A Six Pack Of... Our Favorite Seth Rogen Films!

Sarah: Hello readers! As this weekend gets closer we are looking at another Seth Rogen movie hitting the big screen with his new R-rated comedy Neighbors. It's one that we're looking forward to seeing and reviewing, but it also inspired us look back at the movies that he has done in the past and pick our favorites. That's right! It's time for A Six-Pack Of... Our Favorite Seth Rogen Films! 

SARAH'S PICKS (in ascending order)

3.) Knocked Up

S: My third-favorite Rogen film would have to be his 2007 rom-com, Knocked Up. Starring Rogen and Katherine Heigl, totally raunchy movie about a couple who, after a one-night stand, find themselves preggers seems like it would totally just be a movie about sex and drugs, be turns out to be a really heartwarming flick. For those of you who haven't seen it, Rogen's Ben is a witty slacker who lives in a house filled with a number of other guys played by famous comedians like Jason Segel, Jonah Hill and Jay Baruchel to name a few. This alone could create some hilarious hijinks, but then they throw in Judd Apatow's whole family and Paul Rudd and that just makes it all better. 

Yeah, I suppose Heigl is also kinda funny but….she's really not. All of the funny in this movie happens around her but doesn't necessarily involve her. This is all totally fine with me because I love the way that the supporting cast is just as funny as the main characters. It was a creative look at a different kind of family and definitely one that we own and watch when we're looking for a funny. 

A Six Pack Of... Andrew's Favorite Baseball Movies!

Andrew: Hello readers! So I meant to post this on Monday in celebration of Major League Baseball's Opening Day, but I got a little distracted because it was also my birthday and I was trying to spend time with Sarah before she had to go into work that afternoon, and then my Detroit Tigers played their first game of the year at 4pm and it lasted quite a while. So sorry for the delay!

But as I said, in celebration of the start of the Major League Baseball season, as well as a bit of a look ahead to next week's new Jackie Robinson biopic, 42, starring Harrison Ford, I wanted to share my 6 personal favorite baseball movies of all-time.

KEEP IN MIND, this is a personal list of my favorite baseball movies. This is not a list of what I consider to be the best baseball movies. That's a whole different bunch of criteria. Instead these are the ones that I grew up on and loved as a child and today, ones that anytime I catch them on TV I have to stop whatever it is I'm doing and finish it, or quite plainly the ones that I enjoy more than any others. I've listed them in alphabetical order because I tried to rank them but just couldn't do it.

So without further ado, here is A Six Pack Of... Andrew's Favorite Baseball Movies:

After Such a Long Wait We Expected a Better Movie Than This: Our Review of "Lincoln" (2012)

Directed By: Steven Spielberg 

Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, David Strathairn

Rating: PG-13 for an intense scene of war violence, some images of carnage and brief strong language

Run Time: 2 hours, 29 minutes

Synopsis: During what would be the final few months of his life, President Abraham Lincoln (Day-Lewis) struggles with the politics and ethics of trying to end the Civil War and get the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution passed while avoiding the scenario of getting one result at the expense of the other.

REVIEW

Andrew: We’re posting this a little late, but Sarah and I were able to catch an advance screening of Steven Spielberg’s latest film, Lincoln, his long-awaited biopic of Honest Abe. It has a cavalcade of stars, headlined by two-time Academy Award-winer Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) in the title role, along with supporting turns by Sally Field (The Amazing Spider-Man), Tommy Lee Jones (Hope Springs), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Looper) and a whole lot of other actors.

Sarah: Just about anyone you can think of was in this movie.

A: Pretty much! Obviously it’s a biographical film of Abraham Lincoln, but it only the last few months of his life, particularly during the final weeks prior to the House of Representatives voting to approve the 13^th Amendment. It’s a very small but important part of his life and his fight to end slavery.

So Sarah, while this was a movie that was in gestation for quite some time (Spielberg has been trying to get this movie made for years with Liam Neeson attached at one point to star as Lincoln), we haven’t been totally jazzed to see it. A lot of that had to do with the fact that we weren’t enamored with War Horse.  We’re probably in the minority about this, but when we saw the trailer for Lincoln, it gave us flashbacks to War Horse didn’t it?

Do not be fooled by the trailer for Lincoln. Most of the movie takes place in a room like this or in the House of Republicans' chambers.

Thank Goodness For This Highly Original, Thoughtful and Excellent Sci-Fi Film: Our Review of "Looper" (2012)

Directed By: Rian Johnson 

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels

Rating: R for strong violence, language, some sexuality/nudity, and drug content

Run Time: 1 hour, 58 minutes

Synopsis: In the future, time travel exists but is illegal. Only the mob uses it to send marks back in time to be killed by specialized assassins called Loopers. When they want to end their contracts with their assassins, they send their older versions back to be killed by their younger versions, a practice called “closing the loop.” One looper named Joe (Gordon-Levitt) fails to do so when he recognizes his older self (Willis), accidentally letting himself escape, causing a man-hunt and possible catastrophic changes to the future.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! Last night Sarah and I caught an evening showing of this weekend’s highly-anticipated science-fiction movie Looper, directed by Rian Johnson and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises), Bruce Willis (Moonrise Kingdom) and Emily Blunt (The Five-Year Engagement).

