Saturday Night At The Movies Presents: Rob Roy

In the highlands of Scotland in the 1700s, Rob Roy tries to lead his small town to a better future, by borrowing money from the local nobility to buy cattle to herd to market. When the money is stolen, Rob is forced into a Robin Hood lifestyle to defend his family and honor.

This is a great film starring Liam Neeson that for some reason or not never received the praise it deserved. The movie also stars Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, Eric Stoltz, and John Hurt.

The cinematography in this film is breathtaking. You will enjoy it. Brought to you once again through the graciousness of hulu.com

Buzz! A Five Star Hollywood Extravaganza

If you've been to the main page of this blog, you no doubt have seen the mini game and video trailer of Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz, a new trivia game for the Playstation 2 that uses the same controllers as Buzz! The Mega Quiz, Buzz! Junior Robo Jam, and Buzz! Jungle Party. Seeing from past posts on this Blog-o-rama that I loved movies, the marketing firm for Buzz! asked me to test the game and to post a review. Since I love trivia games, I was only too happy to try it out.

Up to eight players can play Buzz!, and the more players, the more fun. It's a great game to play when you are having guests at the house. And what is really great about it, any age will have a great time playing, whether they are 12 years old (as is my son, who almost beat me), to 80 (as is my mother-in-law who provided a lot of laughs as she actually finished in second place in our game of six players).

If you are by yourself, you can play what can only be described as a challenging and fast single player mode. The most fun of course, comes with groups of people competing against one another.

Their are eight rounds in the multiplayer mode, and each one can be a challenge. They consist of:

1. HOLLYWOOD STARS - Each contestant chooses their favorite subject and then answers trivia tailored to that category.
2. FASTEST FINGER - A photo reveals the answer to a question. The quicker you buzz, the more points you win.
3. FACT OR FICTION - You have to decide whether the story you have just heard is fact or fiction.
4. TOP RANK - This round gives you four answers that you must put in order to win points with the correct answer.
5. PIE FIGHT - This was a funny round. The player that answers the question correctly first gets to throw a pie at another contestant. Too many pies in the face eliminates you from this round. But BEWARE! Even though I kept answering the questions correctly first, I kept throwing the pies in my own face and ended up losing the round.
6. ROLLOVER - This round could earn you a lot of points if the other players miss their questions as the points rollover into a pot if they miss their question. Unfortunately, in the times that I played, the other players, like myself, knew all of their answers and there were no points to pull ahead from the other players. During this round our scores increased by the same amount.
7. POINT STEALER - This is the round where you can definitely pull ahead. Answer the question first and correctly and the points you earn are stolen from another player.
8. THE FINAL COUNTDOWN - This is, of course, the final round of the game. All of your points that you have earned are turned into a time bar. As the round progresses, each players bar begins to shrink. The countdown temporarily halts when you answer a question correctly. If you are the fastest player to correctly answer, you are give a time bonus. A wrong answer knocks off a big chunk of time. The round ends when there is only one player with time left.

At the end of the game trophies and prizes are awarded. I won't reveal them here as that would spoil part of the fun.

Overall, this is a really fun game and the controllers are a part of that fun. I kept imagining myself using one of those buzzers you see in the contestants hands on Jeopardy. The graphics, characters (you yourself can chose from 14 different contestants), and sound were all first rate. I hadn't played any videogames in a while and was surprised by the high quality of this game.

An added bonus is that if you have an EyeToy USB Camera, you can set it up for your face to appear in shame if you miss a question. There is also a mode where you become the quizzmaster.

All in all, Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz is a great night (or day) of fast, fun, entertaining trivia. It receives "riesen2b's blog-o-rama's five star recommendation! *****of five.

Emma Sends Her Love

Emma wants to thank everyone for their concern during her recent surgery. She wants everyone to know that she is doing okay and that her pain now is only occasional. When we get more results from the doctor, we'll keep you informed.

Cancer Update On Emma

Rather than taking time to write about it, here is a quick video update on my wife Emma's condition and the results of her surgery.

Here's The Buzz On Prizes!

Meet Quiz. He's one of the characters in Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz. On my homepage there is a mini game that you can play. Play it between now and May 14 and enter your score and you can win prizes from Sony. To save you the question of what kinds of prizes, I have the list right here:
PRIZES:
1st Prize: A Slim PlayStation® 2 Computer Entertainment System, a copy of Buzz!™ Hollywood Quiz (with buzzers), and a Sony PS2 Library of games, approximately 15 games. (approximate retail value: $450.00)

2nd Prize: A Slim PlayStation® 2 computer Entertainment System and a copy of a Buzz!™ Hollywood Quiz game (with buzzers) (approximate retail value: $169.98)


3rd Prize: Copy of Buzz!™ Hollywood Quiz Game (with buzzers). (approximate retail value: $39.99)

To read all of the rules for this contest, you can go here to read the official rules. So if you're not already on my home page, go there and play it. It's fun. I can't wait to try out the full version.

More On Cancer

Pictured is Emma and my sister Peggy.


Today we finally received some good news!


The biopsy on Emma's right breast came back negative for cancer. She will have only her left breast removed. Also the supplemental results of her first biopsy showed some good indicators as far as how aggresive the cancer is and it's treatability.

We're a long way from out of the woods. The true determining factor will be when they biopsy the lymph nodes during the surgery tomorrow. If they come back clean, it will be a cause for celebration.

Yesterday, I took Emma to the local Susan G. Komen Foundation so that she could ask questions and get information. They provided her with a pink bag, filled with extremely helpful information as well as a homemade quilt, a hat in case she has chemo, a t-shirt, and a stuffed bunny. Emma was delighted with what they provided and it lifted her spirits. Susan G. Komen is a great organization and I hope everyone supports them. I also hope that all of our family and friends show their support and sponsor Peggy in her race for the cure. You can sponsor her by going to her Susan G. Komen page by clicking here.

When we got home, a package from my sister Elana in Ohio arrived that contained a Longaberger Hope Basket. It was a pleasant surprise as I thought she was just sending a package to restock my Frisch's tartar sauce. Emma immediately placed it in the center of her curio cabinet.

So, tomorrow at noon the surgery will begin. From then on, it's one day at a time to do everything that can be done to whip this thing. I'll keep you informed. As I said in a previous post, your prayers are greatly appreciated.

Drive-In Theater: Today's Feature - Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters

This one combines vampires, martial arts, decomposed zombies, and four warriors named Wind, Thunder, Rain, and Lightning. It's ninja vs. zombie. Let's see who wins.