I am going to ask a question that most people know the answer to, but they don’t act like they do. Do you know that 100% of all pictures you see in magazines of models and actresses are airbrushed? Expanding on that, do you know that every person you see on TV and in the movies has tons of make-up on, have the best lighting and camera effects which make the actors look better than they normally do? Now, don’t get me wrong. The women in these photos look amazing. I see them for myself. And I always used to think others realized the same thing. But, when you hear the comments people make everyday about how so and so doesn’t look good or how so and so is fat when they are not even close to fat, it makes you kind of wonder.
Have you ever seen some of these “hot” actresses in those pics of them without make up? Oh trust me you can see a difference and many times its safe to say if you saw those same women on the streets like that you would not look twice. Have you ever seen how people look on a soap opera vs. a prime time show? The lighting and cameras on soaps are not as good, and you can really tell the difference. And you do realize that most of the models and actresses you see on TV have had plastic surgery of some sort as well? Put that all together and you see “hot” people on TV and pictures all the time. Sorry to burst your bubble if you didn’t realize all this. Hope that you just like the fantasy that these people represent and not the reality you may perceive them to be.
The action movie written and directed by Sylvester Stallone, starring an all-star action casts…..of the 80s and 90s. Yup, pretty much every action start you have ever heard of from a couple decades ago come together in one film for what would have been every guy’s dream, back then. Now? Well, I’m sure that the names of these stars still got many people to go and watch the film. In this latest gun blazing action film, Stallone stars as the leader of a bunch of mercenaries that get hired to overthrow some corrupt government/leadership of an island nation. Lots of action, lots of guns, lots of fights, lots of explosions, about what you’d expect knowing the cast of this movie going in.
But, is it fun? After watching the movie, I did not think it was anything special. I’ve definitely seen action flicks that were better than this one. It wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t boring, but I didn’t think it was all that good either. Some of the fight scenes were fun and cool, none realistic at all, some were nothing special, and there were definitely a couple that made me go “Whoa”. But, all that really is in this movie is the action and such. Sly wrote Rocky and Rambo too, I believe. Those movies were awesome action wise, but also had a nice story, some heart. While watching those, you felt for the characters, or got behind them at least. The Expendables? Not so much really, at least not for me. The story that Mickey Rourke tells Sly which convinces him to take the job going to the island was, I guess, an attempt at some emotion and such. But, it did nothing for me.
Overall, if you just want to see fighting, guns, action scenes, and explosions, this is a movie you will probably want to check out. If you are expecting anything else from your movie besides that, then this will not be for you. Go rent this and watch it on your entertainment center because you will definitely be putting your speakers to good use with all the explosions.
Another summer weekend, another movie watched. Although I did not utter that sentence for many weekends this summer, I am able to do so for this one. As you can see from the picture of the always hot Angelina Jolie, the latest and possibly last movie for this summer was Salt. I’m not sure if there is another movie I really want to see in this, what I still consider, a disappointing movie season. But, enough of that and on to Salt. Angelina Jolie plays CIA agent Evelyn Salt. While interrogating a Russian defector, she is accused of being a Russian spy, and that is where all hell breaks loose. Using her spy skills, she must instead evade the people she has always worked for. But, is she really a Russian spy? Or is something going on in the background that no one but her knows about?
The movie is definitely action packed, and somewhat reminded me of the type of action you see in the Bourne movies. As you are watching the movie, I think it tries to present itself as a is she a spy or isn’t she throughout the movie, but I didn’t think it was all that unpredictable seeing what was really going on. However, getting to that conclusion was definitely fun and worth watching. The movie is not very long, but didn’t feel short either. Its not the kind of movie like Inception where you are thinking throughout the movie, what is really happening, or thinking after the movie, what just happened. It is just good, clean, pure action packed fun. That and you get to stare at Angelina Jolie for 90 or so minutes. What more could you ask for??? Not a great movie by any means, but definitely one of the better ones, IMO, of this summer season. Go watch if you are looking for a movie to watch, or wait for it to come out on cable. Probably be fun either way.
