My Superbad, Superbad Review

With a funky psychedelic opening theme and trippy colors flying at you like an old style 70’s movie Superbad kicks on the screen.  This movie came out back in 2007 staring Jonah Hill (Get him to the Greek, Knocked Up, Megamind, Forgetting Sarah Marshal), Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim Vs the World, Nick and Nora’s Infinite playlist, Juno) Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Role Models, Kickass), Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, The 40 Year old Virgin, Pineapple Express), Bill Hader (SNL, Pineapple Express, Venture Bros.), Martha MacIsaac (Greek) and Emma Stone (Zombieland, Easy A).  Right off the bat we are introduced to the best friends Seth and Evan (Hill and Cera), inseparable friends to the point where they start their conversation via cell phone, before even getting to Evan’s house to pick him up.  Without skipping a beat, they are continuing their conversation while hanging up their phones.  Despite the witty typical best friend back and forth banter.  A common connecting point is Evan’s obsession with Becca (Martha MacIsaac) and Seth’s hatred for Becca, to which Evan instantly becomes defensive. 

Seth (Jonah Hill) is your typical run of the mill sexually frustrated male who talks big but is really a scared child inside looking to make himself seem more awesome then he really is.  Seth does come off as more willing to do anything to get what he wants out of woman then Evan does.  He even goes so far as to steal beer from some maniac’s basement fridge.  He is awkward and over the top with his seemingly confident persona.  He breaks the rules and doesn’t care because like most seniors about to graduate he feels invincible.  The problem Seth has with Evan’s love interest Becca stems to a problem he had in the fourth grade (for those of you who have only ever seen this movie on TV and not on DVD or in Theaters you never see this scene), Seth could not stop drawing male private parts.  It was ultimately Becca who found out and told on him out to the principal, after that Seth labeled Becca a bitch and never forgave her.  The counter balance to Seth is Evan.

Evan (Michael Cera) is the unconfident friend and less willing to do something big unless it involves him getting a chance with Becca.  A fact which Seth uses more often than not to get his way with Evan when it seems like Evan is going to chicken out.  Evan is the balance to Seth and the reason why they are such good best friends; they are opposite sides of the same coin.  When they work together they accomplish the seemingly impossible.  Evan likes to set the moral high ground and will do anything he can to appease all parties.  This is brought to light when having to deal with Seth and Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) at the same time.  Evan however is hiding a secret from Seth, a secret that will throw off the harmonious balance of the friendship.  Evan will be rooming with Fogell in college, while Seth goes off to another school.  GASP OHHH NOES, TEEN ANGST AND DRAMA *clicks remote back to the story*.  Evan only hides this because he is afraid of how Seth will react, which we find out later on that he doesn’t really care.

The story itself is what you would expect of a high school comedy, it takes place in one day and one night, the misadventures of two friends with the help of hot girls, idiot cops and a party.  The story starts off with the friendship of Evan and Seth and how they have to face the fact that they will be separated for the first time since they were eight years old.  You add in their mutual friend Fogell or as Seth likes to call him Fagell.  Fogell becomes the catalyst that sparks the explosion of comedy to ensue during the movie, when Seth and Evan find out that Fogell will be getting a fake I.D.  Seth throws on his fake nice act to use Fogell to get alcohol for a party he and Evan will be going to, to get with the girls of their dreams.  With only a few hick ups, the plan of Fogell’s fake I.D working nearly succeeds  except for the fact that it may fail because of the name on the I.D.  Fogell changes his name to McLovin no first name just McLovin.  “You sound like a gay Irish rapper.”  “Of all the names you could have picked, you just happen to land on McLovin!?” 

With some debate on the validity of the plan, the trio meet up outside of Fogell’s place of work, which he will not use his fake ID for because they know.  Does this stop Seth from going into the store to try his luck?  No, it does not.  The following scene is one of my favorites in the entire movie.  You have Seth walking into the supermarket and walking straight to the liquor section where he proceeds to have three separate situations play out in his mind.  1.)  He buys the liquor himself, telling the cashier he is twenty one with no question or asking to see an I.D and paying for all the booze with an eighty dollar bill.  2.)  The old lady in the liquor section drops her purse and Seth offers to help her shop, to which the lady realizing what he wants, offers to buy his liquor.  “Enjoy your remaining years!”  “Have fun fucking Julies!”  “I WILL!”  3.)  Seth goes to pick up the Gold Slick Vodka for Evan to give to Becca, only to have the Security guard kill the old lady and then Seth himself.  With a look of defeat Seth leaves the supermarket to take Evan and Fogell “McLovin” to the liquor store.

