New movie in Lee's top 5

Hello again.  This week we're going to be talking about good movies and bad movies.  The new Twilight movie was an example of a bad movie.  So was the remake of Friday the 13th.  An example of a good movie is Inception which F'd with your mind but didn't really have that much character development.   (personally I think it would have been better as two movies or even a trilogy).  An example of a REALLY FRICKING AWESOME movie is...


Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World!!!!!

This movie was amazing.  One of the very few that I actually went to see in theaters twice.  Now I am writing this as someone who has not read the comics YET.  I would describe it as the anime FLCL meets the Video Game world with a bunch of kung-fu sprinkled on top.  The comic book like graphics added so much to it and in no way annoying.  


IMDB Plot: Scott Pilgrim's life is so awesome. He's 23 years old, in a rock band, "between jobs," and dating a cute high school girl. Everything's fantastic until a seriously mind-blowing, dangerously fashionable, roller blading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers starts cruising through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. But the path to Ms. Flowers isn't covered in rose petals. Ramona's seven evil exes stand between Scott and true happiness. Can Scott defeat all seven of the bad guys and get the girl without turning his precious little life upside-down, before the game is over?


Before reading the rest, check out the preview:

Michael Cera  finally gets a chance to show some range and was absolutely great for the role.  Working along side Kieran Culkin , Chris Evans, Brandon Routh(Superman Returns), Mae Whitman (Arrested Development), Jason Schwartzman,  Anna Kendrick , A hilarious appearance from Thomas Jane  and Clifton Collins Jr. , Also in it was Johnny Simmons who I recognized from  Jennifer's Body .  To name a few at least.

It was directed by Edgar Wright (director of Shaun of the Dead).  Even though it had a rating of 81% on RottenTomatoes.com it still didn't do very well opening weekend.  But I really, don't care about that.  I just can't wait until it comes out on Blu-Ray!


Why did I like it so much you ask???  Well here's why:


It was not like any movie I've ever seen before.  It was completely ridiculous with graphics and scene transitions but still flowed perfectly.  Each fight scene was unique and awesome in it's own way.  Perfect casting - I looked at the first chapter of the comics and each character was exactly the same as in the comic.  Perfect music - I've since gotten the soundtrack of the movie and am loving it.  Perfect sound FX - which play a HUGE role in the movie.  And perfect graphics - which showed it was based on a comic book but did not take away from the movie experience.   My rating: Awesome!  Definitely in my top 5 movies.  So go and see it immediately!  I think I'll go and get the comic book now...

Object?

Have you ever been deep in thought about something and while in thought you see some random object.  Then later when you see that object, you are right back in that deep thought?  Interesting how the mind works like that, creating completely unrelated connections between what you are thinking about and one of your senses.  That happened to me the other day and now this object has some type of special meaning to me.  (the object was a nut from my bicycle that has been sitting in my car)  And now I don't want to get rid of it because of it's meaning to me.  This is exactly why I have a chest full of complete crap.  Each piece of random junk in that chest has some type of obscure meaning to me.  Not necessarily for the same reasons as I described above, but they still each tell a story that only I know.  I think that this chest is more of a journal than any notebook I've ever written in.  I think I'll "read" through it some time soon :)




Do you know what I miss?  I miss the television show Pushing Daisies!  I bought the two seasons on Blu Ray and am watching one episode per night.  Watching them again, I can't comprehend why this show was canceled and shows like V (absolutely horrible writing) are not!  Poor Bryan Fuller!  He creates such great television shows, and they all get canceled.  You should check out some of his other shows like Dead Like Me or Wonderfalls.  Each one is a great show, although Pushing Daisies is my favorite!

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I watched the movie Step Up 2 The Streets last night.  If you're in the mood to see some cool dancing it's a fun movie.  Especially the last "dance off" lol.  Of course the acting isn't very good but you can't expect all good dancers to be good actors :)  I must admit I did feel like dancing after watching it.  I also hear (from an unnamed source) that it was much better than the first movie. 

The Lead, Briana Evigan, went on to star in Sorority Row which was not a very good horror movie.  In fact I would even say it was horrorible :) Do you know what was a good horror movie?  It was one that I didn't expect to be good at all but ended up surprising me!  It was My Super Psycho Sweet 16!  (watch it!)  Based, obviously, off the TV show My Super Sweet 16 (don't watch it).  Of course it doesn't compare to some other horror movies (like The Creeping Fear), but it wasn't the usual crappy low budget horror flick either.

Guess I can't help but always talk about movies!  Oh well, you like it!  Lee OUT!

Random Thoughts

These are just some random thoughts that I have.  I shall add to it as I have more.
You should post some of your random thoughts in the comments section!

I saw a car accident today.  Reminded me of my accident and I was sad.  I miss camaro :(

This morning in the shower I was thinking about language and just how much the radio and television affected the way people spoke.

