it got me

josie and i went to see a late night (10:30pm) showing of the new movie, insidious. this made for a pretty memorable evening at the theater for many reasons. first off....teens! so many teens. so loud and obnoxious. it really needed a call from the teen hunters to have them sequestered somewhere while i viewed my movie. i guess i should have figured that going to a scary movie on opening night would lead to that kind of setting, but it's still always disappointing.

second, josie snuck in organic fruit gel slices. delicious.

third, i bought movie tickets online for the first time ever. it involved a $1 surcharge per ticket. that's pretty reasonable i think.

i am a big fan of horror movies and will see some pretty bad ones in hopes that they end up being entertaining. my standards are cast much lower for what i will deem viewable for horror over any other genre. so lately i have seen a lot of crap and some decent stuff, but nothing that really stood out to me, or left me thinking about it days after viewing. those good ones are the ones that stay with me and i enjoy watching over and over again. i won't give away any of the plot or specifics.

fourth, this movie scared me multiple times. the scare techniques were very well executed. the scares came often and it was the kind of movie where dread really builds and even though you know the scare is coming, it gets you anyways. they also mixed in random, out of nowhere scares. it was a scare buffet. the crowd was really on edge throughout the entire movie and you could feel the energy in the theater.

fifth, this movie was rated pg-13, just like the new big momma's house movie. i never see horror movies that are pg-13. they seem like a tease. this movie had me tense way more than almost any r rated movie.

i jumped and audibly screamed (like a boy, not a girl) along with everyone else in the theater. josie had to look away most of the time. she squeezed my arm with a boa constrictor-like grip and mashed her face into my shoulder like when jessie gets her lean on. it was definitely the visceral reaction i had been searching for. i probably am whitewashing how i felt a little. as i look back as i was probably more scared to the point where i wasn't actually enjoying it, but maybe took some sort of masochistic pleasure from it.

as a result i feel satisfied that i have discovered a new movie to add to my favorite horror movie list, josie is now a little spooked and feels uneasy because of the movie and i now recommend this to everyone, especially if they can see it in the theater. i think part of this is trying to spread the word on a quality movie that scares without gore or cheap tricks. if i dig a little deeper, part of it is probably me trying to make other people suffer the same way i did in my dread-filled movie experience, that i am now remembering fondly but probably at the time just wanted to end.



go see it. i would probably pay to see it again...just expect a lot of "oh man, watch this part!!!"

...but i've seen everything

as my readers probably know, i am a pretty big star trek fan and my previous attempt at fan fiction should prove that. ok, so maybe not enough of a fan to know most of the characters or ever watch the show or movies, but that's not the point. i did not see this newest star trek offering that had all the nerds going nuts like paul wall does with the internet. everyone seemed to think it was a good movie, so i do honestly want to see it.

the problem is, i clearly am not gonna buy this movie. i would normally try to netflix it, but i know the waiting list for this dvd will probably be ridiculous. this leaves me with some options to decide on. one of my nerd friends will buy it and either a) bring it to my house and let me borrow it, so i can watch it at my leisure, b) bring it over and if it is convenient for me, we can watch it together on my tv, or c) if someone does something dumb, like buy it on blu-ray (chris), then i guess i can come over to watch it at their house, but i will not let them know when. i will just show up and throw a huge temper tantrum if either a) they are not home, or b) they don't feel like watching it then or c) are home but busy. if either b or c is the case, then they can always just let me borrow their blu-ray player which i will then take home, watch the star trek movie and either a) pretend like i never borrowed it, b) sell it on craig's list, or c) this was really dumb, but everyone is home for veteran's day.

