After.Life (2009— 104 mins)  L. Neeson, C. Ricci, J. Long

Like I said a couple of days ago I tend to try and get 1 movie each night (of the 3 I usually get) that is a break from the norm. Not a blockbuster hit, not a rom-com, not main stream. This was a genre piece that was a break from every day movies we usually watch. After.Life is a dark drama/mystery/thriller about a woman who has gotten into a car accident and is caught in a place between life and death. Liam Neeson is her guide so to speak, in the period between the accident and the final moving on. Justin Long plays Ricci’s boyfriend who we are not sure is all there or if he believes she is dead or not.

    It’s a definate trippy ride the whole movie. The director makes good use of vivid color, angles,lighting,  and symbols to propel the plot along in a good direction. She keeps us quite off guard the whole time revealing little by little the story at hand. In any movie like this there are some holes in the story she is trying to sell us, but it never gets so big of a hole that it ruins the basic premise or goal of it all. The movie is good  in general. I like movies that keep you thinking and make you try and figure it out. It never grasps at things that are not in plain sight and what you see is what you get. It might be too dark for some people or slow but I think most people who appreciate genre films or mystery/thrillers will like it. A heads up for some too Ricci is naked pretty much about 1/2 of the movie so this is either a good thing or bad thing depending on who you are, be warned.

Verdict–> A good genre flick that will keep you guessing and somewhat on the edge of your seat. It’s dark and dreary but in a good drama way. If you don’t like drama/thrillers you won’t like it but for others it will be right up your alley. Not a great “date” movie but for a group on a multiple movie night it is real good for a discussion starter as well. Enjoy!

Observe and Report (2009—  86 mins) S. Rogen, A. Faris, Ray Liotta 

It’s kinda hard to talk about Seth Rogen’s  Observe and Report without mentioning the “other” mall cop movie Paul Blart Mall Cop. They are a bit similar in alot of ways. Rogen is the misfit rent-a-cop who longs to be a real cop but for one reason or another he is kept from the force. Here it’s b/c he’s just a bit Bi-Polar and just never going to get in. So he sets his sights on being the best damn Mall Cop he can be (See just like Kevin James in Blart). As usual there is crime that he wants to get to the bottom of and he just wants to belong and get the girl. But he’s just too socially inept to do any of it right.

   Where James’ Blart is more of a main stream comedy this is more of the raunchy comedy for the Knocked-Up and 40 year old Virgin crowd. They make alot of drug,homosexual and cop jokes, and even Rogen as the bi-polar mess is a walking joke in the movie. Where James’ Blart is just more naive Rogen is just a walking mess. The movie is funny don’t get me wrong but people who like their comedy more mainstream and less rated R will shy away from this.

Verdict—> I liked it and will prob watch it a bunch on late night cable but then again I love raunchy comedy. It’s got a ton of that and language as well. As mentioned above if you want more of a tamer movie look for Paul Blart, but if raunch is your thing check this out. Not terribly long so pretty perfect for a double feature with a rom-com to watch with a date and laugh at.

When In Rome (2010— 91mins) K. Bell, J. Duhamel

  When in Rome is as you prolly figured a Romantic Comedy. So many rom-com’s are cheesy and cliche’ that it tends to be hard to stand out. This is one to me that stands out a bit more then others have lately. Kristen Bell is your typical rom-com chick who has shitty luck with dating and while in Rome for the wedding of her sister she is so fed up with it that she steals coins from a magic fountain that curses her with a bunch of guys falling (magically) in love with her. Seems usual enough but the standing out is the assortment of guys and how funny they are. It’s got the who’s who of funny men and they all deliver in their roles here. These guys include Dax Shepard, John Heder (here with his Napoleon Dynamite sidekick Pedro too!), Wil Arnett, and Danny Devito. As you might have guessed it the object of the real love is Josh Duhamel. There is a good amount of comedic hi-jinx and funny mishaps as usuall but it’s an enjoyable ride. Don’t expect to be surprised by anything but you will get a good laugh out of it all.

