review: Pitch Perfect (movie)

Alright, so I know that this movie really isn't going to win any awards, but is it bad if I say this was one of my favorite movies of last year? Now most people know that comedy really isn't my thing, especially the awkward comedy that seem to dominate every TV line-up... at least stateside. And yes, I will admit that this is riding on the coattails of the musical TV hits Glee and SMASH but still, I can love the whole song and dance combo... when it's done well and not ridiculously like both Glee and SMASH have become with their odd moments belting their hearts out on a stage with no one around just so you can truly understand the pain that is in their hearts. *single emo-tear*

This... this isn't that. There's no emotional solo singing in the rain and in fact the only time they sing are times when they are supposed to be singing like: rehearsals, competitions, performances, and the only stretch - the sing-off but even then it's like an in-house competition so it works. There is only one moment that doesn't fit in which is the girls singing on the bus on the way to a competition, but even that's understandable if you've ever been in a car with friends and an awesome song comes on the radio.

So, on to plot, yes? Beca, played by Anna Kendrick (you might recognize her as Jessica from the Twilight series), is an "alt. girl" with awesome piercings and plugs who can't seem to shake her scowl and headphones. And truth be told, she'd rather not be at college but she's there because she get a free ride since her father is a professor at Barden University. Beca would rather be in LA paying her dues and on her way to producing music. So her father makes a deal with her - spend one year really trying college (make some friends, join a club, do well in her classes, etc.) and if she hates it she can move to LA next year and he'll even help.

So Beca strikes out to prove to her father that school is not the place for her. She obviously wants to do something with music so she joins the the campus radio and then gets strong armed into auditioning for the "Barden Bella's" - the all female acapella group. Joining the cast at this point is Rebel Wilson, a tremendously talented comedian known for her roles in Bridesmaids in the US and a bunch of TV shows in her native Australia. In this movie Wilson plays "Fat Amy" a very eccentric, confident, vocal powerhouse that kept me laughing through out the entire movie. I love her for her quick, biting one liners and her sassy confidence (as a big girl - I can appreciate that since the majority of big women just seem to lack confidence or are portrayed as un-sexy by the majority of media sources). Now the Bellas got pwned in the nationals last year by their rivals the Barden Treble-Makers and this year's captain, Aubury (Anna Camp who has appeared in GLEE, Mad Men, and True Blood) is determined to get back to the nationals and beat the Treble-Makers. She also is a control freak, zealously "protecting" the Bella's image. Needless to say, things don't go according to Aubrey's design and she clashes with Beca throughout the entire flick. Beca also has a love interest named Jesse (Skylar Astin who has been in some big name broadway hit hits: Spring Awakening and Rent). And since he becomes a Treblem-Maker, Aubrey gives Beca no small amount of grief for their implied relationship.

Pitch Perfect was a fantastic movie - ridiculous in the face of the more serious releases. Rotten Tomatoes gave it "81% Fresh" and I must agree - despite the musical trend Pitch Perfect sticks out for it's fantastic comedy, singing routines and Rebel Wilson, I give Pitch Perfect 5 out of 5 stars.

You can check out the trailer here!

review: Grouplove (music)

I can honestly say that when my cousin offered me tickets to go see Young the Giant back in April, I had no idea who the opening act was. Grouplove didn't ring any bells. Although I had heard their hit "Tongue Tied" I always seemed to miss the band name whenever it came on. But my cousin said they were awesome and I wanted to see Young the Giant and I had an afternoon to kill. So, with no preconceived notions about who they were and if I would like their sound- I went to the concert anyways.

In 2009, five more or less random strangers met on a retreat in Crete. Liking each others' sound they remained friends for a year before forming a band together. And though only newly formed they needed that first year to earn the money to a recording studio in LA. They played their first show in May of 2010 and then later that year toured with Florence + the Machine and Joy Formidible!!! Talk about a quick rise!

They have excellent stage presence - being very carefree and kinda wild but still incredibly engaging. They're also perfect for the Portland scene as they have a quirky/nerdy/hip image. Their sound is upbeat and incredibly catch. When asked to describe their music, they said "It's like best friends skydiving." Their ballad "Slow" is incredible. Their album - Never Trust a Happy Song - is an excellent and one can easily listen to the whole thing. I give Grouplove 4.5 out of 5 stars!

review: Band Updates

I've been very, very lazy.  For some reason, despite more free time than ever due to unemployment, I am more lazy than I was when I was working 50 hours a week. This is a review of the concerts that I went to over the summer and I'm just gonna roll these into one giant review. In this review I'll be covering bands I've previously done reviews about: Foster the People, Young the Giant, and Gotye.

