A Pleasant Surpise

For months I've secretly wanted to see Rock of Ages, and last week I finally took a chance on it.  The trailer for this musical-turned-movie had excellent promise, plus a star-studded cast featuring the likes of Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, and Tom Cruise (amongst others) provided the ingredients for a great movie.  I'm not usually one for musicals, with the exception of Grease, but Rock of Ages really surprised me.  I expected an OK movie, especially since the critics didn't give very favorable reviews, and I was shocked at how much I loved this movie.  The 80s music and hair may have distracted me more than I would like to admit, but I can't deny that I absolutely loved this movie.  Possibly the most surprising element of the movie was the acting and singing ability of the two leads, Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta, who aren't extremely known for their acting abilities in major motion pictures.  They both did an excellent job and held their own amongst their A-list counterparts.  The only reason not to see this movie would be if you hate 80s music.  I happen to love 80s music, and if you share my sentiments then go rent this movie immediately if you haven't already. 

Watch New Girl Now!

A while back my good friend Kyle recommended that I check out a show on Fox called New Girl starring Zooey Deschanel.  I normally trust Kyle's recommendations, and I'm glad that I once again took his advice.  New Girl made me laugh out loud from the first episode and never ceases to amaze me with its simplistic yet hilarious antics.  Zooey Deschanel is the perfect combination of a quirky and awkwardly funny female lead, who while making you laugh out loud on a regular basis also has a strange sex appeal. 

The other character's do a great job at complementing Zooey's character Jess as she attempts to navigate life post a six year relationship.  Jess decides to move into a loft with three guys who each bring their own special element and comedic relief to the table.  I love this show because it's simple and hilarious.  Many of the situations faced by the characters are applicable to real life, and none of the cast members are ridiculously good looking (except for Hannah Simone, love Cici) giving the show more of a real world feel than some of the other network shows out there.  Usually I only watch shows that air on premium channels or FX, but I've been pleasantly surprised by this gem on Fox.  Check it out if you haven't already.

A Couple of Disappointments

I've recently been extremely disappointed on two separate occasions.  The first let down came from J.K Rowling's first attempt at adult novels, The Casual Vacancy.  Let me preface this review by stating that I love J.K Rowling and the Harry Potter franchise, but this story fell far short of my expectations.  The novel is well written, as one would expect from J.K, and the character development is consistent and complex enough for an interesting plot, but to me, this story was just ordinary.  Nothing from Casual Vacancy really separated it from other similar novels that I've read, and nothing about the story intrigued me enough to the point that I felt a strong urge to continue reading.  I honestly just finished the book out of respect and love for J.K, but overall Casual Vacancy fell far short of my expectations.  Do yourself a favor and skip this one. I still love you J.K.

A recent movie choice equally disappointed me.  Lola Versus starring Greta Gerwig had an excellent trailer that led me to anticipate a work of indie-hipster gold.  Based on the trailer, I expected a funny and witty romantic-esque comedy with plenty of relatable themes and scenes.  Instead, the movie, like Casual Vacancy, turned out ordinary, with nothing exciting or worthwhile.  In this case I fell victim to what I like to call "An all-inclusive trailer," which basically means the trailer shows all of the best and funny parts in the movie, so when you actually see the movie none of the scenes are all that funny because you've already seen them.  I didn't really like anything about this movie.  Weak writing, character development, plot, and ending.  Skip this one for sure.  I'll put the trailer below so you can enjoy all this movie has to offer in two minutes and change.  

So Glad I Saw the Perks

A few weeks ago I saw The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and it lived up to my very high expectations.  Some of you may be more familiar with the young adult novel, and the author of that novel finally adapted it into a screenplay.  Let me preface my breakdown of the movie with my theory on why this movie matched all of my expectations as a huge fan of the novel.  Stephen Chbosky, the author of the novel, also wrote the screenplay, produced, and directed the movie.  I believe that the author's significant role in every aspect of the movie led to its booming success.  I find that movies based on books so often fall short of expectations, and can do more disrespect than homage to the stories they are meant to portray.  In this case, the fact that the author took an immense amount of time to create his story in a new medium, led to one of the best film adaptations of a novel that I have ever seen.  It makes me wonder why more director's don't incorporate the original writer's in the film-making process.   Then again, most novelists probably do not know a great deal about film making or the screen-writing genre, but who knows.  It would be nice if great books weren't butchered when made into movies.  I guess the bottom line here is that Stephen Chbosky is a ridiculously talented and artistic individual to have accomplished this feat as original writer, screen writer, producer, and director. 

And now to the movie.  Perks represents a young man's struggle to adapt to the high school social scene.  Charlie, an awkward yet intelligent ninth grader, finds himself very short on friends due to some unfortunate circumstances.  After a couple of tough weeks Charlie finally makes two friends in Patrick and Samantha, who introduce Charlie to a fast and fun social scene filled with parties, get-togethers, and even some rocky horror picture shows.  While Charlie becomes closer to Patrick and Sam, he experiences many difficult situations with drugs, alcohol, and a few different love interests.  Along the way Charlie has the guidance of his English teacher (played by Ball Rudd) who while enriching Charlie's education by providing him additional novels and assignments, also gives Charlie some very important advice on life. 

