A week of highs and lows

So let me first question the randomness of Haymes previous post about Channing Tatum. Is there a reason you wrote about him? Also you do realize that you must have seen all those awful movies in order to talk about them Haymes. And apparently you have never seen A guide to Recognizing Your Saints, because if you had you would know that Channing Tatum has at least one good movie under his belt, but overall that dude is on the same career path as Samuel Jackson. 

So obviously the big news of the week were the Oscar Nominations, which I can't really argue about other than the fact that The Dark Knight no love on the best picture front. it was without question the best movie of the year and I will fight anyone who thinks otherwise. However, I do respect the fact that they gave In Bruges an original screenplay nominee. Not many people saw this film, but it is without a doubt in my top 5 of 2008. Also, The Wackness deserves some love here because it is another under the radar film, that was absolutely brilliant. All in all, I have not seen most of the best picture nominees, because I plan on attending AMC Oscar Day where they show all best picture nominees in one day on the day before the awards are given out. So, I can't really talk about the movies. Except Benjamin Button and I would say that probably deserves the credit is is receiving.

We also had the premiere of Lost this week and there is not much you can say about that without saying too much. Can that show get any better? I do not know. Although I am as confused as anybody can be, I still love it. How I Met Your Mother just gave us the usual brilliance and maybe even the best "what up" moment in Barney Stinson history (if you are not watching this show you better start). I have yet to watch 24 from this week, but I will probably catch it this weekend. And The Office was strangely disappointing.

On a random note please check out this SNL digital short call Iran So Far. It is Andy Samberg and Adam Levine singing a hilarious duet about the leader of Iran. I have no idea when this aired but I just came across it a week or so ago and have watched it about ten times.

Laef

 

The Curious Case of Channing Tatum...

Here we have Channing Tatum. Most recognize him from his great work in that movie that did really well at the box office and was received extremely well from critics, um you know that movie he did that garnered so many awards, you know the one where his performance left audiences in tears? No? You don't remember that ever happening either? Good, because it never did. This guy has never been in a good movie in his life and wouldn't know one if it sat on his face. In fact he has had arguably one of the worst starts to an acting career that I have ever seen before. And it really peeves me off because from the outside looking in it appears Tatum has all it takes to be a successful Hollywood actor. This guy was once a big shot Abercrombie and Fitch model who had dreams of making the transition from model to actor like the way Ashton Kutcher did so well.

He was just getting his foot in the door as an actor and after the mistake that was "Supercross: The Movie" he was cast in the inspiring flick "Coach Carter", starring the beloved Samuel Jackson. I loved him in this movie. He was the white kid on an all black team in basically an all black town and he was able to hold his own on the court, get some solid PT on a championship team and really made a name for himself. After being kinda accepted by critics and making a fairly strong $67 million some said that Tatums career was on the rise. At the time I agreed with that some, I was excited for Tatum and quickly jumped on his bandwagon. However looking back at his role in "Coach Carter" he appeared to just fit in a little too well with the urban cast around him and made that crossover from a white kid riding dirt bikes, to a white kid hanging out with the homies in the gym working on his hoop game a little too well to go unnoticed to not get cast in a similar role down the line.

After a couple minor roles in "Havoc" and "She's the Man", Tatum was finally awarded a lead role. The casting directors must've saw what I saw in "Coach Carter" because he was cast in the urban hip hop dance off you got served wannabe piece of shit that was "Step Up". I dont know if it was the appeal that he finally got to be a lead actor and get his own trailer on the set or if he maybe just wanted to prove to an ex-girlfriend that he actually could dance that made him take this role. Whatever it was "Step Up" ended up being like a gateway drug for Tatum. You know kind of like teachers used to say about marijuana, you would use it and then keep on using drugs that were just worse and worse for you. Well "Step Up" was like weed for Tatum because after that he took a couple roles in which he was totally unmemorable in "Battle in Seattle", "The Trap", and he somehow had enough time to take out of his busy schedule to appear in "Step Up 2:The Streets".

Still in the haze from "Step Up" he managed to try to get his career back on track with "Stop Loss" co-starring Ryan Phillippe. But once again awards and box office millions were not receieved. I never saw this movie and it actually looked kind of good from the previews but it looks like it came out too soon and might of hit home for a lot of Americans.

