Love & Other Drugs

 Love is a Hard Sell

Director: Edward Zwick
Release Date: Nov 24, 2010
Rated: R
Run Time: 113 mins
Genre: Romantic Comedy

One type of film I have never really been a big fan of over the years has been romantic comedies, More so because come on.... Romantic films of any sort just dont turn out very good when you are romantically challenged. But for my love of movies I do give them a shot to impress me with their mushy mush and laugh out loud moments.

This past week I found myself sitting in a theater with a (lady)friend and we happen to buy tickets to see Love & other drugs, in hopes to see some well....Things that the movie has been hyped around, In which case we also hoped it would bring some laughs and maybe something more.

Based off a book called "Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman" in which we find the rise of one man and the popularity of the miracle sex drug Viagra. This part of the movie caught me off guard a bit but it was a different story than i was expecting in a  good way.

I must say It is one of the better romantic comedies i have seen in awhile. It may not be because of the character development and how much we know about Anne Hathaways character, Since we never really dive into her life it seems, We do find out she has Parkinson's disease and loves to mingle. But not much else is learned over the length of the film, But honestly I didnt care much about that as what Ann gave us in the screen time that she had, Was just enjoyable.

Of course the main reason I went to see the movie was for Anne's role in the film but I also was wondering how Jake Gyllenhaal would do as he has kind of been on a down slope as of late for me in film( Was not a big Prince of Persia fan and I failed to see Brothers as i heard mostly negative on it, Its on my to watch list however) but surprisingly Jake does a vibrant job as the slutty drug dealing playboy that he is. He plays Jamie Randall who cant manage to keep a job and to make matters worst his brother has struck it rich in life. But his brother has a connection to a company that is looking to make it big in the pharmaceutical business.

Right off the bat Jake does a solid job making you see how charming he is and how all the ladies just fall for him, but sure enough there has to be that One lady he just cant seem to trap. For a man that cant seem to find love...Love my just happen to find him.


Yeah so Love & Other Drugs is mostly just a Boy meets girl type of love story but deep down it has a bit more with the issues of true love winning out and taking care of some one you love, giving up things for love and well so on. It may not be my type of film but for some reason it hit the right spot for me, it might have been that viagra or it could have just been the great cast but something was done right.

Parkinson's disease is fairly known in the mainstream thanks in part to one of the best actors of my life time, Michael J. Fox, but still many people dont seem to know about the disease and how it can effect peoples lives even if they dont find themselves with the disease. This helped make the movie a step above other films in the genre in my opinion.

It has its flaws of course but i didnt mind over looking them and finding myself laughing at multiple jokes from different characters or at a moment in the film i realized i had a chill run down my spin. Anne hathaway has been nominated before for awards and i must say if she does not get a nod for her role in this I will be sad as she really shines.

In closing of this hard and yet quickie of a rant my final words to sell you hard on this movie(notice what I did there? yeah you did, didnt you?)

The movie might have some very cliche things in it but at the same time if you give any romantic comedy a first date this year, I really see no reason not to give Love & Other drugs a run at your heart.

Worst of Comic Con 2010

I have already done a small post on some of the standout moments of this years Comic Con so I have figured why not do some of the big let downs or just horrible moments of this years biggest geek event.

Lack of Costumes: Comic Con is famous for its cosplay, Its a place that anyone can dress up and basically feel at home. But this year I noticed that the costumes seemed to be far and few. Given with the amount of people that attend comic con you still see a solid amount of Jokers and Deadpools and whatever else but at the same time I was not alone in thinking this year had a lack of costumes. I hope that it was just brought on by the semi cold and dark weather that surrounded San Diego this year.

 One of my personal favorites Toph

Swag Hags: As much as I love Swag it has become more and more about the straight up Marketing then it has been about the cool swag. Instead of putting thought and imagination into what they are handing out, We are just being splattered with papers or stickers which for the most part no body wants. What happens to all this junk they are feeding the thousands of people who are entering the Con? It all finds its way onto the streets on San Diego. What a waste. Plus I really dont care about being handed a paper about a restaurant that has a "special comic con menu" because I already know the prices have been raised and the menu has been shortened. This is just a waste of space, time and paper.

