Sexist AT&T commercial

"In this U-verse spot, we open on a young boy and girl on the edge of a pool in their backyard. They're watching Team USA compete in an Olympic swimming race on a TV on the back patio. The girl's teenage sister is standing next to the TV and starts ranting how good these kids have it because they're able to move the TV around wherever. While talking, she's trying to blow up an inner tube using a handheld pump. But the pump isn't working. When the young girl points this out, she gives up, and throws down the float in frustration."

Little black boy tells teenager sister "You talk a lot." Sexist commercial. Just because she talks a lot, it is worth mentioning and that is all he has worth to say. Little boy, talking is not a bad thing. She is smart, you are not if you don't believe in free speech. But of course it is not the children, it is the adult writers who wrote it.

Ty Burrell replaces Robert Downey Jr. as the voice of Mister Peabody

Robert Downey, Jr. was announced to voice Mr. Peabody, but in March 2012, he got replaced by Ty Burrell. Max Charles, the actor who plays young Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man will voice Sherman. In June 2012, it was reported that Mr. Peabody & Sherman's release date has been moved up to November 8, 2013, replacing another DreamWorks Animation's film Me & My Shadow. Stephen Colbert will voice Paul Peterson, Mr. Peabody's nemesis, Allison Janney will voice Peterson's wife, Paula, and Ariel Winter their daughter Penny. Also joining the cast are Ellie Kemper and Stephen Tobolowsky. The film will feature Mr. Peabody, a talking dog who is the smartest being in the world, and his "pet" boy Sherman. When Sherman's use of their time traveling WABAC machine results in disastrous and comical results, it is up to them to put things on track before the space-time continuum is irreparably destroyed.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peabody_and_Sherman

Related: http://spanengrish.blogspot.com/2011/01/robert-downey-jr-to-star-in-peabody-and.html

I thought ParaNorman was from the same people who did Monster House but it is not.

 I thought ParaNorman was from the same people who did Monster House but it is not. There is this new movie out August 17 called ParaNorman, about kids and ghosts and monsters. It looks similar to the movie Monster House, but I am not saying plot-wise---it reminded me stylistically. But it turns out that Monster House was produced by ImageMovers and Amblin Entertainment, and distributed by Columbia Pictures.

 ParaNorman is actually produced by Coraline creators Laika, distributed by Focus Features. LAIKA, Inc. is an American stop-motion animation studio specializing in feature films, commercials, music videos, broadcast graphics and short films. The studio is best known for its stop-motion feature film Coraline, released in 2009.  Laika is owned by Nike co-founder and Chairman Phil Knight, and is located in Oregon's Portland metropolitan area; Knight's son Travis acts as its President and CEO. The company has two divisions, Laika Entertainment for feature films and Laika/house for commercial work such as advertisements and music videos. Their feature films are distributed by Focus Features.

 

I thought ParaNorman was computer animated like Monster House but it is actually stop-motion animated film like Coraline. Currently in production at the Hillsboro studio are a stop-motion film ParaNorman slated for an August 17, 2012 release, and an unnamed production for 2014. Laika has also optioned Colin Meloy's fantasy novel Wildwood, and Philip Reeve's fantasy book Goblins to make feature film adaptations. The voice cast includes Casey Affleck, Tempestt Bledsoe, Jeff Garlin, John Goodman, Bernard Hill, Anna Kendrick, Leslie Mann, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Elaine Stritch and Tucker Albrizzi.

Amazing Spider-Man Review

 My close friend revealed she reads these so she probably already know what I am going to say as I saw the movie with her. She saw it twice but I'm the kind of guy that once is suffice. This movie is worth seeing, it is fun, tear-full, intimate, and dark. As the first Sam Raimi's movies were a bit cheerful and glossy. My friends call it campy but I don't consider it as campy as "Batman and Robin" with Arnold S. This Spider-Man is a bit grounded in reality even though there is gene-splicing, changing rats into lizards and other stuff that nature. Anyway, we get the origin story again but told in an unique way. This time Peter Parker's dad is involved and was developing experiments with animals to cure diseases along with Dr. Connors (Rhys Ifans). They worked for Oscorp (Norman Osbourne is mentioned only in name).

 Peter is given to his aunt and uncle when his parents mysteriously go missing after their house is broken in to. Andrew Garfield is absolutely charming as Peter Parker, I love his stammer and he just exudes sex. He is so lanky but also cool-acting. Whereas Toby Maguire played Peter as a stereotypical nerd, Andrew's Peter is more of a loner, he gets beat up and plenty, but he withstands it. He is a skater-boy (so nimble!). Oh he has an ass that just doesn't quit. Even Jon Stewart commented on Andrew's butt on the Daily Show. In Sam Raimi's movie, as soon as Spider-Man became Spider-Man, it was a big news thing, everyone loved him. Not so here. It is treated more realistically. The chief of police (Dennis Leary) calls him for what he is--a boy out for revenge but not yet a hero. So Peter stays in school and not working for the newspaper so no Jameson. But he is still a photographer and we do have bully Flash (Chris Zylka). Emma Watson is also charming as Gwen Stacy, she is smart and sweet, her big doe-eyes communicate a lot and she has the comedic chops. At first I wasn't for having big names as Martin Sheen and Sally Field but I admit I like their experience, it makes any quick scenes feel longer and more organic.