My dream last night combined last nights episode of The Office and all of the seasons of Scrubs. IT WAS CRAZY!

Catch Up

This blog is nothing special. Just something to do whilst the DVDs are copying...

One of my college professors always said "write something every day" so I recently started writing in a journal but I hate it. It seems soooo pointless. I think instead I'll try writing shorter blogs more often. That way people can actually read them. So prepare yourself for some rambling.

One thing I like to write in journal entries is a memory or two. I call it my "always remember" section. So here it is for this blog.

Always remember: in college being in the huge lecture hall sitting next to Mandy. Whenever either of us would fall asleep, the other would write the letter Z all over their notebook page until they woke up. There is nothing funnier than waking up in the middle of class with your page covered in Zs :)

I watched Bitch Slap last night. HORRIBLE movie. I thought it would be funny because of all the cameos in it... It wasn't. How would I describe it to somebody else you ask? Well it's a basically a porno movie without the porn. I'm not even going to waste my time talking about it in more detail than that.

I've started writing lyrics to songs even though I don't play an instrument. Maybe I'll get serious about learning the guitar this summer. And maybe I won't. But I think I will.

Lets see, what did I talk about last blog. Holy crap, that was in december! Ok, gotta catch up! It's warm out now. Got the motorcycle and bicycles out. Bought some rollerblades and tennis equipment from good old Goodwill! (They're like bran-new!) so I've been doing that a lot. Just fixed my bike so next nice day out, I'll be doing some serious biking. And it's been forever since I've done some good disc golfing. I'm trying to get back into shape this summer. Can you tell?

Ok, let's review another movie!

This post's movie review is How to Train Your Dragon!

This movie was very well made and very entertaining! It wasn't the normal corny CGI movie. The graphics were awesome, every single hair on every character was so crisp, the story was very well written, and the dragons actually seemed like real animals with the way they behaved and acted in their environment. By far one of my favorite CGI movies.

IMDB Plot: A hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons becomes the unlikely friend of a young dragon himself, and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed.

I feel like this movie was meant for both children and adults. I found it very entertaining and enjoyable. If you haven't yet seen it, GET TO IT!


Stevens Point Life: Trivia was last weekend and I had a lot of fun playing again. Trivia is an annual 54 hour contest broadcast over the college radio station (90fm) for all of stevens point to listen and answer questions. To play you must create and register a team and you call in the answers. Some teams use trivia as an excuse to drink and party all weekend. I know, I've been on some of those teams. Other teams, like mine, takes trivia very seriously and tries to answer every single ridiculous question that the Oz comes up with. My team name is TFC (which stands for The French Connection) and this year we got 24th place! I know that doesn't sound very good, but I should mention that there are about 500 teams and that it's the world's largest trivia contest. While I was a student working at student television, I was in charge of putting trivia on the student cable channel. Since I graduated, Trivia is a time when old friends come back and goof around like we use to do in college. Check out the video below to see what I'm talking about:



I recorded that with my still camera set off to the side. We also did a team focus. I'll probably upload that one later. Anyway, I had tons-o-fun both on my team and hanging with old friends. Thats all for this blog. I'll write to you again soon internet people...

Holidays and SNOW

Oh my GOSH! I skipped November. I am sorry all my faithful blog readers. I will just have to do two this month.

Tis the season for CRAZY shoppers!
And yes, I am one of them, but not as crazy as I use to be. Two years ago I was one of those crazy people sitting all night outside of Best Buy. Don't get me wrong, I got some great deals, but last year and this year especially there was no need to be one of the crazies. I was a crazy shopper in the comfort of my own home. Curled up in front of my computer screen wearing my PJs with a nice warm cup of cocoa. Almost EVERYTHING that was in stores was available online. With most places offering free shipping, I didn't spend any more than I would have if I had waited all night in the freezing cold.

One of the greatest online shopping sites was Amazon.com. During the week of Thanksgiving, they had many many MANY sales, some of which were better deals than the doorbusters at the stores! With different mystery items revealed every half hour, Amazon had the majority of my online shopping experience.

I bet you're curious as to what I actually purchased. Well I'll tell ya! This year I finally purchased a Digital SLR camera. I did a lot of Photography in school and now that I have a SLR again, I am loving it! I also got a Blu-Ray Player and many Blu-Ray Movies which I am very excited about, but I wrapped that one up for Christmas.

This Thanksgiving I circled through the Best Buy parking lot and looked at all of the people waiting in line, freezing their butts off. With a very satisfied feeling, I drove home, curled up, and waited for all the midnight online Black Friday sales.



Before my Netflix review, I am going to talk about the movie I saw yesterday. AVATAR!!!! but not just Avatar... Avatar on IMAX 3D!!! May I just start out by saying AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kudos to James Cameron for making, by far, the most realistic CG world and characters that I have ever seen. I feel like the world of Pandora actually exists somewhere in the stars and I want to go there! Ok, so enough of my boyish excitement. The movie itself is great. In case you don't know the plot, here it is from IMDB: "A paraplegic marine dispatched to the planet Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home." You've probably heard that the plot mirrors Dances With Wolves a little bit which was a great movie too. But Dances With Wolves doesn't have is an entirely new believable 3D CG world. To make this movie so realistic, Cameron had to create the technology. Check out this video to see some of the creative process.

