tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35198801466934968892024-03-14T03:29:34.809-04:00Two Tickets For...Hi, we're Andrew and Sarah Keck. Here's what you need to know: we're newlyweds and we see a lot of movies, both in the theatres and on dvd. This blog is going to be an open discussion movie review between the two of us on what we think about whatever movie we just watched. Hopefully you, the reader, will find us entertaining but also informative in giving you two sides of a movie. We hope you enjoy!Andrew Keckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10472426941256942575noreply@blogger.comBlogger332125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-23259214685257825542017-07-05T10:12:00.002-04:002017-07-05T10:13:53.691-04:00The First Marvel-Made Spider-Man Film is a Swinging Success: Our Review of "Spider-Man: Homecoming" (2017)<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LFp0apnEMEk/WVzyuRUq6XI/AAAAAAAAA6Q/JJB1ByyvZCcEoyuHJf3-63z7sVrxnsokwCLcBGAs/s1600/spider_man_poster2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LFp0apnEMEk/WVzyuRUq6XI/AAAAAAAAA6Q/JJB1ByyvZCcEoyuHJf3-63z7sVrxnsokwCLcBGAs/s320/spider_man_poster2.jpg" width="216"></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;"><b>Director:</b></u><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Jon Watts </span></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u style="font-weight: bold;"><b>Starring:</b></u> Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey, Jr., Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Bokeem Woodbine, Logan Marshall-Green</span></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u style="font-weight: bold;"><b>Rating:</b></u> PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, some language and brief suggestive comments</span></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u style="font-weight: bold;"><b>Run Time:</b></u> 2 hours, 13 minutes</span></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u style="font-weight: bold;"><b>Synopsis:</b></u> Months after helping Tony Stark (Downey, Jr.) during the events of <i style="font-weight: bold;">Captain America: Civil War</i>, Peter Parker (Holland) is doing his best to balance his dual-life being a high school student and Spider-Man. In the process of trying to impress Stark in hopes of joining The Avengers full-time, Peter stumbles upon a gang - lead by Adrian Toomes (Keaton) - that's selling black-market weapons powered by Chitauri technology, and decides to take things into his own hands.</span></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><b>REVIEW</b></span></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! In what may be a bit of surprise it turns out <i style="font-weight: bold;">Two Tickets For...</i> is not dead, it's just been dormant. We've been absolutely terrible at reviewing the movies we've been seeing and we'll try our best to get back to reviewing on at least a semi-regular basis. That's our goal, especially since 2017 is turning out to be a pretty good year for movies!</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For now though we're back because we were fortunate enough to see an early screening of one of this summer's more highly-anticipated blockbusters - Marvel and Sony's <i style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2250912/?ref_=nm_knf_t3" target="_blank">Spider-Man: Homecoming</a></i>!</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Sarah:</u> Yes we did! <i style="font-weight: bold;">Spider-Man: Homecoming</i> is the sixth and newest installment in Sony's on-going attempts to bring Spider-Man to the silver screen, but unlike Sam Raimi's <b><i>Spider-Man</i></b> trilogy with Tobey Maguire or the two <i style="font-weight: bold;">Amazing Spider-Man</i> films starring Andrew Garfield, <i style="font-weight: bold;">Spider-Man: Homecoming</i> was produced by Marvel Studios!</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">A:</u> Yes! Marvel worked out a deal with Sony where Marvel would actually control the creative process and make the film while Sony got to keep marketing and distribution rights. In the process Marvel gets to use Spider-Man in other Marvel Studios films and Sony gets to have some other Marvel characters appear in their Spider-Man films. A fair deal, if you ask me.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Spider-Man: Homecoming</i> stars Tom Holland (<i style="font-weight: bold;">The Impossible</i>) as Peter Parker, reprising his role from 2016's <i style="font-weight: bold;">Captain America: Civil War</i>. This new Spider-Man movie <i>is</i> a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and includes appearances from some other MCU characters such as Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) and his bodyguard/chauffeur, Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau). But this <i>is</i> a new Peter Parker, a younger version than Maguire or Garfield's...</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> Maybe not necessarily a younger version, because he's still in high school in the other movies, but Holland himself is younger.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">A:</u> Right, Holland was only 20 when they filmed <i style="font-weight: bold;">Spider-Man: Homecoming</i> as opposed to Maguire being 26 and Garfield being 28 when they first portrayed Peter Parker/Spider-Man, respectively. Though this film does state at one point that Peter is only 15 years old as opposed to being a high school senior like Maguire's version was at the beginning of 2002's <i style="font-weight: bold;">Spider-Man</i>. </span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> That's true.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">A:</u> Anyhow, this is a film I know I've been looking forward to because it was a Marvel production instead of a Sony one. Sarah, now that we've seen <b style="font-style: italic;">Spider-Man: Homecoming </b>what did you think of it and how did you feel it fit into the MCU?</span><br>
<a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2017/07/the-first-marvel-made-spider-man-film.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-1564446392583985542017-02-26T17:36:00.002-05:002017-02-26T17:39:33.316-05:00Two Tickets For... Predicts the 89th Academy Awards Winners!<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eNTjhcn8Kr4/UOn5yt_CRxI/AAAAAAAABms/uePkGI4Du7cSM8w86eNIlh62YeWd11XNACPcB/s1600/oscars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eNTjhcn8Kr4/UOn5yt_CRxI/AAAAAAAABms/uePkGI4Du7cSM8w86eNIlh62YeWd11XNACPcB/s320/oscars.jpg" width="320"></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! As you may know, the 89th Academy Awards are airing tonight on ABC. You may not know it from our lack of reviews the past year, but we DO still see a ton of movies and we've seen most of the Oscar nominees this season.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So that said, Sarah and I carved out a bit of time this afternoon to go through all of the categories and their nominees, picking who we think <i style="font-weight: bold;">will</i> win and who we think <i style="font-weight: bold;">should</i> win. For each category we'll list the nominees and then our picks. For some awards we'll write up little blurbs explaining our thought process. Let's see how well we do tonight!</span><br>
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<b><u><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">BEST PICTURE</span></u></b><br>
<b><i><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Arrival</span></i></b><br>
<b><i><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fences</span></i></b><br>
<b><i><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hacksaw Ridge</span></i></b><br>
<b><i><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hell or High Water</span></i></b><br>
<b><i><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hidden Figures</span></i></b><br>
<b><i><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">La La Land</span></i></b><br>
<b><i><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lion</span></i></b><br>
<b><i><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Machester by the Sea</span></i></b><br>
<b><i><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Moonlight</span></i></b><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Will Win - </b>Sarah: <b><i>La La Land </i></b> Andrew: <b><i>La La Land</i></b></span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Should Win - </b> Sarah: <b><i>Hell or High Water </i></b> Andrew: <b><i>Hell or High Water</i></b></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Thoughts:</b> It's really looking like <i style="font-weight: bold;">La La Land</i> will wind up running away from the majority of the awards tonight, and it's a fantastic movie no doubt. But <b><i>Hell or High Water</i> </b>was the film we saw in 2016 that we thought was the best, period. Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Jeff Bridges all give career-best (or near career-best) performances, you can cut the tension with a knife throughout the film, and it's a very acute look at the hardships many Americans deal with on a daily basis - with a cinematic approach to how two brothers decide to face their personal hardships. If we had votes they would go towards David Mackenzie & Taylor Sheridan's crime Western. But <i style="font-weight: bold;">La La Land</i> is obviously winning.</span><br>
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<b><u><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">BEST DIRECTOR</span></u></b><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Damien Chazelle, <b><i>La La Land</i></b></span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mel Gibson, <b><i>Hacksaw Ridge</i></b></span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Barry Jenkins, <b><i>Moonlight</i></b></span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kenneth Lonergan, <b><i>Manchester by the Sea</i></b></span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Denis Villeneuve, <b><i>Arrival</i></b></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Will & Should Win - </b>S: Damien Chazelle A: Damien Chazelle</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Thoughts:</b> The only one of these five films we didn't see was <i style="font-weight: bold;">Hacksaw Ridge</i>, and any other year I think there might be a real fight to be had here, but <i style="font-weight: bold;">La La Land</i> should be such a steamroller that it'll be a big surprise if Chazelle doesn't walk away the winner. To be fair, 3 out of the last 4 Oscars have seen a Best Picture/Best Director split, but we're confident Chazelle's sharp eye and strong hand over the musical he's worked so long on will be awarded.</span><br>
<a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2017/02/two-tickets-for-predicts-89th-academy.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-21060023806056035342017-01-15T12:01:00.001-05:002017-01-15T12:11:47.545-05:00My How the Time (and Bullets) Fly: Our Review of "Underworld: Blood Wars" (2017)<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oeOeeH3riyk/WHuqKdKnKEI/AAAAAAAAA30/JlIp4OD7GtoUJsND4mSnVUYWk_trECEJwCLcB/s1600/Underworld%2BBlood%2BWars%2Bposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oeOeeH3riyk/WHuqKdKnKEI/AAAAAAAAA30/JlIp4OD7GtoUJsND4mSnVUYWk_trECEJwCLcB/s320/Underworld%2BBlood%2BWars%2Bposter.jpg" width="256"></a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Directed By:</u> Anna Foerster </span><br>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Starring:</u> Kate Beckinsale, Theo James, Tobias Menzies, Charles Dance, Lara Pulver</span><br>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Rated:</u> R for strong bloody violence and some sexuality</span><br>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Run Time:</u> 91 minutes</span><br>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Synopsis:</u> Called back into action with the promise of clemency for her prior crimes, Selene (Kate Beckinsale) returns to her Coven to train a new army of vampires as they look to defend themselves from Marius (Tobias Menzeis), a dangerous and organized Lycan leader. Not all is as it seems however, forcing Selene and David (Theo James) to seek out a distant Coven in the hopes of surviving - and possibly ending - the long-running Vampire/Lycan war.</span><br>
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<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">REVIEW</span></b><br>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u><span style="background-color: white;"> Hello dear readers! Yes it's true, we are BACK with a review for the first time in a few months. Quite honestly we've been looking for an inspiration to get us back into our movie reviewing groove again. Then we started seeing commercials for </span><i style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3717252/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Underworld: Blood Wars</a></i><span style="background-color: white;">, the latest entry in the Kate Beckinsale-led </span><i style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold;">Underworld</i><span style="background-color: white;"> franchise and we just </span><i style="background-color: white;">knew</i><span style="background-color: white;"> we needed to review it. How could we not when <a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2012/01/snowed-in-with-lycans-and-kate.html" target="_blank">the first FIRST review</a> we did five years ago here on <b><i>Two Tickets For...</i></b> was for </span><i style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold;">Underworld: Awakening</i><span style="background-color: white;">?</span></span><br>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And so we're back! Sarah, in general we actually quite enjoy the <i style="font-weight: bold;">Underworld</i> movies for what they are: stylish and ridiculous action films about the war between vampires and Lycans (the series' term for werewolves).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now that we've seen <i style="font-weight: bold;">Underworld: Blood Wars</i>, what did you think of the latest entry in the series?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Sarah:</u> Well it was definitely something! This new installation to the franchise was a little lacking for me. While we were sitting there I started to think that there was a <i>lot </i>of talking happening. They kept going back and explaining everything that has happened over the course of all the films. </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For some reason it just seemed like a lot of talking. When I go see the</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Underworld </i><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> movies I go for the action, not the deep intellectual stimulation. While there was some action, it just was lacking in comparison to the previous films. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Am I being too critical? What did you think?</span><br>
