thoughts after a second viewing of Magic Mike

1) Shouldn't McConaughey win some sort of award for this, or something? He's so great. He's sort of parodying himself, I guess, but he manages to be funny and somewhat likeable while also coming across as sort of insane. I had kind of forgotten about the part near the end where he sings a song, then proceeds to get up, smash his guitar, strip down to a thong and cowboy boots, and then walk backstage all "WHOOOO!" Here's the thing: Channing Tatum plays the guy who has been stripping for awhile and enjoys it to some extent, but doesn't really plan on doing it forever; he has other goals but finds it difficult to walk away for a number of reasons. Alex Pettyfer plays the guy at the beginning of his career who is getting a little too caught up in the money, women, and party lifestyle of the business. McConaughey's character, on the other hand, has been doing this for YEARS, has made his entire career and is basing all of his future plans on the male stripping industry. I don't know how a guy gets to that point in his life, but I imagine to get there, you would have to be pretty much like McConaughey plays him: charming enough to get customers in the door and recruit new talent, good-looking enough to go onstage yourself, and crazy enough to take the whole thing seriously. I think the thing is that most of the guys know that there is some ridiculousness to what they're doing but manage to keep a straight face through the whole thing. McConaughey's character doesn't think that any of this is even a little bit funny. That, I think, is why McConaughey's performance is brilliant.

2) Speaking of the scene where McConaughey smashes the guitar-- the end of the movie is also brilliant. (Don't read any further if you don't want spoilers.) The movie is clearly winding down. Channing Tatum's character, Mike, has just spent a lot of money to get Alex Pettyfer's character, Adam, out of trouble, and he is clearly sick of the whole thing. He's spent the whole movie trying to be successful at things other than stripping while making excuses for why he doesn't just quit. And then, backstage while McConaughey (Dallas) gives his performance, he just gets up, walks out, and drives away. And it means everything and nothing all at once. Everything because he's been thinking about doing it for so long. Nothing because it's so easy, and yeah, Dallas and the others notice he's gone, but it's not really that big of a deal; Adam goes on in his place, and the audience doesn't know the difference. Maybe there will be a bit more fallout later, but-- he left. And the world didn't come to an end. It's a great moment.

3) And then-- then!-- he drives over to Adam's sister Brooke's apartment. Mike has kind of been flirting with Brooke throughout the movie, but she's kind of had a boyfriend for part of it, and she's kind of not that excited about her brother being a stripper, or about dating a stripper. (That's another thing that's pretty brilliant about this movie-- he has another on-again/off-again relationship with a psychology grad student named Joanna, only he finds out she's been engaged to someone else the whole time. Another pitfall of stripping, apparently-- women don't really take you seriously as a dating prospect, even if they think you're good-looking and fun.) And he tells her he's done, and she thanks him for helping her brother, and they decide to go out for breakfast, only, she says, "There's only one place I really like, and it doesn't open until six a.m." Mike is confused: "That's-- like seven hours from now." Oh, no. How will we EVER fill seven hours? Boom. Movie over. Pretty smooth, Brooke.

So, basically, I liked it even better the second time. Good job, Movie.

thoughts on Nashville 11/28/12

May I briefly just say (and I know, I've said a similar thing before) how much I enjoy Suburgatory? There's just nothing else like it on TV. And yes, that was some egregious product placement with that tablet thingie (Surface by Microsoft or whatever), and yes, I really, really want one.

So, this was the first episode in which I even kind of liked Juliette, although that thing she was wearing at the end was not a dress. It was a top. She needed to be wearing some pants or at least leggings with it. Don't you love how she and Rayna were wearing basically the same thing, only Rayna's was just enough longer to be sexy and classy rather than trashy and completely inappropriate? Anyway. Their song was great, and I was actually somewhat impressed with Hayden Panetierre's voice for once, and I am actually a little bit excited about the prospect of Rayna and Juliette going on tour together.

First gasp-worthy moment of the episode: Juliette's boyfriend being all, "I want to make love to you, but I respect women too much to do that outside of the confines of marriage." Not expecting that! But good for him. Second gasp-worthy moment: it was actually during the preview for next week, when Gunnar and Scarlett kissed. I guess I should have seen it coming, but it's still very exciting.

I love this show. Really, the whole ABC Wednesday night block of Modern Family, Suburgatory, and Nashville is great. Last fall I was kind of disappointed in TV in general; I didn't stick with any of the new shows I checked out and even gave up a couple of shows I'd been watching for awhile. I've been pleasantly surprised this fall. I think Nashville is the only completely new show I'm watching, but the aforementioned Wednesday night shows, plus Happy Endings, The Big Bang Theory,and The Good Wife are all really very good.

That's it!

thoughts on Flight

Hey, guess what's not on tonight? Nashville. Guess what are reruns? Both Modern Family and Suburgatory. Guess who has no excuse not to grade? Me! But first: this blog.

So, Denzel Washington's character, Whip Whitaker, is in this hotel room with a nearly naked woman, having an argument on the phone with his ex-wife about money for their son's private school tuition. It is morning, but he drinks from a half-finished beer as he talks, and he keeps trying to rush her off the phone because he "has a flight." After getting off the phone, he does a couple of lines of coke. Guess what? He's the pilot of this flight that he is in such a rush to get to. Yeah. I know that this shouldn't be a shock given the previews, but still, I'm sitting there in the theater with my mouth hanging open. I'm not particularly afraid of flying in general, but on the few individual times I have been scared on a flight, it has been because of bad weather and turbulence. It has never occurred to me that my pilot might be drunk and/or on drugs. So, something new to worry about, I guess.

So, something goes wrong on the flight, and the plane starts plummeting rapidly. They are almost certainly going to crash. Whip-- who, by the way, has stealthily fixed himself a screwdriver from the beverage cart WHILE TALKING TO PASSENGERS WITHOUT ANY OF THE PASSENGERS KNOWING (again, this shit just blows my mind)-- does some seriously good, instinctive flying and manages to land them basically safely in a field (six out of the 102 "souls" on board died). The accident was almost certainly due to faulty machinery, and almost certainly had little if anything to do with the fact that Whip was drunk and high while flying the plane. Regardless, there is a toxicology report showing that Whip had a blood alchohol level of .24 (the legal limit for driving a car is .08, as his lawyer points out) and had cocaine in his system. The tension of the film, then, revolves around whether Whip will face consequences for his actions, and whether he will stop drinking.

It is an odd movie in that for a long stretch, I wasn't really sure where it was going, or where I wanted it to go. I wanted Whip to stop drinking. I felt that he should face consequences for his actions. He keeps insisting that the crash wasn't his fault, and it probably wasn't, but obviously there should still be some punishment for flying a plane drunk. The middle portion of the movie mainly consists of Whip repeatedly promising not to drink and not keeping that promise. I suppose that is probably how addiction really works, and that the movie gets this right; however, as a story, it gets a little tiresome. I think that it is also an issue that Whip seems so remorseless for most of the movie; clearly, he has lost, or is on the verge of losing, everything important to him because of drinking, and he just keeps insisting that he doesn't have a problem. It is just frustrating to watch someone who doesn't want to help himself. Again: I imagine that this is also how it would feel to watch a real addict who doesn't want to get help, and that the movie gets this right. Again, still not overly compelling as a movie plot.

There is also a recurring theme of faith in the movie that is present, but doesn't really go anywhere. Whip crashes into a church when he lands the plane. There are multiple references to the idea that what happened might have been an "act of God" or that it might have been preordained, and one character states at one point that life is much easier when you accept that you don't have control, and that everything is in God's hands. These references pop up often enough to qualify as a theme, yet it isn't really clear what the film wants us to think about all of this, or even really what Whip thinks about all of this. I know that part of Alcoholics Anonymous involves admitting that there is a higher power and that you are powerless over your addiction and that I guess he needs to get to that point before he can get better, but...again, for much of the movie he just seems more interested in insisting that his drinking isn't a problem than in anything else.

Hmm, what else? There is a love interest named Nicole, and a lawyer played by Don Cheadle, and a character played by Bruce Greenwood who has something to do with the airline, and a drug dealer played by John Goodman. This is the first time I have ever seen Bruce Greenwood not be evil, and John Goodman is pretty funny as the drug dealer. Still...eh. This movie was just okay, you guys. Not horrible, but not terribly interesting, either.

thoughts on Nashville 10/31/12

1)You know how during my first review of this show, I could neither remember Rayna's husband's name nor pick him out of a character list? I've had the same trouble with a lot of characters on this show, finding myself thinking things like, "Okay, there's Juliette. There's the other blonde girl. There's the other blonde girl's boyfriend. There's the other blonde girl's singing partner." At first, I thought this was because of the whole divided-attention-span thing I mentioned in my first review. However, tonight I realized why it is so hard to keep people straight: everyone has a name that either sounds completely made-up; is the name of a famous fictional character; or sounds like a nickname, only you suspect in this context it is the person's actual name. Rayna. Juliette. Scarlett. Deacon. Gunner. Teddy. Scarlett's boyfriend's name is Avery, which is a real, not-made-up name, yet it still manages to be confusing because it can be either a man or a woman's name. I realize that many real country music singers' names also fit the criteria I've just given: Dolly, Reba, Waylon, Garth, and Martina are not names you hear excessively often in daily life. Still. It is only now, a few episodes in, that I feel like I've gotten everyone straight.

