Tag Archives: Emma Watson

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This is the End – Review

5/5 – Funniest movie of 2013

On the eve of This is the End’s release, I still  had no idea what the movie was about. The poster tells you nothing. I hadn’t seen any trailers. I wrongly assumed it was a Hangover-like bachelor party movie. All I knew about it was that quite a few people  whose opinion I like said it was hilarious. And really, that’s all the information I needed.

I really liked that the actors in this film are all playing themselves. It helps that they’re all real life friends who have worked together before, as they take a lot of comedy from their past experiences working together. Like when James Franco showed off his art to Seth Rogen.

I want similar paintings at my place.

The This is the End poster says “with Michael Cera and Emma Watson.” Oh man, if these two have had funnier roles before, please point me in the direction those movies. Michael Cera was especially hilarious, playing the douchiest version of himself imaginable. There are more celebrity cameos that I’d hate to spoil here…they’re just too damn funny.

George Michael is all growns up.

There are so many funny scenes in this movie. The rapture of James Franco might be my favorite. That, or how Michael Cera comes to his end.

As I was watching the movie, I found myself falling in the Friends/Sex and the City game of trying to match my friends up with the characters on screen. Who in your group would be the Danny in the post-apocalyptic world? After you figure that out, you might want to avoid that guy from here on out.

If you haven’t seen This is the End yet, I highly recommend it. It’s easily the funniest movie I’ve seen in the theater this year. It’s probably too late to see it in any theater unless you have a third or fourth run theater near you, but it will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on 10/1 from places such as Amazon.

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Review

4/5 – Highly recommended

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, as it turns out, is not the life story of Jakob Dylan.

Perk #1: Being on the cover of Rolling Stone

Watching The Perks of Being a Wallflower took me back to my own high school days. I wasn’t in with the popular crowd. I wasn’t very athletic and didn’t have the musical ability to cut it in marching band (but even if I did, their cult-like demeanor would have kept me away. That and the hazing). I definitely felt like Charlie. And like Charlie, it was meeting a small group of friends with whom I would end up spending most nights hanging out that opened up my world and made high school much more enjoyable and much more interesting. I only wish that like Charlie, I had befriended these people my first year of high school instead of my third.

Emma’s back!
Emma Watson is back and out of her wizard robes. Her character, Sam, is very different from Hermione, and not just because Sam doesn’t wield a magic wand or ride on the backs of hippogriffs. I think Emma really showed off her acting talent here, playing a heavy role with heart. I hope this means we see Emma Watson in more movies. The only knock I have on her performance is she cannot do an American accent at all. Wait, was she trying to sound like Mia Sara in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? If so, well played Ms. Watson, as Ms. Sara is an American.
I always thought Mia Sara was British or Aussie. 
Nope. Born in Brooklyn.

I really enjoyed The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I think it has the potential to be this generation’s The Breakfast Club. Ironically, the characters look like they could be extras in The Breakfast Club.

I wasn’t sure when The Perks of Being a Wallflower took place when I watched it. I assumed it was the early-to-mid 80s based on everyone’s clothing and hairstyles, but then again, maybe it’s taking place in the present and these are the most hardcore hipsters Pittsburgh has ever seen. I was surprised to find out that it takes place in 1990-91. That isn’t how I remember people dressing in 1990. Then again, I didn’t enter high school for a couple of years after that, so I guess I shouldn’t go by what I remember as middle school fashion from 1990 to be my guide.

All day. Every day.

At this point, it may be hard to find The Perks of Being a Wallflower in a theater near you, but once it’s released on DVD I highly recommend seeing it.

In case you needed a reason to watch The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
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At The Theater 2011 #8: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

For more of my thoughts on the new Harry Potter movie, including who I think are the top 5 actors of the franchise, download episode 2 of my new podcast, The Billy and Bryan Show, available for free on iTunes! While you’re there, download the first episode too!

Unlike when I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, aka Hermione Granger and Red Dress of Awesomeness, I somehow managed to keep my awesome British accent in check while walking around in Harry Potter glasses before seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which surprised my friends who were bracing for a night full of cockney from me.

Sadly, the red dress of awesomeness was no where to be found in Hermione Granger and the Red Dress of Awesomeness Part 2. But we did get this outfit, so who am I to complain?

The new Harry Potter movie was great; the crowd that was in the movie theater with us was not. A big group of us caught it at the Union Square Regal on the Friday night of opening weekend. I found the staff at the Regal to be nice and friendly, but I cannot recommend going there to see a major blockbuster like this on opening weekend. There were about 8 people ahead of us on line on the sidewalk when we were let in, but somehow there was a mass of people already in the theater when we walked in. It seems that Regal had people queuing up on the sidewalk outside, while also having people on line next to the doors of the theater inside, and other people just hanging around inside waiting to pounce once people started being let in. Line management is not their forte. The other major frustration of the night was that the group of people behind us would not shut up throughout the entire movie. It was like they opened up a Regal Court St embassy in the middle of our theater in Union Square! My friend Sarv almost went all Umbridge on the people behind us!

I’m happy to report that I found the movie to be great. I made the conscious decision to not reread the book before seeing the movie, because even by splitting the book into two movies, I knew there would be some changes, plus I wanted to be surprised by what was happening on the screen. Before the movie started, the only things I remembered from the book were that Harry and Voldemort fight and 19 years later, Harry’s kids are heading off heading to Hogwarts.

Kiss him, you fool!

Speaking of the epilogue, I thought they did a good job with it, but man did they make the Hogwarts crew age in unflattering ways. Ron, what happened to you? Have your wife whip you up a fitness charm and get rid of that gut! Also, how are there any bald wizards in The Wizarding World? I’m looking at you, Draco Malfoy. You’d think male pattern baldness would have been eliminated centuries ago! Time travel? Check! Resurrections? Check! A cure for baldness? “Eh…we’re wizards, not miracle workers.” Hermione needs to tweak that polyjuice potion that went awry and turned her into Catgirl and market it to the folliclely challenged.

No more Hermione?!?! Noooo!!!
I’m going to miss heading to the theater with my friends for new Harry Potter movies. But I’m sure there will be more franchises that we’ll get wrapped up in, and more opening weekend outings. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was the movie I was anticipating since the beginning of the year. Now that it’s passed, I’m not sure what new or upcoming release to latch my excitement onto. Captain America? Cowboy and Aliens? Both look great, but I’m not counting down the days until I see them. Actually, I know what movie has just replaced Harry Potter in my Can’t Wait List…