Review: State of Play

Going into State of Play, I was not exactly sure what I would think of it. I knew it had a great cast and one of those trailers that makes a movie look very intense, but I did not know much more than that. Basically, Russell Crowe is the old timer journalist for the Washington Post who is college pals with a Congressman (Ben Affleck). Affleck is looking to take down PointCorp, a mercenary program profiting off war when his lead researcher ends up dead and it is leaked that he had an affair with her. Now, a young blogger at the paper (Rachel McAdams) goes to Crowe to try to get answers. Crowe is reluctant on first, but the two start to unravel a story that begins to interweave with and impact personal lives. Crowe and McAdams try to break the story without breaking the law (too much) and keeping their lives.

This is one of those movies where you start watching, and then suddenly you realize youre basically sitting in the next row you're so far on the edge of your seat. The story is so well mapped out and its the perfect amount of mystery where you as a viewer can put the pieces together, but you still get a few big curveballs thrown at you. It also has one of those early twists where Crowe and McAdams are working on two stories that suddenly become the same story (or a Johnny Gossamer novel for those Kiss Kiss Bang Bang fans). The story comes together really nicely, and they are not afraid to throw in one last twist.

Not only did this movie have great performances by the main cast (Affleck, Crowe, McAdams and Helen Mirren), but it also had some very strong supporting roles. Jeff Daniels played a great congressman with his own secrets. Jason Bateman played a dopey PR guy who becomes a big piece of the puzzel. It also features Michael Weston (Kenny the cop from Garden State) as another journalist). Overall, the cast puts on a great performance. There is a line in the movie that says "those are the kind of cases you only find in movies." Once they said that I realized how real this whole movie felt, which was pretty sweet.

See if you like:
The Departed

Rating:
8/10

Fan Facebook Pages

So I mean Facebook is pretty cool most of the time. Like it has its ups and like ways of communicating with people and stuff, but it has its stuff that's kind of weird too. I think I've generally been a fan of this new Facebook that most other people hate (any time Facebook ever changes anything it always becomes of topic of hatred conversation for everyone, and I always find it amusing), but there is one aspect that I just don't understand: fan pages.

It's not so much as I don't understand them, I do get the concept, it just amazes me some of the things you can be a fan of. I mean I would love to make a joke list of things you can be a fan of on Facebook, but I feel as if I would actually pick real fan pages. Well let's see. I will pick 10 things right now Facebook should have a fan page for and then see if they have it:

Sex - Yes, over 500 results, even though a good amount of them were Sex and the City. There was a group that was just SEX!!! (It was under Sports/Athletics)

Murder - Yes, the REDRUM picture from The Shining was the group picture. There are currently 71 fans of murder. I did not see the Craigslist killer on there though

Porn - The first result was Overcoming Porn Addiction. It had 1,453 fans. Hardcore Porn only had 244 fans. I wonder how many people are fans of both those.

Gravity - There are 569 fans of Gravity. I feel like this is a small number considering its a pretty important part of life.

Oxygen - there are 18,443 fans of Oxygen. This number is still kind of small. I mean there are people out there right now who when asked if they like oxygen respond, "eh, I can take it or leave it. I'm not really a fan."

Tailbones - This was byfar the most hilarious thing. I only found the Tailbone and Sciatica Pain Help Seating System. Even better there was only 2 fans. I think we should push to put this past Oxygen.

"The Wave" - There was actually not anything specifically for "The Wave," which is interesting since every fan page could do the wave as fans for their particular thing. There were 999 fans of French New Wave though.

Earthworms - Nothing, closest match: Aesop Rocks: Music for Earthworms (2,047 fans)

Cotton - While 8,503 fans for Cotton may be impressive, it is not nearly as impressive as the 52,735 for Cotton Candy

5 Dollar Footlongs - while there are 510,827 fans of Subway. There are 0 fans of the 5 dollar footlong. That is just depressing.

There was pretty much no rhyme or reason to those, just whatever obscure thing came to my mind that Facebook may or may not have a page for. It's incredibly ridiculous that most of those actually had fans. I mean I was suggested to be a fan of sleeping the other day by Facebook. I was wondering if Facebook was suggesting I wouldn't be a fan of sleep or if they somehow knew about my insomniatic tendencies and were mocking me.