Even though "Stop Loss" bombed at theaters Tatum was getting back into movies with actors I had actually heard of before and it appeared for a short while him and his camp were righting the ship. Then I saw a preview for his next movie titled "Fighting" with Terrence Howard. Wow,how much is the genius who came up with this title being paid? Let me break this movie down real quick, Tatum is a down on his luck counterfeiter working the streets of NYC when somebody comes by and pisses him off and so Tatum fights this guy and beats his ass. Incredibly Terrence Howard, who is some kind of underground Don King, is walking by notices Tatums got "skillz" and decides to take him under his wing so he can become a rich street fighter. Really Hollywood, really?

His dreams of turning into the next Ashton Kutcher are really starting to fizzle and it looks like he might be the next Paul Walker at this rate. But at 28 he is still young enough to turn things around. The good news is that he is still getting work according to his IMDB page. It will remain to be seen if in any of those movies he will perform like he did in "Coach Carter" ever again. Maybe that was just a once a career brilliant performance? For my sake and those still remaining on his bandwagon I hope not.

Haymes

Thank Fucking God!!! Please Tell Me This Is True!!!

According to our pals over at Filmschoolrejects.com (Who Laef by the way jerks it to once a day) I have read today that Samuel L. Jackson may not be playing the role of Nick Fury in the upcoming Avengers movie... Wow I literally got a huge Bonner when i heard this, and by huge i mean like 3 inches, girls tell me its cute so I'm OK with it...Is it just me or is anybody else sick of seeing this fucking dude in movies... i mean i cant think of a movie recently that he has been in that he was any good??? I mean please correct me if I was wrong, but other than Pulp Fiction, what else worth mentioning has he done... The first thing I'm going to do when i move out to Hollywood and become a famous actor is find his agent and make him mine... Bomb after bomb this dude does and keeps getting roles, its seems like every year hes doing 4 to 5 movies!! Maybe its just me, but I'm seeing him in everything now, sometimes not even big roles just minor stupid roles... i mean i was watching HBO last night and watched Jumper, what a fucking horrible character he played, to make it worse they gave him one cheesy line after the other... Then as I awoke from the movie because he literally put me to sleep i decided id beat off before i went to bed...After about an hour of scrolling and creeping through my various sites i stumble upon a nice vid that i think will do the trick, little did i know mid-beat this dude turns towards the camera as hes banging this chick from behind and its none other than fucking Samuel "Sure Thing" Jackson, and sure enough the title of the porn was This Guy is a "Sure Thing"...

   Marvel Comics, do yourselves a favor and don't ruin this brilliant brilliant franchise that you have built by casting this talentless wannabe thug corny one-line muthafucka as Nick Fury in what could be one of the greatest movies of all time!!! Hey Sam, did i say that right "Muthafucka"??  I'm sorry I'm not fluent in gangsta... Also i have a perfect replacement for Nick Fury anyways, a guy who will more than fill the shoes and bring a whole new side to Nick Fury, a man by the name of Matthew Mcconaughey!!! No need to pay me for the tip just pay it forward by casting him and giving the fans of this franchise what they want and need, Jackson out Mcconaughey in!!! 

            "We have to go back Laef!!!! We have to go back!!!!!!!"

---And Who Am I??? That's one secret ill never tell....You know you love me...XOXO

                        College Panda

                        

A little Clarification

My buddies haymes and college panda (by the way I have no clue what the hell either of those mean, and I've known these guys for a while so I wouldn't expect you to know what that is. Then again you are all probably thinking, what the hell is a Laef) are writing on here from seperate locations than I am, and in no way shape or form do we share ALL of the same opinions. As a matter of fact I share none of the same opinions as College Panda, personally I have thought for a while that he was a little slow, like when i roomed with him in college we would be watching TV and he would randomly just start to pee himself a little bit, but I digress. His opinions are out there and are worth reading only because of the hilariousness of them.

And as for Haymes, nobody gives a good god damn about the Steelers, and as for you claiming that Apocalypto is in your top 5 because it is authentic, I completely forgot about your extensive knowledge of ancient Mayan culture that allows you to back the validity of a movie like that. Yes, the movie was good, but lets not sit here and make outrageous statements.