“If you don’t go in there, I will kill you, I will kill you and cut of your stupid face and where it as a mask and buy the alcohol myself.”  After a few pokes and prods from Seth, McLovin goes into the liquor store albeit a tad nervous to buy the alcohol for the party.  During this time the store is quickly robbed and McLovin punched out.  Enter the bumbling idiots Officers Michaels and Slater.  These two are the epitome of bad cops, not corrupt, not just bad.  They make the most idiotic officer you ever met look smart.  Not only can they make the most simple police task like taking down a description seem difficult, they cannot even restrain a drunken bum properly.  But it is through these two where the most laughs come from, when not on the main characters.  Teamed up with McLovin the side kick trio as I will affectionately call them.  The hijinks they get into pre-party is comedy gold.

With that “brief” summary of the movie I will leave you with my final verdict of the movie.  For a comedy it is good mindless fun, that if you do not take seriously you will enjoy.  But besides for film critics who is going to into a comedy movie expecting to see a cinematic masterpiece.  On a scale of one to ten this movie receives an eight.  For its ability to keep the watchers enthralled and engaged in the characters, somewhat believable dialog in certain scenes.  But do yourself a favor and rent the movie in the unrated version and do not DO NOT watch this film on a TV release, you will be disappointed otherwise.

Just because you think you can sing, doesn't mean you should

Saw a crappy cover band last night at a local bar.  My god, it was seriously like listening to a cat in heat whining.  The only good thing about the band was the guitars and drums,  the singer was trash.  They did nothing original and all the songs they covered the lead singer pretty much ruined except for perhaps I will survive.  They attempted to cover a skynard song and failed horribly.  JUST all around bad.  The other band members should drop the hack lead man and get someone better.

Toy Review (RC Stunt Knight Car)

Removed by third party for owner's sake.  He will thank me in the long run

The Twins Evanstar (A mini story of my characters)

The Twins Evenstar (mini Chapter 1)

Daylight rose in the forest, but the treetops were not the only living creatures to greet the mornings warming rays.  Three figures stood in a glade, all three were Elves one a male and the other two were female.  The male stood at five foot eight inches tall, an athletic build with black hair and blue eyes, wearing only the leather greaves of his studded leather armor, he practiced his sword with expert precision.  “You two better pray your suitors can handle my skills with a blade, sisters.”  The older female smirked before responding.  “You know that any suitor I choose would have to pass my scrutiny, I swear Jaster we are twins yet I have all the brains.”  Jaster looked at his twin “Avexithina, you know father’s rule, any male wishing to take yours or Alhanna’s hand in marriage must fight me in honorable combat.”   He looked at his little sister Alhanna who was playing with a forest animal.  “If anything were to ever happen to either of you, I do not know what I would do.”  Jaster looked back to Avexithina, and hugged her.  Avexithina looked at Jaster funny “You are weird sometimes brother, but that is why we love you, if only father would let me fight that whore you call your betrothed………, she pissed me off at the last ball.”  Avexithina’s hand began to glow with eldritch power “I would destroy her, you can do so much better than that Nightbreeze bitch, and you know Queen Alistia’s youngest daughter Laurana has her eye on you, don’t you Jaster?”

Jaster looked uneasy and pulled away from his sister, he didn’t really like talking about these things and the mentioning of betrothed and potential mates made him want to hop on the next mission to the boarders.  “Yeah well be that as it may, I have to get back to training and you should take Alhanna to the church to pray with father.” 

Join me next time for the next Mini Chapter

The Degradation of Entertainment

The comedy Movie review of Grandma's Boy

Hit the 8-bit music and the old style rail shooter mixing it up with the ship destroying letters of the cast and production team and you have the opening to a great comedy.  Welcome to the review of Grandma’s Boy.  Starring Allen Covert (Notorious as playing a supporting role in the majority of Happy Madison films), Linda Cardellini (Freaks and Geeks), Doris Roberts (The Mother from Everybody Loves Raymond), and the majority of Happy Madison Productions usual actors, this movie didn’t really stand out too well when it was in theaters back in 2006 but gained cult following after its release to DVD.  It is a story about a thirty five year old game tester named Alex (Allen Covert) and his life after being evicted from his apartment because of his roommate’s inability to pay the rent due to spending said rent money on hookers. “YOU’RE A HOOKER”.   Alex is laid back easy going and slow to anger, he is looked up to by his peers at work even his competition respect the fact that he is a master at videogames calling him “The Grey Bush”.    