28 days laura

laura and i have discussed having a horror movie marathon, which appears to be a go for saturday afternoon. i am definitely more of the scary movie connoisseur (my initial attempt at spelling that word was way off) and sent laura an initial batch of already on-hand movies we could choose from. after some e-mailing back and forth, we wittled the list down to the following:

• descent
• quarantine
• high tension
• them
• the orphanage

what i noticed was that laura was vetoing anything involving zombies. i'm glad i know that she is scared of zombies. not that i plan on using that knowledge in any sort of antagonistic way, but it's nice to stockpile as much potential arsenal as possible. either way, i am still lobbying to include 28 days later, since they are not technically undead. anybody else have any other good horror movie suggestions?

i also realize that we cannot possibly watch all of these movies since watching a dozen hours of nonstop tv can't be healthy, but we also have chris' ufc 100 party to go to. realistically we are looking at 3 movies, so hopefully we choose them wisely. i am looking forward to laura getting scared and me laughing about it.

it also crossed my mind that this could be a nice setting for some serious dance slap payback, but i'm thinking it's too soon, and i guess the fact that i am writing about it proves that i won't actually slap her. or will i? i won't.

what happens when i stay in on the weekend

as i mentioned in my previous post, i stayed in most of this weekend ( i need to get a life). i suppose i could have gone to the rivetti-based bonfire party, but again, the weather foiled my interest. anyways, this led to a lot of movie viewing. i managed to watch 5 movies over the weekend, 3 of them all the way. here are my takes on these 5 movies in the order that i watched them in.

ping pong playa
this movie about a chinese american guy in his young adulthood, refusing to grow up and accept his reality, which unfortunately for him, does not include playing in the nba. now i have previously played around with a story sort of similar to this, but where mine went a very distinctively assy direction, this movie kept it funny, but eventually worked the redemption/growing up angle. it was a sweet story with some very funny, yet real performances. it does a good job of presenting asian americans in a more realistic way than most movies. i think for me, it was nice to see an asian male play the lead in a movie that did not include martial arts. it was not a perfect movie, but i think it really accomplished what it intended to and i thoroughly enjoyed it. grade: a-

jcvd

this meta movie where jean-claude van damme plays himself seemed appealing to me. essentially, while deperately dealing with trying to regain custody of his daughter, he gets caught up in the middle of an ongoing bank robbery and is held hostage. because of some unfortunate occurances, the people outside including the police believe that jcvd is the one holding everyone hostage. i got about halfway through but got bored. van damme seems to be doing a good job playing himself, but i was expecting more from all the hype. incomplete grade: c



special

this little indie flick starred one of may faves, michael rappaport, as a meter maid who is bored and unhappy with his humdrum life. he decides to take part in a drug study where he takes an experimental antidepressant. while the goal of the drug is to lessen someone's feelings of self doubt, he has the reaction of gaining superpowers that only he seems to see (he is a comic book nerd). it was a good idea and executed pretty well for what was clearly a low budget. grade: b



blackout

this was a very questionable horror movie involving 3 people who get stuck in an elevator. they each have their own relatively formulaic back stories. time on the elevator goes on and through the retelling of said back stories, it is realized that one of them is actually a serial killer! dundundun! it was honestly pretty lame and i continued to watch due to not having anything else to do, but i did not hesitate when dave inquired about switching over to the caps game. incomplete grade: d



never surrender

oh man was this movie bad. it "starred" mma stars bj penn, gsp, rampage, heath herring and anderson silva. but the main character was played by hector echavarria...who also directed, if that tells you anything. this was essentially a rehash of various old van damme movies, but executed even more poorly. it is essentially an illegal mma organization with "no rules". they claimed to pay the same as other orgs, but without the managers and trainers to worry about....hey guess what geniuses, half of the fighters' money comes from sponsors...forget about that? why would anyone want to fight in front of way less people for roughly the same amount of money and the risk of death is like a million times higher? anyways, some key things to note:

• there were at least 3 drawn-out softcore sex scenes.
• gsp's voice was dubbed (unintentionally hilarious)
• the fighting scenes were lame
• the main character was a very old and out of shape mma champion
• the bad guy was like a roided up malkovich from rounders
• the line, "i remember _____. but he disappeared from mma a few years ago!" was stated by the main character 4 times.

grade: d

all except for never surrender are available on netflix's watch instantly, so you should check them out if any interested you or if you have some time to kill.