I also think that with this become a fan deal there should be become a hater or something along those lines deal. Cause if you think about it, there are things you hate and you should be able to express that via Facebook. Like my little thing said that 6 of my friends were a fan of New Jersey. I hate New Jersey. It's where I live when I'm not in Boston so I put up with it, but New Jersey is like that relative that you really don't like but have to suck it up to see every once in a while. I would love to be a hater of New Jersey on Facebook. Similarly, I think you should be able to dislike things. Like when that girl you have been eyeing in French class becomes in a relationship, you should have the right to dislike it. Or I guess you can just become a fan of Ice Cream and drown your sorrows. Whatever works.

Review: Adventureland

Greg Mottola's first film after 'Superbad' does not disappoint. If you were to make this movie into an equation from 'Superbad,' it would look something like this: The Same Amount Bill Hader + Heart - Laughs + Vampire Lovers + Substituting a new awkward lead = Adventureland. Mottola really steps it up with this movie, and there was really so many enjoyable parts to this movie. Yes, it may not have as many laughs as Superbad, but it is close; Where it completely beats Superbad is story.

'Adventureland' has such a solid story that is funny, heart-warming, and mostly realistic. It's got the twists and turns, problems, and dialogue that a good script needs. Jesse Eisenberg shines as the awkward, post-college grad kid who needs a summer job to pay for graduate school. He really is like a less known Michael Cera with curlier hair. Kristen Stewart also shows she has really grown as an actress and puts a lot of emotion into her character. Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig provide great comedic releif during the dramatic parts of the story, and hold the movie together.

The movie is also great at creating a product of its time, the 80s. The songs, clothing, and attitudes are all extremely accurate to its time period (not that I would know, but I feel like this would be the 80s). 'Adventureland' makes me wish I had a one of these summers in my town where you had a great time with the people you worked with an romance thrived. While the story seems like a high school tale, it does take place four years later, which means I still have hope.

This film also features the great Martin Starr from the extraordinary "Freaks and Geeks," which alone is worth watching it for. Him and Eisenberg turn into best friends and they are both incredibly geeky, and they play those roles well. The story of course has the question of friendship after betrayal, as well as the theme of will the geeky guy get the girl? While I don't want to answer those questions, I will say that Mottola finds a way to make the answers extremely realistic and that's what really hits home.

Rating: 8/10

Top 250 Movies

I decided on a new goal the other day: that I would see all of IMDBs top 250 movies. This is going to take a long time, but I figured I should do it at one point in my life. Anyways, I also wanted to post a bit more, so I will most likely post after I watch each movie just to give a quick review of what I thought. Some will be quick, some will be lengthy, lots may just be haikus like this one for The Usual Suspects, number 81 finished for me and #22 on IMDBs list:

Spacey pulls a con,
They're convinced he's not the guy
Shoot, turns out he is.

Clem Snide CD Out Tomorrow

For the past three years singer/songwriter Eef Barzelay has been on his own. He released two albums in addition to creating the soundtrack for the indie movie Rocket Science. And last year, he came to Northeastern, opening for Ben Folds. You may remember him; he was that awkward guy singing about pretending to be drunk in order to get with a girl he liked. But before Barzelay was a solo act, he was a member of the band Clem Snide. Clem Snide released their first album in the late 90s and had plans to release their sixth full-length album in 2006. However, before it was released, the band broke up, and Barzelay was left alone with an unreleased album.
While the reuniting of bands seems like all the rage these days, Clem Snide wants more than just money or fame. They are not a huge, mega-band that is reuniting in order to have a reunion tour and generate a lot of money. They are not looking for a grand resurgence. Their reunion is about setting aside whatever differences existed in the past to release new material. Their album, which should have released three years ago, is titled Hungry Bird.
In addition to their release on February 24th, Clem Snide is also going on tour to let people know that they are back in the music world. It may not be as big as the Blink 182 reunion tour, but for them and for their fans it will be a great experience.

