This movie looks like the next best apatow-related comedy. I call all of those movies with Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, and Jonah Hill Apatow-related because even though Judd Apatow may not have directed or executive produced he seems to be the father of this new brand of stoner/slacker humor which I happen to love. Anyway, this new move is a pseudo sequel to Knocked Up, but instead of following Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl's relationship it focuses on the family of Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, and the two Apatow daughters (dude casts his whole family in movies and they're still fucking awesome; nepotism at it's finest). I prefer this dynamic as I love Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann, and I could do without Katherine Heigl. I've got nothing against her personally. it's just that I don't think she's very funny, and for a comedy to kick ass you need funny actors.
So this movie picks up a few years after Knocked Up left off. Debbie (Leslie Mann, and don't criticize. I only remembered the characters names now and I didn't feel like looking them up on imdb. I prefer to rely on my memory which has allowed me to confine plenty of useless information over the years including lots of information from movies) is going through an early mid-life crisis as she refuses to admit that she's 40 years old. In response to her crisis, Debbie vows to make changes in her family members lives, specifically her husband and her two daughters. While Debbie strives to change her family for the better conflict arises and people start to rebel when their lives are suddenly being forcefully altered. The pinnacle of the trailer, which I will soon post for your viewing pleasure, has to be the scene where Paul Rudd appears to be holding a mirror up to his butthole and asks his wife to come and help him out with something (Yes, I know, this movie sounds epic).
This is 40 will bring back characters from Knocked up such as Jason Segel and Tim Bagley, while also bringing in some new and hilarious talent in Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids). Let's be honest people, it's an Apatow movie, and right now Apatow is the king of cinematic comedy. Go and see this movie and you will likely not regret it.
I've reached that point that some fear and others relish: the contract for my cellphone is up, and I am now to decide what new piece of technology will carry me through the next two years of my life. I'm struggling with this decision because as I'm excited to get rid of my Crapberry, I'm not sure if I want to up or downgrade. Conventional wisdom tells me to downgrade because of my distaste for cellphones in general, but I must say that I have gotten quite used to having email on my mobile device. Although I loathe people who spend their entire day/life on their cell phones listening to music, playing games, texting, and talking, for my general purposes in life it seems that a smart phone would make things easier.
No big deal right? You get get smartphones cheap now, even free if you start a new plan. Oh no friends, I will not be falling into that pitfall again of buying or taking some piece of crap phone. If I upgrade I will be iphoning it with the best of them. Not because I care to have all of the apps, games, and music a 16GB phone (yes I've though this through and 16 GB is plenty of memory for my needs), but because if I'm going to have a phone for it's ability to connect to the internet, I might as well buy the best phone out there. And here come the nay sayers; you know, those people who try to say that Android phones are just as good as iphones. Sorry people, but apple reigns superior in all things technology.
So right now you're probably thinking why I'm even debating this because I'm obviously set on buying an iphone. If only it were that easy. The Jew in me always thinks of the cost when it comes to these machines, and that extra thirty dollars a month for the 3GB of data is a tough thing to stomach. Is email and internet on the go worth and extra 30 bucks a month, let alone the 60 bucks I'll already be spending for talk and text. Throw in those taxes and fees and I'm easily looking at 100 bucks. I just don't know if the unlimited access to email is really necessary. I could certainly use some advice here so please let me know what you think. Iphone vs. regular phone? And yes those are your only two choices. If you say no cellphone, I praise you but it's not going to happen. Just in case you needed some biased swaying on how awesome iphones are:
This weather is horrendous. Days like this are when I wish that technology has advanced to the point where we can just stick a giant fan in the sky to part the clouds and bring about sunshine. We got two inches of rain yesterday, and that was plenty. I know this has been a light April, but I'm feeling selfish and I want the warmth. Right now I'm wearing a fleece over under armor cold gear. Sure I'm exaggerating, and my internal thermostat has made me very weak against cold weather, but I just want those sunny 75 degree days back. That's my rant for the night. Maybe I can review some media later tonight.