do not dispute the fact that jay hernandez is the man

in an effort to try to blog at least once a week, i will temporarily adopt the style of one of ben's 14 blogs and rate something. knowing that anyone reading this blog will probably be immediately dismissive, let me state that i am a big fan of horror movies and generally hold them in higher regard than the average movie watcher.

last week i watched the movie quarantine, starring jennifer carpenter of white chicks fame*, jonathon schaech (lead singer of the oneders), jay hernandez (starting strong safety for the permian high panthers, also in crazy/beautiful, also i love him**) and also this guy:
you know you've seen him in tons of things and are always like "oh yeah, that guy..."

anyways, the basic premise is a news reporter (carpenter) is filming a ride along with the fire department. they get a call and go to an old apartment building where they find an old woman who is clearly having problems that could be described as horrific. scary things continue to happen all while being filmed by the reporter's cameraman. also, the cdc has blocked off the surrounding neighborhood, completely tarped the building and is opening fire on anyone trying to leave the building. i don't want to give too much away, and would rather explain some of the components of why i think this movie worked and why i really enjoyed it.

the cast

as i mentioned previously, i really liked the casting choices made for the movie as i am already a big fan of carpenter and hernandez. they all give very realistic and believable performances and i think that's probably the best compliment you can give actors in a horror movie. they acted and reacted in reasonable ways, similar to how i feel like i would, which is often times a problem in horror movies.

the writing/directing

the plot is pretty basic in premise, but the pacing was really well done. things happened at unexpected moments and some main characters bit it when you least expected it. the camera work was excellent in keeping with the documentary style the movie was going for, without the motion sickness from movies like the blair witch project. having the camera rolling while all sorts of crazy shit going on was always sort of an issue in believability for me in movies like the blair witch and diary of the dead. yeah, i understand that as the documentarian, you want to catch every bit of the insanity that is going down around you, but at some point, you have to be like fuck this and just use your camera as a shield or something. everyone has their breaking point, and in most of those movies, the person behind the camera just keeps rolling no matter what and i find that completely unrealistic. in this movie they worked the angle that the power was shut off so it was completely dark half the time and essentially used the camera's light and later the camera's night vision as a way to see and thus making it somewhat believable.

the scary

the scares and the scary people are well executed and portrayed. there were fewer jump scares and more a growing general sense of dread and claustrophobia. there were many horrific moments with people with fucked up faces and general craziness. the premise that the government would quarantine people like they do in the movie is pretty messed up and not so believable, but i read somewhere on the internet that this sort of thing has happened before.

the verdict

so i acknowledge that this is not a cinematic masterpiece. i did recently see let the right one in, which is much artier and more beautiful and i am assuming much more critically acclaimed. this is just a fun and scary movie with a lot of components i wish more horror movies had. it's not perfect, but for me it was really really good. i would recommend it to anyone who at least sort of likes horror movies. i wish i had burned a copy of it before rushing it back to netflix. i might even consider buying it as i know i would rewatch it.

final grade: b+



*bonus video of jennifer carpenter (w/ kim kelly) engaging in a dance battle


**bonus video of jay hernandez being awesome

foreign film realization

q: do you like foreign films?

a: fuck yeah i do. i love that type of crap...with all of the subtitles and shit.

that is how i probably responded to such queries a few years ago. i think for a while i enjoyed the idea of liking foreign cinema. only uncultured idiots do not enjoy foreign movies. or so i had more or less convinced myself. as my friends know by now, i am of pretty average intelligence and not really any more cultured than anyone else. i enjoy music, tv and movies like everyone else. and also like everyone else, i don't really read. i used to consider enjoying movies from other countries as something that sophisticated and educated people did for jollies. while that may be true to some extent, i have come to terms with the fact that i am not part of this snooty club and am not a big fan of most foreign films.

first off, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a lot of foreign films. good movies are good movies, but at the same time, i am forced to read and follow dialogue as opposed to taking a brain vacation and enjoying something like teen wolf. basically, i am lazy, have a short attention span and i absolutely refuse to be part of something that is unamerican.

i do actually consider city of god, a brazilian movie, to be a contender for my favorite movie of all time. but that movie was awesome and you know it. although, if i am being honest, i have willfully and intentionally seen the film white chicks more often...and loved every minute of it.



