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Adventureland

Great character-driven story about recent college grads forced to work at a crappy amusement park in 1986 Pittsburgh. Nothing amazing happens, but all the characters are endearing, the dialogue greatly improves after a weak first 20 minutes (all indie hipster music references and obvious character foils presented), and there's a certain hopelessness and confusion the characters feel that's genuine and not overdone.

At first I thought it was going to be a period piece version of Nick and Norah (ugh) but it turned out to be a very simple, universal coming of age story.

Ryan Reynolds is great (as always) as a skeevy perv who hits on girls half his age. Twilight girl Kristen Stewart starts off as a cardboard cutout and really grows throughout the movie - I liked her performance.

The ending messed up the overall tone of the movie though. Not a bad ending per se, but it didn't seem right.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7989146.stm

A Cross the Universe

A documentary on French electronic duo Justice's colossally fucked up and hugely successful American tour (they played MSG). If a group of drugged out neo-French thugs treating the US like their own personal ashtray, getting in fights, obsessing over guns, getting hitched in Vegas and finally getting arrested for smashing a bottle over some dude's head, this DVD might be for you. They also get arrested at a Denver family restaurant because the tour manager had a gun concealed under his sweater. They also come to Montreal and ogle a really attractive local journalist and muck around Mount Royal. Funny stuff. Loads of hot chicks too; Justice got consistently paid and laid on this tour.

Of course, the music is amazing, but the non-chronological ADD editing works really well. The baritone born-again bus driver is cool. He narrates like the Sam Elliot in The Big Lebowski.

"As the tour went on, things got a little more crazy."

Also during the Montreal segment, some old lady tried to kill herself by lying down in front of the tour bus. The poor bus driver has to get her to move.

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From The Onion:

Michael Bay Signs $50M Deal To Fuck Up 'ThunderCats'

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Slumdog Millionaire (2008)


I wouldn't rank this up there with the 'best movies of all-time'; heck, I wouldn't even rank it up there among Bollywood's best, but it is good. Nevertheless it has a basic but classic movie theme: Love conquers all. The entire movie is a series of flashbacks from the protagonists' perspective. Worth the rental if you need to spend some quality time with your gf/spouse but don't really want to talk...

I got really excited to see there was a trailer for "G-Force"

Guinea pigs, are you freaking kidding me...

Yeah, I felt the same way. That right there would be the one and only anime that might look kinda cool as a live action film.

But yeah, thanks Bruckheimer...I was always hoping for a gun-toting guinea pig that talked like Nicolas Cage.

Well...let's see. Looks like they're making a Jonah Hex movie. Not hard to imagine this movie will do well, and not because they got an Oscar-nominated actor in Josh Brolin to play the title character...

http://www.wwtdd.com/post.phtml?pk=23061

Well...I'm sold.

XMen Origins: Wolverine, 2009

Unless you have a burning desire to see Hugh Jackman's digitally enhanced 'ackman', don't bother... Note to Hollywood, just because you have the budget to blow on digital effects doesn't mean you can skimp on the plot, story, editing, and so on. I lost count of the number of digital effects firms that were listed in the credits...

I'm a huge Danny Boyle fan so it's no surprise that I loved this flick, even the hokey Bollywood number at the end. And dear Freida Pinto might be the hottest girl on screen I've ever seen. Four pucks for me.

No Bollywood movie would be complete without at least one dance number...

And really, as Bollywood movies go, this runs like a long commercial - many movies go at least 3 1/2 to 4 hours...


Meh, she's ok... There are other more stunning brown beauties that Bollywood can offer.

Got my ticket for tomorrow's Star Trek advance screener! I haven't been this excited about a movie since Transformers.

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STAR TREK (2009)



As I was watching this slice of perfection, I couldn't help but realize how much time we've all wasted stringently adhering to the Star Trek canon. This remake is as if the guys involved watched every episode meticulously, then decided they didn't give a shit and created a completely different world. It feels like a really good acid trip - suddenly the old, one-dimensional Star Trek has a whole new palette of colours to work with. They can literally do anything now, re-imagine the series in ways another TV show never could.

The actors they brought in to play the famed crew are absolutely perfect. They don't ham it up like old actors - these people legitimately become these characters. Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy is worth the price of admission. The Kirk and Spock friendship has so many new dimensions.

The story for this film is pretty barren and largely unimportant, but as a fan I left the movie theatre so damn excited about the future, about how Star Trek has been reborn.

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Fun fact: Nick Cave, one of the most awesome singer/songwriters in rock and roll history, wrote a completely left-field sequel to Gladiator upon Russel Crowe's request:

http://goneelsewhere.wordpress.com/2008 ... pt-review/

Honestly, that would've been probably the most fucked up sequel ever. And it might've actually been good in a completely different way.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Saw Star Trek again. The little touches, referencing the old show and movies had me in pure euphoria.

The Starfleet Academy stuff really reminded me of Starship Troopers - in a good way.

Also, Bruce Greenwood was great as Captain Pike. He's always reliable.

Bring on the sequels!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Wholeheartedly concur with EL's five puck review of Star Trek. What a brilliant and well-executed re-boot of a tired franchise... Can't wait to see what they do with the sequels.

Skip Wolverine and go to this instead... I'll be waiting for this to come out on DVD so I can buy it...

High praise indeed!

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GO CANUCKS GO!

Agreed...every single performance was excellent and in some cases surpassed the originals. SFX were mind blowing as well. And, holy shit, do they make a statement in a big, big, BIG way that Star Trek is starting from scratch and everything we knew before is gone.

Speaking of reboots, we need to reboot the LOABA vs. Luvah - Star Trek vs. Star Wars throwdown...

I am firmly in the New Trek camp. Go green-skinned Orion hotties!