</div></div><a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2017/01/my-how-time-and-bullets-fly-our-review.html#more">Read more »</a>Andrew Keckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10472426941256942575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-79041392337311459882016-08-11T18:05:00.003-04:002016-08-11T18:05:22.106-04:00This Bunch of Degenerates and Nutjobs is Too Uneven: Our Review of "Suicide Squad" (2016)<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NLCxAHGBxH0/V6zfmdp5KaI/AAAAAAAAA2M/BMJPJPsD74w39ADlQFZCCpkymFa6AfB8QCLcB/s1600/suicide-squad-movie-2016-poster.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NLCxAHGBxH0/V6zfmdp5KaI/AAAAAAAAA2M/BMJPJPsD74w39ADlQFZCCpkymFa6AfB8QCLcB/s320/suicide-squad-movie-2016-poster.jpeg" width="216"></span></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b style="text-decoration: underline;">Directed by:</b> David Ayer (<i style="font-weight: bold;">End of Watch</i>, <i style="font-weight: bold;">Fury</i>) </span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Starring:</u> Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman, Cara Delevigne, Jay Hernandez, Jai Courtney</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Rating:</u> PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout, disturbing behavior, suggestive content and language</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Run Time:</u> 2 hours, 3 minutes</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Synopsis:</u> Following the events of <i style="font-weight: bold;">Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice</i>, the U.S. government builds a task force of incarcerated "metahumans" as a backup plan should Earth need protection from evil forces. When one of their members turns into an evil force, the rest of the squad is sent into action.</span><br>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">REVIEW</b></span><br>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Sarah:</u> Hello dear readers! It's true, we are back with a brand new movie review for you! It's been almost on year to the day since our last review and we wish we could say that something exciting had happened to cause the hiatus, but really life just got in the way. We can't promise that there's going to be a ton of new content or that we will begin posting regularly again, but for now we wanted to do a quick little review on a movie that we had been looking forward to for a long time: <i style="font-weight: bold;">Suicide Squad</i>, the newest entry in the DC Extended Universe.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;"><i style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Suicide Squad</i><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"> was a comic book film that we had been anticipating for while now. There's a new Joker (Jared Leto,</span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Dallas Buyers Club</i><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie,</span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">The Wolf of Wall Street</i><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">) making her feature film debut, and a whole host of new characters (at least to me). We were totally in. Now that we've seen it, and you've seen it twice now Andrew, what are your initial thoughts?</span></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b><u>Andrew: </u></b>This is a bit of a tough one for a couple reasons. First and foremost, we were REALLY looking forward to this movie. The trailers did such a phenomenal job of getting us pumped for it. Secondly, this is not a good movie. It just isn't. There are good things in it, but as a fully formed movie it isn't good. And I'd say you can argue whether or not it's even a "fully formed" movie.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;">What are your initial thoughts?</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;"><b><u>S:</u></b> I will agree with you that this was not a fully formed film. With the abundance of "Huh?" and "That's not how that works" moments it was easy to walk away with a sour taste in my mouth. </span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">But there were things about this movie that I really enjoyed! The music, for starters, was reminiscent of </span><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"><b>Guardians of the Galaxy</b></i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> with fun (and sometimes funky) beats to go with different scenes. It got the audience pumped, albeit for a short amount of time, to see what was going to happen next. </span></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;">And the characters that writer/director David Ayer <i>did</i> flesh out were done so with an obvious love for those characters. Harley Quinn and Deadshot (Will Smith, <i style="font-weight: bold;">Men in Black</i>) were given lots of care and attention, making them endearing to an audience in the hope of masking the fact that other characters were given the shaft. Ev</span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;">en the Joker (who was highly publicized in the making of this movie) was only given a handful of scenes to really show off the fact that, no, this is not the same Joker you remember.</span><br>
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</div><a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2016/08/this-bunch-of-degenerates-and-nutjobs.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-74193905552571291872015-08-12T19:15:00.001-04:002015-08-12T19:15:55.706-04:00A Very Curious Comic Book Movie: Our Review of "Fantastic Four" (2015)<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4Ybc--ZwRO0/VcvP--1-f4I/AAAAAAAAC3E/vi6_B-uSTj8/s1600/Fantastic%2BFour%2Bposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4Ybc--ZwRO0/VcvP--1-f4I/AAAAAAAAC3E/vi6_B-uSTj8/s320/Fantastic%2BFour%2Bposter.jpg" width="215"></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Directed By:</u> Josh Trank (<i style="font-weight: bold;">Chronicle</i>) </span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Starring:</u> Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Tony Kebbell, Reg E. Cathey</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Rating:</u> PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence, and language</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Run Time:</u> 1 hour, 40 minutes</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Synopsis:</u> A group of young scientists invent a trans-dimensional teleportation device and gain superpowers following a catastrophic trip to another dimension's planet. These scientists and their civilian friend who was roped into the trip must then band together to save the planet from one of their own group.</span><br>
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<b><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">REVIEW</span></b><br>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! Sarah and I have been on an extended blogging hiatus due to a fairly busy summer with some weird work schedules for the both of us, but we were drawn out of said hiatus thanks to a film that we were morbidly curious to check out: Fox's new <i style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1502712/" target="_blank">Fantastic Four</a></i> reboot.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's directed by Josh Trank, who made a name for himself with 2012's <i style="font-weight: bold;">Chronicle </i>- a superhero film that we reviewed positively back in the first year we did this blog - and stars Miles Teller (<i style="font-weight: bold;">Whiplash</i>), Kate Mara (<i style="font-weight: bold;">House of Cards</i>), Michael B. Jordan (<i style="font-weight: bold;">Chronicle</i>) and Jamie Bell (AMC's <i style="font-weight: bold;">Turn</i>) as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, and Ben Grimm/The Thing, respectively. Oh, and Tony Kebbell, who played Koba the chimp in last year's <i style="font-weight: bold;">Dawn of the Planet of the Apes</i>, plays Victor von Doom/Dr. Doom this time around.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So Sarah, let's get to it. This reboot has been critically panned and it's already a box-office flop, having earned only $26 million in its first weekend. Just for comparison, the 2005 and 2007 <i style="font-weight: bold;">Fantastic Four</i> films that starred Jessica Alba and a pre-Captain America Chris Evans earned $52 million and $58 million in their respective opening weekends.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fox needs to contractually make a new Fantastic Four movie every few years or so in order to keep the film rights, lest those rights revert back to Marvel...</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Sarah:</u> Really?</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">A:</u> Yeah. That's one of the primary reasons this new film even got made, as Fox waited until virtually the last minute to put it into production to hold onto their rights, and there's an unreleased, incredibly low-budget Fantastic Four movie from the 90's that was made for the same reason.</span><br>
<a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2015/08/a-very-curious-comic-book-movie-our.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-12185433448663517252015-05-03T16:24:00.000-04:002015-05-03T16:42:10.147-04:00Alone In The Dark: Andrew Reviews "Unfriended" (2015)<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PMGffmlgUUU/VUaBdJWjpII/AAAAAAAAC18/qlTexdiSTcs/s1600/unfriended-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PMGffmlgUUU/VUaBdJWjpII/AAAAAAAAC18/qlTexdiSTcs/s1600/unfriended-poster.jpg" height="320" width="218"></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Directed By:</u> Levan Gabriadze </span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Starring:</u> Shelley Hennig, Moses Storm, Will Peltz, Jacob Wysocki, Renee Olstead, Courtney Halverson, Heather Sossaman</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Rating:</u> R for violent content, pervasive language, some sexuality, and drug and alcohol use</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Run Time:</u> 1 hour, 23 minutes</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Synopsis:</u> A group of friends are terrorized during a group Skype session by someone claiming to be the spirit of their friend, Laura Barns (Sossaman), one year to the day of her committing suicide following an embarrassing video of her going viral and the bullying she enduring afterwards.</span><br>
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<b><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">REVIEW</span></b><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! Now that we're making a more concerted effort to posting reviews (in conjunction with our schedules actually allowing us to), I'm going to try and do more <i style="font-weight: bold;">Alone in the Dark</i> reviews. If you're not familiar or don't remember what those are, <i style="font-weight: bold;">Alone in the Dark</i> reviews are when I watch and then review a horror movie all by my lonesome because Sarah doesn't like them. A couple of weeks ago I saw the indie-hit <i style="font-weight: bold;">It Follows</i> before she got up here to Connecticut and will be posting that review later this week. </span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today I will be reviewing <i style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3713166/" target="_blank">Unfriended</a></i>, one of numerous horror offerings coming out this year produced by Blumhouse Productions (producers of films like <i style="font-weight: bold;">Paranormal Activity</i>, <i style="font-weight: bold;">Insidious</i> and <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Purge</i>). Originally screened last year at Fantasia Festival under the name "Cybernatural," <b><i>Unfriended</i></b> is a play on the found footage genre, telling the story of a group of friends who are terrorized during a group Skype session by someone/something claiming to be the spirit of their friend Laura. Oh, and the film takes place one year to the day of Laura committing suicide after she was mercilessly abused online after an embarrassing video of her was uploaded to YouTube.</span><br>
<a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2015/05/alone-in-dark-andrew-reviews-unfriended.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-22613982741308923682015-04-30T16:39:00.001-04:002015-04-30T16:39:09.909-04:00The Ultimate Comic-Book Movie: Our Review of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015)<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zGdJEPfrchw/VUKOuStO86I/AAAAAAAAC1s/ZZ62qJwmVG4/s1600/avengers-age-of-ultron-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zGdJEPfrchw/VUKOuStO86I/AAAAAAAAC1s/ZZ62qJwmVG4/s1600/avengers-age-of-ultron-poster.jpg" height="320" width="216"></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Directed By:</u> Joss Whedon (<i style="font-weight: bold;">The Avengers</i>) </span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Starring:</u> Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, James Spader, Elizebeth Olsen, Aaron-Taylor Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Rating:</u> PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action, violence and destruction, and for some suggestive comments</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Run Time:</u> 2 hours, 21 minutes</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="text-decoration: underline;">Synopsis:</b> Tony Stark (Downey, Jr.) discovers a way to create an artificial intelligence he dubs Ultron that could potential protect the world so The Avengers can retire. When Ultron (Spader) becomes sentient, it immediately decides to best way to protect the world is to rid it of mankind…starting with The Avengers.</span><br>
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<b><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">REVIEW</span></b><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! Our sincerest apologies for the long time between reviews. Simply put things have been crazy for the Kecks the past year or so. We moved from Connecticut to Georgia and then back to Connecticut in the span of 15 months. We each worked full-time jobs that had some pretty strange hours that limited our ability to see as many movies as we would've liked, as well as cut into our recording/transcribing reviews time.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But now we're back in Connecticut and our schedules have opened up to allow for more movie-seeing and reviewing! And what better way to make our comeback then by reviewing the presumptive summer box office champ?</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Sarah:</u> Yes! Tuesday night we were fortunate enough to be invited to an advanced screening of Marvel's <i style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Avengers: Age of Ultron</a></i> thanks to our good friend Kevin. <i style="font-weight: bold;">AOU</i> brings back all of the Avengers from the previous Marvel Cinematic Universe films as they band together to fight a sentient robot named Ultron that Tony Stark creates through artificial intelligence in an effort to create a sort of "shield for the world."</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">A:</u> That is <i>basically</i> how Tony pitches it. So with <i style="font-weight: bold;">AOU</i> we see some old faces that we're familiar with and some new faces involved - James Spader (NBC's <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Blacklist</i>) as the face of Ultron, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen (previously seen as a married couple in <i style="font-weight: bold;">Godzilla</i>) as siblings Pietro and Wanda Maximoff a.k.a. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, who work with Ultron…</span><br>
