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