After his eviction from his apartment, we meet Alex’s friend and Co-Worker Jimmy (Nick Swordson) another game tester who lives at home with his parents in a car-bed.  Childlike and jovial Jimmy is a perfect balance to Alex’s somewhat serious nature.  Next you have the love interest, the smart and sexy game production specialist, Samantha (Linda Cardellini).  Despite her outward serious demeanor, you tell she too is a gamer and child at heart and this gets shown during the party at the grandma’s house celebrating the finishing of Eternal Death slayer.  “Three….Eternal Death Slayer Three, get it right Kane!”  Grandma Lilly (Doris Roberts) is your typical doting and loving maternal figure, which despite the age, spoils her grandson.  She lives with her two roommates, Bea (Shirley Night) a pill popping crazy lady and Grace (Shirley Jones) a lush and widower of four husbands and self proclaimed still active whore.  “Grace you were a filthy old whore.”  “What do you mean were?”  The three ladies live across the street from Haliwell Manor (The Charmed house).  With Alex now moved in, the three have no trouble with putting the young man to work around the house doing chores.  This ultimately leads to Alex being less productive at work and falling asleep, he doesn’t want the others to know he is living with family like Jimmy, so he tells everyone he is living with three crazy nymphomaniacs and the reason he is tired all the time is cause of all the crazy wild orgies.

No movie even a comedy can call itself complete unless it some sort of drama or villain type character to try and make the lives of the main characters harder, for no other reason then, I want them to feel like shit.  Enter JP (Joel Moore), the videogame prodigy, and creator of Eternal Death slayer a game with a massive following, which JP created when he was thirteen.  He can only be described as a person with MPD and maybe Aspergers.  He has at least two personalities, the acting confident but cocky emotionally distant genius JP and then you have Robot JP which is more feeling based and blurt out random things while talking like a robot yet sounding rational (occasionally).  But he is considered to be the villain because he abuses his power over the testers and those around him like a king would treat his servants.   JP even seems to have a way of using medieval terms when addressing people terms such as Naves and Milady. 

The story comes to a head, after JP seemingly has an emotional breakdown while confiding in Alex his feelings about people hating him.  During the breakdown JP notices the game Alex has been making.  This sparks JP into asking Alex to “Barrow” the game and give him notes on the game, for Alex to improve the game.  With the only copy of the game in JP’s possession he turns the game into the Game Company’s owner Mr. Cheezle (Kevin Nealon) as his own work.  Which leads me to believe that maybe JP stole Eternal Death Slayer from someone also (but that is all speculation).  It is Grandma Lilly to the rescue as she is the only person Alex ever told about and let play the game.  The final battle is fought between the “Genius” and the grandmother defending her grandson’s honor.

I highly recommend this movie to everyone, I bought the unrated edition two years ago and I watch it constantly.  It makes me laugh every time no matter how many times I have seen it.  On a rating scale of one to ten, I give Grandma’s Boy an eight.  Despite its general quality of both cinematography and overall acting, I can’t give this movie a full ten because it does have problems.  Some scenes really just seem abrupt and out of place in the overall flow of the movie.  But ten or not, go out and watch this movie, it will not disappoint you.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Review part 2 (more spoilers)

Welcome to the second part of the review for "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya."  In the first part we discussed the characters and the various elements they play in the series, along with a few examples of what Haruhi is like and what she is capable of doing.  In this part I will be discussing the finer details of the series.  After this part I will be posting a review of episode zero for the anime.  So brace yourself for the rest of the review.

With the passing of the events of Haruhi almost completely resetting reality, life seemingly has returned to normal at North High.  Each character giving Kyon the warning of not upsetting Haruhi to much in fear of another attempted reality shift, which basically translates to “do what she says and keep her happy so we can all keep living.” Now that Haruhi is back is to her normal bubbly eccentric self, the hi-jinks return with Haruhi signing up the brigade for a baseball tournament for publicity purposes.  With only a week to practice, it looks grim and the chance of being knocked out in the first round is eminent and as Itsuki points out, losing is not an option.  With a little help (and I mean A LOT) from Yuki, the brigade wins the first round and then drop out when Kyon convinces Haruhi that they can’t continue because they are down a man and he was tried.  It is this episode that points out the fact that despite all his griping Kyon is the balance to Haruhi’s power.  Itsuki pointed out that the more frustrated Haruhi became, the quicker she was to unknowingly create closed spaces and that there was a reason Kyon had picked the number he did and got the clean up position on batting order.  Because Haruhi trusts Kyon and seeing him acting the way he was and not pulling his weight on the team only served to frustrate Haruhi further.  BUT once he did however realize the gravity of the situation he stepped up to please her.   (Hint #2 guys, step up and be a man to please your lady, she will love you more for it.)