<a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2015/04/the-ultimate-comic-book-movie-our.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-38252209814108959582015-02-28T17:45:00.003-05:002015-02-28T17:45:46.035-05:00Two Tickets For...'s 20 Most Anticipated Films of 2015<div>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! With arguably the busiest part of the year for my and Sarah's day jobs, we're able to turn a focus back to the blog like it deserves. We're hoping to start seeing more movies now and getting some reviews up, especially now that the Oscars have happened, somewhat marking the official beginning of the new year in movies.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With that said, we want to present the movies we are looking forward to the most in 2015. The way we went about this, Sarah and I each ranked the top 15 films we were looking forward to respectively. Then we took our individual rankings and combined them to find an average score for each film that got listed on at least one of our lists and listed every film by the cumulative ranking they received. For reference we have embedded trailers for the films that have them available online.</span><br>
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Without further ado, we present <b><i>Two Tickets For...'s 20 Most Anticipated Films of 2015!</i></b></span></div>
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20.) <i style="font-weight: bold;">Chappie</i></u></span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-ecda8b29-8528-2402-1dd7-80859ec8639f"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Sarah:</u> This one I am <i>so</i> looking forward to. I think the motion capture looks brilliant and while I didn't see <i style="font-weight: bold;">Elysium</i>, I'm excited to see the new sci-fi film from the man who made </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">District 9</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (Neill Blomkamp)</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Hoping it'll be</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> another winner! </span></span><i style="white-space: pre-wrap;">(Individual Ranking - Sarah: 14th Andrew: Not Ranked)</i></span><br>
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19.) <b><i>The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2</i></b></u></span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">A:</u> While <i style="font-weight: bold;">Mockingjay Part 1</i> fell victim to the nature of being literally one half of a whole story, I'm really looking forward to the conclusion of the <i style="font-weight: bold;">Hunger Games</i> films because "Mockingjay" was my favorite book of Suzanne Collins' trilogy. This film series hasn't really shied away from showing the violence in the books and <i style="font-weight: bold;">Mockingjay Part 2</i> should have some of the most shocking moments in the whole series when the rebels move on The Capitol. I'll be curious to see the film's depiction of some of the more important moments in the book, along with how they worked around the tragic death of Philip Seymour Hoffman. <i>(Individual Rankings - S: Not Ranked A: 14th)</i></span><br>
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18.) <b><i>Ant-Man</i></b></u></span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m more curious than anything about this movie. I'm an unabashed Marvel Cinematic Universe fan, so I'm looking forward to another tale in the series.</span></span><br>
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<u style="font-weight: bold; white-space: pre-wrap;">A:</u><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> Like Sarah I'm more just looking forward to seeing what this entry in the MCU will be like. Loved the trailer, I'm intrigued by Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas as the two versions of Ant-Man, and I'm curious to see the final product following all the pre-production problems with original writer/director Edgar Wright leaving the project and <i style="font-weight: bold;">Bring It On</i> director Peyton Reed coming on to direct and <i style="font-weight: bold;">Anchorman</i> director Adam McKay and Paul Rudd taking over writing duties. <i>(Individual Rankings - S: 15th A: 15th)</i></span></span><br>
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</div><a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2015/02/two-tickets-fors-20-most-anticipated.html#more">Read more »</a>Andrew Keckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10472426941256942575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-15536330080632417922015-02-22T17:50:00.001-05:002015-02-22T23:05:46.824-05:00Two Ticket's For… Predicts the 87th Academy Awards!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! We're cutting it close to the wire but Sarah and I are here with our official predictions for tonight's 87th Academy Awards! We'll put the meat of the awards (Picture, Directing, the acting categories and screenplay categories) right at the top along with some quick breakdowns of why we made those picks, then we'll have all the technical categories, documentaries, short films and animated films after those without comment. So let's get to it! </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><b>BEST WRITING - ADAPTED SCREENPLAY</b></u></span></span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jason Hall, <b><i>American Sniper</i></b></span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Graham Moore, <b><i>The Imitation Game</i></b></span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Paul Thomas Anderson, <b><i>Inherent Vice</i></b></span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anthony McCarten, <b><i>The Theory of Everything</i></b></span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Damien Chazelle, <b><i>Whiplash</i></b></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">A:</u> Both of the screenplay categories are tough contests this year with a number of good movies, or movies that at least have a lot of love for them. Starting with Adapted Screenplay, I immediately cross off <i style="font-weight: bold;">Inherent Vice</i>, <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Theory of Everything</i> and <i style="font-weight: bold;">American Sniper</i>. I don't believe any of those have the fervent love of voters to really take this award, whereas <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Imitation Game</i> is a strong script that gives its main players plenty to chew on, and <i style="font-weight: bold;">Whiplash</i> is just a really strong script that tells a great, fresh story and gives J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller tons to work with. I'm giving the edge to <i style="font-weight: bold;">Whiplash</i> primarily because Chazelle pulled double-duty as writer and director for his first true feature film, and I think people will want to recognize a fresh new talent like him.</span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Sarah:</u> I'm going to have to go with <b><i>The Imitation Game</i></b> in this category! While it does come down to those two for me as well, too, I think that most of the love for <b><i>Whiplash</i></b> is going toward the supporting actor, not necessarily the screenplay. Tough category but I think I'm definitely sticking with <b><i>The Imitation Game</i></b>.</span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">A:</u> Fun fact for anyone who didn't already know this, but <i style="font-weight: bold;">Whiplash</i> was placed in the Adapted Screenplay category because of a strange ruling by the Academy. Chazelle originally wrote a full-length version of his screenplay that would become the Oscar-nominated film we know and love. But in order to gain funding for a feature-length version, Chazelle made a short film version based off the original script he wrote, which even won a prize at Sundance two years ago. Because of the short existing, even though the screenplay for what became the full-length version with Teller and Simmons was written first and <i>then</i> adapted into a shorter version, the Academy determined the short to fall under their definition of "previously produced or published material" for the Adapted category. Crazy, huh?</span></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our picks - S: <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Imitation Game </i> A: <b><i>Whiplash</i></b></span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>BEST WRITING - ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY</u></b></span></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;">Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr., & Armando Bo, <i style="font-weight: bold;">Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)</i> <i>{Editor's Note: Heretofore, we shall refer to this film simply as </i><b style="font-style: italic;">Birdman</b><span style="font-style: italic;">}</span></span></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;">Richard Linklater, <b><i>Boyhood</i></b></span></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;">E. Max Frye & Dan Futterman, <b><i>Foxcatcher</i></b></span></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;">Wes Anderson (screenplay), Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinnes (story), <b><i>The Grand Budapest Hotel</i></b></span></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;">Dan Gilroy, <b><i>Nightcrawler</i></b></span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">A:</u> Original Screenplay is the toughest of the two, and maybe one of the toughest categories of the whole night. All five of these movies have legit claims to the award, IMO. But we can probably cross <i style="font-weight: bold;">Foxcatcher </i>and <i style="font-weight: bold;">Nightcrawler</i> off because they're too dark. <b><i>The G</i></b><i style="font-weight: bold;">rand Budapest Hotel</i> could win because voters might finally want to give Wes Anderson an Oscar, but I think this one is down to <i style="font-weight: bold;">Boyhood </i>and <i style="font-weight: bold;">Birdman</i>. Warranted or not, I think I'm going to cross <i style="font-weight: bold;">Boyhood</i> off because some factions of voters could think Richard Linklater had an advantage of writing the movie over the course of 12 years. <i style="font-weight: bold;">Birdman</i> also hits the voting bloc right in the sweet spot as it's about actors and gives all the main players great stuff to work with. I'm going with <i><b>Birdman</b> </i>here.</span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>S:</u></b> Once again, I agree and think it is between those <i style="font-weight: bold;">Boyhood</i> and <i style="font-weight: bold;">Birdman</i> as well. We just watched <i style="font-weight: bold;">Boyhood</i> last night and while I wasn't impressed with it, I basically don't think that it is really getting the love that <b><i>Birdman</i></b> has gotten in this category. The director, Iñárritu, is on fire with the awards season and while we'll touch on his film's chances in other categories later, for now I'll say I think he wins for Original Screenplay.</span></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our picks - S: <i style="font-weight: bold;">Birdman </i> A: <b><i>Birdman</i></b></span></span><br>
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<a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2015/02/two-tickets-for-predicts-87th-academy.html#more">Read more »</a>Andrew Keckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10472426941256942575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-76777377380044148672015-01-16T15:56:00.001-05:002015-01-16T15:56:09.836-05:00Two Tickets For...'s Top Ten Favorite Movies of 2014<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers. Long time, no post. We know. We've been positively awful about reviewing and posting other content on the blog the past few months. And it's not that we're not seeing films - because we are - but we've been pretty busy with our days jobs to the point that the time it takes to record, transcribe, edit and post the reviews like we'd like to feels exhausting. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We'll try to be better as the new year continues, considering there are a TON of great-looking movies that we're excited for this year.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That all said, with 2014 in the rearview mirror now, Sarah and I wanted to take the opportunity to look back at all fifty-some films we saw that were released last year and talk about which ones were our favorites. Unlike in previous year's, because of our lackadaisical job at reviewing all the films we saw this year, our criteria is simply that we had to have actually seen the film. We've included a few movies that we didn't post reviews for.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So without further ado, in alphabetical order after the jump, here are my and Sarah's respective list of our Top Ten Favorite Films of 2014!</span><br>
</div><a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2015/01/two-tickets-fors-top-ten-favorite.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-40089730244027994912014-11-13T12:00:00.001-05:002014-11-13T12:00:20.121-05:00Walt Disney Animation Hits a Solid Double with Baymax and Co.: Our Review of "Big Hero 6" (2014)<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cXjEn8TXeTw/VGEkYFltMXI/AAAAAAAAAsY/L1jYN2sd-Pk/s1600/Disney_BigHero6_Poster_Baymax.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cXjEn8TXeTw/VGEkYFltMXI/AAAAAAAAAsY/L1jYN2sd-Pk/s1600/Disney_BigHero6_Poster_Baymax.jpg" height="320" width="224"></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Directed By:</u> Don Hall & Chris Williams (<i style="font-weight: bold;">Winnie the Pooh</i> and <i style="font-weight: bold;">Bolt</i>, respectively) </span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Starring:</u> Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit, Damon Wayans, Jr., T.J. Miller, Genesis Rodriguez, Jamie Chung</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Rating:</u> PG for action and peril, some rude humor, and thematic elements</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Run Time:</u> 1 hour, 48 minutes</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Synopsis:</u> Hiro (Potter) is a 13-year-old genius who spends his time hustling people in back-alley robot battles until his older brother Tadashi convinces him to attend the same university that he does. After inventing "microbots" to impress the school's admissions office, Hiro faces a personal tragedy plus the theft of his microbots by the hands of a masked villain. With the help of a medical robot assistant named Baymax (Adsit) that his brother invented for him, Hiro joins up with some of Tadashi's classmates to create a superhero group with the purpose of stopping the masked villain.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! Last night Sarah and I went to our local multiplex to catch this past weekend's big animated film release, Walt Disney Animation's and Marvel's <i style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2245084/?ref_=nv_sr_2" target="_blank">Big Hero 6</a></i>. Disney's latest is based on the Marvel comic of the same name, but only in sort of the loosest sense in that it took the comic's title and the characters' names. In all other aspects it is nothing like the actual comic, from my understanding. In a sense it's a wholly original Disney animated film. </span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now Sarah, I think there were some relatively high expectations for<i style="font-weight: bold;"> Big Hero 6</i> because Walt Disney Animation has been on quite the roll the past few years. <i style="font-weight: bold;">Frozen</i> was their most recent film and we all know how big of a phenomenon that became, and before that was <i style="font-weight: bold;">Wreck-It Ralph</i> which was very popular and a financial success in its own right. </span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So with this being the first Disney animated film using a Marvel property, and the trailers where everyone was already falling in love with Baymax, this one had some high expectations. Now that we've seen <b><i>Big Hero 6</i></b>, Sarah, do you think it lived up to those expectations?</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Sarah:</u> I don't think it quite lived up to my expectations, but it did have some really good aspects to it. At its heart it definitely kept to the fact that it's a children's movie, but it's a children's movie that has the aspects of a Marvel superhero movie, which I enjoyed. I thought it was well-done and touching at the same time. It had Disney's mark all of over it, which was nice. It was just kinda fun.</span><br>
