My Tribute to Rick Santorum

As always my friends and readers who accidently stumbled acrossed this page, I am always a little late to the game. So as you all should know by now Rick Santorum has decided to end his bid to be president of the United States. Now I know what you are thinking, Nick why would you want to give this guy more attention, he is old news, why not bring up Mitt Romney since he won. The anwser imaginary audience is that when you get right down to it Mitt Romney is just so boring

Look at this poor bastard, this man is the human equivalent to Tofu, he has no flavor unless you add some other pieces to it. This I think is a wonderful analogy to his political career, because in Massachusets he was a moderate, but now he feels the need to run away from any history where he has helped people. However I don't want to talk about him I want to talk about Rick Santorum.

Now I am not going to recap this guys whole run, nor the fact that he proves the idea that when America has the choice between Boring and Evil they will always pick boring. But Nick is it fair to call Rick Santorum "Evil." Yes this is a guy who wanted to be our leader, but was living in a reality that fit more the 12th century as opposed to modern times. This was a man who believes that government should stay out of the lives of Americans, but has no problems telling women and homosexuals that their rights are a threat to our way of life. This is a man who doesn't believe in the theory of Evolution, do I need to elaberate on how stupid that is. If you are in a dilema and the choice to get out of it is picking a thoroughly researched solution or "god will save me" then you deserve what's coming to you.

But I think the most telling part of the Evil of Rick Santorum is the fact that even though he claims to be a Christian, but supports the wars in the Middle East, he supports the death penalty, he would rather go to bat for the super rich then help the poor like Jesus would do. If you are sitting at home and wondering how I can call this a tribute save your breath, I gave you the positives of Rick Santorum, this man is and always will be a giant reminder of the people who still run this country, ignorant politicians who steer the ship of state not with a compass but with a belief. The very idea that this man could have gotten elected scared me more the any other thing out their right now. Now we can only hope that boring gets shot down soon too.

Btw you can see yours truly on an episode of Daves of our Lives with fellow bloggers David Hollingsworth and David Zafra visit this link to see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acoN6P8_Des&context=C4e9e02aADvjVQa1PpcFP1EKC28g2vBNRFs2QfIj9HlcAnoHKaE3k=

Till next time

Religious Persecution

You know if there was ever a topic that we can ever agree on its that every one always feels like a victim in this world. Also if there was one topic on this planet that we all have some kind of opinion on is Religion. Well honestly its the topic that we try to mostly avoid and I really don't know why, well I do but hey we should be able to talk about religion like I am able to talk about Batman. This being said I will be the first to admit that in this world we have a lot of religious persecution, Muslims in America can't get around with out being branded terrorist for instance. There is also the fact that Atheist can't get elected into public office due to belief that what someone believes is the most important thing in vetting there guy for office. Cause you know who needs to consider things like qualifications and if the person isn't a crook, cause when I think of a qualified person for office I think the Pope.

Now if you are wondering where all of this is going, I got a story for you, but first a minute for everyone to get comfortable.

So I was sitting in class the other day, speech class to be exact, but in this case we were talking about picking subjects for speech when we got towards the end we had a guy who wanted to talk about Christianity. Now as a long time atheist when this comes up I tend to block it out but this guy insisted on going on and on about how he can argue about the truthness of Christianity and when asked if he recognized other religions he said I do but that they were WRONG. You know there are so many things that could be said but lets move on. The next guy said he wanted to talk about the United States becoming a country that persecutes Christians. I knew then that I could never talk about movies again and that this was always going to be my calling.

Listen you want to talk about religious persecution in our country thats fine but don't for a minute assume that just because we don't want to live in a theocracy that tells us that if we don't convert we die, you know like Iran, that doesn't mean we are trying to keep down Christians. You want to know the number 1 indicator that the christians are going to be just fine in this country? When these guys:

Are still allowed to preach their kind of hate and get away with it then Christians are doing just fine. And trust me we know that in places in the world where Christians can't talk freely about their beliefs but America is not one of those places. Hell you guys make up 80% of the population of the country and anyone who wants to be in politics has to say they are a person of faith.  I guess what I am trying to say is you guys run the show, enjoy it and stop bitching. Till next time

Academy Award Rant: with guest blogger David Zafra

 Good Day ladies and gentleman. Two weeks ago the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science released the nominees for the Academy Awards. Well not all of us were really happy and no person personifies this hate the David Zafra of the blog philm-with-dzafra.blogspot.com who has been so nice as to rant for us on the Academy Awards.

Here we are ladies and gentleman our first guest blog.


