Watching The Detectives

Cillian Murphy AND Lucy Liu in a movie I'd never heard of, OF COURSE I'm gonna watch it!
As I put "Watching The Detectives" in the DVD player, I began to recognize a couple of names in the opening credits; Steve Lemme, Eric Stolhanske, Director Paul Soter. This movie is from a couple of the Broken Lizard guys! Broken Lizard is the amazing comedy team behind "Beerfest" and "Super Troopers", I'm a huge fan so this epiphany totally made my night. The movie was really good. It's about this video store owner/movie aficionado who meets a girl that prefers living an adventurous life over watching one. Madness ensues. Love the cast, love the story, love the look. At the end of it all that was running through my head was "modern day film noir!" It's definitely a movie that appealed to me. Rent it next week!

Meet The Spartans

Not as horrible as the other parody crap fests that have been out recently (i.e Epic Movie, Delta Farce). "Meet The Spartans" is different from the recent parodies in that it actually follows the storyline of "300", which kind of makes it easier to watch the whole thing. Most of the comedy is drawn from the recent game show craze TV has been facing, and the rest of the jokes are typically disjointed like those made in "Epic Movie". After the Wayan Bros. left the Scary Movie franchise behind, a team of horribly un funny writers have been struggling to recapture the humor of the parody genre. This movie is just another dumb comedy trying to get your buck at the box office. If you are into the recent string of crappy parodies this is one of the better ones and you may find it funny. Personally I don't get the point of putting money into a comedy that is only funny for the five minutes that the jokes are relevant, but I suppose someone out there is watching cuz they keep making them (all starring Carmen Electra, strangely). There were a few highlights to this movie though, for one, what I mentioned about the storyline following "300". This kept the film interesting, particularly to "300" fans. Secondly, the acting is a notch above other parodies. King Leonides is played by a relative unknown Sean Maguire who has GREAT comedic timing and is perfect in the role, Kevin Sorbo aka Hercules is the Captain of the King's army and very funny, and finally Carmen Electra is given a role that requires substantial lines... she is actually a pretty good actress. Generally she is seen running in underwear for a moment, but her role as the Queen of Sparta gives her a chance to actually act (along with her stereotypical sex bomb moments) and it is just surprisingly good. Also exciting to me, personally, one of the main Spartan soldiers is this guy Alicia and I used to hang out with at Universal Studios. Chris Gann, who's also credited as a stuntman in the movie, played the Mariner at Universal's Waterworld show... he's one of the coolest guys & I never forgot him. So it's very cool to be watching a movie and see him all of a sudden on screen. Oh I almost forgot, but the actress who plays Britney Spears also plays Paris Hilton and Paula Abdul... its cool to see someone play 3 characters in a film and not even realize it until you see the credits, check out the poster Paris & Britney both = actress Nicole Parker. The acting is really good for a parody film and that is probably what encouraged my favorable review. Otherwise, the jokes are pretty awful and the weird current nods to pop culture are annoying. OH I can't believe I almost forgot, several times this movie makes references to puns that were deleted from the final cut (just like Epic Movie did), and the DVD has a whole special on a Dane Cook parody which was not in the final cut, so that is also pretty annoying. Anyways, thats all I have to say about it really. Not necessarily my cup of tea.

MAC Neo Sci-fI

This week MAC released their first hot line of the summer NEO SCI-FI. You can pick up eyeshadows, nail polishes, blush, bronzer, pigments etc. in fun bronzy and bright tones wrapped up in wonderful neon orange packaging. This collection also includes a volcanic ash face mask and a lip exfoliator/hydrator duo that is just what I've been searching for. I'm really excited about this collection it is alot of fun. Check it:

Trailer Trash: Eagle Eye

Eagle Eye
Shia LaBeouf and the guys behind Disturbia. Out September 2008

Trailer Trash: Australia

Baz Luhrmann's new epic ("Romeo + Juliet", "Moulin Rouge") starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.

