Wasting Light is my favorite Foo Fighters album thus far. However, that's not really saying much since I've never particularly liked them. I can't think of any songs by the band that I would consider especially memorable and while their newest album does in fact provide a few songs that will stick with you, that's just not enough for me to recommend it.
Your Highness is going to make you laugh, gasp, shake your head in disgust and laugh some more. I am sure they will call it a satire. But if that were the case, I would say it is a failure. Instead, I consider this to be - and believe its intentions were to be - a straight comedy which just happens to also be a fantasy action movie.
Red is a fairly good movie. The idea behind it is simple. Four ex-CIA operatives who are no longer active, are now being targeted by the agency because they know too much. So, the agency tries to kill them all off, starting with Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) as well as the rest of his former team which included Joe (Morgan Freeman), Marvin (John Malkovich) and Victoria (Helen Mirren). The four ex-operatives must use all of their wits and everything they learned at the agency to try to stay ahead of the CIA's pursuers. On their path to redemption, they end up discovering even more dirty CIA secrets and a huge conspiracy.
Over the last month, it seems like every time I sat down to watch TV, I was overwhelmed with the same preview over and over for The Dilemma. I worried that like many comedies of today, the preview showcased the best jokes, and made the movie seem worse than it already was by the time you actually viewed it.
In the case of The Dilemma, we have what appears to be, at best, an average movie with some good laughs and an overall believable story which doesn't necessarily fall into predictable classification, but it is not really full of surprises either. Luckily, the preview actually gives us some of the least-funny jokes the movie has to offer and thus, it is somewhat enjoyable and unexpectedly funny. Furthermore, the preview actually hypes this movie up as another Dodgeball or The Break-up style Vince Vaughn movie. They lied. What we actually have here is a Ron Howard style-comedy, which means a dramedy, a la The Paper.
January 2001 through December 2010 covers quite a bit of ground. The 2000s. An interesting decade indeed. One of the most important developments of the 2000s was the resurgence of music as a whole. Many thought rock died along with Kurt Cobain, and many thought Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.'s deaths signified the end of hip-hop as well. Wrong on both counts. Looking back on it now, it was almost obvious that there would be a downward spiral for the entire industry.
And so the year comes to a close. The week between Christmas and leading up to New Years is often one of reflection. What I keep thinking about is what an all-around good year it was for all entertainment. Video games, film and art in general all had strong years. Music was no different, as this year a great many albums came out that were not only significant, but also just some great new tunes for our iPods.
It has been quite a month for Natalie Portman. I haven't seen it yet, but the whole world is raving about Black Swan (read our review here or our second review here) and specifically her performance in it. Then there was the release of the Your Highness trailers - one R rated and one PG rated. Read here about the PG-rated trailer which digitally replaced a thong she was wearing with a less revealing bikini. Oh yeah, that movie also looks awesome. That brings us to December 27, where we got the news that Portman was engaged and pregnant to Benjamin Millepied. The Harvard educated bombshell was off the market, and the Christmas hangover for many guys gets a little worse. Strangely enough, on the same day, IFC Films released the movie poster (see above) and the trailer for The Other Woman - a film adaptation of Ayelet Waldman's novel 'Love and Other Impossible Pursuits'. The story is of a woman's difficult relationship with her stepson.
Cedar Rapids, Ed Helms' first major project since The Hangover, has debuted its trailer online. Early indications are that this one is going to be hilarious. Helms plays an insurance agent of sorts who is sent to the big city of Cedar Rapids to represent his company at a convention.
A boxing promoter is offering a cool million to both Mark Wahlberg and Will Smith for a three-round match.
The Hollywood Boxing Federation — which has featured matches with celebs Michael Lohan (Lindsay Lohan's crazy dad) and Danny Bonaduce — has offered the actors, who have both portrayed boxers in film, a cash donation to their favorite charities in exchange for the event.
There is only so much a man can take. First they raise taxes. Then they re-make A Nightmare on Elm Street. Now they are de-thonging Natalie Portman.
Universal Studios has apparently used some CGI magic to replace the lovely thong Natalie Portman is wearing in a scene in the recent R-rated trailer for Your Highness. It's not like they threw some jeans on her either. All they did was replace a thong with a slightly-less-revealing bikini.