Verdict—> I am starting to look at the rom-coms that I watch at work in one simple way. If after watching them here I am willing to sit thru them again with Mrs. Geekjock then they pass the test. This is one of them that easily passes that test. Sure it’s going to be on a billion times on TBS/TNT or USA, but it’s a good date/wifey movie to see. Worth the 1$ and time for the brownie points with the Mrs.

Don McKay (2009 … 87 mins) Thomas Haden Church, Elisabeth Shue

   Every week when I go to pick out some movies from the Red Box, the selection is a crap shoot. This is mainly b/c I get them on Sat, and Sunday mornings for those nights watching and they basically have been pretty picked thru. So I usually end up with at least one indy type movie every week. These movies can best be described as crap shoots. They usually have a few good stars and I typically have never even heard of the movie b/c it was never really in wide release. I don’t really care about that b/c hey if the movie is good or interesting in the least I will prolly like it. Don McKay fits most of those. I never had heard of it but I like both the leads, and HAden Church and Shue are good here as well.

   Okonto the movie itself. Don McKay can best be described as a mystery/thriller/drama. I found some parts pretty funny in a dark comedy sort of way but I am not entirely sure this was intentional or not. The plot starts simple but does not endup that way. Don McKay is a janitor who has left his home behind years after a tragedy. After receiving a letter from an old flame he visits home and rekindles the relationship with the dying woman. What ensues is not exactly what Don had in mind.

   The movie is one of those movies which has a lot of twists and turns and huh(?) moments in the Fargo sort of way. It starts off in a real slow manner, but then picks up pace and near the end gets to a good pace and you finally go ahhhh ok. It starts so slowish, that a coworker about 15 mins in said to me “What the hell is this movie about anyway?” The funny part is, at the time I really didn’t have an answer for him. I think this is one of those unsung movies that a lot of people won’t get but I think it might need a second viewing after some of the points are revealed at the end to pick up on more cues and make more sense of it all. Normally the thought of that makes me want to puke but at 87 mins the idea of seeing it again on cable doesn’t make me cringe. I might actually lookfor this on cable so I can enjoy it at a non-workplace pace (Again I tend to watch most of these red-box movies at work so sometimes I miss some pieces of them, so a movie like this could really use a 2nd viewing by me).

Verdict–> As usual this is one of those movies that I will say if you like “this sort of movie” then you will like this. The type being, a mysterious drama where nothing initially makes sense and starts slow, but you will be rewarded for sticking with it. I liked it so it’s definately worth the dollar at ye olde red box. If you watch it I would love to hear what you think.

State Of Play (2009— 127 mins) Crowe,B. Affleck,, R. McAdams

   State of Play is a modern day political conspiracy thriller centered around the murder of a congressman’s mistress and the team of reporters trying to uncover the reason for it. Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams play 2 of the reporters investigating Afflecks Congressman’s Mistress’ demise. Like many political thrillers it takes about 500 twists and turns and everyone is connected to everyone else and basically no one ever tells the truth. It will keep you guessing but not in a way that it reveals enough for you to connect it all but in a way that will still keep you interested. I enjoyed the premise and the story but the length tended to wear on me a bit. Sure, most political dramas like this tend to be inthe 2 hour avenue, but this one tends to drag once it hits a certain point in the last act. It would have been fine at 1 hour 50 and still could have accomplished everything in it. Still, I can say it’s a good movie if you like that genre of movies. I do, but again the length might keep me from watching it too many more times. Crowe is the highlight of the movie, as he tends to play this type of character well. We all know he can play the Gladiator type characters, but I tend to think that these type of investigative types are also his forte. The movie doesn’t exactly make enough use of Affleck so it’s hard to have a verdict on him, but for his role he is good as well.

Verdict—> If you are into Political drama/thrillers then you will prob like this one. If they tend to be over your head a bit or you cannot pay attention for 2 hours then this might not be your cup of tea. Just remember it’s over two hours when you rent it so you might want to get a shorter flick for that other end of the double feature.