<a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2014/11/walt-disney-animation-hits-solid-double.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-24374366174168790572014-11-05T08:52:00.003-05:002014-11-05T08:52:53.924-05:00Gyllenhaal Gives His Career-Best Performance In This L.A. Thriller: Our Review of "Nightcrawler" (2014)<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WqowLkUkol0/VFoohspa2YI/AAAAAAAAArw/X2_HT4eYeJs/s1600/Nightcrawler_PayoffPoster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WqowLkUkol0/VFoohspa2YI/AAAAAAAAArw/X2_HT4eYeJs/s1600/Nightcrawler_PayoffPoster.jpg" height="320" width="204"></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Directed By:</u> Dan Gilroy </span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Starring:</u> Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, Riz Ahmed</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Rating:</u> R for violence including graphic images, and for language</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Run Time:</u> 1 hour, 57 minutes</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Synopsis:</u> An eccentric but driven young man named Louis (Gyllenhaal) catches the bug for the freelance life of being a "nightcrawler": videotaping crime scenes and notable accidents around Los Angeles to sell to the local news. After Lou creates a working relationship with a local news director (Russo) and starts his own company, he goes down the rabbit hole - and to some extreme lengths - in an effort to beat his competition (Paxton) and drive his own career as high as it can go.</span><br>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">REVIEW</b></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! This Sunday Sarah and I were able to FINALLY catch a movie at our local AMC Theatre that FINALLY reopened after a couple of months of renovations, and we took the opportunity to see this weekend's big new release, <i style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2872718/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Nightcrawler</a></i>, starring Jake Gyllenhaal (<i style="font-weight: bold;">End of Watch</i>).</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom, a gaunt coyote of a man who we're introduced to as he's stealing a chain-link fence to sell for scrap metal and beating the crap out of a security guard who tries to stop him. Bloom is an eccentric dude who's obsessed with self-betterment and becoming successful at <i>something</i> as he struggles to find what that is.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That is until Lou comes across a fiery car crash one night and watches with curiosity as a freelance cameraman named Joe (Bill Paxton) jumps out of his van and starts filming the action. Lou discovers that Joe is a "nightcrawler" - a freelance videographer who films news-worthy accidents and crime-related incidents and then sells the footage to the local news stations. Lou falls in love with the idea and jumps right in, starting his own company and going to whatever lengths necessary to become a success at it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sarah, this was a film that I'd been hearing great things about for a while now, particularly how great Gyllenhaal was in it. Now that we've seen <i style="font-weight: bold;">Nightcrawler</i>, what did you think of the film and particularly Gyllenhaal?</span></div><a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2014/11/gyllenhaal-gives-his-career-best.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-17232734495868337932014-10-31T15:20:00.001-04:002014-11-03T20:26:24.821-05:00Daniel Radcliffe Devilishly Moves Beyond His Wizard Past: Our Review of "Horns" (2014)<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S_IlJKl18QA/VFPbpZlUNjI/AAAAAAAAArA/zyRYC4Gfvhk/s1600/Horns-Comic-Con-poster-Daniel-Radcliffe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S_IlJKl18QA/VFPbpZlUNjI/AAAAAAAAArA/zyRYC4Gfvhk/s1600/Horns-Comic-Con-poster-Daniel-Radcliffe.jpg" height="320" width="216"></span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-underline: #1A1A1A;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></span></span><br>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-underline: #1A1A1A;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b><u>Directed By:</u></b> Alexandre Aja</span></span></span></span></span><br>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="text-underline: #1A1A1A;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Starring:</u> Daniel Radcliffe, Juno Temple, Max Minghella, Joe Anderson James Remar, David Morse</span></span></span></span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="text-underline: #1A1A1A;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="text-underline: #1A1A1A;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Rating:</u> R for sexual content, some graphic nudity, disturbing violence including a sexual assault, language and drug use</span></span></span></span><br>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="text-underline: #1A1A1A;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Run Time:</u> 2 hours</span></span></span></span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="text-underline: #1A1A1A;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="text-underline: #1A1A1A;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b style="text-decoration: underline;">Synopsis:</b> Ig Perrish (Radcliffe) is the prime suspect in the murder of his girlfriend, Merrin (Temple), though he proclaims his innocence. After a night of hitting rock-bottom, Ig wakes up with a growing pair of Devil's horns that spur everyone he talks to to disclose their deepest secrets and imbues him with some devilish powers, which he uses to solve his girlfriend's death.</span></span></span></span><br>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u style="text-underline: #1A1A1A;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br></span></u></b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u></span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> Hello dear readers! We
know we've been bad again at posting our reviews, as we actually have two
recorded reviews done that just need to be transcribed and posted, but we're
here today with a quick review on a perfect Halloween season film that Sarah
and I watched On Demand last night - Alexandre Aja's <b><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1528071/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Horns</a></i></b>,
starring Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Horns</span></i></b><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> is an adaptation of the book of the same name written by
one of my favorite current authors, Joe Hill. Hill is a well-known and popular
writer in the horror genre and comic book community for his comic series
"Locke & Key", but he's not quite on the general public's radar
just yet which is a damn shame because his 3 novels - <b><i>Horns</i></b>,
2007's ghost story <b><i>Heart-Shaped Box</i></b>, and last year's vampire
yarn <b><i>NOS4A2 </i></b>- are all fantastic and definitely up-to-par
with his father's work. It's probably worth mentioning that Hill's father is
Stephen King, and that Hill made a name for himself with <b><i>Heart-Shaped Box</i></b> and
his short story collection <b><i>20th Century Ghosts</i></b> before
people discovered his lineage.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Back to <b><i>Horns</i></b>, in which
Radcliffe stars as Ig Parrish, a young man whom everyone in town believes
recently killed the love of his life, Merrin (<b><i>The
Dark Knight Rises</i></b>' Juno Temple). Ig is the only suspect and even his family
is skeptical of his proclaimed innocence. One night Ig gets wasted and wakes up
the following morning sprouting a pair of horns, and his horns seem to have an
effect on people wherein they can't help but tell him their deepest, darkest
secrets, desires or just the straight effed-up truth, while giving Ig a bit of
influential power to make people do what they're already inclined to do. Using his new powers,
Ig goes on the hunt to discover who really killed his love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Sarah, while this was a book I
absolutely loved and was excited to see the film for, this is one I kind of had
to talk you into renting since you thought it might be scary. Now that we've
seen it, what did you think of <b><i>Horns</i></b>?</span><br>
</div><a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2014/10/daniel-radcliffe-devilishly-moves.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-89041238440454228482014-10-24T21:26:00.002-04:002014-10-24T21:26:11.714-04:00Two Tickets For… Visits the 2014 Atlanta Walker Stalker Con: Wrap-Up and More Pics!<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BoBdKwL_1wo/VElYmvqO5LI/AAAAAAAAAnw/QhhU0HaIwDw/s1600/walker-stalker-con-atlanta-00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BoBdKwL_1wo/VElYmvqO5LI/AAAAAAAAAnw/QhhU0HaIwDw/s1600/walker-stalker-con-atlanta-00.jpg" height="200" width="200"></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! If you've been checking out our recent series of posts recapping the trip Sarah and I made to Walker Stalker Con Atlanta on Saturday, October 18th, you know that we were able to sit in on panels where stars of AMC's <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Walking Dead</i> answered fan questions, and that we had a blast listening to them and recapping them for you here!</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And while we really, <i>really</i> enjoyed the panels, we gotta be honest and say that our most favorite aspect of the convention was walking the convention floors, checking out the vendors, watching some of the show's stars from afar, and getting to actually meet a few special makeup effects artists that we're HUGE fans of.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today's post is going to be a simple wrap-up of our trip to Walker Stalker Con, with some pictures Sarah took while walking the floor, some pics of stuff we bought from a couple of vendors, and I'll tell you about our encounters with those special makeup effects artists.</span><br>
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<b><u><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WALKING THE WALKER STALKER CON FLOOR</span></u></b><br>
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- You may or may not know this about us, but Sarah and I are BIG fans of SyFy's movie makeup effects competition show <i style="font-weight: bold;">Face Off</i>. We've religiously watched it from the start of season two when we found out it existed. And during the course of the show we've had favorites every season, but there were always two that really stood out to us and whom we rooted for in their time on the show: RJ Haddy and Roy Wooley.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">RJ was a contestant in season two, and as we mentioned it was the first season we caught, so contestants from that season have always been a little closer to our heart than some from more recent seasons. RJ in particular was one we rooted hard for because of his outgoing nature and his incredible work, particularly he fantastic makeup on the Tim Burton episode where he created a Burton-esque Bellhop. Check it out below.</span><br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_d3IVzQ5tPU/VErcuHR4vGI/AAAAAAAAAo0/p5G3n3aHAj8/s1600/RJs%2BTim%2BBurton%2Bmakeup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_d3IVzQ5tPU/VErcuHR4vGI/AAAAAAAAAo0/p5G3n3aHAj8/s1600/RJs%2BTim%2BBurton%2Bmakeup.jpg"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>RJ Haddy's character he created for the Tim Burton challenge in Season 2 of SyFy's <span style="font-weight: bold;">Face Off</span>, a Burton-esque Bellhop who is part dresser with clothes askew, and an actual bell he can ring if he taps the top of his head.</i></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To meet RJ we literally just walked right up to his booth where he was selling makeup tools and promoting a class he would be giving later that day that we regrettably were unable to attend. He had just finished chatting with someone and he walked right up to us as we were looking at some of his work! We mentioned to him how we were big fans of the show and of his, and he gleefully discussed aspects of the show, including some tidbits viewers at home probably don't know about, like:</span><br>
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<li><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Day 3 of a Spotlight Challenge, between the 4 hours the contestants have in the lab and then Final Looks backstage before the judges see their work, all of the models get an hour for dinner. RJ told us that he learned to not do the work around his model's mouth before the model ate dinner because the act of eating meals would mess up whatever work he had already done. In particular he mentioned that any pasta meals that included oil were particularly harmful to any makeup already put on.</span></li>
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<li><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some models are fought over by the contestants far more than some others. We had been talking to him about this current season (season finale on Tuesday the 28th!) and how he enjoyed a particular fairy makeup that was made, and when we mentioned how great the model used in that makeup seemed to be a popular one, RJ told us that she was by far one of the most fought over models. We thought that was neat.</span></li>
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<li><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the same vein, while it's very obvious on the show that for each week's challenge the contestants have to wait their turn to select whatever character they'll try to do, it's <i>not</i> as obvious that the contestants then go in reverse order to select the model they want to use back in the lab. RJ also joked of a possible conspiracy theory that the "random" order that's drawn out of a hat isn't quite so random as you'd believe.</span></li>
