Jay-Z's verse over American Boy from the Glastonbury Festival

Movie of the Week: Wanted

This movie was made for 13 year old boys.

The script was kinda shitty (even for a movie very loosely based on a graphic novel) but I can't deny that the action scenes were cool as shit.

The only thing that sucked is if you saw the most recent red-band trailer, you've seen most of the cool scenes but the big shootout at the end was awesome as was a moment of profanity from Morgan Freeman who's played the holy black guy so long, you couldn't help but laugh.

Movie of the Week: The Incredible Hulk

I loved this movie but that's the comic book geek in me. That's who this movie was made more: any comic book fan who hated Ang Lee's Hulk (I didn't hate it...I liked it until the metaphysical cloud fight in the end). With the exception of Edward Norton, I think the casting was better in Ang Lee's movie but Norton and Liv Tyler had better chemistry than Eric Bana and Jennifer Connley.

CGI-wise, this Hulk looked much better than the doughy King Kong Hulk in Ang Lee's interpretation. Also, I liked that they established a relationship between Betty and Hulk which was sorely lacking in the first movie and is a big part of the comic.

If you were just going into this not having read a Hulk comic book or ever watching episodes of the Bill Bixby show, you might just see this as mindless entertainment. But for someone who has, there were little nods to both worlds, which were great.

And of course, we are still building towards the Avengers movie which I am excited about but I think will be a lesser product due to casting (the problems with Norton have been detailed and they are already having problems retaining Jon Favreau for the Iron Man sequel)

Confessions of a Bridesman

So one Friday night in February, I was hanging out with my engaged friends, Hannah and Tyson, in Brooklyn. They were getting married in June and we got to talking about their wedding. I made a drunken joke asking Hannah how come I wasn't in her wedding party. She said if someone in her bridal party drops out, I'm the backup. Haha. We laughed and continued to drink.

The following Monday, I get an IM from Hannah saying that her maid of honor can't come to the wedding because she's pregnant and can't fly over (she's from England). I tell her that sucks and I'm sorry to hear that.

Hannah: "Yeah, so you're in."

Me: "What?"

I swear for about three weeks, I refused to believe her. I really thought she was just fucking with me and, because of that, I really couldn't get excited about it. At any moment, I was waiting for her to say, "Oh, honey. I was just kidding." But then she started sending information for where to go for my tux fitting. Then I got honored and excited.

Fast forward to last week, the wedding day arrived and instead of running around with the groomsmen and the groom, I was hanging out with the bride. Now, maybe it's because Hannah was probably the most chilled, relaxed bride ever (Her repeated line: "I just want to drink and eat") but this was a shitload of fun. I didn't have a bouquet but I put a flower behind my ear to match with my fellow bridespeople.

As we waited to walk down the aisle, Eric, the groomsman I was paired up with, and I couldn't decide how to walk down the aisle (arms in front, hands in our pockets) so we agreed to walk down the aisle arm-in-arm. Everyone got a great laugh out of it, especially the groom.

Ladies, you are probably thinking that you shouldn't have a guy in your bridal party but let me tell you the advantages:

1. Speed: I swear it took my fellow bridespeople 3 plus hours to get ready with makeup and hair and all. When it was time to go, I just popped on my suit and I was ready. One less person to worry about.
2. Shoes: Say someone forgets something at the last second and someone has to run and get it. It's better to have someone not wearing heels to do it.
3. Pockets: Bridesmaids tend to get choked up during a wedding but they have nowhere to put tissues. I kept tissues in my inside jacket pocket and passed them out as needed.

Gentlemen, if you are ever asked to be a groomsman, you might want to bring a date because you will be fighting off questions about your heterosexuality.

Movie of the Week: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Forced.

That's how this movie felt.

Not like a natural progression in the adventures of Indiana Jones but like a forced effort to make more money or out of boredom or out of George Lucas' desire to wipe his ass with my favorite movies from my childhood that he had a hand in.

Now I've seen some things throughout the trilogy that have caused me to be like "Oh, come on" (grabbing hearts out of people's chest and the train car chase spring to mind immediately) but there were things in this movie that were just stupid.

Maybe it's because I saw the first Indiana Jones movies when i was a kid and now as an adult, I have standards now but I don't think that's it.

The movie was enjoyable when Marion first showed up and the chase that followed in the jungle but then that was ruined by one of the worst things I have ever seen (I won't spoil it but it involves Shia Labeouf and CGI monkeys). After that, the movie was irredeemable.

I don't even want to talk about it anymore.

Movie of the Week: You Don't Mess With The Zohan

Here's what I wrote when I reviewed Click two years ago;

I actually liked it. I don't know why I'm surprised.
No matter how bad they seem on paper, there's always something amusing - even on the crudest of levels - about Adam Sandler flicks. There is not one Adam Sandler movie I have ever seen that I really hated and wouldn't watch again if it wasn't on cable (I still haven't seen 50 First Dates or Mr. Deeds or that animated Hanukkah flick)

The only thing that's changed is I saw 50 First Dates (loved it).

So basically if you like all of Adam Sandler's silly movies (I'm talking Happy Gilmore/Billy Madison silly), you'll find something to laugh at in this movie.

My Weekend In Photos

Saturday
BBQ Block Party:


DJ Spinna @ Brooklyn Museum


Hanging Out After The Party Was Cancelled


Sunday
Heavy


J*DaVeY


Happy Birthday, Tara!

Movie of the Week: Sex and The City

This was how the show should have ended (I won't get into my feelings about the series finale again).

If you watched the show, I don't know how you could have hated the movie. I wasn't enamored with the show but liked it for the most part (except for the end). But the movie was enjoyable, albeit predictable (everything ended the way I thought it would based on the trailer). It was a little too long as they tried to cram a season's worth of storylines into a little over 2 hours.

The first hour of the movie was like Fashion Porn to all the women in the crowd (I don't think I've ever been to a movie that was sold out and had so few men* attending and I'm no stranger to chick flicks).

They better not make a sequel. There is no way they can extend their stories any further.

* My "Man Card" has finally been revoked because I saw Sex and The City before I saw Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. This was a long time coming.

Now The Real Fight Begins...