q: what does this say about me?

a: i dunno. i don't like it when people, myself included, pretend to like stuff cause they feel like it is cool to do so. not that i think i was ever lying to myself or others about liking these movies, but just that i kind of wanted to enjoy them more than i truly did and so therefore i thought i liked them. now i am just coming to terms with it. also, i am lazy. if a movie is over 90 minutes there is a 30% chance i will fall asleep before the end credits.

q: will i ever watch a foreign film again?

a: i'm sure i will, but to have a chance at liking it, i have to be in the right mood. also, it probably can't be too dependent on dialogue.

q: you mentioned city of god. what other titles have slipped past and deemed actually good by you?

a: thanks to netflix, i do get a chance to view some movies i would not normally view. some of these have been foreign. some that i can remember liking that i have seen in the last year or so include zombie 2, tekkon kinkreet, the devil's backbone, the machine girl, angel-a, son of rambow, hot fuzz, oldboy, them, and mystics in bali. hmmm...maybe i had too strong of a reaction to what i thought was my anti-foreign film view and in actuality i really do like foreign movies. knowing that i have in fact been more or less genuine makes me feel a little better.

q: what was the point of all this?

a: you know what? i don't like your attitude. why don't you go watch some of you bruckheimer dvds with your stupid frat buddies and leave me alone with my vino and subtitled masterpieces.

other stuff

there are a few more things that i wanted to blog about as i have not been very active in that department for a while.

the input on my ipod is broken. when i told this to louise and dave i received two very different reactions. dave gave me a look of sympathy and was like, "aw man..i'm sorry, that sucks..." louise flashed a joker-esque smile and pretty much was like "told you so..." her hatred of apple is so strong that it actually made her visibly happy when something bad happened to me, just because it involved apple. this led to discussions with dave on turning our house into an apple household, which was actually helped by his purchasing of an ipod nano. i had this ipod for over 2 and a half years and used it constantly, while often treating it pretty roughly, so overall i am not surprised with it's current problems and feel like considering those factors, it performed pretty well. i am not sure what i am going to do next, because i could send it away and get it "fixed" for like $100. i could go and buy some new non-ipod mp3 player and make louise happy. or i could just bite the bullet and get a new 80 gig ipod for $250. i am leaning towards the 80 gig...but we'll see.

my roommate nicki is off to honduras today to do volunteer work, working with iguanas. she will be gone for a month and i admire her ability to just jump into something like that without any experience. i have a feeling she will do good work and really enjoy her time down there. i know she has thoughts of singing up for the peace corp, and i think that this is probably a good way for her to realize whether being away from home for a long time in some foreign country is right for her.

my brother's wife's sister is having a gigantic indian wedding in a few weeks. they are all very nice people and i think that this wedding will be quite spectacular in every sense. safely assuming that nobody reads this, specifically not my brother, his wife or her relatives, i can complain that they are having way too many events...at least for my liking...for this wedding. there's like 3 other seperate party/event things prior to the wedding. the wedding day itself starts early in the morning, breaks at noon and then reconvenes for various other events later in the afternoon. this will go for who knows how long. i will know like 5 people there. i will have to wear a suit. i am very happy for the couple, but it will be a long day. also i should note that i will be missing my friend sean's wedding, which is also that day. oh well...i know i will at least be getting my fill of delicious indian food, instead of the steak or fish options provided by sean. also, the groom will enter the ceremony on a white horse while carrying a giant sword...

for once i am excited enough about some new movies that i will probably see them in the theater. these include the new batman movie, pineapple express and stepbrothers. movies that i will not see and that actually cause a bad physical reaction whenever i hear about them or see their previews...love guru and that eddie murphy movie. you can add mike meyers to that list of people that i do not find funny...he's seriously awful.

i don't think i had blogged about it before, but i have developed an interest in foraging. something about going out into nature and taking plants to eat for free is very alluring to me. i purchased a book on foraging and have discussed going out into the woods with dave to retrieve some edible plants and fungi. i still want to do this, but it is the middle of the summer and thusly too hot for me to be outside for long. also, the story about that family that started going crazy and having convulsions after mistakenly eating some weed instead of mint leaves me a little wary.

there are a lot of 30th birthdays on the horizon, including mine. it sort of sucks leaving my 20's, but i tend not to dwell on it...as i've stated to my friends many times, 30 is the new 12. chris' birthday is coming up soon and he is having a party, which i am looking forward to and hoping that there is a lot of drunken stupidity.

