It has been years since I have seen any of the Indiana Jones movies, but within the first fifteen minutes all I could think about was, “Harrison Ford is still a badass.” Because he is pretty awesome. Even at 64, he still does stunts, cracks his whip and basically tells those Commies where to put it. The story is pretty much this: He gets kidnapped by some Russians who want his help finding this thing hidden in a warehouse. He helps them find it and then meets this kid, Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) who tells him Indie’s old friend and Mutt’s mentor has been kidnapped, along with Mutt’s mother. After a few crazy motorcycle scenes, they end up in Peru to track down their friends. Turns out Mutt’s mother is Indie’s old love, Marion. They go about trying to take this crazy crystal skull back to the place it belongs, but of course, the Russians chase them.

 

I think I always liked Indiana Jones because he doesn’t really use weapons (except for his whip), but he uses his wiles and his fists to fight them. This movie is no exception. He continues to fight evil with his fists and his whip (and the occasional Russian weapon attached to a tank). Plus, he’s always doing it to do the right thing. He’s the good guy. You want him to win because he’s the good guy.

 

Cate Blanchett plays the leader of the KGB group after the crystal skull. This movie really solidifies her as an actress who can pretty much do anything she wants. She can play an Elf Queen and be fantastic. She can be Bob Dylan and be amazing. She can be a commanding Russian with black hair and a sword and be superb. Honestly, she can do no wrong.

Then there’s Shia LaBeouf. Yes, I think he’s cute and he really fits his character in this. The movie takes place in the 50s and he’s a greaser. He’s constantly combing his hair, rarely takes off his leather jacket, wears rolled up jeans and drives an awesome motorcycle. I thought he was good in his role, but I spent most of the movie thinking, “You just got into a sword fight with Cate Blanchett. You just climbed through a cave with Harrison Ford.” In short, what an amazing experience.

 

I did notice two random actors in the movie: Bradford Meade/Caleb Nichols/Charles Widmore is in the movie for a couple minutes playing a guy who works for the U.S. government. And the guy who plays Bridget Jones’s dad plays the dean of the university Indie works for. Kinda funny.

 

Cindy keeps pointing out a reference to Star Wars (of course!) but I picked up on the reference to “The Untouchables”. Mutt and Indie are sitting in a diner and these Russians come up and want to fight. Mutt pulls out his switchblade on them and Indie says “You just brought a knife to a gun fight” which is what Sean Connery’s character says (more or less) in “The Untouchables”. Shout out to Sean who wasn’t in the movie, but will always be Henry Jones, Sr.

 

My aunt said it was the best of the Indiana movies. I’d have to rewatch them again, but I was definitely not let down.

 

Rating: Four out of Five Whips!

Okay this movie was quite hilarious. Tina Fey’s character wants a baby. She can’t get pregnant so she hires Amy Poelher’s character to carry it for her. Amy and her seedy boyfriend Carl (Dax Sheperd) break up and Amy moves in with Tina. Basically, Tina’s helping her grow up (and grow a baby) while Amy teaches Tina not to be so serious. I can’t say too much without giving away the plot which I was not expecting. The movie was funny (of course) and had some really funny lines. Tina and Amy definitely have chemistry together and play off each other really well. I didn’t know Greg Kinnear was going to be playing Tina’s love interest in the movie (although I still see him as kind of gay like in “As Good As It Gets”).

 

I know this was a short and not very descriptive review, but I recommend it. It’s got all the good elements of a movie: humor, sweetness, moral, twist. (The only thing missing was a really hot guy, but the dude from “Weeds” was in it and he’s pretty cute so we’ll go with that.)

 

Rating: Four out of Five Cans of Pam

So I’ve seen Iron Man twice so I obviously liked it. Basically, Tony Starck runs a company that makes weapons. He is in Afghanistan, the motorcade is blown up and this crazy terrorist guy tells him he’s locked up until he makes the Jericho missile. Instead, he builds a crazy iron suit and goes about escaping. He spends the rest of the movie perfecting his suit and fighting evil trying to right all his wrongs he caused when he made the weapons in the first place. Then he’s got conflict with his partner/his deceased father’s old friend who profits highly off these weapons and wants to keep them out there in the world.

