Posts Tagged ‘celebrities’

Review: Iron Man 3

Posted: May 6, 2013 in Review
Tags: , , ,
6

My first summer movie review, and I’m happy to say, this is probably the best Iron Man film in the franchise yet, for reasons I will go over in a moment.

First, paint a scene in your mind: Tony Stark trying to say something important while showing a certain image from the trailers (I won’t say which one) and totally fumbling it. Cue 90’s music, the studios behind the film show their logos, and we’re transported to a New Year’s Eve party in Switzerland in 1999-2000. You think to yourself, “Is this really how they open this film?” And then as the rest of the film unrolls, you think, “That is how they start a seriously awesome film”.

In the latest entry of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, Robert Downey Jr. returns as Tony Stark, only this time he’s dealing with an anxiety disorder caused by the events of last summer’s The Avengers and his near death by nuke and closing wormhole and falling to the ground from higher than most skyscrapers. Meanwhile, a terrorist with a Chinese name, an Indian look, and a Southern Baptist voice named the Mandarin (played by Ben Kingsley) is causing horrifying bombings all over the place, and one of them hurts a friend of Stark’s. Meanwhile, Guy Pierce as Aldrich Killian, the head of a creepy think tank doing some very heated work (and I don’t mean controversial, I mean heated), and he’s got something to do with the Mandarin and his terrorist attacks.

As we watch the movie, we see amazing performances by Gwyneth Paltrow and Guy Pierce worthy of Oscar nods (though considering the stigma of superhero movies, that may not happen), twists that could get me death threats if I revealed them here, and an explosive finale that’ll make you want to stand up in your seat and scream “Oh my God, I can’t believe this! Awesome!” And stick around after the credits, you’ll get a special treat and a news update on Tony Stark.

Oh, and as you can expect, the special effects were awesome. Honestly, the bad guys scared the crap out of me when I saw what they could do, how they were doing it, and the implications of what could happen if such technology were possible here on Earth (and thanks to current technology and its speedy advance, everything in the movie except the actual suit could actually appear in the next 5-20 years. Be warned!). Plus the suits are so cool, you want to get one for yourself and take it for a test drive. And watch out for the sky-diving scene. That must’ve been really hard to film.

All told, I give Iron Man 3 a 5 out of 5. I cannot wait to see if anything compares to it.

Also, watch for a trailer for Thor 2. It’s not to be missed.

Review: The Lords of Salem

Posted: April 25, 2013 in Review, Scary Stuff
Tags: , , , ,
0

And I kind of wish I hadn’t waited.

Strange.

That’s the only way I can categorize horror rocker and director Rob Zombie’s latest piece, ultimately a story about the inability to escape your fate with a Satanic bent.

The film follows Sheri Moon Zombie, Rob Zombie’s wife (the fact that she’s in the film must do miracles for the marriage) as a radio DJ in Salem, Massachusetts, as she finds a mysterious record from a group called The Lords of Salem. Slowly but surely, she becomes ensnared in a plot to turn her into the mother of the Antichrist because of a curse placed on her by some actual witches from Salem. And by the way, Satan and his kid look more like a mud creature and the face-hugger from Alien.

I thought the film had good promise at the beginning. A few scary starts, a sense of unreality. But from then on there seemed to be just trippy imagery as Mrs. Zombie goes to her fate with barely any protest. At the end we’re confronted with enough sexual imagery and weird video effects to make us more confused than scared. Heck, it’s enough to make me wish for gore, and I’ve been complaining about the prevalence of that in horror for a while now!

And what’s also upsetting is that Mrs. Zombie doesn’t try to fight back, but just goes too willingly with her witchy landlord’s plot. The only one doing any digging to figure things out is a local historian and author, but unfortunately when he gets close to the truth he gets whacked. And the use of nudity is more disturbing than titillating in this film, but that doesn’t mean we want it in this film! And having a body of dead women whom we never see die? What’s up with that?

Oh Rob Zombie, how I miss your success with the Halloween remake! That film would earn a 4.2, should I decide to do a review of it. Unfortunately though, I can only give The Lords of Salem a 2.6. If this is supposed to be an example of the growing witch trend, it’s going to be an example of what not to do, mark my words!

And if you’re wondering if there was anything I liked, it was the music. The music was definitely catchy. Reminded me of something I’d heard in a Marilyn Manson album once. Listen below if you’re interested.

When Is Collaboration In Writing Bad?

