Thanks, U of T

Again, no one really reads this blog, and I have found the experience of writing to be cathartic in the past. I'm not 100% sure it'll help in this case, but why not, yeah?

Last night, I learned that the 2013 Gordon Cressy Leadership Awards had finally been announced, with the list of recipients put up online. I nominated some people, my girlfriend included, and I was asked to be nominated by one of my friends who has since graduated. In what must certainly be some sort of karma that is being exercised upon me, several of my close friends who were nominated won, and I did not.

I always find these kinds of things annoying, mainly because sure, I'm a little arrogant, and I believe that I deserve it. It just always makes me even more upset when I see people who win who, in my honest opinion, deserve them just as much as I do, or in some cases, far less than I do. Perhaps people think this about me, with my own awards, and perhaps I should "just be happy" with what I have, and maybe that's true. But when people win these things, and they have put in literally half the work I have put in, over my undergrad, I feel slighted and wronged. Are they saying that I am less of a "leader" (whatever that means) than these other people, because U of T did not see fit to grant me an award, but over a hundred people got one instead? Are they saying my work is less important than some of these other people (despite the fact that I have done the *exact* jobs that some of these other winners have done, and MORE on top, to boot)? Are they saying that my 40+ hour work weeks for the past year simply don't mean anything? Apparently, the answers to those questions are all "yes".

So, thanks, U of T, for making me feel insignificant, unimportant, and crappy one last time before my undergraduate is completed. It's not enough that at Convocation, you're treated like a second-class citizen if you don't have high distinction (or even distinction at all). It's not enough that the Departments here (such as the Department of English, which has perhaps the worst undergraduate counselor in the history of this university) are so unhelpful that they seem to actively ignore or block you from doing what is required to graduate. It's not enough that the Dean's Office only have administrative interests at heart. It's not enough that my own college engenders elitism and snobbery by creating a program for first years that deliberately provides them with more resources and activities than other people. Nope, all of those things were not enough, so you had to go and take an award away from me that I deserved. On top of that, you gave it to (some; the person *I* nominated, as uppity as that sounds, definitely deserved it) people who were less deserving, people who had done less than I.

Thanks, U of T. I have never been so ready to graduate, and to never come back here for education for the rest of my life.

P.S. If I ever become rich enough to donate money, U of T, this is the last place on Earth that money will ever go. Just so you know.

Oscars 2013 Follow-Up

Just for posterity, gotta post my correct predictions:


Best Picture: Argo
Best Director: Steven Spielberg, Lincoln (wrong)
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln (wrong)
Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Best Animated Picture: Brave
Best Adapted Screenplay: Argo
Best Original Screenplay: Moonrise Kingdom (wrong)
Best Cinematography: Life of Pi
Best Visual Effects: Life of Pi
Best Original Score: Life of Pi
Best Original Song: Adele, Skyfall
Best Makeup/Hairstyling: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (wrong)
Best Foreign Film: Amour
Best Costume Design: Anna Karenina
Best Production Design: Anna Karenina
Best Film Editing: Argo
Best Animated Short: Paperman
Best Sound Editing: Skyfall
Best Sound Mixing: Les Miserables
Best Documentary: Searching for Sugar Man
Best Documentary Short: Mondays at Racine (wrong)
Best Live Action Short:  Curfew

So, I got five wrong, for a total of 19/24 correct ones. I think that's a new personal best for me!

Oscars 2013

I actually can't believe I almost forgot to make my yearly Oscar predictions. Even though no one reads this blog, I like keeping track of it, for my own sake.