 

So a few notes about the men in this movie: Robert Downey Jr. is attractive. More so than he’s been in a while. He did have some perfectly groomed facial hair which was kind of weird, but he is still very attractive and still looks a bit like a badass. Actually, Tony Starck is a guy trying to do good, but is still a badass. He still drives hot cars, has an awesome Malibu house (which I expect someone to buy for me), still gets the ladies and still fights…it’s just that his fights are for the greater good. Then there’s Jeff Bridges who plays the antagonist in the movie. He is bald and has a paunch. Actually, he just scared me through the whole thing. My mom didn’t even realize it was Jeff Bridges until I said something to her. Ugh. The movie was directed by Jon Favreau who has a part as a chauffer/errand boy for Tony and he kind of lingers behind in a few scenes. The movie also has Terrance Howard as Tony’s best friend and a weapons specialist for the U.S. government. I don’t find him that attractive, but whatever. He was still good in the movie, providing a bit of a moral compass for Tony.

 

Gwyneth Paltrow played Pepper Potts, Tony’s ever present assistant. There’s obviously some chemistry between the two of them, but she doesn’t put up with any of his crap and dishes it out as much as he does. She’s always there, however, to bring him coffee or gifts (and to tell him when he’s being a jackass). She is funny and charming and you want to be around a girl like you. Plus, she runs through broken glass and a floor that has got to be nothing but metal grating in insanely high heels.

 

All of that being said, the movie was worth my time times two. It was good versus evil, it had cool weapons and cars and the characters were all well developed. It was a bit dark at times (being that they’re fighting terrorists) but the dialogue stays fairly light and engaging.

 

A couple trivia facts (I know, I know) to add: Gwyneth Paltrow took the part because she would only have to go fifteen minutes away from her kids while filming. You can see Stan Lee (of Marvel comics) at the party with three blondes when Tony walks by and says “Hey, Hugh”.  Hah love Stan Lee. I loved him especially in Mallrats. And stay until the end of the credits!

 

Rating: Four and a half out of Five Heart Implants

Jayme keeps making mention of this book; presumably because I have said so many things about it since I read it. I bought this book for a couple reasons: (1) because I love mix tapes, (2) because I love music and (3) because it was buy 2 get the 3rd free. I started reading it almost immediately and while it wasn’t one of those books I couldn’t put down, it was definitely one I wanted to keep reading.

 

It’s part memoir, part memory and part playlist. Rob starts the book talking about his life in general. And then goes into how he met his wife in the 80s and how perfect they were for each other, finding little ways to live their life in their own balanced way. Each chapter starts off with a playlist that described that moment in his life. Rob goes into why he listened to those songs then, what memories those songs bring back to him even now. Sometimes they’re rock, sometimes they’re random blues songs, sometimes it’s a bunch of songs by the same artist, sometimes it’s just completely random.  But Renee suddenly died one day in their apartment. Rob was beside himself. There was so much buildup in the book about how great she was, how quirky and seemingly perfect for him and then she was just gone. You feel his pain because you’ve grown to love her as well. There is a part right after she died where he kept thinking the hospital was going to call and say it was just a mistake, that she hadn’t really died. He drives to the town where she grew up and takes the cordless phone in the car in case the hospital calls. It wasn’t a cell phone, it was just the cordless phone from his house. He knew it wouldn’t work, but somehow it made him connected. Rob has to learn to move on without Renee. He’s in his 20s and how do you do that? He spends on chapter talking about how he connected with Jackie Kennedy because she too didn’t know how to breathe after she lost her spouse. He didn’t know how to sleep in the bed without her there, how to talk without having her finish his sentences. This book was so grief stricken that you want to sit there and feel the pain with him because it’s almost too much to bear to move on. And it wasn’t your friend, your wife, your sister.

 

Rob has an ease in his writing that immediately draws you in. It’s more like he’s writing you a letter about a brief second of his life rather than you just reading a book. You want to cry with him, laugh with him, hug him. It’s such a deep heartbreaking story that you want to find him and pick him up and find some way to help him. But he knows that. He knew everyone was like that after he lost Renee. He talks about how he wasn’t sure how to tell people he hadn’t seen in years that Renee had died. You have to laugh reading this book about how his punk rock wife died right before Missy Elliott became big which was such a shame because she would’ve loved her. It makes you wish you could be like her or have someone love you like he loves her. It’s a beautiful book full of lines that seem to encapsulate the exact feeling at the perfect moment. I know how hard it is to put your feelings out there, especially about something as close to home as this, but he does it in such a touching tribute to Renee. And he knows that it’s exactly what she would’ve wanted.

 

 

 

I will admit I am not a big comic book reader (unless you count Archie Comics which I used to read religiously) so I wasn’t quite sure what Iron Man did, except for what I saw in the trailers. I knew he was a Marvel superhero. I know I like most superhero/superpower movies that I’ve seen. So with little expectations, I stood in a line outside the movie theater to get a seat (after we changed tickets for a later time when the first one had absolutely no seats in it). I can say I was not disappointed. I wouldn’t give it a fantastic review like most critics have been giving it, but part of that may be because I drank a bottle of wine before I went and saw an 11 o’clock movie so I was kind of tired at the beginning of it.

 

Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a really rich man who runs his family’s business of making weapons to supply to the U.S. government. He graduated from MIT at a young age and is pretty much a genius when it comes to technology. He lives in a cool glass house on a cliff in Malibu. He is kind of a loner, kind of a rebel. He gets captured by some Middle Eastern men who try to force him to build them a weapon. Instead he builds an iron suit that can fly, shoot fire, basically kick their tails. When he gets back home, he goes about perfecting his suit and making it the ultimate machine. I like that RD Jr. plays characters that aren’t too far from who he really is. The last thing I saw him in was “Charlie Bartlett” where he was a selfish alcoholic which was pretty much RD Jr. for the past decade. Now he’s cleaned up his act, but I like him as Tony Stark because he’s not trying to be something he’s not. He is what he is and I really admired that in his character. He’s not trying to be some suave ladies man or anything, but he definitely gets some ladies in his own way. Gwenyth Paltrow played Pepper Potts, Stark’s tall assistant who pretty much keeps him in line all the time. She’s funny and a bit of a damsel in distress, but also doesn’t put up with a lot of his crap. (Trivia: The only reason Paltrow took this part was because she would be close to home so she wasn’t far from her little kids.) Jeff Bridges plays the creepy villain (mostly scary because of his bald head which is really shaved) who builds his own iron suit to try to take on Iron Man. Terrence Howard plays a member of the U.S. government and Tony’s friend. He has to battle with Tony trying to wage his own war versus what the government is doing to protect our friendly skies. There isn’t a whole lot to the story to tell. Tony battles good and evil, trying to keep his weapons from getting into the wrong hands. Bridges character is mad because he helped build Stark Industries with Tony’s dad and it all got ripped away from him and given to Tony. He’s jealous so he wants to wage his own war. Battle ensues. I like the scene where Stark goes to a press conference to address (or dodge) the events of the previous night. He is given an alibi and prompted what to say. Stark, being the guy he is, doesn’t quite stick to the lines. In the end, good conquers evil. Or does it?

 

If you haven’t heard by now, this is one of those where you have to wait past the credits for the special scene. In this one, Stark comes into his house and is told to get the m.f.ing snakes of the m.f.ing plane. Okay, watch it and you’ll get it. It segues into Iron Man 2 and apparently a lot of other comic book stuff which I kind of knew, but was told all about by Jayme (all around comic book nerd and brainiac). Overall I thought the movie was entertaining. I guess I don’t know enough about the comic book to be all that hyped, but it was still pretty good. I am always a fan of the normal person who is a superhero because he can build or afford really cool things (a la Batman). It gives all us little guys hope. At least until we wake up and realize I have innate superhuman powers and can turn people into stone.

 

Rating: Three and a half rocket launchers.

I am a self admitted lover of Freaks and Geeks. I like to watch my dvds on Sunday afternoons or any rainy day and relive all the great moments and hilarious lines. [Thanks to Jessica for getting me so involved in both F&Gs and My So Called Life.] That being said, I have loved Jason Segal for a long time. I wanted Lindsay and Nick to end up together so bad. I loved when he played the drums for her for like 2 hours and when he showed up at her house and took a bunch of Fruit Roll Ups with him. I loved that he liked her so much and wanted to be right for her, even though he was stoned most of the time. That being said, of course I will have a big soft spot for a movie that Jason Segal wrote and starred in.

 

We’ve all sent the trailers and mass promotion for FSM. Peter’s hot girlfriend dumps him, he is beside himself with grief, he decides to take a vacation to Hawaii, he runs into her and her new rock star boyfriend and he meets the front desk clerk, Rachel, (Mila Kunis, who got really good looking since “That 70s Show”) who tries to help him get over it and get on with his life. Let me just say, in order to prepare you, there is nudity. We all see the trailer where she dumps in and he drops his towel on the floor. Well there you have it. Camera pans down. I was not aware of this (and it’s not all that brief) and felt a tad bit uncomfortable sitting next to my innocent 19 year old cousin watching that. That being said, however, it is hilarious. Jason Segal completely has down the awkward moment stuff which makes him great to watch. You feel bad for him (come on! his hot girlfriend of like 3 years is breaking up with him!) but you still want him to cover up. He is like a sad little puppy that’s peeing on your floor. You don’t want him to do it, but you kind of feel bad scolding him for it. The movie is full of awkwardness between him and his ex (Kristin Bell) and her wildly inappropriate new boyfriend (Russell Brand) as they sit together at dinner in Hawaii, see each other at brunch, and end up in adjacent hotel rooms. Rachel works at the front desk and takes a shine to Peter and tries to help him get over Sarah by taking him out for beer and letting him just be himself, so much of what he’s ended up stifling to keep Sarah around. There are really funny parts, including some ever witty dialogue delivered by Jonah Hill and the cute Paul Rudd as well as Peter’s friendship with his married stepbrother. Peter is not only on a road to recovery, but to self discovery. After three years, how much of himself has he lost in staying with Sarah? And how is he going to get it back?

 

I watched an interview on MTV.com with Jason Segal talking about specific parts of the movie and he tells the interviewer he really did get dumped naked and he knew he had to put it in a movie. He also said he took her flowers and said the words to some utterly cheesy song to her trying to win her back. She didn’t take him back, but she kept the flowers. That interview made me like him even more because I think it takes a great person to put the really crap times in their life into a movie or a book for the entire world to see. Maybe that’s just maturing enough to move on and laugh about it. Additionally, he said the best part of the movie (in my mind) came from a real life experience: Dracula puppets. Peter tells Rachel he works composing for a TV show, but really wishes he could finish his Dracula puppet opera. She urges him to sing part of it on stage at this bar which leads to the looks of both horror and laughter. [He meant for it to be serious, but do you really take that seriously?] I won’t spoil the ending of the movie for you, but Dracula puppets are an excellent idea and hearing Jason Segal sing the part of Dracula just made me smile.

 

So to find out whether or not Peter can really get over Sarah Marshall and if he can get back to living his life again – on his own terms – you should check out the movie. Just beware of who you watch it with if you may feel uncomfortable watching sex/nude/explicit things with anyone.

 

[Bonus: I saw it in the theater and got to see the first full length trailer for “The Pineapple Express” with James Franco and Seth Rogen. I am way excited because it just reminds me of the good ol’ days when Seth’s character dated a hermaphrodite and Daniel was having a perfect love-hate relationship with Kim Kelley. Oh, I wish I would’ve been a Freak.]

 

Rating: Four “I hate you, Sarah Marshall “billboards.