Monthly Archives: March 2014

Review: The Lego Movie

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Emmet is an ordinary guy.  There’s nothing distinctive about him at all, in fact.  He gets up in the morning, does his exercises, watches the popular shows on TV, drops his laundry off at the cleaners, buys overpriced coffee, and goes to work at his construction job, all while listening to the most popular song on the radio, “Everything Is Awesome!!!”.  He lives his life by following the instructions, quite literally in this case as he’s a Lego man (minifigure).  His whole life is about following the instructions provided by President Business, whose corporation controls the entire city of Bricksburg, whether they’re instructions on how to make friends and fit in or on how to demolish anything “weird” at his construction job and build bland and “perfect” office buildings in their place.

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Quote of the Day

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“Ha!” Sunny shrieked, which meant “Ha!”

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill – Lemony Snicket

Quote of the Day

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Kira Nerys: Don’t forget, this… is still your fault.

Julian Bashir: My fault?

Kira Nerys: You performed the transfer from Keiko to me.

Julian Bashir: After you volunteered.

Kira Nerys: After you put the idea in my head.

Julian Bashir: After you flew the runabout into an asteroid field.

Kira Nerys: After you insisted we check on those anomalous bio-scans.

Julian Bashir: That was Keiko!

Kira Nerys: Well, that’s right, it was, but I’d rather blame you.

Julian Bashir: Whatever makes you happy.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season 5: Episode 1 – “Apocalypse Rising”

Review: The Monuments Men

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The Monuments Men had a bit of a rocky road to the theaters.  The film, produced, written and directed by George Clooney and featuring an all-star cast, was set for release at the height of Oscar-bait season in mid-December, and audiences had begun to expect big things from it.  Then, news broke that it was being pushed back to a February release, due to difficulty finding the right balance of tone in the editing room (or, depending on who you ask, because they needed more time for the visual effects).  Making a PG-13 World War II movie that focuses not on the war directly but on countless works of art that most audiences have never heard of was always a dicey prospect, and from that perspective The Monuments Men is definitely a success, if perhaps not as much as might have been hoped.

In 1943, as the Allies advance into Europe and the Germans retreat it becomes clear to Frank Stokes (George Clooney) that the cost of the war will be greater than the loss of millions of lives.  Continue reading →

Recap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “T.A.H.I.T.I.”

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The Olympics are over, the hiatus is done, and SHIELD is finally back!  When we last left our crew, things weren’t looking good.  Sure, they’d finally captured Ian Quinn, but before they did he shot Skye twice in the stomach, and Simmons was forced to cryogenically freeze Skye just to keep her alive long enough to reach help.  Tonight’s episode picked up right where that one left off, and gave us some interesting new information to chew on, all while introducing us to some new characters and giving us an interesting tease for next week.  So let’s head to T.A.H.I.T.I., written by Jeffrey Bell and directed by Bobby Roth.

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Quote of the Day

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According to Madam Pomfrey, thoughts could leave deeper scarring than almost anything else.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J.K. Rowling

Idina Menzel sings “Let It Go” with classroom instruments and Jimmy Fallon

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You’re welcome.

Trailer Tuesday: Transcendence

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Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies, since I’ve always found them to be fascinating.

Usually, Trailer Tuesday features a film that I was either excited about before I ever saw the trailer, or a film which gained my interest because of the trailer.  Rarely does it feature one that makes me as ambivalent as Transcendence.  Take a look, and then read on as I debate with myself (like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof) about this movie:

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Quote of the Day

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If you ever had a miserable experience, then you have probably had it said to you that you would feel better in the morning. This, of course, is utter nonsense, because a miserable experience remains a miserable experience even on the loveliest of mornings. For instance, if it were your birthday, and a wart-removal cream was the only present you received, someone might tell you to get a good night’s sleep and wait until morning, but in the morning the tube of wart-removal cream would still be sitting there next to your unbeaten birthday cake, and you would feel as miserable as ever. My chauffeur once told me that I would feel better in the morning, but when I woke up the two of us were still on a tiny island surrounded by man-eating crocodiles, and, as I’m sure you can understand, I didn’t feel any better about it.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill – Lemony Snicket

2014 Oscars Recap

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Last night’s Academy Awards ceremony was a big step up from last year’s.  Of course, everyone knew Ellen Degeneres would do a better job than Seth MacFarlane, but she really knocked it out of the park last night.  While I wouldn’t want her to host every year (because it would get stale), I would fully support bring her back every other year to host, until she doesn’t want to do it anymore.  As for the winners, the very deserving 12 Years A Slave won best picture, as the major categories went to the frontrunners.  As for my predictions, I only went 16/24 (the same as last year), as most of my predicted upsets never panned out.  I feel sorry for the person who was linked to my blog yesterday searching for “86th academy awards expert picks,” because they probably lost their Oscar pool if they used me as a guide.

Ellen started things off in her usual style, making some killer jokes while also keeping things light and fun.  Continue reading →