Invictus Review

Hey everybody, long time no see.  Sorry for my long absence on the website, I've been pretty busy with other stuff (that reason would probably be because of me having netflix).  So today I've figured "What the hell, you guys miss me so it's only right that I review two movies."  Lucky for everyone I'm here to review to movies right now, but first let me tell you guys how much of a kick-ass Christmas I had.  I went out to an awesome Chinese buffet followed by a movie doubleheader with me watching Invictus and Sherlock Holmes two movies I've anticipated to watch.  Then later that night I got me some MickeyDees (McDonald's) and played Uncharted 2 mulitplayer all night.  A very nice Christmas (minus the presents, big dinner and visiting family scenario).  Okay, enough chitchat about me and my Christmas, back to the movie reviews. Now the first movie I watched was a new film by legendary actor/director Clint Eastwood.  Now just incase anyone's forgotten or hasn't noticed Clint Eastwood directed several other films in the past.  Those films being Flags of Our Father's, Million Dollar Baby and last year's Gran Torino.  His films shows us that not only is Eastwood a great actor but a great director as well.  With his new film new Invictus it shows us that Eastwood is an a critically acclaimed director in Hollywood. In this true (almost biopic) film we follow the story of South African president Nelson Mandela played by Morgan Freeman.  Right off the bat, not only does this film show us Mandela (Freeman) being released from prison from is 25+ year conviction, but it also shows us his early term in office as president.  Once in office, Mandela does not see what he likes amongst the people of South Africa.  The reason being because of the wide racism between the whites and the blacks across the country.  So not only does Mandela decide to fix this problem, but he decides to execute the discrimination through the sport "Rugby" (and rugby is a mixture of football and soccer with a lot of dirt and mud).  Now you guys are probably saying, "That's impossible racism can't simply disappear through a sport".  Well if any of you guys seen the movie "Remember The Titans" you'll think differently from here on out.  After having his goal for the country planned he goes to the captain of the South African Springboks team JacobusFrancois Pienaar (played by Matt Damon) and asks him to win the 1995 World Cup and this is pretty much the entire movie. Now with the summary of the movie being not too hard to follow the problem is that the film is too predictable.  Of course, it's based on a true story but there should've at least been some kind of surprise for this movie, especially with racism being a huge part of this film.  And that's another problem, all of Clint Eastwood's films (including this one) somehow involves either racism and/or discrimination.  Not that the topic is a huge issue, it's just that there's been too much of that subject shown in all of Eastwood's films and its starting to get a little tiring.  I like to see a new film from Eastwood that doesn't have racism as a central plot or a noticable focal point in a film.  Another problem about this movie is that there's not an antagonist in this film.  I guess the audience is supposed to assume that racism is the true antagonist of this film.  Which brings it back to my previous point. Despite the movie having its flaws the most entertaining part of this film are the actors (Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon) portraying themselves as South Africans.  They both deserve an Oscar Nomination for their great acting skills and they're both wonderful to watch on the silver screen.  Also if you're a fan of sports you'll find the portrayal of the rugby matches enjoyable as well.  I'm not a fan of rugby, but watching the rugby scenes on the big screen reminded me of watching a film about football in a theatre.  With me being a huge fan of football those scenes were very enjoyable for me to watch. Overall, this movie good, but it's not as good as Clint Eastwood's other films which are superior to this one.  If you're looking for a film to watch that discusses topics about racism and discrimation and in some way an uplifting sports film, this movie is for you. I personally enjoyed it but unfortunately it wasn't better then Eastwood's previous films.  Therefore....... My rating: RENT IT!!! See Ya later.  Up next, Sherlock Holmes.

Avatar Review

Last one before our big surprise.  If all goes well, it should be up some time late tomorrow or Tuesday.  So lets dive into Avatar, shall we?

Avatar is James Cameron's(Titanic, The Terminator) newest film that follows paraplegic marine Jake Sully(Sam Worthington) who, after hearing of his brother's death, decides to sign up to head of the planet of Pandora to take his brother's place on a research team.  When he arrives on Pandora, he meets his Avatar, a genetic mix of his DNA and the native humanoid race on Pandora. From there he enters the body of his avatar and learns about the Na'vi from Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a Na'vi that rescues him from what I would call the bastard child of the animal headed monster from 9 and an iguana.  While Jake learns the Na'vi way of life, Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) becomes impatient with the Na'vi and begins attacking them in an attempt to find more land to mine.


First let me say one thing: Only see this in 3D.  I saw it in 3D and I can say that it really made the film look amazing.  Not to say that 2D wouldn't show you the same beautiful scenes, but trust me on this one.  Now on to the dissection!


As I said the movie itself looks amazing.  Everything is bright to the point where even at night the forest glows like a woodland rave party.  Even the various animals and even the Na'vi themselves look incredibly realistic in not just how they looks on screen, but how they move and act.  The down side to all this beautiful art is that all the characters seem one dimensional.  You have the humans lead by Colonel Quaritch that represent humanity and the idea of Manifest Destiny that we've become used to.  The Na'vi and Neytiri represent the people that don't want to move and have done nothing wrong but according to our own agenda, we have to remove since they're savages without reason.  Sound familar?  I didn't think so till I remember the movies that came before this one with similar plots....

I think you got some 'splainin' to do James....

This is quite literally what made the movie almost better for me.  I almost expected Neytiri to start in with "Paint With All The Colors of the Wind" as her and Jake went through the forest at night.  Avatar really keeps true to both of these movies in the end though.  Here's a break down of Avatar for you:

-People show up to foreign place.  