So, without further ado, my predictions (just in time before the show later tonight):

Best Picture: Argo (I really hope Zero Dark Thirty doesn't win. It's basically The Hurt Locker. Come on, Bigelow, make some new movies.)
Best Director: Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Best Animated Picture: Brave (though, as I mentioned in one of my previous tweets, I think Wreck-It Ralph deserves it far more)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Argo (Ben Affleck probably loves these awards)
Best Original Screenplay: Moonrise Kingdom
Best Cinematography: Life of Pi
Best Visual Effects: Life of Pi (though I'm sure people will be upset if the Hobbit or Avengers doesn't win....and while I would like Avengers to win, it probs won't)
Best Original Score: Life of Pi (I haven't actually seen Life of Pi, but I'm just going off of the other awards all these things have been nominated for)
Best Original Song: Adele, Skyfall (SKYFAAAAAAAALL)
Best Makeup/Hairstyling: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (though, if Les Mis wins, I also won't be surprised)
Best Foreign Film: Amour (come on. It was nominated for Best Picture, so it better at least win Best Foreign Film)

After this point, for me, it's a crapshoot. But, still, predictions!

Best Costume Design: Anna Karenina
Best Production Design: Anna Karenina
Best Film Editing: Argo
Best Animated Short: Paperman (it was so awesome!)
Best Sound Editing: Skyfall
Best Sound Mixing: Les Miserables
Best Documentary: Searching for Sugar Man
Best Documentary Short: Mondays at Racine
Best Live Action Short:  Curfew

the light at the end of the tunnel

After seeing 'The Hobbit' over the last few months (which I haven't reviewed! oh god my movie reviews have been lacking...guess I'll go queue up a post after this), and watching 'Return of the King' recently as well, I almost want to title my graduation post 'there and back again'...but something tells me that'll be reserved for 'The Hobbit'.

Anyway, graduating. Honestly, no one reads my blog, so it almost serves as a sort of journal of sorts, which is kind of cool, I guess, for me. I don't get to do a lot of creative writing, or more specifically, writing that has not been tied down to a certain subject. Indeed, over the past 4.5 (soon to be 5) years of university, I find that this blog (along with the various internet forums I post on, is one of my few solaces. I kind of wanted to chronicle my university career in this post, only because I always find myself remembering things that I did, or participated in, and I find myself astonished at the things I have done. I'm a talkative person, and I like doing new things, but even I couldn't have guessed that over the course of 5 years, I would have done all these things.

In first year (08-09), I was the VOCA first year rep...and that was it, really. After that, though, one thing led to another, and I found myself in an avalanche of things. In second year (09-10), I was the VUSAC Finance Chair, again part of VOCA, and in the summer of 2010, I was on the Orientation Executive 2010. In third year (10-11), I was a VUSAC Member-At-Large, the VCDS Finance Chair, on VOCA again, and I hosted (with a friend of mine) the Battle of the Bands as well as the Environmental Week Fashion Show. During the summer of 2011, I was on the Orientation Executive 2011, and also a part of UofT's Festival of Dance, something crazy and incredible, and performed a dance with three friends to the tunes of Michael Jackson's 'Smooth Criminal'. In fourth year (11-12), I was again on VUSAC as the Vice President External (something which I spoke about a LOT on this very blog back then), and was one of the Student Life Ambassadors for the Office of Student Life at UofT. In the summer of 2012, I was one of two Orientation Student Co-Chairs, and was also a co-host of 'Beyond the Classroom', a show about extracurricular involvement for UofT's radio station, CIUT.fm. In fifth year (12-13), which is now, I am the President of VUSAC (a long road here), I work for the Office of Student Life (the Leadership Development Office, to be more specific) as a work-study student, and I also work for the Division of Engineering Science as a Student Experience Assistant. Being the President also means being a part of the Victoria University Senate, the Victoria College Council, and the Board of Regents, all of which are pretty large responsibilities.

Again, because no one reads this blog, this isn't me preening to my imagined audience...no, it's more of a reflection over my undergraduate career. I also don't know why I'm writing it as if someone other than me is reading it, but there you go, neuroses for you.

I think the Festival of Dance was the thing I was most uncomfortable with, and even to this day, I have not rewatched that dance. I am incredibly proud of myself and of the other three people I did that with, all of whom I consider friends, but I just get super self-conscious when I see that video, and so I've never watched it ever. That's probably for the best.