To quickly set it up, JGL plays Joe, a specialized assassin called a “looper” living in Kansas circa 2044. As Joe says in the movie, time travel hasn’t been invented yet but by 2074 it will have been and will be illegal so the only people who use it are the mafia. They send back their marks to 2044 where Joe and his fellow loopers wait for them and kill them immediately upon arrival.

One day, though, Joe hesitates to kill his mark because he recognizes him as his future self, who then escapes and the film sort of becomes a hunt between the two, though Older Joe ends up having an alternate agenda as well. We don’t want to say too much because the beauty of this movie was that…

Sarah: The marketing didn’t give, really, ANY of the story away. They lead you to believe the film is one way when it’s actually quite different, in my opinion at least.

A: Yeah, so props to people on the blogosphere and the film’s marketing department for not spoil anything. (More after the jump)

One of the best and most pivotal scenes in Looper between Old Joe (Willis) and Young Joe (Gordon-Levitt) takes place in this diner, prominently featured in the film's marketing.

Our Preview of This Week's New Releases (for Friday, September 28th)

Andrew: Hello readers! We're back with another weekly preview (sorry for them being sporadic lately) and boy is this one a doozy. We have a few wide release films coming out such as the new Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis film Won't Back Down; the Anna Kendrick led a cappella film Pitch Perfect; a new animated kids film in time for Halloween, Hotel Transylvania; and most importantly, one of the most highly-anticipated science-fiction films to come along in quite a while - the Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Bruce Willis time travel film Looper.

Sarah, I want to kick things off with the one we're most excited about, and that's Looper. It's directed by Rian Johnson, who isn't very well-known to the general public but he started to make a name for himself with 2005's high school noir film Brick (also starring JGL), 2008's The Brothers Bloom, and a couple of well-received episodes of AMC's Breaking Bad. The exciting thing about Johnson, to me, is that he wrote the film as well and it has a killer set-up. (More after the jump)

Official Trailer for Looper

The First Full-Length Trailer for "Lincoln" is Online!

Andrew: Well it’s finally here, Sarah - the first full-length trailer for Steven Spielberg’s long-awaited Abraham Lincoln biopic starring Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role. Check it out!

So what are your initial impressions?

Sarah: I’m a little concerned about it. I think that I’m afraid it will be a little too much like War Horse.

A: What do you mean by that?

S: I just mean, is it going to be another life story that doesn’t have any real point to it? Is it going to give us a new look into Abraham Lincoln’s life? What is Spielberg going to bring us that we haven’t seen or read about before?

A: I think that’s fair. My concern about it is that Spielberg could possibly make it a generic bio-pic that just happens to have a fantastic cast and a generic John Williams score. So yeah, I guess I agree with you in that particular concern. That said, if there’s a director who can make this an instant classic, it’s Spielberg. The man knows how to shoot war scenes and Daniel Day-Lewis is probably going to be the leading candidate for this year’s Best Actor Oscar.

S: The cast looks phenomenal and it’s a cast I won’t worry about overshadowing one another. I think we have some heavy-hitters that have been around the block a while as well as some younger stars like JGL, so I think the cast is going to just knock it out of the park.

A: Completely agreed. I think my expectations for Lincoln are just a little tempered because we weren’t so hot on War Horse. Hopefully we get vintage Spielberg!

Lincoln also stars Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Todd Lincoln, Jared Harris as Ulysses S. Grant, and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens. Lincoln hits theatres on November 9th. (Holy crap November 9th is gonna be an awesome weekend for movies what with Lincoln AND Skyfall coming out!)

Courtesy: YouTube, Fox Twentieth Century

Nothing More Than A Brief, Action-y Sugar Rush: Our Review of "Premium Rush" (2012)

Directed By: David Koepp

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Shannon, Dania Ramirez, Jamie Chung

Rating: PG-13 for some violence, intense action sequences and language

Run Time: 1 hour, 31 minutes

Synopsis: Wilee (Gordon-Levitt) is a law-school dropout turned NYC bike messenger who loves to ride fast on his brakeless bike. One day he gets a call to take an envelope from a friend (Chung) and deliver it to Chinatown. Shortly after he’s intercepted by a Detective Monday (Shannon) who needs the package to pay off a gambling debt. From there and with the help of his ex-girlfriend (Ramirez), it becomes a race between Wilee, Monday and the clock to get the package to its destination.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! We know it’s been a little bit since our last review and we thank you for your patience! I’m back from my two-week stint working on location in the middle of Pennsylvania and now Sarah and I can get back to seeing movies together on a regular basis.

For the first movie we’re going to review after my return (and as a new member of The Large Association of Movie Blogs, what up?!) we saw Premium Rush, the new action film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises) and Michael Shannon (Take Shelter). JGL plays a NYC bike messenger named Wilee (pronounced “Wiley” like the cartoon coyote) who picks up a parcel that Shannon’s corrupt NYPD detective needs to intercept so he can pay off some gambling debts.

