STRANGE LOG: 7-8-2017

So here we go, The Strangeverse has been reborn. For those of you who don't know I recently lost several articles on my blog due to Photobucket wanting to charge users for 3rd party hosting (a.k.a embedding). So because of that I've lost several articles and switched over my all my image hosting duties directly to Google & Imgur (as I doubt imgur will go the way of Photobucket anytime soon). So in this Strange Log I'll be updating you all on what's coming back, what's not coming back and what's coming soon, all available after the break.

The Strange Review: A Cure For Wellness

This is one of those movies that I was looking forward to when I saw the previews. Wellness Spas doubling as a mental asylum? Hidden secrets? Ulterior motives?!  Dane DeHaan?! Sign me up! This appeared to be one of those "plot twist" movies...much like "Shutter Island" where you think one thing is going on only to discover another thing is going on. However, "Shutter Island" was great, "A Cure For Wellness" though...was not. For a non-spoiler review, I can say that the movie is shot well, well acted, looks amazing and that's about all there is though. While I give the film credit for being original, sadly, it's originality didn't do much to make it better.

"A Cure For Wellness" tells the story of Lockhart, an up and coming accounting firm guy who is blackmailed by his bosses to go to Switzerland to retrieve another member of the firm to take the fall for their mistake. While at this spa, Lockhart gets diagnosed with the same strange illness that plagues everyone at the wellness center. That's the basic story but there s a lot more to it than just that. Guys, I was incredibly disappointed by this movie and it's overall skippable in my opinion. If you want to know why and don't care about spoilers click after the break!

"Death Note" Trailer Review

And now, now we have some more images and a good idea of what the story will look like. No, you're not dreaming and having a very surreal nightmare, yes, there is an upcoming American adaptation of "Death Note" coming to Netflix and now we have a legit trailer. I gave you all my thoughts on the teaser and you can check those out here, but here we review the trailer and see what we can gleam.

The Strange Review: Power Rangers

This was one of those movies that once announced was immediately polarizing. Ever since the fan-made "Power/Rangers" that was polarizing and showed a gritty, rated R version of the Power Rangers, a "Power Rangers" movie has been on the books for awhile. Initial buzz was minimal just speculating on whether or not this would be it's own original story or a reboot. Over time it was announced that it would be a full on reboot with Jason, Billy, Trini, Kimberly & Zack once again becoming the Power Rangers. Casting was announced with long time Power Rangers alumni Bryan Cranston (who voiced many Power Ranger villains) taking on the role of Zordon, Bill Hader as Alpha 5 and costume/make up queen Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa. With a good cast and a decent trailer, how was this new fully American take on the Power Rangers?

This movie was much better than it had any business being. I'm a huge "Power Rangers" mark so my initial reaction to the trailer and images were tentatively positive. As I said before this could either be really good or really bad and shockingly enough it was quite good, once again better than it had any business being. But I shouldn't have been surprised, Dean Israelite has handled stuff like this before in "Project Almanac" so having him at the helm gave me some confidence and it was well earned. So for a none spoiler review of this film, I give it a B, the characters were likable, and while everything moved pretty quickly, it wasn't so fast that it gave you whiplash. The acting was good, even scenery chewing Elizabeth Banks was perfect as Rita (and honestly with a name like Rita Repulsa it's almost expected). I had a good time with this movie albiet a few problems. That's a non-spoiler review, for a spoiler review go ahead and click after the break!

Strangeverse Reborn

And so here we are...once again I'm facing the death & rebirth of The Strangeverse. The first time this happened I lost all my video reviews, this time around it's a much more serious blow to the continuity of The Strangeverse. Photobucket, my previous image hosting site has decided to charge their users for hosting images on a 3rd party (that means embedding images as I frequently do here). Up until 2016 I was using Photobucket exclusively for hosting all my images. Now one would ask (as My wife had) why didn't I just directly upload all my images? My answer to that is because sadly hindsight is 20/20 (never understood that saying until now) and I'm a moron.