90210 is coming back this fall...and i am especially excited about this...why? you ask? the wonderful lori loughlin will be in it...sigh...

because i like lasagna...of course

this past week or so i have seen 2 movies that both exceeded my expectations, but also make me a little embarrassed to praise. smiley face was a movie that louise and i had had our eyes on for a while. it basically looked like harold and kumar but with a girl. that girl being the very cute and underrated anna farris (who also kind of sounds like my roommate). either way, it was very funny and i personally thought her performance was hilarious...which i don't often say about female comedic actors. it was obviously ridiculous and over the top but captured the mindset of someone who is way too high very well. her "meta" thought process on garfield was spot on and besides the image of her sloppily running down the street may have been the most memorable part of the movie for me.

the other questionable movie that i really enjoyed this week was the brothers solomon. it stars will forte and will arnett as 2 brothers trying to have a baby. it is also ridiculous and unbelievable, but manages to be hilarious, if not a little uneven. i like both actors as well as co-stars kristen wiig and chi mcbride. there weren't particularly good videos on youtube for this movie, so i won't post any. but just know that the gags are plentiful. it got awful reviews (probably deservedly so), but that didn't stop me from enjoying it and buying it when it is on sale at best buy for $4.99.

again, with both of these movies, don't expect them to be "good" or "well-written" in the traditional sense. just know that if you are in the mood for a silly movie that, if you have a similar sense of humor as me, you will find funny, then i highly recommend both.

movies of 2007

along with television, i also watch a lot of movies. i don't go to the theaters much because it is expensive, there are often inconsiderate people in the theater and it is also expensive. instead i have a netflix account that i love and which i have discussed in a prior post. i have seen a bunch of movies in 2007. the last few years definitely blend together a lot for me, but here are the movies i believe i experienced for the first time in the year 2007 that i really enjoyed.

no country for old men

this is the last great movie i saw this year, so it is fresh in my mind. a pretty simple story about a guy who finds a sack of money at a drug deal gone bad. he keeps it and is pursued by a crazy guy who wants the money. all the while, a small town sheriff is sort of trying to get the crazy guy. directed by the coen brothers, james brolin plays the money finder and is actually pretty badass. tommy lee jones plays himself as he sort of realizes he is old and kind of half-heartedly goes after the crazy guy. javier bardem who played gay cuban poet reinaldo arenas in before night falls transforms into a fucking unstoppable killing force while maintaining some sort of dumb and dumber style haircut. the goofy haircut makes things even scarier some how. again, i don't remember ever seeing a movie character that frightened me as an adult like bardem in this movie.

knocked up

i mentioned this movie in an earlier post while discussing my appreciation for judd appatow, seth rogan and the rest of their crew. it was an honest romantic comedy disguised as a hilarious movie with a lot of assy people playing themselves and behaving like i thought when i was 19 years old. everyone (except for dumb katherin heigel) is cast perfectly in this movie.



tekkon kinkreet

while i usually fall asleep half an hour into most anime movies, this one really kept my attention. first of all, the animation is beautiful. the story revolves around 2 orphans living in this big city. the city is just vibrant and really seems alive. there is equal parts action, tear jerking drama and straight up weirdness. that formula works for me!

the bourne ultimatum

ok, so technically i was so drunk when i saw this in the theater, i literally remembered nothing about this movie. well i watched on dvd last week and it was awesome. not quite as awesome as the first one...but it was definitely fun to watch from beginning to end. who knew matt damon could fuck your shit up like that?