In some weird way, I can't even believe that first year was way back in 2008. It's now 2013! That was five years ago. A lot has happened in five years, and not just the stuff I was going on about earlier in this post. I definitely branched out a lot, from just student government, to a whole host of things, including the drama society, dancing in front of huge audiences, hosting large events, becoming a radio host, and using Twitter for a job. Despite the fact that every single one of those things probably caused me a bit of stress at any given point, I would not change a single thing. All of those experiences have shaped me as I am right now, and have helped me figure about things about myself that I view as more important.

I don't have a 4.0 GPA, no, but then again, that was never a priority of mine. Grad school was something I worked towards in first and second year, and then it just became something far more abstract, once I realized that further academics were not something I particularly cared for. Maybe it was the level of pretentious-ness in my classes? Maybe it was the mere fact that a lot of the readings and case studies I did for English and Political Science were just too dense for me to care? Maybe I simply didn't care what Margaret Atwood was inferring when she wrote about the river in the book 'Surfacing' (personally, I don't think she was inferring anything, I think it was just over-zealous professors, scholars, and students reading too much into it), but dayum, school quickly became secondary to all these other wonderful things that I saw and did.

That's not to say I will never go to grad school. The London School of Economics has a method of getting a law degree that I find appealing at the moment, and I have always wanted to write the LSAT. Perhaps after further research into LSE as well as the LSAT then I will make my decision.

But, graduation. It's more or less the end of January now, I'm 23, and there is approximately two months of class left. Then, I am done my undergrad FOREVER. Can't say I'll miss the essays, exams, tests and endless hours of lectures...but I'll definitely miss all the other stuff. One good thing about graduating is that I made a whole ton of friends. I didn't touch on that now because it's a huge topic, and not one that can be given justice tacked on at the end of a post. But, thankfully, a lot of those people will be my friends forever (along with my Scarborough friends), and I'm excited to see what lies beyond, with them (and Savannah, who is awesome. She's another post, but again, not going to do her justice at the end, so that's for later).

summer movies update!

It's been a while since I've made a post, if only because I've been doing SO MUCH stuff since I last posted about going to Washington, back in June. We're now near the end of July, and quite a lot has transpired. I've been doing the radio show pretty steadily, Beyond the Classroom, and I've also gone to see quite a few movies off of my summer list. Orientation Week has been coming along pretty nicely, with the mailing booklet going to print (a month or so late, for various reasons) today. But, I like to take breaks every now and then, since my vacation plans keep on getting derailed by various other things, and so here we are. Movies! I adore movies. Perhaps it is because they allow viewers to escape for a few hours...or, at least, that's MY reason. Some people enjoy being presented with profound movies, pieces of art that make you think about life and why things exist. I find all that incredibly boring, to be quite honest. I mean, I can enjoy a good 'deep' film, but for the most part, life is too busy to watch depressing or boring movies in my spare time. Hence, the summer blockbusters! While there are some films that accomplish both being fun and thoughtful, I enjoy the summer season because they are far more the former than the latter.

Here is a list of movies that I wanted to see, back at the beginning of the summer:

"The Avengers (obviously) (May 4th)

Men in Black III (May 25th)

Prometheus (June 8th)

Brave (June 22nd)

G.I.Joe: Retaliation (June 29th)

The Amazing Spider-Man (July 3rd)

The Dark Knight Rises (July 20th)

The Bourne Legacy (August 3rd)

The Campaign (August 10th)

The Expendables 2 (August 17th)"

We are now at July 24th, and I have seen all of the ones on that list released to date, with the exception of G.I.Joe: Retaliation, which has since been pushed back to March 2013. A shame, but ah well, I crammed the rest of those movies in there. I already posted about The Avengers, which is still my favourite movie of the summer so far, as well as Men in Black III, but I have been remiss in posting about the other ones. Here goes with some quick reviews!