-They try to take over because they want to "make things better" for the savages that lived there first but really want something valuable (gold, wood, unobtainium) 

-Savages don't like it and fight back with help from one of the settlers.

-Good ending, guy and girl kiss and live forever.

-Bad ending, John Smith dies in Neytiri's arms while Robin Williams as a bat makes horrible puns about the forest.

So, with the easy to predict plot and characters that are one dimensional (though shown in 3 dimensions), is it worth it?  Yes it is.  The sheer beauty of the film is worth it but even if you know what's going to happen you still want to see it happen.  On a final note, I will say that the 3rd act makes up for any boring moments or parts you wished would have been sped up through this almost 3 hour epic.  It's like James Cameron took Michael Bay's wet dream and put it in film before Bay could.


Rating: See It


Till Next Time,
Mike




P.s.  Really James Cameron?  The ore they want so bad is called UNOBTAINIUM?  LOLSOCLEVER I'd never figure out it's hard to get at and that's why the military has to destroy the Na'vi's home to get to it.

The Slammin' Salmon Review

On to our number two review: The Slammin' Salmon.  This movie is brought to you by Broken Lizard, the same people that brought us such hits as Beerfest and Super Troopers.

The story sets around a fancy restaurant called (can you guess it?) The Slammin' Salmon.  It is owned by heavy weight boxing champion turned restaurant owner, Cleon "The Slammin'" Salmon (Michael Clark Duncan).  He comes into the restaurant one night to tell Carl, the manager (Kevin Hefferman) that he owes a Yuzaka member $20,000 after losing a bet.  Cleon tells Carl that he has till the end of the night to make the amount or else he'll break every bone in his body.  To accomplish this, Carl tell the wait staff (The Broken Lizard boys featuring the sexy Cobie Smulders and April Bowlby) that at the end of the night, whoever has raised the most money for the restaurant wins a vacation to an all expenses paid 5 star resort while the loser gets knocked out by The Slammin' Salmon himself.  This results in the waiters and waitresses going head to head for top bill the whole night and creating some great scenes between the desperate wait staff and the guests that come to dinner.

I have to say that the guys at Broken Lizard did it again with this movie.  I would have to say that this is in the top 3 of all their movies (the other 2 being Super Troopers and Beerfest). enjoyed most of the cast and it seemed like Broken Lizard sort of grew up in this movie.  They didn't seem like high school kids making any and every sex joke possible in this one.  It now seems like they're community college kids with their first apartment and checking account.  Saying that, you might seem sort of turned off if you like fart and penis jokes but don't worry, much like community college, there's still immaturity there.

The one thing that surprised me about this film was Michael Clark Duncan's funny.  Granted I know he's going off a script, but he brings life to the character.  Between mispronouncing any word with more than one syllable to being completely oblivious to things around him, he steals nearly every scene he's in.  There's even a clip at the end credits (as a deleted scene) where he's yelling about how he fears nothing but the dark and says, "YOU KNOW I'M AFRAID OF THE DARK!  HAVEN'T YOU SEEN THE GREEN MILE?!  I'MMA SCARED OF THE DARK!"

Overall, if you like the work of Broken Lizard and can find a theater showing the movie, I'd say go catch it.  There are some times when it seems like there's too many people in the scene and it's a bit muddled, but otherwise all the characters work well (or this case complete chaos) together.

Rating: RIFF IT

Till Next Time,

Mike

The Road Review

I know, I know.  Why haven't you updated in ages?!  How come you haven't let us know where you've been?  To be honest, we both got kinda lax about updating and for that I'm sorry.  On the good side though, we're gonna have a special treat for you guys that will be ready right after Christmas.  So until then (which is about 2 days from now), I'm going to give you a special treat of not one, not two, but THREE reviews!  Here's the first of them: The Road.

The Road is a post apocalyptic tale about a man and his son just trying to survive in a world where it's kill or be killed.  Playing the dad we have Viggo Mortensen and his son is played by Kodi Smit-McPhee.  I will say though, this movie is not for people with clinical depression in an attempt to bring them up.  The movie shows the father and son heading south in an attempt to  find a glimmer of hope in this gray, dark world.  Instead they meet up with murderers, cannibals, starvation, and above all else, death.  Even with all of these things going on around them, the father still remains hopeful for something that will never come.


Isn't that awesome?  Don't you want to take your friends to go hang out at this one?  No?  Well that's fine in all honesty.  This movie isn't made to be seen by everyone as some happy go lucky end of the year film.  The movie is saddening, yes, but it's acted out in such a way that truly makes it a great movie to see.


After some unknown event occurs on Earth it seems and probably is uninhabitable.  All the plant life and animals have died, the skies are a permanent gray, and only a few people are left alive.  Most people that are left are vicious, cannibalistic humans or people ready to commit suicide.  From there we see how the father and son act and react towards the various people they meet with.  Most of them are what the dad refers to as "bad people", but there's a scene where they meet an old man (played by Robert Duvall) who shows them that there still is some kindness left in this barren world.


We learn that the father used to be married right when the apocalypse occurred.  The reason he's not anymore is that his wife committed suicide after his son was born.  We also learn very quickly that the father is willing to do anything, anything to protect his son.  This makes for a great dramatic as he is willing to go so far as to waste his last two bullets trying to stop people from harming his son.  Ultimately though, this over protectiveness causes him to create distance between him and his son.