Hall H Scheduling: I know this was a big one among most anyone that attended Hall H let alone Comic Con period. The Panel scheduling was just bizarre this year. Thursday was packed pretty well with Tron but then we found our way to Friday which for some reason had Not a single Huge event. Instead Saturday was packed full. You had to be in line even earlier then normal in terms of Hall H waiting. Marvel also ended the night on saturday so you know the line was solid all day long. I just dont know why they wouldnt have scheduled something like Harry Potter on Friday instead of cramming it in with all the other Saturday events. One little Pro to this was my group was able to just walk right into Hall H on friday for the Super and suckerpunch panels, Which i have never seen before. That was pure shock.

 Waiting line for Hall H.

Lack of Surprises: Not everyone would agree with me on this one, specially after we had the stand out Marvel panel. But i must say it was a very sad time after i realized we never heard news on "Spider Man" "Star Trek 2" "Super 8" or "X-Men: First Class" Which i know i really shouldn't have expected any of these things but I really wanted one of these to surprise me and make my day. But that just didnt happen this year. Nor did much of any other huge announcements. We did reached the news about the Haunted Mansion and Pirates 4 and so on but that stuff didnt hit as hard as it should have.

Harry Potter Panel: By no means do i think the footage they gave us was poor. I honestly can not wait to finish this movie series off. The preview they gave us was very cool and the first time I have seen much of anything for the Deathly Hallows, But the sad thing about all of this was. None of the main cast attended the panel. Which I felt bad for all the folks who waited in line to attend only to see some footage(That most die hard fans had probably already seen) and to see Tom Felton who plays Draco Malfoy, The kid did a nice job but seriously He was the only person to care enough to show up? Not even a producer of the film let alone the Director David Yates? Horrible play on WB's part or whoever is to blame.

Resident Evil Afterlife: I dont really know how to put into words how horrible this panel was. Simply put I've never watched a worst car wreck in my life. I feel a bit bad for Milla Jovovich, Who i seriously enjoy as an actress for the most part. But this film series is only getting worst as it goes on. Milla came out with Ali and Paul to show off a clip from the movie, in which she had stated how awesome this clip is. We then watched a horrible CGI filled Slow mo green screen? Something. We watched as Milla and Ali killed off I would guess one of the main villains of the movie and probably one of the main fight scenes against (Resident evil 5 the video games) "The Executioner" which was shot in 3D with water falling down and so on. Nothing was well done in this clip and once it had stopped Milla told the audience that this wasn't the clip she thought would be playing and she was thinking of another awesome scene. Horrible.

Milla Knows somethings wrong!

Hall H Stabbing: So right after the worst panel in comic con history we had the worst incident in Comic Con history as about five rows in front of me some guy Knocked another man out and they went to the floor in a brawl. It took 5 minutes just to get the ushers to the fight scene. Then another 10 or so for the security to show... Then finally the cops. This whole event killed about an hour in Hall H. It ended up being worst then i had thought even after i walked over to the fight (I didn't get involved as it seemed others had already did so) A man was stabbed in the face with a pen. Yes a flipping Pen. As the guy was taken out on a stretcher right past me about a half hour after the start of the incident, I could see his face clearly. It looked as if he was crying blood. Crazy event to nearly end Hall H for the year(thankfully we received some great stuff after this including the marvel panel)

The Incident.

I think that this is enough Cons for  Comic Con 2010. I know I skipped other things but for me these are all the big downers of the year. I hope some of this stuff will be fixed next year and i hope stuff like this never happens again( Harry potter with nearly no cast or crew, Really?) Hope for a better and less Stabby event at Comic Con 2011.

With this post I do feel as If i should point out that Comic Con 2010 was still amazing and full of fun and great times. But everything always has a dark side.

Best of Comic Con 2010

Well I have returned home after a great week of geeky events, they all took place in San Diego California. As comic con ruled the world for the short amount of time it was open. I want to share my favorite parts of this years comic con with you guys. SO here is my favorite moments of Comic Con 2010.

Comic con is all about Hall H and of course that means I spent most of my time in this giant cluster of geekgasm fun. Some very awesome things happened here.