angel-a

a luc besson movie where an angel falls to earth to help save a down on his luck con man. they fall in love. it may sound simple, but it was simply charming. the girl is ridiculously hot too. this was probably the most surprising movie for me last year.

there were countless other movies that i also enjoyed, but those were the first ones i thought of. while i have seen many crappy movies within the last year, mainly awful low budget horror movies that i netflix in hopes of discovering a hidden gem, there were many movies i chose not to see because i knew they would not be good.

movies i did not see but hate

wild hogs

when i think about this movie i throw up in my mouth a little bit. i really hate john travolta and tim allen. ugh...soooo unfunny. but the whole premise of old guys in midlife crisis mode buying motorcycles and finding adventure was so busted form the beginning. while i like martin lawrence and william h. macy, it really makes no difference. the mere existence and subsequent success of this movie really makes me question our country's culture. they should have just replaced macy and lawrence with nicholas cage and robin williams....


shrek the 3rd

i hate mike meyers. his stupid scottish accent got old before when i married an axe murderer. wayne's world was good. the first austin powers was great...but fuck mike meyers and his stupid shrek movies.

pirates of the caribbean 3

i only saw the first one and some may disagree...but it was lame and about 90 minutes too long. i can only assume things got worse.

even now, i'm pretty sure i can race helltrack

referring to how a 12 year old version of me would interact in kid nation got me to thinking about stuff that i was into when i was a kid. thinking back on my interests, say 1990 and earlier, i have no regrets. below i have detailed 2 of my favorite movies and 2 of my favorite tv shows from back then.

rad

i don't know what to say about this movie, other than it was the coolest thing in the world to me for a long time. it introduced me to the celebrity love of my life, lori loughlin and it had cool bmx bike moves. i think i was into that kind of stuff back at age 9, even though i had no idea how to do any of those tricks. i remember renting this movie probably around 10 times and enjoying it every time. a few years ago i managed to purchase an unauthorized version of the movie on dvd, which came with the soundtrack! talk about a deal! below is the bike dancing scene that will be etched into my memory forever. the graceful lori performing incredible stunts on her bike, managing to bike-dance with cru jones...it brings nostalgic tears to my eyes. and anyone trying to say that that is really a stuntman...haters.


teen wolf

a great movie that balances both the whimsical side of teenage life along with the very serious social issues that young adults must deal with as they grow up. it has 5'2 michael j fox on the high school basketball team, styles the awesome best friend, some hot girls, crazy parties, a wolf playing basketball, a bad guy named nick and general zany hijinks. note the inclusion of an awesome, upbeat randy newman-esque song. i would also like to recall watching louis film nick and dave reenacting the scene where teen wolf discovers he is a werewolf...that scene ended with both of them not being able to handle their shit and had dave army crawling across my kitchen floor. anyways, for all you fucking nerds who love back to the future, i think that after watching the clip below, you all will agree that teen wolf is a 10 times better movie.


small wonder

another in a line of media that reflected the current political climate in the united states, this situation comedy blurred the lines between general fiction and surrealism. some dude who i think was an inventor, managed to create a robot girl, named vicki, who then served as the family's maid. she looked just like a girl, but because she was a robot, she had robot strength, robot speed and robot sensibilities. the mom in the show would ask "vicki, can you please pick up the house, it's getting dirty..." vicki would respond in her robot voice "affirmative, picking up house." using state-of-the-art special effect wizardry, she would then proceed to actually lift the entire house into the air. hahahahaha...here's some clips that make me laugh:


perfect strangers

the ol' fish out of water tale retold in hilarious fashion. balki bartokomous travels to america in search of a better life. he ends up staying with distant co0-zin, larry appleton. since balki is from the fictitious island of meapos, general traditions and accepted behavior is foreign to him. but he also has a lot to teach the high strung and neurotic larry. it's an odd couple that brings the funny every week on abc's legendary t.g.i.f. lineup. when in a social setting, to find out who's down with the strangers, ask if anyone knows how to do the dance of joy. i particularly recall an episode where balki bakes a special dessert from meapos called bibibopkas, that, get this, explode if they are not made correctly!


