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In an effort to make my time at home as mindless as possible, I've come up with a nice list of movies - some favorites, others not yet seen...and downloaded them all. Thank God for torrents.

I really wish I could quit my day-job of being a full-time slave, I mean student, and become a film critic. Ah well, dreams are dreams, and I guess this will have to do.
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Here's the list that continues to grow:

(9) Nine

Avatar
I have re-evaluated my originial review. Avatar = Pocohantas on Steroids...white man finds new land and resources, wants to keep everything for himself, ends up in a war with the natives - somehow loses. I'll give it to James Cameron tho, his imagination in creating Pandora was awesome...great CGI and graphics. That's about all I liked.

Catch Me If You Can

Daybreakers
Picture a world where vampires have become the superior race, and humans are facing extinction. Oh, and throw in the fact that the vamps are running low on blood and pretty much want to kill all humans for future survival. Yea, shit's gonna go down! Finally, a recent vampire flick without girly-looking preppy teens who so happen to have fangs. This movie is bloody, dark, ugly, and full of blood-baths + exploding vampires. Certainly my favorite vampire flick next to the Underworld series.

District 9
Low budget, interesting plot, amazing messages...sleeper of the year!

Fast and Furious
Don't know why I gave in. Crappy as expected, but for some reason I kept watching. This version had too much story which required more bad acting...next time, just please stick with the hot girls and sick cars. Actually, I think I may have liked it better than Transformers 2, so I guess that's a compliment?

Funny People
So, Adam Sandler is dying, and realizes that he has one last shot at winning back his ex-fiancee of 10years ago, who now has a husband and 2 daughters. Hmm, I fail to see where that can be funny...oh yea, IT ISN'T!! You have a movie called Funny People, which casts a few people who are actually funny...so then, WHY do you bother including such an emotional story line, which pretty much ruins the whole idea of the movie? It's just like all the other Seth Rogen and Friends movies [40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I Love You Man]. It goes from Quite Funny - to Humorous - to here's a meaningful story line with plenty of emotion to prove that we're not just funny - to crap, we've lost the audience. This is why no Seth Rogen and Friends movie will ever be funnier than Super Troopers. Oh, and the funniest cast member was Aziz Ansari...too bad he's only a part of one scene when involved in a Seth Rogen movie. I think Aziz Ansari and Jay Chandrasekhar (and Friends) should team up and show how to create a real funny movie. Oh, and add in Russell Peters, cause y'know he's also brown.

Gangs of New York

GI Joe

The Hangover

Inception
Yet again, Christopher Nolan proves he is a GENIUS! I mean, what else should I expect after seeing Memento, Batman Begins, and Dark Knight? Obviously only EPIC-ness! Inception really taps into your mind and tries to confuse the hell out of you while trying to prove that it all actually makes sense. Nolan clearly knows how to mess with our brains. This movie was a psychological masterpiece. Plus Leo is a damn good actor, and still one of my favorites. Joseph-Gordon-Levitt did an awesome job - he's two-for-two in my book (500 Days of Summer was 1-for-1...plus I want his damn suits!!), and Ellen Page did great as well.

If you haven't seen this movie yet, go now...no, not now, but RIGHT NOW!

Inglourious Basterds
Vintage Tarantino...one word, "sickeningggg"

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Miracle at St. Anna

Paranormal Activity

Pelham 123
If you hate riding on the NYC subways, you'll probably hate this movie...mostly because it actually feels like you're in a subway station. The obnoxious sounds coming from the trains, the nasty screeching from the rails, and you can't forget about the furry little rats down on the tracks...everything was on point, and at times I got a nostalgic feeling of waiting on the platform for the C train. Denzel's character resembled the one he played in the Spike Lee Joint ,"Inside Man" - so it wasn't too hard for him to do a good job. Never thought I'd see Travolta play a character like Ryder, but again, I haven't really seen toooo many Travolta flicks. The story line was standard of any hijacking plot [money is involved, plenty of demands, hostages used as leverage] but this movie did a great job of offering a lot of twists. It sort of reminded me of "Speed," but I don't know if that's good or bad.

Public Enemies
Johnny Depp is easily one of my favorite actors...too bad there wasn't much acting done by him. Normally, Depp is the center of attention who and sets the tone for the whole movie. Yea, his Midwest accent was on-point, and he had some great one-liners, but apart from those I really did expect more from this movie. Not enough power from his role. To erase this memory of a mediocre Depp flick, I think I'll add "Blow" to the list.

