Tag: movies

The Best Things About Mean Girls

On By R. PettyIn Movies1 Comment

You know them, or you have been one. Maybe you still are. It doesn’t matter though because at some point, most women have been a mean girl.

Photo from : meangirls-confessions.tumblr.com
Photo from : meangirls-confessions.tumblr.com

As I’ve admitted, I have a weakness for good teen movies. And I LOVE this movie. I have seen it so many times I can quote it, and even though she’s somewhat crazy now, I still have a soft spot for old-school Lindsay Lohan.

Mean Girls (2004) is dead-on when it shows how girls – and oftentimes women – treat each other. That is the primary reason I hang out with guys. I never have to worry about guys gossiping behind my back or trying to secretly sabotage me while acting like my best friend. I have been a mean girl though, so I don’t blame anyone for not liking me either.

The movie truly tells the story of a group of high school friends who are obsessed with body image, their social and sexual lives, and terrorizing each other to look good and gain popularity. Mean Girls confronts trends, cliques, and all the horrible things teen girls do to each other, and why it shouldn’t be that way.

Aside from the movie’s obvious themes of forgiveness, girl power, support, and unity, I take a lot of other things (some silly) from the movie:

  • I know, right? Thank you, Rachel McAdams (Regina George). I didn’t realize I picked up this phrase from the movie, but I know I did. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing though.
  • Plastics. I’m not sure if the term derived from the movie, but it’s a great word for the high-fashion, fully made-up types. E.g.: The ones who look like Barbie dolls.
  • Amanda Seyfried. According to IMDB, this was her first movie. I want to personally thank the casting director for picking Seyfried to play the stereotypical really dumb blonde. Who knew she’d turn into the young star she is now?
  • School faculty. This movie reminds us that teachers and principals have real lives and problems. The ones in this movie seem to say what you know every faculty member wants to. Two of my favorite quotes, “I cannot tell you how happy I am this year is over,” and “Oh, hell no. I did not leave the South side for this!” Tim Meadows (Mr. Duvall) says.
  • Girl-on-girl crime is self-destructive. Not only does Mean Girls teach you that you can ruin your best friend’s life, it proves you can ruin your own. You will be exposed, and people will hate you.
  • People you torture will have the last laugh. Lizzy Caplan (Janis Ian) delivers a fantastic speech in the end where she simply confesses trying to destroy McAdams’ life. She falls into the crowd as they chant her name. Be careful who you’re mean to; they often find a way to retaliate.

Do you have a mean-girl related story? Feel free to share below!

Off the Edge #3: Random Annoyances

On By James CastroIn Opinions, Random FunLeave a comment

Off the Edge

As anyone with the internet, a PC, a car, or a television…I get a little tired of things sometimes.  Not just typical annoying things, but other things that might seem harmless, or even wildly popular, but for some reason I just get incredibly weary of some aspects about the culture and just life in general.  Just for fun (bring it on internet) I thought I’d do a list of the things that have been especially annoying recently in no particular order:

