The plot follows four friends who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, only to wake up the next morning not remembering a thing and missing the groom, whose wedding is scheduled to occur the next day.

Basically the same plot as “Dude, Where’s My Car?” except with the added stress of the missing groom.  Although, there’s no aliens in this movie, and the characters are mostly way less dumb.  I enjoyed the movie (parts of it were hilarious), but I couldn’t help feeling at the end that most of it was superfluous, given where they eventually find the groom.

The movie centers around a road trip to the Playboy Mansion. Eugene Bell (Zach Cregger) wakes from a four year coma to find that his high school sweetheart has gone on to become a Playboy Playmate. He and his friend Tucker Cleigh (Trevor Moore) embark on a series of escapades that lead them to the mansion, befriending a famous rapper (Craig Robinson) and the girl of Eugene's dreams.

This movie was much more along the lines of what I thought Bart Got A Room was going to be.  One might call it “zany”.  Others would probably call it “gross” or “ridiculous”.  I call it funny.

Corey, T-Rav & I wanted to make sure you didn't end up looking at the same poster three times

Friday night was an event that had been planned for a months.  Lundo’s wife, as a birthday gift, decided to get Lundo a private box with 17 seats for opening night of the new Star Trek movie.  16 of the 17 invited guests were able to attend, including but not limited to my wife and myself, B33n3r & his wife, T-Rav and his wife, and Reuben & his wife (and, of course, Lundo & his wife).

Before being invited to this event, I didn’t really understand that these private boxes existed.  I’d seen the glass panes before, but I thought the projection set up was behind them, because every time I’d taken notice, it was dark back there.  Apparently, this is true for a lot of people, because when we sat down to watch the previews and the lights were on in our little box, there were quite a few people gawking at us from the regular theater seats, including one girl who practically pressed her face against the glass with a huge grin on her face.  Maybe she thought we were important movie reviewers or something.  It was sort of akin to being on display in a museum.  It felt weird.

That feeling went away soon enough when the lights went down and the movies started, though.  And the movies was grand.  I hadn’t read anything about the movie beforehand, so the only thing I knew of the plot were what I gathered from the the previews and snippets from friends.  When I watched previews, I was always a little confused as to why the bad guy and his set seemed to look more similar to next-generation era films, whereas the rest of it was an awesome reenvisioning of original Trek.  (I had no idea there was time travel involved in the movie, you see.)

I think this ignorace going into the movie enhanced my enjoyment in this case.  I hadn’t had any particular expectations leading up to the movie other than a general sense that it would probably be less cheesy than other Star Trek movies.  I was happy to find that I was right, and that the movie was generally pretty awesome.

I also loved how they covered their asses with the uber-nerds by explaining point-blank in the movie that anything that had ever happened in the history of Star Trek could be completely different now.  And that’s okay. 

My only minor complaints about the movie are Chris Pine’s face (everything else about him was pretty cool, but something about his face bugged me) and Simon Pegg’s jitteriness (I like Simon Pegg, and his over-caffeinated version of Scotty may not be a bad thing; it just didn’t seem to to jive with the OG Scotty. OH WELL)  I also thought they maybe went a tiny bit overboard with the Star Trek II references, but that’s not so much a complaint as it is an observation.  

All-in-all, the movie was awesome.  Written well, directed well, acted well and edited well (okay, one more minor complaint:  the scene of young Kirk driving the car over the edge of a cliff was completely superfluous; it should have just been edited out – what good was the reveal that the kid was James Kirk if we were never going to see that actor again?)

In addition to the movie being awesome, watching it from a private box was doubly so.  We each had roomy leather seats with ample armrest space (even for bigger dudes such as myself)… a very comfortable way to enjoy a movie.  My only complaint with that (it’s always something!) was that the cupholders were out of reach once the seats are recline back.  

Anyway, we all had an awesome time.  I loved that Lundo’s birthday present from his wife ended up being a present for 16 people.  Heh.

For the rest of the weekend, we didn’t have any particular plans.  I ended up sleeping until 11:30 on Saturday because I was up late all amped up from the Star Trek movie the previous night.  Meghan & I went out and got some lunch at Yum! and then went for a walk around Lake Calhoun.  We spent the afternoon catching up on TiVo.

Saturday night we had dinner at Town Talk Diner:

Missing light bulbs are a feature!

Which, as it turns out, is pretty damn busy on a Saturday night around 7.  The place has a nice atmosphere, but their waiting room and their diner are the same room, which doesn’t really work.  I had a hot dog, and it was pretty good, but not wait-in-line-for-twenty-minutes good.