Anyways the real reason I am on my second post of the day is because I left out a movie that everyone needs to check out the trailer to, and that movie is Adventureland. This looks like it could be next year's Juno and it is premiering at Sundance this weekend. It is directed by the same guy who directed Superbad, so there is your motivation.

until next time,
Laef

Well here it is everyone. My highly anticipated, and long awaited return to the Internet community since i last created this little nugget in eighth grade. For this particular post however I will not be talking about the NFL draft or where I project so and so to go(that will be coming later on). Rather I am going to be writing about what I feel to be the most underrated show on TV as well as my most underrated movie. Expect more of the same from me. I will be bringing updates on anything to do with my hometown sports(Pittsburgh, PA), as well as world news, TV shows, movies and juicy Hollywood gossip.

I am just going to get right into it because I have so many good things to say about Friday Night Lights. FNL is created by Alec Bergs brother Peter Berg and is a story of a high school football team set in a small, tight knit, Texas community. The casting in the show was phenomenal because the actors who are portraying these high school athletes really do resemble high school kids. Most notably my favorite hunk Tim Riggins. The transformation that this kid has made from Season 1 to Season 3 really brings a tear to my eye. He was a loud mouth, drunk, unfocused punk who did whatever he wanted in the first 2 seasons and really his act was getting old. But the writers finally brought his story around in this third season. While he still carries some of the characteristics from the first 2 seasons that made him lovable, he finally in the third season seems to "get it". Not to post any spoilers for those who have not seen it but Riggins really gets his act together and does some growing up in the third season.
Besides the great characters and the maturing that we see in them, the show is also great for the fact that it feels real. Some shows I've watched like Gossip Girl or One Tree Hill or The OC or basically any show that "College Panda" likes, just don't have that "realness" factor that FNL brings. The drama in this show does actually happen and the story lines are believeable. This show also appeals to all ages, race, and sex which has helped it stay on the air for 3 seasons. But sadly because of crappy time slots and dumb deals with DirecTV and lack of new characters it appears this show has run its course after 3 seasons. I along with millions around the world hope that's not true but if it is let me say this one more time, "Clear eyes, Full hearts, Can't Lose!"

For my most underrated movie pick I am going to go with the great Apocalypto. I'm sure some of you are nodding your head and agreeing with me, and I'm also sure some of you are asking yourselves what the hell an Apocalypto is and I'm also sure some of you are nodding your head that you know what it is but never actually saw it because my boy Mel Gibson made it. Don't feel bad if you never did see this at the theaters because you weren't alone, it only grossed $50 mil at the box office. Which might seem like a decent chunk of change but after seeing this with all the effects and costume costs that went into it this had to be in the red for Mel.
I will steal the summary from IMDB.com because it captures so perfectly what I could never have written. " Set in the Mayan civilization, when a man's idyllic presence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, he is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life." Written by Maya Society.
Once again I will go back to the realness factor I talked about with FNL. The first time I watched this movie I thought it was a documentary on Mayan civilization. Then when I realized the main character Jaguar Paw(Rudy Youngblood) was an actor I was floored. Everything in this movie is perfect and I easily put it in my top 5 movies of all time.

So theres the first post. Go Steelers!

Haymes

Mid-week report

So this being my first post on this blog (college panda (??) already posted one on here but this is my first go round) I thought I would give you the rundown of what you will see from me. Basically your going to get movie news that I steal from other websites because in no way shape or form am I connected in those circles. Then on other days if I have a good story to share you will hear about it.

Anyways, this was a pretty solid week in the world of TV. I mean we had the return of Jack Bauer and 24 which was the best 4 hours of my week, I don't know about you. Jack really came back with a vengance and even more of "fuck the rules, I do what it takes" type attitude than ever before. By no means is this a bad thing. In the first hour of the show we already see jack getting his hands dirty with the help of a super sexy FBI Agent (there is definitely a connection there between her and Jack). Then we see the return of one of my 24 favorites, Tony Almeida. Anyways, without giving too much away, the four hour premiere event provided more twists and turns then some shows do in a whole season (no matter how hoaky or unoriginal they are, Die Hard anybody?) Long story short, I reccomend watching 24 this season and there are a lot of people that I have reccomended this show to and I get the same excuse everytime, "there are too many seasons for me to catch up." Well honestly, that is foreign to me but then again I am a huge loser, but for what it is worth you can still enjoy the hell out of this show without having seen the previous seasons, Bauer is just that good of a character.

We also had the Emmy awards this week and I have to say award shows just keep getting worse and worse. This year there was not even a host for the show and they just let these ridiculous acceptance speeches go on forever. Listen hollywood nobody gives a shit about what some British actress nobody has ever heard of has to say about her win, especially when she is up there openly crying and stammering through sentences, it was really painful. The only highlights of the night were Ricky Gervais' 2 minute monologue, Sacha Baron-Cohen's monologue and Mickey Rourke winning Best Actor. Everything else was pretty much grade A dog shit. And is it me or did Kate Winslet seem like she was married too Dicaprio instead of her actual husband, everytime she won an award she kissed him first, then would thank him before she thanked her husband. Strange?

