January 2023

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January 22, 2023

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Friended To Death (2014)

Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Internet, Media, Movies, People, Reviews, Technology, Video | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Friended To Death (2014)

Claire: 3/5 stars, 7/10.
Carolyn: 3/5 stars, 7/10.
Native ratings: 5.1/10 IMDB. Not available on Netflix.

Claire’s thoughts: Another interesting movie about post-modern times — this time, Facebook. The Social Network was dry as hell, but very interesting. This is not dry, funny, but not as interesting.

Dude fakes his death to see who his “real” friends are. Reminds me of a guy I knew in college… He always wanted to be bad off enough to go to the hospital, so he could see who his “real” friends were by virtue of who would visit him in a hospital. Well shit… I guess I’m just a bad friend to everybody, then, because I fucking hate hospitals. Totally. But anyway… It also says a lot about social networking, how it’s a substitute for real interaction, and how a tool that should augment peoples’ social lives actually replaces their social lives.

But it’s also funny. The guy is just a prick. He’s a meter maid cop who tickets his own friends’ cars, tickets people a minute or two early, and is just generally full of himself, completely lame and uninteresting, and cringingly unaware of his own hubris. He flails about life, making poor choices… And we watch the trainwreck, and laugh.

Carolyn’s thoughts:  There wasn’t much to this movie.  It had funny moments, with a serious undertone near the end.  It was a good choice for our second movie of the night.

Sarah Smick wrote, directed and starred as Sylvie / Rhune Muhleif.
Also written by and starring Ian Michaels as Kev, the ballz deep douchebag.

Starring:
Ryan Hansen (G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Superhero Movie) as Michael Harris (the main character).
James Immekus as Emile Lewis (the other guy who was fired).
Zach McGowan (Terminator Salvation) as Joel (the “best” “friend”).
Angela Bullock (2 eps of Oz, 1 ep of The Sopranos) as Charlotte Lewis, the blom.
Richard Riehle (Santa Claus in A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, Smiley Face, Extracted, The Beach Party At The Threshold Of Hell, Office Space, Hatchet, Mysterious Skin, Palindromes, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, Dorm Daze 2, The Man From Earth, 4 eps of The Legend Of Korra, 1 ep of Drunk History) as Dan, the blom’s boyfriend.
Robert R. Shafer (Bob Vance in The Office, 1 ep of Malcolm In The Middle, 1 ep of Titus) as Chuck Henson, the boss.
Pancho Moler (Epic Movie) as Lance, the midget co-worker.

LINK URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2298186/combined

 

January 12, 2023

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: That’s My Boy (2012)

Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Media, Movies, People, Reviews, Video | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: That’s My Boy (2012)

Claire: 5/5 stars, 9/10.
Carolyn: 5/5 stars, 9/10.
Native ratings: 3.2/5 stars Netflix, 5.6/10 IMDB.

Carolyn’s thoughts:  The hilarity never stopped.  I guess I still like Adam Sandler movies.

Claire’s thoughts: Yea, I really don’t have much to say either. I was quite surprised after some recent Sandler duds.  Family awkwardness has got to be one of the most contrived forms of situational humor in existence, yet it’s taken to such a ridiculous, over-the-top level in this movie, that it wraps around and becomes high quality. Who’d have thought?

So yeah. I guess I still like Adam Sandler movies. Sigh.

Directed by Sean Anders (Sex Drive).
Written by David Caspe.