Prometheus

This movie was fun. I saw it with my best friend, and he had mostly the same thing to say about it that I did. It was very visually stunning, and Michael Fassbender had a great turn as the android David, but other than that, it kind of was just...there. It wasn't bad, and at the end there's a little bit that is almost as if Ridley Scott decided to say 'HEY, THIS MOVIE IS RELATED TO ALIEN! GET IT?!' It was somewhat unnecessary, but there you go. Honestly, though, it's really nitpicky of me to say those things; the movie was fun, I enjoyed it, and was entertained for the duration of it. The ending is one of those things where a sequel CAN be made, but if there isn't one, well, it's up to your imagination!

8/10

Brave

Pixar, as many people have said over the years, has made quite a few absolutely fantastic movies. Wall-E, Up, Finding Nemo, the Toy Story trilogy, and many others, they are all fantastic. Having said that, Brave continues the tradition of having excellent visuals; it is easily up there as one of the prettiest Pixar movies, ever. The animation is superb; there must have been a team of animators devoted to the main character's hair, it was so fluid all the time. But, apart from that, it was merely...okay. That is to say, I enjoyed it, and I laughed a LOT, but that seemed to really be all there was. The plot was predictable, and the villain wasn't very much of a villain. It was more about the relationship between the main character, a teenage girl, and her mother, the queen of the realm. Not being a girl myself, I feel as if females would probably get more out of this movie than I, which is probably why Savannah and Carrie (one of my very good friends), both girls, enjoyed it more than myself and Carrie's boyfriend. For me, this seemed to be a kids movie. There's no problem with that at all, not even one bit; I LOVE those kinds of movies, and I greatly enjoyed this one. It just seemed to me that the overarching message in Brave was not quite as complex as Pixar is used to conveying. Disney and Pixar are used to making family movies; there's a difference between that, and a kids movie, which (in my opinion) is what Brave is. Still, a super fun one!

8.5/10

The Amazing Spider-Man


The Spider-Man trilogy has been rebooted. The problem with this new reboot is that...well, we've seen it before. There's not much different about this movie when compared with the Tobey Maguire version of several years ago. I should say, though, the initial (and best) difference is the fact that Tobey Maguire is...well, not in it. Instead, the titular character is portrayed by Andrew Garfield, who is perhaps the most convincing Spider-Man I've seen in a while. He nails the character, and Emma Stone does the same for her own Gwen Stacy, though I had quite a bit of trouble suspending my disbelief when the movie tries to tell us these two adults are supposed to be 17-18 years old each. They're young, don't get me wrong (my age? Maybe a few years older?), but not grade 11-12 high school age. Apart from that minor complaint, the Lizard, played by Rhys Ifans, was awesome, but...even he felt recycled with his 'talking to himself as he goes crazy' scenes, which conjured images of Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin. The movie was just kind of recycled in general, and there's one scene involving construction workers in NYC near the end of the film where it was clearly supposed to be heartwarming, and ended up just being silly and funny. Again, it's not a BAD movie. I don't think I've seen any BAD movies this summer. It just wasn't 'blow you away' good. If I could change one thing, it would probably be the title: The Average Spider-Man.

7/10

Moonrise Kingdom


This wasn't on my list at all, but Savannah really really wanted to see it, and who am I to deny her? Any way, this is a movie by Wes Anderson of 'The Royal Tenenbaums' fame, along with 'The Darjeeling Limited' and 'Rushmore'. He makes quirky, well-written, almost indie movies, and Moonrise Kingdom was definitely all of the above. It was, actually, very very good. The dialogue was very intense, and the performances (from actors such as Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton and a host of young kids) were absolutely fantastic. It was, without a doubt, one of the best movies I've seen this summer by far. It caught me off-guard how much I enjoyed this movie, and I'm glad I saw it.