So apparently this guy is all the rage right now on the internet. I don’t watch TV in the summer, so not sure if he has had commercials on TV or not. I didn’t even click on any of the ads he had on the internet. However, before the movie Inception started, it showed a commercial with him, and I thought it was kind of funny. It got my dad to laugh too. But, I just read an article today that said despite the wild popularity, sales are down. LOL. I’ve never used Old Spice deodorant before. When I was young and just started using deodorant, I went to the store and took a whiff of pretty much every one that was out there in the store (hehe, yup true story), and there was no Old Spice brand that I liked at all. And have never used it since then.
But that is another story. What I really wanted to discuss was commercials, ads and marketing in general. Obviously I am in the minority, but commercials just do not work on me. I am not the kind of person who sees an ad and then think, dang, I gotta buy that. In fact, I hate commercials and they have quite the opposite effect on me. If I see stuff that annoy me, it’ll just make me not want to buy the product. I block all ads while I surf the internet, such that whenever I do see some type of banner ad when surfing on a public computer, I’m like WTF is that? I use a DVR now and always skip commercials, and even before DVR’s, I used to time record the shows I watched on a VCR and then fast forward the commercials. Sorry, but its a waste of my time to watch 20 minutes of commercials for every hour show I watch. I won’t do it, and I’m not going to do it if I don’t have to.
The only advertisements that work on me? They are the coupons/sales that I am specifically looking for. If I know I want to buy say a hard drive, I will look through maybe the Sunday ads. Or I will look at different websites for the cheapest price. Or I will go to slickdeals or something each day until I see an ad for a hard drive. But, in almost all cases, an ad only works for me when I already want that product, and it almost never works on me to buy something I wasn’t already going to buy. There are obviously a couple exceptions to this, like if a new restaurant opens up where I live and I see a flyer and I will try it out. Or I see a coupon to a restaurant that I frequent often or will do so again. I’ll always try out new foods. Video games? I usually have in the back of my mind certain games that I would buy if the price were right, so if I happen to see a sale for that game at my price, then sure. Or I see coupons for things I regularly buy, like maybe toilet paper or the aforementioned deodorant, etc.
Marketing is a funny thing. We seem to have taken in this country the strategy of just bombarding people with every imaginable item and ad out there, hoping that at least a few people buy. The ultimate example of this is spam. You people out there do realize that the reason that people still send out spam is because there are a couple of you out there who actually click the links to those ads and actually buy the product right? I always found it funny that this is the marketing approach so many companies take because its hard for me to imagine commercials getting people to buy stuff since they don’t really work all that much on me. Targeted ads seems like the best way to go, but in mediums such as TV, the best you can do is show commercials during certain programs you know your audience watches. Maybe that’s why Google is so popular, as its much easier to show an ad when you know what the user is searching for. I’d hate to be in marketing because it seems so hit or miss to me. There are so many commercials out there where I thought that’s lame, and it did well. What works for one company often does not work for another. What works one year for a company doesn’t work the following year for that same company. It just seems so hard to predict.
Anyway, getting back to the Old Spice Guy. It kind of sucks I guess for Old Spice that sales have not increased, I guess. Though I will say it might be too soon to tell as the commercials are relatively new. But, if things do not pick up, it would appear there would be only one winner to that campaign, the Old Spice Guy himself Isaiah Mustafa.
I know that I kind of predicted this at the beginning of the summer, but the number of movies I have seen this summer is still so surprisingly low to me. I don’t know for how many straight years, but I always watch pretty much at least one movie a week during the summer. This year? I saw Inception a couple days ago. But, I think I only saw like 2 or 3, before that, with the last being A-Team I believe. I really want to blame things like me having to spend all my time after work and on the weekends fixing things up at the new home, but its not just that. You know my theory about not having enough time is a load of crap. No one has no time.
So, definitely not that I don’t have time, but the quality of the movies does not convince me to shift priorities from home repair to movie going. To be blunt, the movies suck this summer. I haven’t read a summer movie article in a while, but the last time I checked, we were down YOY in revenue, and when I read that I was like duh! Now, that being said, I wanted to watch Inception from the very beginning and was not disappointed. And I also want to watch Salt cuz Angelina Jolie is awesome. If I can pry myself away from the home, then maybe even catch Toy Story 3. But, we will just have to wait and see about that. I think the last Harry Potter comes out this fall. (at least part 1 of it. Can I just rant really quickly on how the studios are milking that and the last Twilight for all it is worth? A two part ending for both movie franchises??? Yeah, I’m sure its because the books are just too big and they had to be “true” to the book. Right. Back in the day, they called it screenwriting and they usually have no problem fitting it in one movie….if that’s what they really wanted to do!). Hopefully next summer the quality of the movies will be much better. And hopefully by then I will have more time. If I still am having to do major stuff to my home by next summer, I will be pretty sad.