 The oldest concerts that I went to was for Young the Giant. You can find my initial review for them here. I first gave them 3 out of 5 stars which, in my now reformed former opinion of them, was generous. They really didn't deserve that review but that song "My Body" was just so freaking catching - I had to. However, due to my awesome cousin who works on their lighting crew, I was able to see them again when they came back to Portland in April. Not only had a had more of a chance to listen to their album but they also had time to enhance their live performance -which was lacking the first time around. They were better able to engage the audience - and maybe that because they're much more well known now - and they in turn were more reved up. I also got to meet their bassist  Payam Dootzadah, when my cousin took me and a friend backstage. They still have a great sound and even played a song off the new album they're working on. But for me, it mostly took time to get used to the remainder of their album and for them to up their stage presence. Having done that, for their revised rating I give 3.5 out of 5 stars to a more confident Young the Giant.


I saw Foster the People (initial review here!) with my mother at the Edgefield Summer Concert Series in June. Concerts take place on the Edgefield lawn - this huge open space out in Troutdale, Oregon. Edgefield is owned by McMenamins which owns a variety historical venues, hotels, brew pubs and restaurants all around the Portland metro area and extending beyond. Edgefield is actually a vineyard and hotel but they also host summer concerts on the lawn where they served food and alcohol - guaranteeing a fun evening. Concerts are for all ages and typically people throw down a blanket and chill out with the openers and then get up and dance for the headliners. Now, I've always liked the music from Foster the People and the concert didn't change my mind about that. But what it did reveal to me was that front man, Mike Foster, is kinda a dick. Most bands have at least the common courtesy of introducing their other members. Foster did none of that. Not only that but everyone was in grey or black but he wore white... yup - I stand by my assessment... kinda a douche. But they had a great backdrop, excellent energy and an awesome remix as their encore. So I had a great time. I maintain the original 4.5 out of 5 that I gave them for excellent music, stage presence, and overall fun but a douche for a lead singer.

Gotye (first impressions here) was the third concert I went to over the summer and another of the Edgefield Summer Concert Series - although I  did not attend this one with my mom. I still stand by initial assessment that his album is rather mismatched with his singles released from his Making Mirrors album being so vastly different but I do love his album in its entirety. Gotye is also a really cool dude. He introduced his entire band which definitely earns him points in my book. But by far the coolest thing about his concert were the amazing videos. Each one was different and so very interesting and odd. From trains in space to unzipping one's body to find out what's inside. The other really awesome thing was his song "Bronte". Before he started he asked the audience for quiet as it is an intense emotional song. Most of us complied - minus the assholes to our right who were talking about dogs pooping on their yard. Loudly. Throughout the entire song... Needless to say he was pissed off but instead of being an asshole about it he spoke about how going to a concert is like entering into an understood contract - he agrees to play and we agree to be the audience. For the concert to be awesome we need to listen and to respect each other. When that doesn't happen the concert experience fails one or both parties. Way to keep your cool, Gotye. If I could I would give Gotye 6 out of 5 stars for awesome energy, music, being an overall cool person. Kudos.

I highly recommend checking out all three bands!

review: Sherlock (tv)

I have the theme song stuck in my head as I write this. Just FYI. That's how much I love this series. It's rather addicting despite the fact that there are not a lot of episodes out.

Sherlock is an awesome show on BBC (or more illegal places if you refuse to pay for cable -- like me). It is a crime drama show based on a more contemporary version of Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson. Now, Martin Freeman has been in all sorts of awesome movies and TV shows (The Office, Love Actually, and numerous cameos including Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) and definitely has some chops and although Cumberbatch has only been around for the last 10ish years and had his big break in 2004 by portraying Stephen Hawking in a TV movie and ever since then he's taken off - acting in huge movies and even rumored to have a part in the next J. J. Abrams Star Trek movie and Peter Jackson's new Hobbit trilogy.

Sherlock, if you've never read any of the books or seen any of the movies, is... well, a dick. He's arrogant, brusque to the point of rudeness, doesn't listen to anyone's opinion, is highly controlling and performs experiments on people without their consent or regardless of time of day or anyone's opinion. And this Sherlock is no exception to this rule. And like the other renditions of him out there, somehow his amazing powers of deduction seem to win over most people around him. Well, at least they respect his skills even if they can't stand him on a more personal level.

The series ends up taking very traditional and popular Sherlock Holmes tales, for example: A Study in Pink (well scarlet for the books), The Hound of Baskerville, and A Scandal in Belgravia (based on Scandal in Bohemia), and giving them an excellent modern update.

I have two problems with this series. One, like in the books, you can't solve the mystery before Sherlock explains it to you - there are no clues for you to follow, no facial expressions to catalog, no a-ha! moments. You just have to watch him solve it. And two, there are only three episodes out per season. And only two seasons!!!!! I must have more so step on it, BBC!