9/10

The Dark Knight Rises


Let me just preface this by saying this movie, after The Avengers, was my most anticipated movie of the summer (probably even the year). It did not disappoint. It wasn't, in my own opinion, as good as The Dark Knight, but I enjoyed it more as a conclusion to the story of Batman than I enjoyed Batman Begins as an origin story. They're all excellent films, as Christopher Nolan is an excellent director, but I greatly enjoyed this one. Bane, as the villain, had his problems, minor as they were. He was still a little garbled, via the mask, and apart from that, he was just...bland. Bane was never the most interesting character, even as far as the comic books went, but he did the trick. Catwoman/Selina Kyle was actually fantastic; I was a little worried about how they might portray or use her in the movie, and really, as far as I am concerned, they absolutely nailed the delivery of the character. Anne Hathaway = awesome. Christian Bale was, as usual, good as Batman (and he even had another one of those hilarious growly lines in this one! In the first, it was 'WHERE ARE THE OTHER DRUGS GOING?!'; in the 2nd, it was 'I'M COUNTING ON IT.' and in this one it's 'WHERE'S THE TRIGGER?!'...oh Batman), though the best actor in this movie, by FAR, was Michael Caine. He absolutely stole every scene he was in, as Alfred, and I loved every moment.

Joseph-Gordon Levitt was also pretty fun as the straight laced, idealistic cop working for Gary Oldman's Commissioner Gordon. Both of them were pretty awesome. Honestly, at this point, I was surprised Leonardo DiCaprio didn't make an appearance or something, given all the Inception actors in the movie (Marion Cotillard was here as well, and we all know Tom Hardy was playing Bane). Ah well. The movie itself also relied a little too much on exposition directly to the audience (i.e. a character would say something, and instead of letting the audience imagine it themselves, they would just SHOW you what the character was thinking in a little mini dream flashforward), though I think it was necessary in some parts, and not in others. It ended on a perfect note, however. The fate of Batman, of Gotham City, of Bruce Wayne, of Alfred, of Bane, it was all tied up pretty nicely, and left it open enough that you can understand easily what would happen next. There were some nice nods to fans of the comic book, and there were some fun cameos as well. All in all, a very satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. Will I see it again in theatres, as I did for The Avengers? Maybe. But, I'll be damned if this isn't one of the best movies of the year. With the ten Best Picture awards, Nolan better at least get nominated for an Oscar, haha.

9.5/10 (I wanted to give this movie a 10, and immediately after seeing it, I would have, but now that I've thought about it, it's not as good as The Avengers, which I DID give a 10. It's a different feel and tone than Marvel's movie, so it's unfair to compare them, but there were some glaring flaws with energy and pacing in this movie that IMO were not present in The Avengers, so I'm going with 9.5...not that's bad by any stretch of the imagination.)

There you have it. My reviews of the movies I've seen so far this summer. Recap of this post:

Prometheus: 8/10
Brave: 8.5/10
The Amazing Spider-Man: 7/10
Moonrise Kingdom: 9/10
The Dark Knight Rises: 9.5/10

Men in Black III, btw, got an 8/10 from me, whereas The Avengers got a well-deserved 10/10. Obviously, this is my opinion (as I've said many times in my blog, haha), but with these subjective things, I figured I would say it one more time. I hope you enjoyed at least a small part of my reviews!

summer roadtrip #1

Well, I finally took a vacation. I haven't done that by myself in several years, as usually I am accompanied by my family in some way. Not to say that I dislike my family, they are all wonderful (my mom and dad, and then my little bro and little sis), but sometimes it's fun to just go somewhere with my friends instead.

