Summer Movie Review... Bruno!!!!!!!!!!

Bruno was by far one of the funniest films I have ever seen. I cannot get over how ingenious Sacha Baron Cohen is.. The guy is unreal. He blurs the line between reality and fiction. For example, how do you know Paula Abdul and Ron Paul werent in on it.. Without going into too much detail, I will tell you that there are times when you might question whether or not the people involved actually know Bruno is a fake... For its originality I give it 3 and a half stars... I wouldve given it 4 stars, but it gets to be a little too much in terms of the EXTREME nature.

3 and a half stars... Original and ingenious, better and funnier than Borat.

Summer Movie Review...Harry Potter, Not just for Kids anymore...

Summer Movie Review...Harry Potter, Not just for Kids anymore...

Ive always felt that movies should be no longer than two hours. After about that time, a person gets ancy, no matter how good a movie is. However, in this sixth installment, which has some of the best special effects I have ever seen, the movie shouldve been a bit longer! I am not even kidding! Very well done. Truly one of the few movies to be just as good as all the others in their respective series. And I dont wanna hear about how Godfather 2 was better than The Godfather, because it wasnt and I know plenty of people who agree with me! Now back to Half Blood Prince..

Interestingly enough, this was to be J.K. Rowlings final installment, but the final book is so huge, over 700 pages, that they needed to make the final episode into over 2 movies long! So we still have a few more Harry Potters to go (and I still have to finish the book version of this movie!)..

The plot goes like this...

Lord Voldemort has returned to power, and his wrath has been felt in both the Muggle and Wizarding worlds. Severus Snape, long considered an enemy of Voldemort and a member of Dumbledore's anti-Voldemort coalition, the Order of the Phoenix, meets with Narcissa Malfoy, mother of Draco and wife of Lucius, an imprisoned Death Eater. Snape makes an Unbreakable Vow to Narcissa, promising to protect her son, Draco.

Dumbledore heads to 4 Privet Drive to collect Harry from his aunt and uncle. On their way to the Burrow, Harry and Dumbledore stop to recruit Horace Slughorn to return to teaching at Hogwarts. Harry is reunited with his best friends, Ron and Hermione. When shopping for schoolbooks, Harry runs into Draco and follows him to Borgin and Burkes, where he overhears Draco threatening Borgin and insisting that he fix an unknown object. Harry is instantly suspicious of Draco, whom he believes to be a Death Eater, just like his father. The students return to school, and Dumbledore announces that Snape will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, much to Harry's surprise.

Harry receives a used Potions textbook that once belonged to someone named “The Half-Blood Prince.” Spells and amendments are written in the margins of the book, and Harry uses the Prince's notes to excel at Potions. Dumbledore schedules regular meetings with Harry in which they use Dumbledore's pensieve to look at memories of those who have had direct contact with Voldemort. Dumbledore believes that if Harry can learn enough about Voldemort's history, it will help him when they finally fight face to face, as the prophecy concerning Harry foretells. Harry learns about Voldemort's family, including his grandfather Marvolo, his uncle Morfin, and his mother Merope, who cast a love spell on a Muggle and was abandoned by him when it wore off. Voldemort was left at an orphanage and grew to be an unpleasant and aggressive boy. Harry also learns that Voldemort has divided his soul into seven Horcruxes. Two of these, Tom Riddle's diary and Marvolo's ring, have already been destroyed. One resides in Voldemort, one resides in a snake, one is Merope's locket, and the other two are suspected to be hidden in objects belonging to Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Gryffindor.