Overall, the movie is great to see.  Despite the depressing parts of the movie, it tells a great emotional tale of of a father trying to raise his son in a world that is beyond cut throat.  Also, as a side note, The Road was based off a book by the same name.  The author of The Road (Cormac McCarthy) is also the author of No Country for Old Men, which is cool to know.  Unlike No Country, there isn't a twist ending to The Road.


Final Verdict: See It


Till Next Time,
Mike


thanks to soundonsight.org for the picture

Community: Comparative Religion Review

This week's episode of Community was a Christmas episode featuring the Spanish 1 final!  Something every college student can relate to this time of year.

The episode starts with an announcement by the Dean about Christmas, except of course he doesn't want to offend anyone so he comes to the lounge as Father Winter.  In the lounge abed gets into a conflict with a Mustache guy after he takes the remainder of the cookies and Jeff steps into protect him

Was it me or did anyone else notice that the Mustached Man was Anthony Michael Hall from such movies as The Breakfast Club and The Dead Zone?  As soon as I figured that out every scene with him became so much funnier.  On another note, I've never had a Winterdoodle, but I would love to try them if Michael Anthony Hall is willing to fight for them.

In the library Abed tells everyone about Jeff protecting him and Shirley invites everyone to her Christmas party after the final but finds out everyone in the group is a different religion.  During the final Jeff is again harassed by gay mustache dude and challenges him to a fight later on in the day.  I have to agree with Senor Chang, this is the best exam ever.  I wish my finals were that cool!

I enjoyed finding out everyone's different religions here.  I really enjoyed Pierce's religion though.  I think I could get into a religion where people owe other people Energon cubes (obvious Transformers reference anyone?) and you get titles like "lvl 5 Laser Mantis".

Jeff talks to the guys about keeping the fight away from Shirley and he reveals he has never actually been in a fight.  After once again running into Mustache fag they all agree to teach Jeff about fighting.  While Annie and Shirley are decorating, Annie reveals that Jeff is going to get in a fight with the Mustache guy.  Shirley interrupts the boy's training and says she doesn't want anything to ruin this special day (December 10?)  And gives him an ultimatum, the fight or her party.

I feel like Pierce was teaching the right lessons about fighting to Jeff.  You gotta play dirty to win!

At the party, everyone is there except Jeff and they all go out to find Jeff at the fight.  At the fight Jeff meets the Mustache fag but tells him he is not fighting because of Shirley.  So he gets kneed and Shirley sees this and tells him to fight.  The entire group then joins in on the fight with mustache fag's shirtless friends.  Everyone recuperates at the party and Senor Chang comes in and tells everyone they passed. Spanish 102 next semester!

That was such a great fight scene for the show.  I do wonder why the A-team had to get shirtless just take on our main cast, but I guess that adds to the homo-erotic undertones that come with fighting.  Also, we get to see Jeff finally become a man after Pierce "accidentally" punches him in the face.

This was a good holiday themed episode with everyone arguing about their different religions, or in Pierce's case a cult.  But in any case I want to wish everyone HAPPY MERRY!!! 

See Ya & Till Next Time,

Mike & Razz

Glee: Matress Review

Ok so Glee was on last night and it wasn't that big of a deal...

Oh who am I kidding, OHMYGODDIDYOUSEEGLEE.  Wow great episode, and not just a great glee episode I mean a great episode of any television show. Ok I'll give a quick synopsis and then we can start Gleeking out about it.

The episode starts with everyone in Glee worried about their pictures in the yearbook, even though Will tries to convince them they should be proud.  Rachel Helps to change the groups out look when she helps book them a TV commercial for a local matress shop. This turns on the group when Sue says that the Glee club forfeited amature status when they accepted payment for the gig in the form of free matresses.  Mr Schue takes the hit for the Glee kids by acccepting all the punishment for the incident thus keeping the Glee club on track for sectionals.

WARNING:  The rest of this post will involve a very large spoiler in the Glee universe.  Travel at your own risk.

Ok  so down to the BIG incident in this episode, the fake pregnancy.  While will is going through the drawrers looking for something he stumbles across Terry's fake stomach.  Right before this I called it because there was some very ominous music coming through which made me a little uneasy.  So Will confronts Terry and discovers that the pregnancy is a fraud.  WILL GETS PISSED!  I never saw him as a guy that would do that but man he can get angry.  I tell you any time I need a guy to scare the living s*$#t out of somebody, I am skipping the Ghostbusters and calling Will Shuester.  This scene was packed, the best Glee scene so far in the series.  I  would also like to talk about Will and Emma.  Since Will's explosion on Terry, I saw that those two were kinda gravitating to each other.  So maybe we can see them get together some time, I think it might end up being a spring storyline though.

Now I'll let Mike give his thoughts on Will.

I must say that this episode should have been the mid-season finale.  Even though next's week episode is sectionals, there is almost no way to compare it to this week.  The reason for that is the emotion that runs through the episode.  The best (and highest) point is when Will finds out his wife isn't pregnant.  The entire scene I was yelling things like "YES!  NOW GO RUN TO CHARLIE BEFORE HIRO FINDS OUT!"  and "DIVORCE HER ASS WILL!  WE CAN BRO OUT AT THE BAR!"  I was almost afraid that he might hit her (and is it bad I thought it might be justified?) for what she did to him.  The second scene that I thought brought it back up was with Figgins, Will, and Sue.  I almost expected Will to Hulk Out again on Sue and/or Figgins but he remains mostly calm throughout the scene.  For Sue though, I really enjoyed how sinister and happy she was.  When she yelled "IT'S OVER SCHUE!" Right in Will's face I thought two things.  The first one being "My God, this woman has no regard for his life or anyone else's but her sister's."  The second thought being, "I hope to God that Mr. Schue punches her.  He needs to Hulk Out again - that was awesome."