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<a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2014/10/two-tickets-for-visits-2014-atlanta_24.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-82148197694936278312014-10-23T16:37:00.001-04:002014-10-23T16:45:11.782-04:00Two Tickets For... Visits the 2014 Atlanta Walker Stalker Con: "Abraham's Army"<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BoBdKwL_1wo/VElYmvqO5LI/AAAAAAAAAns/76eIid7GZtM/s1600/walker-stalker-con-atlanta-00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BoBdKwL_1wo/VElYmvqO5LI/AAAAAAAAAns/76eIid7GZtM/s1600/walker-stalker-con-atlanta-00.jpg" height="200" width="200"></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! We're back today with another installment of our coverage from this past Saturday's Walker Stalker Con Atlanta. Today we're bring your our recap of the "Abraham's Army" panel. It was the final panel of the day and consisted of three of the fresher faces on the show, Michael Cudlitz (Sgt. Abraham Ford), Josh McDermitt (Dr. Eugene Porter) and Christian Serratos (Rosita Espinosa). This trio joined the show in Season 4's Episode 10, "Inmates" as a couple of former soldiers on a mission to bring Eugene's scientist to Washington, D.C. as he claims he knows what started the zombie outbreak and can reverse it in D.C. </span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of the three panels that Sarah and I were able to attend on Saturday, this was the second-most attended panel behind the Andrew Lincoln/Norman Reedus panel. Alas, the crowd wasn't nearly as big, which is a shame for those who didn't attend because it was by far the funniest panel we saw. Without further ado, here's our recap of what was discussed and joked about at the "Abraham's Army" panel!</span><br>
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<b><u><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"ABRAHAM'S ARMY" WALKER STALKER CON PANEL</span></u></b><br>
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- The panel got off to a start as Cudlitz and McDermitt took the stage sans Serratos. Cudlitz was sporting his awesome fu manchu mustache and a baseball cap while McDermitt looked about the same as Eugene normally does, except his mullet was noticeably shorter. McDermitt (who, it turns out, is a former stand-up comic) gets the crowd riled up by declaring, "This is the <i>real</i> bromance. Andy and Norman never talk to each other on set."</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- McDermitt immediately took control of the panel with a constant barrage of jokes, particularly about how Serratos had yet to appear on stage and how he had to share the loveseat with Cudlitz. After a few cracks McDermitt says, "This is a sh*tshow," then immediately covered his mouth after realizing their were kids in the audience. He also either pretended as if he just realized there were moderators or he actually had no idea. My bet was the latter.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- At that point Serratos ran onstage from the audience (no idea where she was coming from) and the panel was truly underway. The first question was fielded by Serratos regarding Rosita and Abraham's mission to get Eugene to D.C., answering, "If (the mission) fails, it will crush her."</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- I missed what prompted this reaction, but the crowd went nuts for McDermitt and his character, prompting Serratos to crack, "A lot of family members of Josh's here today!"</span><br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Abraham's Army" panelists (from right to center) Christian Serratos, Michael Cudlitz, and Josh McDermitt.<br></i><br>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Sarah Keck/Two Tickets For...</span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- A fan asked McDermitt where Eugene's humorous lines come from, him or the writers? "I think (executive producer) Scott Gimple is a hilarious guy, such a dry wit," McDermitt said. "So he puts that in the script." McDermitt added that one of the most well-received parts from the premiere was his Eugene running away from conflict but without moving his arms as he ran, saying, "When Eugene walks, he walks with his arms down at his side, so I just figured he probably runs that way too and just did it."</span><br>
<a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2014/10/two-tickets-for-visits-2014-atlanta_23.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-30714560704041316232014-10-21T15:30:00.002-04:002014-10-21T19:44:46.976-04:00Two Tickets For… Visits the 2014 Atlanta Walker Stalker Con: Andrew Lincoln & Norman Reedus<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ImHS38CBJ7g/VEVYSoz-blI/AAAAAAAAAmQ/kGh0ZrEz3SI/s1600/walker-stalker-con-atlanta-00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ImHS38CBJ7g/VEVYSoz-blI/AAAAAAAAAmQ/kGh0ZrEz3SI/s1600/walker-stalker-con-atlanta-00.jpg" height="200" width="200"></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! Yesterday we kicked off our posts covering the visit Sarah and I took to the 2014 Atlanta Walker Stalker Con. Or, I suppose as the logo on the right says, Walker Stalker Con Atlanta. Either way, yesterday we posted our recap of special makeup effects guru Greg Nicotero's panel, which had SO much information that we had to split it up into two posts!</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today we're posting our coverage of what was without a doubt the most-anticipated panel of the whole 3-day weekend: the humorously named "Bromance" panel featuring <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Walking Dead</i>'s de facto stars, Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus. So without further ado, here's our recap of the biggest panel of the day.</span><br>
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<b><u><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ANDREW LINCOLN & NORMAN REEDUS' WALKER STALKER CON PANEL</span></u></b><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lincoln, who first came to America's attention as a lovesick puppy pining after Keira Knightley in the British rom-com <i style="font-weight: bold;">Love, Actually</i>, was the first to walk onstage and the capacity crowd on the 3rd floor of the Atlanta Convention Center at AmericasMart Building 2 went NUTS. Lincoln appeared relatively clean-shaven and spoke in his normal British accent (though occasionally dipping into his American accent he uses on the show). Lincoln is actually joined on stage first by Greg Nicotero as Reedus was running a bit behind as he finished his lunch.</span><br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i>The Walking Dead</i> </b><i>star Andrew Lincoln walks onstage before a packed convention hall floor. This was our view from our general admission seats, with hundreds of people to the left and right of us.</i><br>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Sarah Keck/Two Tickets For...</span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a minute or two of Lincoln and Nicotero joking around Reedus came through the stage door to raucous applus. Reedus, who first became a cult icon for his role as Murphy MacManus in 1999's indie crime film <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Boondock Saints</i>, appeared pretty much as his Daryl character would (if Daryl wore skateboard hats) and held his cell phone out in front of him taking video of the crazy crowd. He then pulled Lincoln and Nicotero to his side and took a video selfie of the three of them with the crowd in the background. These guys clearly knew how to play up the crowed.</span><br>
<a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2014/10/two-tickets-for-visits-2014-atlanta_21.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-30174648638702189442014-10-20T20:00:00.002-04:002014-10-21T15:31:10.089-04:00Two Tickets For… Visits the 2014 Atlanta Walker Stalker Con: Greg Nicotero (Part 1)<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Bp1FWr8NsRo/VEVS1C_3jgI/AAAAAAAAAl8/kg88qyIgB6I/s1600/walker-stalker-con-atlanta-00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Bp1FWr8NsRo/VEVS1C_3jgI/AAAAAAAAAl8/kg88qyIgB6I/s1600/walker-stalker-con-atlanta-00.jpg" height="200" width="200"></span></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! As we mentioned in our Introduction post, Sarah and I attended the 2014 Atlanta Walker Stalker Con here in downtown Atlanta this past Saturday. If you were unable to <a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2014/10/two-tickets-for-visits-2014-atlanta.html" target="_blank">read our intro</a> or just opted to skip it, Walker Stalker Con is a horror/sci-fi convention particularly focused on the hit AMC show <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Walking Dead</i>. We were only able to attend the main day on Saturday, and of the number of panels that were held, we were able to catch three of them, including the first one of the day - legendary makeup and special effects artist Greg Nicotero! </span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Along with being in charge of all the fantastic zombie makeup and special effects on the show, Nicotero doubles as an executive producer and even triples as an occasional director. In fact, Nicotero had the honor of directing the outstanding Season 5 premiere that aired just last week.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of the three panels we sat in on, Nicotero's was the least attended, which was a shame because his ended up being the most informative of the day. In fact, it was SO informative that we needed to split up his panel into two separate posts to cut down on reader fatigue </span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We took the effort (oh who are we kidding, it was a downright pleasure) of jotting down Nicotero's talking points and taking some photos of the proceedings. Below here you'll find what we believe to be a fine summary of Nicotero's panel. Enjoy!</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br></span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>GREG NICOTERO'S WALKER STALKER CON PANEL, Part 1</u></b></span><br>
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- Nicotero walked on stage through a nice mock-up of the "A" train car from the Season 4 finale/Season 5 premiere the show's protagonists were locked up in a Terminus, greeting the 50 or so attendees with a jovial, "You're all the people who don't want Andy or Norman's autograph!"</span><br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Walking Dead</span> executive producer/director/special makeup effects supervisor Greg Nicotero walks onstage through a mockup of the Terminus "A" train from the Season 4 finale/Season 5 premiere.</i><br>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Sarah Keck/Two Tickets For...</span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Nico</span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">tero, who directed the season premiere, is asked about the train car set. He explains how they modified the car a bit from an actual train car by building the wooden frames that allowed Andrew Lincoln's Rick to saw a shiv off of it. More of note, Nicotero points out that Rick is using Hershel's watch chain to saw off the wood, which I didn't notice while watching the show, and how Hershel's watch read 5:01 - as in Season 5, Episode 1. Apparently every clock or watch in a respective episode reads whatever episode number of the show it's in. Little details like that are pretty neat.</span><br>
</div></div><a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2014/10/two-tickets-for-visits-2014-atlanta_20.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-65923698472159934562014-10-20T19:59:00.001-04:002014-10-21T15:31:26.709-04:00Two Tickets For... Visits the 2014 Atlanta Walker Stalker Con: Greg Nicotero (Part 2)<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ImHS38CBJ7g/VEVYSoz-blI/AAAAAAAAAmM/hyQU6x4lBPQ/s1600/walker-stalker-con-atlanta-00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ImHS38CBJ7g/VEVYSoz-blI/AAAAAAAAAmM/hyQU6x4lBPQ/s1600/walker-stalker-con-atlanta-00.jpg" height="200" width="200"></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! This past Saturday, Sarah and I were able to attend the 2014 Atlanta Walker Stalker Con, a horror/sci-fi convention focused primarily on the hit AMC show <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Walking Dead</i>. This post is the second half of our coverage of <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Walking Dead</i> executive producer/director/special makeup effects supervisor Greg Nicotero's panel. If you missed the first half, you can read it <a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2014/10/two-tickets-for-visits-2014-atlanta_20.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>. </span><br>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>GREG NICOTERO'S WALKER STALKER PANEL, Part 2</u></b></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- A fan asked about Nicotero's preparation when he directs an episode and about AMC's notoriously stingy budgetary concerns. He explains that for season premieres, mid-season finales, mid-season premieres and season finales directors are given nine days to shoot. Nicotero says he traditionally gets his copy of the script, will jot down his own notes, and then storyboards how he wants to shoot scenes. Nicotero claims episode 9 of this season, which he directed, is one of the best they've ever done, that he can't wait until the audience can see it in February, and that some scenes ended up exactly as he had storyboarded it earlier that week.</span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br></span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nicotero followed this up by telling an anecdote of one particular episode he directed where he neglected to make his shot list upon originally receiving the script like normal, and how he waited until the morning of shooting to hastily make his "sh*tty shot list" and how Andrew Lincoln came up to him as he was doing so and gave him crap for doing it <i>right</i> before shooting that day's footage.</span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br></span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- A fan asked Nicotero if he has nightmares, and if so, what are they about? Nicotero answers that he <i>does</i> have nightmares, and when he does they're about his kids, because they're back in Los Angeles while he's in Atlanta and he worries about them. He said he'll wake up from a nightmare and call his wife to make sure they're okay, to which his wife will confirm they're just fine and then chastises him for waking her up at 5:00am her time.</span><br>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br></span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nicotero continued talking about his kids, explaining that they were 5 years old when the show started, and that they've played with tons of creepy things their father has made for the show, such as the zombie heads in The Governor's apartment. He also joked that when his son goes off to college "He'll be like, 'My dad worked on <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Walking Dead</i>. I know Norman Reedus.' He's gonna get LAID!" This obviously got tons of laughter from the crowd.</span><br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-size: 13px;"><i>The Walking Dead</i> </b><i>executive producer/director/special makeup effects supervisor Greg Nicotero explains to his panel's crowd how he and the show-runners look at the show and feel a responsibility to the audience to do fresh things.</i></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Sarah Keck/Two Tickets For...</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- A fan asked if the rate at which the zombies decay on the show will eventually hit the point where they're all completely decayed, unmovable and non-threats to the characters. "They'll never fall apart," Nicotero said. "I just want to give you guys something cool to look at."</span><br>