Flashback

Elton John - I Want Love
mmm Iron Man <3

Switchfoot - This is Home

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

This movie was AMAZING!!
SO GOOD! When the first movie came out I thought it was gonna be a crappy Lord of the Rings wannabe, but I went to see it and was blown away. I hoped they would do a sequel and when the trailer came out I almost pee'd my pants from joy. Then I started to feel bad, cuz whenever you have high hopes for a film you can almost guarantee disappointment. Fortunately, Disney and Walden Media really pulled this movie together and kept me on the edge of my seat. It was just straight up awesomeness, I loved it. My only one issue was that the heavy Christian overtone was a lot more prominent then it was in the first film, not due to religion, but that I found it very distracting to keep thinking "Hey that Lion is JUST LIKE Jesus, weird!" It withdrew me from parts of the story, but otherwise I feel this is one of the best movies of the year. If you're into the books or a fan of the first film you will be very pleased. In particular, this film had a standout soundtrack. The score is beautifully composed by Harry Gregson-Williams who scored the first film. In addition there is a great song by Regina Spektor titled "The Call" and one by Switchfoot called "This is Home", these 2 songs convinced me that I had to go pick up the CD. All in all a brilliant film, I am so happy I just got to watch this. YAY for me.

Rogan Gregory's Eco Friendly line for TARGET

Today Rogan Gregory's line of affordable, sustainable clothing hits TARGET as the Eleventh designer line in the GO International Collection. GO is an affordable collection with guest designers that bring their own twist to Target fashion. Rogan Gregory is an innovative designer that uses organic, eco friendly materials and has won awards for his philanthropic efforts to create design jobs in Africa. The Rogan for Target collection is 100% certified organic, showcasing Rogan’s devotion to environmentally sensitive materials.The clothing focuses on a Safari theme with lots of animal prints, as well as bright neon colors, combined into an eclectic streetwear collection.

Trailer Trash: The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Here's the trailer for the third Mummy flick starring Brendan Frasier and Jet Li out August 2008. When I heard about this I thought it was probably a bad idea, but the trailer just convinced me I'm gonna have to go see this.

Strange Wilderness

Hmm. Well. I can't make up my mind on this one, it has some HYSTERICAL moments in it. But the plot itself is kinda... dumb. Not in a good funny dumb way, more like a waste of time way. The trailer shows off the funniest parts (check it out to see the "shark scene" which brought me to tears laughing). I really enjoyed the parts involving the show, the animal footage with ridiculous commentary, but the movie is more of a quest film than a funny animal flick. The storyline follows the fictional film makers on their search for Bigfoot, kind of like "Dude, Where's my Car?" but with Bigfoot instead of a car (and less funny). That's a topic that has been covered so many times, it just isn't very interesting. In fact, I recently reviewed another Sasquatch movie starring Justin Long, and he's in this one too playing a vaguely similar character. No more bigfoot movies already unless it is really really funny! The movie also stars Steve Zahn, Jonah Hill, Allen Covert, Kevin Heffernan, and Peter Dante. It has a lot of the guys who did the HILARIOUS "Grandma's Boy", so I had some high hopes for it. I'm not saying it is horrible but it isn't gonna be some epic comedy that goes down in history for great laughs. Much of its humor seemed stifled. I watched a few of the DVDs special features and there is a scene that they show being improv'd over and over again, alot of the jokes were very funny and original, but for some reason the joke used in the final cut was underwhelming. This movie seems to have lost much of its humor through poor editing. Check out deleted scenes and you will see a great clip about Beavers... "Beavers, or some other animal, have 4 stomachs." This movie was on to something though and I think that Comedy Central or HBO should look into picking up a show about Animals with funny commentary because I would definitely watch that. The DVD will be out Tuesday watch it and see how you feel. Here's the trailer, enjoy the silly animals!

Yupon's One Coin Mini Figures by KOTOBUKIYA

This month's issue of ToyFare Magazine had a nice article about all the cool Indiana Jones toys coming out for the new movie. It covered some fun stuff like the Mighty Muggs urban vinyl figures and the Mr. Potato Head: Taters of the Lost Ark edition.

Most interesting though was this mention of Kotobukiya Toys' scheduled Indy toy assault; they will be releasing statues in their ArtFX line, ArtFX theater line, and their One-Coin Line designed by Japanese Illustrator Yupon, which will be available exclusively in Japan (and hopefully at Comic-Con this year!).