I agree with Razz that this was a great moment in not just for the show.  Out of all the mid-season and season finales I've seen as of recent years.  Excluding Ed, Edd, & Eddy's Big Picture Show, it's probably my favorite.  I can't wait to see what will happen by the end of the spring half season.  Maybe Quinn will have her baby by then?  Or Finn might find out it's not his and see him pull a mini Mr. Schuester.  I don't know, but I'm more excited for this than Heroes.  And I really want to see Heroes.

See Ya & Till Next Time,

Mike & Razz

Heroes: The Fifth Stage Review

A new Heroes was on tonight and we had a great action packed episode.  What I thought was a good episode worthy of the last one of the year.  We even got a Peter-Sylar fight, something every fan has been clam-mering for since the end of season one. 

Samuel makes Eli the multiplier his new right hand man, aka the new Edgar.  Claire follows the compass she stole from Noah all the way to the carnival.  Samuel meets Claire and continues trying to get her to join the carnival and she and Gretchen go around getting to see all the carnies work and use their abilities to run the day to day carnival operations.  She goes back behind the scenes and runs into (drumroll) Eric Doyle!  David H. Lawrence XVII probably my favorite guest star in Heroes.  She sees Samuel let an unsatisfied customer take shots at him, which Claire finds really noble so she decides to stay with the carnival.

I have to agree with Razz here.  Seeing Eric Doyle back (even if for a quick cameo) really made the episode up till point.  In season three he was one of my favorite new characters due to both his ability and his personality.  Back on the subject of the carnival, I almost liked that Samuel didn’t fight back with the angry customer, but I realize that he might have just been doing that to get Claire to join him (which worked).

Noah realizes Claire took the compass so he and Lauren, who came over for a date, work to try to find her.  Noah soon reveals that he and Lauren had feelings for each other before she had herself "Hatianed".  However there arguing soon stops when Eli bursts in and steals Noah's Primatech files.

I really liked seeing Eli work here.  I wasn’t sure if he power was more like a starfish or projection.  What I mean by that is the starfish copying would mean the clones come from his body but when they die they just got back into him (similar to Multiple Man) or projection which is what he has.

Now on to Peter, who had one of the greatest arcs in any single episode of the series.  Peter is with Angela at the hospital getting drugs to fight Sylar, reminding me of Batman stocking up his Utility belt.  Speaking of utility belts, he also takes the Hatian's ability so he and Sylar can fight on even terms.  Peter runs into Sylar sooner than he thought when Pete gets ambushed by an unusually strong nurse.  They go out fighting and Peter makes full use of his new ability.  Speaking of the Hatian’s ability, I always wondered how Peter would be using it and I think he used it really well.  We got to see the fight of the decade between Peter and Sylar.  Although it was just fist throwing with no abilities, I just can't stop geeking out over the Sylar-Peter fight.  Once Peter gets Sylar pinned down( with a nail gun) he hatianed Sylar out of the body until Nathan was left.  Nathan tells Peter that he is exhausted and can't fight Sylar anymore.  They have one last goodbye on top of the roof where Peter realized his abilities and Nathan jumps off just as Sylar regains control one last time.

This was by far the best thing to happen in the season yet.  The fight was amazing (even without powers) and watching Nathan and Peter have one final brother to brother moment was pulling at the heart strings before you see Sylar take his place in his body for good.

Wow I thought this was a great midseason finale for Heroes.  Take out everything but the Peter and Nathan stuff and we still have a great episode.  I am also a little saddened by the end of Nathan but overall a good end to a character that has been with Heroes since the beginning

I agree with Razz again.  What I can’t wait for is when they come back in January.  At the end we saw Hiro, Ando, and Mohinder running in what looks like a rain forest of some kind so I can’t wait to see what our favorite terminally ill Japanese hero has in store for us.  I do have one question though, why hasn’t Sylar just gone straight to the carnival?  You think that he might have retained some memories of what happened so he’d be on Samuel’s tail for most powerful person.  Once again I assume that before the season ends he’ll be back at the carnival being opted to join the family.  We’ll have to see what comes of it in January.

See Ya & Till the Next Time

Mike & Razz

Ninja Assassin Review

Alright everybody, this weekend I went to go see what I thought would be kind of a cool action movie, Ninja Assassin.  Instead what I got was a waste of my time.  To be fair I will tell you a little bit about the story, or lack there of.  The story centers around a ninja named Raizo who was orphaned at a young age and trained by a clan of ninjas that focus on political assassinations.  However he realizes the shortcomings of the clan and decides to leave them to focus on stopping them with the help of a german secret agent named Mika.

And before you say "well Razz that isn't much of a plot", I am really not leaving too much out without completely spoiling the entire movie for you.  I didn't even understand the plot while I was sitting in the theater.  In fact I didn't fully realize the whole plot until I watched the whole thing and was leaving the theater.

