Andy Wood

When Steve Barker finds himself running dead last in the corporate rat race, he sinks to an all time low…he attempts to rig the Special Olympics by pretending to be intellectually challenged. But, Barker is completely out-classed by his fellow Olympians, who are not only better athletes; they’re just plain better people.

It would seem that it is getting harder to sustain a rooting interest in the career of Johnny Knoxville. First he’s a Duke of Hazzard, and now he scrapes deeper bottom as a dude faking mental retardation so he can run track in the Special Olympics. Talk about your Jackass stunts.

I had to pause this movie 4 times out of just boredom, the only parts that I was able to get any enjoyment out of was when his ‘new’ friends decided to help him by “training” him, these scenes were mildly entertaining.

Over-all it was predictable and unconvincing as a romantic comedy, the movie is surprisingly sweet and funny whenever Steve is hanging out with his fellow Special Olympics players.

Prepare to defend the homeland! The latest booster pack from the Battlefield 2™ team, brings all-out war to American soil for the first time.

Battlefield 2: Armored Fury drops players into a deadly confrontation between the Middle Eastern Coalition, Chinese Army and U.S. forces following an attempted invasion of America.

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I finally finished up with of X-men Evolution Season 3, so let me start off by breaking it down by the groups/characters and whom they are affiliated with.

X-Men
Professor Xavier	Beast	Jean Grey
Shadowcat	Nightcrawler	Wolverine
Storm	Rouge	Cyclops

You have your core group that most know as the X-Men, but not 100% like the original X-Men in the 1960’s or the Uncanny X-Men of the 1970’s – 1980’s or like the ‘New X-Men’ of the 1990’s or so on.

The origins of the characters are pretty much the same, but the writers haven’t gone into much detail and I would assume that since this is more keyed for the younger crowds versus the mature readers that each origin will loosely be the same.

New Mutants
Berzerker	Cannonball	Iceman
Magma	Multiple	Sunspot

With the popularity of the X-Men, there were many splinter groups and the New Mutants were one of them.
I got the feeling that this group of kids were mainly brought because the core group has pretty much finished up with thier training and are getting set into thier roles as X-Men.
The New Mutants are the ‘new’ blood and will start to get instruction from the senior members and will help to add a little innocence to the group.

Since, I never did follow the New Mutants, I can’t really speak to much details, but as I did mention you will see that the writers will mix it up a little bit from a creative perspective and that is great, after all, why watch a cartoon that is exactly like a comic book that you already read.

Brotherhood
Avalanche	Blob	Mystique
Quicksilver	Scarlet Witch	Toad

If you are going to have super heroes, then you are going to need to have their evil counter parts. The writers stayed pretty much true to the fact that the X-Men had a group with whom the quarreled with quite often and it was the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Acolytes
Colossus	Gambit	Magneto
Mastermind	Pyro	Sabertooth

As I recall, Magneto did have a group of followers called Acolytes, but it wasn’t any of the above and unless I am getting old beyond my years. Mastermind was a member of the Hellfire Club, Colossus was never a ‘bad’ guy, Gambit was shifty at first, but ended up being a good guy, but again the creative pen of the writers gets moving across the storyboards and the end result is the above.

Morlocks
Caliban	Callisto	Cybelle
Facade	Lucid	Scaleface
Spyke	Torpid

Okay, now I know very little about this group, but I do recall that Storm at one time became the leader of this group when she beat out Callisto in a challenge and without her powers too. Beside that, they live in the sewers and underground because they cannot pass for ‘normal’

Over at Major Nelson’s website, he points out the top ‘Xbox’ games being played via “Live”

Entering its eighth season, Stargate SG-1 had become a remarkable success story.  As a Star Trek fan, I just didn’t think any other series would be able to size up to the ‘Trek’ franchise, but without a doubt I was wrong since there is now a companion series Stargate Atlantis as a result of it’s success.
When we last left off from the cliffhanger finale of season seven which opened the door for numerous stories on Earth involving the SG-1 members.  The remaining Goa’uld System Lords still provide a nasty threat, especially Baal, who has acquired Anubis’ super soldiers.  The Replicators also escaped from their prison and return to wreak more havoc with everyone.

In similar fashion to the seventh season, the quality of each episode varies considerably, but the overall verdict is success.

During this season, I think I liked ‘Prometheus Unbound’ the best as it was full of both action and comedy all rolled into one.  Plus Farscape’ Claudia Black makes her first appearance as Vala—a fun, conniving thief who rarely tells the truth about anything.

General Hammond also returns to captain the Prometheus on its maiden voyage to Atlantis. However, nothing goes according to plan as the appearance of a super soldier creates complications that could end things for everyone.

I now have a task to fill in the gap with season 9 before season 10 airs. Time to put that Tivo to work!