February | 2012 | Cavalcade of Awesome

Archive for February, 2012

Movie Board: The Worst Movies I Saw in 2011

Posted in movies with tags Movie Board, movies, reviews, Twilight on February 10, 2012 by Paxton

Okay, here we are for the second installment of this year’s Movie Board. However, unlike my favorites, I’m not exclusively going off my Movie Board. I’ll be selecting from all the movies I watched in 2011, not just those released in 2011. If you want to see a complete list of the movies I watched, check out my movie log on Google Spreadsheet. Just click the 2011 tab.

Now, without further ado, here are the worst movies I watched in 2011.

Twilight Eclipse – This was released in 2010, but I watched the DVD when it came out in 2011. What can I say that my review back in March didn’t say? This movie is terrible. More disappointing than the terribleness of this movie is the fact that there was definite potential. A war between the vampires and werewolves. A new vampire, Riley, that is gathering a vampire army. Potential. That is wasted. For more melodramatic romantic BS between the most dysfunctional couple ever; Bella and Edward. Either kill this series or just kill me. I don’t care which.

Machete – Another movie with truckloads of missed potential. First of all, I’m not in love with Danny Trejo like the rest of the geek world seems to be. Trejo should have proved me wrong with this movie, but he didn’t. He just proved to me that he needs to keep doing his awesome character roles like Navajas the assassin in Desperado or Johnny23 in Con Air. Stay away from lead roles. Trejo felt very one note. I just didn’t believe him to be the bad ass the movie wanted and needed him to be. Great idea for a movie that was completely wasted. And Jessica Alba, please stop making movies, please. That is all.

Black Swan – Oh Darren Aronofsky, you terrible, terrible bastard. It all started in 1999 when I first saw Pi. The basic plot idea was good, but the movie was too convoluted and tough to follow. Next I decided to watch Requiem for a Dream in 2001. Ellen Burstyn was getting a lot of buzz for her role and Jennifer Connelly was supposedly in a big sex scene at the end. Unfortunately, again, the movie was convoluted, very, VERY dark and I felt like I needed a shower after watching it. And Connelly’s sex scene was at a point in the movie where you actually felt bad about watching it. I don’t want to feel shame when watching a Jennifer Connelly sex scene because I’ve been dreaming about it since Career Opportunities and The Rocketeer. And the less said about The Fountain, the better. Anyway, now we come to Black Swan. Starring two of the hottest young ladies in Hollywood. And Aronofsky strikes again by making a hot lesbian scene featuring drunken, angry sex between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis not hot. You win, Sir Aronofsky. I am beaten.

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League of Extraordinary Bloggers: Favorite “go-to” movie

Posted in Back to the Future, movies, pop culture, Star Wars with tags Back to the Future, LEB, movies, pop culture, Star Wars on February 9, 2012 by Paxton

Brian over at Cool and Collected has started a new movement. It’s a group of blogs coming together each week to discuss one topic. Brian will hand out the assignments and the blogs will discuss the topic as they see fit. Brian has dubbed it The League of Extraordinary Bloggers.

I pledged to him that I would join in when I can, and seeing as how for once I’m actually way ahead on my own writing I’ve decided to jump in on our first assignment.

This first assignment was to discuss our “go to” movie. A movie we could watch at any time. Just pop it in, curl up on the sofa with an industrial sized bag of Cheetos and start quoting along with the movie. Mine is probably not going to be a shock to anyone who has read this blog for any amount of time. And I hate to keep going back to “the well” on this, but I have to answer truthfully.

On any given weekend, since I was a kid, there are two things I’d pop into the VCR at a moment’s notice depending on how I was feeling that day. The first was Back to the Future.

There is hardly an aspect of this trilogy I have yet to discuss. Check out my Back to the Future archives. Articles galore. The Nerd Lunch crew did an entire podcast discussing the Back to the Future movies and another one on just the topic of time travel. It’s because I’ve seen this movie so many times and know it like the back of my hand that I can talk so often about it. I love this movie. It kindled my love for time travel. The first movie I took my son to when he was literally 1 month and 5 days old was the limited 25th anniversary showing of the original Back to the Future on Oct 25, 2010. I pretty much recited the dialog throughout the entire movie while he slept. So yes, this is definitely a “go to” movie for me. I could probably put the entire trilogy in here as I love all three movies, but I watched the original many more times. Mostly due to the fact that Part II didn’t show up until four years later. So I had time to just load up on repeated Back to the Future viewings. And I own this trilogy on all media formats including VHS, Laserdisc, DVD and Blu-Ray.

The second thing I’d pop into my VCR on any given weekend and have on in the background is the Star Wars Trilogy. Most especially the original VHS releases.

It doesn’t matter which one, I consider them all to be one movie. And I have this movie trilogy on nearly every format including VHS (multiple versions), Laserdisc, Video CD and DVD. On any given day my favorite is different. I love all three.

Since college, I could pop on a Back to the Future or Star Wars movie and have it running in the background for hours while I worked on school projects, surfed the Internet or just hung out at home. They are hands down my two favorite movie trilogies. Possibly even my favorite movies of all time.

I even own the deluxe film score to the Back to the Future trilogy as well as the 4 disc Star Wars Trilogy Soundtrack Anthology. I would sometimes put these on in the background while doing homework or working on chores around the house.