I saw the movie with a friend of mine and he had 5 things he believed would make the movie better:
5. Ninjas need to learn to shut the hell up. Ninja’s don’t have cool catch phrases, Ninja’s don’t say things in whisper like “traitor” or “ch ch ch ah ah ah”. They show up, they kill you, they raid your fridge, then they leave.

4. The Ask a Ninja guy. Seriously why the hell was this guy not in this movie? www.askaninja.com


3. Someone in this cast I actually had seen in a movie before other than a Godzilla movie


2. Chev Chellios from Crank. Seriously it had foul language, it had Japanese guys, it had gangs, it had guns…why the hell wasn’t he in this movie? Oh wait I know why…its because there were no…


1. Boobs. Boobs can make any movie better…unless they are crooked or are on something other than a woman.

So as you can see it comes out to be mainly just a disappointment.  I will give this a rating of FUCK IT. But I am going to give this movie one saving grace, its got gore.  If you are a fanatic of gore and blood it would almost be a shame for you to look the other way on this one.  So if you really, really, REALLY like blood and guts in your movies I would say RENT IT but otherwise don't even bother.

See ya
Razz

Glee: Hairography Review

Remember when I said how much I loved last week’s episode of Glee? Well color me wrong because “Hairography” took what I expected in the episode and made it better. It had multiple Glee clubs singing and dancing but more than that, they showed our Glee kids that they have some competition.



We start off with Mr. Schuester minding his own while on his break when Sue arrives demanding the new set list for glee club. Will denies her request, and also recalls several moments that make him suspicious that Sue might be selling his club’s secrets to the other schools. Sue plays coy to the accusations, so Mr. Schuester is off to find out from the other glee instructors just what’s going on. Cut to Mr. Schue going through heavy security just to talk with the Grace Hitchens (played by none other than famous female rapper Eve) about the possible scandal. She denies the claims, stating that she wouldn’t cheat because she’s trying to be a good role model for her female students. Embarrassed, Will asks her to visit him over at McKinley for a friendly skirmish. When the girls arrive, they perform a very sexually orientated “Bootylicious”. With everyone’s jaw hanging to the ground (mine included), we discover thanks to Rachel that they’re only good due to their “Hairography”, or use of large and stylish hair to confuse/confound the audience.

When Will visited Grace Hitchins he was kinda shown to be profiling, just because someone can cheat it doesn't mean that they will.  A good lesson for Mr. Schue well that is until the end of the episode.  I also thought those girls were pretty good, it was one of the better dance sequences that Glee has done.


Schuester, not being one to scare easy, is now wondering if there isn’t some magic to this “Hairography” and then creates a number based solely on using Hairography. The other story we get in this episode revolves around Mrs. Schuester and Quinn. After having some doubts, Quinn decides she wants the baby. This puts Mrs. Schue in a horrifying position – tell her husband she’s not having a baby or try and steal a baby around her due date. In my opinion, she should have come clean. I want Will to leave her already and the show isn’t helping at all. We also get to see Quinn try out Puck for daddy position with the baby by babysitting Kendra’s kids. After Quinn and Puck play “Papa Don’t Preach” to the hellions, she begins to warm up to Puck taking care of the baby.

Yea I am tired of Mrs. Schue's lying around, I am just hoping that Will finds out and hopefully she gets what's been coming to her all year long.  I also liked the chemistry that Puck and Quinn had together, no wonder they made that baby.  But there time together was kind of ruined at the end by Puck being...... well Puck.



For the final we get to see Haverbrook, the school for the deaf, go up against the Hairography of Glee. We see that they did a mash up of “Hair” and “Crazy in Love”, which leaves the deaf students unimpressed and even believing them to be insane. Haverbrook responds with a non Hairography rendition of “Imagine” that puts the Glee kids in their place. My biggest complaint to this part was this – why sing to a deaf group? I understand that it just made the scene more warm and fuzzy, but in reality if I was from Haverbrook doing the song, I would wonder why these other kids are now circling me mouthing words for no reason.


Well all I can say is that Haverbrook needed to be wow-ed by the awesome hairography!  I am glad that Mr. Schue wised up and decided to not do the hairography and instead go with a more traditional, and better in my opinion, song. I am just putting this out there, for a deaf school those kids are really musically talented.


Now I know I just got done complaining, but to be honest I really did enjoy the episode. We FINALLY got to see the other schools and what they bring to the table that is Sectionals. If anything, for me I felt that seeing the other guys do their things should put the glee club of McKinley wanting to do their best and putting the nose to the grindstone. Maybe that’s just me though.
 


See Ya & Till Next Time,
Mike & Razz

I Might Be a Bit of a Slowpoke....

But did anyone else know that Kevin McHale (Artie from Glee) was in a boy band?  I just learned about this and took a look into it.  Turns out he was in a group called NLT before hitting Glee fame.  Anyway, here's some links to NLT (because all the YouTube videos have the embedded disabled) where we get to see Artie do something you won't see on Glee -- dance on his own two feet (somewhere, I think I might be going to hell for that comment, even though I mean nothing by it).


The Band's History



NLT - That Girl



NLT - Karma



NLT - She Said, I Said

Heroes: Thanksgiving Review

This week's episode of Heroes was the first holiday themed episode, a Thanksgiving episode.  It involved three major families setting down to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, the Bennett's, Samuel's family, and the Petrelli's

 

With the Bennett's we see Noah in a grocery store inviting Claire to Thanksgiving dinner so he doesn't have to be alone with Sandra and her Boyfriend, Doug.  At the store he runs into his old partner, Lauren, who he invites to dinner to "reconnect".  This scene kinda did what I hoped in that Lauren came back and that whole storyline with her back in "Once Upon a Time in Texas" wasn't wasted.  At the dinner, which was kinda awkward really with all of these people together, Claire tells how she feels awkward with out any friends and she doesn't know where she belongs.  However Noah has a surprise for her, a visit from Gretchen, to cheer her up.  When Gretchen and Claire leave, they start to follow the compass to find out exactly where it goes.