Pulp Fiction

Rock N Rolla

Seven Pounds

Smokin' Aces

Snatch

Star Trek
Seeing John Cho actually act, and not get high is kinda weird. But they did make him a stereotypical Asian who didn't know how to drive, plus he wore yellow. Good movie, I was impressed.

The Strangers
Caught this movie late-night on HBO. I'm not a Horror movie type of person, but I did like this flick. It was really freaky and strange, but was done very well. Rather than making this Horror movie bloody and gory, it focused on things being eerie, freaky, and silent. The director did a great job of setting the tone with creepy sounds, loud noises, and throwing ridiculous curve-balls of happy music during the scariest of times. There was a relatively small amount of dialogue, which was a good thing. "The Strangers" themselves looked REALLY creepy with ugly masks on, and they only spoke like twice. I constantly waited to see why all of this stuff happened, but in the end, nothing was explained. After everything, I still don't know who "The Strangers" are, and why they did what they did. Apparently there will be a sequel...looking forward to it

Terminator Salvation
Holy Crap, Arnold is back and looks 40yrs younger!! Okay, well a look-alike of him was in the movie for like 63 seconds. Interesting story, predictable ending, kinda confusing at times cause I don't remember too much from the other Terminators. Oh, and the famous "i'll be back" quote was reborn...but not from the governator himself. I expected more epic-ness...wouldn't see it again.

The Goods
Retarded movie, but I was definitely entertained. I was really looking forward to seeing Adrian Grenier (who I think should legally change his name to Vincent Chase - it'll really do wonders for his career) pop up outta no where...but then I realized I wasn't watching Entourage.

Up

Watchmen

A - R - K

As I was bolting down the steps of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, heading towards the A - C - E Subway line during the middle of the pm Rush Hour in hopes to make it to Penn Station in less than 7 minutes, something made me stop.

Until that point, I had one problem with New Yorkers...we (yes, including myself) never really care about what's going on around us - especially when we're "too busy" getting from one place to the next - like a colony of ants, wildly running in and out of the holes, boroughs, and tunnels we've excavated, mindlessly bumping into one another without taking a moment to check our surroundings.

I am even guilty of doing this many times during my day. Texting/Sending Emails, and changing the song on my iPod, all while walking in and out the masses of people without even looking up for one second. Until that specific moment where I stopped and picked my head up, I never realized everything I was ignoring.

"Don't worry, you can have everything...it's all yours"

I looked up, and there was a lady, probably in her mid 40s, dressed like she worked in a high-rise corporate office building, walking in the opposite direction from me. To my left, was a homeless man, tattered clothes, long shaggy beard, with an old-school Blue and Orange NY Knicks cap on. He was looking down at his hands, in awe and in shock of what was there.

A large, party-sized plate with about 8-10 sandwiches, all for himself.

I look again to my opposite side, the older lady was long gone, headed towards the bus terminals. She didn't stop to hear a thank you, or for anyone else to acknowledge her for what she just did. With that plate of food, she could have fed a family of Four for dinner, and even left-overs for the next day so her kids can enjoy a nice lunch at school.

But she's not like the rest of the New Yorkers...she actually notices her surroundings and cares about what's going on around her.

The World needs more people like her...I need to be more like her

It Gives You Wings!

2 Presentations
4 Exams
17 Pages-worth of Papers
7 Days

Who needs to sleep when you got Red Bull

Summer Jam

I miss the days of waking up for an early workout, watching 3 straight episodes of SportsCenter, sinking my toes in the hot sand while soaking up the sun, eating at Sushi Park for dinner, playin ball 'till the flood lights shut off and then capping the night off at Little Vincent's Pizzeria.

Those were the perfect summer days/nights. I wish every summer would be like my high school summers.

Now, I gotta worry about a damn job...

1.BusinessWeek
2.Y&R
3.Major League Soccer
4.National CineMedia

Let's hope one of these four decide to help me out.

Gotta have a backup plan...I'd say a spending summer in Philadelphia, going to Art School, and screwing around at the ARC while earning $8/hour is a pretty sweet deal!

To salvage any part of the summer that I will not be working, I've come up with a bucket list, so to speak:

- Rockin Out [Coldplay - Taking Back Sunday/Anberlin - Incubus]
- Enjoying America's Pastime [Yankee Stadium - Citi Field - Citizens Bank Park]
- Futbol Shenanigans [Chelsea vs AC Milan] - Baltimore, MD
- Swinging Away [Driving Ranges and Batting Cages]
- Soaking Up Some Sun [Long Island - Jersey Shore]

Here's to a hopeful summer...we'll see how far down the list I get

Real Talk

"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual
interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy"