Fired Up!

For some reason, I thought Fired Up! came out around 2005 or something. Maybe all the times I thought I saw that it was on tv, was really just commercials for it. I guess.

Either way, a chee-

Oh fuck, I was confusing it with Stick It! My bad.

Yeah, I guess I just had no idea when this movie came out at all. Huh. Oh well, yay cheerleading movies.

Teen sex
Which also happen to be very similar to teen sex comedies, if it wasn’t for the PG-13 rating.

But first Eric Christian Olsen is 35 years old, and 32 when this movie came out. What the hell man. Stop playing high school students. One of his more famous roles as a high school student was in Not Another Teen Movie, 11 years ago, when he was 24. I know they usually get 20 somethings, but damn man. Get out of the high school funk.

Him and Nicholas D’Agosto (only 29 when the movie came out) are successful football players at school. And after this upcoming summer, they will be seniors (yeahh not even seniors!). They are not looking forward to football camp, 2 weeks in El Paso, Texas, after it was changed from Miami. They also like finding vulnerable women and one night standing them. That too. But hey, as long as no one gets hurt.

But once they find out about Cheerleading camp, a 3 week fest with over 300 women they will never meet again in their life, they plan to fake join the cheerleading squad to bang the weeks away. After two weeks, they will leave them and go to the post football camp house party, and all will be wonderful. Thanks to the help of Poppy (Juliette Goglia), the younger sister mobster like character, they convince the cheer captain Sarah Roemer to let them join, even though she is certain they only want to do it to bang chicks. They could use guys on their team, especially ones who can flip and shit.

In the two weeks they succeed at their goal, but also D’Agostino falls for Roemer. Too bad she has an ultra douchy boyfriend (David Walton). Eric has made it his goal to bang one of the instructors, Danneel Ackles, who is married to the first male cheerleader to ever make it to Nationals, John Michael Higgins, camp headmaster.

Obvious plot points are obvious. They want to help them beat the evil Panthers squad who are jerks, they get the womens, they stay on as cheerleaders instead of football players. It also has Margo Harshman as a potentially insane cheerleader, and I haven’t seen her in anything since Even Stevens.

Cast
It’s amazing how the main cast members on the team tend to stand together, and never talk to the other team members.

While watching this movie, I can’t say I was surprised by any direction the plot went. Very straight forward and obvious movie.

But damn it, it was funny. Maybe because it was PG-13 and couldn’t have “naked women” being the selling point of the movie, they were left to resort to humor to try and make it decent, and I think it worked. If I had the ability to retain movie quotes like I used too, I’d be quoting a lot of this everywhere I go.

Obviously its not the greatest movie ever made, but it gets the job done.

3 out of 4.

The Dark Knight

Hooray! Review 450! That in no way is a real significant number, just that it is divisible by 50.

Normally this is where I do a big long review of a bad movie, spoil the shit out of it, and make you laugh. Twilight series and High School Musical stuff so far. But the next bad movie I want to review I am saving for 500. It is kind of a special one for this site.

So instead, I will do a “controversial” review for a widely liked and known movie. And use the fact that there is a lot of pictures to make nerdy/lame jokes.
How could a review of The Dark Knight be controversial? Because I am only giving it a 3/4, and I will try to explain why I didn’t love it to the max.

Nipples
Because this movie featured not enough bat nipples.

Batman is running around batmanning in this movie, but so are fake batmans. He has to save a fake batman from trying to batman the return of Scarecrow, in the movie as just a cameo. Apparently Batman’s existence isn’t making crime go away, it is elevating it!

Which is why we get some assholes like The Joker.

Joker
He also looks like a midnight toker.

The Joker’s back story is very simple one. He doesn’t have one. He has no other known aliases that could be proven, and no one really knows why he acts the way he does. He is chaos incarnated, and follows a very loose definition of logic to acquire his goals. His goals being more or less the destruction/torment of the Batman, an equally crazy character in his eye. It is almost as if he won’t stop until the Batman stops.

Bane
Or if he is stopped? If Ledger didn’t die, this could totally be some nice foreshadowing.

But fuck this crime shit. There is a new sheriff in town, Harvey Dent, the white knight gotham needs to legally bring the criminals to Justice. He is also now dating Rachel, Batman’s former gal, who apparently changed her look completely when breaking up with Bruce.

But that Joker is causing lots of damn problems. Not to mention huge outcries against the Batman for being a vigilante. Coupled with an attack on some high profile players and not-yet-commissioner Gordon, the Joker demand that Batman give himself up to save the city. Dent realizes that it would be bad if that happens and pretends to be Batman instead as a trap for the Joker.

TWoface
He is such a fucking swell guy. High in morals too.

The trap is set, and the Joker is caught. Or did he allow himself to get caught?

He did. During it he arranged for the kidnapping of Dent and Rachel, and set it up so that only one could be saved by Batman, and the other dying in an explosion. In a very tense and lovely moment as they talk on the phone, we are teased horribly with Dent falling on the side and laying in the oil. But the Batman saves him, fuck! Oh well. Still gets his face all fucked up.

AMC
And AMC still wouldn’t let him join The Walking Dead.

More ultimatums issues by the joker. Have the town kill an innocent man, or else he will blow up a hospital. More chaos is caused, including people evacuating the city. The police get the bright idea of putting all the prisoners on a boat into the water, because they don’t want a repeat of what the Scarecrow did. The rich people also evacuate on a nice cruiser.

Haha! Another plot point expected by the Joker. Both vessels are armed with explosives, and the detonators for them are on each others boat. If one boat doesn’t detonate the other boat, they both will explode at midnight. Will the rich kill the prisoners, will the prisoners kill the rich?

Prisoner's Dilemma
“This is quite a dilemma, we, the prisoners, face.” – Big guy.

Through questionable motives, The Batman is able to find the Joker and tie him up once and for all! But too bad he has already convinced Harvey Dent (Two-Face) that life sucks, and he should kill people. Using the power of coin technology to determine life or death, he decides to go after all of those who set up Rachel’s death, thinking the Joker could not have been involved.

Through some tossing and turning, Batman stops him too at the cost of Two-Face’s life, making it the first time he has killed someone. Batman and Commissioner Gordon agree that Batman take the blame for what Dent did, so that Dent can die a hero and provide hope for Gotham, while Batman will go on the run, and be a “villain” for the city to unite together.

Cells
Morgan Freeman is also in here as Lucius Fox again, CEO of Wayne Enterprises, and really really hates unethical ways of stopping crime.

Alfred is still in this movie too, of course, because being a Butler is bananas.

Why the fuck did you not give this a 4/4?

Well part of my giving a movie a 4 out of 4 is the longing to watch it again sometime in the future and to make sure everyone sees it. Hellboy II, which came out to theaters a week before The Dark Knight, I gave a 4 out of 4. Counting the theater watch, I have seen that movie probably 7 times since. That is a lot, I really love that movie. How many times have I seen The Dark Knight?

Just two. Theaters, and last weekend on Blu-Ray. I definitely bought it the week it came out, just never watched it again until now.

But that doesn’t explain why I didn’t love it.

The film had a lot of hype thanks to the death of Heath Ledger. So much that he was being promised a best supporting actor Oscar before most people even saw the movie. Annoying fanboys is not a reason to hate a movie though. While Ledger was pretty damn awesome, I have never found the Joker character compelling or in general a great story line feature. I find him hard to grok, and that is part of the point. He is supposed to not make any sense and be complete chaos.

One of the most interesting stories throughout history though has always been the tragedy. Starting in Ancient Greece, the Tragedies always featured the same thing. No one cares if some random guy gets down on his luck, the fall isn’t great enough. People only care when someone on top of the world and is seemingly powerful loses everything and falls from the good grace. Like a King, or maybe a District Attorney who is living a fabulous life.

comic origins

Despite his kind of weak origins, the comic storyline of Two-Face (ahh referencing the books the movie is based on! I am horrible! :/ ) is one of the best out there. A highly moral character who wanted to rid the streets of crime and did it all within the law to persecute criminals. But when the Justice system kept failing him, he began to crack. People need to be punished, and it isn’t working out. Then some other unfortunate things happen, like losing his loved ones (possibly at Batman’s fault) and the whole face scarring incident.

Dent’s fall from the top turns him into Two-Face, a man who believes there is no right or wrong left in the world, that Karma is a farce and everything that ever happens is always a random chance. Why not determine life or death with a simple coin flip? This way he can try to get back at those who has wronged him (other criminals, people in the justice system, and Crime) and do it the only “fair” way that must be left.

But his story was overshadowed by The Joker’s and mostly swept under the rug until the end. Having him die, while symbolic, was definitely a weird way to take the Batman franchise in. I really think I would have loved it a bit more if they dug a little bit deeper into Two-Faces actions at the end. It seemed kind of weak how the Joker convinced him to go after the people that he did, but I guess we have to believe it as a man who has given up all hope and purpose for life.

But despite all this, seriously, who isn’t excited for some Dark Knight Rises?

PG-13
Despite the PG-13 rating, I think there is still a 90% chance of seeing a naked Anne Hathaway.

3 out of 4.

Then She Found Me

Turns out that Then She Found Me, a movie I had never heard of and found in a cheap bin and bought for the actors involved, is the first movie directed by /The/ Helen Hunt.

But she is also the main character too. Obviously she can’t completely escape the starlight, just yet.

hunt brod
“Quit staring at me with those dead eyes, you church bitch!” I think thats the quote there. Might be confusing it with something else.

Helen Hunt is getting married! Yay! She is in her late 30s, but is finally getting hitched to Matthew Broderick, a fellow elementary school teacher. She has no idea who her biological parents are and was adopted herself into a Jewish household, so for all intensive purposes, she is Jewish. She also really wants a baby before its too late, and really really doesn’t want to adopt herself.

Well ten months later, she is still not pregnant and it is looking rather grim. So Broderick does what every insecure man does and leaves her, not wanting that life. He also just quits his job, thinking it’d be weird teaching a class right next to hers. Ya think? So she goes to live with her brother (Ben Shenkman) where she also gets some strange news. Her mother (Bette Midler) has found her and wants to meet. (I am 85% sure that is the reason of the title!).

Turns out she is a local celebrity who does a talk show early in the day that Hunt has never heard of. Midler want to reconnect with her lost daughter and make up for all the years lost, despite the fact that she is now an almost forty year old woman. Who, if you forgot, is going biological clock crazy and really wanting that kid. It also so happens that she meets Colin Firth, a single dad with two kid, who is not socially awkward, but britishly honest, I guess.

Oh, and when Broderick broke up with her, she had sex with him before he left, and guess what. Got pregnant. But now she wants nothing to do with Matthew who left over that very reason, and might be in love with Colin. Dramaaa.

Ffuck
Colin also has a filthy fucking mouth in this movie.

More stuff happens, but that is end of the movie spoilers. I assure you it has to do with love and babies though. And maybe even her mother!

The movie is clearly very dramatic, and at points I loved it, and other points I hated it. Generally that fluctuated with whether or not Colin Firth was on the screen. His character was awesome, and the mom was annoyingly not. The dialogue also went back and forth between awesome and horrible, this time across all actors.

Despite partially interesting plot, it also gave me you know, boring plot. I guess that was the major problem with this movie. Back and forth between interesting and boring. Probably just like real life. Too real if you ask me.

2 out of 4.

Leap Year

Leap Year has been a very popular topic this year, 2012. A lot more popular than it was the last three years at least.

I like that a lot of different pop culture things seem to be trying to say Leap Day more now, to refer to it like an actual holiday, instead of making the rest of the year participate.

I personally hated the synopsis of the movie when I first heard about it, and kept putting it off. But I have been on an Amy Adams spree lately so might as well watch it now.

Threeway
I heard there might be a three way involved.

Amy Adams has been dating Adam Scott for awhile. Her job is to make apartments/houses look good enough for people to want to buy them. Even using such clever tricks as baked cookie smell. Because that is very original.

She thinks the boyfriend is about to propose, but nope, just some nice earrings. Oh well. He is going to Dublin for a business meeting, while they are waiting to find out if they are getting a condo or not. Because of the ravings of her father (John Lithgow), she is reminded of the Irish tradition that “allows” women to propose to men on the 29th of Feburary. And he is going to be in Ireland on Leap Day! Yes! Perfect timing! She is going to take it on her own and fix it, because she is a woman and woman can do their own things. So first, a flight to Dublin!

But weather sucks in the UK. Bad weather. She got /most/ of the way there. Wales. Pretty much made it I think. But whatever. Also she cannot get a boat to Dublin. She has to stay in the village (and somehow finds herself the only traveler there) and hopefully get a taxi to Dublin (is that doable..?).

Seriously. Geographically speaking, is there a way to drive from Wales to Dublin, Ireland? I don’t think so. Because in her travel to Dublin, there is never a time being on a ship. The train she tries to get on she misses, so the main means of travel are hitching, cars, and a bus. So uhh. What the fuck?

wtf
Seriously. Why not go on a road trip from Texas to Australia?

So in the village she meets Matthew Goode, who eventually agrees to take her along the way. Problems occur, transportation changes, and the trip keeps taking a lot longer to do. Somehow she realizes she doesn’t like Adam Scott. Who proposes to her when she gets to Dublin (fuck your leap day role reversals!). Why does he do it? Apparently helps them get their condo.

But when a fire alarm happens, she is mad that he grabs a bunch of electronics and leaves him and goes back to the guy she has known for 2 days and made out with some (cheating on her long term boyfriend).

But besides all that shenanigans, and random role changes. WHAT THE FUCK HOW DID SHE GET TO DUBLIN. Seriously did you see that map??

They never got on a damn boat or train. I just checked. No bridge between the two islands. I really have no idea. She also constantly says she doesn’t believe in all the travel superstitions and stuff that characters keep bringing it up, despite basing her whole journey off of one.

I also hate the concept, just like I did before I saw it. ESPECIALLY since the whole point of her doing it was because he was never proposing. But then what happened? He did it. Partially for condo reasons but he obviously loves her enough to be with her that long time.

So then she leaves him after getting everything she wanted. Whatta bitch.

A potentially mermaid bitch.

1 out of 4.

Sunshine Cleaning

Definitely another movie I bought, just on the cover.

Sunshine Cleaning shows two women, carrying…the title of the movie, behind some caution tape.

Oooh, how mysterious. And possibly illegal? Here’s hoping for some dead bodies.

Blue suits
Oooh, definitely going to have some dead bodies.

Amy Adams is a single mother working as a maid in a cleaning service. But hey, at least she has a job. Her sister, Emily Blunt, is a slacker and fails at a lot of things she does.

Only real job is that she gets to occasionally babysit Amy’s son (Jason Spevack), while Amy goes to her “class”. And by class, we of course mean having sex with her former high school sweetheart, Steve Zahn. He is a cop and married with kids, but hey, affairs are fun. And he will totally probably leave his wife for her someday, right?

Yeahhh…

Well thanks to her inside connection, she hears that crime scene cleaning can be a pretty nice business, monetarily speaking. She is going to need new money for her kids private schooling, since he has a lot of behavioral problems at public and is getting kicked. But until then, the grandpa, Alan Arkin, will be able to look after him and teach him real world smarts.

Enlisting her sister as an employee, and figuring out the right paper work, they open up Sunshine Cleaning! You know, to clean up dead people blood and stuff. They also get the help of Clifton Collins Jr., a one armed man with a cleaning supplies shop. The film however makes the main characters recollect a lot on their own mothers suicide, and go on their own miniature journeys to self discovery.

Emily Blunt also starts a lesbian relationship with Mary Lynn Rajskub…because she saw her in a picture at one of the houses they were cleaning. Yeah, definitely weird.

Sunshine Cleaning
Needless to say their methods improved throughout the movie.

This film was definitely a lot more dramatic and sobering than I had thought. With such a colorful and sunny cover, it all kinds of come out of no where. There are some amusing moments, mostly between the grandfather and the son. Well, the grandfather and everyone really. Alan Arkin is the hidden star of this film, and is a nice surprise to watch.

I personally didn’t like a lot of the moments with Emily Blunt’s character, not because she is a screw up, but just…weird slow motion falling and sad time parts. There was this weird montage moment in the middle that just felt way overly dramatic and kind of stupid. In my mind at least.

The ending was a good one though, and most of the characters ended up pretty well. Some plot lines I don’t think they answered as well as they should have though.

2 out of 4.

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Wooo. Here is something I have been putting off for awhile. Repo! The Genetic Opera.

I like musicals. And well, this is still something different. But I figured I was going to watch Repo Men soon (maybe), so why not watch this also soon. I knew this wasn’t a normal movie, probably something made with the intention of being a “cult classic” right off the bat. But damn it, Giles is in it, so I had to watch it.

Only took me like, two years.

Gore
Singing and gore. Pretty standard today.

In this futuristic world (2050s) Organ Donation is now being treated like a car loan. Great offers, most people can get a heart when they need it, no money down. But they have to pay their bills. If they don’t keep up with payments? Well, their organs will get repossessed back.

Also lots of plastic surgery too.

Head of the company GeneCo. is Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino) but he is dying soon. He has three children, Pavi (Nivek Ogre) who wears a different face on his face, Luigi (Bill Moseley) who has anger problems, and Amber (Paris Hilton) who is addicted to surgeries and the painkillers involved. Anyways, bad and evil family, and he doesn’t trust his kids. They do shady contracts with their organs too.

The Repo Man (Anthony Head) is forced into killing others and taking their organs for GeneCo, because he is being blackmailed by Rotti Largo. The killing and organ stealing is also legal. The Repo Man thinks he killed his wife before child birth, trying to cure a disease for her, but he was set up by GeneCo.

Because of all of this, and his shame, he has trapped his daughter in his house for her whole life, making her think she had the same disease and that she could die if she goes outside. Shilo (Alexa Vega) goes outside anyways, causing a lot of problems. Rotti Largo was only mad because he was dating her mom before she left him for the Repo Man. Operas are dramatic.

There is also Blind Meg (Sarah Brightman) who is no longer Blind, thanks to GeneCo! She is a singer, and thinks that she can retire and it just be okay. There is another character called The Gravedigger (Terrance Zdunich), who I felt was pretty much a narrator like character.

But yes. Main plt? Rotti Largo is still pissed, and wants to get more revenge before he dies.

Opera
And the gravedigger is also a pill pusher.

So, this was definitely a weird movie.

As it is more of an opera than a musical, a lot more singing happens instead of just normal talking. Singing transitions between actual songs. None of the songs I can really even think of how to sing. Very…well, weird.

It is also not the finest display of singing talent. It had its moments, but a lot of it was just talk/singing.

This was another movie where I wasn’t sure what I thought about it after I watched it. Was it just okay while being super weird, or did the super weirdness make me like it a lot? Definitely didn’t hate it. I loved the little things they did to create their world, and the comic book back story telling of certain events.

It felt weird to be over “so soon” at the end though. Felt like a TV show worth of potential plot, and its obviously just a one shot movie. I also liked the ending, or at least what was left available for the viewer.

Ahhh, fuck it. Originality gives it the higher rating.

3 out of 4.

4.3.2.1.

Definitely a movie that I only heard about once before, and just kind of said “eh, fuck it! Lets watch.”

Can’t say I expected much out of 4.3.2.1. Just knew it was some sort of drama/action movie, involving maybe a heist and four different girls with their own storyline.

Which, I guess, is a lot to know about it. Also a British movie. But overall, expected something average and found it to be pretty good.


Look at how unique and different they are!

Beginning scene quickly introduces us to the main characters. When they walk away from the diner, it breaks into each character separately, telling their story for the next three days (Friday-Sunday), until they meet up all again.

First, Shannon (Ophelia Lovibond) goes hoem to find her parents getting divorced. Or at least her mom is leaving them. It was all in a note, but one of her friends accidentally got it. Over her weekend she has a depressing time, no one to hang out with, and gets attacked by muggers in the street over some diamonds she supposedly has. Thinking her friends no longer like her, and other problems, she wants to commit suicide.

Cassandra (Tamsin Egerton) is going to NYC to meet her internet boyfriend. This also has a Kevin Smith cameo on the plane, out of no where and awesome. Turns out her internet boyfriend isn’t real, but a prank. Well she doesn’t like that.

Kerrys (Shanika Warren-Markland) is a lesbian! And doesn’t give shit about nobody. She watches Cassandra’s place for the weekend, is the bitch of the group, and has far too many people piss her off this weekend.

Jo (Emma Roberts) is an American, and is from a well off family. But with her father injured from work, she has to work some night shifts at a local convenience store. A manager she never seen before is up to shady things with the safe, and also other possible crimes.

Roberts
I have been watching a lot of movies with Emma Roberts recently. Go figure.

Felt weird talking about the plot outline, without wanting to give them away. But how was the experience?

The first storyline I was kind of confused at what was going on. The other girls appear in each storyline, whether in person, or phone call or text, but obviously you know the least about whats going on with just the first storyline. As the story goes on, more and more holes are filled in and you know more about the characters. Get to experience the actions as each member, instead of omnipresent movie watcher.

So overall I would say it started off slow and weird, but definitely got better. Also, “Strangely enough”, each woman character after the first was pretty strong of a character. They all had to do “something” action-y, some more than others. Whether it was tying up and kicking the ass of online predators, chasing people out of a house with a sword, or beating up people at a bar.

Not only that, but the action was generally real enough. And the drama.

Ending was a bit of a let down with all the build up, but most of the stuff I just really enjoyed. Surprisingly.

3 out of 4.

Henry Poole Is Here

Definitely another movie I bought just because of who is on the cover.

Henry Poole Is Here sounds pretty much like a meaningless title to me. I guess this Henry Poole character is some sort of new neighbor, who moves into a suburban neighborhood and parties it up, causing his neighbors ire. Maybe.

By the end maybe he will learn to not be an asshole. Maybe.

Well I was wrong. Shit is a drama, and it is serious at that.

Asshole
I was dead on with the asshole commentary though.

Predicting movies is hard. I rarely turn out to be right if I have never heard of it before.

Maybe calling Henry Poole (Luke Wilson) an asshole is bad. Mostly because he is going to die. Alright, we all are, but he has a terminal illness. He decides to wait out the rest of his days by moving back to his old hometown, and getting a small house in a suburban neighborhood, where he can waste away his days with pizza and liquor. Pretty much retirement. And waiting to die.

His neighbor, an old hispanic woman (Adriana Barraza) sees a face on his outer wall in his backyard, from mold or something and claim it to be a face of Jesus. She even tries to get the priest (George Lopez!?) to make it a holy site, but he doesn’t seem any proof of it. Not until that shit starts having blood appear. And maybe healing people?

One neighbor Dawn (Radha Mitchell) separated from her husband, and for about a year her daughter has not spoke. But after seeing the face she has begun to speak. A miracle! No…not really. But another girl, Patience (Rachel Seiferth), an annoying cashier at the market, can see when she visits and touches the wall. She had thick glasses before. Another ehhh moment.

But eventually all of this builds up into anger. More and more people are visiting it and bothering him at his house. He meets someone he likes, but he is going to die soon. So he destroys the wall with a sledgehammer.

Then some other things happen.

Oh hey, Cheryl Hines is also in this movie as a Realtor.

Poole
When you are going to die soon, you take every opportunity to spray neighbors with a hose.

But then I hated the ending.

This is a movie that is kind of about religion and Christianity, but also about believing in believing. Despite the large faith issues associated with it, I was very into the movie for most of it. The drama was slow at times, but I thought appropriately paced for this guys point of view.

But the ending? It killed me. The last few minutes. Just seems to go against his character completely, and felt like a cop out for the directors. Everything fell into place too neatly, and I just didn’t care anymore.

A bad ending can ruin pretty much everything. But I thought the acting was pretty well done in the movie. Definitely a lot different than I expected. And once I found out it was religious (very early on) I am surprised it kept me as interested as it did.

2 out of 4.

Lymelife

I can say that I honestly only watched Lymelife because I saw Alec Baldwin on the cover. Of course he was wearing a suit too.

Because that is all Alec Baldwin has to do nowadays.

Suit
Well its a suit of clothing at least, right?

This movie is more about a little rich~ kid named Scott (Rory Culkin). They used to live in Queens, but have moved out to Long Island, and are kind of big on real estate. Also this is the 70s.

Apparently Lyme disease may have just started recently, or it doesn’t have a real cure or something. Can mess you up for years. One of their neighbors (Timothy Hutton) got a deer tick while hunting two years ago, and has never been the same. Kind of sick a lot. His wife (Cynthia Nixon) has to bring home the bacon on her own, and makes it all kind of weird on their daughter (Emma Roberts).

Scott kind of has a thing for her too, but she is way more popular than him. Speaking of having a thing for people, Scott’s dad (Baldwin) is having an affair with her mom. Yay! The mom doesn’t enjoy being married to a sick guy. Scott’s mom (Jill Hennessy) knows something is up, but she just seems crazy to Scott. It isn’t until Scott’s brother returns temporarily from the army (Kieran Culkin. Yes real life younger brothers to Macaulay) for her birthday does Scott realize the truth about his father.

This causes a lot of family strife amongst both groups. Even more bad things happen when they find out Mr. “I am diseased” father hasn’t been going to his job interviews, mostly enjoying the whole “stay at home and do nothing aspect” of his life. Doesn’t mean he takes kindly to cheating. Factoring in all of the parents issues makes Scotts little crush seem insignificant. Doesn’t mean he was going to stop crushing, just puts it in perspective for him.

The end of the movie is full of betrayal, families rekindling and others splitting, new love, and maybe a gunshot or two.

Deer tick
See them bundled? It’s because they don’t want ticks. And its cold. And they might have just had sex.

I should have told the plot in a more straightforward way. My bad. But this movie was pretty intense.

The last five minutes I was scared. A lot of comparisons are made in regards to this movie and American Beauty, but they are pretty different. I guess they kind of both talk about the American Dream and sex with a neighbor (kind of neighbor). But one is a mid life crisis, and the other is a teenage boy. Who’s dad may be going through a midlife crisis. Either way, affairs are bad, and having people with guns mad at you is bad. So in those last five minutes when I was scared, it still wasn’t that predictable.

And most importantly, I wasn’t left without an answer. The plot lines were all finished. I wouldn’t say in a nice neat little package, because of some of the implications afterwards, but definitely felt like a full movie which was good.

I thought a lot of the acting was great, especially from Hutton, Baldwin, and Nixon. Rory would later want to bang Emma in Scream 4, because all of those people are in the same movies for some reason.

3 out of 4.

The Muppets

I can’t say I know much about The Muppets. Pretty sure I watched more of the Muppet Babies cartoon than any actual muppet movie or show. And by pretty sure I mean 100% positive. I have seen many episodes of that cartoon, and no episodes of the old Muppets show or any Muppet movie before. Just wasn’t raised on them, my bad.

So needless to say the only preconceived notions I had on this movie was that A) a lot of people loved it and B) the title was dumb/vague.

Muppets
I like that dog one myself.

In this world, I guess Muppets are just real things. I couldn’t tell if all things that were Muppets like were known as Muppets, or if only this select group of /things/ were known as the Muppets. A third option is that they are more or less identical to real people, and the people who were part of the show The Muppets are the Muppets. I think that is the real answer? Kind of weird though.

The story is about a “Guy” named Walter, who clearly is a muppet. Or at least a weird looking human. He is best friends with Jason Segel‘s character, and they are roommates for like, forever. Jason has been dating his girlfriend for 10 years, Amy Adams, and on their anniversary they are going to the magical land of Los Angeles. She also happens to be a school teacher, and I was weirded out when it was her and NOT Alyson Hannigan.

They invite Walter along too, because he is lonely, and wants to see the Muppet studios. He is obsessed with that show. Like, really obsessed. That is all he talks about. Kind of makes sense why not many friends. So of course all he wants to do is see the studio. Amy Adams main goal is to finally have alone time with her boyfriend and maybe get a proposal finally. But shit goes wrong. Turns out an “evil” man (Chris Cooper) is about to but the old studio, because there is oil underneath it. And in the original contract, they have until some time next week to buy it again for $10 million.

Walter flips a shit, and wants to try and stop him. So he finds and convinces Kermit to “Get the band back together” and that people “Still care” about them, and hopefully try and save their studio. So they get all the Muppets they can and work on getting a telethon the day before to hopefully raise enough money, with a lot of musical acts, and host Jack Black!

Also, eventually Jason stops being such a jackass, and realizes he is dating Amy Freaking Adams and does the right thing. Don’t worry.

Tons of cameos of famous people playing themselves or other weird roles, including Rashida Jones, Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, Kristen Schaal, Donald Glover, and Emily Blunt.

Walter
Look at this noob. He is too fanboyish to be a real Muppet.

Honestly, I thought the plot was pretty weak. The ending didn’t seem to make much sense to me. Heart warming, sure, but nonsensical. I don’t want to spoil it, but feel free to ask me if you saw the movie, haha.

BUT. I did like a lot of the jokes. When they were getting all the muppets, and needed to do it in a montage? That was great. And map travel. I also enjoyed a lot of the music. The songs involving Amy Adams and Jason Segel were my favorite, but the Muppet only songs during their telethon were pretty entertaining as well. Especially the barber shop quartet.

But out of all that, it just means I might be more willing to buy* the CD, and not really care about watching the movie again. It was decent, probably a lot better for those that you know, grew up with the muppets though.

2 out of 4.