<a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2014/10/two-tickets-for-visits-2014-atlanta_2.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-8670664207026722592014-10-20T15:11:00.001-04:002014-10-20T15:18:36.644-04:00Two Tickets For… Visits the 2014 Atlanta Walker Stalker Con: Introduction<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sXIXefGBpCc/VEMXyoe7thI/AAAAAAAACyI/G1JR9LGygYs/s1600/walker-stalker-con-atlanta-2014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sXIXefGBpCc/VEMXyoe7thI/AAAAAAAACyI/G1JR9LGygYs/s1600/walker-stalker-con-atlanta-2014.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></span></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! So we've been positively awful about posting our most recently recorded review, the Robert Downey, Jr. drama <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Judge</i>. While we promise we'll be posting that sometime soon, we are VERY excited for the next few posts we'll be posting here on <i style="font-weight: bold;">Two Tickets For</i><b><i>…</i></b>! </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This past Saturday we hit up the 2014 Walker Stalker Con here in Atlanta. It was a personal first for us here at <i style="font-weight: bold;">Two Tickets For</i><b><i>…</i></b> as Sarah and I had never been to a convention before, so when we heard a radio promo for this <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Walking Dead</i>-centric horror/sci-fi convention, we <i>jumped</i> on the chance to attend.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I could spend some time trying to come up with the best, succinct way to explain this convention, but I'll just let the "About Us" page from walkerstalkercon.com do the talking:</span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #cc0000;">"Walker Stalker Con is the fruit of The Walker Stalkers Podcast with James & Eric. The podcast began with an amazing trip to Senoia, GA where James & Eric were able to view the set of The Walking Dead and meet the incredible actors from the show. As a result of this experience, a podcast began and then the idea of a convention focused around recreating that same experience with the cast and crew of the show, along with talented actors and artists from other zombie shows, movies and art.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #cc0000;">Walker Stalker Con is not just a convention. It is a fan meet-up and an opportunity for each guest to come away feeling like they’ve had an amazing experience and became part of a greater community of zombie lovers! Walker Stalker Con is three days of events, panels, and experiences that zombie fans won’t find anywhere else!"</span></i></div>
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#WalkerStalkerCon in #atl! Gunna go hunt down some zombies!</div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Guests that were present at the 3-day weekend included most of the cast of <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Walking Dead</i>, past and present, headlined by Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus. Other notable guests from the hit AMC show included Steven Yeun (Glen), Lauren Cohen (Maggie), Melissa McBride (Carol), Chandler Riggs (Carl), Laurie Holden (Andrea) and Michael Rooker (Merle, also hot off of this summer's hit Marvel film <i style="font-weight: bold;">Guardians of the Galaxy</i>); plus <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Vampire Diaries</i> stars Ian Somerholder and Paul Wesley, and <i style="font-weight: bold;">Game of Thrones</i> star and future big-screen Aquaman, Jason Momoa. Notable guests who were previously scheduled but had to drop out included Danai Guriri (Michonne), Jon Bernthal (Shane), and David Morrissey (The Governor).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We could only attend the Saturday session, which happened to be the biggest day of the event. We were able to hit three of the five <i style="font-weight: bold;">Walking Dead</i> panels - executive producer/lead makeup and special effects artist/occasional director Greg Nicotero; "Abraham's Army": Michael Cudlitz (Abraham), Josh McDermitt (Eugene) and Christian Serratos (Rosita); and the highly-anticipated "Bromance" panel of Andrew Lincoln (Rick) and Norman Reedus (Daryl). Because of the tightly-packed schedule we were unable to attend Riggs' panel (he originally was scheduled to be with Guriri, but she had to bail) and regrettably we couldn't attend the "The Grove" panel that consisted of McBride, Chad Coleman (Tyreese) and Brighton Sharbino (Lizzie). We also weren't able to catch Momoa's solo panel, as it was on the secondary stage right before the Lincoln/Reedus panel, so we were already in line for that one. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Starting today and over the next few days, we'll post an entry a day about one of the panels and we'll finish with a fun little post about meeting a pair of our favorite contestants from SyFy's hit movie makeup competition show, <b><i>Face Off</i></b>, and some sweet swag we picked up. These posts will primarily just be highlights of the cast's panels along with photos Sarah was able to take. We hope you enjoy these posts for what they are - your way to vicariously attend the Walker Stalker Con through us!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We'll kick things off tonight with what was maybe the least attended and yet most informative panel - Greg Nicotero! His panel was so informative, in fact, that we had to split up his talking points into two separate posts just to avoid reader (and editor) fatigue. So expect those to hit our blog tonight! Sorry for the delay!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo Courtesy: <a href="http://www.walkerstalkercon.com/" target="_blank">Walker Stalker Con</a></span>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-85754559944241533092014-10-10T14:18:00.001-04:002014-10-10T14:20:58.663-04:00Two Tickets For... Ranks David Fincher's Films!<div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! Earlier this week Sarah and I posted our review of David Fincher's latest directorial effort, <i style="font-weight: bold;">Gone Girl</i>, and because his new film also happens to be his tenth feature film we decided it was the perfect number to do a rankings post! As we mentioned in our review, we both love Fincher's stuff. In fact, we own all of his movies except for <i style="font-weight: bold;">Gone Girl</i>, but when it does come out on home video you can bet we'll own it. And owning a film is the highest compliment we can pay one.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Sarah:</u> Instead of each posting our own rankings like we do for our Marvel Cinematic Universe rankings, we decided to do this one similar to how we ranked our Most Anticipated Films of 2014. We each sat down and ranked Fincher's films, wrote up what we thought of them and why we ranked them where we did, and then we combined those to come up with this compilation!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">A:</u> And we just know that you're going to find some of our ranks kind of interesting. This is probably one of the best examples of how sometimes we think alike, and sometimes we think differently about films. So without further ado, listed below are the official Two Tickets For... rankings of David Fincher's Films!</span><br />
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<b><u><i>TWO TICKETS FOR...'S RANKINGS OF DAVID FINCHER'S FILMS</i></u></b></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10.) Alien 3 (1992)</span></u></b><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Individual Rankings - Sarah: 7th Andrew: 10th </i></span><br />
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>A:</b></span> In all fairness to Fincher, his first feature-film directorial effort was a studio-interfered CF of the highest order. He was brought on late, had to start shooting with an unfinished Frankenstein-esque script, was overruled on many things by the studio that he eventually walked away before editing the film. So even the finished edit isn't Fincher's. And I can’t blame him. While there are flashes of the kind of director he would become in this film, it’s best to just say it’s not even really a Fincher film.</span><br />
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> I love the <i><b>Alien</b></i> franchise. <b><i>Aliens</i></b> is my favorite of the bunch, so naturally I take issue with the third installment. They completely negate my favorite of the films in such a violent and unnecessary way. Killing off all of Newt and Hicks at the start of the movie was poor decision-making. But that's not where the bad decisions end. There are scenes where we have the great man-in-a-costume/puppetry xenomorph and then there are the moments where it's <i>terrible</i> CGI. At times it's so bad that the alien is actually green. It's. Just. The worst. The only compliment I have is that I liked the cast. But that doesn't matter and you can't get attached because of course they're all gonna die! Fincher can't be blamed for it all, though. With multiple writers and no say in the editing, it was bound to be a tough freshman film.</span><br />
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<b><u>9.) The Game (1997)</u></b></span><br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4u5Qc24GyTo/VDgbEsbsyBI/AAAAAAAAAkI/Tp01aZXbva0/s1600/The%2BGame%2Bposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4u5Qc24GyTo/VDgbEsbsyBI/AAAAAAAAAkI/Tp01aZXbva0/s1600/The%2BGame%2Bposter.jpg" height="320" width="236" /></span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Individual Rankings - Sarah: 10th Andrew: 6th </i></span><br />
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>A:</b></span> While most people think of <b><i>The Game</i></b> as one of Fincher’s worst, I don’t think that’s necessarily fair. It’s <i>very</i> underrated. It is a very well-made movie that’s anchored by a very strong starring turn from Michael Douglas. It is probably the first film that really <i>looks</i> like a Fincher film, with the help of the great, late cinematographer Harris Savides, whom Fincher would team up with again for <b><i>Zodiac</i></b>. The biggest knock on it is that this was Fincher’s follow-up to his immediate classic, <b><i>Se7en</i></b>, and that if you think about the plot too much there are some logic holes. But I have fun whenever I watch this movie.</span><br />
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> I hated this movie. It freaked me out in the worst way imaginable, and then to find out that the whole thing was like a big joke on the main character?! I mean, how awful is that?! I was so mad at this movie at the end! Maybe that’s what Fincher was going for, but it just really wasn’t my cup of tea.</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8.) Panic Room (2002)</span></u></b><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Individual Rankings - Sarah: 8th Andrew: 7th</i></span><br />
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> This is the last of Fincher's films that I'm not so keen on. This one was, once again, technically executed to perfection but I just really did not like the cast. I can only handle Jodie Foster in one movie, and that’s <b><i>Silence of the Lambs</i></b>. I feel like one can only handle that voice for so long before it just becomes grating on the nerves. And then there’s K-Stew. It’s good to know that she didn’t just start off in the <b><i>Twilight </i></b> films as an angsty pain in the ass, that she’s always been that way. I just felt like this movie was lacking for me in the thriller vein. I know I will probably be very argued against on this point but it just fell flat for me.</span><br />
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>A:</b></span> Yeah, I know you hated this film, Sarah, but I really enjoy. Part of it is sentimental value, as this was the first Fincher film I saw in theatres, when I was 14. And now that I think of it, it was probably the first Fincher film I ever saw, period. And it floored me with how slick it was. The great camera movements through the house, the look and feel of the film, the tension between Jodie Foster and the three burglars (including two future Oscar winners in Forest Whitaker and Jared Leto)…I loved it. It’s probably the most short-and-sweet film Fincher has done, except it’s not <i>truly</i> sweet. I remember being bummed as a teenager that it took five years before Fincher would release another movie after this one came out.</span><br />
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<b><u>7.) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)</u></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Individual Rankings - Sarah: 5th Andrew: 9th</i></span><br />
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> When I first saw this movie I had no idea it was a Fincher film. It’s an interesting character study with a little bit of fantasy thrown in. Once again we have another phenomenal cast that just knocks it out of the park. It’s technically well done, and while the story drags at times, I think that the technicality shines through as a strong point. It’s not one of those movies I’m going to stop on every time I see it on television, but it’s beautifully done.</span><br />
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>A:</b></span> This isn’t my favorite David Fincher movie, and it’s by far his most “Oscar bait” kind of movie, but I think the CGI is phenomenal and the cast is pretty great. It runs a little long for my tastes, to the point where I’m actually okay not watching it again in one sitting, but it looks great, it sounds great, and it’s a very touching movie, which helps it stand out from the rest of Fincher’s filmography.</span><br />
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<b><u>6.) Zodiac (2007)</u></b></span><br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yLSTRl00heY/VDgdUYZ7xhI/AAAAAAAAAks/v5XG7EQNYaE/s1600/Jake%2BGyllenhaal%2BZodiac.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yLSTRl00heY/VDgdUYZ7xhI/AAAAAAAAAks/v5XG7EQNYaE/s1600/Jake%2BGyllenhaal%2BZodiac.png" height="168" width="320" /></span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Individual Rankings - Sarah: 9th Andrew: 4th </i></span><br />
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>A:</b></span> I struggled with my ranking of <b><i>Zodiac</i></b> if only because whenever I watch it I feel a little incomplete. And when I thought about it, that’s exactly how I <i>should</i> feel, because the investigation into the Zodiac killer was never resolved. One of Fincher’s hallmarks is obsession, and no other movie of his tackles it as strongly as this one. Another great cast (taking chances on Jake Gyllenhaal to shoulder the film and on a pre-<b><i>Iron Man</i></b> Robert Downey, Jr. panned out in spades), it’s another fantastic looking film, and I remember being scared of this film in the final act with the basement scene the first time I saw it. While I have it ranked fourth, I can understand why some people might list this as his best film.</span><br />
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> I’ve actually never been able to finish this movie. By about halfway through I was bored and confused. It’s not one that I have been wanting to get back to, either. I’ve really had no desire to pick it back up. I hear that it ends well; I guess I’ll have to take people’s word on it.</span><br />