2)I spent a lot of this episode puzzled by Juliette's entire storyline. Is it really that big of a deal, I wondered, that this girl shoplifted a bottle of nail polish? Then I thought of country singers that I think Juliette is supposed to be similar to-- Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood, namely-- and I realized that if one of them did that, yes, it would be a big deal. What it comes down to is this, though: I still just don't really care that much about Juliette. I thought about this last week, too. For one thing, I don't think that Hayden Panetierre is nearly as strong of an actor as Connie Britton. Connie Britton is the type of actor who you root for even when her character is doing bad things; do you all remember second season Friday Night Lights, when Tami Taylor actually slapped Julie at one point? In theory, that could have made you hate her, because that is a pretty terrible thing for a mother to do to a daughter. But you didn't hate her, partly because Julie Taylor was Just Awful, but also because Connie Britton made you see how Tami had reached her breaking point: Coach had taken that college coaching job in another town and wasn't around much, and she had a new baby, and she didn't have anyone to talk to except for stupid Glenn, and she just snapped. I never really had a strong opinion on Hayden Panetierre one way or another before I watched this show, but I just don't think she can hold her own with Connie Britton. I also don't think she has the star quality of someone like Taylor Swift or Carrie Underwood: again, you just don't get why anyone would care if she stole a bottle of nail polish. I wonder if this is going to be a problem for this show.

3) They do a great job with the musical scenes on this show, huh? I mentioned how magical I found Rayna's daughters' talent show performance last week, and Deacon and Rayna's country club performance tonight? Wow. The way they were looking at each other. The way Deacon was looking at Teddy. The way Teddy and Kimberly Williams-Paisley were looking at each other (and-- whoa! Teddy had an affair with Kimberly Williams-Paisley's character?! Whaaaat?!). These are characters who have spent years loving each other, hurting each other, and/or hating each other, and all of that comes through when they sing or even watch each other sing. It's amazing.

4) Also, okay, wow. That opening scene where Rayna and Deacon were in bed together? My inner monologue went something like this: "Ohmigod. When did this happen? Did I miss something at the end of the last episode? Is someone dreaming? OH. Yes. Rayna is dreaming." I was a little disappointed...but I like that Rayna is morally ambiguous enough that you wouldn't be shocked if she cheated on her husband.

5) One thing that's sort of frustrating is that basically everyone is romantically involved with the wrong person-- Rayna and Teddy, Deacon and Juliette, Scarlett and Avery, etc.-- and you know where it's all going, and you wish they would just get there already.

6) Unrelated side comment: I had never seen more than a couple of minutes of Suburgatory before I started watching this show. Now, however, it comes on between Modern Family and this, so I've wound up catching the last two episodes. It's oddly compelling. Like, I was putting away laundry while it was on tonight, and I kept reaching out my hand to turn off the TV when I walked by, then pulling my hand back. Hmm.

The End.

thoughts on Nashville 10/24/12

I don't have a ton to say about this, except that the scene where Rayna's daughters sang at the talent show was frickin' magical. The older one with her glasses and guitar, and the younger one with her little boots, all stomping her feet...magical. Other than that-- oh, Juliette. I feel like I should feel bad for her by this point, yet watching that last scene I'm just all, "Oh, there goes poor, sad Juliette, buying her chips and dip. There she goes, buying her nail polish-- oh, no wait! She's just putting it in her purse! Those girls are going to put that video on the Internet! Stupid Juliette."

Teddy doesn't want to apply for a loan. Hmm.

Rayna's mom had a ten-year affair with a musician. Double hmm.

That's all!

thoughts on The Perks of Being a Wallflower

In honor of Kate Walsh playing a minor role in this movie, please enjoy my two favorite clips from her days on Grey's Anatomy. They are awesome, though I incorrectly remembered her calling Meredith a "tramp" in the first one, and I also incorrectly remembered Derek telling her, "I'll see you in Hell, Addie," in the second one. They would be better my way, but again: still awesome.





Okay. Now that that's out of the way...The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Logan Lerman plays Charlie, who has psychological issues stemming from a repressed childhood trauma (that he doesn't remember until late in the movie, and which I won't reveal the details of here) and from his best friend's recent suicide (which he tells his then-new friend Sam (Emma Watson) about while stoned at a party, promptly freaking her out). He starts high school with no friends, eating alone in the cafeteria (his older sister goes to his school and seems nice enough, but is, through much of the movie, constantly hanging out with her boyfriend, "Ponytail Derek"). However, he is fairly quickly taken in by two seniors-- the aforementioned Sam and her stepbrother Patrick-- and their group of friends, who Sam refers to as "the island of misfit toys." Indeed, they are not the "cool kids"; they include Mary Elizabeth, who has "somehow gotten angrier since becoming a Buddhist," and Alice, who "is constantly stealing jeans from the mall, which doesn't make any sense, since her parents are rich." I'm not sure if this is the type of movie I can say I enjoyed, exactly, as it dealt with some pretty heavy stuff, but there are definitely things that I appreciated, including...

1) ...lunch on that first day of school, when Charlie nervously looks around for someone to sit with. I've been the new kid before, and yeah, they capture this accurately. You can practically hear his heart beating in this scene. One of my problems with a lot of TV and movie teens (and I may have complained about this before) is that they seem way too confident; Rory Gilmore on Gilmore Girls, for example, was always just casually eating lunch by herself, wearing her headphones and reading a book, and I really had a hard time believing that she cared so little about fitting in. Like, there is one episode where she goes off to a room by herself during a party and opens a book that she's brought along with her, and I remember screaming at the TV, "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST BE NORMAL?" Charlie, though dealing with a host of serious problems, is ASTOUNDINGLY normal, which I also really appreciated. A lot of movies with mentally ill characters make that illness the single defining aspect of their lives, and that isn't the case here. It is an important aspect of his life, and sometimes plays a bigger role in his life than in others, but there is a lot more to him than that.

2) ...the sheer joy Charlie feels at just having friends. Now, as I've mentioned before, Patrick, Sam, Mary Elizabeth, and Alice aren't the "cool kids," and, since they are all going off to college at the end of the movie, they won't be the only good friends Charlie ever makes, and I doubt he'll even keep in touch over the years with Mary Elizabeth and Alice (though I think Sam and Patrick, especially Sam, will always be special to him). That's how it works, when you're in a new situation: you fall in with the first people to be nice to you, and maybe you stay friends with them, maybe you don't, but just that feeling of belonging is HUGE. The movie captures that really well, also.

3) ...the fact that Charlie knows all of the answers in his English class but won't raise his hand for fear of singling himself out as "different." Again: he isn't overly confident like a lot of TV and movie teens. (Though I could relate to Charlie in a lot of ways, though, that isn't really one of them; sure, there have been individual classroom situations where I haven't really talked a lot, but in high school, I totally would have been obliviously constantly raising my hand and then been genuinely confused when people found me annoying.)

Basically, you're getting the idea here: this movie gets a lot of the little things right that a lot of movies get wrong. During the movie, I wondered when, exactly, this movie was taking place; I guessed the late eighties or early nineties, and yep, looking it up just now, I learned it was during the 1991-92 school year. The kids are constantly making each other mixed tapes; I was making mixed tapes right up until the day I got my first car with a CD player, which I'm going to go ahead and admit was in 2004. But, yeah-- I miss the mixed tape, and how sometimes it would run out of room mid-song, as Charlie experiences (see? Again with the little details). Oh, and Kate Walsh (who plays Charlie's mom) is always wearing these flowered dresses like EVERYONE wore back then. Oh! And there's this moment where Charlie just puts down the cordless phone when his girlfriend-at-the-time won't stop talking, and his dad gets exasperated because he needs the phone. Remember cordless phones that the whole family shared? Remember when not everyone had their own cell phone? Man.