On a final note, I might have to add that perhaps I am getting older now and my taste in movies has changed. Maybe I’m more of a plot driven movie guy now? Could that really be the case? I did think that Transformers 2 was one of the worst movies ever made. It was just terrible. But it made so much money so am I just one of those old people complaining about plot less movies nowadays? I think next summer will give me a better indication of that. I want to say no though because I still love watching action movies. So, instead of blaming my changing tastes, I’m going to be blaming the movie studios for putting out crap this summer.
I finally saw the movie that everyone has been talking about last night after work. No spoilers here as I do not really want to ruin the movie for anyone who has seen it. In a quick synopsis, Leonardo DiCaprio plays an extractor in the movie, someone who can enter a person’s dreams to steal any secrets they are trying to keep locked in their minds. He gets a job offer, his last one of course, that will give him everything that he wants, and although it is very dangerous and very difficult, he takes the risks…otherwise the movie would be dull right?
Anyway, I don’t want to give away very much, but after watching the movie, I was able to discuss the film with many others who have seen it and it sparked so much debate and conversation, and that in itself made the movie worth watching to me. I love watching movies, reading books, etc, and then discussing them with my friends, whether it be you liked them or didn’t, funny lines, plot lines, ambiguity in the film, etc. This one sparked lots of that, talking about things like the plot, fight scenes, what really happened in the movie, etc. etc.
That being said, even without all those conversations I had with people, I did think the movie was fun and enjoyable to watch. The special effects and fight scenes were pretty cool. Anyone who was in any of Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies were in this movie as well, for those who are fans of them. I did think the music and score of the movie were a bit much in parts of the movie. It was overbearing it seemed at times, so much so that I couldn’t really understand what was being said in the dialog. Now, I am going to go hard of hearing eventually and have already started, inheriting that unfortunately from my dad and his dad, so that could partially be it. Also, it was pointed out to me that most of the dialog that I did not really understand came from Ken Watanabe, and everyone knows that I do not understand English with strong accents very well at all. So, it could of been a combination of those two. But, I still think it was a bit much at times, reminded me of The Dark Knight at times, which I guess makes sense.
And finally, the ending of the movie. Yes, it definitely was up for interpretation. However, I thought the ending was somewhat predictable and had a feeling that was what was going to happen. But, go watch the movie and see if you agree or disagree. A slightly longer than 2 hour movie, bit on the long side for some, but I think you will enjoy it.
The remake weekend is here as The A-Team comes out at the same time as the Karate Kid. I saw the former as the title of this post implies, but not the latter. I remember watching the show back in the day, but that was during the time that I kind of watched TV, but either didn’t really understand what was going on or just didn’t care enough to pay attention. All I know was that there was 4 guys, one of whom was Mr. T, who drove in a black van. It was not until I saw the trailer for the movie that I realized that they were ex special forces who became soldiers of fortune. Yes, I know its in the beginning credits, but now I remember that part!
As that description implies, this 4 man elite soldier group are accused of a crime and are thus stripped of all rank and discharged. They escape and try to clear their names, going through elaborate plan after elaborate plan to get what they want and need to do so. The mastermind of all those plans is the ringleader, known as Hannibal and played by Liam Neeson in this remake. The guy is a genius and can think his way out of any situation, including “flying a tank!” Murdock, the pilot of the crew, is crazier than a loon, and probably provides the most laughs in the whole movie. Face, the ladies man of the group. And the muscle?? That would be B.A. With their combined brains, brawn, and skill, they can and will get out of any situation. But, will all of this be enough to get them out of this latest predicament and clear their good names?