So, my girlfriend and I decided to pack some clothes and go stay with my friend Brandon in Washington, DC for a few nights. We've never been to Washington proper, and Brandon wanted people to come visit, so everyone wins! I was particularly excited because, while a trip to the capital of the United States was fun, I also have an extreme fondness for roadtrips. We drove the whole way, from Toronto to DC, which all-in-all was a 11-hr trip, thanks to the various routes we took + traffic. We stopped for dinner in Ridgway, Pennsylvania, where we had food at a Lumberjack restaurant. Savannah had steak and mashed potatoes, and I had fish and chips, and both of our meals together cost less than 30$, even with drinks (I had Coca-Cola, don't worry, no drinking and driving)! In any case, we arrived in DC (after getting lost once entering the city, thanks to the ridiculous way the city streets are laid out) late on the 22nd (indeed, early morning on the 23rd), and immediately went out for drinks with Brandon. We got back at 4am (after a night where we went to a college bar, and I was propositioned by a ridiculously drunk girl IMMEDIATELY after Savannah and Brandon went to go get some drinks, it was weird), and then got back to Brandon's place.

This next part was fun, because we decided that it would be awesome if we took a day trip somewhere nearby. 'Nearby' initially meant San Francisco (according to Google Maps, it's a 42 hour drive), so we kept on grinding it down until we settled on Corolla, North Carolina, a 5-6 hour drive from DC. Sidenote: I am eventually going to drive to San Francisco, I think that would be awesome. We still had decided that Sunday (the 24th) was going to be the day for the trip, so we went to bed to get up early for Saturday morning (read: in 5 hours). After getting up and taking a quick shower, the three of us headed out to downtown Washington - to the National Mall. Brandon works at the Canadian Embassy, so we stopped by there and he showed us around. We then hit up a multitude of tourist spots: outside the White House, the Library of Congress, the Washington Monument, the World War II memorial in the Mall, the Lincoln Memorial, the Pentagon and the Pentagon Memorial as well. We also went to the National Air and Space Museum, which was awesome, and learned that all 19 (!) of the Smithsonian Institutions are all free!

We had some awesome food in DC, too. Either the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence starts with 'We the People'...we went to Obama's favourite pizza place, called 'We the Pizza', and also stopped in at a place called 'Good Stuff Eatery'...I had a burger that was fried mushrooms stuffed with melted cheese, in place of a burger. SO GOOD.

When we crossed over to see the Pentagon, we were in Virginia, despite just being on the other side of the Potomac. We decided to explore for a bit, and found an awesome Irish tavern where we got some ridiculously cheap and delicious food.We soon headed back to Brandon's place, exhausted, and knowing that we had to get up super early the next day (even though we had just walked for 8 straight hours). In any case, we woke up fairly early, and headed out to Corolla, which is this tiny town on the tip of the Outer Banks, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. We had picked Corolla because Savannah loves horses, and apparently Corolla is known for their 'feral horses', which are basically just wild horses that live and breed on their own. She loves them, and who am I to deny her one of her favourite things? So, we drove down, parked my car near the beach, and walked for a mile or two until we found them. It was pretty awesome, actually, we were on a completely deserted stretch of beach, with the Atlantic stretching out forever in front of us. The water was crystal clear, completely blue, and it was about 30-35 degree weather (Celsius, of course, who do you take me for...an American?!). After we saw the horses, we walked a little back, and after Brandon accidentally fell into the surf, getting completely soaked, we just decided to go swimming in our clothes. Completely impromptu, and that led to a nice damp ride back to DC, but it was totally worth it. Swimming in the surf, with two awesome people (one of which is my girlfriend, to boot), on a gorgeous day with no one around? Yes, please.

On the way back from Corolla, Brandon asked if we could stop in at the airport and pick up his friend Stacy. We did so, and headed back to his place, where Savannah and I plotted out our trip back to Toronto, and promptly passed out. Upon waking up in the morning, after making it through the obscene morning traffic of DC and dropping Brandon off at the Embassy, the two of us decided to hit up some last sights. We hit up the National Museum of the American Indian, since that is what Savannah studies and she quite enjoys it...seeing her be so happy and interested in the subject made me super happy =P We then went to the National Archives, where I saw the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, which was pretty cool...not to mention it made me want to watch 'National Treasure' again, hehe. Nicolas Cage, I know, but ah well, it's still entertaining to watch. After that, we headed out of DC, and began the drive home. We didn't stop very often, since by the time we got out of DC, it was 4pm, and so we got back to Toronto at around 3am, though it was worth it.

