Posts Tagged ‘review’

Review: Vanessa Bayer & John Mulaney

Posted: April 20, 2012 in Living and Life, Review
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Alright, so last night I went to Ohio State’s Union (yes, I’m naming my university now; since the article came up and my stats went through the roof, people have obviously seen the article and know the Pulse is an OSU publication, so what’s the point in hiding it now?) to see Vanessa Bayer and John Mulaney perform. Now Vanessa Bayer is a cast member of SNL, and you know how I love SNL, right? So I was super excited to see her live. John Mulaney I was less familiar with, but I found myself liking him very much, as you’ll soon see.

So, the show started out with a surprise opening act by (and I hope he’ll forgive me if I spell his name wrong) Shen Wang: a Chinese-American comedian from New York with a deep voice and the funniest drunk idiot stories about himself. He was pretty good, and he really connected to the audience, pointing out that our mascot was a poisonous tree nut. Smooth, man.

Then Vanessa Bayer came on, and boy was she awesome! She made fun of herself, of what she was like in college, she even showed us a video she’d made when she’d tried one of those dating video services. It was just great to see her live and hear her do her Miley impersonation. Huh-lare-eee-ose!

Vanessa Bayer, John Mulaney, and a very blurry Shen Wang. So sorry about the quality of the photo.

And finally, John Mulaney with his stories of black-outs, and his making-fun of whatever was on people’s T-shirts. This uy was great; he even told us about how he was confused for an Asian American woman as a child (strangely) and made fun of Law & Order: SVU, or more specifically, Ice-T’s character. Great job.

All in all, I gave the show–which I assume is playing in some other city right about now–a 5 out of 5. (And for those of you who think I don’t do any bad reviews, I just haven’t seen any bad shows or movies lately. But seriously, do you want me to recommend bad stuff or good stuff to you?)

 

Review: Stephen King’s The Stand (comic)

Posted: April 1, 2012 in Review
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The Stand, by Stephen King, adopted into a comic book form by Marvel Studios

I’ve always been a huge fan of Stephen King. You could say I want to inherit that throne someday, be a successor to the current King of Horror (that’s the goal at least; first stop, publishing a novel). And I’ve always loved The Stand. In addition to being one of King’s longest works, in my opinion it’s one of his best. You think you know the familiar old story: virus breaks out, kills off 99% of the population, the survivors struggle. However, Kiing weaves into it from very early on themes of war and the battle between good and evil, with survivors taking sides as a Cold-War-threatening-to-heat-up appears on the stage that is the now-dead USA. It’s an amazing story, and I recommend you all read it, especially the extended edition, which has all the stuff King was forced to cut out of the original edition due to budget costs. I also liked the TV miniseries adaptation, even if the ending was very different from the novel. The cast was phenomenal, especially the guy who played the villain Randall Flagg. So when I heard that Marvel was making a comic book version, I scooped it up without hesitation. And I was not disappointed: combining lines from the actual text with art and action, the comic book version was thrilling, especially its more dark, world-ending scenes filled with corpses and broken buildings. I thought the artwork made some of the character’s hairstyles look a little too frizzy for my tastes, but I still very much enjoyed it. It’s too bad they couldn’t put more of the original story into the comic book, but I’m sure that they had only a few hundred pages to work with and had to be choosy. Either way, I think they did a good job of adapting an amazing story. After reading the final volume today, I had to write a review of it. I give this work, a 4.6 out of 10. Good job Marvel, now how about an adaptation of It? Just leave out that one scene where the characters make love in the sewers and I’m sure we’ll be fine.

Review: The Hunger Games Film

Posted: March 23, 2012 in Review
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Movie poster for "The Hunger Games", in theaters now.

I’m going to state this at the beginning of this post, I’ve never read The Hunger Games. Not even a page. It’s the same dilemma I had with The Help; you try to get the books but the reserve list is incredibly long, you can’t go out and buy it because you have a student budget and the oppurtunity to see the movie is right in front of you!

Moving on…

Alright, I went in knowing only that a teenage girl decides to participate in a battle-to-the-death reality-TV survival game in order to spare her sister, teams up with a boy from her town in order to gain the sympathy vote by pretending to be lovers even though she likes someone back home, and that the novels were very distopic in nature.

Well, I ended up liking the film. In fact, I loved it! Oh boy, was it superbly made! The special effects were awesome, the drama and terror felt so real, and the actors really brought the characters to life. A high-five to Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark; he really touched us all as a simple country boy with a heart of gold.