I give Sherlock 4.5 out of 5 stars for snarkiness, mystery and humor. You can watch a trailer for it here!

review: Magic Mike (movie)

I didn't see this movie in theaters namely because 1- I couldn't convince anyone to go with me and 2- I couldn't talk myself into going to go see it alone. And I’m kind of glad it turned out this way. Instead of attempting to listen to Channing Tatum, apparently the world’s sexiest man (obviously they didn't seek my opinion), talk to people over really bad and loud remixes (almost like you’re in a real strip club!) which would cause my ears to bleed in the theaters, I got to watch it at home pausing to rewind the awkward and hard to hear dialogue.

I have to say after having seen this movie I have no idea why it was so phenomenally popular. When the plot finally appears it’s not original: a slightly messed up stripper boy with an unrealistic dream meets (apparently) hot sister of stripper friend and needs her disapproval of his stripping ways to save him from his messy life. Another thing: it takes the plot forever to emerge. I ended up stopping the movie about 15 minutes in so a friend could answer the phone and that’s when I noticed – there had been no plot yet. We had no idea what was going on in the movie. And while it was funny at the time, 45 minutes into the movie it really wasn't anymore. I guess they were trying to make it so subtle it was almost invisible. They try to portray the plot as his midlife crisis but it doesn't occur until about 30 minutes from the end. Instead most of the movie is about the fun a young stripper boy can have: girls, drinks, drugs, in general - a good time.

Now don’t get me wrong, there were some good points within the movie. What straight female/gay male doesn't like to ogle some pretty pretty men. And there were pretty men. Matt Bomer... yummy (and so gay). But that was probably the best part of the movie. That and the stripping routines were funny and interesting (see aforementioned pretty men). And is it just me or is the salvaged furniture that he makes really unattractive? And he dream of turning it into a business an unrealistic expectation, especially in Tampa, FL? *sigh*

So, basically the only redeemable thing about this movie is the pretty men and the main one isn't all that pretty. So, in short, don't go see Magic Mike. I give it 1.5 starts out of 5. 

You can watch the trailer here if you really want to subject yourself to it. It's at least shorter than the movie.

review: The Dark Knight Rises (movies)

First off I must speak my peace pertaining to the tragic shooting in Aurora, Colorado. I don't want to talk about the shooter whose name I will not speak, for it is always the serial killers who get famous when it's the victims who deserve our focus, but I think George Takei said it best:

"Many victims of today's tragedy were fans of science fiction/fantasy. 

They stood in line to be the first to see, to be inspired and to escape. 

As a community of dreamers, we mourn this terrible tragedy 

and this senseless taking of innocent life."

As a fan of fantasy/science fiction, there is nothing that hurts me more than to see someone take something as innovative and far reaching as "Batman" and pervert the feeling that this character and this movie give us. At least the shooter didn't claim to be Batman, who everyone knows disparages the use of guns - as the movie and comic both show. Alright - enough of that. On to the review:

*** I'll try not to have tons of spoilers for this or the previous two movies 

(Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) but seriously - if you haven't seen these movies - GET WITH THE TIMES!***

Like everyone else who has seen the previous two installments of Nolan's Batman saga (I refuse to call it a trilogy in hope he'll make more), I was so excited to see The Dark Knight Rises. I had some concerns - namely if it would live up to the hype of being the supposed final installment, who the new love interest would be (yes, I knew it was Catwoman but that didn't mean that Bruce would like her) and if Anne Hathaway would actually make a good Catwoman because, let's face it, Michelle Phifer and Halle Berry most definitely did not.

The movie opens eight years in the future where Harvey Dent has been made into the white knight that Batman and Commissioner Gordon ensured that he would be at the end of The Dark Knight (so much for limited spoilers... oh well) by Batman by taking the blame for Dent's attacks and also for killing Dent. Wayne, although absent, is holding a party on the eighth anniversary of "Harvey Dent Day" where the city remembers its fallen white knight and how the city turned around and threw most of the organized crime members in jail without the possibility of parole. Wayne hasn't left his mansion since the Joker's defeat and Rachel's death. Alfred accuses him of running away from life. And he's right but Wayne won't admit it. Instead it take another woman to snap him out of his mundane existence. Could it be 1) Miranda Tate - sexy, smart business woman who wants to save the world via clean energy or 2) Selina Kyle - sexy, flexible, thief who breaks into Wayne Manor to steal Bruce Wayne's fingerprints.... and his mother's pearl necklace?