 

I really enjoyed the night with the Bennett's.  Seeing everyone dance around Primatech's other business side was fun, especially in part due to Doug trying to comprehend the situation.  Speaking of Doug, is anyone else kind of weirded out by him?  He seems to interested in the dogs if you ask me.  But if that's what Sandra's looking for in a man, then she really doesn't know what she's missing.

At Samuel's Thanksgiving we see Hiro asking for Charlie to be returned to him, but as usual Samuel says no.  Hiro runs into Lydia and she wonders that if everything is fixed then why isn't Joseph alive again.  They both go back to discover what happened to Joseph and find out that Samuel was the one to kill him.  After they go back to the present Lydia tells Edgar about what she saw in the past and Samuel accuses Edgar of killing Joseph in front of the family, to protect himself.  Hiro saves Edgar from a surprise attack by Samuel and tells him that a Hero sometimes has to run in order to fight another day.  Later Samuel confronts Hiro about what he did but Hiro stands up to him, saying that Samuel needs him.  With this Samuel makes Dreadlock guy do something to him and we see Hiro go back through some scenes from earlier on this season.  After this Hiro spazes out and teleports somewhere.

 

To be honest, I really wasn't the surprised that Samuel killed Joseph.  After last week's episode where we see Samuel listening in on Joseph and Mohinder, I assumed his drunken rage would get the best of him if/when he confronted Joseph about the true contents of the film.  After seeing Edgar stand up to Samuel, I must say that I can't wait to see if the rest of the carni folk won't turn too if they were to find out the truth.  I guess we'll find out later in the season (or seasons).

At the Petrelli's, Angela joins Nathan and Peter at Pete's apartment.  The boys confront their mother about what she did to Nathan but she says if they don't sit down and eat then she will never tell them.  During dinner she tells them a recap of what has happened to Nathan over the past couple of months and tells Nathan that he is still the person he always was.  At dessert Nathan tells both of them that they only see Sylar when they look at him, then suddenly Sylar manifests in the body and eats some pie!  Sylar pins Angela and Peter in their chairs and decides to TK Angela's brain but Nathan's spirit arises to keep Sylar away from his family.  Finally Nathan flies out the window to get away from his family.  Peter swears he will go and find Nathan and kill Sylar, to get his brother back.

 

I loved this story just due to Sylar coming back.  Though I must say Sylar, you could have shared some of the pie with Peter and Angela.  There was still a full meal that Angela brought with her you could have carved into.  Maybe I just feel like you kind of was a douche because if I couldn't get some pumpkin pie that was RIGHT in front of me, you couldn't have held me back.  I really love pie.

This was a fairly decent episode, for a holiday episode in a one hour drama it was done really well.  We got some answers about Sylar and that he is in Nathan and now both their spirits are in the body just like it was with Parkman.  It appears from the trailer for next week that we will be in for a good Sylar-Peter fight scene. 

 

To be honest, the fight should be interesting.  From what we know, Peter still has the "You've got the touch!  You've got a power!" ability.  I'm hoping that we'll find out next week that Peter really took Nathan/Sylar's empathy power, pretty much giving him his old ability back.  Maybe that's just the dream of a foolish dreamer, but that's what I do.

See Ya & Till the Next Time,

Razz & Mike

New Moon Review

As a movie viewer (and now reviewer), I try to watch a little bit of everything.  Good movies, bad movies, and all the movies imbetween.  Which leads me to the movie I've recently seen -- Twilight Saga: New Moon.  Instead of just saying "Fuck this movie and the sparkling vampires in it!", lets take a look at the movie because I just know you're dying to get the details.

This is the second installment of what will become a four movie saga.  Here we find Bella Swan(Kristen Stewart), your typical teenage girl except for the fact she can't show any emotion clearly throughout the whole film.  She is head over heels in love with Edward Cullen(Robert Pattinson), a vampire that sparkles in the daylight.  We also get to meet No Shirt Boy - I mean Jacob Black(Taylor Lautner) the local jean short model and werewolf.  The movie centers around these three going through some sort of love triangle that truly shows just how pan shallow a movie about relationships can be.  Bella acts like a complete idiot after Edward breaks up with her.  She becomes a total recluse and at night has night terrors that are so over the top and dramatic that even a seasoned soap opera star would call her, well, over the top.

Bella then starts falling for Jacob, who at this point has decided that the rest of the movie is better off with him being topless.  She and him do such fun things as riding and crashing dirt bikes, being chased through the woods by vampires, and her constantly telling him things like, "I really like you, but I still can't get over Edward cause he's SSSSSOOOOO HOT."  So basically the second act is watching teen wolf get friendzoned.

The final act has Bella racing to Edwards rescue because (thanks to Jacob really) Ed now thinks Bella is dead and can't go on living without her.  After a slow-mo save/tackle by Bella, Edward is told to meet with the high council of vampires due to Bella knowing about the vampire culture.  Edward is put to death for letting out the secret of vampire society, only to have Bella save him by telling the high council that she'll become a vampire herself to protect the vampire society.

