So my brother has finally taken upon himself to review trailers. Now that he has, I now have a chance to give my protest to his trailer critique. While he mocks me for my culinary experience, here is my chance to get back at him.
This article starts off with what looks like a 2-page synopsis about an American anime movie. I have been watching anime for years and whenever he sees me watching it, he makes it known that “Anime is teh suck!” Using a cliche phrase made popular from Adult Swim’s message boards years ago. You’re giving props to an anime picture when you won’t even watch “Cowboy Bebop?” Granted, I like how he is broadening horizons, but he needs to know the classics before he can say an animated feature is worthy of greatness. I don’t see a synopsis or a prognosis so I don’t know if this a real critique, but it sounds positive. I agree but I will keep my eyes out for more.
Strange Wilderness? Yeah, don’t think so. Chalk this to the “The Critic”’s thought: “If the movie sucks, just don’t go.” Maybe I will watch it on Spike in a year, which is where I foresee it being aired.
Hankcock. I’m not immediately impressed. I tell my friend who I constantly argue about movies that trailers are made to make you see the movie, no matter how bad it is or how much they know that we know that they know how bad it is. Whenever I see this trailer, I see how it can be a great movie but I can also see the scenes where I can go to the bathroom or get a popcorn refill. Here’s to the hype! I’ll need to do some further research on this movie.
Thanks for reading, more will come as long as Chris keeps doling out critiques.
-Me
I’m here in Gordon biersch unwinding with my 2 beers. It’s been a few weeks since I last posted, but I think it’s about time to update this, eh? 2 weekends ago, Joy and I went to Las Vegas with a few local friends for labor day weekend. There was definately a drink for every step we took! (well, not really, but just a way to give you an idea of how much we drank in the OTHER city that never sleeps….) I drove instead of flying and it was a lot of fun. Armed with Verizon Navigator, we got there with ease. We later found out that our friends took the long way to LV through Flagstaff (a near 2-hour detour, I believe). We didn’t see any shows, but who needs shows when friends who drink are nearby? 
We ate…and…ate…and…drank…and…well, you get the idea…by the end of the weekend, we all felt a lil’ weird inside. So I decided that it was time to get back into the gym. Joy took it one step further. She took me to Bikram Yoga here in Scottsdale. OMG what an intense workout and experience it is. I’m barely 5 classes in and already I have some definition on me Joy likes :). We also saw 2 movies: Balls of Fury and Shoot ‘em Up. I’d make detailed reviews of those, but that would take too much time. Simply put, Balls of Fury is a cute brainless movie that has Walken present and Shoot ‘em Up is a typical action movie that has some interesting twists. Both enjoyable pictures, though, damn shame they aren’t doing better in the BO than they should be deserving. In a sea of “dramas,” a brainless comedy was exactly what we needed for getting our fixes.
It was our anniversary last Sunday and instead of taking her to a fancy-shmancy restuarant, I took the reigns of dinner and made it myself. The meal: Filet mignon, Spinach salad with cirtus vinagerette, & a spinach pasta dish we learned from Giada that morning before going shopping. Delectiable in every way! Her meat was prepared prefectly and mine……..was….done…we’ll just say that ;). (I swear, the thermo said the meat was done!) . Topped off with some new wine to drink, and a perfect collection of mid-evening selections from Dave Coz on the local Jazz radio station, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect dining experience with the one I call my own:). Love ya baby
This past weekend, Joy’s been all about shopping for me and my birthday on Saturday. Which is kinda why I’m able to post right now. I’m having a “writers block” with this programming assignment Joy asked me to do for one of her clients. I’ll see if I can focus on that later. Now’s the time to vamooosh Until next time…
-Me
How could I forget to write a review about the funniest movie in a long time?? If you’re thinking it’s a family movie, no. Don’t even try. It’s teenage humor, but there’s a strong chance that parents will hate it with a passion. I know mine will. I’ve even told them that. That’s besides the point.
The movie is based around Seth’s and Evan’s final days of High school before parting ways for college. In their shy and fanatical way, they manage to get invited to the last big party of the school by their classmate crushes. While planning for the party, their cohort, Fogell, manages to get a fake ID who changes his name to “McLovin” like Prince or Madonna. If that’s not enough to bring you to the show, the current ‘it’-comedy player, Seth Rogen as 1 of a pair of officers take Fogell around town showing him how they do their police work, which isn’t that great of a job to begin with.
Between the creepy liquor store guy and the need to return with a product that bears similarity to goldschlager, Seth and Evan find themselves in more Hollywood-like situations that they try to weasel out of, in classic comedy ways. All for the need to get laid. Afterall, what teenage quasi-hipster doesn’t think that? (No comments about Emo, kthanks…)
I loved every moment of this movie. Before seeing the movie, I read some preliminary reviews where people said there was “irrevalant” scenes, I tend to agree on some, but for some reason, I think they were included to become the “phrase” to say at school now that school’s back in session (at least in AZ…). The only thing I see the middle-aged parents liking about this movie is the soundtrack. It’s got a bit of Funk, 90’s riffs, and classic rock that I doubt some of the intended audience knows much about to begin with. I’d definately see this again, and with that:
:):):):) - 4 smileys.