  • People: They’re rude, selfish, and needlessly hateful.  In fact it’s such a surprise when someone is civil you aren’t quite sure how to take it.  When you get the note from the guy who scratched your car or a “thanks for the tip” on a youtube comment it’s stunning.
  • Reality TV: I used to wonder when this trend would end.  I don’t think it will.  There are way too many shows with washed-up celebrities and/or “regular people” competing or behaving stupidly on TV.  I only turn my television on for 2-3 shows.  If I see one more person crying on TV I may just wait til things show up online and give up cable altogether…
  • Dropping Things: How do they vanish into oblivion?  I dropped it straight down.  I can understand it might bounce an inch or two but how did it get 12 feet away underneath the aquarium?
  • Parking: How on earth do people NOT hit the lines?  Ok we all can leave a poor attempt at parking on occasion but I’ve noticed a LOT of people park consistently badly and leave it.  When you use the same parking lot every day you can see the same white truck or the same blue car crooked over the lines.  If they have that much trouble with painted lines while stationary I live in fear of how they deal with them while moving.
  • Hipsters: What pop-culture crypt spawned these foul creatures?  They’re this generation’s beatniks; only instead of being annoying poets they mostly just criticize annoying poets.  For not being annoying enough.  That’s a double whammy.
  • Geek Culture: NOT geeks.  I have no issue with dorks since I’m a huge dork myself, but it’s more the marketing toward geek culture that drives me insane and how people wear geek culture like a jacket now.  It used to be geek culture was driven by the geeks.  Now people become geeks the way they become raver-kids or goths, they wear the clothes, watch the TV shows, and learn some lingo.  It’s just what is popular right now.
  • Movies in CGI: Yeah that’s what it is now.  No more CGI in movies.  It’s more movies that are CGI.  They’re all CGI.  People don’t build sets anymore just green screens.  No one builds props anymore, they’re just rendered.  I’d rather see something in front of the camera than see an undulating cartoon character or more pixelated fire.  I don’t think I could take seeing another computer-generated army running at another computer-generated army.
  • Model Glue: Why does it stick my fingers together better than the model parts?
  • Fanboyism: Sometimes people just can’t see the problems with their own beloved obsessions.  Nothing is ALL good and what is good, better, and best is all a matter of personal opinion.  So what’s with all the flame wars?
  • Apple: I know there are scores of Mac lovers but honestly I find Apple’s practices as insidious as anyone’s…probably more-so.  The big problem is some publishers ONLY publish their digital material in the iTunes store…to get it you have to have iJunk.  So to get a 15 dollar book I need a 300 dollar device…
  • Traffic: I’ve noticed nearly all traffic problems are caused by selfish and/or over-reactive people.  One jackass stops or pulls out in front of everyone and that spot will sometimes create a chain-reaction back-up for hours.
  • Haters: People who only find the negative in things.  “It’s a great ::blank:: but it has this stupid thing.” Or “It would’ve been perfect but ::whatever:: ruined it.”  And yes, I see the irony in having haters on a list about things that annoy me!

 That’s all I can think of now.  Again, this is just me.  We’re all allowed our opinions so feel free to disagree!

And as usual, it’s all just good fun 🙂

Off the Top of My Head #11: Roger Ebert

On By James CastroIn Movies, Opinions, Random FunLeave a comment

Off The Top of My Head

We at RevPub love movies.  We go to a lot of movies, buy a lot of movies, and watch a lot of movies on TV.  Our love of the media made us especially sad to hear of the death of singular film critic Roger Ebert.

Roger Ebert

As I said in my Dreamlike Gaming post, it takes more than negativity to review movies.  Roger Ebert loved movies.  He had an undeserved reputation of being a “film snob” (this was more true of his partner Gene Siskel who died in 1999) but I’ve found this not to be true.  He really loved movies and loved to watch them.  He simply expected a lot of them, and when they failed to deliver never hesitated to tell us.

While many of the movies you’d expect him to dislike he happily obliged and those art house movies you’d expect him to gush over he often did, he could also surprise you by giving you a review of a film you’d expect him to hate and finding he loved it with a classic “this is the reason we go to the movies.”  He could appreciate the deep themes of a terse drama as well as the big dumb fun of a well-made action film.

It is a pleasure to read his good reviews, whether you agree or disagree with him as he always give specific and valid reasons for his opinions.  More fun, however, are his extremely negative reviews.  When he hated (or hated, hated, hated) a movie; because he also had valid reasons for hating them and often had his sharpened pen ready to draw blood…

Roger Ebert showed us why film critics are a specific breed.  He noticed aspects of films for his reviews after only his screening views I don’t notice until after repeated viewings and could make judgments using his epically deep knowledge of film history.

I’m incapable of describing the prowess of a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with the proper acumen so I’ll let the man speak for himself.  But the next time you go to a movie raise your 44oz soda, frozen coke, bucket of popcorn, or tray of nachos to the true loss of a real film institution.

Here’s to Roger Ebert.  We’ll miss you at the movies.

Roger Ebert’s Website

Some incredible negative reviews:

North

The Village

Deuce Bigalow European Gigalo

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

Reviews of some of my favorite films:

Seven Samurai

Yojimbo

Shaun of the Dead

Negative review books:

I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie

Your Movie Sucks

A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length

Positive review books:

Roger Ebert’s Four Star Reviews

Roger Ebert’s Great Movies

Roger Ebert’s Great Movies II

Roger Ebert’s Great Movies III

What I Learned from Independence Day

On By R. PettyIn MoviesLeave a comment

Inspiration hit again this weekend as I came across a movie I cannot resist watching: Independence Day. I have seen this movie dozens of times, and it gets better, and worse in some cases, every time.

I realized during this viewing that Independence Day was my first alien invasion film. It was my first “aliens are not our our friends and will kick our ass” Sci-Fi movie.