Posted: April 23, 2013 in Novel, Reflections, Writing
Tags: , , ,
3

This is a rather unique question, and one that came up very unexpectedly for me. You see, I heard from some friends and teachers–all published writers as well–that James Patterson, author of the famous Alex Cross books and a few YA books whose names I tend to forget–that Patterson uses ghost writers to help get all his work done, which is how he’s able to publish 9 books a year. At first, I didn’t want to believe it, but then I did some research and sure enough, I found a NYT article about this “collaboration”. And it broke my heart.

Should he work alone or should he work with ghost-writers? Most would say “no”.

Now, collaboration isn’t always a bad thing. Technically speaking, my friend Matt looking at Reborn City is a collaboration. Dave Berry and Ridley Pearson wrote a children’s reimagining of Peter Pan together, and it is certainly not a “technical” collaboration. And who can forget the legendary meeting of the pens of Stephen King and Peter Straub?

But those were collaborations that everyone knew about, everyone agreed to, and the fans were fine with. Most fans are still unaware of these Patterson collaborations, who he’s working with, and he gets all the credit. And it explains why the last couple of Alex Cross books haven’t been exactly up to par.

And we, the fans, are the ones who hurt the most. After all, we expect that the writing is original and from the author. And it’s…not. It’s a ghost-writing collaboration that is making the rounds on the Internet and that nobody really wants. We feel a little betrayed. And yet I still want to read his work, with hope that Patterson will someday return to writing on his own and doing what he does best, even if it means he’s not putting out nine blockbusters a year.

I’m not sure why Patterson does this–though I think money has something to do with it–but I hope that he cuts it out soon. It’s not what the fans want, it’s hurting the quality of his work, and honestly, if I were him I wouldn’t want this. I wouldn’t want to be working with several different ghost-writers and spending less time on the actual work just so I can be prolific and get a ton of money in. I mean, I plan to be prolific, but I plan to be prolific on my own, not with the help of other writers. Why can’t Patterson do the same?

What’s your take on these collaborations? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

Stephen King Meets Stephen Colbert

Posted: March 3, 2013 in Living and Life
Tags: , , ,
2

I found this video thanks to Facebook, and I had to share it with you. Basically, His Scary Highness Stephen King met up with Stephen Colbert back in 2009 and they sat down for a rather funny–and at certain points creepy–conversation. Throughout the video there are homages and references to King’s novels and the movies based on his novels (good or bad).

Unfortunately, I can’t embed the video for some reason, but if you follow the link, you should be fine. Make sure to watch King’s expression in the hallway when he’s wearing matching sweaters with Colbert. If you didn’t know who he was, you’d think he’s just a grumpy, silver-haired man. But when you know his reputation…then the true terror sets in. Rawr!

Review: A Good Day To Die Hard

Posted: February 18, 2013 in Review
Tags: , , ,
0

You might want to wait till it comes out on DVD.

(The following post contains many spoilers, so consider yourself warned!)

I went to this film expecting to be wowed…and left seeing why the reviewer from Entertainment Weekly gave this film a C. Honestly, doesn’t anyone care about making good sequels? Let alone making a good movie? Apparently not.

In this sequel, Bruce Willis reprises his role as John McClane, who goes to Moscow to meet his son Jack Jr., a CIA agent who’s gotten himself in jail all with the express purpose of liberating a political prisoner with some national security secrets that could jeopardize a corrupt politician’s corrupt career. Along the way, we get the requisite amount of explosions and public destruction, but very little in terms of plot–unless you count a trip to Chernobyl, Ukraine plot!

We do see some interesting bits. There are some betrayals and cool reveals, there’s a death scene that harks back to the first movie with a new twist, and Willis gets to make some of his trademark zingers. However, Jai Courtney is so one-dimensional as Jack Jr, you find yourself wishing for Justin Long as Matt Farrell from the fourth film. Indeed, you could switch Courtney for Long in this film and get a much more interesting film. That, and if you add about forty minutes and a revenge plot involving nuclear missiles after the main villain gets scissored in half! Oh, and the car chase that happens right after Willis arrives in Moscow without any time to prepare us for what’s about to happen? It’s so like the DC car chase from the last film, you feel like you’re watching the fourth film for the third time!

After all this, I left the theater feeling disappointed. I hope they don’t make a sixth film, because I’m not sure I could take it if they made another! For all the reasons listed above, I give Die Hard 5 a 2.8 out of 5, and unofficially rename it A Good Day to See A Different Movie or Go to Redbox.

