With so much of my (Lauren’s) personality constructed by Television, from PBS shows of my childhood to everything Joss Whedon that influenced my sense of humor and sarcasm, it’s no surprise that every year I get pretty excited for the pilots making their attempt to gain viewers. Not only that, but sometimes I go crazy fanatic for those shows I have come to love for seasons and seasons. Chuck is only a half season!? Community is getting shelved!? NNNOOO!!!! Good thing there are some great new shows that helped these irritated wounds sting a little less. [Read more...]
HST’s Best of 2011: Television
01/04/2012 by Leave a Comment
Review: Despicable Me
07/09/2010 by Leave a Comment
Despicable Me is a bland effort around an interesting idea that barely salvages itself from travesty with a pretty decent finale.
The film follows Gru, a villain of the world who hasn’t had a note worthy diabolical scheme in some time. Added to this he has been recently upstaged by a young and upcoming villain, Vector, who has stolen one of the great pyramids and the two begin to battle it out over the next great heist using a top secret shrink ray that has just been produced. The two go back and forth over the ownership of the shrink ray and in the plot to take the ray from Vector; Gru adopts and forces his new young daughters into the mix of his dastardly plans.
Rental Review – When In Rome
06/26/2010 by 2 Comments
A fountain of love is something I would definitely be happy to come across. But as hopeful as a girl can be about finding one my expectations aren’t that high, so I will settle for watching a good romantic comedy about a fountain of this nature instead. Unfortunately after watching When In Rome I have been made aware that neither exists.
They say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Unfortunately for Beth she doesn’t really know what that entails. While visiting for her sisters impromptu wedding she fails to break the ceremonial vase, her speech is hindered by her total lack of Italian language skills, and worst of all, she doesn’t know the myth about a certain fountain. Legend tells that if a person removes a coin from the fountain, the person who threw it in will fall madly in love with the thief. And seeing as this is a romantic comedy, this legend just happens to be true. Now Beth must deal with four random strangers chasing her around thanks to her drunken mistake, as well as the possibility that the one guy she actually likes may be suffering from the spell as well. [Read more...]
Review: Jonah Hex
06/18/2010 by Leave a Comment
The latest, and possibly most under the radar, comic book film this summer is the adaptation of Jonah Hex and the results are a mixed bag as the films focus seems to be in a lot of wrong places.
Hex is a Confederate soldier of some rank but when he turns on his regiment and shoots his best friend dead the Confederate General Turnbull, and father to Hex’s best friend, hunts Hex down, murders his family, and leaves him for dead with a brand on the face to remind him of who did this to him. We are then given a quick rundown of the next few beats in Hex’s life, Turnbull apparently dies, and Hex is left as a supernatural bounty hunter who can briefly resurrect the dead with his touch. As he reeks havoc on the outlaws he hunts, a bounty is in turn put on Hex and the hunter is also the hunted. As Hex tries to earn his keep and stay alive Turnbull turns up alive and constructing a secret military weapon and the president recruits Hex to hunt down his nemesis and save the country.
Two Weeks Put Off By Mass Effect (AKA Reviews of Monsters vs Aliens and Moon)
02/08/2010 by Leave a Comment
For those of you who pay any attention to my postings then you may have noticed that there has apparently been little going on in my life, cuz let’s face it, we are not all as cool as Zac. I mean, I didn’t even have one thing to put in a suggestion box last week. Well I can explain. You see, this little game came out a couple of weeks ago called Mass Effect 2, which you may have heard something about. Anyway, for the most part my waking hours not dedicated to “healthy” activities like school, sports, and eating (well, and TV, but I don’t think my attempts to spin that one will make it “healthy”) have gone to fighting baddies throughout the universe. With that said, I did manage to slip two movies in there a while back that deserve to have a few words said about them. [Read more...]
Review: When in Rome
01/29/2010 by Leave a Comment
It didn’t take long to get a huge stink bomb of a movie this year in 010 and that movie is When in Rome. The movie is so poorly written, is almost devoid of humor, is absolutely absurd, and gets nothing out of a decent slate of talent that made the unfortunate decision of taking on a role in this piece of… well you get the point.
I was groaning and restless from the get go as we quickly jump into absurdity and cliché that inhabits every romantic comedy that feels like it has to follow the formula. Beth,Kristen Bell, a successful curator who has a big event coming up that could make or break her career, gets a drop in visit from her younger sister who has just met a guy and is getting married after two weeks of knowing him. Within seemingly a matter of days, Beth and all of her family and friends of the family are in Rome where an elaborate and expensive wedding is being held; how it was planned and so well attended in a mere matter of days is just dumbfounding. Logistics aside, Beth meets the handsome and charming Nick, Josh Duhamel, who sweeps her off her feet. Of course Beth is ready to go for it but [Read more...]
Review Monsters vs. Aliens
04/10/2009 by Leave a Comment
The latest from DreamWorks Animation is one of their lesser efforts that don’t work on almost every level outside of the pretty solid 3-D.
Susan Murphy is about to get married to her ‘weather man with a plan’ that has them moving up to the big time in no time. After getting some unexpected news that she is moving to Tucson instead of Europe for her Honeymoon, Susan is hit by a giant meteor that crashed to earth after hurling through space from a far away exploding planet. Susan some how walks away from this and heads to the alter; only to grow into a giant woman that busts out the ceiling and walls of her church ceremony. The government quickly responds and takes her away into confinement in a top secret facility for monsters where she meets B.O.B. the blue blob, Dr. Cockroach (a mad human scientist that turned himself into a cockroach), The Missing Link (a creature from the black lagoon like beast), and Insectosaurus a 300 foot tall furry insect looking monster. In the mean time, an evil alien warlord, Gallaxhar, sends a giant robot probe to earth to search for a precious substance that composed the meteor that crushed Susan and made her grow to what she is. [Read more...]
Review: Ratatouille
12/13/2007 by Leave a Comment
Hands down the best animated film of the year (unless Persepolis blows me away whenever I get to see it) and probably the best since Brad Bird’s last film, the masterpiece that is The Incredibles, Ratatouille is a fantastic story about rats, cooking, and believing in anyone.
We follow two main characters in this film Remy the rat and who is a masterful chef who embraces humans and there ways. As well as Linguini, a wanna be chef without a chance to every be good. The two happen to fall in each others laps and are able to help one another out through a little fantasy twist and imagination. [Read more...]