One thing you have to realize is the order of the anime is screwy depending on how you go about watching the series.  If you go in episode order with zero to fourteen the time-line of the show is going to be funky because there is episodes that should have been placed earlier in the show to suit the time-line.  Take for example episode eleven which takes place after the School Arts festival and episode twelve takes place before eleven but after episode zero.  Episode zero is the movie Haruhi had the Brigade make for the festival and if you watch the beginning of episode twelve it starts off with the opening credits to the movie.  So you can safely say that episode zero should be watched after episode ten and before episode eleven and twelve with twelve coming before eleven if that makes any sense lol.

Over all this is a great series if you like wacky supernatural slice of life anime.  If you are planning on watching this series, you can skip episode zero because it really doesn’t make much sense.  I also recommend you watch it episodic order meaning zero to fourteen and then deciding where the episodes should be placed chronologically.  Over all it is a fun series to watch, I plan on watching the next seasons soon, so keep an eye out for that review.  Until next time remember to comment in the comment section and pass the word on that this blog is not a journal but a news and review blog :) keep on keeping on!

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Review (spoilers inside)

Before reading this review, ask yourself this.  Do I believe in the paranormal like Espers, Time Travelers and Aliens?  If so then this is a series that is diffidently for you!  The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, a series about a bubbly optimistic girl and a down to earth no nonsense guy and the school adventures of their friends.  Haruhi is the type of girl who makes crazy seem sane, she loves everything interesting and supernatural, hence her declaration on the first day of school “I am only interested in; Time Travelers, Aliens and Espers.  If you are one of these things please see me!”  She is very eccentric and doesn’t care what people think about her.  This is why she founded the S.O.S Brigade an extracurricular club which takes mysteries given to them by students and solves them (as long as they are over the top interesting and dealing with the paranormal).  She was not alone in the founding of this club; the club did not even come into existence in her mind until Kyon suggested she make a club if the other clubs did not suit her needs.

 Kyon is the second founding member (by force mind you) of the S.O.S Brigade and unwitting best friend (and spoiler love interest) of Haruhi Suzumiya.  Kyon is not even his real name, while it is never mentioned in the animated series it is however mentioned in passing in volume nine of the graphic novel by one of Kyon’s old middle school classmates.   The name Kyon comes from a nickname given to him by his little sister and that nickname was passed to Kyon’s friends at school (much to his embarrassment, being a proper Japanese boy, he prefers to be called Onii-Chan [Big Brother] by his little sister).  He too was once like Haruhi, utterly enthralled by the world beyond our own.  But upon reaching high school he confined himself to the mundane world and became serious.   That is until he met Haruhi, what seemed like a whim he began talking to her about the strangeness of how she changed her hair every day.  (Hint #1 guys, women love being asked about their hair, it makes them feel pretty and that you notice her.).  It completely threw Kyon through a loop when she came in with her hair short after he had offhandedly mentioned he liked girls with short hair.  As they talked more and more even after he had tried to get away from Haruhi Via seat change, it seemed fate wanted him near Haruhi because she got the seat directly behind him again.

Haruhi is not known for her subtlety when it comes to things, she does not care if there is boys in the room when she changing, which causes a huge uproar among the boys in the room who get promptly kicked out by the female class president.  So it really only came as a shock to Kyon when Haruhi pulled him back in his chair so he hit his head on her desk to announce she was going to make a club, in the middle of a class. 

Now for the other members of the brigade, you have Yuki Nagato a quiet girl and third member of the club (also by force via absorbing of the literary club).  It is revealed in the second episode that Yuki is a humanoid interface created by the Data Integration Thought Entity, or as so a human can understand it an Alien.  She is here to observe Haruhi Suzumiya because according to Yuki, Haruhi has the ability of auto evolution the ability to seemingly create streams of data at will including life.  Yuki is first seen using her power when Kyon’s life is threatened by another alien girl in Kyon’s class.  Despite taking what we would consider fatal injuries Yuki manages to survive and rebuild the area of data corrupted by the other alien. 

