TOY STORY!

Toy Story 3 has gotten quite a few Oscar nominations this year, but I feel like some of them are a bit of a stretch.  I personally love this movie, but I think it's unrealistic at best to expect it to win best picture.   I don't doubt it will snag best animated film, but when it's in a category with movies like 127 hours, Inception,  and Black Swan it doesn't have a chance.  I'm not suggesting that it's a bad movie by any means, it just isn't quite on the same level as the more serious contenders for best picture this year.  I'm still Toy Story all the way.  I'm optimistic that Toy Story 3 will take home an award, even if it isn't Best Picture.  I will always love Toy Story, all three of them, and there is no doubt about that

Mapquest has me lost

This week I used Mapquest to find my way to someones house, and I have to say it was probably the least helpful thing ever.  Somehow, it tried to make me turn on a road I'm relatively sure doesn't exist, so I ended up taking freeway miles out of the way and was forced to turn around in someones driveway midway between the farmland and city of Marion.  It was an overall creepy experience.  I only found my way when I called for help, and my fifteen minute trip ended up taking over half an hour.  Pretty dumb.  If I ever need directions again I'm using Google maps, end of story.

But something makes me optimistic still that there is a website out there capable of helping me find my way, even if it isn't Mapquest.

Harry Potter!

Lately my life has been pretty Harry Potter centered.  I've read the books recently and have all of them on CD as well.  I loved the seventh movie part two, and it's coming out on DVD on April 15th.  But perhaps the most exciting part of my spring will be my trip to the Harry Potter theme park in Orlando, Florida.  My relay qualified to go to a national swim meet down in Fort Lauderdale in a little over a month, and while we're down there my family and one of the other girl's families is going to take a trip to visit Hogwarts.  And boy am I excited.  Even though there are only three rides I'm sure there are going to be plenty of adventures down in Florida.  Although I'll have to be careful around the overpriced merchandise, I don't think those wand replicas are really worth more than a few dollars.   I can't wait!

I'm optimistic that Harry Potter World is going to be one of the coolest things ever!

Threat Level Midnight

The Office is a seven season running show that has it's loyal followers.  But last week's episode created something different entirely, and you need to see it to understand.  Threat Level Midnight.  It's supposedly a film Michael has been creating for years featuring Michael Scarn as the main character.  It brings back some really good office memories from the good old days.  Jim has his old haircut, Karen's in it, Michael and Jan are in a relationship, and Jim is still trying to get Pam's attention.  Overall just a really quality experience.  Probably the best part of the short film in the "Scarn" where Michael makes up his own dance and teaches it to the audience.  The directions are as follows.

Jump to the right, and shake a hand.  Jump to the left, and shake THAT hand.  Meet new friends, tie the yarn, and that's how you do the Scarn.  Repeat as many times as necessary.

Threat Level Midnight makes me optimistic that The Office will be cranking out classics for as long as it's around, and Michael Scott will never fail to entertain me.

Cedar Rapids: A Native's Perspective

So last night I saw Cedar Rapids, and since Cedar Rapids doubles as my native town I obviously have some opinions on the movie.  Of course I was upset that it wasn't actually filmed in Cedar Rapids, I mean, I could have been an extra!  Also, I could have gotten to meet Ed Helms, famous as Andy Bernard from The Office and his role in The Hangover.  However, there was good reason behind the Michigan filming.

Originally, Cedar Rapids was intended to be filmed in Cedar Rapids, but Iowa's film tax credit program faced some issues after it was abused and the money could no longer be awarded for filming in Iowa.  But that wasn't before the film had already been titled.  So we get a little fame out of it.  Also, there were quite a few exterior shots of Cedar Rapids, and they even had a heartfelt little scene involving the flood of 2008.  I think Quaker Oats probably took most of the glory in Cedar Rapids, and the scenes looked extremely fake when they through in the Cedar Rapids skyline so close to a little swing set.  But what really excites me about Cedar Rapids is the conversations it's going to spark for me.  Picture this, I'm at college in some other state and people will ask me, "Where are you from?", I'll respond with, "Cedar Rapids", and they'll say, "Wow, I saw that movie.  That's so cool.  You're so cool."  At least that's how I imagine this conversation going.  Finally my Iowa background is giving me some positive feedback.

The film did portray Cedar Rapids in a bit of a negative light at some points.  Helms was from small down Indiana or something like that, and he made Cedar Rapids out to be some huge city, which it clearly isn't.  Another character said something along the lines of "This is Cedar Rapids.  What I do here stays here."  It sounded a little bit like Las Vegas, but still, pretty cool.  There was a scene where Helms went to a party with a prostitute and it was at this really sketchy house in the middle of no where that was missing bits of walls.  They did meth together and Helms got in a fight.  This isn't quite the typical Cedar Rapids, but publicity is publicity I guess.

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett and City Manager Jeff Pomeranz flew to Ann Arbor, Michigan for the premiere of the movie to represent Cedar Rapids.  They expect the movie to do good things for the city even though it wasn't actually filmed here.  Simply having Cedar Rapids on Marquees across the country is good advertisement.  Maybe someone will even make a vacation out of coming to Cedar Rapids.  You can view the whole KWWL story here.