To be honest, this movie was better than Twilight in my opinion.  That still doesn't save the movie from the fire.  To put it short, the characters are bland and emotionless all through the film.  We get to see a whole cast of characters show just how little you can put into a scene and get away with it.  If I wanted to watch soap opera acting on the big screen, I'd get a big screen and watch Days of Our Lives.  Add that with Bella being such a good example of what a "Mary Sue" is, and you've got the movie.  I can see why girls like it though.  With how blank and empty Bella seems, you can pretty much put yourself in the role and probably make it work out better than where the story's going.

Final verdict for the movie is a low RENT IT.  I almost wanted to say FUCK IT, but the only things that made me change was that I can see where women like this series.  Other than that, don't hold your hopes up high for this one.


Till Next Time,
Mike

South Park: Pee Review

Ok so this week's episode of South Park was about average for me.  As you can tell from the title it was all about pee.....and minorities.

This episode starts with the guys going to Pi Pi's water park for a day of splashing fun.  This gets ruined for Kyle when he makes the realization that almost everyone pees in the water.  Some scientist discover a dire situation concerning the pH levels of the water at the park, it is almost all "pee" and no "H".  The scientist tell the owner, Pi Pi, that if he doesn't do something soon the whole park could become overrun with pee.  Of course since this is South Park that exact thing happens and the guys are left stuck inside of the park with the pee, which is not very enthusing for Kyle. 

While the boys are stranded in the park the adults are trying to get them out, but they make the assumption that too much pee will make them all go crazy.  With the help of the scientist, the come up with a cure for the infected people, bannannas!  They show proof of this by peeing on monkeys and when the monkeys eat bannannas they seem less agitated about being peed on, who would've thunk! 

The other part of the episode shows a 2012 type situation in the waterpark for cartman.  However instead of being alone on the earth, he believes he is the only white person left and that minorities will take over the world.  Oh racist Cartman, classic.  He finds himself  relieved to be outside where he meets the other guys and they are all force fed bannannas to avoid being infected

Overall I say it is an ok episode, take it or leave it.  However this is the season finale for South Park which makes it kind of lackluster. 

See ya,
Razz

Glee: Ballad Review

Week after week Glee has always brought a level of enjoyment to me. From the musical choices to the individual stories, I'm not one to complain. This week's episode is no different. I think that this is my favorite episode by far, taken Throwdown off my number one spot. What makes this episode so good you ask? Let me tell you.



With Sectionals ever approaching, Mr. Schuester pairs off everyone in Glee so that they can perform a ballad to the other person. Everyone seems to pair off ok, until Finn gets paired with Kirk. For Kirk this is a dream come true, but for Finn he doesn't think he can "Sing a ballad to another dude." Rachel is the last to go, and due to Michael being in the hospital, puts her without a partner. Mr. Schuester says that he'll be her partner for the ballad, because what could go wrong? Rachel starts things off by singing "Endless Love" with Mr. Schue and that's where we get our first story arc in the episode. After the touching duet it seems as though Rachel has formed a crush on Mr. Schuester, much to his dismay.

With this new found love for Mr. Shoe we get one of my favorite scenes with him singing "Don't Stand So Close to Me" to Rachel, with Emma.  This song was picked by Will to help let Rachel down easy and to shed light on the situation for her.  At the end of the song both girls are stunned and Rachel's crush grows even stronger.  Epic Fail Mr. Shoe!


The second story arc involved Quinn, Finn, and Kirk. Kirk is trying to win over Finn by helping him out with meeting Quinn's parents later that week. Finn being the ingnorant football jock type he is, just assumes that Kirk wants to help him and not try to worm his way into his jock strap. This story has quite a few touching moments to it including seeing Finn sing "I'll Stand By You" to the sonagram he has of what he thinks is his baby.


Near the end of the episode things got a little heavy. After Finn reveals to Quinn's parents that she's pregnant - through the song "(You're) Having My Baby" - things take a dark turn for the worst. In what was the darkest moment in Glee yet, we see Quinn's father saying some very hurtful things towards Quinn to the point where she's in tears. We also get to meet Suzie Peppers, the first girl to get a crush on Mr. Schue. She shows up here and there throughout the episode following Rachel around but not in a "he's my man don't you step my way" manner. Suzie actually serves as a grim future for Rachel should she keep trying to win Schuester over. This helps Rachel realize she's just gaga over Schue, and quickly goes to make up with him about her behavior.

One thing I really want to ask is, "Why did you sing that song Finn?"  He couldn't sing a more obscure song that got the same point across.  I mean the Fabray's are an uber-religious family, of course singing "You're Having My Baby" is gonna end up badly.  However this move makes me agree with one thing Mr. Fabray said, "He does wear a helmet on the field doesn't he?"


Overall and as I've said, this is one of my favorite episodes yet. It had a total of five songs throughout it, which I think is the most yet. The only real problem I had was a scene of Mercedes and Puck talking about Quinn and Finn. Puck reveals to her that he is actually the baby's father. Mercedes than tells him that that's tough luck because Quinn has chosen Finn to father the child, and that he should just face the facts. To be honest, I expected her to act more shocked about such a twist. I could even see her telling the other Glee clubbers by "accident" so that more people would know. I'm not sure what the writers were thinking in that scene, but it didn't really work with the Mercedes I've come to know.

