Movie Review: Date Night

A couple weekends ago, the Doc and I went to watch an afternoon showing of the Tina Fey/Steve Carell comedy Date Night and we had a blast.

I’ll admit that I was skeptical about the film before we went to watch it, especially when I was leaning towards watching Kick-Ass or Clash of the Titans… or even How To Train Your Dragon. I was pleasantly surprised.

These were one of the cases where the movie was not properly advertised. I went in thinking that all of the good jokes were already revealed in all of the commercials and trailers I’ve already seen on television, but they weren’t. I also thought the movie was going to be nothing more than a string of stale jokes and gags while being light on story, but I was wrong on that as well. I thought I was going to just sit in the theater and fake laugh when other people in the theater were laughing at jokes that would have, at best, made me smile at home, but I laughed hard enough that tears came out during some points. I don’t know why fake laugh when there’s other people laughing. Thankfully, I know my laughs were real because 12:45pm on a Saturday isn’t what I’d call the theater’s most crowded time. The Doc and I actually got really good seats. As a quick little side note: not only did we pay less for tickets because of the earlier time, the Doc and I got great seats, we were able to stretch out our legs and use the arm rests on our chairs, and when the movie was finished, we got to go on with the rest of the day with a smile. I recommend going to the day showings for movies whenever you can. Now on to the review!

Cast
The cast was brilliant. So much so, I’m surprised they were able to afford all those great comedians/actors and still be able to make a profit. As I’ve mentioned before, Tina Fey and Steve Carell star in this movie and they are hilarious. I thought one of them was going to go too far over the top, but they both kept were able to get a good level of goofiness (when they awkwardly do a striptease together) with heartfelt comedy (Steve Carell’s short monologue to Mark Wahlberg near the end). Mark Wahlberg’s character actually fit well in the movie. All of the commercials made it seem like his character was way too over-the-top when it comes to his almost sci-fi gadgets, but it was toned down in the movie. They could have gone just fine without the hi-tech computers and he still, believably, could have done the things he did, like trace a cell phone or call the police. Jimmi Simpson (I remember him as Mary in Psych) and Common (great musician and great actor) were pitch perfect baddies. Then there were the scene-stealers in James Franco (charcter is named “Taste”) and Mila Kunis (character is named “Whipit”). Stephanie Wiig and Mark Ruffalo had cameo-like appearances in the beginning that help get the ball rolling in the movie. And a side-note, one of my favorite comedians, Bill Burr, gets a lot of face-time (though few lines) in the movie as a police detective. Also Leighton Meester got a roll as the babysitter (I chose her a while ago to be Lana Lang if I casted Superman).

Story
The story was really good. I was surprised by this. I don’t know why I went into it with such low expectations, but I did and was surprised. The setup was basically that the main couple (Tina Fey and Steve Carell) find out separately that one of their couple friends were getting a divorce because their marriage had gotten stale or systematic. This sparks Steve Carell and Tina Fey to go into New York City (they live in Jersey) to have a date night. They usually had a date night at a local restaurant and get a usual order. As the commercials showed, they took someone else’s reservations and it turned out those people were up to no good. I’m going to avoid spoilers by saying the story was great. Yes, it got goofy in some parts, like when they run with a boat over their heads or when they seemed to have fused a Audi with a taxi, but the story was surprisingly believable and I actually found myself routing for the main characters. I haven’t routed for a character in a comedy in a long time. Yes, there were a lot of jokes and gags, but they worked well and the movie never felt like they were beating me over the head with jokes just to get a rise out of me.

Soundtrack
Yeah, I didn’t really listen for music when watching this film. This movie could have had nothing but white noise playing in the background and I’d still enjoy it.

Overall
This definitely gets a recommendation from me to watch in the theaters. But if you can’t swing that, then renting works just fine. Also, make sure to sit through the beginning credits and enjoy the gag reels where you see some alternate lines they tried out for some scenes. I think some of them would have made me laugh a lot harder, but were probably outside the lines for their characters.

Man Crush of April 2010: Chicago Bulls

Runners-Up: Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man 2), Mickey Rourke (Iron Man 2), Joss Whedon (The Avengers)
What? Another sports-related winner? That's right! When last year I only had a passing fancy for b-ball, I've been glued to the web this year when it came to the Chicago Bulls. But before I get to that, let's go through this month's runners-up.