Articles from other League of Extraordinary Bloggers

1. Shawn Robare at Branded in the 80s talks about Red Dawn.
2. Christopher Tupa talks about one of my favorites, The Goonies.
3. Siftin’ talks about watching Superman II more times than even I have seen it. And that’s a lot.

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Movie Board: My Favorite Movies of 2011

Posted in Academy Awards, movies, Oscars, reviews with tags Movie Board, movies on February 9, 2012 by Paxton

Finally, my thrilling year end aggregation of all of my favorite movies from 2011. Every year, I keep a white board at my desk of all the movies I see that are released in 2011. Hence the name, Movie Board. Here is that board.

This year, I’m going to do something different. I’m going to split the list into two groups. Group 1 will be my 5 favorite movies that were released during 2011. Group 2 will be my 5 other favorite movies I saw in 2011 that weren’t released in that year. Then I’ll give my usual honorable mentions.

So let’s get started with my 5 favorite movies from 2011 in no particular order.

X-Men: First Class – How great was this movie. It was better than every X-Men movie before it. I really hope this cast continues on with more movies. I don’t even care if they try to stick with the established movie timeline. I just want more of this cast and this type of storytelling.

Captain America – We really had a banner year for super hero movies. This movie was amazing and the perfect setup for The Avengers this summer. And Chris Evans. I’ve been a fan of him ever since I saw him in Not Another Teen Movie in 2001 and Cellular in 2004. Not to mention his nearly perfect turn as Johnny Storm in both Fantastic Four movies. I can’t wait for The Avengers and Captain America 2.

Moneyball – I’m not the biggest baseball fan, but I love this movie. It’s only peripherally a baseball movie, it’s more about Billy Beane and his attempt to rethink the evaluation of baseball talent. This movie is written by two of my favorite writers, Steve Zaillian (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, American Gangster) and Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, A Few Good Men). Just a really good behind the scenes look at baseball. Brad Pitt is great as Billy Beane and so is Jonah Hill as Peter Brand. Definitely check this out.

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Nerd Lunch Episode 23: Time Travel in pop culture

Posted in movies, pop culture, time machine, time travel, TV shows with tags movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcast, podcasts, pop culture, time machines, time travel, Time Travelogues, TV shows on February 7, 2012 by Paxton

Welcome to Nerd Lunch Episode 23. This week, the three of us fly solo without a fourth chair. And the topic is time travel in pop culture.

Time Travel

And because this is one of my favorite topics, I get to host the show. Now, if you are joining us after listening to our promo on last week’s Atomic Geeks podcast, then you are scratching your head wondering why we aren’t discussing the movie Spirited Away with frequent contributor, Shawn Robare. Well, Shawn had some last minute computer issues so we literally do this episode without any preparation. Combine that with my hosting abilities, and you have one of the most oddly fascinating podcasts we’ve done. Seriously, you won’t ever want me to host again. So, ENJOY!

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner. And yes, we are still on the Zune Marketplace.

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Year End Book Report: The Best Books I Read in 2011

Posted in books, comic books with tags Book Report, books, comic, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Year End Books on February 7, 2012 by Paxton

Here we are, I finally begin my year end round up articles. In February. Sorry about that. I wanted to do it earlier but I wanted to give myself a little bit more time to finish off some movies and books that are eligible for this list. But, apologies aside, my lists are here.

As you know, back in 2009 I started keeping a book log with everything I read. It makes looking at this list easier. I keep it in a Google Spreadsheet so I can access it from any computer.

Here it is.

You can click the image to view it or just click here. So I perused this list and made my selections. Below are the best books I read last year (not including re-reads).

Unlike last year, I’ve split this list into books and comics/trade paperbacks. I read enough of both of them to create their own lists and it was hard to weed out stuff just because it was a comic in order to make room for a book. So, last year I only read three books that were actually released during the 2011 calendar year. Did they make the list? Read on to find out.

So without further ado, here are my favorite books I read in 2011.

Heroes of Olympus series – Rick Riordan – This is the sequel series to Riordan’s Percy Jackson series which made my inaugural best of list in 2009. It is currently up to book 2. Son of Neptune is one of the three books that was released in 2011 that I read. I loved the first book in this series, The Lost Hero and Son of Neptune is almost as good. Riordan has created a fascinating world and I long to return to it when book 3 comes out. And despite what Riodan had said earlier, Percy Jackson is all over this series. Especially Son of Neptune.

The Magicians – Lev Grossman – Wow, this book is really good. It’s billed as sort of a Harry Potter in high school, and I see the parallels, but this story is tonally a 180 from Harry Potter. From the friendships to even how magic is actually executed, it’s just completely different. And great. This book is great. I look forward to checking out the sequel, The Magician King. I’ll probably check out a few of Grossman’s other books, too.

Star Wars: Darth Bane trilogy – Drew Karpyshyn – This series was recommended to me years ago by my friend Dr Mike, but I was reluctant to read it because it was about a bunch of Star Wars characters I didn’t know in a time period I knew nothing about. Boy was I wrong. It’s amazing. This series needs to be the template for all the Star Wars books that want to focus on a specific character. Interesting origins, cool bits of Sith history. It’s just great. If you read Star Wars (or science fiction) at all, read this series.