Kevin Brewer is your not so typical high school senior.  He’s a bit geeky, with a couple of mismatched friends.  (Remind you of another movie yet?)  He loves photography, and is working hard to get into a local university.  Senior year is just moving around swimmingly.. until he has a talk with his girlfriend.  She decides that he’s just not enough fun for her, that he’s holding her back from enjoying her senior year.  Oh yeah, and she’s heading off to Miami for college next year.  Kevin didn’t even know that, and is devastated.  He’s ready to cancel his college visit when he is convinced by a friend that going to college is the best thing that could happen for him.  Kevin becomes determined to show his girlfriend that he knows how to have a good time.

Once they arrive on campus, there are a few problems.  First off, their dorm room isn’t quite ready… and they don’t really want to be in there anyway…  Then, when Carter, one of Kevin’s friends, manages to find them a place to stay, it isn’t quite what they expected.  They’re at a fraternity house, but what they don’t know is that the fraternity is on probation, and isn’t allowed to have any pledges for the year.  Without pledges to torture, the frat boys turn to these pre-froshes to have their fun.  First, they get sent to a gay frat party, then they are forced to clean up the house after a party.  However, despite all this, Kevin and his friends manage to have a good time, and Kevin even meets a new girl.

Of course, all good things also have their bad sides.  Turns out the girl that Kevin found hooked up with one of the frat brothers, Teague, and he’s really jealous that Kevin is getting all the attention.  Morris, Kevin’s other friend, has his own issues, as he shows up to his scholarship interview with choice words and images drawn on his face after the house party.  Things start to turn bad for the trio, as the frat guys do their best to make Kevin and his friend’s stay at College miserable.

After a truly eventful weekend, which you’ll have to see the movie to see, the boys learn a lot about themselves, and what their college experience will really be like.  Add to that a bunch of hot girls, and some really funny situations, and you got yourself a decent movie.  It’s no Superbad, but there was a really good effort.  Didn’t seem to yield the same results, judging by the box ofice, but it was a decent movie.  Check it out if you’re looking for some good laughs, and you’ve already seen Tropic Thunder.

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

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Tropic Thunder is a movie based on a movie that a group of guys made about a book that a guy wrote about something that happened to him during the Vietnam War.  As if that last sentence wasn’t confusing enough already, it stars a whole bunch of guys who look like they were just thrown together to make a movie.  A drug addict, a washed up action star, a young kid who is looking to make it big, a black dude, and a guy who’s playing a black dude.  Throw in their crazy producer Les Grossman and agent Rick Peck, and you’ve got yourself one hell of a comedy.

The movie starts out with an amazing action scene, filled with explosions.  Well, it didn’t really start there, but I missed the fake previews and commercials… think Grindhouse, but with comedy instead of horror.  I’ll have to check them out the next time I’m at the theatre.  In any case, from the beginning of the film, the actors are having trouble getting along with each other.  Stiller’s character, Tugg Speedman, feels like he’s constantly in the shadow of Kirk Lazarus, one of the best character actors ever.  Add to this the fact that their movie is already behind schedule and way over budget after just one day of filming.  When this gets back to Les Grossman, he is extremely angry and demands that the movie get back on schedule or they’ll never work in Hollywood again.

The director, Damien Cockburn, is at a loss.  He doesn’t know what to do to bring the guys together and allow them to be able to work together.  Fourleaf Taybeck (Nick Nolte), who wrote the book Tropic Thunder, has a suggestion: take the guys out of their comfort zone, and put them in a real situation.  Little can he expect what could possibly go wrong with this, as the guys end up in a real dangerous situation, and they don’t even know that they’re not on the set anymore!

Through their journey, the guys find out more about themselves and each other, and bond… in a really hilarious way.  I highly recommend this movie if you’re looking for a bunch of good laughs.  It’s not a cinematic masterpiece by any means, but it made me laugh.. and that’s all I’m looking for in a comedy.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10 stars

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Bangkok Dangerous, Directed by Jason Shuman, Rated R

Joe is a ruthless hitman, an anonymous assassin.  It’s just another day on the job when he is called by a Thai crime boss, Surat, who is looking to have some of his enemies eliminated.  Joe accepts the job and hires a local pickpocket to run some errands for him and cover his tracks, intending to kill him at the end anyway.  This job becomes different, as Joe begins to fall for a local shopgirl, and finds himself mentoring his hired help.  Wondering if this is the life he really wants, Joe begins to let his guard down at the wrong moment, as Surat is looking to clean house.