No big surprise here. Robert Downey Jr has been a runner-up for the past couple of months because of Iron Man 2. So I, nor should any of you, would not be surprised if he finally wins the top honor when the movie is finally released this week. Mickey Rourke became a runner-up as well for Iron Man 2 because I finally did research on the Whiplash character he plays. That's right. My knowledge of Iron Man mythos is quite limited. I know about the Mandarin and Fin Fang Foom, but that's about it when it comes to his rogues gallery. Joss Whedon gets a nod as well because I heard he's going to direct the upcoming Avengers movie. Oh, quick sad story. The Doc won two free tickets from the radio (KS95) to see Iron Man 2 this Saturday. The sad part is that we are going to Wisconsin to visit her parents this weekend and the tickets she won are only good for a specific theater and time. We can't even give them/sell them because it's one of those things where she can only pick the tickets up at the theater and needs to show the proper identification. Ultra lame. But suggesting that we skip the parental visit did not seem to bode well with her. Oh well. Maybe tickets in no-where Wisconsin will be so cheap that it'll feel like they're free when compared to the ticket prices in Minneapolis.

But back to the crush-worthy winners. I wanted to keep these winners to be to an individual, but the team overall has impressed me and kept me glued to my seat until the end of the season. I guess I was more ho-hum last year because they had pretty much locked up their playoff tickets before the month even started due to lack of competition. This year, it was down to the very last game. It was a two team race for the last spot for the Easter Conference bracket: The Bulls and the Toronto Raptors. Both weren't haven't stellar seasons. The Raptors had the tiebreaker and were a couple games ahead of the Bulls at the beginning mainly because the Bulls suffered a ten-game losing streak where players were getting injured and the teams they were playing against were either the cream of the crop or just exploited the holes or match-up advantages. The sigh-of-relief here came when Chris Bosh and the Raptors just couldn't seem to win when they needed to. It went to a point where the Bulls were finally able to start winning games and were tied in the standings with the Raptors at the time they were supposed to play against each other. I was really anxious about this game because earlier in the season, the Raptors beat the Bulls during most of their meetings (thus why they earned the tie-breaker). But the Bulls handed the Raptors their own asses because Chris Bosh was out with a face injury and Hedo Turkoglu (the Raptors big free agent pick up last summer) was a major dud. AFter that game, the Bulls were ahead and either needed to win one of their games against teams with winning records (the Boston Celtics and the Charlotte Bobcats) and the Raptors lose at least one of their games against sub-.500 teams. So, long story short, the odds were against the Bulls. As expected, the Raptors won both of their games, meaning the Bulls had to win both of their games as well. The game against the Celtics wasn't going to be easy because even though they were already in the playoffs, they were playing for positioning which would matter a lot to them. But thankfully, the Bulls dominated them and even confused Rasheed Wallace (big ticket Celtics free agency pickup) to score some points for the Bulls. Then came the game with the Charlotte Bobcats. By then, the Bobcats were set in their position (couldn't go up or down), but their coach, Larry Brown, went into the game claiming he wasn't going to let up on the Bulls just because they had nothing to play for. He didn't want to disappoint the fans. Into the first quarter, after the Bulls were playing great and some of the Bobcats players went down with injuries, Brown quickly pulled out his starters and handed the game to the Bulls. Man that was exciting.

The Bulls played an inspiring group of games that just kept me excited. Derrick Rose, the athletic point guard that the Bulls somehow lucked into drafting two years ago, has become a major player and an All-Star. Joakim Noah, the flamboyant and unconventional big man, grew into the emotional and vocal leader of the group after years of being reprimanded for his unusual ways. Luol Deng, the subtle Englishman who was hampered by injuries for the past couple of years, became a steady contributor. Kirk Hinrich, the captain of the team, became a defensive stopper and "glue guy". And the surprise of the year, Taj Gibson, the 26th pick of the 2009 draft, became a great power forward. I remember on draft day, with the 26th pick, I was hoping the Bulls would take Wayne Ellington from North Carolina because he was a decent shooting guard and, after losing Ben Gordon to free agency, I thought he was the sensible choice. Then the Bulls chose Taj Gibson. I had never heard of Taj before that night. What confounded me more was that they had already picked a power forward with their 16th pick. Also, if they were going to choose a power forward, Dejuan Blair was still available and even though he didn't have any ACLs, it was beast on the boards. But Taj actually excelled beyond the 16th pick player (James Johnson) and has made people wonder if they Bulls should have picked someone else with the 16th pick since Taj has been dominant (he was elected to be in the All-Rookie First Team). To be honest, I would have chosen Ty Lawson with the 16th pick as a backup guard if I was planning on using the 26th on Taj Gibson. But hindsight is 20/20, as they say.

