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At Barden University there are several singing groups.  Most notable are The Bellas (an all-female acapella group) and the The Treblemakers (an all-male acapella group).  In the opening sequence, The Bellas and the The Treblemakers are rivals who made it to Nationals and are performing their musical numbers.  Too bad an unfortunate vomit-related incident causes The Bellas to lose the competition and become the laughing-stock of their school.

Fast forward to the beginning of the next school year.  The Bellas are looking to recruit new talent and overcome their disastrous performance at Nationals.  However, they are having a hard time finding females who fit their perfect mold.  They end up recruiting Beca (Anna Kendrick), a freshman who spends a lot of time on her laptop creating mash-ups of songs, Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), who has a knack for saying inappropriate yet hilarious stuff, Lilly (Hana Mae Lee), who looks like a Japanese anime character come to life and speaks in a very soft whisper but says the most outrageous things (when she actually speaks), and several others.  The leaders of The Bellas are Aubrey (Anna Camp) and Chloe (Brittany Snow).  Aubrey is very stuck in her ways.  She is determined to perform the exact same routine and will not deviate from this at all.  Of course, this leads to conflict among the group.

Also new to Barden University is Jesse (Skylar Astin, who looks like a mash-up of Ben Savage, Dane Cook, and Zachary Levi) who works at the university radio station with Beca (and is the love interest of the film) and his roommate Benji (Ben Platt) who is a super duper ultra mega “Star Wars” fan.

Fans of “Glee” will definitely enjoy “Pitch Perfect”.  It’s like they took a whole season of “Glee” and crammed it into a two-hour movie.  Nothing felt rushed though, everything played out naturally.  I did notice that none of the characters spent time in class or studying.  I guess the makers of the film felt that would drag the movie out longer.  It really didn’t matter to the plot anyways.

I really enjoyed Elizabeth Banks (Effie Trinket ya’ll!!) and John Michael Higgins as the singing competition judges.  Their inappropriate banter was hilarious.

I spent a lot of the movie wondering why The Bellas and The Treblemakers didn’t team up to make one unstoppable group.  They did that on “Glee!”

With great music, snappy dialogue, and fierce musical numbers, “Pitch Perfect” is Glee’s older, more risqué sister.

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Katie Steele (Ari Graynor, who looks like a young Bette Midler) lives in a fabulous, rent-controlled apartment in Gramercy Park (it used to be her Grandma, or “Bubbie’s”, apartment).  Unfortunately, the control part of rent-control is over and she is about to be homeless.  Lauren Powell (Lauren Miller, aka Mrs. Seth Rogen) is suddenly single after her long-time boyfriend Charlie (James Wolk) dumps her unceremoniously and goes to Italy to work for the summer.  Lauren is about to be homeless too.

Enter Jesse (Justin Long), a mutual friend to both girls.  He offers the girls a wonderful solution – Lauren can move in with Katie and pay half the rent, then Katie can keep her apartment and neither girl will end up homeless.  There is only one problem – the girls hate each other.  See, there was an incident ten years earlier, during their college days, and since then they have been enemies.  However, since they really have no other choice, they decide on a trial – Lauren can live with Katie for the summer and they’ll see how it goes.

At first, the girls do not get along.  Then something happens that changes everything.  One of Katie’s jobs is working for a phone-sex line.  Since she works for another company, she doesn’t make much money.  When Lauren finds out about Katie’s job, she encourages her to start her own phone-sex company, called 1-800-MMM-HMMM.  Katie works the phones and Lauren handles the billing.  When Lauren’s attempts to get a new job at a publishing company (she was let go a few weeks ago) fail, she decides to stop being boring and try her hand at working the phones with Katie.  Armed with their pink phones, the girls bond while talking dirty with their customers.  Lauren even helps Katie with an issue with her new boyfriend (he was a former client).

Overall, it was much better than I expected.  Although it was predictable, it was still a fun ride.   This is definitely a great chick flick.  I liked Justin Long’s performance as their gay best friend.  Watch for humorous cameos from some of the callers, including a pilot who requests a three-way call and uses a lot of pilot terminology during his session.  Also, due to the overtly sexual nature of the film I would highly recommend leaving the kids at home.  Unless you want to answer a lot of questions about giant dildos, orgasms, and general sex stuff.