Kick Ass (2010— 117mins) Aaron Johnson, N Cage, C Mintz-Plasse, C. Moretz

This will sound real cliche’ but there is really only one way to describe Kick Ass… It KICKS ASS. What a great, fun, funny, well written, well acted movie. It’s enjoyable from beginning to end. Yes, we have all heard about Hit-Girl’s potty mouth but it really just makes the character more full.  It fits what she is about and he childhood that she missed and is still living. It helps to define the character too. Not to mention you will laugh every time she speaks.

   In a nutshell Dave (A. Johnson) is a boring, geeky kid who wonders why everyone loves super heroes but no one has ever tried to take on crime 1st hand. So this idea prompts him to come up with an alter ego of his own, Kick Ass. The ridiculousness of this is he has no super powers and no fight training of his own. Once out there he meets some others who either are out there unbeknownst to him, or others who apparently have been inspired by him to be a super hero. They all get mixed up in some activity going on with the mob, and then it really gets going. It’s a fun romp that makes the time melt by and you hardly even realize it has been 2 hours once it’s all done. A good sound track and good script, and I cannot wait for the next one in a couple of years (already planned).  A big thumbs up to the climactic scene with hit-girl in the hallway with the song I mentioned as one of my favorites last week… Joan Jett’s Bad Reputation!!!  I want to go into more of the story but I really cannot, too much more and it gives away too much of the plot. So you will have to see it for yourself!

Verdict—–> If it is at the Red Box get it now. Fun Fun Fun. Great movie, but a small warning, not really great for kids who haven’t been exposed to a ton of foul language. It’s rated R for a reason (The language and tons of violence). Get it for the adults only but get it now, you won’t be disappointed.

Everyone knows Wow:Cataclysm will be a hit and DC Universe Online, while having a good trailer/Video has some potential but only time will tell. All that being said the OTHER most anticipated MMO in the near future is Star Wars:The Old Republic. I have hyped it here a few times already and this time is no different.

Today Bioware put out a video of the Jedi Knight Class and also revealed that it will have 2 specializations, the Guardian (tank) and Sentinal (dps/CC?). What I am then wondering is if all the classes are going to then get 2 specialization we can level up to and make the decision on (And I am hoping this is true). This concept isn’t too unique but it could really expand on the class possibilities in the game. ALso this will prob make some of the other classes which might not be played as much to get some specialization and love to them.

Check out the video below of the Jedi Knight. As usual it looks great and I like the beginnings of what I am seeing here. I still want alot more game play footage of the game and some crafting info but with 8+ months till release, I’ll take what I get.

Ok never say I didn’t teach you anything my good friends. I think this is something that EVERYONE should know but not everyone seems to. There is one MAJOR thing that everyone who ever drives or goes to a major event needs to know. It doesn’t matter if you are going to a hockey game a concert or seeing a comedian at a major venue.

It prob has many names but I like to call it ZIPPER THEORY. See everyone who is at an event is always happy go lucky and we all love our fellow fans, but the second you get into a car it’s FUCK YOU that’s my 2 inches I need to be there! So obey zipper theory. It’s simple. It’s you go, I go, you go, I go. It’s not hard… repeat it again for me people. You go, I go, you go , I go…  If you obey the theory I guaron-frickin-tee you that you will get out of the place in an easy and timely manner.  It even applies to traffic. If you use a little common sense you will avoid traffic easier if we all use zipper theory.

Of course there are those people who don’t. Who are they? The roided out morons who drive hummers, the 16 year old blonde’s who pretend to have something important to say on their cell phone, and the 55 year old plastic surgery lady who is too good for the rest of us so naturally it’s THEIR turn to drive. Not the common F’n courtesy that everyone deserves.

So next time you are watching the home town hockey team or you just got out of Celine Dion (you know who you are), obey Zipper Theory. And if you have people you are driving, spread the word about it, help the rest of us so that some other people who might not know about it will learn and think… “Oh yeah I never thought about that, it just makes sense!”