i guess the thing with these shows and movies is that i still enjoy them to this day. for the most part, not in an "ironic, haha, these are so lame they're funny", but in authentic enjoyment and fondness for them. what were some of your favorite shows or movies from back in the day? why did you like them? did you also enjoy any of the above? comment!

the genius of appatow, rogen, etc.

i have been a huge fan of everything judd appatow since freaks and geeks. i'm also glad that seth rogen has broken out and become sort of a star now. i feel like their writing and sense of humor is right in line with mine and if i were very talented and an actor or writer, i would be either doing stuff with them or copying their style, which i still maintain is my style as well.

everyone has seen all of the current movies, so i will not detail their specific genius. instead, i wanted to share few short videos online where they really bring the funny.

this first one is a fake (i think, but hope not) trailer for an end of the world movie. the inclusion of some upbeat randy newman song adds to the silly buddy comedy premise in what is normally a sci-fi or horror scenario. jay baruchel, who was awesome in undeclared, plays rogen's apocalyptic partner in crime. maybe they will turn this into an actual movie someday. i would see it.


this next video is a clip from an actual movie with rogen re-teaming with james franco of daniel desario fame. all i know is that this movie star these 2 guys who i think are hilarious in different ways, drugs are involved and it's sort of an action movie. also, there are scenes like this:



"this is it...this is what your grandchildren are gonna be smoking....future...the future..."

one can only hope that all of these guys continue working together, making movies. one thing that is noticeable from these videos is how entertaining their work is just based on dialogue...and that's natural-sounding dialogue, not tarantino nonsense. also, now that rogen has started to blow up, it's time to get some others from the crew into more prominent roles.

how about a starring vehicle for the ever-intense jason segel. he and baruchel could star in the first appatow sci-fi movie where they play 2 young space cadets who find themselves in the middle of an intergalactic war. throw in jonah hill and michael cera and the movie basically writes itself.

web-based memberships

over the last few years i have been involved with a few different online memberships where i pay a monthly fee in order to receive certain goods. i have enjoyed these for the most part. some are better than others, at least based on my needs. here's what i have learned.

emusic.com

emusic is a music downloading service. it differs from memberships like napster and rhapsody in that the files you download are yours to keep forever. it differs from services like the itunes store i that songs are cheaper than 99 cents/each.



when things were great

i originally signed up in january 2006. after a free trial of 30 songs, i really liked their selection of varying genres of music with a lot of harder to find independent stuff. i decided to go for their highest membership level of 90 songs/month at $20/month. it worked out to be about 22 cents a song and another nice things was that i could cancel anytime...so it was very low risk. it was a great way of downloading stuff legally and on the cheap. the downloading process was very user-friendly. i discovered a bunch of bands that i didn't really know about prior. some of those include:

• antony and the johnsons
• beirut
• the unicorns
• islands
• cannibal ox
• girl talk
• midlake
• the subways
• dozens of other bands/musicians that now fill my ipod

when things went bad

ok, so things didn't actually go bad as much as i started to run out of things to download and i also did not have enough time to really listen to 8 or 9 new albums a month. after a while i ended up with a lot of music that i had not listened to at all. often times louise would play some band on my ipod and i had to ask her what was playing. so my collection grew faster than i could handle. so while i really enjoyed the service and would highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of good and often times not mainstream music, i had to eventually cancel it this summer. i may one day return to emusic after i have had time to digest all of my current music.

overall grade - 8.5/10

gamefly

after spending absurd amounts of money on videogames, wasting my money to feed the evil empire of gamestop, i finally had had enough. all too often i would get excited about a game, but it for $60 only to not be that into it and then selling it back to gamestop for a third of what i had paid. i joined goozex, which is not a monthly-fee service, is a good and fair way to trade games. i also signed up for gamefly, the videogame rental service. it is an online service that send you your games via usps. i signed up for the 2 games out at a time for $22/month.

