Triple Bill Mini Musings: Nostalgia, Punching, and Bureaucracy...

American Pie Reunion:
What's it about?
Third official sequel to the 1999 teen sex comedy smash-hit in which four graduating high school seniors sought to lose their virginity after their Prom. Now in their early thirties, the gang - the full gang this time (nevermind the missing faces of American Wedding) - reunite for their high school reunion.
Who would I recognise in it?
Everyone from the original movies plus Katrina '30 Rock' Bowden's arse.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
When such an extended ensemble cast are involved - and with nostalgia reigning supreme - the traditional focus of the three act structure gets somewhat lost between the "hey, remember me?!" reunion scenes, not to mention the sheer amount of spinning plates which, fortunately, do a solid enough job of keeping everything in-check. There are some nice bittersweet touches thrown in that keep the evolving yarns of these teens-no-more fresh - they're fully-fledged adults with their own separate lives, so they have to come to terms with being usurped by another group of breast-obsessed lads. Furthermore, Stifler has failed to really move on since college, so his pining for the old days leaves a tinge of melancholly that fits right in with the overall tone of nostalgia. Even the infamous "MILF Guys" are given deeper recesses to explore (relatively speaking). There's the requisite amount of raunch thrown in (more-so in the slightly longer "unrated" cut), and while many characters can get a bit side-lined (the primary focus was always Jim and his closest male buddies), it packs in enough variety to keep the surprisingly long running time (1 hour 54 minutes) ticking along nicely. The effect might be lost on new-comers, and those who caught-up on these flicks years later, but these movies hit my year-group at just the right time - a couple of years on either side of my graduating year is where American Pie always hit hardest, and its no different here. Thoroughly enjoyable - and it's nice to see they didn't give away all the good bits in the trailer - good.

Click "READ MORE" below for the low-down on gut-punching tower block action, and a beautiful Orwellian nightmare...

Flavours of the Month: May 2010 - 500th post spectacular!

There have been many vibes this month, which kicked off with a nostalgia fest - digging into the slave drive (before it conked out and subsequently replaced with data intact) and going way back to 2003 and 2004 to watch experimental shorts "Back in the Day" and "Experiment in Exposure" as well as my fake-blood-soaked "my NIGHTMARE".

I laughed my arse off at the "Wasssabi" episode of The Annoying Orange, and thoroughly raised a bemused and amused eyebrow at 'the worst wedding DJ ever', both on YouTube.

Following on from Iron Man 2, there's been a lot of AC/DC filling the audioscape of my bedroom this month, and the bathroom when I was decorating it, and speaking of odd jobs around the house I ended up shovelling two tonnes of gravel.

The General Election happened, and it lead to a crescendo in my political interest - which was thoroughly obsessive in the months and even years leading up to the election, but which has somewhat vanished now - not from disappointment or a jaded sensibility, but rather the result of an intense period of obsession leading to the need for a decided break from the world of politics.

I've also been digging out DVDs from my collection that I haven't watched in a good while (in most cases several years). The titles have ranged from Japanese zombie flicks to Italian slashers and 1940s noir films among others. Plus, with two of my favourite shows coming to their respective conclusions (24 and Lost), I've gone and gotten myself into season one of Prison Break.

It's been a good month for gaming too, what with Alan Wake finally getting released (a thoroughly high quality game - despite a few minor flaws), and the coming of Red Dead Redemption - an expansive and involving wild west sandboxer.

There was even a heat wave for a week this month, which was frustrating (I don't do heat, and I'm not a fan of summer), but nevertheless we did get a couple of rather tasty BBQs out of it.

Finally, this month saw me turn 26 years young ... for the optimists ... and for the pessimists, I've only got 4 years remaining of my 'teenage twenties' until I hit *gulp* 30.

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Oh yeah - this is my 500th blog post - hazah!