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<b><u>5.) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)</u></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Individual Rankings - Sarah: 2nd Andrew: 8th </i></span><br />
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> This movie bothered me. And it should have. The book was disturbing and haunting. This came through perfectly on the big screen. Once again we had the addition of the music to really bring things to life. It created a tense feeling throughout the entire film that made you squirm in your seat. The cast was inventive and housed a lot of familiar faces, which really paid off for the viewers and the filmmaker.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>A:</b></span> The only reason I have <b><i>The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</i></b> is ranked as low as I do is because I think all of the others have higher rewatchability. That’s not a slight to <b><i>Dragon Tattoo</i></b>, it’s just that it can be a difficult movie to watch because of the source material. The cast is great (Rooney Mara’s transformation into Lisbeth Salander obviously standing out), it looks amazing (I always feel cold watching this movie), and the score by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross is sublime. I understand the criticisms people have about it being <i>too</i> faithful to the book, and the fact that it came so soon after the Swedish versions starring Noomi Rapace, but I think those are nitpicks. You can say Fincher sold out with this film, but it’s still a trademark Fincher film nonetheless (maybe save for the lack of underlying humor).</span><br />
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<b><u>4.) Gone Girl (2014)</u></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Individual Rankings - Sarah: 3rd Andrew: 5th</i></span><br />
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> We just posted our review of <i style="font-weight: bold;">Gone Girl</i> so I don’t really need to say too much about it here. It was another Fincher film cocktail that hit all the right notes. He really has his formula down.</span><br />
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>A:</b></span> Fincher’s latest lands a solid spot in my personal rankings, right smack dab in the middle. And really it’s only that low because the other four I have ranked ahead of it are SO strong. As we mentioned in our review, Fincher cast the HELL out of this movie and he directed the hell out of it, too. This film stuck with me for days after we saw it and I can’t wait to see it again. It also makes me very excited to see what Fincher does next.</span><br />
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<b><u>3.) Se7en (1995)</u></b></span><br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mzVwNbhGeFw/VDge-CVVFwI/AAAAAAAAAlM/-6iomxbjiss/s1600/Se7en%2Bposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mzVwNbhGeFw/VDge-CVVFwI/AAAAAAAAAlM/-6iomxbjiss/s1600/Se7en%2Bposter.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Individual Rankings - Sarah: 6th Andrew: 1st </i></span><br />
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> This movie. Woof, it was a doozy. It really took the basic human fears and just amplified them. You would never guess that Brad Pitt could take such a silly line and really put in an amazing amount of fear and panic. That’s what this movie does. It is quite twisted at times and that really bothered me. While it’s a great thriller and horror movie, there’s an amazing twist at the end that you never see coming. It’s a little jarring, which is the point, and it is so well-executed.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>A:</b></span> I have personally have <i style="font-weight: bold;">Se7en</i> ranked as my number one Fincher film, and it was a tough call between this one and the two films we have ranked ahead of it in our combined rankings. The fact that it was only Fincher’s second film helps its cause because it shows just how a good a director he was at a young age. Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey are all terrific in this film. It was never scary to me, but I can see how others are scared of it. The level of detail involved with the film is mind-blowing, too. All those notebooks that John Doe had in his apartment? All meticulously filled with random ramblings, even though you only ever see just a few of them open. And maybe the best thing going for <b><i>Se7en</i></b> is that it has one of the most famous scenes in movie history and people <i>still</i> claim they saw Gwyneth Paltrow’s head in the box, even though you never do. That’s powerful filmmaking.</span><br />
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<b><u>2.) Fight Club (1999)</u></b></span><br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ERiVZd5Kyfo/VDgf_VhVxSI/AAAAAAAAAlY/7w5Bd-gjoVw/s1600/Brad%2BPitt%2BEdward%2BNorton%2BFight%2BClub.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ERiVZd5Kyfo/VDgf_VhVxSI/AAAAAAAAAlY/7w5Bd-gjoVw/s1600/Brad%2BPitt%2BEdward%2BNorton%2BFight%2BClub.jpg" height="226" width="320" /></span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Individual Rankings - Sarah: 4th Andrew: 2nd </i></span><br />
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>A:</b></span> I mean, duh. Of course <b><i>Fight Club</i></b> is this high. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton knock it out of the park, it’s a scathing satire of masculinity and consumerism, it’s imminently quotable, and it has one of the best twists in movie history. That twist carries more weight than others because Fincher throws in hints to the true nature of the film the entire time. It’s funny, it’s smart, and it’s great that the exact same studio that interfered with Fincher so much on <b><i>Alien 3 </i></b>is the same one that let him make this gonzo film.</span><br />
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> I don’t care what anyone says, this movie is a classic. It’s one of those that you will always remember the first time you watched it. It always sticks with you. It’s also one of those movies that you are always learning something new from. Every time you watch it, something new pops out at you. How many movies can you say that about?! It’s crazy cool.</span><br />
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<b><u>1.) The Social Network (2010)</u></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Individual Rankings - Sarah: 1st Andrew: 3rd</i></span><br />
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> I love this movie. Everything from the cast to the music in this movie is just perfection. It was one of the first times that I watched a Fincher film and went, “Oh yeah…I get it now.” It wasn’t the first Fincher film I saw but sometimes it can take me a bit to truly appreciate a true artist in the film world. I really, REALLY love the cast in this movie. Jesse Eisenberg was a revelation as Mark Zuckerberg and it really brought him to the forefront of Hollywood. That, and you throw in an unknown like Andrew Garfield and give pop music star Justin Timberlake an incredibly important role into the mix? It was genius, and really told us a story that we thought we knew and put it on its head.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>A:</b></span> Plain and simple, I thought back then and I still think now that <b><i>The Social Network</i></b> should have won Best Picture over <b><i>The King’s Speech</i></b>. Whoever would have thought that the story of Facebook would be so riveting? Obviously the fantastic screenplay by Aaron Sorkin gets this one of to a strong start, but again with the casting, the mind-blowing special effect of turning Armie Hammer into both of the Winklevoss twins, again with the <i>look</i>, the well-deserving Oscar-winning score by Reznor and Ross…I could go on. Maybe more than any of his films, this one will stand the test of time because it’s such a phenomenal look into the beginning of the social media boom and Silicon Valley in the mid-aughts. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> Okay readers, so that's our combined rankings of David Fincher's films! We're sure you might have some agreements and disagreements, so let us know in the comments what you think!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo Courtesies: <a href="http://www.impawards.com/1997/posters/game.jpg" target="_blank">impawards.com</a>, 20th Century Fox, New Line Cinema, Columbia Pictures, PolyGram Film Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, MGM</span></div>
Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-53247265707385524312014-10-07T23:39:00.003-04:002014-10-08T14:29:05.465-04:00David Fincher Returns With Another Modern Masterpiece: Our Review of "Gone Girl" (2014)<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e963rGUYsV4/VDSlJbHARNI/AAAAAAAACws/nTxpvhbBBV0/s1600/Gone%2BGirl%2Bposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e963rGUYsV4/VDSlJbHARNI/AAAAAAAACws/nTxpvhbBBV0/s1600/Gone%2BGirl%2Bposter.jpg" height="320" width="217"></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Directed By:</u> David Fincher (<i style="font-weight: bold;">Fight Club</i>, <i style="font-weight: bold;">Seven</i>) </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Starring:</u> Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Carrie Coon, Tyler Perry, Kim Dickens</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Rating:</u> R for a scene of bloody violence, some strong sexuality/nudity, and language</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Run Time:</u> 2 hours, 29 minutes</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Synopsis:</u> After discovering his wife Amy (Pike) missing on the morning of their 5th anniversary, Nick Dunne (Affleck) becomes the prime suspect in the eyes of the police, media and the public. As Nick stumbles around trying to clear his name, it becomes clear that neither Nick nor Amy was being 100% truthful with each other, with devastating results.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>REVIEW</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u style="text-underline: #1A1A1A;">Andrew:</u></b> Hello dear readers! While
Sarah and I were back in Michigan this past weekend for a wedding between two
dear friends of ours, we were able to sneak in a visit to a local movie theatre
with another dear friend of ours to catch David Fincher's latest film, <b><i>Gone
Girl</i></b>. Now, this is a film that I personally had been anxiously waiting
for as I'm a huge Fincher fan (even took a Fincher film class in college), and
while we're a few days late with this review we think it'll be worth it because
we've had many thoughts about this film percolating in our brains. So without
further ado, let's get to it Sarah. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>Gone Girl</i></b> is based on the hit 2012 novel of the same name written by
Gillian Flynn, who also had the pleasure of adapting her own work for the
film's screenplay. It stars Ben Affleck (<b><i>Argo</i></b>) as Nick Dunne and
Rosamund Pike (<b><i>The World's End</i></b>) as his wife Amy, both of whom
were once-successful writers in New York City that lost their jobs after the
recession and moved to Missouri when Nick's mother was dying of cancer. On
their fifth anniversary, Nick comes home to his McMansion to discover a scene
of struggle in the living room and Amy missing. What follows is an
investigation into Amy's disappearance that takes many twists and turns, with a
looming question over whether Nick killed his wife, and whether this married
couple really knew each other at all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Sarah:</u> Right now is a good time to warn our readers that since it's been a number of days since the film came out and a couple of years since the book came out, we're going to discuss non-spoiler aspects of the film first and then touch on some spoiler territory at the end of the review. Don't worry, we'll give fair warning when that section is coming up.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">A:</u> Indeed we will. So Sarah, while we hadn't read the book prior to seeing the
film, as I mentioned earlier this was one I was very much looking forward to
and I know you were as well. Now that we've seen <b><i>Gone Girl</i></b>, what
are your initial thoughts on it?</span></div>
<a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2014/10/david-fincher-returns-with-another.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-64511793642122254392014-09-30T17:31:00.001-04:002014-09-30T17:31:26.324-04:00This Is a Waste of a Great Cast and Our Money: Our Review of "This Is Where I Leave You" (2014)<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B1cLeZN3Pjg/VCseGJ0encI/AAAAAAAAAjk/hcL_BR9ug5M/s1600/This_Is_Where_I_Leave_You_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B1cLeZN3Pjg/VCseGJ0encI/AAAAAAAAAjk/hcL_BR9ug5M/s1600/This_Is_Where_I_Leave_You_poster.jpg" height="320" width="215"></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Directed By:</u> Shawn Levy (<i style="font-weight: bold;">Night at the Museum</i>, <i style="font-weight: bold;">Real Steel</i>) </span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Starring:</u> Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Corey Stoll, Adam Driver</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Rating:</u> R for language, sexual content and some drug use</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Run Time:</u> 1 hour, 43 minutes</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Synopsis:</u> Already dealing with the discovery that his wife is cheating on him with his boss, Judd Altman (Bateman) returns home for his father's funeral and to sit shiva with his famous author mother (Fonda) and his squabbling siblings (Fey, Stoll, Driver) per his father's last request. Traditional Hollywood family drama ensues.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u style="text-underline: #1A1A1A;">Andrew:</u></b> Hello dear readers! We
were a little quiet the last week or so because my mother visited us last
weekend and we were unable to catch any new releases, but we're back this week
after having seen <b><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1371150/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_8" target="_blank">This Is Where I Leave You</a></i></b> this past Friday
night.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>This Is Where I Leave You </i></b>is a film we've been waiting to see for a while now because of
the star-studded cast full of actors and actresses we very much enjoy. The film
stars Jason Bateman (<i style="font-weight: bold;">Bad Words</i>) as Judd Altman, a radio producer who gets hit with the
double-whammy of discovering his wife had been cheating on him with his boss,
followed by the death of his father. His father's passing brings the whole
Altman clan together, where we meet Judd's sister Wendy, played by Tina Fey (NBC's <i style="font-weight: bold;">30 Rock</i>); his younger
brother Philip, played by Adam Driver (HBO's <b><i>Girls</i></b>); his older brother Paul, played by Corey Stoll (Netflix's <i style="font-weight: bold;">House of Cards</i>); and his mother Hillary, played by Jane Fonda (HBO's <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Newsroom</i>), who's famous for writing a parenting book that explicitly detailed her
children's lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that's just the immediate family.
