The good:

* The actors – Elizabeth Shue kicks a lot of ass. I’ll admit, she’s only come into my consciousness the last few years, but between this and “Hamlet 2″ I think I may have to investigate her further. Ving Rhames, though, was woefully underutilized. Christopher Lloyd has a couple of cute scenes – - also, look for Eli Roth!
* The gore – I’m REALLY surprised this got away with an R-rating. I’ve been devouring horror movies since I was in elementary school, the gorier the better, and there were a few things in this movie that actually made my stomach turn a little.
* The special effects – Obviously the piranhas were very CGI, but I was really impressed with some of the practical effects. As I said, there was a lot of gore in this movie, but it seemed like they used practical effects (that is, “real” props and makeup) for everything they could. Lots of dismembered corpses and gnawed-upon legs that looked pretty good. (I’m a big fan of makeup & other practical effects, so this is something I tend to look for in horror movies.)
* The 3D – I’ve only seen a few movies in 3D, mostly because the ones I have seen haven’t really impressed me enough to justify the extra cost. (Like, say, the aforementioned Avatar. Have I mentioned that I hated that movie?) This one, though, really made good use of the 3D. Lots of fun.
* Apparently it pissed Joe Francis (of “Girls Gone Wild” fame) the hell off. Neat! (The link to the Onion AV Club has one minor spoiler, if you care about that.)

The bad:

* The male gaze – Oh lordy. You know… I think naked women are awesome. Especially underwater. I totally went into this movie with the attitude of “Yay! Nudity!” But… the way it was presented kind of crossed the line for me into insulting/uncomfortable. I liked the bit of commentary on the “Girls Gone Wild” phenomenon presented with Jerry O’Connell’s character (a thinly veiled caricature of Joe Francis) but I don’t feel it went far enough in condemning that kind of abusive exploitation, and I think the movie ended up being guilty of a lot of the same attitudes it was poking fun at. Wasn’t crazy about that. Also, the fact that the more explicit gore/violence was frequently sexualized and almost entirely aimed at young, busty women made me VERY uncomfortable.
* The pace – The best part of the movie was definitely the last half hour or so, where the bloodbath really picks up. I wish they had stretched this out a bit longer and cut out some of the earlier part of the movie, which really dragged at a few points.

I give it 7.5 stars: Some of the most entertaining horror I’ve seen in a while, but problematic enough to upset my inner feminist even more than most horror.

Here’s the trailer (which is pretty PG; nothing worse than a bunch of people in swimsuits):

So basically, if you love ridiculous, raunchy horror, go see it, as long as you’re okay with incredibly graphic dismemberment and a pretty good-sized spoonful of sexism. Violence against women isn’t cool, y’all.

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Paradox: buying 70s resist suit please help me
Paradox: buying 70s resist suit please help me
Chaice: bell bottoms and big lapels?
Azaxis: lol
Paradox: anything ij ust need it to be 70s

The chat was quiet for a while, until a few minutes later:

Paradox: were you still going to make me an 70s suite?

I LOLed.

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Heather’s Harley by ~lonegungirl42 on deviantART

Here’s some of my older Harley stuff, too, if you haven’t seen it:

Chibi Harley + Ivy – color by ~lonegungirl42 on deviantART
Harley and Ivy – vines – color by ~lonegungirl42 on deviantART
Retro Harley by ~lonegungirl42 on deviantART

What is it about Harley Quinn that makes her so much fun to draw?

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* I’m hot for Emma Thompson and Maggie Gyllenhaal
* Maggie Smith and Asa Butterfield (Mordred from “Merlin”) are in it too… basically, it’s full of wizards
* It was free, and I’d get to spend an evening with Heather
* It was the Universal employee screening, so I figured it’d be relatively free of children
* The Universal Cineplex has a bar! So either way I was gonna enjoy myself.

Started the evening with a strawberry-banana daiquiri and a generous shot of Teaka sweet tea vodka (which is pretty darn good straight, I’ve gotta say). Made the first 20 minutes or so of the movie much more bearable.

In the beginning, I was pretty unimpressed by the movie. It takes place on a farm, so of course there was one joke about animal excrement after another after another after another… kind of tiresome. That, and I have a very low tolerance for screaming/fighting children. Of course, that’s kind of the point of the movie – - the kids are acting like brats and Nanny McPhee comes and straightens them out.

It got a lot better, after the beginning. Lots of animals, which I always enjoy watching. Found myself legitimately chuckling a few times at the baby elephant and the burping crow. The scene with the synchronized-swimming piglets, though, really made me wish I was watching the movie with a joint instead of a daiquiri.

I was pleasantly surprised by cameos from Ewan McGregor and Ralph Fiennes. Though there was one scene where I felt like Asa Butterfield was about to get Avada Kedavra-ed. (This was also around the time one of the few children in the audience started wailing, and their guardian was apparently unwilling to take them out of the theatre. Bleah. I think yelling Ralph Fiennes was a little too much for them.)

I think the only thing I legitimately objected to was a few “LOL UNATTRACTIVE WOMEN” jokes. God forbid you’re fat or you’ve got moles or big eyebrows (yeah, some of the movie didn’t exactly make me feel good about myself)…

I’d give it 6/10: Definitely watchable, but I don’t think I’d watch it again unless I was under the influence of some questionable substance. Not a bad choice if you want something to watch with young children, though.

Here’s the trailer if you think you might be interested:

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The venue:

The screening was at Citywalk. I’ve been to a lot of movie screenings, but this was the first one that actually felt like an “event”… I was impressed (albeit easily). There were free drinks… I had an “Alice” (which was blue and lemony) and Heather had a “Buffy” (which was something involving root beer)… and they didn’t skimp on the alcohol, which was a pleasant surprise. XL 106.7 had a table set up where they were doing free vampire facepainting. I ended up passing on that after I saw some of the facepainting (it wasn’t _bad_, just a real quick job) though apparently they were also doing a raffle at the table.

