Attack The Block

I had to wait far too long to see this movie. I was unable to see it in a theater, it never made it to a screen anywhere near me. It is the first movie I have purchased blind in quite a long time(buying without having seen it first). It is the first movie that I am watching on my new big screen plasma tv. The movie is produced by one of my favorite directors, Edgar Wright.  The movie is supposed to be a mashup of genres, a scifi, monster, comedy, movie. At the time I am watching it, it has an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is really good for a monster movie.

I must say that I really enjoyed this movie. The time really flew by, it is a short movie at only 88 minutes, but it seems like it flew by a lot faster than that, I was not bored once during it. I think the story was quite original, at least on this side of the Atlantic. What other movie has gang members as the good guys? There is quite a mysteriousness to the creatures that are attacking. The movie also does a great job of breaking the tension in between the action scenes with sufficient amounts of comedy. There really are quite a few Laugh-Out-Loud moments in the movie. There are some jumpy parts and some blood, but I thought for the most part the movie was very well done on that end, it doesn't turn into a gory Saw movie, or anything like that.

The cast and director all seemed to be relative new comers, for the most part. John Boyega, who plays the leader of the gang, does a great job. His character does a lot in the film without always needing to speaks. After seeing this movie, I would have to say that it is really hard to put it into a specific type. I don't think there are many other movies like this one. The case has a quote on it that says it is a combination of The Goonies and Gremlins, which to a certain extent I would have to agree with.

I was afraid that I would end up hating the dialogue with the gang members, I had read that they use a lot of slang like bruv, and cuz. They also say trust a lot which I found interesting, but I didn't hate the dialogue at all, I actually found that it added to the movie. 

I have heard rumors that Hollywood was going to make an American version of this movie, but I can't understand why they would want to do that? This movie was a good movie on its own, it would have been seen by more people if some distributor had actually picked it up and spread it across the country. Oh well, I guess Hollywood really does not have any original ideas left. 

See this movie! It is a great science fiction, action, comedy, with an English touch!

Diet Log Weeks 16 and 17

I have just not really felt like logging these past few weeks, but I guess I should don't have to go into too much detail, just give the stats if I have nothing new to add to these entries. Without further ado the stats for the last 2 weeks:

weight lost: 2.8 + 2.2 = 5 lbs lost in total.
weight loss total: 59 lbs lost in total
inches lost: 2 +0= 2 inches lost
Total inches lost: 31.5 inches lost

I have lost 13.95% of my original body weight.
I am 38.6% of the way to my weight loss goal.

The 5 lbs I have lost has me at 5.88% of the way to my weight loss bet.

All in all is have been a good two weeks. I need to just stay the course and keep working harder and harder.

Movie Bracket Walk-thrus

I forgot to note in the last post that Abigail Breslin went 2-0 in the play in round, both Zombieland and Little Miss Sunshine won their play in rounds.

This is the list of match-ups that I have deemed to be no contest between the two movies, and for the interest of saving some time in my life I have decided to skip watching them in this round.

Aliens over Garden State
While I really like Garden State, and it is definitely no match for my favorite of all of the Alien(s) movies. I wish I could make a graphic of an alien bursting out of Zach Braff's torso, but alas I am not good at anything artistic. Aliens is re-watchable, is very entertaining, and even though it was a sequel it was quite original and used the aliens in a very different way than the original.

The Departed over Mean Girls
I love Mean Girls more than more people do, but I can't honestly give it the edge in any way over The Departed.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 over Office Space
Office Space is a classic comedic movie that is very entertaining and rewatchable, but it just can not match the epic levels that are reached in this Harry Potter Movie.

The Godfather Part 2 over Easy A
I can't in good judgement even consider Easy A over The Godfather Part 2. I loved Easy A, but this is a completely different level of movie. I will actually have to sit down and think about The Godfather Part 2 eventually though, and who knows if I will like it when comparing it to a comedy down the line.

Airplane! over Big Fan
Airplane! has to win this matchup. Big Fan is a movie that I really enjoy from an emotional standpoint, but it really suffers from the entertaining standpoint, but the movie is supposed to be slow. Airplane is just a comedy classic that I could watch over and over gets a pass in this round.

LoTR: Two Towers over Amelie
I really like Amelie, I think it is one of 2 or 3 foreign films that have made this list. I actually noticed that all 3 Lord of the Rings movies are in the same quarter of the bracket, which is unfortunate for them. I may need to reshuffle these movies when I get down to 32 or something along those lines we will see.

I am sorry I have been so behind on posting this, but here are the first few results from the movie tournament. I plan to get another matchup or 2 done today.

Movie Bracket to date: http://challonge.com/weckpd

Diet log Week #15

Well I have started using my kettlebell, as well as some new kinds of crunches. I need to work those all in on a regular basis, not just once or twice a week.  I would like to do them every other day and walk/jog every day on top of that.

My entry this week will be pretty short.
I lost 3 lbs this week
Up to a total of 54 lbs lost

I am now up to 35.34% of my target weight loss.

I post these diet logs on twitter just Like I post them on Facebook. One of my followers had mentioned that she also wanted to lose weight. We made a "bet" to see who could lose 23% body weight the fastest. So this will be a number going forward from this most recent weigh in. I need to lost 85 lbs to lose 23% of my current body weight. I think it really is just a way of pushing each other to keep working hard, not really a bet. There is nothing actually on the line. We both just want to live healthier. I will update this regularly as well as all of the other numbers.

That is all for this week.