Thank you and good night…

GeekJock out.

It has been often my stance that we as American’s sometimes have TOO many rights. We have the ability to complain and bitch about the most mundane things. Often there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. An idiot like me on a blog, sure that fine. However, when people form groups and become advocates for a cause for the most unbelievable things, then we are letting people go too far. Not to get too much on my soapbox on something I am not even intending to write about here but it’s an American atrocity that we as a country have allowed our schools and our children to take out UNDER GOD from our pledge of allegiance is a slap in the face of every American. We even tolerate people not standing or not putting their hands over their heart when the pledge or the anthem is sung. Speak up people and let them ALL know this is just not tolerable.

  OK back to the IDIOTS OF THE DAY. Today we are going to salute with a big Middle Finger, the group Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.  Yes it’s a real group and yes they are prob full of stay at home parents who have shit for brains and no clue the outside world is actually able to teach their children some good! They prob home school their kids and make them use purel every time they look outside at dirt.  The CCFC has released a statement against of all things, a Happy Meal Toy from McDonalds. Not just ANY happy meal toys,MARVEL SUPER HERO toys. Oh the statement will make you laugh so hard you might spit milk out your nose but here goes. (Taken directly from their site)

BOSTON — August 4 — The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has launched a letter-writing campaign demanding that McDonald’s pull its current Happy Meal promotion featuring Marvel comic book heroes.  One action figure, The Thing, menacingly roars “IT’S CLOBBERIN’ TIME!” each time a child presses a button on its back.  Another, The Human Torch, is a man on fire.

“It’s bad enough to use junk toys to sell children on junk food,” said CCFC’s Director Dr. Susan Linn.  “But now, for preschool boys, a so-called happy meal at McDonald’s features the horrifying spectacle of a man engulfed in flames and a menacing figure that explicitly spurs them to violence.”   

Seriously???? You are speaking out against the Fantastic 4?? Against the Thing, and the Human Torch? A super hero group so vanilla and happy that most main stream comic fans would laugh about even reading them b/c they are so happy go lucky. Is this really how we want to treat our stores? When they finally give away DECENT toys that we have to chastise them for doing it?

You NEVER EVER speak out against super hero figures (especially main stream ones) who every single one of them stands for Truth Justice and the AMERICAN WAY! I have always been more of a DC comics guy but even these Marvel icons are one of the fore-fathers of the modern comic book. They stand for the good and fight the evil. What’s next CCFC, you guys gonna start burning books? (Yep, I went there). They have “issues” they list on their site everything from bitching about Lego’s to complaining about Baby einstein products. I know how about next we string up Kermit by his legs and say he’s wasting away our children’s time? I will put my daughter up against any one of these cow’s kids. She loved watching the baby einstein videos and watched a TON of Sesame Street, and I can 100% Guarantee you she speaks and reads better then 90% of the 1st graders out there.

This, as usual is just another bunch of bored parents who have nothing better to do then to try and get their 15 mins and themselves in the news by complaining about super heros. Where were you guys 2 months ago when BK was marketing Vampires to our 6- year olds (Twilight happy meals?), now THAT I would have seen as a legit complaint, but not super hero toys.

So I, like so many other people out there get opinionated from time to time. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you follow some rules. Know your shit, be able to try new things, and finally and most importantly be able to admit you were wrong. I will tell you a few of these things that I was either wrong or spoken against in some way (and in some ways I was right), and I have in some way changed my tune on some of these.

   Ok first up HD and Blue Ray. I will fully admit I have been against these 2 for years. Not the fact  that they are good but initially the way they were shoved down our throats. If you remember originally every damn retailer couldn’t stop with the sales pitch of “Everyone will have them and every station MUST broadcast in it in the next couple of years”. Trying to get everyone to be scared and buy one. That’s the kinda crap that annoys the everloving shit out of me. It was complete BS, there was a bunch of years we could take our time converting to HD and let the price come down, and MOST importantly we were able to (if you were smart), wait until the HD-DVD vs Blue ray wars were solved. I eventually got a HD ready TV and a HD cable box years after I was urged to by the sales people of the world. Years after I had my projection TV (and 18 months ago to be precise) I finally decided I wanted a new TV. I was going in for an LCD TV and I walked out with a great deal on an LCD a Stand for it, and most importantly my 1st blue ray player. See it might seem cliche’ but when I saw the Dark Knight on the same TV I was getting being played on blue ray well… I was sold. Sure it was pure genius in marketing, but it looked THAT GOOD. Yep I was then a blue ray convert. It is a good ending b/c even though they sold me by a store trick Blue Ray is every bit the best thing since sliced bread. I love when a movie is truly made for the format, because you can just tell. It almost looks better then real life. Two warnings or rather complaints about the format. First old movies. They may release older movies on blue ray, but you might as well get the regular version and let the blue ray do it’s thing in up converting it b/c it’s just not any better on blue ray at all. I am guessing prob. something to do with the way they filmed older movies and the film they used etc. The second thing is price. It’s just ridiculous the price of these discs. Make the blue rays the same price as DVDs and  I will start muying more of them. This is slowly starting to happen but still not quick enough.

   The next piece of technology that I didn’t buy into until I tried it is the new 3-D TV. I tried this in Best Buy the other day and watching the MLB All Star game and yep, it’s just as good as they say it is. It’s fricking AMAZING. Now don’t go jumping out and buy one b/c it’s about 3-4 years to being anywhere near usable at home. There is nothing good enough out yet on it, not enough channels who broadcast in it, and most importantly even the glasses them selves are somewhere in the range or 150$ EACH! So it’s good for a gimmick and I think it looks good and all, but I am not sure I can watch tv ALL the time with glasses on. So I don’t think this will overwhelm the country any time soon. I tried, and I didn’t think I would like it at all, I was wrong about it being good, but I was NOT wrong about it being many years before this will be even close to main stream.

   Lastly I will talk a bit about something so basic that everyone is pretty much using it… Netflix. I never thought I would like the idea for netflix mostly b/c I just don’t think I would get much use out of it. The Red-Box is my real deal and I can go to it for 1$ and not pay anything a month. Now the extremely Hot and talented Mrs. Geekjock has convinced me to try out Netflix, mostly b/c of streaming directly to the TV. A big factor in me giving it a “try” is both the batting of the wife’s pretty eyes and the word of a co-worker who streams movies while we are at work on her netbook. She says they have no buffering problems, and no loss of connection, and I know how shitty our connection options are at work. So if she says it’s that good, I guess I can give it the old fighting try. So this week off from work it has basically been my plan to try out the streaming. Well the new TV I have is one model before they can use streaming and what do you know so is my GD 18 month old blue ray. GRRR. So it’s up to good old X-Box to do the instant access and streaming of movies. Basically I re-up’d my X-Box Live Gold membership and today we tried it out. Hey it worked pretty good. I was impressed my dad who is in town for the week thought it looked good. Even tho I noticed the movie which I had seen before, had some distortion in a way but still not real noticeable to the normal viewer.  The drawbacks right now with this live streaming are: First there isn’t the biggest selection of movies able to be streamed on the service, and I am hoping they will add to this as time goes on as well; Second the X-Box needs to be on. I don’t think it was as loud while the movie was going. Maybe either I had the TV louder or maybe it shuts some big elements off when you are doing this vs using the disc drive for games. However, anyone who has an X-Box knows every minute you have it on you are that much closer to the dreaded Red Ring of Death (RROD); And finally it’s still the price per month. I don’t know if I will use it enough to warrant it but there is are worse ways to use 9$ a month I guess.

   So there you have it. Things you think are shitty at one time or another may not always be shitty. Keep your ears open and an open mind. Some people you trust might have used these things and they will eventually become afordable. So try something new yuo might like it!

The GeekJock