Sarah, this isn’t a film we had a chance to preview last week but I’d say it’s one we’ve been looking forward to because we like JGL. Now that we’ve seen it, what do you think of Premium Rush?

Sarah: I’m going to say that I didn’t mind it. I went into it knowing that it was going to be nothing but bike chase sequences and JGL trying to get this package from Point A to Point B as fast as he could and insanity would ensue in-between those points.

Sarah Finally Saw TDKR So We Talk About Spoilerish Stuff (Plus Her Rating)

Andrew: Hello readers! Sorry we've been a little quiet since my review of The Dark Knight Rises on Friday, but it's still crazy busy at the day job and Sarah just got back from her trip late Monday. But fear not! We hit up the local multiplex last night to get Sarah caught up on TDKR and we're ready to get down and dirty with discussing some finer points of the movie and Nolan's whole Dark Knight Trilogy in general! (MAJOR SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN TDKR YET!!!!)

SERIOUSLY. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN TDKR, STOP READING THIS NOW.

Ok Sarah, the first thing I want to get your take on, because it's probably the most talked about aspect of the film, is the ending. It looks like Bruce Wayne has sacrificed himself by flying the nuclear reactor over Gotham Bay in The Bat and is blown to smithereens. His estate is given to the city to be used as an orphanage, Alfred gets the money from his belongings after crying his eyes out at Bruce's funeral, and the city has erected a statue in Batman's honor. But then Lucius Fox discovers that Bruce fixed the autopilot on The Bat, Commissioner Gordon finds the Bat Signal replaced with a new one, Alfred - in a call-back to an earlier scene - sees Bruce alive and well with Selina Kyle at an Italian cafe, and John Blake follows some coordinates Bruce left him and discovers the Bat Cave, implying he'll take up the mantle as the new Batman.

What did YOU think of that ending???

Sarah: Let me start off by saying that this was an amazing movie. But to answer your question the ending was phenomenal! I thought the way they wrapped it up was a little quick for my liking. I found myself going, "But wait, I want more of THAT!!" I loved how this movie felt a little different from the last two but still fit in well in the trilogy. The introduction of new characters was well done and they were perfectly cast. 

Here's the thing. The Dark Knight Rises ends and lends itself to be the right set-up for another one! But Nolan has repeatedly said that he didn't want to do another one. What's up with that?!

Nolan's Third Act Certainly Rose to My Expectations: Andrew's Review of "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012)

Directed By: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language

Run Time: 2 hours, 44 minutes

Synopsis: 8 years after the Joker's chaotic attack and Harvey Dent's death, Gotham is in a state of peace and Bruce Wayne (Bale) has retired the Batman. But a fearsome thug named Bane (Hardy) arrives with plans to destroy the city, bringing Wayne out of retirement. At the same time a cat burglar (Hathaway) is catching Wayne's attention, and a young police officer (Gordon-Levitt) tries to help Batman stop Bane's terror attack.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! It's just me for this rare occassion. Sarah is away visiting family while I had to stay back for work. Naturally this had to happen when one of the most anticipated films of the year is released, so we can't do a regular review. So instead I will be giving a singular review of Christopher Nolan's final entry in his Dark Knight Trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. I'm going to do my best to not spoil anything. When Sarah returns we'll go more in-depth into discussion points on spoilerish things, but for now I'll give my general thoughts on the movie.

In short, as I tweeted on the Two Tickets For... Twitter account (@twoticketsfor) not too long after getting out of the theatre, "Wow. Just.....wow." Of the many things that made say "wow" is just the sheer scope of it all. Nolan certainly went big here: the settings, the action pieces, the plot-lines, the villain. If someone at Warner Bros. told Nolan to go big or go home, he took the first option and ran with it.

I've read many reviews for The Dark Knight Rises so far and a few of them have pointed out that they felt there was TOO much going on. I don't disagree with that sentiment but I don't fully agree with it either. I can see where some moviegoers might feel like the first hour of the film is heavy on exposition and there's the potential for a lot of information overload. It didn't bother me, but with all the following stuff I can understand if others thought so.

New Trailer for "The Dark Knight Rises" Premieres at MTV Movie Awards

UPDATE: The video we originally had posted has been taken off the Internet by Warner Bros. We apologize for the inconvenience. If and when it reappears we will make sure to post it again. :(


Andrew: I'm going to keep this short and sweet.


Last night at the MTV Movie Awards, Christopher Nolan and the cast of The Dark Knight Rises walked on stage and introduced a new trailer of sorts for what may be this year's most anticipated film.


It has some new footage including different scenes of Bane looking pretty menacing and new shots of how Selina Kyle (a.k.a. Catwoman) will be coming in to play. Check it out below. It's pretty sweet.


The Dark Knight Rises comes out on July 20th and stars Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard and Joseph-Gordon Levitt.

Courtesy: MTV