Another thing that is nice about this movie is that, though some of the high school characters in this movie do your average, jerky high school things (such as calling Patrick "Nothing" FOR THE ENTIRE SCHOOL YEAR because of ONE incident in shop class), and though some truly awful things have happened to Charlie over the course of his life, he is basically surrounded by good people. His friends abandon him for awhile as a result of something that happens at a party but like him again when he sticks his neck out for one of them-- again, the type of thing that happens ALL the TIME, especially when you're young, but even sometimes when you're an adult. His parents seem to give him a pretty decent amount of freedom considering his past issues and even his age, and they don't seem to freak out about too much, even though over the course of the movie he 1) brings home an older girl with a white streak in her hair 2) is found passed out on the snow after taking acid and 3) gets into a pretty major fight at school at one point. His brother is a college football player and doesn't seem to have much in common with him, yet he seems to take a genuine interest him. His sister, as noted before, isn't above ignoring him at school, but knows to tell a friend to call 911 when Charlie calls her freaking out. Again, basically good people, even if they don't always do everything right.

Here are a couple of bits of randomness (yes, in addition to the Grey's Anatomy clips): 1) Paul Rudd plays Charlie's English teacher. I don't really have much to say about that. I just thought it was cool.

2) Sam, Patrick, Mary Elizabeth, and Alice are all members of the cast of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which seems to play year-round in their town. My thoughts on this are a) that movie is SO inappropriate for high school students to even be watching, let alone to be so involved in and b) GOD. I haven't ever been to a "real" showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, I've just seen it on VH1 a couple of times, yet SOMEHOW, something happens to get "Toucha Toucha Toucha Touch Me" stuck in my head for days on end like once every two years. Before this, it was when the Glee kids tried to put on The Rocky Horror Show in their school (only it wasn't allowed, because again-- SO INAPPROPRIATE). Now-- this movie. It's just a weird thing to find yourself singing to yourself on your normal Thursday morning run, is all I'm saying.

And on that note, I will leave you with this somewhat disturbing clip of Miss Pillsbury from Glee singing "Toucha Toucha Toucha Touch Me" to Mr. Schue while Britney and Santana look on. You're welcome.

thoughts on the Nashville series premiere

I'm going to preface this review by explaining something: when I am watching TV, I am usually also doing something else, at least during the commercials. Example: there were two episodes of Modern Family on last night. When the first one started, I hadn't quite finished cleaning my bathroom yet, so I kept jumping up during commercials to do that. After I had finished, my apartment was clean, except that the two pumpkins that I bought on Monday were still sitting around unpainted, so I sat them on some old magazines, got out my painting supplies, and got to work, looking up when I could tell the characters were responding to something visual (Phil got dorky t-shirts made to wear while moving Haley into the dorms at college! Gloria was insisting on wearing her pre-pregnancy clothes LONG after appropriate and busting out of them all over the place! Claire accidentally cut off a chunk of Alex's friend Skyler's hair!). By the time I finished that, Nashville was starting, and I fully intended to give it my full attention; I love country music, I love Nashville, and I loved Connie Britton on Friday Night Lights, so I was really looking forward to it. But then I wanted to take pictures of my pumpkins and post them on Facebook, and of course then there were other things I wanted to check out on Facebook, and then I needed to clean up my paining supplies, and then I freaked out a little bit because I had managed to get paint on both my pants and my couch (even though I sat on the floor to paint the pumpkins), and so on, and so on, and so on.

Somewhere in the midst of this, I managed to catch the gist of the pilot episode of Nashville, a lot of which was given away in the previews, and in articles I'd read about it: Connie Britton plays Rayna James, a country singer who is beloved by fans and by the Nashville community, but who hasn't had a hit in some time, and whose current album is tanking. Ticket sales for her upcoming tour aren't good, either, and the record company says that they will lose a lot of money if they try to send her out on an arena tour with those types of sales. They propose a solution: she will "co-headline with" (which Rayna figures out pretty quickly means "open for") Juliette Barnes, an up-and-coming singer played by Hayden Panettiere. Juliette is kind of supposed to be like Taylor Swift, I think-- if Taylor Swift was THE PERSONIFICATION OF PURE EVIL, that is. No, really, Juliette will probably turn out to be okay-- she seems to have more talent than Rayna gives her credit for, and her bitchiness appears to primarily be caused by Mommy issues. But in this episode, at least, she turned me off by flirting with/fawning over every guy she met while being openly bitchy to Rayna for no apparent reason, other than that she is apparently the type of woman who has no use for other women because they see them as 1) competition and 2) unable to do anything for them, financially, emotionally, or otherwise. I HATE that.

Anyway, Rayna is given a few days to think about the offer. The record company clearly expects that she will accept it once she thinks it over and decides to swallow her pride, and quite frankly, I expected her to, too. I expected that the first season of the show would primarily follow Rayna and Juliette on tour, and that they would have a dynamic similar to Gwyneth Paltrow and Leighton Meester's in Country Strong-- competitive with and suspicious of each other at first, but then slowly growing to like each other, with Rayna serving as a mentor of sorts to Juliette.

I was wrong.

Oh, I can't say how Rayna and Juliette's relationship will develop over the course of the series. What I do know is that Rayna walks into that record company executive's office, outlines all of the things that she has done for the record company over the years, and then tells them to "kiss their offer as it's walking out the door." And-- impressed by this point, but still seeing Connie Britton in her Friday Night Lights role-- I shout, "You ROCK, Tami Taylor!" And then they cut to commercial, and I do what I tend to do, which is pick up my laptop and check Facebook.

Meanwhile, a subplot is developing where Rayna's father, who apparently is one of the richest, most powerful men in Nashville, is trying to find a mayoral candidate who he can "keep in his back pocket." And because he is evil as hell, he plays on the insecurities that Rayna's husband-- whose name I can't remember, and whose character was so nondescript that I can't even pick him out of the cast list on IMDB, even with the helpful pictures that web site provides-- feels about always being in Rayna's shadow and encourages him to do it. Rayna doesn't like this one bit, but her husband takes her father's bait and accuses her of being unsupportive and unwilling/unable to ever take the backseat in their relationship.

Then there is a scene that is so good I can barely even talk about it, and I'm not sure if I even caught everything that was going on in it-- it was just packed with SO MUCH. Rayna is arguing with her father, and over the course of this argument, we get hints that 1) maybe Rayna's father has played more of a role in her success than she wants to believe and 2) there is more tension than we realized between Rayna and her husband, and that he "stuck by her" through something-- maybe she cheated on him? Maybe with her attractive songwriter? And the whole thing culminates with Rayna shouting, "We canNOT be bought!" and storming out of the room.

I put down my laptop. I started paying attention. And I stopped calling her Tami Taylor.

I feel like this show is going to be FASCINATING, everyone. There seems to be so much interesting backstory between Rayna, her father, her husband, and the other people in her life, and Rayna seems like such a great character: strong and outspoken like Tami Taylor, but also rich, powerful, and probably not completely squeaky clean and morally upright. I'm not sure what to do with Juliette yet, and I dig that one ad for the show features Rayna basically stepping on her with her spike heel. All I know is, this show looks like a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to it.

thoughts on Pitch Perfect

The premise: Barden College has an all-female a cappella group called the Bellas. They are not as good as the all-male group the Treble Makers, but they have made it to Nationals, and we later learn that they are a pretty tough group to get into...until Aubrey (Anna Camp) projectile vomits all over the stage during their Nationals performance. Now, they're the laughingstock of their school, and they have to take who they can get for their group, including a girl who refers to herself as "Fat Amy" (Rebel Wilson, a.k.a. Kristen Wiig's weird roommate from Bridesmaids); a girl who touches herself inappropriately regardless of what song the group is singing; a girl who speaks so softly you can barely understand her (though when you can, you hear that she is saying things like, "I start fires for fun" and "I've done time in the joint"); and our main character, Beca (Anna Kendrick), who really wants to be a D.J. (the kind that produces music, not the Rick Dees kind, as she has to explain to her Comparative Literature professor father), but whose father is making her go to college, at least for a year. Along the way, Beca falls for a member of the Treble Makers (though the Bellas are forbidden from letting said Treble Makers "penetrate" them, and though Beca has had trouble getting close to people since her parents' divorce); there are many musical numbers; and, at one point, there is more projectile vomiting, which one girl literally does snow angels (vomit angels?) in.

Sound goofy? Sure, it is. It's also a lot of fun. Here are the things I liked about it:

1) the musical numbers, duh. There are performance numbers, but there is also this bizarre sing-off between the four a cappella groups on campus that culminates in the Bellas harmonizing on "No Diggity," as well as a truly joyful bus ride sing-along to "Party in the U.S.A." Aubrey wants the girls to stick with what they've always done (bland numbers like Ace of Base's "The Sign" and the Bangles' "Eternal Flame"), but the thing is, they're not the Bellas they once were, in looks or personality, and she eventually accepts that they're at their best when they're all being themselves. I know, that's a pretty cheery little message, but...