when things were great

ever since i was a little kid, i have always loved videogames. i have an xbox 360 and they have been pumping out the games this year. joining gamefly would allow me to try out all of these games before buying. it was exciting getting games through the mail. i had heard horror stories about delivery time since they only had a west coast distribution center. well now they had one in pittsburgh. so there was basically a 2 day delivery time. if i were to send a game back through the mail on a monday, they would receive it wednesday, ship my next game and i would receive it friday. not great, but reasonable. on top of this, i found a site, britghspot.tv, where i would watch commercials and they would pay for $10 of my gamefly membership a month! i got to play a lot of games (some good, some bad) and as a result, save some money:

• call of duty 4
• earth defense force 2017
• beautiful katamari
• various sports games

when things went bad

well i am still currently a member, but i won't be for long. first of all, brightspot shut down. secondly, like emusic, i had begun to run out of games that i really wanted to rent. thirdly, the service has begun to slip. now the delivery times are usually 3 days, which is pretty unreasonable if you ask me. on top of that, they just do not carry enough copies of popular games. you really have to time your returns right if you want to have any chance at a new popular game and if you shorten your list to better your odds of getting a new game, they just don't send you anything....which is the case for me right now. i have currently had only one game in my possession for about a week and a half. unacceptable. i plan on canceling this service next week before the membership renews for another month. i would recommend this service hesitantly and only if the person was a huge game nerd.

overall grade - 5/10

netflix

i joined this dvd rental service in 2004. for $18/month i get 3 dvd's out at a time. they have a gigantic selection of movies and they deliver the movies through the mail.




when things were great

movies galore! i love watching movies, especially on my giant tv. the turnaround time shames gamefly's. i put a movie in the mail on monday, they receive it tuesday, send one that day and i get it in the mail on wednesday. now that's how you run one of these services. they have like 5 million (i am making that number up...but it's a lot) movies to choose from that you set up in a queue for delivery. the website is easy to navigate, does a good job of recommending movies based on other movies you have rated. there is even a friend system that allows you to see what your friends are watching as well as leave them notes and recommend movies you think they would like. this year they have added a very nice feature that allows you to watch a number of different movies and shows on your computer. over the last 3 or 4 years...way too many movies to remember.

when things went bad

ok, things never went bad with netflix. their service has always been great. i never run out of movies that i want to watch. they seem like a company that is always trying to provide a better service for their customers. i find their pricing to be very fair. although if i am being picky (and cheap) that is probably the only aspect that they could improve upon. i would recommend this to everyone i know, even if you don't like movies, it's just that good of a product.

overall rating - 9.5/10

scene it?

there is a new scene it? game coming out for the xbox 360 this week. i am very interested in this game, especially since it comes with 4 new wireless buzzer controllers. anyways, this got me thinking about movies in general as well as making movies. over the years different combinations of me, nick, dave, louis and others have had different movie ideas. we have made a few with varying success (l.a.u.r.a., the one where louis played the hyper-erotic mad scientist who moved around on little scooters, and the one where i travel back in time to borrow money from myself) but there are many more movie ideas that were never made.

movie plot 1

nick plays a guy (named either autumn or august) who hooks up with a lot of random girls. dave and i play his chaste roommates who for varying reasons do not agree or approve of nick's lifestyle choices.
we convince him that being a virgin before marriage was the best way t live your life. nick sees the light but wonders what he can do now. i tell them about a legend i had heard where if you bathe in the mythical lake virgin you can reclaim your virginity. we all agree that this is something nick should do and we head off to the woods in search of the lake.

along the way nick is tempted by various distractions, like sexy hikers and horny park rangers. with our encouragement he stays strong and continues on with his journey. when we are feeling lost and on the verge of giving up, we cross paths with a mysterious figure. a crazy old man with long white hair and a full white beard, played by simon, approaches us. he asks us what we are searching for. when we explain our intentions, he announces that he is in fact the fabled "great virgin", a 100 year old virgin living in the woods to serve as the gate keeper for virgin lake. he puts nick through a series of grueling and demanding tests and obstacles. once nick completes them, we are granted entry to virgin lake. nick calmly enters virgin lake in an emotionally-charged transformation. the end.

that was a movie idea that had us all laughing. hopefully we will make it one day.