Cowa-Sequential

For millennials of a certain age Dragon Ball Z was a significant part of our lates 90s and early 2000s experience.The franchise was everywhere from the anime show to video games to the monsoon of related merchandise. Goku and friends return in the sequel to 2013's Battle of Gods film. The Z warriors must contend with the return of Frieza, one of their deadliest ones in  Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F. The anime film had a limited edition run in select theaters in North America and I knew I had to go out of my way to give it a look. Let me start by saying I have loved Dragon Ball Z for years have several volumes of its manga, making a critical review quite difficult. I watched the film in a packed theater on the last night of its limited run with with a big smile on my face. The environment could not be beat with ages ranging from kids to 20-somethings like myself. The movie starts with Frieza's former minions using the wish-granting DragonBalls to bring their master back

Animated films have always held a certain place in my heart and while my interest mostly peaked in the 1990s and early 2000s I still keep an eye on certain films. When I saw Despicable Me a few years ago at a free outdoor screening and I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it was. Gru was funny, the kids were charming, and the minions were fun side characters. In the time since their 2010 debut, Gru's yellow pill-shaped minions have taken a life of their own. Minions is the first feature length spin-off of the Despicable Me franchise showing the history of the Minions and briefly, how they met Gru. The film takes place in the 1960s and involves three Minions Bob, Kevin, and Stuart who are  looking for a new boss. The Minion horde has wander through decades of boss-less leadership to the point where their very existence is at stake. Bob, Kevin, and Stuart leave their home at the North Pole and eventually find their way to a Super-villain convention in Florida where they m

The summer movie season is here and once again I am struggling to catch up. However that has not kept me from seeing Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's newest film San Andreas . The Rock has had an interesting transition from football player to professional wrestler and now to headline action star. He stars as a rescue helicopter pilot who's mission has him trying to save his family from a major earthquake along the San Andreas fault in California. I feel that the disaster movie genre has fell on hard times despite advancing CGI technologies and ballooning movie budgets. Following the disappointment that was Cloverfield and the over the top destruction of 2009's 2012 apocalypse, I felt my own interest in the genre waning. Will  Mr. Johnson be able to save his family and keep my interest for the film's entire run time? The movie begins with Ray (The Rock) and his helicopter rescue crew rescuing a young woman tho was trapped in a car on a cliff.  He is estranged fr

Over the last decade, the bicycle riding scene in Philadelphia has been growing leaps and bounds. This has paralleled the rise of neighborhoods such as Fishtown that are near adjacent to Center City Philadelphia. Philadelphia tight grid street layout and system of bike lanes makes bicycling a rather convenient mode of travel. Last April, Philadelphia deepened its relationship with biking culture with the launch of its bike share program called Indego . Indego is the newest bike share program created by a partnership between the City of  Philadelphia and Independence Blue Cross. The program features many stations spread across Central Philadelphia where riders can rent out bikes using either cash or credit cards. When I was in Washington, DC I was sorely attempted to test their bike share program but could not due to time constraints. When IndeGo Bike Share opened Philadelphia I jumped at the chance to give it a go. The ride itself was rather smooth but it was hard to ad

Another Christmas holiday, another Hobbit movie. However this isn't just any film about Shire-folk with hairy feet, The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies brings both Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy and larger six film Middle Earth Saga to a close. The film serves as a climatic conclusion of Bilbo and company's quest to reclaim the Dwarf Kingdom at the Lonely Mountain and acts a bridge to the Fellowship of the Ring in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The Hobbit trilogy has been criticized as being a poor man's LOTR and while I somewhat echo that sentiment for I found this new trilogy very enjoyable. Does Battle of Five Armies reach the heights found in the original films or does it still lie the shadow of its more epic predecessors. Battle of Five Armies begins as Desolation of Smaug ends with Smaug laying waste to Laketown ans after a bit of time and burning Bard dispatches Smaug by piercing  the hole in the dragon's armor-like hide with a black arrow. Following th

Sony is one of those companies while not exactly a trainwreck, is prone to have soap opera-esque public relations nightmares. From the lackluster launches of the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita to the bungling of the Spider-Man film franchise and the Network data breaches, they seem to have an ideal mix of hubris and clueless-ness which makes The Interview debacle all the more fascinating. The Interview of course is the Seth Rogen, James Franco comedy vehicle where they are sent on a mission by the US government to interview then assassinate the North Korean leader Kim Jung Un. In response to the film, the North Korean government hacked Sony Pictures's confidential data and released them to the public. There were also threats of 9/11 type terrorist attacks against theaters that showed the film. Sony pulled the film from its Christmas release date though ultimately released the film digitally and at the movies. Sony is currently being sued for the breach and faced criticism f