2)...it's not NEARLY as preachy as Glee, which I appreciated. As many of you know, I liked Glee a lot when it first came out, but eventually came to find it frustrating and offensive for a bunch of reasons. I won't enumerate those reasons here (many of you have heard it all before), but what was refreshing about Pitch Perfect is this: the only person in this movie who thinks a cappella singing is dorky is Beca, and she comes around. The Glee kids were dealing with hatred from the other students and even teachers and administrators LONG after they should have earned everyone's respect, and all of the "everyone hates us/we're such outsiders/the school's going to shut our club down and give all our funding to the Cheerios" business took away from what the show was at its best, and what Pitch Perfect is: a story about a group of kids who want to sing some fun songs and maybe win some awards while dealing with growing up, forming friendships, falling in love, and all that jazz. I dug that. I also dug...

3)...the fact that Pitch Perfect (mostly) avoids cliches. Yes, Fat Amy's weight and another character's lesbianism are sometimes played for laughs in ways that I sometimes felt a bit uncomfortable with. However. Here are some things that I assumed would happen, but did not: Beca and her love interest, Jesse, both have internships at a radio station. They have a boss who is attractive and slightly older than them. At one point, he offers Beca a D.J. shift that she has to turn down because of an a cappella competition. Now, I assumed from the moment that we met this boss that Beca would go for him even though Jesse clearly liked her from the beginning; that the boss would be a jerk about her being in an a capella group; that she would eventually have to choose between him and Jesse, as well as her D.J. dreams and her newfound love for a cappella singing; and that the movie would play it like she was being all morally superior for choosing Jesse and the a cappella group. None of this happens. Her boss appreciates her music producing skills without ever making a pass at her, and he still gives her future D.J. shifts even though she has to turn down the initial offer because of the competition. Isn't that surprising, reasonable, nice, and oh, I don't know...REALISTIC? Good job, Movie. You pleasantly surprised me.

4) On top of all of this good stuff, the movie all comes together with a musical number at Nationals that is so good, you almost don't even care whether the Bellas win or not, and the movie doesn't put a lot of emphasis on that, either, because...when you give a performance that is so good that you have all of Lincoln Center, including your competition, on its feet, it almost doesn't matter.

It's a fun movie, everyone. I'd definitely recommend.

thoughts on Celeste and Jesse Forever

Huh. Apparently I haven't updated this blog in like two months. I've seen some movies since then-- the new Spiderman, the new Batman, the new Bourne, the new Ice Age (with my niece while back in Nebraska), and The Campaign. (Wow. Four of those were sequels or remakes). I didn't feel compelled to write about any of them, apparently, so I'll give it to you quick: liked Spiderman; didn't like Batman, but in all fairness will admit that when I saw it I had just gotten new glasses and they kept sliding down my nose, plus I had a really bad headache; LOVED the new Bourne; thought Ice Age was okay; and thought The Campaign was just okay while watching it, yet kept giggling over certain parts of it throughout the week ("We're out of Honey Nut Cheerios.") Oh. I almost forgot that I also saw Savages, and while I like both Taylor Kitsch and Blake Lively a great deal, I'm pretty sure that I never need to see another drug movie again. I am also realizing that this list, along with the few movie blogs that I did write this summer, indicates that the best movie I saw all summer was Magic Mike, so that's interesting. Hmm.

So, Celeste and Jesse Forever. Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg play Celeste and Jesse, a couple who are separated and getting divorced yet, when we meet them, still consider themselves best friends and spend a lot of time together. He is still living in the guest house in her backyard and still is hoping they can work things out. We sort of get the impression that they're getting divorced basically because she thinks she can do better. Things change, though, when he learns that Veronica, a woman he slept with a few months after they separated, is pregnant. Now he's moving out of the guest house and becoming vegan and taking up Pilates and whatnot, while Celeste sort of spirals downward, not only having a few early dating experiences that range from "sort of awkward" to "oh my God, I can't believe this is happening right now," but messing up the logo for a Ke$ha-like client (played by Emma Roberts) her company is doing publicity for and-- well. At one point Jesse catches her going through his trash. At another, she passes out on a raft in the pool at her best friend's engagement party. There is a lot of pot smoking. There was also a lot of me shrinking down in my chair and covering my eyes and wanting to shout things like, "I'm so uncomfortable!" or "This is so sad!" or just "Stop it!"

In other words, as I commented to my friends afterwards, I haven't felt so uncomfortable watching a movie since I watched Young Adult. Yet this is a much nicer movie than Young Adult; Celeste is going through a rough time and has some habits/tendencies she needs to work on, but we sense that she *will* work on them, she *will* be okay, and that while she and Jesse are both basically good people, they probably are, in the long run, going to be better off apart. So, there were parts of the movie that were difficult to watch, but I thought it was well-done. I dug it.

Some randomness: Celeste eventually has a budding romance with a guy played by Chris Messina, who I had trouble placing until I was like, "OH! He plays EVERYONE'S dorky boyfriend!" And that is an exaggeration, but where I recognized him from was Six Feet Under, where he played Claire's Republican, Christian-rock-listening lawyer boyfriend. I can't help but like him, no matter what I see him in, and I think that's kind of the point with him-- he plays characters you don't necessarily want to like but do.

More randomness: I got my bangs cut a few days ago. I spent much of the movie obsessing over Rashida Jones's bangs. Hers are great.

That's it!

thoughts on Magic Mike

So I went to see Magic Mike today. I saw it with a group of several women for a bachelorette party, which was definitely the way to see it, I think. The theater was packed, primarily also with large groups of women; I'm guessing there were less than ten men in the whole theater, if not less than five. "Last summer there was Bridesmaids, this summer there's Magic Mike!" I exclaimed before we left for the movie. "It's so cool how there's a bachelorette movie, like, every summer!"

The verdict: it was pretty darn good, and in fact, better than it had any right to be or really needed to be. Like, I'm sure no one would have complained if the strip club scenes had been the only good parts in the movie, but it actually had a pretty decent storyline about Channing Tatum's character, Mike, bringing a nineteen-year-old into the stripping business while making moves to get out of it himself. Also, I liked Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey quite a bit. I really didn't know who Channing Tatum even was until a few months ago, when a group of us talked about seeing The Vow but never did, then actually did see 21 Jump Street, in which he was surprisingly funny and unsurprisingly good-looking ("Science and magic are the SAME THING!"). Then I read an article about how he really was a male stripper back in the day and proceeded to begin looking forward to seeing Magic Mike. He's a great dancer, and again, that's all he would have really needed to be for this movie, but he's also, as I previously observed, quite funny and charming.

As for McConaughey, he is, as he has always been, very good-looking but also kind of skeevy, which works better here than it has ever worked before. He does the "Alright alright alright!" thing he always does. He plays the bongos shirtless, as he has been known to do. He often is onstage wearing very little besides leather pants and a cowboy hat, though at one point he instead wears an Uncle Sam hat. When we see his house, it turns out he has a portrait of himself wearing the leather pants and cowboy hat with a snake around his neck, as well as a bust of himself. This is good stuff, people.

And, if the movie is true to life, it seems that male stripping is pretty weird business. Like, watching it is humorous in a way that I don't think female stripping probably would be, yet I would imagine it's similar in that it's difficult to get out of it and start doing something legitimate and that (for many people, at least) there's a lot of drinking and drugs involved. There's probably more that could be said there, but I'll leave it at that and just say that I had a good time.

thoughts on Rock of Ages

So. Rock of Ages has been getting pretty mixed reviews, and I guess I can see why. I'm not sure how well it holds up *as a story*. The basic plot is that a girl named Sherrie (Julianne Hough) moves to LA to try to make it as a singer. She winds up meeting a guy named Drew (Diego Boneta) who also wants to be a singer; he gets her a job waiting tables at a club called the Bourbon Room. Meanwhile,the mayor's wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is trying to find any reason at all to shut down the Bourbon Room; she may get her opportunity, because the owner (Alec Baldwin) owes a ton of money in back taxes, and is counting on a big show by legendary rockstar Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) to make him the money he needs to keep the club open. The movie is all put together a little weirdly, for lack of a better word; like, the movie centers around Sherrie and Drew and the mistakes they make on their way to fame/falling in love, yet Stacee Jaxx is by far the most compelling character, and Tom Cruise's performance is by far the most fun. There are also subplots involving why Catherine Zeta-Jones's character is so anti-the Bourbon Room; the relationship between Alec Baldwin's and Russell Brand's characters; and a romance between Stacee Jaxx and a Rolling Stone reporter played by Malin Akerman. I haven't seen the Broadway musical on which this was based, but I'm thinking that the story in it was probably rather thin, they tried to beef it up for the movie, and it didn't quite work.