[My experience:  at the screening I attended, a family was sitting behind me (in the press section, even though they were NOT press) and they had a young child with them, I would say around 2 or 3 years old.  Well the child was being very disruptive.  When the man in charge asked the parents to take the child out of the theater, the father became belligerent and security had to come escort him out of the theater.  Luckily the mother took the child out of the theater (while it was screaming) and then it was nice and quiet behind me.  Later I found out the cops were called to deal with the jerk.  SO, be a parent and not a paraint and leave the kids at home, ok??  I and the other people in the theater thank you.]

(1 People gave this 3.00 out of 5)

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When I first heard that there was going to be a stripper movie about men, I thought “FINALLY”!!  From the awful yet somehow cult classic “Showgirls” to the rarely mentioned “Striptease” and including a bunch of Lifetime movies in between, we only see the strippers as female.  Well, now we have a movie for the ladies featuring a bunch of hot guys!!

Mike (Channing Tatum) works several jobs during the day and strips at night, but his real dream is to open a business crafting custom furniture (fire extinguisher coffee tables and other unusual designs).  Dallas (Matthew McConaughey) is his night-time boss, and the owner of the Xquisite Male Dance Revue which is located in Tampa, Florida.  (As this movie is loosely based on Tatum’s history of male dancing in Tampa, it looked like the movie was filmed there too).  Dallas wants to open another club in Miami, and he promises Mike a cut of the profits.  Some of the other players at the club include Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello), Ken (Matt Bomer), who actually had a performance as a Ken Doll (it was pretty sweet!!), Tito (Adam Rodriguez) and the DJ, Tobias (Gabriel Iglesias).

Mike meets nineteen-year-old Adam (Alex Pettyfer) at one of his day jobs, as a construction worker.  They run into each other later that evening and Mike sees something special in Adam, so he takes him under his wing as the newest dancer at the Xquisite Male Dance Revue (the tune for his first dance??  “Like a Virgin”).  He later meets Adam’s sister Brooke (Cody Horn) who soon becomes his love interest in the movie.

Unfortunately, there is a dark sub-plot involving Tobias’s side business of selling drugs, which he involves Adam in, which I didn’t care for.  I thought it didn’t add much to the movie.  Can’t we just have a frivolous movie with some male strippers and not much else, is that too much to ask??

I would have liked to see more of the performances, and more interaction between the male dancers (behind the scenes stuff, things of that nature).  And no offense to her, but the actress who played Brooke was terrible.  Her acting was wooden and she just dragged the movie down.  I would have rather seen Blake Lively or Julia Stiles in the role.  Also, I really like Olivia Munn, but I didn’t really care for her character Joanna in this film.  She confused me.  I wasn’t sure if she was being truthful with Mike most of the time.  (She was his friend with benefits and provided one of the two  pairs of boobies that were exposed in the film).

This is the closest I’ve been to a strip club in quite a while, and it was a fun ride overall!!   Although, I must say that I’ve never seen a dancer in real life that had the moves that Channing Tatum has!!  Holy cow.

(2 People gave this 1.00 out of 5)

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Welcome to the return of classic Sandler movies!!

I got to meet Vanilla Ice and have an impromptu conversation, check it out here.

I’ve seen a lot of Adam Sandler movies.  Not all of them, but a lot of them.  In the beginning, they were funny, crazy, and crude, but there was always a good message at the end of the day.  More recently, they have been less crazy and crude, more family-friendly, or even the so-called worst movie of all time (it wasn’t THAT bad, people!!).   “That’s My Boy” would fall into the “Billy Madison” or “Happy Gilmore” type of movie.

Todd (Andy Samberg) is the product of an illicit student-teacher relationship.  You see, his mother was his father’s middle school teacher.  Todd’s mother, Mrs. McGarricle (Eva Amurri Martino, in a clever bit of casting, which becomes apparent when you see Mrs. McGarricle 30 years later) got pregnant from her teenage boyfriend Donny (Adam Sandler).  She was subsequently sentenced to 30 years in prison, and Donny was made to raise their son, who they named Han Solo (which he changed when he was older).