Not only were the graphics great, but the story itself held up too. The romantic relationship was portrayed very well and each character was very memorable. Because of the motion capture suits and the newly designed face-cameras, each CG character behaved exactly like the actor which made this film even more real. I do have one tiny complaint though (sorry). I did like the Colonel's attitude, but thought it got to be a bit much by the end of the movie. I don't want to give anything away, but if you see the movie, you'll see what I mean. That being said, I can't stop thinking about this amazing movie and am planning on going to see it again next week! CAN'T WAIT!



And now for Lee's Netflix Movie Review Time!!!





Today's Netflix movie is: Easy Virtue

IMDB Plot: A young Englishman marries a glamorous American. When he brings her home to meet the parents, she arrives like a blast from the future - blowing their entrenched British stuffiness out the window.

I went into this movie without ever even hearing about it before and it turned out to be amazing. First of all the cinematography was awesome!!! I think any film teacher out there should show this movie mainly for that reason. The characters were fantastically created. Jessica Biel was outstanding and funny and stood up for her American ways, Ben Barnes had to suddenly grow up and decide what was most important, Kristin Scott Thomas was a fantastic mother (not the mother in law I would want), Colin Firth, who I expected to act like Mr. Darcy, just didn't care, and Kris Marshall (the butler) was Hil-arious. This movie was very well written, directed, and shot and I STRONGLY encourage everyone to go and see it!


If anyone is like me and looking forward to the movie Kick Ass, check out this awesome Red Band Trailer featuring Nicholas Cage and Chloe Moretz as Hit-Girl


Alright, that was a long one. Until next time!

Website and Halloween

Hello all my faithful readers!

I just finished making a website about yours truly at LeeVaughter.com. I put a bunch of my video work on it along with other stuff too. Soooooo yeah, check it out!

Ok, I promised a Halloween movie review so here it comes.

Todays Netflix movie is: Halloween!!!!!

Yes, I admit it, I have never seen this movie until now, but I am glad that I finally got a chance to see it because it was AWESOME! It was written and directed by John Carpenter so of course it's gonna be a good one. Also I did not know that Jamie Lee Curtis was in it so that was a pleasant surprise. But on to the movie itself. It was freaky and not cheesy at all. Something I love about horror movies is when things seem like they could actually happen in real life! I also like it when all the characters don't act like complete idiots. Well this movie had both! When the doctor tells the cops that there may be a killer on the loose, THEY ACTUALLY LISTEN! You don't get horror like that anymore. This made the movie more real and again like it could actually happen. That fact alone made it much scarier to me. It also was REALLY FREAKY with the subtle killing, the long shots, and the different points of view. I now keep looking over my shoulder hoping not to see Michael Myers staring back at me. If you have not seen this movie, I strongly recommend it and I cannot wait to watch the rest of the Halloween movies.

Until next time...

Waiting...

I'm sitting here waiting for 3:15 to roll around...

I finished packing for the bachelor party, I finished editing a wedding, and now I'm bored so I guess I'll BLOG!!!

Ok, this is on my mind so I must talk about it. This week is customer appreciation week at the movie theatre so I decided to go and see Transformers 2. Boy did I regret my decision. I'm sorry but that movie was HORRIBLE. Between its miserable attempts at evoking emotion, its many many many slow motion shots, and its explosions, it was HORRIBLE. This was a huge disappointment because I liked the first Transformers! No, the first one was not a great movie, but it was entertaining. But this one (i just threw up in my mouth a little bit) was not. The guy next to me in the theatre started snoring about half way through the movie. I crossed my leg and kicked him a little. I wish I didn't, listening to him snore may have been better than watching the movie. It seemed like they were cooking a dish and had some delicious ingredients, but then they sprinkled on WAY too many spices. "Oh, lets sprinkle in some emotion, now an explosion, now a slow motion shot, now a slow motion explosion, NOW ALL THREE AT ONCE! this is going to be AWESOME!!!" Well sorry Michael Bay, but it does not sit well in my stomach.

OK, I feel better now. Thanks internet! My puppy is sleeping in my lap and it is really cute (thought I'd share).

So today I'm going down to Madison to a Bachelor Party for one of my former roommates. It's going to be fun! Except for the fact that I'm moving into a bigger apartment next week and cannot afford to spend any money at the casino. I'll guess I'll play the penny slots!

My girlfriend and I are doing a Netflix scary movie marathon from now till Halloween (the greatest of all holidays) so read the next post for a scary movie Netflix review!

So until then, You keep reading, I'll keep thinking! (how corny was that!)