In other words, the movie wasn't perfect. However, make no mistake: I had a great time.

I must say, Tom Cruise is the main reason for this. Like, Stacee Jaxx is both intense and kind of crazy, and he drinks a lot, and basically every woman he meets throws herself at him, and Tom Cruise is, I kid you not, GREAT in this role. He kind of blew my mind. Like, when he's not onscreen, it's a fairly pleasant if somewhat silly little movie: Sherrie is singing "Sister Christian" with a bus full of strangers as she travels to LA, and then they're cutting back and forth between Drew belting out "Jukebox Hero" in a record store and Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand singing "I Love Rock and Roll" in Alec Baldwin's office, and at one point Catherine Zeta-Jones and a bunch of '80s moms are singing "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" in a church with some seriously goofy choreography going on, and again, all of this is pretty fun and entertaining, and the songs are good, but it's nothing surprising or overly memorable. Then Tom Cruise shows up all passed out in bed with like three different women, and he's wearing assless chaps, and he has a monkey named Hey Man, and he's talking about burning the Bourbon Room down so that the fire phoenix can get out or some such nonsense, and no one can tell whether he's crazy or what but everyone tiptoes around him and sucks up to him because he's a big star. THEN!!! the Rolling Stone journalist asks him what it's like to be Stacee Jaxx, and he responds by busting into "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi, and he's REALLY GOOD, and I literally think to myself, "I cannot believe this is happening right now." And then I kind of have to go to the bathroom, but I think to myself, "I'm going to wait until Tom Cruise isn't onscreen anymore, because there's no way I'm missing even a second of this."

So, that's what it comes down to, I guess: the parts without Tom Cruise are entertaining and feature some great '80s songs, but aren't spectacular. The parts with Tom Cruise are ridiculously awesome. Like, his performance alone is worth the price of admission.

thoughts on the premiere of the Dallas reboot

So. I don't really remember the original Dallas. Watching the premiere tonight, I recongized the theme song, as well as the actors who played J.R., Sue Ellen, and Bobby. And, of course, I'm aware of some of the major storylines from the original series, like the "Who shot J.R.?" cliffhanger and the whole thing with a whole season of the show turning out to be a dream. Though I wasn't overly familiar with the original, I thought the reboot looked fun. Prime time soaps are pretty much my favorite, and there aren't too many good ones around right now.

Here's the basic plot: John Ross (J.R.'s son) and Elena, his girlfriend and coworker, who is the daughter of one of the Ewing's employees-- a cook or a maid or something?-- strike oil on South Fork Ranch. They want to drill, but J.R. and Bobby's mother stipulated in her will that no one would ever drill on South Fork; Bobby wants to honor this. Additionally, Bobby's adopted son, Christopher (who is played by Jesse Metcalfe from Desperate Housewives, and who occasionally walks around in his underwear just 'cause) feels like he needs to earn the Ewing name and is working to develop an alternative energy source. Bobby wants to sell South Fork Ranch to the Del Sol Conservancy, supposedly so John Ross can't drill for oil, but also because he secretly has cancer and is afraid of what his brother and nephew will do to the ranch once he's gone. J.R. secretly has a deal with Marta del Sol to buy the ranch back from her after the sale goes through...only Marta might not be who she seems. Also causing tension is the fact that Christopher comes home with his fiancee, Rebecca (who he marries in this first episode), only he's still in love with John Ross's girlfriend, Elena, who he was once engaged to. Elena told John Ross that she broke up with Christopher, but in reality, she received an e-mail from Christopher on the night before their wedding saying that they were from two different worlds and that he couldn't go through with it. However, Elena learns in this episode that Christopher didn't send the e-mail. She assumes that John Ross did, and breaks up with him, only we get confirmation late in the episode that he didn't send the e-mail, either. Also, it is revealed that Rebecca is a con artist, though it seems that she might actually have real feelings for Christopher.

John Ross is the best character, I think, or at any rate, the most complex. Like, at one point I said out loud, "John Ross is a DOUCHE!," yet just a few minutes later I found myself feeling sorry for him. He also comes across as kind of dumb, yet this seems to be at least partly an act, since he pulls off some fairly complicated business in this episode. Rebecca also becomes interesting once we find out she is a con artist, and I like Elena, too; I think what's going on with her is that she's torn between her working class roots and her ambition, which is also why she's torn between Christopher and John Ross. Christopher, Bobby, and J.R. aren't as interesting so far; Christopher and Bobby come across as just a little too good, and J.R. seems to be just pure evil, though I assume all of those things might change over time. J.R.'s ex-wife, Sue Ellen, and Bobby's wife, Anne, haven't been given a lot to do so far, though Sue Ellen seems pretty badass.

Anyway, I enjoyed it. The premiere was actually over two hours long, which felt a little long, yet it mostly kept me interested; like, in the beginning I was kind of doing other stuff while I watched, like walking back and forth between my living room and bedroom to put laundry away, but after awhile I found myself wanting to stay where I was and see what happened. I gasped out loud multiple times, and sometimes said, "What?!" I consider all of those things good. Anyway, I think it should make for some fun summer viewing.

thoughts on The Five Year Engagement (spoilers)

1) Previews: I'm only going to talk about one, and that is That's My Boy, starring Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg, which I was first appalled by when I went to see American Reunion a few weeks back. The premise of this movie is that at age thirteen, Adam Sandler's character had sex with a teacher and got her pregnant. She went to jail, and he raised the son by himself. He did such a bad job that the kid left home at age eighteen and never spoke to him again, but now Adam Sandler owes money to the IRS and he hears his kid is now rich, so he looks him up. As he spends time with his now-grown son (Andy Samberg), we learn about all the mistakes he made as a father. Okay. First of all: why are they making a COMEDY about a thirteen-year-old sleeping with his teacher? Second, I'm pretty sure that the courts would not give custody of a baby to a thirteen-year-old kid, even if that kid was the baby's father. Third, even if they did, he would have to be the biggest jackass in the world to do some of the things that we learn that Adam Sandler did while raising this kid, such as letting him drive a car at age eight and get a large tattoo of New Kids on the Block on his back while he was in the third grade. "I was thirteen!" Adam Sandler defends himself in the preview. Um, he would have been in his early twenties by the time much of this stuff went down, and people in their early twenties have children LITERALLY EVERY DAY. Many of them do a perfectly good job. For that matter, thirteen-year-olds are sometimes left in charge of small children for short periods of time and manage to keep them safe and not let them do anything stupid. GOD. This looks like it may just be the worst movie ever made.

2) Okay, now that I've gotten that out of my system-- The Five Year Engagement. This movie is terrible, everyone, which was very disappointing, because I really like both Jason Segel and Emily Blunt. The premise of this movie is that San Francisco couple Tom and Violet (played by Segel and Blunt) get engaged, but then keep deciding to put off the wedding. Violet gets offered a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan that is supposed to last only two years, but it keeps getting extended. Tom moves to Michigan with her; he's a promising chef who is offered a super sweet job just before he leaves San Francisco, but in Ann Arbor, he can only find a job making sandwiches at Zingerman's. Meanwhile, as Violet's job/their engagement stretches out longer and longer, Violet's sister, Suzie (Alison Brie) and Tom's best friend, Alex (Chris Pratt) meet, get married, and have two kids, and grandparent after grandparent dies.

Here's what's wrong with this movie: the characters don't really even try to solve their problems. Like, Tom applies for jobs at restaurants all over Ann Arbor when they first move there (some of which I've eaten at, by the way!), but can only come up with the job at Zingerman's. I can buy that this would happen at first...but wouldn't, if you were Tom, you keep applying? I know the economy's rough, and all, but you would think he would eventually be able to find a better job. He eventually, after their relationship disintegrates and he moves back to San Francisco, opens a food truck selling what are apparently awesome tacos; he couldn't have thought of that in all the years he lived in Michigan? Also, he is obviously MISERABLE the entire time they are in Michigan, and Violet doesn't seem to give a rat's ass. Like, I know firsthand that academic jobs are hard to come by and that you wouldn't just give up a sweet job at the University of Michigan with no back-up plan, but if your fiance was that miserable, then you would certainly be applyiing other places, or at the very least, not condescendingly telling him that he should be happy with his "cool job" at Zingerman's (which I hear is a very good place, by the way, but Tom is clearly capable of doing more than making sandwiches). And Tom seems to take all the blame for everything that goes wrong! Like, after they've broken up, they talk on the phone, and he asks her when she knew it was over. She acts like they broke up because he just randomly went crazy, and not because he was misterable and NEITHER OF THEM was trying to fix it, at all.