Fast forward about 30 years.  Todd (formerly known as Han Solo) is about to marry Jamie (Leighton Meester).  They go to stay at Todd’s boss Steve Spirou’s (Tony Orlando) house in Cape Cod, along with Jamie’s parents Gerald and Helen (Blake Clark, a veteran of a few Sandler movies and Meagen Fay).  Also joining them are Jamie’s brother Chad (Milo Ventimiglia), who plays a dedicated Marine, and Steve’s Grandma Delores (Peggy Stewart), a former swimsuit model.

Donny is in dire need of money for not paying his taxes, or else he will be thrown in jail.  Desperate, Donny  tracks Todd down but Todd can’t introduce him as his father, because the story that he told everyone is that his parents are both deceased.  So Donny is presented as Todd’s best friend.  Surprisingly, everybody loves the crude, crass, over-the-top Donny, except Todd and Jamie.   Over the course of the weekend, Donny and Todd actually begin to form a bond, until something happens that ruins everything.

I’m glad to say that Leighton Meester didn’t scare me in this movie like she did in “The Roommate”.  I literally could not watch “Gossip Girl” for a month because of her performance!!  Her character Jamie did take a disturbing turn, however.  I was NOT expecting that to happen but it did and it was crazy.

I was pleased with Andy Samberg’s performance.  He had the perfect balance of exasperation at his father but still wanting his father to BE a dad to him.

Other standouts in this film include Will Forte and Rachel Dratch as Todd’s coworker Phil and his wife and Luenell as Champale, a dancer at Donny’s favorite hangout,  Classy Rick’s Bacon and Legs Strip Club.  This lady is NOT afraid to show off her goodies!!  Speaking of goodies, Ciara also has a role in this film, as a waitress at Classy Ricks.  And let’s not forget James Caan as Father McNally, the priest who officiates the wedding.

OH and I must comment on my interviewee Vanilla Ice’s performance.  This was no cameo role for him (although there is a cameo from an actor from an 80s TV show that is quite hilarious)!!  I’m not sure if it was because he was actually in the audience in person but everyone was laughing a lot at his scenes.  So much that sometimes I missed what was being said!!  What I did hear was funny though.  This is not a case of a musician trying his hand at acting, he really did a good job.  And yes, as he stated in my interview, his classic song “Ice Ice Baby” is played during the movie.

Some of the more outrageous moments in this film include but are not limited to:  surprising and hilarious back tattoos, the bachelor party (both of them!!), Donny’s choice of masturbatory material,  the numerous uses of the phrase “WHASSSSUP” (that will probably make a comeback now) and Jamie’s family secret.

Believe it or not, “That’s My Boy” is a good Father’s Day movie for grown-ups.  Please be warned that there is a LOT of semi-nudity, inappropriateness, curse words, and just general craziness.  There is also a ton of laughs and fun, along with a good message at the end of the day.

(2 People gave this 2.50 out of 5)

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The Men in Black are back!

It’s been ten years since the last installment of the “MIB” series was released.  Not much has changed; there are still aliens on Earth.  Some are nice, some are not.  One particular alien, Boris (Jemaine Clement), is so nasty, there was a special prison built on the Moon to hold him!!  Boris (or Boris the Animal, as some call him) is a real piece of work.  He has this little alien that lives in his hand that shoots deadly spikes at his victims, he has no eyeballs, only black tubes in his eye sockets, and a weird, creepy laugh.  Oh, and he has a vendetta against Agent K, because Agent K is the reason Boris only has one arm.

After Boris’s girlfriend (Nicole Scherzinger) helps him break out of the Moon prison, he takes a ship back to Earth and finds Jeffrey Price (Michael Chernus), who somehow has in his possession a time travel device.  The next day, Agent J (Will Smith) wakes up and suddenly craves chocolate milk.  Then at work, he is told that Agent K has been dead for almost 40 years.  Say what??  They just busted up a few aliens together the night before!!  Well, Agent J craves chocolate milk because there was a rip in the space-time continuum, and he is the only one who remembers Agent K.