Philip's older girlfriend is played by the great Connie Britton (ABC's <b><i>Nashville</i></b>); Paul's wife, Annie, is played by the hilarious Cathryn Hahn (<i style="font-weight: bold;">Bad Words</i>); and a neighbor/former
flame of Wendy's that she still holds a torch for is played by Timothy
Olyphant (FX's <i style="font-weight: bold;">Justified</i>). So this is a pretty great cast on paper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sarah, now that we've actually seen <b><i>This Is Where I
Leave You</i></b>, do you think the movie lived up to the promise the cast
gave? Or were these actors wasted?</span><br>
</div><a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2014/09/this-is-waste-of-great-cast-and-our.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-81715025492964572722014-09-16T16:21:00.000-04:002014-09-16T16:21:08.038-04:00Tom Hardy's Quiet Cool Shines in This New Crime Drama: Our Review of "The Drop" (2014)<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c-yc3fM-i3w/VBh0hhyCv0I/AAAAAAAACwc/v6ypxJ0qEQg/s1600/the-drop-poster-636-long.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c-yc3fM-i3w/VBh0hhyCv0I/AAAAAAAACwc/v6ypxJ0qEQg/s1600/the-drop-poster-636-long.jpg" height="320" width="226"></span></a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Directed By:</u></span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Michaël R. Roskam </span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Starring:</u> Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini, Noomi Rapace</span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Rating:</u> R for some strong violence and pervasive language</span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Run Time:</u> 1 hour, 46 minutes</span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Synopsis:</u> Bob (Hardy) and his cousin Marv (Gandolfini) run a bar for some Chechen mobsters that is occasionally used as a "drop bar" for the mob's money. After the bar is robbed one night, Bob's seemingly quiet life is turned anything but thanks to a decade-long investigation into a missing persons case related to his bar, needing to placate his employers and cousin, plus raising a puppy he finds in the trash one night that may somehow be involved in the investigation.</span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>REVIEW</b></span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Hello dear readers! We profusely apologize for our lack of activity on the blog. Over the past month we were on the road quite a bit taking some much needed vacation time, plus if we're being honest, there just weren't a lot of movies that we thought were worth our time and/or money.</span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Sarah:</u> Let's put it this way: we've seen <i style="font-weight: bold;">Guardians of the Galaxy</i> three times instead of seeing anything else over the past month. So yeah...not many attractive movies.</span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">A:</u> Very good point. But September is here now, which generally means the end of Hollywood's second dumping season (January/February being the first), as well as the approach of Oscar season. Now that some movies we're actually interested in seeing are coming out again, we're back with a new review!</span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This past weekend we decided to catch the new crime drama <i style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1600196/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">The Drop</a></i>, starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, and the late James Gandolfini in what is his last film role. Interesting of note to me, <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Drop</i> was written by noted crime novelist Dennis Lehane (author of "Mystic River" and "Gone Baby Gone") and is based on his own short story<i style="font-weight: bold;">. </i>So even though this is director <span class="itemprop" itemprop="name" style="text-decoration: none;">Michaël R. Roskam's first English-language film, the pedigree was big enough for me to be very interested in this film.</span></span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="itemprop" itemprop="name"><u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> Hardy plays a quiet bartender named Bob, who works at his cousin Marv's place, with Gandolfini playing Marv. Marv is a bit bitter in life because he sold his bar to the Chechen mob years ago, and they now use his bar as a front and as a "drop bar" where their money is occasionally dropped off, hence the name of the movie!</span></span></span><br>
<a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2014/09/tom-hardys-quiet-cool-shines-in-this.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-75622769713883701902014-08-08T16:15:00.000-04:002014-08-08T16:15:13.305-04:00Two Tickets For... Ranks All Ten of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Films!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UP4A-geK7SQ/U-UuX_FmbLI/AAAAAAAACvQ/KWRJmyd1dpg/s1600/MCU_rankings_collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UP4A-geK7SQ/U-UuX_FmbLI/AAAAAAAACvQ/KWRJmyd1dpg/s1600/MCU_rankings_collage.jpg" height="320" width="320"></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;"><u style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Hello dear readers! Last fall Sarah and I posted our personal rankings of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films that had been released up to that point, save for </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">The Avengers</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, because we knew it would top the rankings. Since that post, Marvel Studios has released three films - </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Thor: The Dark World</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Captain America: The Winter Soldier</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, and last week's </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Guardians of the Galaxy </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- bringing the grant total of MCU films to a nice, round ten films.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With that in mind, we decided it was perfect time to revisit those rankings to include the three aforementioned films, plus we're including <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Avengers</i> this time. As a reminder, when we say the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" we're talking about the films that Marvel Studios themselves, the ones they actually have the rights to make films of; so no Spider-Man films (Sony), no X-Men or Fantastic Four films (20th Century Fox), etc.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Check out our lists below, starting with Sarah's personal rankings!</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SARAH’S
RANKINGS<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>10.) <i>The Incredible Hulk</i></b> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m not going to lie, I actually thought that
this movie wasn’t even connected to the rest of the Marvel movies. That’s how
much this movie is forgettable. It’s sad really, because the only thing that
connects this movie to any of the others in the Tony Stark cameo during the
credits. And since they’ve replaced Ed Norton with Mark Ruffalo it’s even more
of a throw away film.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>9.) <i>Iron Man 2</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The more I look back on this movie the more I realize
that it just wasn’t as good as it should have been. This movie was just lacking
in pretty much everything from good action to a strong bad guy. I recently
caught part of the beginning of this movie again and the comedy was so cheesy
that it fell flat. Such a shame. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">8. <i>Iron Man 3</i> </b></span></div>
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movie: </span>I still don't quite
understand why I didn't like this one. Until we watch it again, I'm going to
stick with I think I was just in Iron Man overload and was little tired of the
kitsch.</span></div>
<a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2014/08/two-tickets-for-ranks-all-ten-of-marvel.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519880146693496889.post-34234256845376652192014-08-06T15:45:00.002-04:002014-08-07T14:46:42.548-04:00Marvel's Gamble is Their Funniest, Most Enjoyable Film Since The Avengers: Our Review of "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014)<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vKedbETV3O4/U-KE4CP2aeI/AAAAAAAAAiU/pKFl1PCXGwA/s1600/GOTG+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vKedbETV3O4/U-KE4CP2aeI/AAAAAAAAAiU/pKFl1PCXGwA/s1600/GOTG+poster.jpg" height="320" width="216"></a><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Directed By:</u> James Gunn (<i style="font-weight: bold;">Slither</i>) </span></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Starring:</u> Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Lee Pace</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Rating:</u> PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for some language</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Run Time:</u> 2 hours, 1 minute</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Synopsis:</u> A treasure hunter (Pratt), an assassin (Saldana), a muscle-headed alien with a quick temper (Bautista), a walking/talking raccoon (Cooper) and his living tree sidekick (Diesel) band together first to escape prison to sell a priceless and dangerous artifact, then to ultimately save their galaxy from a crazed zealot named Ronan the Accuser (Pace).</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Sarah:</u></b> Hello readers! We have been a little quiet lately but we
are back with one of our most anticipated reviews of the year, Marvel's <b><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2015381/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Guardiansof the Galaxy</a></i></b>! We were SO excited for this movie. There's nothing like
a Marvel movie to round out the summer and this one did <i>not</i> disappoint. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you have no idea what this movie is about, we'll try to set it up as best we can. </span></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It stars Chris Pratt (</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Moneyball</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">) as Peter Quill, an Earthling who was abducted as a child and has
grown up with intergalactic thieves. After searching for an orb-like object for a buyer, he's hunted down by a pair of bounty hunters - an anthropomorphic raccoon named Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and a living tree-like alien named Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) - as well as an alien assassin named Gamora (Zoe Saldana). </span></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew:</u> Gamora is the adoptive daughter of Thanos (Josh Brolin), the big purple bad guy we saw at the end of <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Avengers</i>, and she's helping retrieve the orb for a baddie called Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace), who said he'll obtain the orb for Thanos in return for his help in destroying the planet Xander.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">S:</u> When Quill, Rocket, Groot and Gamora are all arrested and detained at the same prison, they join together - along with another alien named Drax the Destroyer (WWE's Dave Bautista) who wants to come along so he can kill Ronan as revenge for killing his wife and daughter - to escape. Adventure ensues and produces one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long
time!</span><br>
</div><a href="http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2014/08/marvels-gamble-is-their-funniest-most.html#more">Read more »</a>Two Tickets For...http://www.blogger.com/profile/02475330757272632337noreply@blogger.com0