Ron acquires a new girlfriend, Lavender, of whom Hermione is extremely jealous. Harry feels stuck in the middle of his friends' bickering. Eventually, Harry falls in love with Ginny, Ron's sister, and Ron and Lavender break up, making Hermione quite happy. Harry spends much of his time keeping up with his duties as Quidditch captain and following Draco Malfoy. Harry uses his Marauder's Map to keep track of Draco, but often cannot find him on the map. Eventually, Harry realizes that when Draco is not on the map, he is using the Room of Requirement on the seventh floor of Hogwarts, which transforms into whatever its user needs. Harry tries his best to get in to see what Draco is up to, but until he knows exactly what Draco is using the room for, he cannot gain access. Eventually Harry and Dumbledore leave Hogwarts together to fetch and destroy Merope's locket, thus making Voldemort one step closer to mortal. They must overcome a variety of traps and challenges before reaching the basin where the locket is hidden under a poisonous potion. Dumbledore drinks the potion and Harry fights off Voldemort's Inferi. They take the locket and return to Hogwarts as quickly as possible. Dumbledore is quite weak, and when they reach Hogsmeade they can see that the Dark Mark is visible above the astronomy tower.

Harry and Dumbledore rush toward the tower. When they arrive, Dumbledore uses his magic to freeze Harry in place, while Harry remains hidden by his cloak of invisibility. Draco Malfoy sprints into the room, threatening Dumbledore's life. Weak and with his wand out of reach, Dumbledore stalls Draco, telling him that he is not a killer and that the Order of the Phoenix could protect him and his mother from Voldemort. Draco lowers his wand, and Snape pushes into the tower. Harry cannot move or speak, but he hears members of the Order fighting Death Eaters below. Snape raises his wand and kills Dumbledore, sending him flying over the edge of the tower. When Dumbledore dies, his spell on Harry is broken, and Harry rushes after Snape, determined to avenge the death of his friend and headmaster. Snape escapes, and Harry is devastated. He looks at the locket he and Dumbledore retrieved and realizes that it is not a Horcrux. Inside the locket is a note from someone named “R. A. B.” Harry tells his friends he will not be returning to Hogwarts next year and will instead search out and kill Voldemort by destroying all of the Horcruxes. Ron and Hermione vow to join him...

So in the end, it was great visually, I do not feel the series is fatigued yet and I still feel theres alot more Harry to come in the next few years... I give it two thumbs up, three and a half stars, if only because the ending couldve been a bit of a better cliff hanger. And by the way, my prediction? Dumbledore pulls an Obiwan and returns in some form to guide harry..

I give this movie an A or 3 and a half stars!

Great effects, great continuity, great story telling and great character development, with a dash a great comedy thrown in! Just be wary, the kids might get scared with the blood and death of dumbledore. It aint just for the kids anymore, Harry is all grown up...

Williamsburg, Brooklyn starting to resemble Miami...and I dont mean in a good way!

Well I said this 3 years ago.. Noone listened to me... Izzydomus predicted that Williamsburg would overbuild and noone listened.

Well lets see if I was right. According to the New York Times today, atleast 17 buildings in Williamsburg that overlook the amazing waterfront of Manhattan are now vacant!

NOT 17 APARTMENTS, BUT 17 BUILDINGS!!!!

The New York Times, stealing a quote from me, went on to say that Williamsburg is starting to resemble Miami in terms of the amount of buildings taking up the skyline that are literally empty!

And it is.

A few years ago everyone thought that Miami was the place to buy. For the life of me I dont understand why they didnt just ask their parents about the early 1980s when everyone thought the same thing as the drug dealers were being kicked out. By the early 1990s, Miami had gone bust along with the rest of the real estate market. Its a pattern that happens every 20 years in Miami, it happened in the 1960s before the drug dealers took over... and now I believe the same thing is happening in the outer boroughs of New York City.

In 1987 everyone raved that Long Island City was the place to buy. They put up a big ugly green Citi bank building and thats about all that changed for atleast 20 years until the recent real estate boom put so many yuppies in there it now resembles a small version of Hoboken, New Jersey with a really cool skyline. But it took 20 years...

Williamsburg was one of the most disgusting, dispicable places anyone could ever walk through. The crime was horrible and the projects were overwhelming. Then, over the past 10 years it developed into a really cool hipster spot for the art loving crowd. Heck, young people from all walks of life have been flocking there and now the Williamsburg Bridge is one of the coolest and safest places to walk to Manhattan from. Its like an artsy Hoboken. And the crazy part is, some of the prices in Williamsburg are more than Manhattan!!!! I USED TO LIVE IN BROOKLYN, ITS SHOCKING THAT THIS IS HAPPENING!!