Next you have member number four (also by force, via kidnapping) Mikuru Asahina, the constant recipient of Haruhi’s  treatment of being forced to do things, be it changing into a bunny girl costume or being used to frame the computer club for sexual harassment in order to get a computer without having to pay for it.  She is soft spoken, shy and seemingly subservient to the will of Haruhi.  It is revealed early on that she is a time traveler sent back to the current time line in order to investigate why members of the time police cannot travel back in time three years prior to the events of the story.  When she speaks of things related to her mission it is much censored and often speaks the phrase “That’s Classified”.  Kyon develops a crush on Mikuru which causes Haruhi to become jealous of the relationship.  Which can be seen during the brigades first mission to discover paranormal activity in the city when Haruhi splits the group and says “THIS ISN’T A DATE KYON, SO YOU TWO BETTER NOT JUST GO OFF WALKING AROUND. “  It is debated on whether or not the jealousy of Haruhi toward Mikuru’s influence over Kyon is the cause of Haruhi creating a closed space with only Haruhi and Kyon inside closing out all others including Aliens, Time Travelers and Espers (which basically killed the fifth member of the brigade because he couldn’t get in the closed space in his Esper form). 

The last member in the brigade is Itsuki Koizumi the only member of the group to willingly join the club.  He is perky and somewhat naïve or so it appears.  Haruhi view Itsuki as strange and interesting because he is a midterm transfer student to the school.   Prior to the events of the story according to Itsuki, he was a normal person before suddenly one day receiving the powers of an Esper.  The “upper brass” of the Esper agency think that Haruhi is the cause of Espers being allowed into closed space to fight the Celestial beings inside of said closed spaces who if left unattended could destroy the world.  In essence the Espers view Haruhi as a god. 

The group gets their first brush with the unknown when the class president Ryoko Asakura suddenly up and transfers to Canada with her parents.  The only people who truly know of what happened to Ryoko are Kyon and Yuki.  They allow Haruhi to investigate the disappearance to keep her entertained and not bored (much like a child with ADD).  Despite finding out that Ryoko seemingly lived alone and moved out of the building without a trace of a moving truck, Haruhi becomes distant still and agitated at the world.  It was after investigating the disappearance of the class president, that Kyon is approached by Itsuki who takes Kyon to closed space to see what Espers do for the world.  Despite being armed with the knowledge that all three of the support members of the brigade are supernatural beings Kyon cannot bring himself to tell Haruhi.  Because as Yuki put it so bluntly “She will not take the knowledge you give her seriously and not believe you.” 

With Haruhi becoming increasingly distant, Kyon returns home to sleep, only to be awoken on the grounds of the school by Haruhi.  When he is awoken to a gray and dingy world with only Haruhi around, it dawns on Kyon to check the perimeter of the school only to find out they are inside of a closed space Along with two Celestials and no Espers in sight.  That is until Kyon is left alone in the club room and he spots Itsuki in energy form outside the window with a message from Yuki and Mikuru.  Kyon figures out through outside help of Yuki that the closed space was created by Haruhi who was unknowingly recreating the world and that the only way to restore the world was a hint Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.   The Episode and this half of the review of Haruhi Suzumiya ends with Kyon waking up from a dream where he has kissed Haruhi after telling her “That day you wore you hair in the pony tail you were so good looking it should have been criminal.”  The next day in class Kyon walks in to see Haruhi with her hair in a pony tail.

Until the next half of the review my faithful readers, please leave comments in the comment section and come back for the next and final half of this review tomorrow.

Reaching my threshold and staring at the truth till I'm blind

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, what do I say about this movie?  Well let me first start off by saying I thoroughly enjoy this movie.  I am in lesbians with this movie!  Well to be fair I am a fan of the overall series in general.  For those of you who don’t know, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World is the title of one of the eight graphic novels.  The series is about Scott Pilgrim, a twenty two year old bassist for a band called Sex Bob-Omb .  His life is turned upside down when he meets the lovely and mysterious Romona Flowers.  He is unwittingly pitted against Romona’s evil ex’s in a battle to control Romona’s love life.  The movie in my honest opinion did a really good job of catching the stereotypes which are portrayed in the graphic novels about anime.  The casting was spot on and the acting was amazing and it makes you become invested in the characters on the screen.  The direction of both cinematography and special effects were great and even though some of the scenes were a tad over the top, this movie is meant to be over the top.  The music is awesome and the band Sex Bob-Omb is an actual band not just a fictional band and their music is crazy which suits the story perfectly.   If you are looking for good mindless fun, then you should go out and buy or rent this movie.  If you have it, get it on Blu-Ray.  My Rating is 10 out of 10 1-Ups  :-P( Videogame pun ftw!!!)