Unfortunately for me I ranted before, and didn't save it. Since then my anger has slightly dissipated, but all I have to do is look at that shity list of best picture nominations to feel angry again.

"But David, didn't you like Moneyball, The Artist and Midnight in Paris"?

Why yes I did "imaginary guy", but we have a much larger probllem at hand and that problem is: the Academy is regressing! You may be asking

"Why do you say that"? To which I respond with the question,

" What did the subsequent two years have that no other year has had"?

To which I answer,

"AWESOME MOVIES"!

Every year has some really good movies, but the last two years had a great range of different genres and styles. Nothing delighted me more than seeing the critics putting Inception in the same list as The Kings Speech or District 9 vs An Education. As Peter Travers stated in his most recent rant on the Oscars, the new number of nominations were supposed to made to add popular movies to the mix.

What doesn't make sense to me is that the Academy seemed to want to try something different in an attempt to either a) try something new to catch up to the times or b) attract a different audience. I assumed "b" was the reason they hired James Franco and Anne Hathaway to host last year.
"This is what the kids are into, right"?

The list of best picture nomination would have been fine if they had stuck with 5 movies that were expected. Tree of Life, Midnight in Paris, Hugo, The Artist, and Moneyball, were all movies that the critics had been talking very well about, and would have made an acceptable list; give or take The Descendants. Even add The Descendants, (which I didn't like, but the critics did) and make 6. However the last 3 or 4 nomination should have been given to films that actually mattered. The Help did well, so it makes sense, though other movies did much better. And The Help would be fine, if it wasn't clear Oscar bait. But then add two other Oscar bait movies? War Horse and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close were not popular enough with viewers or critics to be nominated for a best picture award. It really doesn't make any sense. I loved Moneyball too, but it was enough of an Oscar bait movie, that we didn't need the other ones when they could have been replaced with something DIFFERENT.
I hate you

It's like the Oscars stopped trying to avoid the stereotype and chose to accept it instead. I don't get why. I ignored the Golden Globes the best I could and assumed that the Oscars would come around and do much better. Boy was I wrong. I know I'm repeating a lot of the same complaints that have been going around, but the real disappointment is not that the Oscars are bullshit, because we always knew that. It's that they picked a bunch of stupid movies to TRY to impress us with how relevant they were, but ACTUALLY ruined their credibility. There's plenty of movie-smart-non-critics that would rather see Drive nominated than Extremely Loud, and that's the audience that is being pushed away. So fuck you Oscars. Fuck you for picking movies you THOUGHT people liked, instead of picking movies like Drive, 50/50, Harry Potter or Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I don't much care for the other categories either, but I feel like I made my point.

Beauty and the Beast in 3D

You know every now and then in my rants I like to pause my Incredible Hulk anger and talk about movies that I like. You may be asking but Nick you haven't really been angry since Transformers. To that I reply how did you get my email address and then you tell me I have been following you on Facebook. We have all be there, man makes blog, girl reads blog, girl falls for man, man tells girl he has a girlfriend and then you have a stalking incident.

We have all been there guys. That is not what we are here to talk about today though. I have just returned from seeing Beauty and the Beast in 3D and while I have issues with 3D I am going to forgo that today and instead focus on the content.

Now again for a little honesty I love this movie, for me this is the greatest traditionally animated film that has ever been made. The music, the story, the colors, the atmosphere and really what else could you want from an animated film. I really was afraid that going into this movie that it would start to show its age. For instance when I left the Lion King I really felt that this movie that I had loved so much was less an amazing spectacle and more a stardard childrens movie. I am glad to say that this movie 21 years after its orginal release it is as amazing as it was when I first saw it when I was 6. The 3D was not distracting and mostly used to bring out the background .

It really is great on Disney's part to instead of adding a bunch of useless new scenes and stick to the classic (I'm looking at you George Lucus). I really could go on and on about this movie but really I don't need to. If now you haven't seen Beauty and the Beast you have no right to judge animated films. Its on of the few animated films that can hold its own against the new Pixar CGI films. If you have a night to spend with a date or with Family go and see this movie, or do what I am going to do and go buy it.

Original Score: 10/10
Todays Score: 10/10

Top Movies of 2011

Well its that magical time of the year, a time when we get together with friends, and family and create those moments that we hope will last a life time. Oh I'm not talking about Christmas I know not all of us like celebrating pagan holidays and I don't want to leave anyone out (courtesy of David Hollingsworth, who you can check out at Punchline-Everytime.blogspot.com) I of course mean the end of the year movie list. I am sure all of you have gotten together with friends and family and complained or complimented the major award shows and who they do and don't mention every year. Me and my friends who probably watch way too many movies for are own good love to bitch and whine about what is and isn't getting recognition. Well I think I may be talking too much so lets get to the good stuff.

