It really should be a snow day today, but circumstances conspire against me… (Photo by Hobbes vs Boyle) It’s cold and snowy and I hate it, but this should (hopefully) be winter’s last hurrah before spring and baseball season. Movies Silver Linings Playbook - You know? I actually enjoyed this movie a lot more on second viewing. The acting is all quite good. Definitely one you should see if you have yet to catch it. ...
The goofiest secret handshake ever (Photo courtesy: machu picchu) I did it, guys. I finally went and watched my netflix movie. It was…decidedly less awesome than I thought it would be. Movies Sound of My Voice - It’s not that Sound of My Voice is a bad movie. That’s not it at all…it’s more that I was expecting something a little creepier and a little headier than what I got in this. At least it was quick. ...
[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“346” caption=“Seann William Scott is so innocently dumb in this movie, but it’s actually quite good. (Picture courtesy nxusco)”] [/caption] Guys, Goon was really good. More later, but you should check it out. This week was a real scattershot weekend as I tried to play a bunch of games I didn’t give much time to before. Movies Martha Marcy May Marlene - The cult in the movie is an interesting contrast to the fundamentalist Christian society in Higher Ground and the hippie commune of Wanderlust. This movie really ratchets up the tension of not knowing what’s real and what’s not. Ideally they would have made Patrick a scarier presence, but the movie is still on pretty solid ground with what it accomplishes. Congrats on the fantastic part, Elizabeth Olsen. Keep it up! ...
[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“They are a group of six friends evenly split among men and women. Haven’t seen this formula before! (Photo courtesy Screened.com)”] [/caption] I’ll get into it more later, but despite it being pretty standard fare for a sitcom, Happy Endings is actually hilarious and kind of awesome. I blew through season 1 this weekend (half on Netflix, then I bought the entire season on DVD). Just catching any TV is impressive considering that I haven’t watched a second of it since Mass Effect 3 came out. Now that I’ve beaten that I had a chance to catch up on all the TV I’d missed. ...
[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Shepard and Joker get to have pretty awkard bonding time in this game… (Photo courtesy gamesweasel)”] [/caption] I’m about 66-75% through the game so I don’t think I can claim first impressions anymore. Here’s what I think: NOTE: I’m planning on avoiding story spoilers, but if you want to know absolutely nothing, don’t read this. - Remember the interface and flow of Mass Effect 2’s combat? It’s back! It’s pretty much identical, but Bioware says it runs a little faster. ...
[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“So maybe I wasn’t playing video games at birth nor was this blog running 25 years ago, but this is my 25th year too!”] [/caption] 2011 was an odd year in games for me. It started out like any other, filled with joy and happiness, and then it was all wrenched away halfway through, thanks to that burglary, until I was able to start replenishing my stores and getting the ball rolling again for the second half. ...
[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“The Civil Wars were absolutely beautiful. What a fantastic show.”] [/caption] Movies 50/50 - What a great movie. It was funny and emotional at all the right times. After seeing it I just wanted to go home and hug my roommate (like Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character, she got cancer at a young age). I’ve seen her in a grand total of four movies now, but I love Anna Kendrick. She is absolutely adorable and she will go far in this business. So cute! ...
[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“375” caption=“Those stupid hats everyone makes fun of actually do motivate me to play sometimes.”] [/caption] Movies Bran Nue Dae - Disappointingly mediocre. I was expecting something interesting from a musical about aboriginal life in Australia, but it just wasn’t there. Uneven pacing, bland characters, and, worst of all, completely forgettable music. That’s the one thing you have to do right in a musical! ...
[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Totally unrelated to everything else, but I got a new camera!”] [/caption] Movies Everything Must Go - Rebecca Hall is superb. I first saw her in The Prestige and I instantly fell in love with her acting. She’s a good understated and expressive actor. Will Ferrell in a drama is pretty neat too. He really shows a lot of range on this and I’d like to see his career move in this direction. ...
[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“333” caption=“Best NPR First Listen!”] [/caption] Movies Tokyo Godfathers - I wrote at length about this movie here, but I just wanted to take a few words to say how truly fantastic it was. Great movie. Crazy, Stupid, Love. - Tiffany and I were choosing between this and Our Idiot Brother (ostensibly because they were the only two “date” movies, but really because of my dual crushes on Emma Stone and Zooey Deschanel), but I think this would have been the better choice. Crazy, Stupid, Love. was sweet and funny. Only real downside was the C-plot being a little creepy. Easily the best romantic movie I saw this summer (Best comedy goes to Bridesmaids). ...