Adam Sandler as Donny.
Vanilla Ice as Himself.
Susan Sarandon as Mary McGarricle (Present Day).
Andy Samberg (Bad Neighbors, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs movies, Nick And Norah’s Infinite Playlist, I Love You Man, The To Do List, What’s Your Number?, Grown Ups 2, Saturday Night Live, 4 eps of Human Giant, 2 eps of Adventure Time, 2 eps of American Dad, 1 ep of Portlandia, 1 ep of The Sarah Silverman Program) as Todd.
Leighton Meester (Date Night, Remember The Daze, 4 eps of 24) as Jamie.
James Caan (Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, Honeymoon In Vegas, Small Apartments, Elf, Dick Tracy) as Father McNally.
Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli in Heroes, Grown Ups 2, and, get this–Wolverine in the English version of the Wolverine anime) as Chad, the marine brother.
Blake Clark (Grown Ups, Slinky Dog in the Toy Story movies, 50 First Dates, The Waterboy, 23 eps of Home Improvement, 3 eps of It’s Garry Shandling’s Show) as Gerald.
Meagen Fay (Woops! [failed post-apocalyptic 1980s sitcom], 11 eps of Malcolm In The Middle, 12 eps of Life with Louie, 2 eps of Six Feet Under, 1 ep of Nip/Tuck) as Helen.
Will Forte (Abe Lincoln in Clone High, Tim And Eric‘s Billion Dollar Movie, Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, Sit Down Shut Up, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs movies, Fanboys, The Brothers Solomon, Grown Ups 2, 22 episodes of The Cleveland Show, 8 episodes of Gravity Falls, 5 episodes of American Dad, Saturday Night Live, 1 ep of Drunk History) as Phil, the rival coworker.
Rachel Dratch (Just Go With It, Click, Saturday Night Live, 6 eps of Assy McGee, 2 eps of O’Grady, 1 ep of Superjail, 1 ep of Avator: The Last Airbender, 1 ep of Squidbillies, 1 ep of Aqua Teen, 1 ep of Delocated) as Phil’s Wife.
Nick Swardson (Grandma’s Boy, Grown Ups 2, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, The House Bunny, Blades Of Glory, Click, Back In The Day) as Kenny.
Eva Amurri Martino (1 ep of Childrens Hospital) as Mary McGarricle (Younger). She’s Susan Sarandon’s daughter, and she plays a younger version of Susan Sarandon in this movie.

LINK URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1232200/combined

 

January 3, 2023

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Bad Words (2013)

Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Media, Movies, People, Reviews, Video | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Bad Words (2013)

Bad Words (2013) –
Claire: 5/5 stars, 9/10.
Carolyn: 5/5 stars, 9/10.
Native ratings: 3.4/5 stars Netflix, 6.7/10 IMDB.

Jason Bateman–a bitter, middle-aged, cynic–finds a loophole in the National Spelling Bee rules, and shoehorns his way into a national competition for children. And he aims to win. With malicious, thoughtful, spiteful intent.  What an amazing premise.

Carolyn’s thoughts: This was hilarious, and awkward, and pretty fun for a movie.  Somewhat predictable, but it was worth the ride.  Hilarious!

Claire: Hilarious indeed. Jason Bateman can play a hilarious spiteful middle-aged man really well!  He’s not good-natured, like in Arrested Development! He has a very willful, malicious, spiteful intent. Also unlike in Arrested Develpment: He is actually very capable at being master of the situation, one-up’ing others, and attaining his goals.

And then you throw in a kid?! And it doesn’t totally suck?!?!  Wow. Even with my own cynical bitterness, the kid was good. Fuck. Don’t make me write that, movie!

Directed by Jason Bateman (3 eps of Valerie, 1 ep of Arrested Development, 1 ep of Family Matters).
Written by Andrew Dodge.

Starring Jason Bateman (Arrested Development, The Change-Up, Sit Down Shut Up, The Invention Of Lying, Identity Theft, Hancock, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Juno) as Guy Trilby.
Kathryn Hahn (Wanderlust, The Dictator, Step Brothers, Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy, Wake Up Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie, Step Brothers, Ab Fab, How to Lose A Guy In 10 Days, The Hungover Games, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, 1 ep of Bob’s Burgers, 1 ep of NTSF:SD:SUV::, 1 ep of Robot Chicken, 1 ep of Childrens Hospital, 1 ep of American Dad) as Jenny Widgeon.
Philip Baker Hall (Bruce Almighty, The Truman Show, Ghostbusters 2, Magnolia, The Amityville Horror, 2 eps of Seinfeld, 2 eps of Curb Your Enthusiasm, 2 eps of Baby Blues, 1 ep of The Life And Times Of Tim, 1 ep of Warren The Ape, 1 ep of Children’s Hospital, 1 ep of 3rd Rock From The Sun, 1 ep of Cheers, 1 ep of M*A*S*H) as Dr. Bowman.
Allison Janney (Juno, Pretty Ugly People, Strangers With Candy, 10 Things I Hate About You, The Object of My Affection, 1 ep of Robot Chicken, 1 ep of Family Guy, 1 ep of Weeds, 1 ep of Frasier) as Dr. Bernice Deagan.
Ben Falcone (Identity Thief, Pretty Ugly People, Smiley Face, Garfield 2, Joey) as Pete Fowler.
Judith Hoag (April O’Neil in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie (1990), Salt, Armageddon, 1 ep of Weeds, 1 ep of Dream On, 1 ep of Mad About You) as Petal Dubois. Thanks to the IMDB message board for pointing out this tidbit. I would have missed her name. She was one of the parents in the crowd.

LINK URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2170299/combined