All season long, the number goal, as it seemed, for the Bulls was the Free Agency Class of 2010 (LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson, Amare Stoudemire, and more). The Bulls removed some decent players this year (John Salmons, Tyrus Thomas) to get expiring contracts to get enough cap space to offer a maximum deal to one of those players. But instead of forfeiting the season, the Bulls were still able to make the playoffs and give a selling point that they already have great pieces (Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah) that will help support the new coming player in the upcoming season. The New York Knicks have enough space for 2 maximum players, but were in a death spiral all year and can't say like the Bulls can that they have great supporting players already in place. Miami, Wade's team, has enough room for another max player to help Wade, but after having to suffer through the playoffs that felt like it was just him versus the entire Boston Celtics team, frustration may be enough to entice him to look at his hometown Chicago Bulls (his children also live in the Chicago area). When the Bulls made the playoffs, they were up against the monstruous Cleveland Cavaliers team with Lebron James. I knew the Bulls had no chance of winning the series, but they were able to showcase their growing skills against the Number One team in the NBA and even win a game against them.

Now that their season has ended, I've been digging through the web for mock drafts. They have the 18th pick on the 2010 draft and many think that depending on who they pick, may be a sign as to who they may be shooting for the most in free agency. If they pick a shooting guard, they'll be aiming for a power forward in free agency (Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, David Lee). If they pick a power forward, they'll be aiming for a shooting guard in free agency (Dwayne Wade, Joe Johnson, Monta Ellis, Ray Allen). Or they may do something completely unexpected like trade down into the draft to get an extra pick and fill in both positions or outright trade the pick for a future pick with a bad team in order to get a shot at the 2011 lottery. I'm excited about the options, if you can't tell. My dream would be for the Bulls to get Dwayne Wade because Taj Gibson has been serviceable as the starting power forward. If we can't get Wade, I'd actually be okay with getting 2 mid-level guys like David Lee and Ray Allen. Joe Johnson has been said to be major target, but he hasn't really shown me that he can take over like Dwayne Wade or even like Derrick Rose has. A lot of people on the Bulls blog site seem to be in love with Chris Bosh, but he's more of a stat guy to me and not much of a star guy, if you know what I mean. Some players can give a team an invisible 20 points/10 rebounds a game and then there are some players that can give you the magical 10-20 points your team needs to win a game.

But anyway, that entire month, I've been enamored with the Chicago Bulls and how can I not be? They kept me at the edge of my seat all month and accomplished what they had to do. Now I just have to wait and see what they do next... whatever I can do to make it so I stop thinking about those lost Iron Man 2 tickets...

Dropping the Deuce on… Dancing with the Stars

Why am I going to rant about this terrible, terrible show? Because it’s been eating time out of my life. Luckily, I’ve been able to soften the blows by doing crosswords or Sudoku or doing stuff on my computer while the Doc has it running on the DVR. Why is the Doc watching it? Because she’s a follower of almost everything Kate Gosselin. I’m not a fan, but that’s not what the rant is about. It’s about the system DWTS uses. That’s right! The system!

This show is an abomination because it has the visage of a competition, but in reality, it’s just a popularity contest. They have judges that hand give out “best out of ten” scores which are worth about as much as the points that Clive Anderson and Drew Carey used to dish out on Whose Line Is It Anyway? (very funny show, by the way). That’s right, the scores mean nothing! What does it matter if the worst scoring people will always return when there’s always a possibility that even the best scoring duo can still get eliminated due a celebrity’s larger initial fan base?

I’m not dropping on American Idol, which is also a popularity contest, but they at least don’t do things to mask that fact. The judges don’t hand out scores, only critiques. The judges on American Idol also have one “save” on the show where they can nullify the elimination if they believe the best person what voted off due to a dip in votes from the audience, like they did a week ago. Plus, one of biggest gripes, is that the more popular celebrities are already coming in with voters just because they are more famous than some of the other contestants. The American Idol contestants are all coming in on even, unknown status and are, hopefully, gaining votes because of their talent and merit with the occasional “vote for the worst just so they suck again next week” votes.

But back to DWTS. The show, itself, is fine. Celebrities dance with professional dancers. Tom Bergeron and Brooke Burke do a mediocre, yet serviceable job of hosting the show. The judges are characters in themselves with the supportive Paula Abdul-type, the scowling Simon Cowell-type, and a clown who knows his stuff. Like all reality shows, there’s those melodramas they play out before each dance is performed. Kate Gosselin is bitching. Pamela Anderson is being slutty. Chad Johnson (I refuse to call him Ochocinco) is trying to woo his dance partner. Blah, blah, blah. The dancing has highs and lows, like any other competition of these types. Kate and Buzz Aldrin were painful to watch. The singer from Pussycat Dolls and the ice skater are, not surprisingly, good. One thing I learned from this show was that Erin Andrews has some wicked long legs. Seriously, I can probably walk underneath them without having to crouch.