For me, the movie is a cult classic for someone who grew up in the 90s and 00s.  Anyone can relate to a number of the characters in Perks, while also feeling nostalgic remembering the awkward and fun moments in High School.  All of the main characters put forth masterful performances.  This isn't surprising being that Chbosky waited years until he could find the perfect cast to bring his novel to life on the big screen.  Make sure you see this movie if you enjoy coming of age stories of the difficulties of high school.  Great movie.

I Want to See this Girl Attempt to Walk

Opening Day of Pro Football

Here it is, the day that I've anxiously anticipated for the past 20 years of my life, opening Sunday of the NFL season.  And for some reason I just find myself less than excited this year.  I'm not even playing fantasy football this year.  That could be for the best.  I've found that for the past few years my desire for my fantasy players to succeed has superseded my desire for the Eagles to win.  It's probably best for me to just focus my football energy on one team, once a week.  This way I won't have to worry about all of these other players on other teams, and how they'll perform on Sundays.  Still, I'm feeling a significant void where I usually have an abundance of excitement.  Hopefully that void will fill up soon after kickoff and I can return to form. 

Now would probably be a good time to make a prediction for the season.  I'm pretty terrible with predictions, whether it's picking a winner or a final score.  The closest I ever came to picking a final score was that Penn State vs. LSU bowl game a few years ago in that disgusting, torn up field in Orlando; worst football field conditions I have ever seen, and even then I was still one point off.  I'll just say this: Andy Reid has never gone 4-0 in the preseason, and Andy Reid has never won a Superbowl.  Not the most sound logic, but he's been at this for quite some time, and it would be nice if he could finally bring home a Lombardi trophy.  Sure there are teams out there with more talent and ability, but I hope that the birds can just put it all together at the right time and make a run in December and January.  It would make sense too, being that I'm most likely moving abroad, that they would put it all together and finally win that first, elusive Superbowl when I'm not even in town to see it. 

Bottom line, I just want to get back to that point where I just enjoy watching football.  No money or pride from fantasy is on the line, and anything that the birds do will exceed expectations because I have none.  I just hope that for three hours a week I can get back to forgetting about all of the other bullshit that the week will bring and once again enjoy the bliss of watching football.  Go Eagles.

Strike Back

It's been a while.  Many ups and downs recently, but I'm glad to report that all is currently well and that I'm back on a positive track.  Enough about me, and more about television goodness. 

Due to my recent recently changing work schedule (full and part-time weeks at work, out of my control) I had a decent amount of down time, which usually means plenty of time for TV marathons.  As with many good things, I discovered a new, excellent show called Strike Back by accident.  Turns out that my premium cable package does include Cinemax, something new for the past three weeks (shhhh! it may be an accident on the cable company's part).  So as I flipped through the channels I caught a clip of a pretty decent fire fight with plenty of explosions and AK-47s.  Naturally I kept watching.  With all of the complete crap out there in the movie and television industry I try to relish the moments when I actually stumble upon something that's slightly entertaining and full of uncertainties. 

Luckily I tuned in right at the beginning of the episode and caught the whole thing, after which I was hooked.  I actually watched episode nine in a ten episode season, so I backtracked over the next three days and caught up with the first season right before the second season aired this past Friday.  Off topic, here we go, synopsis.  So there's this British led special forces/covert ops unit called Section 20.  After one of the operatives is killed in action Section 20 seeks out the help of an ex-delta, American soldier named Damien Scott.  Scott joins a seasoned British operative named Michael Stonebridge, and the two operate in the field while others help them from a command center.  Sector 20 is under the command of Colonel Eleanor Scott, a seasoned and tough authority figure who does what she needs to in the war against terror.

The first season chronicles Section 20's attempt to capture a major Pakistani terrorist named Latif.  Every episode has to do with the team attempting to bring down Latif or someone closely linked to him.  There are constant fights, gun battles, and intense scenes which keep the audience on the edge of their seat every episode.  The refreshing part about this show is that there are no "filler" episodes in the series.  Every episode plays a crucial part in Section 20's hunt for Latif, and in result there are plenty gun battles.  Oh, and let me remind you that the series is on Cinemax so naturally there's plenty of nudity and sex.  And I'm not talking like a boob here and there, I'm talking borderline soft-core porn.  So if you're into that and lots of action definitely catch this show.  The full first season should be one demand along with the first, ninety minute episode of the second season.  Trailers for both below.  Oh, P.S-little bonus: Some of the actors from Game of Thrones appear in Strike Back!!!!!!  Specifically Iain Glen aka Sir Jorah Mormont, and Charles Dance aka Tywin Lannister although not according to IMDB, but the episode just aired so maybe they are a little behind. 

Could only find the Season 2 trailer, but still check out Season 1: