Review: The Hangover Part II

Weeeeeeeeee

Whatever.

That was my initial reaction to seeing The Hangover: Part II, the highly anticipated sequel to one of the better comedy flicks in recent memory. Whatever. Thanks to the vast success of the first Hangover movie, the sequel was pretty much immediately announced by noted raunchy filmmaker, Todd Phillips. Soon the trailers and posters and other hype machines began coming around. The Wolfpack was returning to the big screen, and soon enough every bro and ho was updating their Facebook status with eager anticipation of the new movie.

I give most of the blame for this ridiculous over-hype machine to the young people of Generation Y, AKA the Bros Icing Bros Generation (we deserve it. We’re the worst). The common motif with the Bros Icing Bros Generation is to embrace only a choice few pieces of entertainment and run with the damn things for as long as they exist, no matter how obviously stupid they eventually boil down to. The short list of prime Bros Icing Bros entertainment is relatively short, but it more than answers everything you need to know about how truly committed people can be once the general population decides something deserves to be called the best thing since sliced bread.

• Twilight
• The Hangover
• Glee
• Jersey Shore

That’s just the few things that I can come up with off the top of my head, but the pattern is already well-defined. Granted, the first Hangover movie was very funny, but most of that praise came from the fact that it took some relatively unknown actors, threw them into an inappropriate movie, and then kept on giving the audience new lewd shit to gasp and laugh about. It was fresh, but the freshness pretty much died as soon as the sequel was announced. It was only a matter of time before that became clear to a lot of snooty film critics.

2011 Best Picture Nominees

Yesterday, at 10:00 AM, I decided that watching all 10 of the nominees for Best Picture was a much better plan than like, sleeping or something foolish like that. Anyway. I sat for 24 hours and watched what are theoretically the 10 best films released this year. Now after roughly three hours of sleep I’ll see what I can yell angrily about them.

2011 Oscars Liveblog: Toy Story 3 vs. the World

Franco only loves his anime pillow pal

So apparently tonight is the Oscars, and for whatever reason I see fit, I guess I will liveblog the damn thing. After watching two best picture nominees yesterday (Winter’s Bone and The King’s Speech), all I’ve able to think about is the Christopher Guest movie For Your Consideration (great movie, by the way). Why? Because so many Oscar films just have this air of snottiness and self-importance that just makes me sick sometimes. It just feels like people will only make movies to try to rake in awards based on merits such as “dysfunction, crying, over-the-top emotions” and so on. Maybe I just hate seeing other people succeed, but then again, Transformers 2 is one of the highest grossing movies of all time, so I guess it’s not just the awards show films. The point is, I see movies as something to entertain first, and then inspire second, and not the other way around. I’d be totally fine if a movie about Gandhi fudged things and made him a bodybuilder with a Gatling gun.

Anyways, here are the Best Picture films I have seen: Toy Story 3, Winter’s Bone, Inception, The King’s Speech, and True Grit. Here’s how I’d rank them and why…

5. Winter’s Bone: The intrigue of the story kept me interested for the majority of the movie, but damn, the ending was about as uneventful and unexciting as one could possibly expect. Weeee, they all do meth! Weeee, they’re ignorant hicks with anger issues! Weeeee, the lead lady is stuck in a horrible life at the beginning of the film and the end of it too! Jennifer Lawrence did a fine acting job, but if this wins Best Picture, I’m not going to be pleased.

4. Inception: Everyone wants to talk about “how overrated” Inception is, simply because of all the hype that came with Chris Nolan and the fact that it was a high-grossing summer movie. That said, it still had an interesting story and some really cool visuals that made me enjoy it overall. Let’s be honest here: not many people outside of Nolan could make something like dream inception seem plausible. This shouldn’t win BP, but that doesn’t mean it was a bad movie. Also, let’s not forget a certain blue alien film that was nominated for Best Picture last year…..

3. Toy Story 3: It is near impossible to not like this movie, but it’s in the minority simply because it’s a kid’s film. I would totally get behind this winning Best Picture though.

2. The King’s Speech: The two lead actors stole the show on this one, and made this movie go from 2 stars to 3.5 stars for me. Geoffry Rush was simply fantastic as the speech therapist; if he doesn’t win Best Supporting Actor, I will never look at this already “whatever” award again.

1. True Grit: That’s right, I’m a Coen Bros. homer, so sue me. Even with this movie, a movie that breaks a lot of artsy guy code (it’s a remake of an adaptation of a book, for one thing), but True Grit was the best Oscar movie I saw all year (my favorite movie overall of last year is still Kick Ass). The presentation, the acting (everybody was great in their respective roles), the feel; it felt like I was living in a snarky, slightly humorous Western world. This movie won’t win Best Picture, but it deserves to get at least Best Actor, and I’d root for Best Actress too.

And yes, I know my opinions are skewed since I didn’t see the likes of the other five movies, although you won’t get me to ever see The Kids Are Alright.

Anyways, catch up with me after the jump when the awards show starts. There’ll plenty of making fun of snooty celebrities after the jump, when the Oscars actually start. See you then!

Media Man Crush: Alan Tudyk

We here at The Media Experiment are not afraid to shout to the world our strange attractions to people of the same sex (Ok, maybe that’s just me, but still (I’m not gay (ladies))) and with Valentine’s Day tomorrow, it’s high time to have our second installment of Media Man Crush! This month’s installment focuses on an actor that has been in almost every type of movie imaginable. From sci-fi’s to westerns, comedies to dramas, Mr. Tudyk is one of those guys that isn’t necessarily a household name (unless you’re a Firefly/ Serenity super fan), but is instantly recognizable. Add to that his stunning good looks and general awesomeness, and you’ve got a guy that you can be attracted to without being gay. In fact, if you actually are not attracted to Alan Tudyk, you might be considered gay by 95% of the male population. Fact.

True Grit-Written by Charles Portis. (Also: The Film!)

“The wicked flee when none purseuth.”

Mattie Ross, a young girl of only 14 goes in search of the man who shot her father down in the small Arkansas town of Fort Smith. With characters such as rooster Cogburn and the Texas Ranger LaBoeuf,  I cannot give enough praise to this novel. Please read on, reader!

Violence, Survival, Twinkies: Why is the Zombie Apocalypse So Popular?

It’s 2:38 PM. Do you know where your son is? Oh yeah, that’s right. He’s sitting on the couch with his laptop, unable to drive more than five meters before getting trapped in a five-foot snowdrift, listening to his mom work from home and his brother scream “OMG FAGGOT” while playing Call of Duty.

Sitting here in the midst of Missouri’s first “blizzard” that I can ever recall, I continue to have thoughts along the lines of snow and zombies. The snow because of the fact that I took part in a Snowcabulary marathon with Trevor, Jimmy, and few more Twitter buddies, and zombies because (a) I’ve been invested in Dead Space 2 of late and (b) this whole storm has been treated like some sort of apocalypse. The National Weather Service (of The Onion) didn’t name it Snowmageddon for nothing.

[FACT: This video only had around ten thousand hits a few days ago.]

Anyways, I’m mostly typing this to save myself from sheer boredom. That said, I’ve still always held some serious interest in how we as a culture of entertainment-loving people are so mesmerized by depictions of the apocalypse, which in most cases involve some sort of zombie, mutant, or cannibal providing the main source of danger. Follow me after the jump as I delve into what makes us love the Zombie Apocalypse so much.

Video Vriday: NFL Silliness and the Trailer for ‘Rubber’

Short and sweet, it’s Friday and I’m about ready to pass out from exhaustion.

I’m sure there are plenty of good videos from this week that I’m either forgetting about or just neglecting to post, but here are three of the funniest videos I saw this week. I highly recommend that you guys that don’t care about football still click the jump and catch the trailer for Rubber if you haven’t already. People don’t make that many movies about psychic tires named Robert too often.

Anyways, the top video is a Youtube video that lampoons Brett Favre and Lebron James simultaneously. First off, that guy playing Brett Favre is ridiculously good. Secondly, I have to admit that those penis jokes at the end of the video really made my day (especially Peyton Man-thing), but how the heck could they not include “Purple Peniseater”? Is that too obscure of a football reference, or is it just too raunchy for an R-rated internet video?

After the jump we have videos that compare Bart Scott of the New York Jets to Ollie the Weatherman and preview what should be the Blake Griffin of new movies.

10 Movies I Like, So There

If there’s one thing I’m seriously good at, it’s telling people what movies I like and don’t like. I don’t really feel like telling you why at the moment, so I’m just handing you a list and letting you run wild with it yourself (oh look at my self-importance assuming that anyone is going to read my list of thoughtfully chosen movies! Lawlz) So without further ado and a jump, czech it out.

Media Man Crush: Barry Pepper

 

PUT THE F*CKING PUPPY DOWN

With all of the guy-love I’ve been showing Scott Sigler of late, I thought it might be a good idea to make a monthly (or every other month, whatever) feature of all of the men in show biz that deserve a little bit of recognition every now and then. In a world where guys like Channing Tatum are getting all of the street cred in Hollywood, it’s nice to let the world know about actors that have way more talent, but are just fine with taking backseat roles. This month, that guy is Barry Pepper, a man that may be a recognizable face, but certainly not a household name. He just so happens to have played some pretty memorable characters, including one of my favorite supporting characters in a movie. So without further adieu, a look into the interesting life and career of Barry Pepper.

Anne Hathaway as Catwoman: A poor choice.

So it has been reported that Anne Hathaway is going to be Catwoman in the next Dark Knight film. Am I the only one that finds this to be not a good choice? Not that I have anything personally against Anne Hathaway. I think she is a wonderful actress. It’s just that…it’s Catwoman. Let me try and explain.

That’s Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, all in skintight leather and whatnot. It is clearly meant to be sexy, and it succeeds, because, well, skintight leather. And this is good, because Catwoman is supposed to be sexy. She was created to be sex appeal. She has a whip, for god’s sake.

That’s Halle Berry as Catwoman. Again with leather. You can argue that the movie is terrible (and it is.) You can argue that Halle Berry did not do a good job acting (probably why she won a Razzie.) But you cannot argue that Halle Berry is not sexy. Ignoring the rest of the film, as should be done by everyone, this is a good representation of Catwoman.

This is Anne Hathaway. Anne Hathaway is not sexy. Anne Hathaway is adorable. This is in no way a bad thing – in fact I think Anne Hathaway is considerably more attractive than Halle Berry. But at the same time, I just don’t think that Anne Hathaway is right for the part of Catwoman. In my head, at least, I just can’t see it happening in a way that is good. I could be wrong. I hope I am, actually. I would love for Anne to just surprise me and be freaking amazing. But we’ll have to wait and see.

(Jessica Alba would be a much better choice. Jessica Alba would be a much better choice for most film roles.)