The movie was pretty fun, I thought. It didn’t make sense at times, and is way overblown though. Some of the fight scenes I did not feel were too well done in that the camera was super close to the fighters that you couldn’t really “see” the fighting. Also, many of the action scenes are way beyond being believable (hence the overblown), so you have to accept that or you will just be thinking, heck no that can’t happen every single time. But, despite that unrealism, many were fun to watch. Despite being a tad long (at about 2 hours), the movie was enjoyable and I think that if you like 80′s nostalgia, or just an old fashioned action packed movie, and don’t care to think too much, you will have fun watching the movie.
Everyone knows that I watch quite a bit of movies. Usually that rate is ramped up a lot during the summer, where I can sometimes watch a couple movies a week. I am looking at the movies that are coming this summer, and I must say that this looks like one of the most disappointing summer movie seasons I can remember. I saw Iron Man 2 already. That was weeks ago, and I’ve not seen a movie since then. There are not too many that I’m looking forward to in the coming months either. Maybe 2 or 3? Its quite disappointing. I’m sure that I will watch more than that, but its sad that I have nothing to look forward to really. Maybe watch A-Team for nostalgia, Inception looks interesting. Oh, and I gotta watch Angie in Salt. But nothing else seems to interest me at all. Robin Hood came out last week and I had no desire to watch it. Might of been good, but it didn’t seem like anything special. Maybe the Expendables? Which has all the has been action stars of years past, but might just be worth watching to think about the old times. I really hope that I am wrong and will not be disappointed. However, seeing as how I have no desire to see many of these films, I may not give myself a chance to prove it wrong.
The first big movie of the 2010 summer movie season is the sequel Iron Man 2. The movie takes place about 6 months after the first on left off, where Tony Stark announces to the world that he in fact is Iron Man. What’s this second movie about? Basically, Tony Stark’s dad used to work with the dad of Mickey Rourke’s character. Rourke’s dad felt betrayed, he dies many years later (start of the movie) and Rourke vows to get revenge for his dad. Oh, and there are battles and such in between. As you can see, its not an overly complicated story, and I won’t really give away much more than that.
Before watching the first Iron Man, I really had no good expectations. I knew who the character was, but never really cared much for the comic book hero. Watched the movie, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, had lots of fun, thought the story was nice and it was just a good movie overall. Thus, going into the sequel, I had a bit higher expectations, though as with most sequels, I was not expecting it to be as good as the first. What did I think after watching it? It about met my expectations. That is, I was not expecting it to be better than the first. I felt the story was much better written in the first movie. This movie, to me, did not have as much depth, and it seemed to me that it suffered from many other large summer blockbusters where they think they can substitute a great story with money in special effects. But, don’t get me wrong, it did have nice effects that looked great. Yes, this was a movie, but it also seems like it is a precursor to the upcoming Avengers movie that I think will be coming out in a couple years. For the comic book geeks, watch for the little things that hint at that stuff.
I think if you liked the first one, you should go ahead and watch this one. I think you will have fun, just don’t expect it to be better than the first one, as it is not, in my opinion.
I know this movie came out quite a few weeks ago, but finally caught it this past weekend. It has been doing well in the box office, and we felt like watching a movie and thus chose this one. In a nutshell, the movie is about a bunch of Vikings living in a particular area that is constantly attacked by dragons. The Vikings live to kill the dragons, and its all they strive to do. This includes Hiccup, the main character, a scrawny young kid who no one expects to become anything in life, i.e. not able to kill any dragons! And the worst part? He is the chief’s son! So, when he finally does have the chance to kill a dragon, what does he do instead? Well, as the title says, he frees him and tries to train him!
Now, as I said before this movie is doing well in the box office, and after seeing it, I can see why. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and think that people, not just kids, should watch it. I think you will have fun, laugh, and most importantly, be entertained. If you watch a lot of comedies, you may recognize a lot of the voices, as many of them come from movies like She’s Out of My League or Superbad. The story is simple but touching, and of course as with any animated film, many of the dragons are cute, cute enough that I’d imagine there are already toys out there of them. I liked the movie better than Shrek Forever After (which as I posted earlier I saw as an advance release, and is coming out this summer), but it is a cuter type of movie than Shrek, which has a lot of pop culture and humor for older audiences, IMO. I think you will enjoy the movie, and so if you have not already seen it, go and do so!
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