Sunday was a day of rest.  We ran out to Costco and picked up supplies for an event Meghan’s volunteering at on Thursday, and then I did some impromptu lawn maintenance before we crashed on the couch for the afternoon.   The rest of the day was pretty much laundry, TV, and food.

So Friday night, I had a sort of triple date with my wife and couple of other couples.  We met at Old Chicago for some beer & food and then went to a movie.

Unfortunately, that movie was:

Notice the lack of 'The's

By the way, Michelle Rodriguez dies about 5 minutes into the movie.

Anyway, a couple problems with me going to see this movie:  

1 – I haven’t seen of the movies in the series that preceded it.

2 – I don’t like watching Vin Diesel “act”.

So, it took me a while to decipher whether events in the movie were new revelations or flashbacks to previous movies, and Vin Diesel’s lack of emotions did not help that one bit.  I gathered the general plot had something to do with cars. Can’t remember what exactly, though.  Maybe it was an expositional documentary about used car salesmen?

Well, I had fun anyway.  Bad movies are often more fun that good ones.

Anyway, on Saturday, Meghan got up early and came back with breakfast, which is one of my all-time favorite things about the weekends.  Thank you wifey!

After breakfast, we went out to the Vikings draft party.  Meghan was volunteering in a booth as party of her sorority alumni group. 

For those as unfamiliar with what the Vikings drafty party entails as I was, here’s basically what happens:  They have a couple 30-foot TV screens showing ESPN and they sell beer while you wait approximately 5 hours for the Vikings turn in Round 1 of the draft to come up.  They also have booths with various Vikings-related activities, and an extremely convoluted system for obtaining autographs from players.  Or, and a sorority alumni group selling raffle tickets and trying to get you to sign up for Race For The Cure.  Obvious, that’s the best part.

Again, I had fun.  Although my afternoon beer conspired with my evening beer later than evening and tricked me into going to bed at 11.  Meghan went out to hang out with some friends and I stayed in to watch Prom Night. 

Yep, just as bad as Fast & Furious

So, on Sunday, since it was raining and cold, we pretty much spent the day watching TV.  We ventured out in the afternoon to run some errands, but that was about it.

B33n3r & I went out and saw this last night. I would like to report it is thoroughly awesome.
When this movie was announced, many of my friends either already had read, or shortly thereafter, went out and read, the original comic books series. I meant to do the same thing, and even borrowed the book from Ben but I never quite found the time to get to it. The closest I got was watching the first two episodes of the Motion Comic, which I downloaded from iTunes. I got the whole season pass, but only watched a couple of them.
Having now seen the movie, I’m kind of glad I didn’t read the comic book first, because, while the movie was completely awesome, I did find myself getting a little impatient with all of the exposition during the first half of the movie. And if I’d read the comic and known all of that information already going in, I think I might have gone from impatient to annoyed. That being said, there’s very little I would change, because it’s all awesome.
Maybe they could have cut out some of the blue penis shots, though.

Today, so far, has pretty much been devoted to getting laundry done, and other random cleaning. I meant to do more cleaning that I actually did, but oh well. I got a little distracted this morning making biscuits, so I could enjoy some tasty bacon, egg & cheese biscuits. The biscuits from scratch turned out to be tiny, so I ended up with 4 mini BE&C biscuits. I should’ve taken a picture… they were cute. 
Other than that I watched ‘Big Fish’, ‘How To Irritate People’ (a 1968 John Cleese *movie*.. might’ve been a TV special), and ‘Saved!’. 
‘Big Fish’ was good… pretty much exactly what I expected. I got a little distracted reading the paper while I was watching it.
‘How To Irritate people’ was basically an extra-long Monty Python’s Fly Circus episode centered on John Cleese.
‘Saved!’ was a lot better than I would have thought. I remember deciding to watch it late one night, but I think I actually meant the one that has Steve Martin as a preacher… when I started watching ‘Saved!’ this morning, I was confused to see Mandy Moore and Machauly Culkin listed… but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Teen dramedy with a Christian twist. It points out a lot of the inconsistencies involved when people get too into the details of organized religion, but without calling anybody an idiot or anything. Good stuff.

Apparently, The Passion comes out on DVD this week; I’ll have to give it a look… even though I’m pretty sure it’s going to piss me off. Oh well.

Hmmm… I think my pot pie is almost done.