There are 8 movies I feel that deserve mention on this list and while I believe that there is a huge gap between 4 of the movies I want to give these other movies a proper mention.

You know if I am to be perfectly honest with you I can't really stand the X-Men movies, They are seemingly played more for the comic book fan then a movie goer and it really hurts the overall feel of the movie (see Green Lantern). However First Class much like Batman Begins before it finally gets the Characters right and no need to needlessly shoehorn Wolverine into the plot. Really sold by the performances of James McAvoy as Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Erik Lennsher otherwise know as Magneto and hell even a good showing by Kevin Bacon. This is a good Sunday after dinner movie with enough action set up against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis giving both the film and comic nerd in me something to enjoy. 8/10

Much like the last movie I never got into the original Planet of the Apes series. No real reason why they just never did it for me, anyway this film took that idea and turned it into possibly the best summer movie of 2011. Much like how First Class is going to get you to somehow root for Magneto at the end, I found myself really rooting for Ceasar and his quest to be treated not like a pet but like the intelligent being that James Franco has turned him into. The action also isn't over the top its about as what you'd expect considering the situation and it features some wonderful shots of San Francisco.  8/10

The Muppet's humor will always be hit and miss with me, sometimes I will see Muppet Treasure Island and laugh for hours after the movies over and sometimes I will catch myself wishing I had chosen to watch a Jeff Dunham stand up special instead. That being said this movie will for me represent one of the few comedy movies that got it right this year. The jokes hit at the right time and honestly even the idea that the Muppet's are now down on there luck and forgotten really brings humor to the idea of a star looking for one last shot at the limelight. Jason Segal really brought his humor not only in his performance but in his writing. 8/10

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2

Well every year there is one movie that everyone says thats the movie we want to see. This was that movie, as someone who has been a Potter fan for as long as I can remember this movie really needed to be something special. Thankfully for everyone it was a movie that really was enjoyable enough for me to watch it more then once. That being said my initial love for it may have died abit and for the most part it is really is for pure entertainment. However unlike some Michael Bay movies we could mention they didn't sacrifice story for the sake of entertainment. 9/10

4. Moneyball

First confession; I am a really big baseball fan, so much so I attend games on a regular bases. I guess you might say that means I can take some pain because of how painfully slow baseball is. I get so much joy out of the game though. Second confession; Until recently I have never been a huge Brad Pitt fan, I can't say he is a bad actor cause I'd be lying really I just can't think of too many of his movies that I really care for. Moneyball is the story of the Oakland Athletics team that through a radical system can finally compete with the big money teams. Based on a true story it is something that we can all relate to, we all see inequality in the system we live in, and its good to remind us that you don't always need the most of something (in this case money) to compete. 9/10

3. 50/50

It takes a great mind and a really funny man to take a movie about cancer and make it uplifting and dare I say funny. Thats just what happens though in this tale of a man stricken with cancer and how he comes to terms with it. I can tell you going in that I had my doubts and that this movie had the potential to fall flat on its face. People tell me that cancer is just one of those topics that you can't make funny. This movie shows us that we aren't talking about your everyday Adam Sandler slapstick movie where cancer will be magically wished away at the end. Their is a sense that maybe the cancer is too much for him and at the end when you see him finally break down you felt it too. I know for a fact I was starting to get emotional towards the end. Joseph Gordan-Levitt and Seth Rogan are a comedy dream team that you wouldn't have thought was a legitamite dream team. 10/10

2. Warrior

Another year another great combat sport movie that really keeps raising the bar. The Wrestler in 2008, The Fighter last year and now Warrior. Warrior is the story of two brothers in a MMA competition each for there own motivation. Tom Hardy's character an Iraq war veteran to give the money to a platoon mates widow. For Joel Edgerton's character he needs the money to save his house and really to save his family from living on the streets. Really though what made this movie for me was Nick Nolte as the two main characters father. As a person who has some father issues himself I can tell you that I really was hit hard by a lot of his scenes especially ones where you see that he is trying to repent for hs past mistakes. I will not spoil the ending but this movie keeps you invested till the credits roll. 10/10

1. Drive

The best movies every year is a movie for the most part I can pin point on the calander and tell you that it was going to be awesome. This year however I found a movie so amazing, so fantastic, so perfect that I am racking my brain trying to find a problem with it. If you hate subtlty then this movie wasn't going to be for you. Ryan Gosling who has arrived as a major player in hollywood showed us this year that he can play in the romanitc comedy, he can do a political thriller and now he can do a stoic bad ass and really thats what The Driver is. Albert Brooks as a villain was amazing not overly done and the romance was again subtle a word that I use a lot when describing this film. I feel that I can't really do this movie justice so I will let the other David (http://philm-with-dzafra.blogspot.com/2011/12/this-years-fives.html) tell you about some of these movies and other great 2011 movies.