I agree on the whole Mercedes' thing because she acts way to calm for something this shocking.  I was really expecting her to say, "for real?" and run outside and tell everyone that it's Puck's baby, but instead we got her telling Puck pull it together and sing.  This might get good with her being the only one who knows but for now it was kind of dissapointing. 



See Ya & Till Next Time,

Mike & Razz

Pirate Radio Review

Okay guys, the review for today is "Pirate Radio" (or as it's called elsewhere "The Boat That Rocked').  First things first, this movie is inspired by true events in the U.K. where at that time (the mid-1960's) Rock & Roll was banned on the radio stations by the British government.  Pretty much the only music that was allowed to be played was classical/instrumental music.  However, an American DJ called "The Count" (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and a band of other English DJ breaks these rules and broadcast their radio station 24/7 from a big ass boat in the middle of the ocean.  Of course with this being the only station that plays the popular songs of the 60's, people all over the U.K. notice this event and becomes attached to the radio station and their famous DJ's.  But I'm not here to talk about the people listening to this station, I'm here to talk the DJ's and the crew who are on this ship together and becoming more close towards each other day by day with the power of Rock & Roll.  The thing that makes this movie click is the fact that all of the characters are brought into this film in a very proper and detailed way.  Everyone one of them has their own story and all of them has a reason on why they're on this boat and why they're risking being arrested for their actions.  Even though this film seems like a rebellious approach, truth is, it's both a rebellious film and a romantic comedy.  And these two elements are what make this film a lot of fun to watch.

This movie comes from famous British director Richard Curtis (Notting Hill, Four Weddings & a Funeral and Love Actually) and I have to say that this movie was very cool to me.  I'm not really a fan of the 1960's but with the style, humor and music that was brought into this film, I have to admit that I kinda taken a different approach on how the 60’s were (especially in music).  This movie will immediately appeal to people who're either a fan of music, a fan of the 60's, or just a fan of comedies where a group of people (one day) decides to take a stand in order for them to fight what they believe in (kinda like Revenge of the Nerds).  There’s a tad bit of flaws in the movie (maybe 1 or 2), but with this movie being so fun and hilarious it kinda goes unnoticed and if it is noticed it's willing to be forgiven with whatever approach it took.  I highly recommend anyone to see this movie and to be prepared on what wild ride you'll be going on by watching it.  This movie truly shows that the power of music can bring everyone into unity.

More People?

Hey everyone!  Mike here with a quick update.  Starting today we have a new reviewer on board with us here at the blog.  He's a good friend of mine so let's give Leon our fullest attention and an open ear.  Good?  Good.

Our Canonverse: Episode 1

Here at Mike and Razz’s blog, are slogan is “We tell you what’s good, what’s bad, and what we think should happen.” Well, we’ve gone good on reviews, but we haven’t really told you what we think should happen other than that occasional comments throughout the reviews. Well tonight after chatting for a bit, I’m happy to tell you about new segment called, Our Canonverse. This is basically what me and razz think should happen in our favorite shows regardless of the plausibility of what comes next. What better to do now than to dive right into the Canonverse.



The first idea we have to add to the Canonverse is one we discovered while talking Heroes and Glee. There seems to almost be a formula to both shows that needs to be known. The formula is as follows:


Your character gets written out of Heroes  ---> Chance of being a cast member on Glee


Examples of this include Stephen Tobolowsky (Bob on Heroes; Sandy Ryerson on Glee), Jessalyn Gilsig (Meredith on Heroes; Mrs. Schuester on Glee), Jayma Mays (Charlie on Heroes; Emma on Glee), Kenneth Choi (Sam Douglas on Heroes; Dr. Wu on Glee),and Dianna Agron (Debbie Marshal on Heroes; Quinn Fabray on Glee). Now I know you might be asking who some of the characters from Heroes are, and that’s ok. We had to do a bit or research ourselves to find some of these people.


Back on topic, it’s been discussed that Adrian Pasdar might be leaving Heroes. This now makes sense because Sylar has his body back as of the last episode. What Razz and I thought is that since the theory of Heroes to Glee is in effect, he would end up on Glee. Now the question is who will he play? At first we thought a judge at Regional’s, just as a kind of cameo to please the fans. That idea was soon shot down when we came to realize something about the show that is cause for this inspiration. The rival glee group, Vocal Adrenaline, doesn’t have a group leader. This is where Adrian can shine. Allow me to set up the scene.
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After winning Regional’s, Adrian Pasdar’s character meets up with Will to talk about Nationals or whatever comes up next in Glee club. His character is similar to first season Nathan, stone cold and barely showing emotion. He begins to brag to Mr. Shoe about how superior his group of kids is because they get the best training and choreography. Think of a male version of Sue. After bragging enough to make the most ego-centric person blush, Will leaves not wanting to hear what he’s saying. We now go to Adrian on stage with a guitar. He says something similar to “Start from the top!” and starts playing the beginning to Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now. As he plays and sings the song, we see that the rest of the band is actually people from Band From TV are accompanying him. That’s right. Matt Parkman on drums, House playing on piano, and everyone else from the band partaking in the scene. Scene ends and tears are shed around the world for pure awesome factor. With Sue and Adrian being so alike we also can set him up to be a long term character as Sue’s love interest. Imagine those two stone cold people, arguing and fighting and then suddenly making out. A great story line for down the road.

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And that’s what is now canon in the Glee universe, and the Canonverse, according to Razz and I. Agree with us? Disagree? Let us know in the comments.


See Ya & Till Next Time,


Mike & Razz