Turns out, Boris took Jeffrey’s time-travel device and went back to 1969, when Agent K causes him to lose an arm, and subsequently captured him.  Agent J pays Jeffrey a visit to use his other time-travel device to go back in time and save Agent K.  In order for the time-travel to occur, Agent J needs to jump off a really tall building.  Hmmm, a really tall building in NYC, any guesses which one he uses??  The time-travel sequence is very cool to watch, and then Agent J is in 1969, where he meets 60’s-era Agent K (Josh Brolin, who did a fantastic job portraying a younger version of Tommy Lee Jones’s Agent K.  It was uncanny how much like him he was!!)

During their adventures, they encounter an alien named Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg), who lives on several planes and dimensions at once.  Basically, when confronted with a situation, he can tell you all about the possibilities and the outcomes.  It’s pretty neat.  He also has something that they need, and he helps them on their journey.

Will Smith’s return to the big screen (his last movie, “Seven Pounds”, was almost four years ago) does not disappoint.   It always seems to me that he really likes playing this character.  Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K was his usual crotchety self, and it was really fun seeing how different Agent K was back in the 60s.  (Agent J kept asking 60’s-Agent K “What happened to you??”.  Just wait until you see!!)

Rumor has it that two big-name pop stars make cameos as aliens.  I think I noticed one but not any others.  So keep your eyes peeled and let me know what I may have missed!!  Also, there was no scene after the credits, so it’s not necessary to stay after the fun tune “Back in Time” by Pitbull ends.

Overall, a fun family flick.  Great performances all around, with comedy, sci-fi, and a bit of action.  And of course, I always love movies involving time-travel!!

(2 People gave this 3.00 out of 5)

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In “The Lucky One”, the latest film adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks book (which I have not read), Zac Efron plays a former Marine who, after three tours in Iraq, ends up in Louisiana to find the woman whose picture he thinks was his lucky charm which kept him safe during the war.

While in Iraq, Logan (Efron) picks up a photograph that is on the ground amidst some rubble.  The simple act of reaching for that picture saves his life, as a bomb goes off nearby which doesn’t kill him, because he wasn’t within the bomb’s radius.  Later, while still in Iraq, his vehicle is attacked and he is the only survivor.

Once he arrives home (Colorado I believe) he finds it hard to adjust to civilian life, and he is haunted by his memories of the war.  He becomes obsessed with finding the woman in the picture so he walks, yes walks, to Louisiana with his dog (he recognized where the photo was taken by a landmark in the background, a lighthouse which he compared to lighthouses on the internet to find the one he was looking for) and, after showing the picture and asking around, he finds Beth and her family’s business, a dog kennel.  Beth misunderstands Logan’s arrival and thinks he is applying for a job, which he accepts in order to get to know Beth better.

Beth and her son Ben (Riley Thomas Stewart) live with Beth’s grandmother Ellie (the always delightful Blythe Danner) in a big old house right next to the kennel.  Unfortunately, Beth’s ex-husband also Ben’s father Keith (Jay R. Ferguson) also lives in town.  They married right after high school, when Beth got pregnant (how often does that end up working out??) and they couldn’t make it work so they split up.  Keith is not very nice and he is always threatening to take Ben away from Beth.

While spending time with Beth, Logan finds it hard to keep his secret.  I kept wishing that he would have told her right at the beginning, because  keeping secrets is never a good idea!!  It turns out that the photograph belonged to someone close to Beth who did not make it out of Iraq alive (which is why her picture was in the rubble).

I pretty much always like Zac Efron in any role he plays, and I look forward to seeing more of him because he only gets better with age.  I haven’t seen Taylor Schilling in anything before so she was pretty much an unknown to me, but she was good in the role.  Riley Thomas Stewart and Blythe Danner also gave good performances.

Overall a decent film, women and teenage girls will likely enjoy it more than the men.  It had enough sappy romance to keep us entertained and some steamy love scenes as well!!