While listening to the radio tonight (And simultaneously cleaning my kitchen) I heard a song, and I immediately ran to my computer to look up the artist and song on the radio station's website. The artist is named Santigold and she's pretty solid. I'll attach a couple videos with her songs. Give her a listen and leave any feedback you care to share. L.E.S Artistes by Santigold:
No media review here, just a simple observation about a pop-culture phenomenon that I'm finding somewhat disturbing. Let me preface this by saying that I value and applaud any attempt at saving paper or other non-renewable products that otherwise help the environment. I myself recycle and I attempt to print and copy as few papers as possible, and when I do decide to print I at least make the attempt to print double-sided. Although I try to "go-green" in every sense of the word I do feel that in some cases, and for some documents, it's ok to actually splurge and print the thing out, especially on nice paper.
Where did this little blurb come from? For the past four months I've been anxiously awaiting my teacher's certification in the mail. I earned the certification last December when I finished my student teaching, and I was told that I should get in in a month or two. Little did I know at the time that the Pennsylvania Department of Education but in this new and incredibly inefficient system that delayed me receiving my certification for another two months. Ok enough of that, so I've been anxiously awaiting a letter/package that says do not fold from the Pennsylvania Department of Education for about two and a half months now until yesterday when a friend of mine texts me to tell me that I have to print my certification of the Education Department's website. Seriously, print it off? I spent two and a half years of my life and countless hours, not to mention the $100 certification fee, only to print the certification on plain white paper. Uh-uh, that effort and payment at least deserves some type of fancy seal and some expensive, off-white paper. What is this world coming to that significant documents such as teaching certifications (Which for all intensive purposes are licenses to teach) can be printed off department websites? I honestly feel like it's fake. The paper is still sitting on my printer and it just doesn't feel legitimate. This boring paper that I printed off the internet allows me to shape young minds in the great state of PA along with whatever other states accept PA certifications. This process really takes away from all of the effort and money that I put into earning my certification. What a sour end to a very labor-intensive process.
Side note/let's go back in time. This same thing happened to me nearly three years ago when I received my graduate school acceptance letter in an email. Same situation involving the anxious waiting, only to open my gmail one day and see a message from my graduate university titled Congratulations! Shocker...I got in. I remember in high school when I awaited my acceptance letters for undergrad. A regular envelope was always a bad sign while a large packet-which would likely contain the acceptance letter and all necessary orientation materials-was a much better sign. Definitely not a fan of the email acceptance letter people. Call me old school, but I still value snail mail for things like invitations, birthday/holiday cards, and major news such as acceptance letters. I get that we're going green in many aspects of our lives, but sometimes when important documents are received electronically it just takes away from their intended effect and meaning. I don't feel like checking for spelling and/or grammar errors because I'm tired, so forgive me because I'm sure this is still legible.
As my steady readership (I like to refer to you as the two and the proud) knows, I often give my suggestions for upcoming movies. I don't often like to break from tradition, so here are a couple of movies that I may or may not endorse.
Lockout starring Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace involves a futuristic space prison that is taken over by its prisoners precisely when the President's daughter visits for a goodwill mission. As in all blockbuster action movies, the authorities can only send one man to solve this catastrophe, and in this case it happens to be a bad ass Guy Pearce. On paper this movie looks pretty rediculous and awful, but as I continue to watch the trailer and clips I become more interested in seeing this movie. Maggie Grace usually does a nice job (and she's not bad to look at), and I believe Guy Pearce to be one of Hollywood's more underrated actors. If you're currently hungering for a shoot-em-up, action-packed movie (and if you have the $11 to spend on a movie ticket), this one should be right up your alley. Here's the trailer for your viewing pleasure:
My next prediction may shock my avid readers. Here it goes: I think The Avengers is going to be a huge let down. Before you say I've gone nuts let's think about this. This movie is packed with A-list actors (At least nine that I can think of), all of which demand considerable salaries. On top of that, the studio can bank on the fact that each individual superhero has a pretty solid following, and all of those fans combined will likely flock to The Avengers. My bold prediction is the now common Hollywood phenomenon of jam-packing a movie full of stars and skimping on the writing, directing, and effects. I predict that this movie will have one major action sequence, and that the rest will be poorly written and drawn-out drudgery. I pray that I'm wrong because I really like a lot of the actors and characters in this movie, but it's got bust written all over it. Plus, it's the third different guy playing the Hulk, possibly my favorite comic book character. Gotta have some stability there people. Anyway, consider my advice to skip this one when it's in theaters.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
I must appear to be a novice when it comes to Game of Thrones because the title of the series is actually A Song of Ice and Fire. Hope I didn't offend anyone there. Anyway I finished the first book and I'm about to go buy the second, A Clash of Kings. I'm excited to finally read ahead of the TV episodes.
