So as you are all aware, it is mid-August and that of course means back to school.
NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
So in light of this current disaster, I thought I'd do a review on a movie about school, and what better movie than Accepted, the movie about when every college turns them down, they make one up.
Accepted. Okay, so the story revolves around a guy named Barnaby played by Justin Long (why they picked Barnaby as his character's name, I'll never know) and as I said, practically every college in Ohio rejected his application into their colleges (maybe it was because his name is Barnaby) and now, because he has hard-ass parents, he must appear to be in a college. Around this time, some of his friends confide in him that they didn't get accepted anywhere either, so together they create a college out of thin air.
They then go on to rent an abandoned mental hospital nearby to act as the South Harmon Institute of Technology (S.H.I.T.), bribe Lewis Black to be their "dean" in which he just plays his good ol' comedic schizophrenic self, and fill this wonderful place of education fraud with tons of poor saps who actually believe it is a college. Oddly enough, these "students" were probably the kids in high school sitting in the back of the classroom that I'm always afraid of.
All in all, it's a fantastic movie that everyone must see before they die, and I can guarantee, after you've watch it a few times, you will also be able to quote the entire movie along with me. Accepted was released in 2006 and it stars Justin Long, Jonah Hill, Blake Lively, Lewis Black, and Columbus Short.
Rookie Blue. The majority of the world have never heard of this show because of the things that make it stand out: It's Canadian, proud, and a truly fantastic show.
Rookie Blue is about 5 rookie cops fresh out of the academy and how they deal with being at the bottom of the food chain, as well as their screw-ups and "rookie mistakes". The main protagonist is Andy McNally who is extremely determined to do the right thing, despite it not being procedure. Her father also used to be a cop until he burned out and became an alcoholic. Those probably weren't fun times.
Other characters are Traci Nash, Andy's best friend. A single mother, something she rarely shares with anybody. She always tries to do what's best for others, especially her kid.
Another interesting character is Dov Epstein who is the definition of eager beaver and has the personality of a cowboy. His roommate and best friend is Chris Diaz who is the exact opposite of Dov. He always follows protocol and prefers the "by the book" approach to being a cop.
Lastly, is Gail Peck, a Marylin Monroe look-a-like, is an independent woman who has very good connections in very high places which causes her to constantly prove herself to everyone without help.
Rookie Blue is a Canadian police procedure show set in Toronto. Despite being set in Toronto, you would never have guessed it, they never mention which city they protect exactly. So we as the audience are going to assume they are the Toronto Regional Police. In random aerial shots, it does shows the CN Tower a few times, but we didn't even get a glimpse of this until the second season. My only wish is Rookie Blue would show more Canadian pride. They could take a few pointers from Corner Gas or Mike Myers.
All in all though, Rookie Blue is a fantastic show, whether you're Canadian or not. It is not one of those shows that has a lot of violence or swear words like HBO or AMC, it's just very down-to-earth and it really is a show that the whole family can just sit down and watch.
Rookie Blue is a few weeks into it's second season, has been picked up for a third, and now airs every Thursday night at 10:00 on Global and ABC.
The Amazing Spider-Man trailer was recently released mid-afternoon today.
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!
The trailer starts off with a young Peter Parker talking with his parents (or grandparents? Why are they so old?) and in the next scene you see present-day Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield, The Social Network, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) talking to Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone, Zombieland, Easy A) and her father, police captain George Stacy (Denis Leary, Rescue Me, Ice Age), while the trailer shows images of him being a school outcast.
Is it just me or does something about Andrew Garfield just scream jock? He's got the whole skinny, goofy look to him that Peter Parker had down pat, but there's just something about him that doesn't feel right to me, like he escaped out of Twilight or he's been practicing that pretty boy stare in the mirror for years.
Anyway, he eventually gets bit by a spider, gets his super cool powers, starts to show them off, and you know the rest. Probably the most controversial part of this trailer is Spidey's POV at the end. This has received so much criticism, but personally, I kind of like it. It shows what Spider-Man actually sees when he's off web-slinging, as opposed to the original Spider-Man where they just did the "Spidey cam", with the camera swinging along with him.
My most favorite thing I like about The Amazing Spider-Man is that they gave Peter Parker web-shooters, which in the comics was how he did his web-slinging. One of the greatest disappointments in the original Spider-Man trilogy was that Peter Parker had organic "web glands". If you are a Marvel geek like me you would know that Spidey had organic webbing much, much later on in the comics after his fight with Queen, a villainess who could control insects, where he died and was "reborn".
One other thing I liked was casting Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy. The whole concept of Gwen Stacy alone is alright in my books, but this also leads to the question, will the Green Goblin be the next villain? The one thing Gwen Stacy is famous for, if nothing at all, is her death. In the comics, the Green Goblin had kidnapped Gwen and took her to the George Washington Bridge (later changed to the Brooklyn Bridge). Spider-Man, who was feeling a bit under the weather and not performing as he usually did, found them and at that moment, the Green Goblin threw her from the bridge. Spider-Man caught her with a string of web. Unfortunately the sudden stop in midair had in fact killed Gwen from whiplash. In anger, Spider-Man fought with the Green Goblin and it had ended with Osborn being impaled by his glider (much like the first Spider-Man).
As much as I like the web-shooters idea, can't say I'm a big fan of the costume. It's kind of like a mixture of the classic Spidey outfit mixed with the Spider-Man 2099 uniform mixed with Ben Reilly's costume after he took over the role of Spider-Man (not the Scarlet Spider). Call me a cliche, but it seems that the costume is too dark for Spider-Man. It feels like at any moment he could whip out a "Spider-Gun" and ask for your wallet.
It's just too bad they didn't cast anyone to portray Mary-Jane Watson, even if it was a minor or she was just a friend. I think that they should have at least introduced MJ, but hey, after all this is The Amazing Spider-Man and it is just the first of a trilogy. The Amazing Spider-Man hits theaters July 2012.