There are to be 5 known figures and 3 secret characters, they will stand at 5cm, and will be blindboxed... meaning you'll have to buy a box of 10 to guarantee finding all figures. These are scheduled for release in late June and boxes are already being preordered online for about $60 bucks. According to Kotobukiya's website there will be 2 Indy figures, a Henry Jones figure, a Marion Ravenwood figure, a Mola Ram figure, and 3 secret figures (2 of which look like Shia LaBeouf's character and Cate Blanchett's character)


Yupon has designed 2 other lines for Kotobukiya's One-Coin figures, one for the video game "Lamento: Beyond the Void"

and another for a visual novel game (I don't know what that is) called "Togainu`s Blood"


Also keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming MARVEL line featuring: Dr. Doom, Nick Fury, Spidey, The Thing, Phoenix, an A.I.M. Agent, and 2 mystery figures.

These are really cool looking. I'm gonna try to at least snag the Marion Ravenwood one, look how cute the monkey is!! Poor guy, all he wanted was a date.


(HEY! Anyone who was interested in those Mighty Mugg figures, here's a link to a very cool blog someone did that has a photo checklist of all the ones that are currently out or in production. ALSO! he mentions that there will be some SD Comic-Con exclusives YAY!!)

You Know What Really Grinds My Gears??

Poor service at Nail Salons! It sucks. Today Scarlett and I went to get our nails done, but first she needed to go to Wal-Mart to get some shoes.. Oh that is a story in its own right... ok, quickly, the shoes...
I bought these sandals by Dolce Vita for $72 at Nordstrom:










I bought these today at Wal-Mart for $9.99:












They are EXACTLY the same. It kind of made me sad. I hate Wal-Mart and giving my money to evil corporate empires, but I hate getting ripped off more. Not cool Nordstrom, not cool. So anyways if you want cute sandals, Wal-Mart has cool Dolce Vita knockoffs for $10 in black, white, silver, and gold. (I will admit however that the Dolce Vita ones can be worn and walked in ALL day, not sure about the other ones but whatev they are hella cute)

OK BACK TO THE STORY. So, we were gonna go down the street and get our nails done, but Scarlett noticed that there was a nail salon within Hell-Mart with pretty good prices. We decided to check it out, the pedicures were fine, but then the ladies played that trick on me where they get you to pay BEFORE they do your manicure, and that way regardless of your tip they can just do a shitty job. So my nails were done all half ass and disappointing. As I went to change into my new cheapy cheap sandals I leaned back in my chair, which pushed into another chair, which pushed into a manicure station (that desk where they do your nails) which apparently was not secured properly to the floor because without much effort that desk went toppling down on the women sitting behind it. All sorts of liquids went flying and crashing everywhere, BUT I was still pissed that my nails looked all jacked, so when the innocent women covered in liquid looked at me to clean up the mess I turned to Scarlett and told her it was too bad they put all the chairs so close together. Then I gave the lady that look like "Well get to work, you got alot to clean up here" which obviously didn't go over too well because she began to mumble in Asianese and then gave Scarlett that f-u stare. So then Scarlett decided not to tip them, but we were just really pissed that the screwed up our nails, so we really didn't care that they had to clean up a huge mess. I don't know why, but I feel like if your job is to provide service you shouldn't be so demanding of tips. Tips will come if you provide a good service or I don't believe I should be obligated to pay them. Do your job well and you will earn what you deserve, be a douche bag and you won't get anything. Really... no more tips from me for crappy service, you are not entitled to 15% more. Do your freaking job. Simple.

Trailer Trash: The Spirit

New Frank Miller movie ("300", "Sin City") based on Will Eisner's classic newspaper comic "The Spirit" about a crime fighting vigilante.
Can't...wait...

Trailer Trash: The X Files- I Want To Believe

New Trailer for "The X-Files: I Want To Believe" the sequel to "The X-Files Movie", which I watched for the first time last week and was really impressed by. It was pretty good. I never really watched the show except for one episode that I've seen like 10 times (its a parody of COPS where Mulder and Skully take a camera crew with them on an investigation, kind of like Cloverfield but all 90's and with hookers). So they are finally doing a sequel and they are saying you can watch this one on its own, without any knowledge of the show or first flick. Which is good for non fans like me.I think this is just a teaser, so we'll have to see if a longer trailer with more details eventually comes out. I think I'll just go watch this cuz the first one was good. Check it out.


This episode was so funny...