See Clem Snide in Boston on March 19th at The Middle East and buy their album Hungry Bird, which releases on Tuesday, February 24th.

Valentine Cards

Here are some Valentine Cards that did not quite make it to Hallmark. They may or may not be offensive:

The Ultimate V-Day Song

Now I have a lot of music I would consider nice and romantic: the perfect music for a lovely date on Valentine's Day. However, if I were to go through all my music and find one song which would epitomize Valentine's Day and romance in all its beauty (which is really freaking hard), I would have to go with You Belong To Me by The 88. The reason is as simple as the song: It's about love and being with someone. There is not a lot more to it than that, and that's what makes it so lovely sounding. Also, it is used in the show "How I Met Your Mother," which gives it some big bonus points. Anyways, give it a listen, maybe send it to your lover, and if you hear it on the streets this weekend its probably cause i'll be walking my single self around playing it until I impress a girl enough to be my Valentine. It works 2 out of 3 times. Listen

Odds on Things You Will Hear During Brett Favre's Press Conference

What's Heard

"This really will be the last time." 4:1
"The only reason I do this every year is because I like the attention" 6:1
"Coming back and playing for the Jets was a bad idea" 3:1
Thanking God for what he has done for him 2:1
Brett Favre crying EVEN
"The only reason I'm retiring is in hopes the Packers will take me back" 5:1
"Life is not all about Football. Actually, yes it is" 10:1
"You guys are all suckers. I'm not retiring" 3:2
"If I could do this all again, I probably would have found a better team" 20:1

25 Things That May or May Not Interest You

It seems that everyone is doing this next big thing on Facebook that happens in the Note section. It's that great game called 25 things about me. I would explain how it works but I mean it is in the title and if you don't get it you can read the instructions that everyone has on Facebook. The best thing about these lists is that 90% of the people making them have a disclaimer or their first fact that goes something like this: I hate these things and normally never do this, but i have nothing better to do/i'm bored/i'd rather do this than homework/any other excuse to keep people from thinking I actually enjoy these things. If you need something fun to do and waste some time, there are plenty of other things to do. I promise you. Talk to me I'll give you some great ideas. But like I will admit I do kind of like these things from time to time, but I'm not that intriguing of a person. Instead I though I would give you 25 random facts that may come in handy some day, instead of 25 pieces of useless information about my life:

1. Cable television was first introduced in Pennslyvania in 1948

2. India produces more movies a year than the US

3. Angora wool comes from rabbits

4. Mikhail Gorbachev was the last president of the Soviet Union

5. Wind Speed is measure in knots

6. The leading ballerina of a dance company is called the prima ballerina

7. Halley's Comet returns to earth every 76 years

8. There are about one billion illeterate adults in the world

9. Bananas are comprised of 75% water

10. The Lincoln Tunnel is the only three tube underwater vehicular tunnel in the world

11. West Virginia was the first state to have sales tax

12. The cable cars of San Fransisco are the only moving nation landmarks

13. The first People's Magazine Sexiest Man Alive was Mel Gibson in 1985

14. The most common birthday in the US is October 5th

15. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator

16. Richmond, Virginia was the captiol of the Confederacy

17. Charlemange was the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire

18. There are more tennis courts per capita in Vermont than anywhere else in the U.S.

19. Northwestern is the only school in the Big 10 that's not a state school

20. It is illegal to kiss for more than 5 minutes in Iowa

21. The average American works 9 more weeks a year than the average European

22. The big toe is called the hallux

23. The 1939 novel Gadsby by Ernest Vincent Wright does not contain the letter "e"

24. Sting was born Gordon Matthew Sumner

25. People who collect teddy bears are called archtophilists

Get Paid To Watch Porn

So you know all those Comcast subscribers in Tuscon, AZ that were subjected to about 30 seconds of porn during the Super Bowl Sunday? Comcast decided that the best way to get people past all that scarring was to give them a $10 certificate towards Comcast's service. Not only is it only $10, but you only get it if you call Comcast's number. Best way for Comcast to get out of taking responsibility for its mistakes or the best way to make money watching porn?