Skycoaster & The World of Yesterday

I spent my Saturday night checking out the classic car Cruise at Old Town in Kissimmee, Florida. There’s plenty to say about Old Town, but today’s blog is far more concerned with the adjoining Fun Spot amusement park and its big stupid rides.


What looks like the world’s tallest goal post is actually a ride where you (not me, you) are suspended from a cable and slowly dragged backwards by your feet until you are parallel with the apex of the structure. You are then released and swung majestically and horrifyingly down and back up the other side.

This type of ride is officially known as a Skycoaster, but I prefer to call it the Superman Simulator. Fun Spot might be wary of potential lawsuits from such a moniker, but it didn’t stop them from painting Spider-Man with breasts on the side of their kiddie rollercoaster.

This particular Skycoaster is the tallest in the world (at least the tallest listed on Wikipedia) at 300-feet. If the height doesn’t scare you away, the cost might. If you want to experience the Skycoaster, you will have to pony up 40 bucks for your first flight. There’s a discounted rate for returning riders as well as package deals where you can purchase a video recording of your descent and a t-shirt that says something to the effect of ‘I survived the Skycoaster and all I got was this lousy t-shirt’.


Despite the exorbitant cost and insanity involved in allowing carnie folk to swing you back and forth over a lake, suspended 300 feet in the air, there never seems to be a lack of willing participants. I, however, will not be providing a first hand account of the Skycoaster.

See the full sized versions of these photos as well as more from Fun Spot and Old Town on my Flickr page.

Iron Man Too Much

The first Iron Man movie was a pleasant surprise. It was a great superhero movie that didn't star one of Marvel or DC's A-list heroes. It was fun and cool and it chugged right along until we ran into our requisite final battle. Only then did things sort of fall apart. But the lackluster ending did not negate the great beginning and middle.

My favorite part of the first film was Tony Stark. Although we get lots of him in this chapter, it's not the same Tony from Iron Man 1. Aside from the court room scene, his wit has been replaced by desperation. Maybe that's an intentional aspect of his character arc, but I missed his attitude from the original.

I'm not familiar with the comic version, so perhaps War Machine sucks in those, too, but any time Rhodey stepped on screen, the chemistry of the film took a nose dive. Compared to when we first met him, the character seemed as different as the actor portraying him. I never thought Rhodes would go behind Tony's back so easily. In IM2, he has seemingly no qualms about betraying his friend.

What kind of friend conspires with the guy testifying against you in court and so happily hands over the very thing you were fighting to keep out of that enemy's hands?

The motivation made zero sense to me.

The "fight" at the party was the lowest point of the movie for me. Both visually and conceptually. If I don't like how my buddy is acting, running downstairs and stealing his secret weapon to use against him is probably not top five on my list of good ideas.

Was Rhodes given super secret clearance off screen? Did he get to test out the suits or are they so easy to pilot, a Caveman could do it?

Conversely, Sam Jackson was great as Sam Jackson. Unfortunately his character will ultimately lead to disappointment because he was introduced into this franchise to foreshadow the eventual Avengers movie that will combine the Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and Hulk story lines; a movie that can be nothing other than disaster because, unless it is 10 hours long, it will never be able harness all those characters in a single coherent story.

Unless they play it off as an origin story.

Origin stories always seem to work best as movies. Maybe that's why the first movie in any given series is always the strongest.