Anyway… I’ve watched a lot of movies lately. Let’s review:

The Girl Next Door: a movie about a high school kid who’s questioning his lifestyle when a hot girl moves in next door and turns his life upside-down. (she’s a porn star) They fall in love, he finds out she’s a porn star and freaks out; she leaves; he chases; she continues leaving; he continues chasing; and his buddies tell him to just fuck her already.
Despite my not-so-glowing description, it’s actually a pretty good movie. It’s fun to wonder how far they’re going to take the porn-star thing, and it does surprise you at times (both ways). There’s a lot of good music throughout the film, as well. 3.5 out of 5

Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen: a movie about a teenage girl who moves from New York to New Jersey and is… a.. drama queen. It surprised me a little bit, because I sort of expected the main girl to be a bitch who realizes it’s better to be a good person… but she’s not a bitch. She’s overly dramatic, but she befriends the geeky girl, and shuns the popular clique. Her favorite band breaks up and the middle of the movie is her adventure with her friend trying to get into the final show, and the afterparty.
One funny thing about the movie is that the main girl’s love interest is barely in it; they just sort of tack him on the end after everything is wrapped up. 2.5 out of 5.

Cabin Fever: A documentary about leprosy— er… a horror movie where a bunch of kids go to a cabin in the woods, and their skin starts falling off. The most appealing character in the movie is the first to die (well, almost the first), and the asshole survives… almost. It’s a really odd movie, but the fear is generated by a disease, and it’s so obviously leprosy, it just comes off as dumb. There’s nothing terribly mysterious about it (even though they NEVER explain where the disease originally came from), and the ending is supposed to be spooky in it’s ambivalence, but it’s not.
Two good things: Deputy Winston (and his theme music) are funny. And the Jerry Garcia-esque shop owner (and his rifle) are funny. Oh, and “PANCAKES!” is funny.
1.5 out of 5.

The Talented Mr Ripley: an overly long tale about a obsessive imitator in which Mr Ripley (played by Matt Damon) kills a man he’s fallen in love with, and then pretends to be him; then he kills another man who figures him out; then, when he almost gets away with it, kils another man he’s fallen in love with (at least, we’re led to believe so at the end of film; it’s kind of left up in the air). Matt Damon’s character is EXTREMELY creepy throughout, and the film tries to depict him as almost likable. I guess I’d call it a tragedy of errors. 2.5 out of 5.

Jersey Girl: Ben Affleck plays a man who’s wife dies during labor. He’s forced to quit his dream job and move in with his father to raise his new baby girl. 
7 years later, he still dreams of going back to his old life…
The description makes the movie sound like an after-school special, and the plot could easily have become overly dramatic, but Kevin Smith did an excellent job of using humor to keep the movie mostly light-hearted. Liv Tyler, Ben Affleck, and George Carlin all put in good performances, all of which were a bit overshadowed by the fantastic performance of the little girl. 4.5 out of 5

I also found an Esko Pep Band shirt that for some reason makes me look like some kind of bruiser, even though it’s one of the dorkiest things a person could possibly wear.
I also found a 1991 Minnesota North Stars shirt that I’ll probably never wear, but it seemed like a pretty cool shirt. Maybe I could sell it on eBay!
Sunday night after I got home, I went over and hung out with Meghan at her new place (now fully furnished), and we watched Stuck On You. It was pretty funny. Some of the sports-related things were hilarious, simply because they were basically just cheating at everything. The ending seemed a little long, though (seems to be a common theme with movies Meghan & I watch together… weird).

The past two days of work have been two of crappiest in a long time. 
For some reason, the powers that be decided that it’s a good idea to train our department to another departments job in addition to the work we already do. The idea being that the customer won’t have to be transferred around too much if they happen to have a question for each of the two departments (and, of course, to try and save money). Of course, people don’t really seem to mind getting transferred to a different department to get their question answered.
So now, our department will get like 80% of one type of call and 20% of the other. I wonder how well we’ll know the material covered in that 20%…? So then customers will get less quality service, because we won’t know the material as well as someone who only handles that type of issue. Is that why the two duties were departmentalized in the first place?
Anyway, they also decided to train groups of 6 people at time, when we only have something like 30 people in our department. So 20% of our workforce is off on a side project while the rest of us are picking up their portion of the work. So now customers get to talk to frustrated representatives when they call, too, and we only get a 15 minute lunch on Monday & Tuesday.
To make matters even better, they’re trying to get reps to complete another little training course that we each do on our own. So they’re randomly taking additional people off the phone to sit for an hour watching a cartoon about our business model. So, even though we’re required to work overtime to keep the service levels up, some of us get to take an hour off to watch a cartoon.
Mind you, I blame upper management for their poor planning on this. If I was one of the people in the training (which I could have been–and that irks me most; I turned it down because I’m dumb), I’d probably be complaining about how boring it is, and wouldn’t feel bad for any of the people taking calls.

At least I’ve had free lunches the past two days. And the overtime pay will be nice.