister, and maybe a fun activity of some kind for short Friday.

AFP: Comedian George Carlin dead at 71

Gringo emailed me the bad news last night. Carlin was one of my favorite comedians and he also appeared in three of Kevin Smith's movies. While some people did not enjoy Jersey Girl, his performance in the movie was pretty much universally praised. I am saddened we will not get to see him again on screen or on stage. Kevin has always praised Carlin for his work ethic. Even when he was shotting a film he was still doing his stand up act. The guy was on the road the majority of the year even at the end of his life. Here's to you, George. You will be missed.