(2 People gave this 4.00 out of 5)

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Note:  I don’t remember watching the TV series “21 Jump Street”, so this review is based on the movie.

The year is 2007.  Schmidt (Jonah Hill) is a smart, yet unpopular, Eminem wannabe who has no luck with the ladies (his attempt to score a date for the prom fails miserably).  Jenko (Channing Tatum) is the opposite, a dumb popular jock.  Both have typical high school angst (bad grades, no prom dates, etc).

Fast forward to 2012.  Schmidt and Jenko are both in the police academy.  Schmidt knows his stuff but physically he has problems.  On the other hand, Jenko is physically fit but he doesn’t know the Miranda Rights.  While on bike patrol at a local park, the partners see a drug deal happening and they chase the drug dealers, but all does not go according to plan and the dealers get away.

After their miserable attempt at a drug bust in the park, the boys are sent to Aroma of Christ Church, headquarters of the Jump Street Division.  Their assignment:  go undercover at a local high school to discover the distributor and the creator of a new drug that the students are taking.  Their new boss, Captain Dickinson (Ice Cube) orders them to “Teenage the F ‘up”.  Their cover is that they are brothers and they move into Schmidt’s parent’s house and share Schmidt’s old bedroom.  Jenko is enrolled in easy classes, including drama, while Schmidt is enrolled in AP chemistry.  Their covers get switched; however, and Jenko ends up in the advanced chemistry class, while Schmidt is in drama class, where they are auditioning for “Peter Pan.”

While undercover, Schmidt becomes friendly with the popular kids in school, including Eric (James Franco) and Molly (Brie Larson), and Jenko ends up hanging out with the other students in his AP chemistry class.  So basically, it’s the opposite of how it was when our heroes were in high school, which makes for some crazy situations.

Other notable characters in “21 Jump Street” include Mr. Walters (Rob Riggle) the gym teacher, Mr. Gordon (Chris Parnell) the drama teacher, Ms. Griggs (Ellie Kemper) the chemistry teacher, and Deputy Chief Hardy (Nick Offerman).

This is NOT a movie for kids.  There was liberal use of the F word as well as many sexual innuendos.  There is also excessive drug use (surprise).  I wasn’t really expecting much from this reboot but I was pleasantly surprised at how hilarious it was.  I was laughing through pretty much most of the movie.  There were a lot of crazy hijinks going on, and Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum were surprisingly well-matched.

There’s something not quite right about seeing Katniss right by a Cinnabon!

Almost exactly a year ago was the first time I heard about the book series “The Hunger Games” from my dear friend in Jacksonville.  She was explaining the first book to me and all I could think was “that is so barbaric!!” . . . yet I was intrigued.  I saw the first book on sale at Target shortly after and I picked it up.  It sat on my shelf for awhile but finally the odd symbol on the cover could be ignored no more.  Once I started, I was hooked!!   I bought the other two books in the series and I’ve shared the series with several people I work with.  While the books are sometimes depressing, they are also fantastic reads.

I’ve been looking forward to seeing “The Hunger Games” since I heard that the movie was being made.  I had heard that fans of the book were unhappy with the casting, but I think Jennifer Lawrence is perfect to play Katniss.  I thought she was great as Mystique in “X-Men:  First Class”.  I haven’t seen “Winter’s Bone” but she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role from her role in the film.

So when I was asked to attend a press event for “The Hunger Games” I was pretty excited.  It was a mall tour, and it was also my first mall event.  I brought Jasmine Rose along with me and we headed to the Broward Mall in Plantation for the ensuing chaos.

We got there at four. Press check-in was at four-thirty, and the event was scheduled to start at six.  We checked in and got our press badges and headed to where the event was taking place, which was near the food court.  At first the mall was nice and quiet, but as we got closer to the food court it got a lot louder.  But that was nothing compared to the volume of the crowd when the stars of the movie came on the stage.  The crowd continued to grow and grow.  There were a lot of fans of the books there!!

