34 posts tagged “movies”

As skittlefish so wonderfully (and yes, a little embarrassingly) mentioned, today was my birthday.  While I didn't cry if I wanted to, I did do what I wanted to.  This year that consisted of going to "Harold & Kumar", procrastinating (big surprise), and going out to dinner.  This is the first time in five years I've been home to celebrate my birthday and since my mom is out of town my dad and I didn't really do much to celebrate.  Although, this is my family we're talking about and we usually don't celebrate birthdays until after they've happened.  Case in point, my sister says she won't mail my present until sometime this week and I'm fairly certain my grandmother has no idea it's my birthday.

Anyway, as I said I went to "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" and while it wasn't as good as the first one, it was pretty funny.  It was especially nice to see Rob Coddry again (and Ed Helms) - I've missed both of them since they left "The Daily Show".  To be honest, it was almost worth the $7.75(!) I paid to see it just for the "Dark Knight" preview in front of the movie.  (Which, why is that movie not coming out until July?)  But yeah, "Harold & Kumar" was pretty good.  And of course Neil Patrick Harris was - wait for it - legendary (or is that awesome?).  I also kind of want to watch the first one again.  If only I hadn't used up my free rentals on "The Hoax" and "Gone Baby Gone"...  (and it was available on Hulu or Fancast)

Hulu opened to the public yesterday and if you don't already have an account I recommend getting one.  Even though I've had an account since November, I didn't really start using it until a month or so ago and I'm loving it.  It's given me a chance to legally catch up on episodes of shows I've missed.  Hulu is run by Fox & NBC so you do only get their shows (and shows from the other networks they own) but there's still a wide range of shows to choose from.  They also offer movies now although they have a very limited selection right now - especially ones they offer full versions of.  Fancast is another way to legally watch shows online but while they offer more than just Fox & NBC shows, you can only watch certain episodes for a given amount of time and their Fox & NBC shows are straight from Hulu.  Also, they don't offer full movies and, unlike Hulu, you can't embed video clips.  Like so:

Who or what do you really love?

The WGA strike is officially over.  92.5% of the guild voted to end the strike.  This is awesome!

The above link contains a link to a list which tells you which shows are coming back with new episodes when.  Some of my favorites ("Chuck", "Heroes", and "Dirty Sexy Money") won't be coming back until Fall but others ("Grey's Anatomy", "The Big Bang Theory", and "The Office") should be back in late April/early May.  And, of course, the writers for "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" should be back within days (although they were doing pretty good without their writers).

This day has just been a good one all around.  (Even if it did make me nervous at times.)

Edit: CBS has put out a chart detailing which of its shows are coming back when.  NBC has information about the return of "Chuck", "Life", and "Heroes" in the Fall and its Thursday night line-up in April.

They're turning "Shrek" into a musical.  And it's debuting (doing previews, whatever) in Seattle.  I have no idea how good it will actually be but I think I'm going to try and get tickets.  (That is, if I'm not too busy interviewing/getting a job/moving/working.)  They mention "The Little Mermaid: The Musical" in the article and even though it's been getting some bad reviews I'll probably still try to see it if it ever comes to town.  Oh, and mid-June needs to come quickly so I can go see "Avenue Q".

What was the best movie you saw this year?

I'd have to say it's a tie between these two movies:

It's 2 for the price of 1 this week because by the time next Monday rolls around I'll be working on dial-up.  Ick.  So MVM is going to go on hiatus until at least the New Year.  But it's not next week yet so on to this week's videos.

First up is the video for "Christmas Is All Around" from the movie "Love Actually".  I had my annual viewing of the movie this weekend and I was both surprised & pleased to see they'd actually made a video for the song.  Enjoy!

Bonus video: "Christmas Is Here" by Bearforce1.  I really can't describe this video; you'll just have to watch it yourself.

After close to two months of waiting for "Across the Universe" to come to town I was finally able to see it this afternoon.  And believe me, it was worth the wait.  I'm trying to think of all the other movies I've seen so far this year and I think this one is the most visually stunning one I've seen so far.  The colors, the dancing, the visual effects - they're all amazing.  And the songs - I thought the songs were done really well.  (Of course, I've been listening to them for almost 2 straight months.)  There have been some bad covers of Beatles songs (see the "All You Need is Luvs" commercial) but for the most part I thought these were really good - they'll never compare to the originals but then again, what can?

I think what I like most about this movie is that it's basically a modern musical.  There's a plot but people break into songs at random times and we don't see movies like that very often anymore.  I think my favorite choreographed musical number was the "I Want You" scene.  (If I tried to describe it I wouldn't do it justice - you'll have to see it for yourself.)  I did like how at the end of the movie they had the cast singing on the roof with the police trying to stop them as an homage to the Beatles' "Get Back" roof performance (see below video).

I would definitely go see this movie in the theater again (I was almost the only one in the theater when I saw it but then 3 people came in right before it started) and when it comes out on DVD (probably after Christmas), I think I'm going to buy it (maybe then I can get my mom - an original Beatles fan - to watch it).  Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go listen to the soundtrack some more.  :-)

The Beatles performing "Get Back" on a London rooftop:

My final treat for today is 3 different versions of the same song.  You can't have Halloween without "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and I think this is my favorite song from the whole movie.

The original:

Marilyn Manson's cover:
Panic! At The Disco's cover:

Shaun (Simon Pegg) from "Shaun of the Dead" is going to play Scotty in the new "Star Trek" movie.

I'll be honest, I'm not quite sure how I feel about this latest "Star Trek" movie.  I guess I'll just have to hope that J.J. Abrams can pull it off.  Although, it would be hard to ruin the series after "Enterprise".