 

SPOILERS

 Spoiler Alert but many things of the first Sam Raimi movie happens here as well that are part of the origin story. Of course Uncle Ben dies but this time instead dropping Peter at a wrestling match, they are having a fight and Peter ran away. Ben looks for him and Peter goes to buy milk but doesn't have enough money. So Ben is killed by a criminal that robs the store where the employee refused Peter. Peter never quite gets the guy but he tries, he keeps chasing criminals to get to the guy. The chief of police is Gwen's dad which was already revealed in the trailers, one of my friends watching the movie actually seemed surprised. The movie is not without its obvious plot twists. Gwen works for Ozcorp and I wondered why because while in most of the movie, she seems to have no purpose other than just be a romantic interest and confidant. But eventually the purposes seem clear. My friends liked that Spider-Man was more 'spider' like and super strong. He wraps Lizard in a cocoon in one bit. For me, this is a mostly Peter Parker film, it is that personal.

I didn't like the abrupt change of Dr. Connors/Lizard, it was not so clear that he had changed to wanting everyone to be lizards. I also don't like the shadows of Green Goblin, where Dr. Connors seems to have a split-personality. He quickly wants to kill Spider-Man. But I understand why they had to do it. Also, I absolutely hated the bug-eyed Rajit Ratha (Irrfan Khan), who Lizard wants revenge on. I think we are meant to feel for him, but it is hard to. Poor Peter, he looses four people. He is bloody almost the whole movie. Which is just great entertainment. I dug it.

Magic Mike Movie Review

 Directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Channing Tatum as Mike, Matthew McConaughey as Dallas (the owner and father figure), Alex Pettefyr as Adam and Cody Horn as Adam's sister Brooke. Xquisite is a club that showcases a strip show for women. Where as female strippers are on poles and strip all the way down, these men give out a show in bright lights and music and just end up in G-strings. Adam meets Mike at a construction job and is quickly fired and sees Mike again at a club and is quickly thrusted into stripping giving him lots of money and ability to be with any woman, which gets to his head. Mike is the real star as he wants to be an entrepreneur making handmade furniture out of junk but struggles in his effort. He has a slow building but obvious romance with Brooke as he has his sex buddy Joanna (Olivia Munn) who they have threesomes with.

 Set in Tampa, Florida, their ultimate goal is have a club in Miami. We meet the other strippers Joe Manfaniello (True Blood), Matt Bomer (White Collar), Adam Rodriguez (CSI Miami) and Kevin Nash but we barely get to know them as characters. Either I am not used to Soderbergh's style or the script by Reid Carolin is merely a sneak peak into a person's life than the traditional mainstream narrative. Not to get super spoilerly but is a threat involved but I barely feel the threat. Things are said but we don't see it. And we never get to see Miami, it would been nice to see that. Channing carries the movie. I went to see the movie with my girlfriends and one said it as a bad porno with bad acting. She said she got what she paid for as she wanted just eye candy. And there is plenty of eye candy.

Straight boyfriends might be concerned that this movie is only for straight women and gay guys but it gives equal opportunity to all. Men might sympathize and relate to Mikes problems or Adam's over-zealousness. There are plenty of breasts (three pairs at least), all the men show their butts (Channing most of all) and we see a penis in the corner of the screen for a few seconds---most likely a stunt 'cock.' We see the shows but I wish we saw more of the other shows as the majority of them are in a montage and the shows we see more in full are Mike's and as a group. Rumor is Channing and Soderbergh are planning on a Broadway show but not sure if they want to be a musical. I think if this was a musical movie, it would had blown "Rock of Ages" out of the water. I felt like singing was missing. Matthew does plenty of it, but Tom Cruise's singing gives more to desire.

 

In the end, it is an entertaining movie but for my taste, I would have liked more to happen and more character development from the other actors. But like I say, the movie is more of a sneak-peak in a person's life, it is not a normal plot---it is just a vignette. But just like the women that go to their shows in the movie, in real life group of women go see this movie and swoon.

My Little Pony/Transformers that share names

I did know that Transformers and My Little Pony shared some names, as they are both owned by Hasbro but after doing research, I find out that Transformers share more names with G.I. Joe. According to this All Wiki page, they share about 85 names. According to the same page, MLP and Transformers share 15 names, but some are a bit of a stretch as it isn't the exact name. For example, there is a Transformer named Scoop but in MLP there is Sweet Scoops and Sweet Cream Scoops. Here are some that have the same exact names:

Beachcomber

The G1 Autobot was a beach buggy.  G1 Beachcomber for MLP was a sea pony and the G3 Beachcomber is a pink Earth Pony with a flower. G1 Autobot appeared on the Transformers TV show and G1 Beachcomber sea pony appeared on the original MLP show. 

Seaspray

Seaspray was an European Seapony and G3 Earth Pony and Seaspray has been in many incarnations including G1,  Transformers Animated, Transformers Prime and a hovercraft in the live-action movie series.

Zigzag

Zigzag is a G1 Decepticon that becomes a gun, no version of this character or mold was released in Japan. Zig Zag was a G1 Zebra Pony Friend. Neither did not appeared on any of their respective shows.

DJ

DJ was a maximal from Beast Wars 2 Anime in Japan. DJ was a background unicorn in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic that the fans gave a name to and soon will get a toy.

WindSweeper

Decepticon Triggercon of G1, appeared in the US and UK comics with a toy in 1988. Windsweeper is part of the Dream Beauties of 1989-1990. Both appeared after the cartoon series.

NightGlider

NightGlider is a G1 'Twice as Fancy' Pony and NightGlider is a Maximal from beast Wars who was only a toy (Transmetal 2).

Sunbeam

A G1 Targetmaster and a G1 1983 unicorn, both did not appear in cartoons.

 

Cosmos

From the G1 cartoon and special monthly ponies in G1.

Star Catcher

G3 Pegasus (two different distinct versions) and part of Astrotrain from G1.