However, greedy real estate tycoons like Waterson inc. thought it was smart to buy up 10 or 12 buildings with the wonderful philosophy, if you build it, they will come... well... they built it, but only half of them actually came and bought. Waterson, like many others, are feeling the pinch of the real estate bust and now, like theyre bretheren in Miami, they can either choose to wait until the storm passes within 5 years or go bankrupt, there really is no other alternative... We just have to hope that long gone are the days when landlords in Brooklyn and the Bronx would resort to burning down their shell of a building in hopes of getting atleast some of their money back... that would be...really bad...

Season opener of Entourage was great, Hung was..... surprisingly....

Season opener of Entourage was great, Hung was..... surprisingly....

Surprisingly good. I must say, the idea of a show about a male gigilo brings me back to the Schneider movies that had plenty of laughs.. for a movie... but to make it into a serious (sort of) series? well that was something that I thought would for sure bomb.

But in my opinion it didnt and it wont. The flashback sequences, the character development all worked perfectly. Thomas Jane, the guy who portrayed the Punisher, does an outstanding job as a teacher whos luck forced him to call for desperate measures in order to make money. The kids were funny and the way his wife is portrayed as an annoying mom who the kids want to get away from is genuinely, perfectly done.... I actually felt bad for her.

Two thumbs up for the newest surprise hit for HBO (apparently it was more watched than Entourage and everyone that I know of who watched it, said it was great and were as surprised as I was in how good it was!)

A+ two thumbs up...


As far as Entourage goes... last season it was really cool seeing Vince struggling as he fell from the mountain top, only to regain his momentum and land a movie role, just as it started to appear he was finished... showing that one must never give up in life no matter how many boulders are put into ones path....

so..... for the new season opener of Entourage, it appears that Eric has decided it’s time to spread his wings and is looking to move into his own place, but it doesn’t go that easy for him. Last night’s episode also saw Lloyd and Ari battle with each other, over Lloyd’s future.

And as for Vince, the premiere saw him keeping busy. Not only was he seen trying to get his driving license and prepare, but last night, we also saw him in a starring role of a new Martin Scorsese movie “The Great Gatsby,” which he was promoting on Jay Leno.

A+ for both premiers..

next week I will give my opinion on a show that all my friends are begging me to get into...

True Blood. ive watched a few episodes, its good and I am very surprised a show based on modern vampires made it this far, but I promise, next week I will give a fair and honest review.

Summer Movie Review...first up, Transformers 2

So far I have managed to see every movie this year by continuing a tradition of doing nothing else on Friday but going to the movies. So here is my first review, ill have Bruno and Hangover reviewed within the next week.

Transformers 2: A- or 3 stars

I know a lot of critics have a problem with this one, but let me tell you, as a fan of the old transformers cartoon, and as someone who saw the movie with others who had no clue what an optimus prime was, I have to tell you, despite what the critics said, in my book, it scored an A- or 3 stars.

Ok so they never exactly explain how they drive from Egypt to Jordan without going through Israel, or how exactly the Pyramids ended up on the Sinai Peninsula.. So the geography is a bit off and the movie should have been a half hour shorter, but otherwise, the character develoment went well... the collagen in Megan Fox's lips only seemed to have made her hotter and the battle scenes arent as close up as in the previous one. So you can actually tell who is fighting who.

I saw no reason for it to get anything less than 3 stars but the critics really pounded this one. At first I wanted to say its because they probably werent fans of the series, but I saw it with people who never saw the Transformers cartoon and they all loved it. Personally I think the critics just got upset at the fact that it was a half hour too long, a point I agree with, but I do not agree with the half a star alot of papers are giving it.

The fight scenes were done well, the character development was superior to the first one and the computer animation was perfect. This movie is one of those things you will have to see for yourself because the critics are way off when it comes to this one.

A-, 3 stars..