Cedar Rapids is a bit of an Indie film, making it to theaters around the country because of its popularity at the Sundance Film Festival.  It got very good ratings overall, moving it on to a more national scale.

The targeted audience of Cedar Rapids is likely similar to that of The Hangover and Step Brothers.  The humor is a little juvenile, but I still thought it was hilarious.  It also is rated R, keeping the younger crowd out.  Usually movies like this don't attract an older crowd, but that's very different in Cedar Rapids (the city, this is getting a little confusing).  When I saw it the theater was packed with old people, but that might have been because I saw it at 4:20.  And they all seemed to enjoy the film, which is good for them.  They didn't even seem upset by the drug and prostitution scenes.  Good for them.  Cedar Rapids will probably get a lot of cash from us natives, we all just want to see our city gain a little fame.  And doesn't everyone.

This wasn't our first taste of the big screen though.  The horror movie The Crazies featured Cedar Rapids as a type of safe haven from all the murderous, zombie type.  Bruce Aune, our news anchor for KCRG even got a small part in the end of the movie, but that's nothing compared to our newest claim to fame.  Cedar Rapids is much bigger and focuses mainly on our city instead of creepy small town farming Iowa. We get a lot more out of this one, and it's a much better movie.  The Crazies was kind of stupid.

Cedar Rapids makes me optimistic that if my average sized city in Eastern Iowa can draw in a little fame of it's own, we all have a little bit of hope.

Bucket List

Okay, so I believe I've mentioned my favorite web series ever, Jake and Amir.  But man, they are really funny and I just feel like I need to share this.  Recently they came out with a video called "Bucket List", and the content is a little crude, but there are SO many quotable moments I can't even believe it.  Ridiculous.  I'm not going to say any of them right now because they would be completely misunderstood out of context, but just watch it.  Watch it.  Now. Really, I've linked it four times now so I think it's about time you tune in.  Anyways, I feel like after Amir Blumenfeld came up with such a spectacular, although incomplete, bucket list I could come up with one of my own.  But I tried.  And I can't.  So I found one.

• Break a world record.  This one seems a little bit unrealistic to me.  There are only so many records out there to break and chances are you don't have one.  Little bit crazy to expect this much from yourself I do believe.  And if you don't achieve it, your life seems incomplete.  I'd rather have a super easy bucket list so I can feel super fulfilled early on.
• Experience weightlessness.  Really?  This is even more unrealistic than the last one.  I thought bucket list items were along the lines of "run a marathon" or "do volunteer work", and unless you're an astronaut your basically setting yourself up for failure.  Sorry.
• Skydive.  Much more realistic and pretty daring.  I think this one is a pretty good item.  Just hope this bucket list item isn't the last thing you'll ever do...
• Own my own business.  That's a pretty good goal, except maybe they should add "own my own successful business", because no one wants their bucket list item making them go broke.  That would be unfortunate.
• Donate blood.  That's ridiculous.  If that's on your bucket list and you haven't already done it you're just plain lazy.  Simple as that.
• See the Top 100 Films of All Time.  Pretty decent.  Maybe I should do that one before I die.
• See AOL's List of Movies to See Before You Die.  Or that one.  Unless they meant just see the list, because that would be super easy and take about five second.  Life achieved.
• Host a family reunion and trip to Disney.  Kind of sad that your goal is to go to Disney World, but I kind of wish someone would have had this goal when I was growing up seeing as the closest thing I got to an amusement park before eighth grade was Camp Snoopy.  I could've used a trip to Disney World.
• Be a contestant on a game show.  I don't know about that one.  I usually end up either feeling really bad for contestants or just plain uncomfortable watching their awkward mannerisms on television.  I don't think I'd wish that upon anyone, unless I thought they could win Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.
• Become a Millionaire.  I guess this one could be relatively easy if that whole game show thing works out for you.  And money is good I guess.  I'll take this one.
• Sell my craft on E-bay.  Sorry.  That is extremely easy.  I could make a friendship bracelet and sell it on e-bay easily.  Someone will want it.  This one isn't exactly shooting for the stars.
• Learn to drive a stick shift.  Yeah.  Me too.
• Write a book and publish it.  Hey, that was one of Amir's goals too.  But you would know that because you watched the clip.  Obviously.
• Go on a blind date.  Really.  That's your love goal.  That's sad.
• Go to all NASCAR races.  No thank you.  Plus I'm pretty sure that going to all of anything in unrealistic.  And what sane person wants to spend that much time watching NASCAR?
• Run a marathon.  Yeah.  That's what I thought.  A normal bucket list item.

This list also suggests adding a timeline, so maybe confine that e-bay goal to, sell my craft on e-bay within the next fifteen minutes.  That seems a little bit better.  This complete list can be seen here.

So that gave me very few suggestions for my own bucket list, but maybe it just takes time to come up with personal things that will really make your life feel fulfilling.  That sounds like something that might take a bit of time, but going to Disney World sounds like a good start.  Maybe I'll get around to my bucket list later, but for now I'm optimistic that there will be a later in which I can make and complete my bucket list.