Due to my current employment situation-and my unwillingness/laziness in regards to working out-I've had a decent amount of free time on my hands. Out of pure boredom I flew through the entire first season of Game of Thrones in less than a week, and I must say that I quite enjoyed it. I remember being thoroughly confused after watching the premiere episode because there were so many dynamics happening at once and I couldn't quite understand it. For me not to understand a plot line in a movie or TV show is quite rare. I'm usually the person everyone turns to when they have no idea what's going on. What bothers me is the fact that so often if they just keep watching the movie or show usually answers all of their questions. This happened for me as well with the last nine episodes of Game of Thrones: Season 1.
Not only have I gotten into the show, but I have also started to read the books. I believe there are five books now, and I'm nearly finished the first. This would be a good point to write my book review for the first 650 pages of Book One: A Game of Thrones. The book is certainly a masterpiece for it's genre-science fiction/fantasy-effectively creating a fictitious world with many believable elements, most of which reflect the middle ages, a time of kinds, queens, lords, knights, and castles. The detail given and the number of plot lines provided by the author, George R.R. Martin, are very well done, and provide numerous directions for the story to take. There are so many well developed characters that you'll find your mind wandering in so many different directions with your plot predictions. Martin does a great job at creating characters that anyone could love and hate, and although Martin provides villains, he makes sure to show every characters potential for evil and vulnerability. This aspect keeps you guessing who is truly right and who you're rooting for. You may even find yourself supporting different characters who may have the same goal which places any fan in a conundrum of loyalties.
You're probably thinking that I couldn't possibly have anything bad to say about this book right now, but here it comes. These books are marathon reads. I am by no means a fast reader and I have been chipping away at this first book for quite a while now. Of course, I may be able to give a more accurate opinion once I finish book two because with this series I've taken the opposite route that I normally do when there is a TV show or movie based on a book: I watched it before I read it. I know how the book will end so unconsciously I'm probably in no rush to finish it, especially because I didn't like the ending all that much. I will say this; Martin did something in his first book in a series that not many authors would do and I applaud him for his uniqueness. SPOILER ALERT: He kills off one of his main and most likeable characters. It's risky, yet necessary for so many of the conflicts that will follow. If you don't mind and you like the genre, then I highly recommend the series, but if you're looking for a quick and fun read i.e. Hunger Games you may get a little more than you bargained for.
So that's the book, and here's the show: I think the casting was very well done and the setting and direction match the text extremely well. The one great thing about portraying this book as a mini-series as opposed to a movie is that you don't have to cram an 800 page book into two and a half hours, but instead you have 10 hours worth of episodes. This way, not much is left out, and you don't often find yourself saying how much you wish they would have included a certain scene. So far nearly every scene of importance that I've read has been included in the series, and I think that this mini-series substantiates my ongoing argument that television is truly leaving the movie industry in the dust. So many great actors, directors, and writers have come to TV, making it far more likely to see a great mini series or TV show than a great movie. If you don't already watch this show, start now. There's a great combination of sex, violence, drama, and a good bit of comedy from a little person. With so many different story lines the possibilities are endless, and it's up to you if you want to find out the endings by reading the books. Give this show a shot and you won't regret it. Here's the season 2 trailer, enjoy.