Joe’s Weekend Preview:

Trying to change up this spot, so that it’s a little easier to write this post every week.  I’ll provide my thoughts for the movies after letting  ya know what came out, so if you’re just looking for that you can skip this part.  This week features Bangkok Dangerous, starring Fletch’s favorite, Nic Cage.  How do I think it’s going to be?  Well.. form your own opinion first.. here’s the trailer:

I know Fletch will probably disagree with me on this one, but I’m very intrigued by it.  Not saying that I’ll try to drag anyone out to see this with me (maybe my dad), but it is my birthday weekend.  I do wish that something cooler might have come out, but I will settle for this.  It looks to have good action, and the type of feel that I like in an action movie.  I’m not really sure how to describe that, but I think I’ll like this.  However, I’m not sure that it will translate to the box office, as we’re heading into the slow season, and that’s when this is getting released.  It should do ok, but this is a movie that I think will be better than the box office shows.  Let me know what you think!

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Time for a little bit of a different look as to what happened at the movies last week.  To recap, I got a call from Jenn letting me know that there was a couple lighting up in the theatre she was in.  Well… that’s a pretty bad idea in the first place.  Do you really want the be the one to cause a fire in the theatre?  They probably weren’t thinking about that, but I was personally looking forward to kickin em out!  I don’t know why, that gives me some satisfaction getting troublemakers out of there.

Anyway, when I got in there, there wasn’t anyone lighting up.  Was a little thankful for that for sure.  I did see a couple crawling around on the floor with their cell phones though.  Erg.  Annoying.  Well, it’s my job to diffuse these before they become real situations, so I headed on over to their row to see if I could quickly help them find what they were looking for.   Boy, was I in for a shock.

Turns out that the two of them were not lighting up… they were just looking for a $15000 wedding ring.  I’m not sure how true that was, but when I asked them if there was anything I could help with, they practically blew me over with the amount of alcohol on their breaths.  The guy was fine, and just told me that they were looking for something.  But the woman… man she was out of it.  She stumbled around, and was screaming that she lost her ring.  They’re doing this while the movie is going on, mind you.

I managed to get them out of the theatre so I could talk to them at least, and for some reason, they didn’t get it that they were causing a disturbance.  Another couple actually almost had a confrontation with them outside cuz they were being so loud.  Finally, I got them to agree to be quiet and they went back into their movie.  I told them that I would help them try to find their ring as soon as the movie got out, that it wasn’t going anywhere if it was in fact in the theatre.  Of course it wasn’t long before they were talking again, and I had to go speak to them again….

Some people just don’t get what it means to be quiet.  In any case, they calmed down after I spoke to them again, and I was down there right when the movie ended to help them look for the ring.  This couple, on the other hand, was passed out, and they didn’t even realize I had turned the lights on.  We spent about 15 minutes looking for the ring, but to no avail.  I really didn’t expect it to be there.  I personally think they lost it somewhere else.  Anyway, on their way out, I saw that they were still really stumbling, so in the interest of their safety, I informed the local police that they should be on the lookout for a couple of drunk drivers.  They got them, and I’m assuming they made it home safely that night.

So maybe these two weren’t really Jerks, but they definitely made for a long and eventful night.  If you’ve taken anything from this, don’t go to the movies so drunk that you can’t even enjoy the movie.  You’re just being a Jerk to everyone else.

Later, Folks!

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I knew things were going to be bad about ten minutes into the movie. I sat in the very last row with my boyfriend, since, one, it was a pretty small theater, and two, we smuggled in Chinese food. We didn’t want to disturb anybody with the pungent smell that Chinese food can sometimes give off.