There is also the issue that many scenes that start off funny or cute last too long, to the point where I felt uncomfortable. For example: Alex sings a song in Spanish to Suzie at their wedding and is surprisingly good. This is entertaining for maybe thirty seconds. IT JUST KEEPS GOING ON AND ON. There is also a scene where Violet and Suzie are arguing, and Suzie's young daughter requests that Violet talk like Cookie Monster and Suzie talk like Elmo. Again: mildly amusing for a few lines. But this argument just KEEPS GOING ON with both of them talking in Muppet voices, and it's hard to understand what they're saying, and it gets really grating really fast.

Finally, I hate it when people in movies (or people in real life, for that matter) move from the big city to a smaller but pefectly nice town and act like they're in the total backwoods (this was my irritation with Young Adult, as well, though I liked that movie a lot better than this one). I visited Ann Arbor a number of times when I was living in Bowling Green, Ohio, and I thought it was great. Does it snow there? Of course. Would Tom have the same opportunities as a chef that he would have in San Francisco? Of course not. But there's not really a good reason that he would be as miserable there as he is, and the movie doesn't really give us one.

Really the only thing I liked about this movie was Alison Brie and Chris Pratt as Suzie and Alex. That is literally the only thing. Well, and I kind of liked that a lot of it took place in Ann Arbor. But that's pretty much it.

Three movies, one week!: thoughts on The Lucky One, 21 Jump Street, and Cabin in the Woods

I saw three movies last week, folks. Three! They were all movies that I might not have picked out on my own, but was invited to see with friends. I wound up having a pretty good time at all of them. Here are my thoughts:

The Lucky One
Zac Efron plays a Marine named Logan. While in battle, he finds a picture of a young woman sticking out of the rubble; he will later describe this experience as "like finding an angel in the middle of hell." He keeps this picture with him, and after he goes home, finding it difficult to adjust to life with his sister and her family in Colorado, he sets off to find the woman in the picture. There is a lighthouse in the background of her picture, and he finds out where that lighthouse is and takes off for Louisiana. Finding her isn't difficult, but when he does, he can't find the words to tell her why he's there. Fortunately, she runs a dog training/boarding facility with her grandmother, and she thinks that he has come to respond to a Help Wanted ad. Although she is actually a little creeped out by him-- particularly by the fact that he tells her that he has walked there from Colorado-- her grandmother hires him, and needless to say, she eventually warms up to him. Complications arise in the form of her young son, or more specifically, his father, who is constantly showing up to act menacing and threaten to take full custody if she (Beth) messes up. His family is a Big Deal in their Louisiana town, and he says he can make it happen. And of course, lurking around the edges of the film is the fact that Logan still hasn't told her why he's really there, though we begin to realize, as the story moves forward, why the picture was there for Logan to find.

It really isn't a bad little movie, you guys. I've read a few Nicholas Sparks books (though not this one) and seen the movies adapted from them, and they're usually fairly solid-- though someone usually dies, and I therefore spent most of this movie whispering stuff to my friends like, "Do you think Beth's ex-husband is going to murder Zac Efron?," and, "Do you think the kid is going to die in the water?" (Actually, we were the only four people in the theater, so I really didn't even have to whisper these things.) I don't think this movie will develop the following that The Notebook had, or anything (true story: a few years back when I asked my students to write a movie review about literally any movie in the world they wanted, roughly 20% of them chose The Notebook. A fairly even mix of girls and guys. I'm serious), but it was fairly enjoyable. I liked Blythe Danner as Beth's grandmother, and Zac Efron pretty much always does a solid job; like, even in those High School Musical movies (High School Musical 3 isn't bad, by the way), you can tell he's pretty game for anything, and giving it his all. I'll respect that. Anyway, I won't say this movie is for everyone, but if you like Nicholas Sparks and/or Zac Efron, give it a whirl.

21 Jump Street
This is probably my favorite of the movies I saw last week, you guys. Like, I never really watched the original TV series 21 Jump Street; when it was on, I was too young for it, I think. I was aware that it existed, but didn't watch it more than once or twice. However, I am fairly sure that it was not an R-rated comedy, or a comedy at all. The movie works as an R-rated comedy.

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum play guys who went to the same high school, but weren't friends back then. Channing Tatum was a popular "dumb jock," while Jonah Hill was a nerdy kid who dyed his hair like Eminem; when he asks a girl to prom, she literally laughs in his face (high school kids are so mean in the movies. In real life, would that girl go to prom with him? No. Would she laugh in his face? Probably also no). As adults, they both go through police training together, and become friends when Channing Tatum needs help passing his exams. They later become bike cops, but mess up their first major bust because Channing Tatum can't remember the Miranda rights. They are then assigned to go undercover at a high school, where they are suprised to find that things have changed. Channing Tatum (whose name is Jenko in this movie, apparently, though he spends most of his time undercover, so I'll just keep referring to him as Channing Tatum) assumes that he'll be popular again, but now all of the popular kids are "all into going green and being tolerant and stuff." They like Jonah Hill, though, who gets the lead in Peter Pan and "sabotages" a school track meet.

It's funny, everyone. I laughed out loud throughout. I don't have a ton to say about it, but I had a good time.

Cabin in the Woods
I don't think I can even write about this without giving stuff away. All I can really say is that it starts with a group of college kids who appear to be the typical "types" from your average teen horror movie (the "slut," the virgin, the jock, etc.) heading off for a weekend in a creepy cabin, but right from the beginning, there are twists. It is simultaneously very aware of, and willing to poke fun at, horror movie conventions while still employing many of them. One friend (hi, Amy!) described it as "like Scream, but with monsters," and I guess that's pretty accurate, though I like the Scream movies better because there *isn't* anything supernatural in them, and because they include lots of actors from TV shows that I like. Anyway, I thought it was okay. Many of the people who I went with were big horror movie fans, and they loved it; I appreciated that it was sort of clever, and I enjoyed that Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford were in it, but it wasn't my favorite thing ever.

I maybe shouldn't have tried to review three movies at once. I feel like I kind of ran out of steam with that one. Oh, well.

thoughts on Titanic 3D

So after yesterday's half-marathon festivities, I met up with a few friends to see Titanic in Imax 3D. I saw Titanic twice in the theater when it first came out, and I know that I owned it on VHS at one point, but before yesterday's viewing, I hadn't seen it for ten-fifteen years. I read one disparaging review of the movie upon its rerelease that indicated that it might not hold up for those of us who liked the movie as teens, but I've got to say, I still think it's a pretty solid movie.

For one thing, I'm impressed now in a way that I wasn't as a teen by the fact that it must have taken *a lot* of work to make this movie; I don't know a lot about the making of it, but the effects in the scenes where the ship was sinking were very impressive, so I've gotta respect that. Also, I remember when I saw the movie as a teen that I was less interested in the scenes where the ship was sinking than the rest of the movie because I was mainly just into the love story. However, this time around, I was really struck by the utter chaos that breaks out once the ship starts sinking, especially as the situation gets more and more dire: the utter disregard for the people in steerage; the futile attempts to maintain order, or an appearance of order, until it's absolutely impossible to do so; the fact that eventually it seems like people are pulling out guns left and right. It also struck me just how many mistakes had to be made for 1) the Titanic to sink and 2) its sinking to be as big of a disaster as it was. I'm sitting there all, "No! You don't need to go faster!," and, "Ahh! There aren't enough lifeboats!," and, "No! Why are you only putting twelve people in a boat for sixty-five?"

Other random thoughts: I remembered that Victor Garber was in this, but I didn't really even remember who he played, and certainly not that he had a slight Irish accent. After this viewing, I would definitely rank him in my top five favorite things about the movie. Also, while I remembered that Rose's fiance was a jerk, I did not remember just how crazy things get with him. He's chasing Jack and Rose with a gun at one point! And he just grabs some random kid and pretends she's his to get onto a lifeboat! Also, there were things that I didn't realize I remembered until I saw them: for example, when Jack is handcuffed and Rose is looking for a key, I'm all, "Doesn't this ship have an emergency axe somewhere? Oh! It does! That's actually what happens!"

