A Rock and Roll History

All my lines are well rehearsed. All my sins are fully endorsed.

Hot Tub Time Machine Red Band Trailer

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am going to see this movie. I don’t care that I will be living in LA at that point and movie tickets will be way higher than $7. I will pay that shit. You could just play the clip of Craig Robinson saying, “hot tub time machine” and I’d be sold.

These photos of one of the anchors and me in front of the weather wall (which are the first of me on the blog) are the product of boredom before the 11 pm news. While it sucks going back to the station to do the show, especially on Fridays, it’s a lot more fun to be there than for the 5-6:30 shows as everyone in the news room at that point is miserable. It’s the pit of despair. Not so for the 11. The bosses are gone and we recycle a ton of stuff from the previous 3 shows, so it’s much more chill and entertaining.

I really like these pictures, hence the post, because we look as if we’re part of a demented Yo Gabba Gabba! kids show knockoff or tour guides for Willy Wonka. Either way, I think they’re pretty awesome.

7. “MacGruber” – In 2007, Akiva Schaffer brought us “Hot Rod.” In 2010, Jorma Taccone directed “MacGruber.” Now Andy Samberg has to make another cult comedy in 2013 to complete the Lonely Island trilogy of underrated movies destined to become stoner classics. “MacGruber” is so fucking stupid, yet I cannot deny I watched it every night on the ‘Scott Pilgrim’ press tour in every hotel I slept in. The team up montage, the begging scene, Will Forte excruciating response to the accidental massacre of his team and the two aforementioned unforgettable sex scenes are comedy highlight of the year.

Edgar Wright on his Top 10 Underrated Films of the Year. Read the rest of the list HERE

It’s nice to see MacGruber getting some love (and Hot Rod too). MacGruber is easily my favorite comedy of the year, and, if you’re not one of the five people in the world who saw it, you are missing a piece of yourself that only a viewing of this film can fill. I cannot wait to sit in an empty theater for Andy Samberg’s movie in 2013.

Final Destination 5

One of the perks about working on a lot in LA is that you get to see a bunch of free movies. Last night, I saw this one (in 3D. As Jesus intended). I don’t want to bury the lede, so let me start by saying: this movie is awesome.

I can’t say if it’s better than Final Destination 2 (far and away the best in the series up to this point), but it’s certainly close. It’s a very well paced movie (around 90 minutes) and nothing feels extraneous. Unlike all of the other FDs, this one doesn’t have that boring segment toward the end of the 2nd act in which all of the remaining characters spend 15-20 minutes trying to figure out how to cheat death again and I start to zone out and try to think up semi-clever tweets about brunch or rap music. In this one, that chunk is cut down to a single scene and the revelation about what has to happen is brutal, interesting, and suggests a whole new direction for any other sequels in the series.

As always, the elaborate deaths are the focus of the film, and the ones in this movie are pretty spectacular. At this point, it’s more about misdirection than simply killing off the characters. A number of harmful objects are introduced into a scene and the tension is ratcheted up as the, lets be honest, lamb to be slaughtered blithely makes their way through the killing floor. Several of the scenes in this are so drawn out that you can almost feel the air being sucked out of the theater.

There isn’t much more to say. This movie is fun, never bogs down in unnecessary “plot”, and delivers exactly what one would want. First Fast Five and now this, does it really take 5 movies to perfect a formula? In the 80s it only took 4 (Rocky IV. I rest my case), but this 2011. The world is a different place and maybe we need just a little more time to get things right. I don’t know. All I do know is that I’m starting to get excited for the Smurfs 5 (or Smurf5 on the poster). That shit is going to be the Watch the Throne of Smurf movies.