The movie:

I’ll admit, I set my sights pretty low. Growing up I loved spoof movies (Naked Gun, Airplane, anything by Mel Brooks), but the last few years they’ve been pretty lacking. I feel like the Scary Movie films revived the genre and then beat it to death, like something out of Re-Animator. So I was kind of hoping for the best and expecting the worst.
But I’ve gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the hell out of this movie, and found myself laughing quite obnoxiously. The cast was great, and they all had a really good sense of comedic timing, which is something missing from most mainstream comedies lately. Chris Riggi (“Jacob White”) in particular stole the scenes he was in. And honestly, Jenn Proske would have made a hell of a better Bella than Kristen Stewart ever could. Ken Jeong (“Daro”, but you probably know him as Señor Chang from “Community”) didn’t get nearly enough screen time, though. And Diedrich Bader was a pleasant surprise, but his talents were badly underutilized.
The rest of the audience seemed to like it, even though on the way in it seemed to be pretty divided between people who loved Twilight and people who hated it. Though the couple next to us walked out about 20 minutes in; I don’t know if the humor was too raunchy or what…

GO SEE THIS MOVIE, _IF_:

* You’ve seen ‘Twilight’ and either
a) you hated it and want to see somebody artfully snark on it or
b) you liked it but are okay with somebody poking fun at it.

Let me reiterate: You really need to have seen the first Twilight movie to appreciate this movie, or at _least_ have read the first book. You didn’t have to _like_ it, but you need to be familiar with it.
But seriously. I laughed my ass off, and I’m pretty damn picky about comedies. I’d give it 7.5 out of 10. Would have given it an 8 if there weren’t several “dead spots” in the film where they didn’t really keep the comedy going.

Here’s the trailer if you haven’t seen it yet:

Also, Team Jacob! LOL

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I recommend this game IF:
* You like music games
* You really like rap / hip-hop
* You don’t mind feeling really silly, like you’re a kid playing with “My First Turntable”

I think the music in this game is excellent. I think I’m about halfway through the game, so I haven’t gotten to all the songs yet… some of the combinations really surprised me. I would never have imagined mixing “Feel Good Inc.” with “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”, but it actually sounds amazing. And “Hollaback Girl” mixed with “Give It To Me Baby” is a vast improvement. (…over Gwen’s original track, obviously. Sorry Gwen. I love you, but damn.) The track with “My Name Is” was pretty embarrassing, though. I can’t even remember what song I was mixing it with, because the whole time I just wanted it to be over already.

Basically each level you play involves mixing two songs together, with the game telling you where to crossfade, scratch, rewind, or use other effects. I recommend playing the tutorials so you can get an idea of the controls, but I HIGHLY recommend turning down the volume on the announcer. (I love you, Grandmaster Flash… I really do… but I got really tired of your voice REALLY fast in this game.) You’ll probably be able to figure it out pretty quickly on your own, and the instructions get really obnoxious.

One thing I can’t believe got through, though: the “star power” type effect for this game is called “Euphoria”. …really? They got away with that? “NOM NOM I USE ECSTASY EUPHORIA TO MAKE ME DJ BETTER.” (Not that there’s anything wrong with that… I just find it kind of hilarious.)

Anyways. The one big downside to the game for me is that if I play it too long – - like for, say, an hour – - I get a terrible headache. =(
And since the game only comes with one turntable, and nobody else I know has one, I can only play it by myself for now, so I’m not really sure what the multiplayer experience is like – - though if anybody brings a Playstation guitar controller over, there are several tracks where one player can be the DJ and another player can play guitar on the track. Neat!

And there’s going to be a sequel in fall which will incorporate a microphone. That’s exciting.

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I can see why people might compare the story to Twilight; it’s got a lot of theme and plot elements in common with it. Human girl falls in love with vampire, quasi-love triangle with a shapeshifter… but it’s like Twilight if it actually had decent writing (decent, but not _great_), some idea of how to tell a story, and a lot less misogyny.

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Completely irrelevant to the rest of the post, but here’s something cool. I saw this picture on the Frederick’s of Hollywood Facebook page the other day, and I said “Hey! That would make an awesome wallpaper!” So I made one. It’s 1280×1024; let me know if you want it in any other size(s).

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It reminds me of something out of one of one of Supreme Master Ching Hai’s books. (But seriously, next time you’re at Loving Hut, look through one of her books. It will be time well spent.)

Anyways, have you met Happy Shed?

Happy Shed is out behind the Waffle House at Alafaya & 50.

Me and Happy Shed.

Today we visited the Waffle House, and Happy Shed appears to have made a new friend!

I’m glad that Happy Shed has somebody to talk to now when we’re not there.
Heather suggested that perhaps we shouldn’t get too attached to Happy Shed, though as we’ve already named it I guess it’s a bit too late for that…

(All the photos are thanks to Heather. BTW, readers, is this too many pictures to not have the entry behind a cut, do you think? Are they too big? Let me know! It looks fine on my computer, but I dunno about everybody else.)

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Also, Nicole wants to know – - since when do they allow pets in the Disney water parks?

(Thank you, Heather, for sending me these photos… she’s such a good sport when I say something stupid like “Baby! Take a picture of this so I can post it on my blog!”)

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Also, on an unrelated note, I finally started watching True Blood. I’m starting with season 1, and will hopefully be able to catch up to the new episodes within a couple weeks. I’ll keep y’all posted as to my thoughts. (I just finished the second episode, and so far my favorite characters are Tara and Lafayette.)

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Delicious vegan pancakes and sausages!

My lemon pie and her blueberry pancakes :D

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