This however, was not the case for the people who walked… or should I say, stumbled into the movie theater ten minutes after the movie had started. They were a man and a woman, who were wasted out of their minds. The man patted my boyfriend on the head, and loudly (and i mean loudly) asked, “HEY! THE MOVIE START YET?” Obviously it had, and, my boyfriend simply said yes, adding a chuckle since if you think about it, it was funny in a twisted way.

Things escalated from funny to foolish very quickly. These people stumbled around the theater looking for seats, and once seated, started causing much trouble. They swore at each other, and the movie, sang songs, laughed, talked, and questioned other moviegoers, all at volume levels which are not even appropriate for roller coaster rides. I was getting very antsy and distracted, and upon looking around the theater, I realized I wasn’t the only one. All heads were turned in their direction. I texted Joe, who was working in the theater that night about these loud and rowdy patrons.

Then, (and I don’t even know why anyone could be so stupid as to do this) they started lighting matches! You know how children aren’t aloud to play with matches? Neither should drunks. Upon seeing the match, I ran out to get Joe. (Movie manager to the rescue!) I was not about to lose my free movie viewing perks because some stupid drunk people burned down the theater.

Joe came in, and escorted them out. How proud was I of my brother right then? hahaha. More trouble with them came later, but that’s not my story to tell. After all, this is only the patron’s POV!

I’d like to hear about some of your more… distracting movie experiences. In the meanwhile, I’m going to catch some of the other recent flicks out! There’s such a variety out this week - I don’t know what to see first!

-Jen

P.S. Watch for my take on this soon! - Joe

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Henry Poole is Here - Rated PG, Directed by Mark Pellington

Henry Poole lives the perfect life, full of opportunities and potential. However, after a bad doctor’s appointment, Henry gets news that he doesn’t want to hear. Trying to get away from it all, he flees his life. He’s now left alone in a new house and a new place, hoping that he can escape his fate. His new neighborhood is definitely not what he expected. They welcome him fine and are nice enough, but after a “miracle” is discovered on a backyard wall, and constant interruptions from a young girl with a tape recorder, all his hopes of peace are thrown out the window.

Joe’s Take - I have absolutely no idea how this movie is going to do. To be honest with you, I’ve never even heard of this movie, and I should know about most movies because I rummage through posters to check and see what’s coming out! It sounds like it could be a sleeper movie, but I’m not sure. Does anyone else know anything about this movie or want to see it?

Mirrors - Rated R, directed by Alexandre Aja

From the director who brought us High Tension and The Hills Have Eyes comes another Horror/Thriller. Keifer Sutherland plays an ex-cop whose home is invaded by angry and deadly spirits by its mirrors. Strange, terrifying things begin to happen…. it’s all in the mirrors.

Joe’s Take - When I first heard about this movie coming out I actually thought that it might be pretty interesting to watch, and I still might head out to go see it, but I’m not so sure anymore. This movie concept seems so overused now… does anyone know if this is actually a take on an Asian horror flick? It’s interesting to see Sutherland in this kind of role, I’m interested to see how he will do. In the end, I see this movie making a little bit of noise on Friday night, like most horror/thriller flicks. Now I hope that I don’t have to babysit the kids again. Thanks, Hollywood, for the R-rated movies! On the plus side, the poster is pretty freaky

The Clone Wars - Rated PG, Directed by Dave Filoni

A new take on one of the more recent Star Wars movie. An intergalactic struggle between good and evil, The Clone Wars explores characters both old and new such as Anakin’s padawan learner, Ahsoka. Familiar villians such as Palpatine, Count Dooku, and General Grevious are also featured as they try to take over the galaxy. The fate of the world lies in the hands of the Jedi Knights, as they take on action packed battles and brand new revelations.

Joe’s Take - I’m actually excited about this movie. I’m not sure it needed to be made (kinds makes it seem like Lucas is just using it as a cash cow) but I surely hope that it doesn’t disappoint. I really like the animation style that has been used for The Clone Wars and I’m really interested in seeing how the story of Star Wars is adopted into this film. I predict that this will definitely have a strong opening weekend. Can’t wait to hear that theme again!

Tropic Thunder - Rated R, Directed by Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. play three actors who are working on a war movie in southeast Asia. Unfortunately for them, they get caught in the middle of a real war, and don’t even realize it! To escape the situation they are in, they must become as hard as the characters they play in movies.