-Me
hello again. It’s moving time for me. I’m moving out of my present arrangement and into a new apartment. It’s a thing of beauty too. The Legend at Keirland of Scottsdale. This is also a mark of the first time I’m going to be moving in with someone. To further that mark, I’m moving in with my girlfriend. It’ll be good, I know, but at the moment, it’s a lil’ nerve-wracking, especially since we walked through the place the other day (During a torrential downpour in Phoenix, thank god, I wouldn’t want to be driving during that.) and saw many many many things wrong with the place. The office says they will fix it, but we’ll see.
All the while, I’ve been sorting. I like to use sorting, others say ‘gutting,’ and even more say ‘Throw ALL THAT SH*T OUT!’ I wouldn’t say I’ve been a packrat, but I’ve collected a LOT of things over the 12 year span I’ve had in this city. So far, I’ve tossed 6 garbage bags worth of stuff, 7….maybe…8….donatable bags of clothes, & I still have about 20% left of the room to sort. What I found most surprising, and I’m not saying that I held onto these things for any apparent reason, but a holographic ruler from the 4th grade (and if you’re googling me and KNOW me from Roslyn-BHS, leave me a comment :P), and some hand-held ballbearing games (kinda like these, fits in your palm, and is not automated…), and of course, many many many books. The books will be donated to the local library (as soon as they put the donation bin out again…dunno what happened to it…) & the games have been distributed across my neices and nephew.
And the best part of the deal? My mom’s friends are giving me and my girlfriend a 52″ TV and a 3-person sofa-bed. Can you say ‘kick ass’?
In between sorting, packing, and sleeping, Joy and I went to the movies and saw the Simpsons Movie. It was hilarious! I was worried though. I haven’t watched the show in years because it stopped being funny and got more policial. The movie was cleaverly done. When asked about the quality, relating to the early years vs. recent years, I said it was mixed. The political didn’t overpower the comedy though. The animation was classic Simpsons style and thankfully no character that was not needed to be a simpsons geek was in it. The story was cute and I’m not really going to start researching this answer, but why did it take over 10 years for this movie to come out? This storyline was topical to today’s standards, but there were plenty of storylines they could have done years ago. But I’m not here to gripe about the movie, just praise it.
I’m trying to think of ways to describe this movie without giving too much away, but it’s all just flash images and whatnot (showing you that I should have written this on Friday night when we saw the bloody picture :p). So in short, I was thouroughly entertained, but I don’t forsee a sequel if this was the process needed to get 1 Simpsons movie on the silver screen. If there are, I’ll be ready.
Final score: :):):):)
So Micheal Bay releases Transformers and it partly panned by critics, loved by the masses. I’m among the masses, but I will only credit it slightly less. I felt it had too many cliches for future generations to understand. For example, someone makes a comment about the family pet and its breed associated to a once-famous spokesman for a fast food giant. My main concern was against the bots and how realistic they are, as the animated show was supposed to give the impression of realism. The bots were animated and designed flawlessly. Even better in some aspects. Bumblebee has gone from a Volkswagon Beetle to a Ford Mustang. The bots faces have something like lips rather than that up-and-down motion from the show.
Another concern was the voices of the bots, too. Hell, in all the previews, you do not hear their voices, & when I asked my brother about that, I don’t think he was too certain that the voices were kept secret for that reason. They pretty much nailed the voices entirely. My biggest surprise was that Optimus’ voice was voiced by the same guy from the original series. (As a movie fanatic, I know I should have already known that, but I preferred to make this movie experience a surprise all around so I didn’t do too much reading into it.)
So we have a two and a half hour spectacle of what would have happened if we discovered these aliens in present era. This has both quasi-believable points and off-the-wall ideas too. We are led to believe that current military equipment was designed from the bots and when it was discovered, someone “accidently activated” the beacons. Okay. No. Not going to believe that a flick of the side of the “finger” is going to “start” a ‘bot. What I can sort-of agree to is the ability to absorb the information & ‘hack’ the most secure servers, being living machines.
Then there’s the human aspect. From what I remember from the show, Sam and his dad helped in the repairs of the bots. Shia LaBeouf (Sam) does not give off the impression that he’s a greasemonkey at all, whereas Kevin Dunn (Ron Witwicky) looks like he should have been introduced to the bots from the day 1. Speaking of day 1, we learn about the new bumblebee and his “powers” via Bernie Mac (car salesman) as a used car salesman who has no clue that the “car is alive.” When all is said and done, the super funny Mac was missing. Josh Duhamel (Sergeant Lennox), Tyrese Gibson (Sergeant Epps), & Jon Voight (Defense Secretary John Keller) are the confused yet determined army and government people that like to talk tough and there’s only so much pyrotechnics can do to help a scene. Throw in an attempt of comic relief from Anthony Anderson (Glen Whitmann), and the end result is average boring acting. In other words, I had more entertainment looking at the bots than I did the humans.
In the end, I was thoroughly entertained by this film. If there are sequels, they better have the Witwickys getting greasy otherwise I won’t be as kind if that gets greenlit.
Final Result: :):):) 1/2