I’d also like to commend the director, Gary Ross, for his excellent work at building suspense: the scene where the mutant bulldogs show up, it felt like I was watching one of the better Friday the 13ths; building suspense, a lull where you don’t feel so scared anymore, and then wham! it jumps out and gets you! Even if you know the tactic they’re using to get you, it’s still quite the shock.

And finally, I’d like to commend the costume designers: the way you dressed up the denizens of the capital versus those in the districts? My God, even if their clothes are not as nice, I’d rather live in a district than dress like the people in the capital. Their fashion was so obscene to me I nearly retched in disgust.

My rating for this movie, a 5 out of 5, for getting a guy who knew next to little about the story, seriously considering getting the books and forget the reserve list.

Now if only the girl next to me would’ve not shushed me everytime I reacted to something when she was gabbing to the person next to her the whole film, that’d be great.

Review: Jonah Hill on Saturday Night Live

Posted: March 11, 2012 in Review
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As last week I wrote a rather scathing review of Lindsay Lohan’s performance on SNL, I thought I’d follow up with Jonah Hill’s performance on last night’s episode. I’m happy to say, the man did not disappoint. Indeed, he fulfilled all my expectations and then some. From his hilarious impression of an annoying, fast-talking six-year-old wise guy to his performance of a Coolio song near the end of the show, he was hitting all the right notes. Heck, he even made the J-Pop sketch look good when he played a samurai who was out of breath and holding his sword wrong, and as a fan of manga and anime I usually get incensed when they do the J-Pop sketch.

Other highlights include the Weekend Update, featuring guest appearances by Kristen Wiig as Paula Deen, Andy Sandberg trying on the Sarah Palin persona because of an apparently sick Tina Fey, and Bill Hader as Stefon (and if SNL has any shippers obsessed with the Seth Meyers/Stefon relationship, I highly reccommend they watch this episode!).

All told, a very good show, even if the musical guests weren’t my type of music. I give this week’s episode, a 5 out of 5 (I’d feel guilty just taking off points for the musical guest).

Review: Lindsay Lohan on Saturday Night Live

Posted: March 4, 2012 in Review
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I love Saturday Night Live. Every time there’s a new episodes, you can know that’s how I spend my Saturday nights. I love that show…when they’re funny. Sometimes they miss the mark on that. Last night on SNL, well…first, I was really surprised that Lindsay Lohan, who somehow got to be host last night, was not drunk or high or anything else while on stage. It’s almost disappointing. There were funny moments though, such as the Mysterious Phone Calls skit, the Real Housewives of Disney skit (by the way, none of those shows have real housewives), and of course, the Weekend Update.

However on other skits it could be better. The skit that parodied 50’s rebel films just seemed like Fred Armisen getting hit by cars repeatedly while wearing drag, and the MacIntosh skit–usually funny as hell–was undermined by Lohan’s inability to show emotion. And the early morning radio skit just didn’t reach my funny bone.

Still, the show’s funny parts are always well worth it. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give this episode a 3.4.

Tune in next week, when Jonah Hill of Superbad fame hosts, with musical guest the Shins (I have no idea who they are either).

Review: Tangled

Posted: February 14, 2012 in Review
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Well, for all you Valentine’s Day lovers, here’s a post about a heartwarming story: Disney’s 50th animated feature film (no seriously, it is their 50th. I know, I thought it’d be higher than that!),  Tangled. Now I know I’m more of a traditional animated-by-hand kind of guy, I don’t know any anime nut who isn’t, but I still thought it was a nice story, even though the scene where the ruffians in the oddly-named tavern sing a honky-tonk song seemed a little strange. Maybe I’m just too used to the way ruffians in a bar usually act, with fists and whatever.

Anyway, I was watching the film because it’s Valentine’s Day this week and all week my residence hall is doing Valentine’s-related activitiies. Tonight was movie night, and because no normal guy would want to watch your regular collection of chick flicks like The Notebook or Dear John, the activity board chose the movie being reviewed. I was a little skeptical about the film, for my own reasons, but my sisters loved it, so I thought I’d give it a try. Turns out, I was actually touched, and even was held in suspense near the end. Disney, you did yourself a fine job with this film.

Now I’d like to introduce the rating system that I’ll be using from now on when I do reviews. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give Tangled a 4.5.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone.

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