EDITOR’S NOTE: SINCE THE ORIGINAL PUBLICATION OF THIS BLOG IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION THAT MONICA AND JEFF WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DELICIOUS FRUIT PIZZA. MY APOLOGIES FOR GIVING THE CREDIT TO DERRICK.
Movie – Hall Pass

Director: Bobby and Peter Farrelly (Dumb & Dumber, Kingpin, There’s Something About Mary)
Writer: Pete Jones, Peter Farrelly, Kevin Barnett, Bobby Farrelly
Starring: Owen Wilson (Wedding Crashers, The Royal Tenenbaums, Marley & Me), Jason Sudeikis (Going the Distance, What Happens in Vegas), Jenna Fischer (The Office, Blades of Glory, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story), Christina Applegate (Anchorman, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, Married with Children)

Theater – Cinemark Movies 12 – Ames, Iowa

Companion – Nader

Food – Okoboji Grill

Intellectual Honesty

I like Jenna Fischer. I thought that the trailer looked funny.

Baggage

Owen Wilson is pretty much always terrible unless he is in a Wes Anderson movie. The Farrelly brothers movies have been pretty blah since There’s Something About Mary.

Synopsis from IMDB

A married man is granted the opportunity to have an affair by his wife. Joined in the fun by his best pal, things get a little out of control when both wives start engaging in extramarital activities as well.

Review

Let’s face it, there really isn’t much to say about this movie. If you take out the Kathy Griffin jokes at the end of the movie, almost all the funniest parts are in the trailer.

Save the money and the time and watch the trailer.

Rating
1.5/5.0 Caramels

Buy on DVD
Nope.

2011 Ranking
I’ve seen two 2011 movies. It is the 2nd best. The other one I saw (The Dilemna) was nothing special either.

Bonus Information
I saw previews for several movies. They all look terrible. Thor. Cowboys & Aliens. The Hangover Part II. I wonder if Hollywood is even trying this year.

I got an email from Russell referring to me as Movie Man and asking kindly if he could get my opinions on the Oscars or if he would have to wait for a journal entry.

Since most people don’t possess the bravery of Russell, I’ll just paraphrase the email I sent to him about my Oscar experience.

I can’t complain about most categories besides Best Picture and Best Director.

Some of the people I was rooting for didn’t win (Michelle Williams and James Franco), but I can’t really argue with giving the Oscar to Natalie Portman and Colin Firth.

I was sad to see Randy Newman get an Oscar, but this was a pretty weak year for Original Song.

I prefer How to Train Your Dragon over Toy Story 3, but I knew that was a lost cause.

The King’s Speech is kind of a glorified made for TV movie with two exceptional performances.

It is a good movie, but not the best movie of the year. That was clearly The Social Network, but what I think happened is that the older members of the Academy just didn’t get The Social Network and they swung the vote for the much safer The King’s Speech.

Because of the type of movie he makes, I hope this wasn’t David Fincher’s last chance at an Oscar. But if it was, he’ll be in good company. Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick and Orson Welles never won an Oscar (for director). However, one Alfred Hitchcock movie did win Best Picture. Rebecca if you really must know.

I was glad that The Kids are All Right didn’t win anything, but now I’m also having to re-watch it to figure out if I think the daughter in the movie is a lesbian or not. I was glad that Jeff Bridges didn’t win. Mumbling is not acting.

I would have been happy to see Amy Adams win, but I freely confess that Melissa Leo was better than her.

The Oscar Party I attended was successful and I had lots and lots of very tasty food. Derrick made some kind of shrimp and cream cheese dip kind of thing that was phenomenal. Plus he made fruit pizza, which is one of my all-time favorite foods. Plus Derrick also made a mean batch of little smokies. There was soup there as well, but I forgot to sample its undoubtable goodness.

I got to give Nader a ride in Jill’s Solstice and this seemed to be one of the biggest thrills of his life, so that was a bonus as well.

I don’t know that I really have an opinion on any of the speeches because truthfully I didn’t really pay much attention to any of them.

Everybody at the gathering seemed to agree that Kirk Douglas’ presentation was painful to sit through. I love you Spartacus, but that was almost as bad as watching Dick Clark on New Year’s.

I don’t have much of an opinion on the hosts. They weren’t so terrible that I noticed them, but they weren’t so funny that I’m dying to have them back. Jay seemed to like them. He said it was the best Oscars he had ever seen. I definitely wouldn’t go that far.

As far as fashion goes, I don’t really have opinions on fashion. So I will relay to you what the fashion expert Jill liked. She liked some of Anne Hathaway’s outfits. I can’t really remember which ones. She didn’t like the Black Swan looking one or the one blue one that looked like it was made of vinyl or the one that she was wearing at the end that made her look borderline naked. She did like Amy Adams’ bluish-sparkly dress. That is all I can recall of fashion conversations.

On an unrelated fashion note, Evie wore pajamas with guitars on them. They were clearly the fashion hit of the evening.

We also watched a little bit of Freakonomics afterward. I wanted Jen to watch it so I could show her the part on whether or not what you name your children has any effect on whether or not they are successful in life. It reminded me of her job.

More Bonus Information

I’ve been messing around with the website and I have added a few little dodads that you should checkout. For example all the pages except the home page have sidebars now. I’m still tinkering with the sidebars, but they currently include links to the last 5 Journal entries and the last 5 pictures I’ve uploaded to the Artistic Gallery. The header now changes as well. Although at this time, there are only two headers. There will be more in the future. I’ve also widened the website so that it looks better on widescreen monitors. I’ve also changed the menu system, but you probably won’t notice any changes in that respect. I’m sure I’m not done tinkering, but those are the recent changes.