Cena's new film - 12 Rounds

Off the back of The Marine, WWE Champion John Cena is back in the cinemas again (though probably not in the UK) with his latest film 12 Rounds. Like The Marine, this looks like a high octane action film which will have Cena's character beating the odds to save the day, at a guess anyway!

12 Rounds at WWE.com

Very cheesy and very predictable, I'll be watching!

90210 - 20 Years On

When Beverly Hills 90210 was first shown back in 1990 I was hooked, and avidly tuned in each week for the first 2 series. Then something happened, well two things actually; I started University and the show moved to satellite TV, as it was then, so no more access to Beverly Hills 90210 for me. Being one of those people who has to watch every episode in the right order, I never watched any more than those first two seasons. Thank goodness for DVDs - I have seasons 1-3 on DVD and have re-watched season 1, with an eye to purchasing season 4 and catching up!

Fast Forward to 2009 and the new 90210 has started - they have dropped the Beverly Hills from the show name but it's all very familiar. We are back at West Beverly High, there's a Zuckerman involved in the school TV show and even Kelly Taylor is a staff member - the guidance counsellor no less!

The main characters are a daughter and adopted brother who move from the country to fast paced Beverly Hills - sound familiar? He's interested in journalism and she makes friends with the most popular girl in school - sound even more familiar? Even Nat is still working at the Peach Pit! I have only watched episode 1 of the 2 shown so far and the credits promise a guest appearance from Shannon ' Brenda Walsh' Doherty at some point.

It's as shallow and trashy as it was 20 years ago, and once again I'm hooked!

Budget Meals: Pasta Bake

Costs from Sainsburys:

200g Pasta = 30p
200g Sweetcorn = 30p
200ml Milk = 20p
185g Tuna = 55p
100g Cheese = 72p
295g Campbell's 99% Fat Free Mushroom Condensed Soup = 53p

Total Cost = £2.60

Cook the pasta! Drain and then add the soup, tuna, sweetcorn and milk. Heat through, stirring regularly. Transfer to an oven dish and sprinkle the cheese on top. Grill until golden brown on top, and serve!

Serves 4

Weebles Wobble...

...but they don't fall down!

That's the little rhyme that used to accompany the advert these when I was a child. I remember having a Weeble garage with little Weeble cars - I had no idea they were still making these. The set in the picture is for 18+ months so we'll have to wait another 8 months before we can buy anything like this for Lucas.

The Weebles themselves seem to have changes a bit, they used to look like this:

Clone Wars Blu-ray

So, over half a year since it appeared in the cinema I finally got to see the Star Wars: Clone Wars film after buying the Blu-ray. As a PS3 owner the choice between Blu-ray and DVD was a no-brainer - not only was there little difference in price, but the Blu-ray has a ton of extras, most in high definition too.

Going into this film I knew it was targeted it kids and that it had bombed in the box office. However, that didn't stop me enjoying was an enjoyable romp with a fun story and some interesting characters, old and new.

At first I wasn't sure about the voices of Obi Wan and Anakin but as the film progressed they became 'their voices' and even started to think they sounded like McGregor and Christianson respectively. Speaking of voices (see what I did there?), anyone spot the guy who looked like a young John Cleese and sounded just like him?

The addition of the new Padawan Learner, Ahsoka Tano, under Anakin was a nice touch and the relationship between the two started to develop nicely and provided us with some humourous moments. It'll be interesting to see how that progresses, and how she inevitably dies - well, she wasn't in Revenge of the Sith, was she?

The animation was top class and the video and audio quality were superb - a great example of Blu-ray quality. I look to forward to watching the extras and the TV series too. Out of 5 stars, Clone Wars gets a pretty damn good 4.

Comic Recommendation: DMZ

Having read volume 1 of DMZ; One The Ground, I can wholly recommend it as a gritty, gripping and emotionally involving (couldn't think of another 'g' word) story with some fantastic artwork.

This is from Wiki:

- - -

The setting is New York City in the near future. A civil war is taking place between the United States of America and the Free States. The Free States are described in the first issue as being "New Jersey and inland"; in issue #8, it is revealed that "the Free States are an idea, not a geographical entity";[3] the movement began in Montana and made its way east. The Free Armies and the U.S. military met at Allentown, Pennsylvania where the Free Armies won, after which the Free Armies descended on New York; the exact chain of events from hereon has yet to be revealed. Manhattan is the location of the demilitarized zone between the two warring parties. In an interview, Brian Wood described the back-history as the citizens of Middle America having risen up against the pre-emptive war policies of the US government, causing a Second American Civil War.

The protagonist is Matthew (Matty) Roth, a naïve photo journalism intern from Long Island, who enters the DMZ with a news-crew. He becomes trapped when the rest of the news crew and the soldiers escorting them are killed in a firefight with "insurgents". Matty becomes the only journalist on the ground in the DMZ and he begins to report on the daily struggle of life for the everyday citizens of Manhattan.

- - -

After finishing Y: The Last Man and reading the latest Fables (War and Pieces) I wanted a new series to get stuck into. After many recommendations from the fine people on the SFX Forum I decided to go for DMZ and got volume 1 from my local library - one of the few graphic novels/trade paperbacks they actually stock. A few pages in and I knew I'd made a good choice - interesting and topical setting with a good lead character and great artwork - a page turner of a comic book which saw me with my heart in my hand towards the end of this volume.

The next 4 volumes are on their way to me now - if only I wasn't so impatient!

Mariusz makes it 5!

Beating the record of 4 World's Strongest Man titles held by Jón Páll Sigmarsson and Magnús Ver Magnússon, Mariusz Pudzianowski won the 2008 World's Strongest Man to get his record breaking 5th title.

As amazing as The Dominator's record was, and it really was, one other story came out of the competition and that is Derek Poundstone, as seen pictured above. The 2008competition was his first World's Strongest Man and he led the competition up until the last event where Pudzianowski beat him in the Atlas Stones. What makes Poundstone's success even more phenomenal is that he only does it part time - his full time job is that of a police officer for the Naugatuck, Connecticut Police Department!

Expect the 2009 competition to be one that Derek Poundstone will not want to lose!

A special mention goes to Magnus Samuelson from Sweden - winner of the 1998 World's Strongest Man and a 13 year veteran of the competition, announced his retirement from World's Strongest Man. Once the best Arm Wrestler in Europe, Samuelson famously broke the arm of professional wrestler and actor Nathan Jones in an arm wrestling match.