Joe’s Take - Meh. I’m not a huge fan of all of these guys. I will admit that Robert Downey Jr. made me a fan with Iron Man but I saw the trailer for this movie and really just thought ugh. I know that people are going to want to see this movie, but personally I don’t see the appeal. It might have it’s funny moments but in my personal opinion, it’s going to be a pretty stupid movie. Maybe that’s what they’re looking for with it. In any case, it comes out on the 13th instead of the 15th like the rest of the releases. I’m assuming that’s to extend the box office weekend for the movie so it puts up some stronger numbers. Not for me, but maybe for you!

Vicky Cristina Barcelona - Rated PG-13, Directed by Woody Allen

Two young Americans spend a summer in Spain. While there, they meet a flamboyant artist and his beautiful but crazy ex-wife. Vicky is very straight laced and is about to be married, but Cristina is sexually adventurous and a free spirit. When love takes over, the results are both harrowing and hilarious!

Joe’s Take - Again, another movie that I’ve heard nothing about, though I’m interested because of Scarlett Johannsson. Woody Allen seems to have a way of making good movies with her, so I don’t doubt that this film will do well, but it only interests me on the surface. Basically, I want to see it for the ladies. I may also see it for the lady, but I don’t know if she’s interested in this one. How about you?

Phew. There you have it, the movies this weekend and my oh so important opinion on how they’ll do or if I want to see them. Do you agree with me, or not? What do you think you’ll see?

Images for this post were provided by Movie Poster dot com.

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For those of you who are unfamiliar with Twilight, a new novel which has taken the world by storm, here’s a quick catch up. The story revolves around Bella Swan, a 17 year old girl who has recently moved to the rainy town of Forks to live with her father, Charlie. At Forks High, she comes across Edward Cullen, a remarkably beautiful young man who seems to have a passionate dislike for Bella when they first meet in their Biology class. Bella soon discovers that Edward, along with the rest of his “family,” are vampires who choose not to feed upon humans. The connection between Bella and Edward grows from hatred to love, and many obstacles stand in the way of their deep and powerful link; including other vampires, a rivalry from Native Americans living near Forks, and of course, the average human teenage boy. (They always cause problems, am I right? haha)

I personally am excited for both movies coming out, and will probably be seeing them, multiple times each. (Dan Radcliffe and Robert Pattison are both cutiessss, ow owwwwwwwww!! ;]) However, will Harry Potter make the opening of Twilight go *poof* like on of Voldemort’s unfortunate victims? Or will Twilight sink its fangs into the box office to steal the top spot away from Harry Potter? Let the teeth and wands fly!

This whole fad of straight from book-to-movie is quite remarkable, however, I sometimes fear it may take away from the whole literature experience. The picture of a work of literature in one’s mind is sure to differ from what is portrayed in a movie, and may spoil the book for some readers. However, I have yet to be disappointed by a Harry Potter film, finding them remarkable and the acting superb. Also, an upside is that the movies will inspire more people to read the books on which they are based upon. I figure many would love to see the real story from which great movies are produced!

So who do you think will reign victorious? Harry Potter and his fight to save the wizarding world, or Edward Cullen in Twilight fighting for his true love with Bella Swan? Check out the trailers below, and let me know what you think!

Twilight:

Harry Potter 5

Muchhhh magical love!

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Here they are, in order of popularity:

1. The Exorcist
2. Halloween
3. The Shining
4. Psycho
5. Night of the Living Dead
6. Dawn of the Dead
7. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
8. Alien
9. The Thing
10. 28 days later

Those are some pretty scary flicks. I haven’t seen all of them, but the ones I’ve seen have definitely freaked me out. I’m surprised one of the Friday the 13th movies didn’t make it. I also thought that a Chucky movie might have made it.

Any movie you might have added on the list? Taken out? Let it be heard in the comments!

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Everyone, please welcome Jenn as the newest contributer here at Intermission at Work. If you haven’t already, check out her first post, a riveting review of Swing Vote! Let her know what you think, I’m sure she’ll welcome the comments.

I’m really excited to have another writer here. Now you don’t have to depend on just my wonderful opinion and stories.