Fun facts about the trip: we traveled 2759 kms, all in all (so from Scarborough to Savannah's place dt to St. Catherines to fill up on gas, to Ridgway, PA, to Washington, DC, to Corolla, NC, to the airport, to DC, to Toronto, to Scarborough again). We also saw 32 of the 50 states represented in license plates during our trip (I'll post them in a later blog post, Savannah has them written down in her day planner), not to mention two Quebec plates and one British Columbia plate.

Honestly, it was super fun. It was nice to get away from everything and everyone (not that all that is bad, just that I needed a break), and spend time with someone whose company I greatly enjoy. Also, seeing Brandon was awesome, because he himself is awesome, and is a wonderful person, so it was fun just...hanging out with him. I entitled this post #1, because there might be a few more for me in the future. Niagara Falls looms as a possibility, either with friends or with Savannah, and she also wants to go up to the Bruce Peninsula for a day or two. I have no idea what's up there, so it could be super fun (and, let's face it, if I'm going with my girlfriend, it probably will be =P). Bottom line: roadtrips = awesome, and I can't wait to do it again.

Men in Black 3

I honestly couldn't think of a witty title for this post...ah well. I saw MIB3 recently, as it was on my list of things to see. I went with the girl I'm seeing right now, who is an awesome person and suggested that we see it in the first place, and we both greatly enjoyed it. I want to do one of my customary reviews, because why not, right? It's not as if a lot of people read my blog, but it's fun to do nonetheless, even if to get my own thoughts cleared up so I can explain them verbally to people later.

In any case, Men in Black 3. They don't shy away from the fact that Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) recruited Agent J (Will Smith) 14 years ago. In fact, 14 years ago in 'real life', it was 1998, and 1997 (which is what they were obviously going for) was the first year we ever saw Will Smith run down an alien to have him utter the words "N-Y-P-D. It means I will (k)nock your punk-ass down!". I love Will Smith, by the way. Indeed, MIB3 is the newest movie by Mr. Smith since 2008, when he last released both 'Seven Pounds' and 'Hancock'.

I went into this movie with fairly low expectations, because lets face it, MIB2 was absolute garbage. It was shameful, as far as movies go, and I don't know a single person who would say it was actually 'good'. I LOVE this series, and I wouldn't ever say that was a good movie (just like the Star Wars prequels, but hey). Having said that, this movie blew me away with how much it exceeded my expectations. I was readying myself for a 5 or 5.5 out of 10, and this movie is a solid 7.5 or 8/10. Will Smith reverted back to the playful, funny character he became famous for, and Tommy Lee Jones was solid again as the stoic, no humour, Agent K. The delight of the movie, though, was definitely Josh Brolin. As many have said, he absolutely nails the younger version of Agent K (as this movie involves time travel, where Agent J goes back and meets Agent K in 1969), via his delivery of dialogue and facial expressions. Even Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords fame is in this movie, as the bad guy (the aptly named Boris the Animal), and is near unrecognisable. There is also a character named Griffin, a being who can see all possible futures, all the time. It lends itself well to how the movie progresses, and provides some hilarious moments, too.

I don't really have much to say, I mean, the movie was simply solid. It had its funny moments, and after a slower-ish first half, the pacing picked up once the plot began to get underway. The events of the climax of the movie lead to a particularly poignant moment between Agent J and Agent K near the very end...it was a surprisingly soft touch for the kind of movie I expected it to be. Given how MIB1 ended, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but it was still extremely nice to see.

All in all, a solid, fun movie, especially for people of my generation who were 6-7 years of age when the first installment was released. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it!

8/10