It's Selina Kyle - aka Catwoman - and boy, does she just sizzle. This was one of my biggest concerns going into the movie. Anne Hathaway was the lucky lady who received the role and I don't know if you've been following her career but she really hasn't had a lot of experience playing the vixen/bombshell or even the "bad guy". In fact every major movie she's been in she's been the victim or hapless princess or prissy receptionist (The Devil Wears Prada, The Princess Diaries, Ella Enchanted - see my worry?). Not that I don't love her work - I do, but I had doubt she would be able to pull of Catwoman who is the very antithesis of her previous works. Catwoman is suave, sexy without being objectified because God help you if you do, incredibly limber and seriously jaded (at least in Nolan interpretation). Gone is cartoon and comic Selina Kyle, wealthy philanthropist heiress with serious cat-lady issues. Hello pissed, rough and tough, Catwoman who will eat you alive.

So Catwoman escapes Wayne Manor with a pearl necklace and Bruce's fingerprint which she attempts to sell to his competitor Daggett, who is funding a take down of Wayne Enterprises - well, he really just wants to control it. Now, Wayne Enterprises is almost broke due to funding a very ambitious joint project between Wayne Enterprises and Miranda Tate for self-sustained renewable energy. This renewable energy source is a fusion reactor which could actually be used as a nuclear weapon. Thus Wayne locks it away until mankind can be trusted with this amount of power.

While this is happening Bane, a hugely powerful mercenary with a fanatical following, is building an army in the sewers.To what goals, we have no idea - but let's be honest - I doubt he's goiong to hand out hot chocolate and kittens to everyone. The only reason Batman even knows about Bane is due to Commissioner Gordon who ran into Bane in the sewers during a kidnapping/shootout with Catwoman. And Bane is the real danger here - his plan is to destroy Gotham - finishing Ra's Al Ghul's work that he and the League of Shadows started in Batman Begins.

The remainder of the movie finds Batman figuring out all the plot twists and tying up loose ends. Nolan does an amazing job keeping his audience entertain and invested in both the plot and the characters, both old and new, good and bad. I really can't go into more detail without giving away major plot lines, revelations and end game spoilers - I will say that this is a stunning conclusion to the story of Bruce Wayne and Batman. I give The Dark Knight Rises 5 out of 5 stars. It's a movie that makes you think about your own world and how you want it to go. It makes you feel for the characters, whether you liked them or not. And like all good legends - it inspires us. May your heroes never die.

You can check out the trailer here!

review: The Amazing Spider-man

Although I have seen all the old Spider-man movies starring Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, I was (somehow) not jaded enough to avoid seeing the new The Amazing Spider-man starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and (re-starring, as he also appeared in the previous franchise) Dennis Leary. And I must say, I enjoyed this re-boot.

It was billed as "the untold story" of Spider-man but how many untold stories are there? The origin story for Spider-man always center on Peter Parker's absent parent (dead? undercover? who knows!) so he has lived with his aunt (Mae) and uncle (Ben) since he was young. Now, according to the comic, teen Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider (thank you 1960's nuclear war paranoia) however in the movies it's a genetically engineered spider -- poTAYto, poTAto to me. In the 2002 Spider-man, the spider comes from Oscorp (same as the 2012 one) where Parker works in college but tours as a highschooler. In the new one, Parker sneaks into Oscorp (as a highschooler) to see what his father, an Oscorp employee who disappeared over 10 years ago, was working on. Now, although the base plots are very similar, the implications are worlds apart. In the 2012 movie - things are personal. Either way, Parker get bitten by spider which imparts him with awesome powers and super reflexes and stuff.

While Parker is running around enjoying his newly attained powers,  he still retains his  shy/geeky persona when he's not wearing his Spider-man mask and hormones, girls and responsibility are the bane of his existence. And it's the last item which leads to the death of Uncle Ben. Parker is shaken by his death and vows to use his powers to make things better - vigilante style. In this movie, quite a bit of the classic origin story is left out - namely Parker's stint as a professional wrestler... but that's kinda it. They both start in high school and are true to the comics in different ways. In this new one, that means Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). I had no idea who she was until I did a little research. Gwen is Parker's first college girlfriend. She was also a science major and more serious than Mary-Jane (the girls were good friends). Now, I don't want to give anything away, especially since there are going to be more movies - but something happens and Parker ends up with Mary-Jane.

I felt like this movie was much more lighthearted than the 2002 movie which took itself way to seriously. I also like how Spider-man was more glib and witty than Parker - being his alter-ego, it's important that Spider-man offers Parker the chance to do and say things that he can't as Peter Parker. I also thought the villain, The Lizard, was much more interesting than the Hob Goblin, despite being a much more minor character in the comic series. I have a feeling that The Lizard will be much more integral to this series seeming as he is Parker's link to his parents' disappearance and his father's work.

I give The Amazing Spider-man 4 out of 5 stars for an excellent cast, wit and excellent effects.

You can check out the trailer here!