Before the interview, there was a DJ playing music.  It was a lot like before a concert, where they play music and people cheer when they see themselves on the TV screens.  In between shots of the crowd, playing on the screens were clips from the upcoming movie.   Shortly before the interviews, the DJ played the new Taylor Swift song, “Safe and Sound” (which I didn’t like at first but I will admit that it’s grown on me).  Then he played the song again.  And then it was time for the stars to come out!!

The cast members that were in attendance were Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss), Alexander Ludwig (Cato), and Amandla Stenberg (Rue).    The host of the event (a local radio DJ, I don’t remember his name though) asked questions that had been submitted by fans.

The cast was onstage for about 40 minutes and answered a bunch of questions.  I left them out because there were spoilers, and the audio wasn’t really great – but check this short clip out to see what you missed.

But, overall, it was an exciting experience for my first mall event.  I am looking forward to the next one!!

AND THERE WAS A COW!
<——— See?

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When married couple Paige (Rachel McAdams) and Leo (Channing Tatum) are in a terrible car accident, Leo is fine except for a few bumps and bruises, but Paige ends up in a coma (she had taken her seat belt off and she went flying through the windshield.  That’s why it’s important to always keep your seat belt fastened!!).  When Paige wakes up from her coma, she has brain injuries that cause amnesia, but she’s forgotten only the past few years of her life.  To put it another way, she’s lost all her memories involving her husband, who is now a stranger to her.

Paige is the love of Leo’s life, and in flashbacks, we get to see the little things that Leo does for Paige that make her fall in love with him.  For example, when she was at work with a cold, he left her a box filled with medicine, tissues, etc, and every object in the box had a Post-It on it with something he had written on it, all to make her feel better.  Or when he wanted Paige to move in with him, he didn’t just ask her, he spelled it out for her, in blueberries!!  What a guy!!  While Paige is recovering, we are taken on a journey through Paige and Leo’s relationship, from when they first met to their rather unconventional wedding (it looked like it was in a museum and they definitely weren’t supposed to be there, since the security guards chased them out).

One day, during Paige’s recovery, Paige’s parents Rita and Bill Thornton (Jessica Lange and Sam Neill) show up.  Leo has never met them, and it turns out that Paige had a falling-out with her family several years ago and hasn’t spoken to them since.  But, her parents see Paige’s memory loss as a way to have their daughter back.  Perfect timing, too, as Paige’s sister Gwen (Jessica McNamee) is about to be married.  Paige ends up moving back in with her family so they can take care of her.  This is not good for Leo and his plan, which is to get Paige to fall in love with him again (since her memory shows no signs of returning).

Unfortunately for Leo, Paige does remember her ex-fiancé Jeremy (Scott Speedman) who’s kind of a jerk (he makes a comment at Gwen’s wedding and Leo punches him in the face for it).  Now, Leo is NOT a violent guy, not at all, but between the stress of his wife’s losing her memories, his trying over and over to win her affection again, and his failing business, who wouldn’t deck a guy who pretty much vowed that he would sleep with your wife??

Will Leo succeed in his mission??  Will Paige regain her memories??  I’m not telling here because that would be spoilers!!   Overall, “The Vow” was definitely a chick flick.  I don’t know of any guys who even want to see this movie, which is fine, because it is totally geared towards women.  I liked it because while it wasn’t totally depressing, it was a little sad but had the right amount of light-heartedness to balance it out.   I wasn’t disappointed with the acting or the story; I thought it flowed well and didn’t drag or have anything unnecessary going on.

Interestingly (to me at least,) “The Vow” was quite similar to the plot of the final episodes of a certain spy-related TV series that just ended last month.  It was similar in that the main female characters had their memories wiped, but only the past few years’ worth, and their husbands had to try to make them fall in love with them all over again.   There have also been comparisons to another Rachel McAdams movie, “The Notebook”, which is a great movie, but “The Vow” is not as sad as that one.

A bit of trivia:  “The Vow” is based on a true story.  At the end of the movie, we get an update on the couple the movie is based on, but I won’t let on if they are a couple . . . or not.  I guess you will just have to find out for yourself.