Anyway, bottom line is, I enjoyed it quite a bit. You'll notice that I haven't even mentioned the 3D; that's because the 3D aspect of it wasn't all that impressive, and I don't really care for 3D that much as a whole. I don't hate it like Roger Ebert hates it, or anything, but I just haven't seen it used all that effectively, and it kind of gives me a headache. I don't think 3D really added a lot to Titanic, and I think if they needed an excuse to rerelease the movie in theaters, the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking would have been as good of one as any. Nevertheless, it didn't really hurt my viewing experience. I had a good time.

thoughts on American Reunion

So, I have kind of a soft spot for the American Pie movies. Remember what a big deal it was when the first one came out? I was twenty, I think, home from college for the summer and working as a temp; I went to see it with a friend from work after hearing how awesome it was from many people. I later went to see American Pie 2 and American Wedding; neither of them were particularly memorable-- like, I can remember the basic plot of both, but few really funny or awesome moments. Well, no, wait, there was a pretty funny dance-off scene in American Wedding. But anyway, I still have good feelings toward the series as a whole, so obviously I was going to see American Reunion.

For one thing, I enjoy seeing casts that I like reunited; like, the first Sex and the City movie didn't even come out that long after the show ended, and I remember sitting there in the theater thinking how happy I was to see everyone again. I felt the same way when I saw Scream 4. I think there's something about thinking that a series is over, then getting to catch up with the characters again. Like, I heard that there is a Sweet Valley High novel that catches up with the Wakefield twins as adults, and I totally plan to read it.

Anyway. American Reunion catches up with the gang as they return home for their thirteen-year reunion. Yes, thirteen. Their school didn't get around to having a ten-year reunion. This made me giggle. Jim and Michelle are married with a two-year-old. Oz is a sportscaster and appeared on a Dancing with the Stars-type show. Kevin is married and an architect. Paul Finch is supposedly a world traveler. Stifler is a temp. The plot involves Jim and Michelle trying to recapture the "spark" in their marriage whilst Jim is constantly being hit on by a girl he used to baby-sit; Jim trying to convince his widowed father to start dating again; Oz and Heather realizing they still have feelings for each other; Kevin having conflicted feelings about Vicky even though he loves his wife; etc. There are lots of parties and drinking. There are also lots of reminders of stuff that happened in the original movie (like the whole school seeing the video of Jim and Nadia), and lots of stuff that is similar to stuff that happens in the original movie; for example, there is a scene where Jim has to try to sneak the girl he used to baby-sit (Kara), who has gotten drunk, stripped naked, and then passed out in his car, into her house while the rest of the guys distract her parents. I thought to myself, "Oh, YEAH, there was always a part like this in those movies!" There is some grossness here and there. There is also lots of awesome nineties music and funny references to advances in technology that have happened since the first movie; like, Stifler's big plan for distracting Kara's parents is to knock on the door, say that their car broke down, and ask if he can use their phone to call Triple A. Kara's dad: "Um, none of you guys have cell phones?" Stifler to Oz: "The last time I tried this, cell phones hadn't been invented yet!" Oh! And the guys get into a little war with some high school kids, which is pretty funny.

So, basically, if you liked the first movies, I'd recommend seeing it. I'm not sure if it would have much appeal for people who hadn't seen the first ones, though there are some funny moments. There was this forty-something couple in the theater when I saw it who seemed to be enjoying *the heck* out of it; like during the closing credits, they show a bunch of pictures of stuff that happened in the first three movies, and at one point the guy was all, "Oh, do you REMEMBER that, from the second one? With the TROMBONE?"

Also: they showed a preview for a movie with Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg that I'm sorry to say looks like it's going to be the worst movie of all time. I really like Andy Samberg, but it looks HORRIBLE.

That's all.

Awesome Things About The Hunger Games movie (spoilers)

All right, friends. I saw The Hunger Games this afternoon. Many of you were with me =). I will first just say what I said at dinner afterwards, which was that it was a complete moviegoing experience: I was cringing in my seat and covering my eyes at times, near tears at others, and even giggled a few times. Here are the things that I particularly enjoyed, in no particular order:

1) Woody Harrelson as Haymitch. Totally knocked it out of the park. He was funnier and more charming than Haymitch in the book, who was mainly just gross. I enjoyed his performance a lot.

2) Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss. There were parts of this movie where she was doubled over sobbing, and she totally sold it. She was awesome.

3) the way they incorporated the hosts' commentary to explain things that you wouldn't know unless you'd read the book, like what a tracker jacker is

4) the way the camera simulated Katniss's point of view when she was under the influence of tracker jacker venom

5) the scene when Katniss puts flowers over Rue's dead body. I know it had the same function in the book, but here I really *got it* that she was calling attention to the fact that someone was dead, and this was something we should feel bad about, not just view as entertainment.

6) the scene when Katniss goes to get the medicine for Peeta and gets into a really nasty fight with another tribute

7) the fact that they left out the scene where Peeta gets all mad when he finds out/determines that Katniss may have been faking her feelings for him. It was a life or death situation, and you didn't know for a long time whether Peeta was on the up-and-up, either, so I never really got where his anger came from, anyway.

8) Seneca Crane's beard, which, in his review, Roger Ebert humorously and accurately said that Satan would be envious of. There was debate over dinner about how you would shave a beard that way, or whether it was stuck on.

9)the random moments where I made myself giggle for no good reason. For example: Peeta can disguise himself to look like trees and rocks and stuff. There is one moment where Katniss is just walking around and Peeta just pops up, camouflaged. Katniss gives him this surprised look, like, "Peeta! You look like a f'ing rock!" Similarly, there is a moment where Peeta asks her to give him the bow and arrow, and she just looks at him like, "What are you going to do with it, bitch?" I commented over dinner that it was kind of too bad that it was a PG-13 movie, because I imagine that Hunger Games contestants would be swearing a lot more.

One random thought: I liked Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman, but thought it would have been funny if Ryan Seacrest had played that part, though that might have been too obvious.

Anyway, that's it! It was great! Go see it!

thoughts on This Means War

Yeah, so. I took a grading break today to go see This Means War. I hadn't really planned to see a movie today; however, as I was running past Showplace Cinemas South (Evansville's cheap theater) this morning, I noticed that We Bought a Zoo and Sherlock Holmes were playing, and I thought to myself, "Huh. I kind of wanted to see those. Maybe I will, now that they're at the cheap theater. Hey, I haven't checked the movie listings this week, I wonder what-- OH MY GOD THIS MEANS WAR COMES OUT THIS WEEKEND!" Yeah. I was excited. I could not talk myself out of going today.

Friends, it was all that I hoped it would be. You all know how much I love spy stuff, especially when it's fun. Like, I know most people will say that the first two seasons of Alias were the best, and objectively, they are right. However, I have a soft spot for Season Four, when they all went black ops, so basically they had access to all of the CIA's resources but were only accountable to each other, and EVERYONE was out in the field, including Marshall. It was kind of ridiculous, but very fun. It also included my favorite episode of the series, "Welcome to Liberty Village," in which Sydney and Vaughn were stationed in a village where Russian spies were being trained to act like American citizens. That's right: Sydney and Vaughn were Americans...pretending to be Russians...pretending to be Americans. It was awesome. Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be writing about This Means War.

Reese Witherspoon plays Lauren, a career woman who tests consumer products for a living; like, she's the one who gets to, for example, set cooking pans on fire to see how they withstand heat, or whatever. It looks like a pretty fun job, and her knowledge of consumer products comes in handy in humorous and useful ways at key moments in the movie. Her story is that she followed a boyfriend to L.A. from her hometown, Atlanta, only to have him cheat on her. She runs into him early in the movie with his new fiancee, and of course she is wearing running clothes and has headphones on and is singing to herself like a crazy person, and of course after she lies that she has to go meet her (nonexistent) boyfriend, he catches her eating sushi at a restaurant that she goes to alone so often that the staff there refers to her as "Table for One." So, in a nutshell, she has a lot going for her, but her love life is in a pretty sorry state.

This leads her best friend, Trish (Chelsea Handler), whose function in this movie is to make sex jokes and act gross and generally just be Chelsea Handler (who I used to think was funny but have grown tired of), to set up a racy profile for her on an online dating site. There, Lauren meets Tuck (Tom Hardy), a CIA agent who tells people he's a travel agent, has a young son, and hasn't dated much since his divorce. He's very sweet, and they hit it off...but on her way home from the date, she also happens to meet FDR (Chris Pine), who unbeknownst to her is Tuck's best friend and also a CIA agent (he tells people he's the captain of a cruise ship). Lauren and FDR don't actually hit it off right away; he's one of those too-smooth guys with a line for everything, and she's on to him right away. However, he is persistent, and she agrees to go out with him. Their first date doesn't actually go well, either, until she runs into her ex-boyfriend again and FDR does a PERFECT job pretending to be her boyfriend, being super charming to the ex-boyfriend's new fiancee, and driving the ex-boyfriend crazy by repeatedly calling him by the wrong name. It's pretty great. Anyway, so before she knows it, Lauren has gone from dating no one to dating two great guys.