How I Met Your Mother wal also solid this week, as usual, but I am extremely pissed at this episode because why in the hell are these no talent ass clowns, Heidi and Spence from that "reality show" the hills and Kim Kardashian who is famous for.....? on the show. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE quit giving those morons time on television, no reason to make them feel wanted.

A couple trailers came out this week that I suggest watching: Last house on the Left ( I am not a big horror film guy, but this trailer is one of the better ones I have seen this year, check it out), and the new fast and the furious trailer. Yes, that is soulja boy rapping in the trailer. A note to the creators of the movie, that song was not cool when it came out so it is definitely not cool to put a little bass guitar behind it and figure it is acceptable to put into your trailer, but since you did, if i do not see Paul Walker and Vin Diesel doing the dance to that song in the movie, I will riot in the streets

Good Day
"Laef"

Why I Am Seriously Considering Buying "My Best Friends Girl" On Blu Ray

God damn it, i have been thinking about this god damn movie all day, Ive visited SO many websites and have seen advertisements for "My best friends girl" all over the place... Its killing me. When i first saw the trailer before it came out i was SO pumped, like really amped to see it. then as the release date got closer and closer reviews got worse and worse...Typically I'm not the kind of guy who reads too much into reviews but they were just SO awful i guess i kind of got scared away, and i have regretted it ever since... This movie has been haunting my dreams the past couple nights... i have been having recurring dreams of me trying to hire Tank to be a complete ass to this one girl who I'm all about, so that ill look better by comparison... then when i wake up i keep thinking, wow what a brilliant way to make money!!! Now i am seriously considering leaving my job and doing what Tank does, and that is get people to hire me to take out girls they are interested in and act like a complete asshole to make them look better by comparison... I mean there is a definite market out there for that!!! Anyways i have strayed off topic. As i was saying this movie has been haunting my dreams and i think its because i passed on seeing it in the theaters and now it wants me to buy it on Blu Ray to make up for it...

I'm not going to lie, i am a closet Dane Cook fan... i mean i know that's like "uncool" to say because he has done SO many shitty movies that i keep seeing hoping that one will be his break out role and i always finish each movie with a sour taste in my mouth... Then i look at this movie, "My Best Friends Girl" i mean just the idea for the movie is SO brilliant, i mean I'm sold right there...That's it I'm buying it, fuck it...

Shit now I'm thinking about Kate Hudson... i mean can she be in a romantic comedy without Matthew Mcconaughey??? i mean really can she? those two are like the SAM and Diane of romantic comedies, wait did that make sense?? you know sam and diane from cheers? anyways you get what I'm saying... i really don't see her and Dane working "chemistry" wise, i already know whats going to happen, I'm going to be sitting there watching her and waiting for Mcconaughey to pop on the screen and he'll never show. and when he doesn't show I'm going to be really pissed and that is going to take away from the movie... why cant Kate Hudson and Matthew Mcconaughey do all their movies together, and be the only two allowed to make romantic comedies...

i take that last statement back, not the only ones, if not Mcconaughey then give me FPJ or you may know him as Freddie Prince Junior... what ever happened to him, i mean you want to talk about a string of hits that guy put out... lets go through that list: Shes all that, Down to you, Boys and Girls, Summer Catch.... i mean wow talk about hits!!!! 

OK well anyways i was walking around wal-mart today and i walked past the DVD section and i saw this movie and glanced at it and scurried away, then as if it had some magnetic energy it sucked me back over to it and the next thing i remember I'm standing at the check out line and the lady grabs the blu ray from me and says "will that be it?" I then snapped back into it and quickly got the hell out of there... I have already made one terrible purchase on blu ray and those close to me know what that is, and I'm kind of embarrassed to admit to it... But i feel like i wrecked on the island from Lost and if i don't follow the coordinates to the exact bearings ill never escape the power this movie has over me... I don't know what to do, i feel like I'm in a maze to which there is no escape... any thoughts or suggestions would be most helpful... I'm going to leave you with this as i am scared and confused, If i get into trouble "Laef" is my Constant!!!!!!!!!!!!

College Panda