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What if the future president of America rested squarely on one lone, individual vote? So is the question presented in Swing Vote, starring familiar names such as Kevin Costner, Kelsey Grammer, and George Lopez. The movie begins with the viewers looking into the daily life of Molly Johnson, a highly intelligent grade school girl living in the small town of Texaco, New Mexico, with her underachieving and lazy father, Bud. She cooks, she cleans, she even drives! On election day, Molly expresses the importance of the voting to Bud — which is no doubt a message to the movie patron as well, stating that it is the American civic duty. Bud replies with a smart aleck comeback, which gathered chuckles from the other four people in the movie theater.

Although promising his daughter he would vote, Bud screws up big time. After in-sourcing and many acts of laziness cause Bud to be laid off from his job at the Egg Factory, he decides that getting smashed would be the best way to retaliate. When Molly finds Bud unfit to vote, she decides to take matters into her own hands. However, while sneakily attempting to vote in Bud’s place, an error with the voting machine occurs, and Molly frantically rushes out to return to the smelly trailer in which she and Bud reside.

Life continues on as normal for Bud and Molly. The presidential election is at a standstill, being split completely down the middle. The error of the voting machine was discovered, and with the election riding on the sole county of Texaco, a confused Bud is given a chance to recast his ballot. Both presidential candidates scurry to win his vote, abandoning everything they stand for in the process. The rest of the movie conveys themes of family, humanity, and love all with a touch of humor involved. Who will Bud vote for? I can’t spoil that for you! Seriously!

I thought the movie was decent, although not amazing. Its humor and serious undertones will always leave you captivated. However, it was trying a bit hard — attempting to touch upon all the serious controversies in our modern society today with silly jokes in order to make the tone of the movie continuously light. It will definitely rejuvenate your spirit and have your patriotism at an all time high upon leaving the theater. I give it one thumb up and one thumb down… looks like my review needs a swing vote of its own!

Swing your butt on down to see Swing Vote!

pleasure blogging with you!
~Jenn

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Now do I think that Regal may have gone a bit far with that? Yes I do. However, I also feel that the theatre was justified in taking the action they did. When you are not consistent with the rules, it really makes it that much harder to enforce. Think of how many times your parents or teachers or bosses bent the rules for you. Didn’t that make it easier to bend and then break other rules?

The first part about breaking the law is to know the law:

Whether you download a movie from an unauthorized source or sell counterfeit DVDs on the street, you are a movie thief whose crimes carry serious legal consequences of which you should be aware. Federal and state laws and international treaties exist to stop people from stealing valuable copyrighted material. Pirates all over the world should know that law enforcement entities are committed to protecting copyrighted material because creative works such as motion pictures and television are as valuable as any other type of property.

Source: MPAA

A lot of people gripe about the high cost of going to the movies, and so they turn to bootlegging. They shouldn’t do this for several reasons. Besides the fact that it’s illegal, the industry gets hurt pretty badly.

Movies are Expensive to Make

Yes, movies are very expensive to make. How does bootlegging affect this? Well, when you bootleg a movie, you are not paying for admission or the DVD, which in turn does not get to the studios. Modern blockbusters can cost upwards of $100 Million to make, and it can be really difficult to turn that into profit. In fact, many movies don’t hit the green until they turn to DVD sales. When that money doesn’t get to the studios, there is much less incentive to spend money on a project, knowing how difficult it will be to turn a profit.

Less Money to Studios = Worse Movies

Bootlegging’s most direct effect is to take money away from the studios. Yes… people can be overpaid and sometimes the stars make way too much money, but like I said before, when less money is being made on movies, there is less incentive to spend money on a project. Without spending money, you can’t have all the cool special effects or the big stars to make the movies…. good. When studios decide to spend less money, the theatre audience is the one to get hurt. It’s a domino effect, because if movies aren’t as good, then less people will go, which again means less money and then even worse movies.

We’ll further explore the consequences and other things about the MPAA that you may not have known later, but…………….

Now that you know the law and a couple reasons why you shouldn’t bootleg… follow the law! Or I’ll sic Judge Dredd on you.