Tuck and FDR find out pretty quickly that they're dating the same woman. However, both of them really like her, so they decide that they will both continue dating her and just let her choose. The thing is that since they're spies, they have the means to spy on her, and spy on each other on their dates with her, and gadgets to sabotage each other's dates with her. It's all pretty silly, but very fun; I was grinning from ear to ear for most of the movie and laughed out loud repeatedly. I thought the movie did a great job of keeping it fun while raising the stakes-- allowing relationships to deepen, conflicts to develop, complications to arise, etc. I thorougly enjoyed it. If we're going to place this in some sort of "Spy vs. Spy Romantic Comedy" genre, of which Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Duplicity are also a part, then I'm going to go out on a limb and call this my favorite of that genre.

Side note: while buying a ticket for this movie, I witnessed a very funny exchange between a young (maybe five year old?) boy who was very excited to see Ghost Rider and his dad, who was acting all confused, like, "What? You don't want to see The Vow?" And the dad was being so convincing about pretending he was going to take this kid to see The Vow that it is to the kid's credit that he did not completely lose it. Anyway, good stuff.

thoughts on Smash series premiere

I dug it, for the most part. I like Debra Messing. I like Katharine McPhee (and have since her Idol days...I'm remembering an awesome performance of "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" kneeling on the edge of the stage, as well as a truly bizarre duet with Meatloaf on the finale of her season). I didn't particularly care for the way that the musical numbers would switch back and forth between reality and fantasy, though I guess they have to, to some extent, if the characters are going to do things like walk down the street singing. And, during the part when Katharine McPhee went to the director's apartment, naturally I was sitting on my couch freaking out, all, "Does this kind of thing really happen?! This is so inappropriate! I'm so uncomfortable!" Anyway, I'll stick with it. I like it so far.

thoughts on My Week with Marilyn/The Descendants

My Week with Marilyn

I saw this almost a week ago and haven't felt like writing about it. After thinking about it a little, though, I think I get it, even though I didn't much care for it. Basically, we all know those people who the world seems to revolve around: other people will put up with things from them that they wouldn't put up with from anyone else, and if they ask you to do something, you drop everything to do it. Their attention makes you feel special. However, if you are someone who doesn't see what everyone else sees in this person, you are just exasperated by the lengths that others are willing to go to for them.

Marilyn Monroe was one of those people that the world revolved around, according to this movie. The problem, for me, is that I didn't quite get why. I don't know much about Marilyn Monroe, which is my own fault, I guess; however, the movie doesn't let us know a lot else. This is partly because she apparently remained a mystery to a lot of people, including the film's main character; however, what we learn about her over the course of the film wasn't really enough for me. Additionally, everyone in the film talks about what a good performer she is when she is at her best, and how she lights up the screen; Michelle Williams didn't really sell me on that. I will admit that I've never really cared for Michelle Williams and was maybe predisposed against her, but either way, I just didn't find the movie all that interesting.

The Descendants

There is a moment in this movie where George Clooney's character, Matt, tells his daughter, Alex (played by Shailene Woodley from Secret Life of the American Teenager), that her mother is going to die. She has been in a coma for a few weeks, and it has been determined that she will never wake up, and that they should turn off the machines keeping her alive. He tells Alex this while she is swimming in the pool in their backyard, and when he tells her, she reacts by ducking underwater and bursting into tears. A few moments later, she yells at him, "Why did you have to tell me when I was in the pool?"

This is a movie that is largely involved with the giving and receiving of bad news. On a few occasions, this telling is planned in advance and done very carefully. More often, however, it either just comes out (as in the previously described scene), or is said at least partly in anger, as when Alex tells Matt that her mother, Elizabeth, was cheating on him; Matt responds to this by pulling on the first pair of shoes he can find and sprinting down the street to his best friends' house, where he demands to know what they know and hurls the news that his wife is dying at them. It is these moments, the moments where characters are told bad news and we see them react, immediately and emotionally, that ring the most true for me in the movie. It made me recall the times in my own life when I've received bad news, and how it never happens at the "right" place and time. It just happens wherever you are at the time.

That's what I really liked about this movie-- that for as much as this movie is about dealing with the death of a loved one, it acknowledges that this horrible event doesn't erase anything else that's going on in your life at the time. The family's sadness over Elizabeth's death is mixed up with their anger over her infidelity. Her death also happens at the same time that Matt and his cousins are trying to decide who to sell a valuable piece of land to, or whether to sell it at all. Additionally, her death doesn't change the fact that Matt and Elizabeth hadn't been happy for a long time, or that Alex and her younger sister Scottie both have their own lives and issues. This movie is about dealing with saying goodbye to Elizabeth in the midst of all that.

Two small things that bothered me: Matt waits until he has told literally everyone else that Elizabeth is dying before he tells ten-year-old Scottie; when she is eventually told, the actual words come from a woman who I assume is the hospital's grief counselor, not him, and we don't even get to hear most of what the grief counselor says. Every moment that he didn't tell her, I got more and more uncomfortable, and I kept thinking she was going to find out accidentally, or react really violently when she did find out. Her actually finding out is pretty anticlimactic. I was also bothered by a character named Sid, a stereotypical dumb surfer dude who is friends with Alex and who is with the family throughout most of the film. He also has a knack for saying incredibly inappropriate things. I guess he was there for comic relief, and to give us the perspective of someone less close to the situation. I still didn't think he was all that necessary.

Regardless, I liked the movie a lot, for the most part. I'd recommend it.

thoughts on "Take a Back Road" music video

I've never written about a music video before. I don't even watch many music videos. However, I saw this one this morning, for a song that I have enjoyed for several months now, and found I had a surprising lot to say about it.

I think Rodney Atkins is supposed to be an angel similar to the angels in the movie City of Angels in this video. I did not get this until the end, when he claps the cute cop on the shoulder and the cop, without acknowledging that he has been clapped on the shoulder, walks over to the cute single woman and strikes up a conversation. I believe this explains why no one seems to notice Atkins walking around with his guitar in places he doesn't belong, like in Interstate traffic. I believe this is also why they show him perched on a bridge and a water tower at different points in the video (I hope he was placed there using special effects, by the way, because my heart leapt into my throat every time they cut to him just casually sitting on a bridge, playing his guitar).

Anyway, despite this bit of curiousness, I did like this video. I like the point where the guy is sitting in traffic, looking frustrated, then a song he likes comes on the radio and he just sits back with a smile, like everything's okay now. That's how it is for me, too. In fact, just this morning, when I turned on the TV and a video I like immediately started up ("Beautiful Every Time" by Lee Brice), I thought to myself, "Today is going to be a good day." I also full-on went "AW!" when the cute cop went over to talk to the woman. However, I do think this is weird: no one appears to be able to see Atkins throughout the video, including at the end, when they are at the barbecue. However, at the barbecue, people *can* hear the song, as evidenced by the fact that many people are clapping in rhythm to it. How is this possible? They can hear the other two musicians they show at the party, but not him, the singer? Weird.

thoughts on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The guy at the ticket counter at the AMC on the West Side talked me into buying their Rewards card. Then as he handed me my ticket, he said, "You'll like this movie. Parts of it are kind of vulgar, but it's good. It's like three hours long, though, so go pee before you go in." Farily accurate assessment (though I'm not sure if I would have specifically chosen the word "vulgar"), good advice.

I don't have a ton to say about this movie, but my general assessment is, "It was like the book, only more confusing." I hadn't read the book for about a year, which I thought would be good so that I wouldn't be constantly comparing everything, but it took me awhile to remember who certain characters were, and I still feel like I'd like to skim through a couple of parts of the book again. Also, while some things in the book happen quickly and are surprising, here it seems like a lot of the surprises come completely out of nowhere. Plus...Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander are both farily complex characters. Mikael Blomkvist also has fairly complex relationships with the people in his life, which I think is fairly normal for a man of his age and life experiences. I just don't think the movie captured those complexities, and that they, for the sake of time, had to skate over certain details that deserved more attention. I guess the thing that I liked best about the book was the characters and their relationships, and I was disappointed in the amount of attention the movie was able to give them.

That said, I thought the casting was good, for the most part. I liked Daniel Craig as Blomkvist, and I thought Rooney Mara totally disappeared into the role of Lisbeth Salander. Totally wasn't expecting Robin Wright as Erika Berger. Erika Berger, in the book, anyway, always just struck me as more sophisticated and put-together than the roles Wright often plays. I thought Wright did fine; I just wouldn't have pictured her in that role.

Obviously, I was squirming and covering my eyes during the rape scene. I thought the film handled it okay; it was just difficult to watch.

I guess that's all I'll say. I thought the movie was okay. I didn't love it.