Haruki-Murakami

From last week’s embarrassment of riches we arrive at this week’s slim pickings. It’s not like there was nothing on, it’s just that I played 39 hours of XCOM this week. So…yeah. Movies The Lucky One - The things one does for love, right? This movie is pretty much a romance novel. Logan walked (WALKED!) from Colorado to Louisiana to woo this girl. He is a whiz with machines, plays piano, reads philosophy, is a marine…what isn’t he? It’s like Nicholas Sparks got lazy. Anyway, we had fun making fun of it at least. ...

Pitch Perfect -0 Thanks to the long weekend this is posting a little later than usual. I also jammed a ton of TV in this week thanks to all that extra time. Movies The Guard - Irish movie about an Irish policeman who is one of those curmudgeonly old man types. Funny, but ultimately not that substantive. Worth seeing if you’ve got a free afternoon. Pitch Perfect - I loved most of the music in this movie and I always enjoy Anna Kendrick on the silver screen. Mostly I found myself impressed by how well she inhabited her role. The other two movies I saw her in, Up in the Air and 50/50, had her in a much more professional, trying to be respected role. Here she’s aged back to 18 and everything about her performance reflects that. Good, fun stuff. Go see it. ...

Sunny Isles Beach, FL. Summer’s gone and the regular baseball season ends this week, but that doesn’t mean the fun is over. Movies Almost, but no. TV Sherlock - The Hounds episode was terrible. I like Sherlock when his mysteries are solved with thorough detective work and deduction, not the kind of gobbledegook that we had with the hallucinogens and the weird hound. Very disappointing episode, way more so than the Chinese smuggler episode from the first series. ...

Casa de mi Padre - Movie Poster It was a long week, but also a fun one. I got to see some dear friends of mine and their awesome new house, so I’d say it was a total win. Movies Casa de mi padre - I was expecting a telenovela parody and a silly comedy, but I wasn’t expecting Ferrell to translate his entire schtick to Spanish. It was pretty much exactly that. Best joke payoff was the silent cigarette rolling one going on in the background the entire time. It seemed like everyone had a great time making this too. ...

peepshow_donnie01-web The Peepshow (not the NV one, but a different traveling troupe) was in Harrisburg this weekend and Tiffany and I were super thankful to have something to do around York. Seriously, guys. It’s kind of boring up there. Knife throwing, sword swallowing, nail pounding, and, naturally, burlesque dancing were on the menu. It was lots of fun. I think it was their last show of the summer, but if you see that they’re coming to a venue near you, definitely check it out. ...

Spelunky finally arrived last week and it was GLORIOUS! So good, as a matter of fact, that I managed to rack up 21 hours in it while taking a day off to go to Pennsylvania to celebrate the 4th. Spelunky is razor sharp, guys. Razor sharp. Movies 21 Jump Street - I can’t think of another trailer in recent history that has inspired more ambivalence upon the people I know, but I was secretly amused by it. It turns out that it’s because it’s an amusing movie. It’s not as funny as The Other Guys, but it’s got a similar vibe. Plus it’s got almost every comedic actor working today in bit parts all over. It’s funny, but I wouldn’t spend more than $5 to see it. Oh, also, Dave Franco is like a little James Franco clone. It’s so weird! ...

In a weekend full of grief over some terrible Marlins losses thanks to anemic offenses I finally got around to finishing Dollhouse… Movies Indie Game: The Movie - Steam’s first movie! I didn’t kickstart it, but I was more than happy to support it post-release. It’s not super informative if you don’t already know a bunch about indie video games, but it’s entertaining to see three artists at three stages of their careers and the minds and personalities that go with each. It makes me really crave postmortem analysis of Fez as well. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Stay calm everyone, but the Bounty Hunter class quest deals with an albino wookiee!”] [/caption] This is suuuper delayed, but I’ve been traveling and enjoying the holidays and recovering from sickness and that all takes time, you know? Movies Bridesmaids - Viewing number 4ish. I love the flip out scene where Kristin Wiig and Maya Rudolph have it out. Great scene. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“It’s Halloween! I really hate Halloween, but these costumes are awesome! (Courtesy DJOtaku)”] [/caption] Movies Castaway on the Moon - I’m about halfway done with this movie about a man so despondent that he gives up on society when he is barely isolated from it and a woman doing the opposite. Very interesting. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“There are no blades in this movie.”] [/caption] Movies Blade Runner - Until today I’d never seen what many people consider to be the greatest sci-fi movie ever made. Fixed that this week. It’s an amazing movie full of symbolism and all kinds of neat visual imagery, but I didn’t love watching it. Definitely important to see, but you might not have a lot of fun watching it. ...