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Anyway, Direct-to-DVD is a path that more movies are taking every year. There are several benefits of taking a movie straight to DVD:

Lower Cost of Production

A lot of times, a direct to DVD movie won’t have the production costs of a feature film that goes to theatres. This is due to the lower cost of advertising, and the lower cost of the people who work on the movie. I’m talking mainly about the stars. You don’t often hear of a big time hollywood star working on a direct to dvd movie, unless their name is Steven Seagal.

Lower Marketing Cost

This is pretty obvious… you don’t have to advertise before other movies, on TV or anywhere else really. There are probably some small ads in the paper but probably nothing else. They bank on word of mouth and other forms of marketing, on a much smaller scale too.

BUT what I think of these movies is that they’re CRAP. Big, huge steaming piles of CRAP. If a movie isn’t good enough to make it to at least an independent release, then it’s probably crap. I don’t understand why studios would waste their resources on making these movies and hope they can sell a few thousand copies to recoup the cost of making the movie.

I’ll throw one example out there. I know that many of you may not have enjoyed Starship Troopers, but I did. Just something about it that I liked. I really really didn’t expect them to come out with another though, because it was a little cheesy and I didn’t think they had much to go on from there. But what do you know… they did!!!! Starship Troopers 2 came out as a Direct to DVD release. I didn’t even know that it came out until I saw it on the rack at Walmart or something.

I’m not the only one who felt this way…. check out this comment from IMDB:

In the past few months, a bunch of direct-to-video sequels to highly successful movies have been released. There has been WILD THINGS 2, there has been CRUEL INTENTIONS 3, there has been THE SKULLS 3, and now there is STARSHIP TROOPERS 2: HERO OF THE FEDERATION, a disappointing follow-up to the science fiction classic STARSHIP TROOPERS. There was really no reason for this movie to exist. A sequel was not necessary, but for some odd reason, this sequel was made.

The original STARSHIP TROOPERS was a big-budget extravaganza with a budget around $105 million. STARSHIP TROOPERS 2: HERO OF THE FEDERATION has a budget of a around $6 million so naturally the special effects in this one look like crap. The special effects are not the only poor-looking aspect of the movie. In fact, the whole movie just looks terrible. The cinematography is awful as is the acting, writing, and directing. This movie is as bad as a sequel can get. No stars.

Source: IMDB

I mean… cmon… are you serious? If there’s a movie that makes even some money, you can bank on the studio trying to make a sequel. But if it really was a one hit wonder, why even try to take 2-3% of the budget and make a sequel??? Especially direct to dvd. I understand trying to make a movie on the big screen and having that fail, because then you learn a lesson. It wasn’t meant to be… you lost out on your investment. The scary thing about direct to DVD is that they might actually make money of some of these atrocious movies. This will only encourage more of them!!! If it’s a good movie on the big screen, I’ll probably get it on DVD. If it’s not even good enough for that, why would I even consider it??

That being said, this is only my opinion. Any Direct to DVDers that you really liked?

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Pineapple Express - Directed by David Gordon Green, Rated R

From the guys that brought us Superbad (which I thought was excellent) comes the action comedy Pineapple Express. Dale Denton is a lazy stoner who has the unlucky fate of being the only witness to a murder by a crooked cop and the city’s most dangerous drug lord. Having earlier bought a rare strain of weed known as Pineapple Express, he panics and leaves it at the scene of the crime. He now has a second reason to visit the lazy dealer Saul Silver, where he purchased the weed. He needs to know if the weed can be traced back to him.. and it just so happens that it is so rare that it can be traced back to him. As the two of them run for their lives, they discover that it’s not the weed that’s causing their paranoia… the bad guys really are after them trying to get rid of them as fast as they can.

Joe’s Take - Pineapple Express looks to follow in the shoes of Superbad last summer, but at least to me, it doesn’t look as good. I’m not saying that it’s not going to be good, because I think it is gonna be good, just that Superbad will be better. Of course, this poses another problem for me: It’s another movie that I have to check IDs for…which sucks. Putting all that behind me though, Pineapple Express looks to be just about as hilarious as Superbad. We’ll have to see if James Franco as Saul Silver can be as good as McLovin. I’m not sure he can do it, but it’s up to him to prove me wrong. Seth Rogen is generally a winner, so this should find it’s way into the top 2.

Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2 - Directed by Sanaa Hamri, Rated PG-13

Three years after the girls first hit the screen in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, they return. Despite the great distances that separate them when they head for college, their friendship remains strong. Sisterhood 2 will delve further into their lives as they experience life before heading to college.

Joe’s Take - For some reason, my lovely girlfriend is going crazy for this movie… but I’m not. I’d rather see Pineapple Express, but for some reason I may end up at this one. The first movie was a bit of a surprise hit, and I’d expect those people that saw the first one and were fans of it to come out and check out the second incarnation. I can’t imagine it being much more than the first one, which I did not see, but the fans of these types of movies usually find them to be good for the most part. I can’t comment on what I think not having seen it, but I think it’ll do fairly well. Will also let you know if I get dragged kicking and screaming to it. That’s for you, babe.

That’s all for this weekend, hopefully it provides me a little more fun than this past weekend! Are you guys headed out to check out Seth and the boys? Or will you be with your ladies at the Traveling Pants?

Images for this post were provided by Movie Poster dot com.

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The way I look at it, if it’s not enforced by us willingly, it’ll become law. Thats what I tell myself anyway.

Unfortunately for me, this creates a pretty hostile environment for me at work. I can’t say this is true at every movie theatre, but there are quite a few that are pretty lax on the policy. We are not. This is a problem because kids expect to have the same lax policy at every place they go. I think that the bigger theatres are generally more lax because they have a lot more people to ID, and that can become inefficient. Well… I happen to work at a moderately sized location, and we CAN id, so we do.

Kids tend to hate us for it (and I use the term kid lightly, because a lot of them are bigger than me), but it’s our job. It’s really not my fault your parents dropped you off here for me to deal with you. I really don’t get paid enough to deal with these kids, so I do a few things to make it a little more fun.

One thing I do is sell tickets at box office. I pay attention to groups of kids that trying to buy tickets to a rated R movie. More than likely, one of them will not have an ID with them, or not be old enough. Then the real fun comes in. Once they have their tickets, I step out of box office and walk to the theatre they’re trying to go to. Then all I have to do it stand there and watch as the look on their face turns from disbelief to disappointment to anger. Really, there is nothing to get that mad about, I’m just enforcing the rules. Make it less obvious, or don’t be a d*ck, and I might be a little more lax about it. The reason why I do it most of the time is because they are acting like jerks. I think it’s funny when they try to give me a hard time about it.

Another thing I do, and I guess there’s many different variations of it, is to go into the theatre, and either watch someone open up an exit door, then kick out the whole group, or go to the exit door myself and make the kids leave. I actually caught a couple of underage drinkers this weekend also… and I could have bagged them for that, but I didn’t call the cops this time. I don’t understand what is so cool about drinking behind a movie theatre…..

In any case, it’s not just the R-rated policy enforcement that makes me feel like a baby sitter. It’s also the having to deal with fights, kids texting during movies, kids moving their seats a lot during movies, and the generally douchebaggery (I like that word) of teenagers towards other guests. I’m really not paid to take care of your teenagers, so why aren’t they taught any manners before they are let out of the house?!?! Yes, it may seem a bit harsh, but I don’t think parents really realize how bad their kids are when they leave them with us.

I guess the bottom line is… your kids are a menace, and I don’t get paid enough to take care of them like I have to. Luckily, there are many things that I do enjoy about the job that make it worthwhile. Your kids, however, are generally not one of them.

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This week brings a couple features to the table… but for some reason I still think it will be The Dark Knight putting up strong numbers.  What a movie… I can’t believe how many records it’s broken.  Well, here we go!

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - Directed by Rob Cohen, Rated PG-13

Brendan Fraser returns as adventurer Rick O’ Connell, but this time, he’s in China.  The ancient Han Emperor has been resurrected, and threatens to bring the entire world under his rule.  Doomed into suspended animation by a double crossing sorceress, the Emperor and his 10000 man army have been lying in wait.  When Alex, Rick’s son, is tricked into re-animating the army, he must seek help from his father, the only one he knows who has had experience dealing with the undead.

Joe’s Take - From a personal point of view, I want to see this movie.  I’ve been a fan of The Mummy series, and I think that this is a pretty cool extension.  I don’t see this movie being anything like the others though, which could be a good or a bad thing depending on what the viewer thinks.  The problem with this is that they don’t seem to want to compete with what is being released at the same time or before.  I don’t see much excitement.  I get the feeling that a lot was given away in trailers, which is usually reserved for those spoof movies.  Not saying that this is a spoof film, and while I’m excited, I don’t know how many others will be.

The Square - Directed by Nash Edgarton

Raymond is stuck in the monotony of a loveless marriage.  He becomes entangled in an affair with a beautiful, trouble girl named Carla.  Carla, wanting to get out of her own marriage, presents Raymond with a proposition.  She takes the fruits of her husband’s latest crime, and offers to run away with Ray and start a new life.  Intrigued, Ray hires an arsonist to cover their tracks.  However, the plan goes horribly wrong, alarms go off, and suspicions arise.  When the dust finally settles, Raymond and Carla begin receiving blackmail letters, and are threatened by her ex-husband.  As the deadline set by the mystery blackmailer approaches, Raymond and Carla find out how far they will really go for love.

Joe’s Take - Not gonna lie… never heard of this movie before.  The story does sound interesting, and it’s something that I would like to try to see if I had extra time.. but I don’t.  It doesn’t rank high on the priority list, and with the little press that it’s gotten, I just don’t see The Square making any sort of impact on the box office this weekend.  Anyone else heard anything about this?

Swing Vote - Directed by Joshua Michael Stern, Rated PG-13

Bud Johnson is an apathetic, beer swilling guy who has just coasted through life, and its passing him by.  The light of his life is his precocious, overachieving daughter Molly.  Molly is the one to take care of both of them, and is doing a great job until election day.  She sets into place a series of events that leaves the determination of the President of the United States dependent on one vote: Her father’s.

Joe’s Take - Another movie that interests me, but I don’t see it doing really well.  It’s pretty well placed in terms of time, especially with our current presidential election campaigns, but it seems a little cliche.  What I do like is that it seems like it could be like Thank You for Smoking, which is one of my favorite movies.  I love that sentence I just wrote.  Something seems wrong about it.  Anyway, there’s too much competition for this movie to do really well, but I think it will pique some interest.

That’s it for the wide releases this week.  I know that there are a lot of people looking forward to the release of Pineapple Express, and I’m hoping to get a chance to see that before it comes out, but who knows!  I’ll have to update this post with pictures later, as I’m really tired, but hope you guys are having a great week and an even better weekend!  See you at the movies… right?

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It hasn’t stopped me from having a bit of my own fun though!  I went to a company picnic today, and recreated one of my all time favorite movies, Dodgeball!  Well, actually not really recreated, but we’ve been playing it at the picnic since the movie came out.  My team had a corny name, The Jokers Wild.  Yeah, we’ve really gone for the Batman theme.  Anyway, it was a ton of fun, and I really wish I had some pictures, cuz yours truly had one of the most epic dive/catches ever!

It would have been great… if I caught the ball.  I love it when life goes in slow motion.  I had it in my hands!  I could hear the crowd going crazy as it fell into my hands, slipped out, got hit back up… into my hands again, then PLUNK.  I faceplanted on the ground, sans ball in hand. :-(  I think I hurt my knee in the process tooo.

Oh well, it was a lot of fun.  I’m wondering, did Dodgeball pique your interest in the game again?  I have to say I saw it 5 times in theatres… and loved it each time!

Anyway, just wanted to throw out a quick post to let you know that I’m alive.  I’ll be getting back to regular posting tomorrow, with the movies this weekend! Later, folks!

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• The Dark Knight is awesome.
• Heath Ledger did an incredible job as the Joker.
• This is the best movie of the summer so far.

Uhhh.. YEAH. Those words definitely sum up what I thought of The Dark Knight. Honestly, it was a really incredible movie, very well done. DC comics has a definite hit in this movie, and it made the numbers that Iron Man