Self deprecation aside (but not concluded) because of my (EXTREMELY) poor decision to use Photobucket and because they are now asking that I pay $399.99 to continue to allow my images to continue to be visible I decided that effective immediately, ALL of my articles from 2015 and before will cease to be on this blog. Thankfully, I did not delete them, I merely restored them to Draft mode whilst I contemplated how exactly to move forward. But move forward I must. Lately, I don't have much I genuinely enjoy doing, I used to make Youtube videos until Youtube made it so I was just another schmoe in front of a camera. I used to do video reviews until Blip.tv decided to choose favorites and now sadly, I'm losing 5 years worth of articles & reviews...Poof! Gone because of one very bad decision.

Now one might be asking, why not just post the articles minus the text? Simple but that's still a TONE of work that in between my (figuratively) Hell job, the hours I'm home and functional and the small amount of time I can spend with my son, I'm none too keen on going through 5 years worth of articles and editing them. That and the pictures I post in the articles are VERY much so tied into the text its self and separating them would cause some articles to lose their context or their pictorial punchlines. This new change hurts me greatly because like I said it's 5 YEARS worth of reviews, articles, commentaries, insights, updates, plans and so much more. My "Pretty Little Liars" reviews, still the funniest things I've ever read are now gone, my "Hannibal" reviews (although incomplete) are gone, all my articles and insights on various movies and TV shows, GONE! I'm hurting, I'm not going to lie but I'm trying to look at this as a rebirth, not a death.  So join me if you will in welcoming The Strangeverse Reborn 2017!

And thus...

And so if you're new to this blog...although not sure why you'd be new considering no one's really reading this so I guess it really doesn't matter in the first place. Photobucket has decided to become extreme douche bags a la' Myspace, however unlike Myspace, Photobucket is now charging individuals for hosting videos. One would assume that Photobucket would gain revenue from the MANY, MANY, MANY (exhaustingly) MANY ads on their website that slow their loading time, but it looks like they spent all that money on their bullshit interface and their slow as molasses uploading speed. Because of terrible decisions made by the morons who run Photobucket, nearly 200 something articles of mine are now without images to go along with them, and in order to make my Blog entertaining, I have to go in and red dress every single screencap...Oh goody, I can't think of a better way to spend the weekend...needless I'm beyond pissed off.

I don't ask for much, I had a plan to write 2 articles this weekend, one was a review for "A Cure For Wellness" and the other was about Predictability in movies. It's bad enough I work a job I loathe to the very core of my soul and I'm so exhausted I can barely spend time with my son because I gotta come home, eat and then go to bed but now I'm dangerously close to getting another favorite pass time taken from me. I stopped making Youtube videos because Youtube made it pretty much impossible for me to distinguish myself from other reviewers out there so I decided to blog, previously I was almost screwed over for my "Hannibal" reviews which inspired me to write my "Copyright Hell" article but NOW, Photobucket has all but gutted my blog for nearly EVERYTHING. I'm currently hosting my images on Imgur.com and that seems to be working out fine but I can't help but think the same thing will happen there. The image I have up now is hosted by Google, which I should just probably direct upload everything from now on but with the way all that Copyright bullshit has been going lately I wouldn't be shocked if they screwed me over eventually as well.

I'm losing confidence in a lot of crap these days and blogging was a nice and fun way to be my opinions on various topics out in the public sphere, if that gets taken away from me I'll just be another schmuck watching TV talking to his loved ones about TV shows they haven't seen nor heard of and I'm not that pathetic, not yet. All in all I'm incredibly angry right now and I have to go to work later this morning and the anger will only increase, not a good way to start the morning. Pray for me. I'll see you guys later. Until then, refrain from reading any of my old posts until I get everything cleaned but. Catch you guys later!

STRANGE LOG: 6-22-2017

It's that time once again for another STRANGE LOG! Yeah, it's been a minute (not really) but my world is constantly and rapidly changing now that I'm dealing a 1 month old son and a job that's sucking my soul out and eating away at my sanity like every season of "American Horror Story" I've ever watched (still accepting donations for lost brain cells, any and all donations are welcomed). There is a lot going on and a lot I want to talk about and get off my chest, so let's dive in.