Review: Adam Levine on Saturday Night Live

Posted: January 27, 2013 in Review
Tags: , , , ,
2

Can I just say, when SNL does a good episode, they do an amazing string of sketches garaunteed to get me laughing?

Adam Levine is a great actor, a wondeful singer, and can I just say I was a little overwhelemed in a good way when he took off his shirt? Holy crap! My buddy and I were watching the show together, and I both think we developed man-crushes on the guy. Also, Mr. Levine does a great gay talk show host, and he interacts so well with Bobby Moynihan (more on that later).

That being said, the other actors also were wonderful. Nasim Pedrad always kills me as Arianna Huffington on Weekend Update, the way she’s flirting with Seth Meyers without actually flirting. Bill Hader showed us what would’ve happened if one of his other characters, Stefan, was named Bryce, had his sexuality repressed, developed rejection issues, and developed a need to control everything around him while showing me that his voice can go higher than I thought possible. And I just love it when Bobby Moynihan dresses in drag, especially when he dresses as Janet, the strange woman from Yonkers who has a horrible face and yet beds a lot of celebrities.

Some highlights from the show include the Janet sketch, the Cold Open where Jay Pharaoh as Barack Obama has a weird conversation with Keenan Thompson as Martin Luther King Jr, the SNL Digital Short featuring The Lonely Island (how I missed you guys and your shorts!), the joke commercial for a prequel series to The Sopranos that almost put me in an early grave and…I’m forgetting something…oh right. ANDY SAMBERG! Along with Cameron Diaz and Jerry Seinfeld, they parodied Levine’s show The Voice and got him to take his shirt off. I missed that dude and his Digital Shorts.

Kendrick Lamar was a good musical guest. He’s not my thing, but you know what? I didn’t dislike him, and I didn’t totally ignore his act either. So there’s something to be said for that.

For this episode, I give it a 4.2 out of 5 for a ton of entertainment, a ton of laughs, Janet, and Andy Samberg.

Join me for a review in two weeks, which will probably involve me either tearing into Justin Beiber or being pleasantly surprised by him in most aspects except his singing.

Merry Christmas (Even Though I Don’t Celebrate It)

Posted: December 25, 2012 in Living and Life
Tags: , , ,
0

Hello people following my blog or just happening upon it. How are you this fine day? I know it’s Christmas, and you want to just spend time with your family (or possibly away from it), but I thought I’d give you all a couple presents, and you can only get these presents by reading the rest of this post. So I’m giving you 4 videos for Christmas! Yay!

The first video is called Rewind YouTube Style 2012, which features a bunch of YouTube stars (most of whom I don’t know) getting together to do Gangnam Style and Call Me Maybe together. It is hilarious and I think you’d like it, especially because Psy and the Annoying Orange are in the video.

The second video is by The Piano Guys, doing their version of Star Wars: Cello Wars. It’s very well done, both with the music and the SFX. And watch what Darth Vader does during parts of this video, because he is certainly a highlight in this awesome music vid:

These last two videos go together, so you can’t watch one without the other. It’s the Addams Family Christmas, from the original television series of the 1960s. Wednesday and Pugsley Addams are told by their Scroogey neighbor that there’s no Santa Claus, and the adults of the family work together–or maybe not so together–to bring the Christmas spirit back to the house, with surprising and hilarious results.

Well, I hope you like these gifts from a not-so-Grinchy Jew. I wish you a Merry Christmas (or solstice if you’re a Neo-Pagan) and in the immortal words of Cousin Itt, “Bedehh bububa pfft heheh nigbooyu heheh!”

It’s The Day Before The World Will End (Not Really)

Posted: December 20, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections
Tags: , , , ,
2

So it’s about 24 hours before the Mayan calendar is supposed to wind down and the doomsday naysayers crap their pants with worry. Given the lack of scientific evidence that there is something to make the world end, the fact that the Mayans weren’t thinking about fire and brimstone when they created their long-count calendar, and the fact that prophecies of doom have come and gone without a hair falling out of place (most recently May 2011), I think it’s unlikely the world will end.

In fact, I plan to act like the world won’t end. I’ll get up, wonder if there’s still time to go to the Christmas party at work even though I’m not scheduled to go into work today and therefore slept in a little, write, remember the world’s supposed to end, shrug and get back to whatever I was doing, bring in the Sabbath, and laugh as nothing happens.

You guys get where I’m going with this, right? The world’s not going to end. There’s nothing to make it end. I know things have been crazy the past week in the USA because of all the shootings and attempted shootings. It’s enough to make you think the world might actually end. But it won’t; the world’s going to keep spinning, I’m going to keep writing, and on Christmas I’m going to order Chinese and watch a movie, as many Jews will do during the holiday season.