A lot of people may scoff because I had not yet seen classics like Alien, War of the Worlds, or Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but I loved slasher films and Pulp Fiction more than anything at that age. Independence Day actually inspired me to watch the other alien movies.

I remember seeing Independence Day and being mesmerized by the shots, the White House being destroyed, and it was during this movie I came to love Will Smith.

So, for a fun Sunday read, here’s what I learned and loved about Independence Day.

1. Special effects could look real. This movie sucked me in from the first strike to the final escape from the mothership. After the first assault, there was something so disturbing and admittedly cool the Statue of Liberty laying face down in the ocean. The effects were not over-the-top or goofy; they were almost too believable. I guess that’s what earned Independence Day an Oscar in 1997 for Best Effects, Visual Effects.

The Statue of Liberty lies face down in the ocean after the alien attack.
Photo courtesy of Pop Culture Ninja

2. Will Smith was awesome. I watched Fresh Prince with everyone else, but it wasn’t until this movie that I appreciated his smart/bad ass side. He punched an alien after taking it down and talked trash to it. You don’t get much cooler than that.

3. Bill Pullman is not a very good actor. No offense, I love him in this movie and While You Were Sleeping, but he forces emotion. The script was well written, but Pullman did not bring me to tears or make me pull for human survival. I love watching him, but I am convinced it’s his eyes and smile.

4. The world needs heroes. In this movie, there were regular people doing amazing things for survival. Who could forget Russell (Randy Quaid) telling his kids he loved them as he helped save the planet? Or Jasmine (Vivica Fox) trying to get her crew, including the First Lady, to safety? In an alien invasion, there are no super heroes, only real people.

5. Jeff Goldblum made being a computer geek cool. I wanted to block cell calls, decode weird signals, and help save the world. The Smith-Goldblum team was movie magic as they raced off to to the mothership.

6. Not all aliens are like E.T. These aliens were intelligent, huge, well defended, and not playing around. They were not cute, would use your body to take the planet, and they did not care. This movie showed with enough fire power, a city could be destroyed in a matter of minutes.

So, what do you think? Where does Independence Day rank on your list of Sci-Fi alien movies? It may not be a Sci-Fi/horror movie, but it’s a good action flick that makes you realize we’re not as tough as we think.

As Good As It Gets – 15 years old, but not forgotten

On By R. PettyIn Movies1 Comment

This week I caught one of my favorite movies, As Good As It Gets. For those who haven’t seen it, Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) is an obsessive-compulsive romance novelist. Melvin falls in love with the blunt, struggling single mother Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt) and befriends his homosexual artist neighbor Simon Bishop (Greg Kinnear).

This movie came out when I was 15 years old. I remember seeing it for the first time when I was 17, and I watched it on TV and later bought a copy on VHS. For some reason, this movie captured my heart when I was a teenager.

After rewatching it, I see why. This movie is packed with well-written one liners, an interesting (and believable) plot about acceptance and coping, and above all, it shows you can find happiness in the darkest times. For a moment, let’s to look beyond the basics of traditional romantic dramadies and see why this is a timeless must see.

The characters: Melvin is as obsessive compulsive as a guy can get. He separates his Skittles, doesn’t like animals, brings his own silverware to restaurants, won’t walk on cracks, etc. When he speaks, there is no filter. He frequently pisses people off and can make almost any social situation awkward. His character is refreshing, and everyone has a little Melvin in him/her. We are who we are, and the rest of the world either accepts us or they don’t. It’s not always easy, but it’s that simple.

It makes you think: The movie focuses on looking past ourselves and our problems to focus on someone else. All three major characters are significantly different and are forced to mesh together and coexist. It’s a great example of tolerance and acceptance, which we can all practice more. We can all care a little more and do something do help someone we know – even if it’s just to make them smile.

Realism: As Good As It Gets is exactly what the title states. It doesn’t play games or try to sugarcoat how awful things can be, and it shows how having the power of optimism can make things better. You can improve your life by either changing what you don’t like or accepting and letting go what you cannot change. Sometimes things are as good as they get.

Clever writing: This movie is full of one liners and great dialogue, which I admittedly appreciate more with age. When it comes to sappy romantic movies, Jerry Maguire‘s, “You complete me,” line is often thought of. Well, here are two for you: “You make me want to be a better man,” and “You’re the reason cavemen painted on walls.” Tom Cruise, eat your heart out.

If you haven’t seen it or haven’t seen it in awhile, you should. It’s a great flick and a reminder that we can be better people.