Next time we will talk about some of the bad movies of this closing year.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Oh how great it is to feel like a kid again, which is exactly where I go every time I see these Harry Potter films that have meant so much to me over the last 10 years. Well Harry returns in the final installment of the most lucrative film franchise of all time. So i thought before I get going I would give my ratings for the previous films seeing that I wont get to talk about them ever again, hopefully anyway.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone: 7/10
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: 7/10
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: 8/10
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: 8/10
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: 6/10
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: 8/10
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1: 7/10

Also I must point out that I love the book series and have really hesitated writing this review mostly cause I don't want to put this cap on my childhood but I guess as they say all good things must come to an end, and I have stalled long enough so lets get going.

Plot: 9/10
You know when you get right down to it the plot of the books and by extension the movies is kinda goofy and slightly far fetched. I mean a young wizard just learning his way around a world he never knew fighting off the most powerful dark wizard of all time and winning. So the job of the story is to make us buy it and I am glad to say they have done that perfectly the last few films. The story of this movie is simple Harry must not only find the last of the Horcruxes and destroy them but also upon doing so defeat Lord Voldermort and bring light to a dark wizarding world. They kept this movie short and too the point which meant that lucky for us we get a lot of action worthy of a Lord of the Rings sequel. The plot while of course taken from the source material is translated perfectly and even some things added even make you forget for a second that there was a book in the first place. The only downside was the unnecessary epilogue at the end of the movie which while in the book doesn't really have any thing of interest. Unless you didn't know the story ended on a Happy ending.

Characters: 9.5/10
I'll be the first to admit that even though I love this series the main character himself Harry Potter is completely boring. That being said over eight films Daniel Radcliffe has shown that he is a pretty good actor and has finally shown that he was a great choice to play the title character. Hermione is great as always yeah Emma Watson can really be over dramatic with her performance but I wont hold that against her and Ron is Ron like he has been for the last movies he is the typical side kick. So where does this high score come from you ask? Well like any great series its always the supporting cast that really helps tell a story. Lord Voldermort for me anyway is possibly one of the best villains I have ever seen on the big screen and Ralph Fiennes was possibly one of the greatest casting moves of all time. Severus Snape played by the always awesome Alan Rickman is for me the best character in this series, and I can admit to tearing up a bit at the scenes where we finally see what drives this character. Neville and Luna are great for the few times they show up on screen and the other teachers involved really get a great send off. Finally a shout out to Belatrix and Molly Weasly for only giving us an awesome fight but also the biggest cheer of the night.

Setting: 10/10
If you haven't seen a Harry Potter film first I don't know where you  have been for the last decade, but I am sure you would recognize its distinctive look anyway. The film is shot really dark in keeping with the dark tone of the overall story. I really do love the look they have given these films, from bright and colorful like you would expect a children's movie to be. All the way to the grim dark tone you would expect of a coming of age fantasy story about the battle between good and evil. The magic looks nice but that's standard, Voldermort is designed nice but that's standard. I can't go on about all of this because well at this point most of you know what i mean when i describe a Harry Potter movie.

Dialogue: 9/10
You know the best parts of this series is seeing where they add spoken dialogue for scenes that it didn't exist in the first place. For instance they greatly expanded the battle between Harry and Voldemort and let them just destroy the castle. I mean its not like Warner Bros. is going to need it anytime soon. However I think where you really see the great screen writing is Snape's memory. Snape recounting his love for Lily and the task of watching over Harry even if he despises his father can only be shown through the great delivery of Alan Rickman. While like I said for the setting at a point everything becomes standard and you don't really have to describe something to fans any more this would be one of those situations.