And now back to my pain point—the system. They are completely missing the marks here when it comes to the whole elimination portion of the show. Every week’s completion should be scored and I say that the highest scoring celebrity win’s immunity from elimination. That would at least make the scoring portion of the show feel less like a waste of time. Why give out points if they aren’t going to be used for anything? I can see the reason they don’t give out immunities is so that more people will feel inclined to text or call in their votes and thus give them more revenue, but if the number one goal is to milk the text/call money, then why not give yourself more advertising time as well, by saving 10-15 minutes for more advertising space by removing those useless “let’s see your scores” moments. Maybe they can do a reversal on the scoring I mentioned and do something like, the bottom three in scores are the only ones at risk of being eliminated? That would make the results show a lot shorter and maybe fill in a 30 minute episode. That’ll give ABC another 30 minute time slot on Tuesday that they can use to put on another sitcom or a smaller budget game show. I watched one of the results shows and was bored to tears for the entire hour. They have all of the dancers standing in front of the camera and slowly shave away the safe dancers until the last two worst vote getters are left standing. They were able to fluff this into an entire hour by throwing filler like musical guest singers, like Reba McIntyre, or have a guest dance troupe or even make a celebrity do the exact same dance they did the night before because it was “just that good”. Fluff, fluff, dumb fluff.

The Doc would probably like me to end with a complaint about the incredibly revealing outfits some of the female dancers are wearing during their routines. That’s right. Pamela Anderson is not the only one out there that seems like they had a couple turns on the stripper pole. One behind the scenes practice they showed had one of the professional dancers wearing elastic short-shorts and had a battery for her microphone clipped to the back. That battery looked like it was a gram away from being heavy enough to show us her trunk, if you know what I mean. During the performances, the outfits have more cloth, but only the sense that the difference is like between a bikini model and a bikini model wearing a cape. In the end, when they start moving around, it doesn’t make much difference. Sometimes, the only thing that seems to be keeping those dresses on their bodies is modesty or threats from TV censors since I’m pretty sure that anyone willing to be on that show lacks some degree of modesty.

Oh yeah, and one last thing, to whomever is sending those death threats to Erin Andrews, “Really?”

GO BULLS!!!!

Congrats to the Chicago Bulls for making the 2010 playoffs (8th Seed) after beating the Charlotte Bobcats and ending the season with a 41-41 record (same as last year).

Here's to hoping the series against the Cleveland Cavaliers is just as memorable as last years series against the Boston Celtics!

http://www.bulls.com/

http://www.blogabull.com/

Sci-Fi Hottie Spotlight: Lexa Doig

What’s this you say? This is where I shine a well-deserved light on some sci-fi hotties that seem to struggle to get into that superstar status that other actresses or characters seem to be given.

As my first SFHS honoree, Lexa Doig’s career has always seemed stunted to me. How can a major hottie like her not be as famous as the likes of Catherine Zeta Jones or Mila Kunis?

What’s her sci-fi track record?

She is a sci-fi hottie veteran! Lexa Doig actually played the Cowgirl (yes, that’s what her character was called) in the William Shatner 1980’s sci-fi made-for-television movies TekWar, which had a sequel and a short-lived television series where Lexa reprised her role as the Cowgirl. Her next noteworthy role was as Rowan, the main character that had to go against an upgraded Jason Voorhees in Jason X. I’m not proud to say it, but I saw that movie by choice. But the main role that initially made me stand up and pay attention to her was as the Andromeda Ascendant in Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, which also starred Kevin Sorbo. The cool part about her role on the show was that she basically had to portray 3 different types of Andromeda (the main computer, the holographic assistant, and the android made to look like Andromeda for off-ship missions). At first the all seemed pretty much the same, but later on, they began to look different from one another as well as act a little differently while maintaining the same hotness. The sad part about this was that Andromeda never reached the mega-fame of die-hard fandom like Gene Roddenberry’s other creation, Star Trek, and the show only lasted 6 years. You know it’s a bad sign when the only time to catch new episodes of the show was on WGN in the afternoon, but I loved the show and recommend it to anyone that wants a good sci-fi series. After Andromeda, Lexa Doig has had recurring characters on other sci-fi shows like Stargate SG-1, the 4400, and Eureka. She can currently be seen on the struggling ABC network remake of V, which I don’t see a bright future for it.

If you don’t see why I’m giving her the hottie spotlight or you think she’s just a great looking babe that just happens to be in a lot of sci-fi movies like how some other hotties are in a whole lot of horror movies just to kick start there careers, here’s a quote from her I was able to snag from IMDB.

"I'm a really big geek. I do dorky things, I snort when I laugh, I'm clumsy, I'm a sucker for RPG games on my computer, I watch cartoons ("Pinky and the Brain" (1995) and "South Park" (1997) are my faves . . . and I have a really bad potty mouth."

HOTTIE! What guy wouldn’t love to have a self-proclaimed geek that loves to play RPG games on the computer and watch cartoons that looks like her? 

Lexa Doig, we salute you!