But if you’re still scared, please watch this music video by British artist Jay Sean, featuring supposedly-Trinidadian-but-possibly-from-outer-space artist Nicki Minaj. If this doesn’t convince you the world’s not ending, you’re a lunatic:

Stephen King and e-books

Posted: December 15, 2012 in Living and Life, Writing
Tags: , , ,
2

Presenting the King of Horror!

While I was trolling the Internet, looking for something to listen to as a background noise, I came across these videos that feature my idol, His Royal Highness Stephen King, discussing various topics, including the power of e-books and how it’s changing the industry, with the folks at CNN Money. It was very interesting, not just because his voice is higher than I thought, but because King has some very good wisdom to share, and he was one of the first authors to get on the e-book wagon, publishing his famous novella Riding the Bullet as an e-book (and I recommend it for anyone who hasn’t read it; it’s available in print format too, if you’re interested). Now all his books are probably available as e-books, but he still says there are drawbacks to this new innovation to reading, namely what happens when you drop a Kindle in the toilet.

President Obama At Ohio State

Posted: October 9, 2012 in Living and Life, Politics and Leadership
Tags: , , , ,
0

Isn’t that the most winning smile? Too bad I didn’t take it with my own camera.

Unfortunately, I have no photos. Well, I do, but they were taken from a great distance with a camera that’s better suited for close-range shots. So all I have are some grainy images that are a little shaky. So, instead of showing you those, I decided to go with a stock photo from Google Images (above).

Okay, so President Obama’s speech at OSU. I’m assuming you wanted to know the details, since you’re reading this post. Well, I got into line around 1, which extended around Thompson Library, across the street to Lazenby Hall, around the corner from that, and heading back to whatever’s beyond that. I entered line around the driveway for delivery trucks into Lazenby. There I saw a few friends whom I allowed to cut in line, and the usual pro-life protesters who always look like they just got back from a hunting party or tailgating. Around 2 the line started moving, and I bought a decorative press pass from a vendor.

When we got to the Oval, where the speech would take place, we were halfway between Orton Hall, where Obama would be speaking, and University Hall, which was where everybody was entering and getting their bags checked. In short, I was in the middle of the crowd, which is why I got bad photos. In addition, everybody kept moving around, so at times I was getting squished by people saying “Excuse me” and shoving me and everyone else around them. Plus the weather decided to be like early September, so I’m a little sunburned.

But besides that, everything was great. First Mayor Michael Coleman of Columbus came on and gave a little warm-up speech. Then we had the Pledge of Alliegance and the National Anthem. Some students, including one I knew from volunteering, made some speeches on how Obama’s policies were helping them get the education they needed. Senators John Glenn and Sherrod Brown also made speeches, which I thought were very good, though I thought Senator Brown said something that might come back to haunt him later: “If you’re here at this rally, it shows you are more knowledgeable about politics than your friends or family.” That’s paraphrased for brevity’s sake, but you can see why some might have a problem with that statement.

And then will.i.am, one of the Black Eyed Peas. showed up and started DJ-ing for the whole crowd, using his songs and others. It was an awesome time, awesome enough that we forgave him for DJ-ing from a small blue tent where no one from the audience could see him. After that, President Obama came out!

He stood up there, told us how important Ohio was, and how because of the auto bailout, 1 in 8 Ohio jobs were now automotive-related jobs. He also spoke about other policies of his that had benefited the American people, backed up his sayings with statistics, used examples from people he’d met on the campaign trail, and compared his plan for the future with Mitt Romney’s plan. He also brought up Big Bird, which got plenty of laughs from the audience (I swear, Governor Romney is never going to live that down).

All in all, it was a pretty good day. I may have stood for several hours, which brought up back pain, but I feel inspired and I’m so glad I voted about a week before the rally. And I bet a lot of other people felt inspired too, because after the rally there were buses that could take you to vote early, which many people got on (of course, they may have gotten on just because will.i.am was supposed to be DJ-ing there too, but I’m an optimist).

So that’s my day. And if you’re American and registered to vote, I urge you to do so, no matter who you’re supporting this election (though you know who I hope will win the election). Your vote counts, despite what you may think about voting in masses, and when you make your voice heard, you get the right to complain whenever something happens in Washington you don’t like.

Happy 30 days or so till Election Day, everybody.

Older Entries
Newer Entries