Overall: 9.5/10
You know when I look back at my generation and how our pop culture is going to be defined by I know there are a few that are going to look back and think Twilight. However I think that my generations mascot is a boy wizard who discovered that not only is he a wizard but has a destiny to one day destroy the most evil wizard on the planet. This movie was the perfect ending to what was an amazing series, yeah it had its flaws but damn what a ride it was. To see this go from a child's book to adult fiction like it did and effortlessly and then to see them translate on the big screen like that is just short of amazing. This movie caped off not only one of the best film franchises of all time, but also but a great cap to one of the best parts of my childhood. This film will make a believer out of anyone who still doubts that there is no magic in this series. This movie to me is the best film I have seen since The Dark Knight.

On a side note I would also like to say that this film also has an awesome soundtrack that you should listen to now.

Good Night everyone.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon Review

I should start off by pointing out that I Hate Michael Bay. Everything he has done has been terrible, his scenes are nothing more then set ups for the next big CGI filled explosion. The man knows nothing about character development, as the actors are equal props in his movies. That being said I went into this movie hoping to give it an equal chance to prove me wrong. What ended up happening is everything I thought it was going to be and less.

Plot: 1/10
The Plot from what I can gather is about the previous leader of the Autobots returning and revealing that he is actually working for the Decepticons. This leads to Sentinel Prime unleashing a technology that would help bring their home planet of Cybertron to Earth, enslaving humans to the robots and using our resources to rebuild the now barren planet. In a well done movie this plot actually seems like something worth checking out but here its really just becomes another subplot in a movie full of useless and boring subplots like; Sam looking for a new job or Sam jealous of his girlfriends rich and handsome boss, Sam feeling like despite the fact that he has saved the world he is a nobody. Also the whole time I am watching this movie I am thinking to myself dear lord didn't we just see this play out in the last two movies. Michael Bay has no idea on how to set up a scene and it really shows

Characters: 2/10
Don't let that 2 fool you there were absolutely no characters in this film trust me. Sam Witwicky played blandly by the equally bland and hopefully soon to be forgettable Shia LeBeouf is whinny and and the straight face expressions on his face are there the entire movie, when he is not yelling for Optimus. His new girlfriend who has a name but for the moment lets call her Not-Megan Fox cause that's what she is. That's not to say that Megan Fox is a good actress because she is not but I never thought I would watch a movie and be wishing for a Megan Fox performance. The US government is apparently run by morons cause they think that they can control alien lifeforms that can take the form of giant robots. The robots are played OK but how hard is it to really voice iconic characters like this. Also a waste of time was the final battle scene between Optimus Prime and Megatron, lasting maybe 30 seconds.The only character who gave me any enjoyment was Agent Simmons played by John Turturro, who is trying to at least have fun with his character, damn I wanted to movie to be about him every time he is on screen. The problem here is none of the characters are given enough time to really develop and give us a reason to care about what they are doing, scenes with the human characters go nowhere fast and they feel like you are watching a 2 hour long trailer for the movie.

Setting: 5/10
I know that this is called setting but I also think that his includes the visuals of the movie and Michael Bay does no a thing or two about visuals. The movie itself and the visual effects are really done well and you do get a decent picture painted. That being said again this is all a retread of the past two movies and thus its no longer special is it. Yeah we have the robots but we have already seen that give us something exciting now but alas we are given the same formula and of course we are all going to eat it up. I am not immune to this I feel for it with the Star Wars prequels each time hoping that the last film wasn't just that one bad film in the series. You know watching robots kill each other isn't a hard concept to do and for the most part in the last two films Michael Bay has gotten that down, except now he knows that he doesn't have to try.

Dialogue: 1/10
Some of the lines in this moving seem more like what you would expect from a professional wrestling show that you find in the backyard of your cousins friends house, or that episode of South Park who did the same thing. I guess its not so much that because the characters are boring that the dialogue is not tolerable but its the fact that the characters haven't been given a chance to develop to make what they are saying even mean anything. This also brings me to the other thing that drives me crazy about Michael Bay. Michael Bay loves America and that I have no problem with, but his movies are all about Freedom and why America kicks ass. Every time Optimus gives a little speech its about freedom and how tyranny will never be allowed on his watch. Dear lord by the time I was done with this movie I was sick of freedom. Also of course these scenes are done with an American flag in the background to drive the point home. You get the feeling that the lines are meant to make us think of the war on terror and most of us are trying to put that behind us.

Overall: 2/10- EPIC FAIL
This movie was everything I thought it was going to be and less. Michael Bay has said that this is his last movie in the series and we can only hope that means that we never have to see this crap again. This isn't even bad anymore its really sad that this movie is going to get the money that its getting because like myself with the Star Wars prequels sad fan boys will rationalize that because it's Transformers it deserves there hard earned cash. The only think I liked at the end of the day was that I did not pay for this pop culture abortion.