The Avengers. Honestly I really should just put The Marvel panel as a whole because we kicked things off with Caption America which we actual received a tidbit of footage and shots of Capt in costume. Nice way to kick things off, Then we saw pure awesome video of Thor, Which heading into comic con i was pretty down on this movie. But after seeing the footage i must say Very impressed.
The CGI was still a bit underwhelming in scenes but given the time before release i think this could work out very well. Plus the movie still seems to have that nice mix of serious and funny that made Iron Man such a great film.

But the best moment of the Marvel panel was at the end when star after star came out on strange including Sam Jackson, Robert Downy jr and the director himself Joss Whedon. This moment was just insane, Words nor even video could tell you how things went down. Watching the video is cool and all but being there Live when it all happened was just something you had to be here live. Thank you comic con for that.

Paul. This is a little movie staring these british dudes, Simon Pegg and Nick frost from Shawn of the dead and Hott Fuzz fame. I can not put into words how awesome this movie looks. The CGI was pretty clean for being this early on. Also of course having something to do with Comic COn in the movie is always a plus. Seth Rogen is going to be an Awesome Alien. Seeing these guys on sage together to show us such a funny looking movie was a highly without doubt. If you dont know anything about this movie check it out.

Ryan Reynolds. Movie stars are cool an all but something they step above and beyond the typical "Hey" to fans or whatever makes them cool. Well Ryan Reynolds first of all was asked to speak the Green Lantern Oath from a young fan(I would say around age 6) that was simply way beyond adorable and Ryan went ahead and agve us the Oath. Which sounded Awesome. His voice is dead on for that Oath. Then he went onto sign some comics and stuff for the kid. So awesome. Really made me like Ryan even more as a person. I just hope this movie is as cool.

Live Totally Rad Show, Most everyone that reads TheBreel more than likely knows what TRS is but if you dont head over to www.revision3.com to check it out. But comic con every year is about one thing to me. Family. That is my revision3 or my TRS family and the live shows are always a time of happiness. This live show didnt disappoint as the creators of the devil with in and Lost room both made appearances, As did the TRS moms(awesome ladies that brought swag) Hanging out with everyone who waited in line and sat around me was really cool. Cant wait to do it next year as well.

Cowboys & Aliens shocked me more than probably any movie that was shown at this years comic con, It was pure awesomeness that has just begun filming. Most people expected to see director Jon Favreau come out and show us some photos from the set and what not but instead he brought out the cast of the film including for this first time ever Harrison Ford. To which the whole Hall H stood on their feet and applauded. Amazing moment in Comic Con history. Also add in the fact that we saw 8 minutes of footage, Not horrible footage either. Some people might complain that the alien attack was poor but remember people that this has only been filming for a very very short amount of time. I think it was Dave from www.geeksofdoom.com said the alien lights looked like a ride from universal studios. I would agree but given the chance to have fine cgi worked on it, this movie will be amazing.


Many many awesome things happened at comic con, but that is a very solid given. But I among others at first thought the show was going to be pretty weak, with a horrible Friday event(well lacked the huge movies of previous years) The show ended on a good note on Saturday night, not after horrible events took place.

But if you went to this years comic con what was your favorite thing?

I think i will write up a Worst of comic con as well.

Comic Con Prelude

Smell that? The hot sweaty smell of thousands of geeks about to run wild all over San Diego, It is that time once again for Comic Con International. You may ask what is CCI? it is the biggest Comic Convention in the united states or even the world at this point, but then again its not all about Comics, or even remotely for that matter anymore.

Comic con is known for its Movie and TV news with hollywood celebs talking about how much they love their fans and cant wait for them to go spend a crap ton of money on their new movie that comes out in the next year or so.

To some that might not sound all that fun but honestly comic con is a great time of the year for me, not only do i get to Geek out and see other people just as bad as I am (and horribly smelly compared to myself) but i also get to see people i consider close friends or nearly my family. That alone is worth the trip, Add in the fact that every year means you meet new people and crazy adventures. Why not enjoy comic con at least once in your life?

There is a little bit of everything for people at comic con in my honest opinion, Movies, TV, Comics, Video games, Toys, Clothes...Really everything. Take in the account that you are in San Diego so you also have other places to adventure out to. The Zoo and Beach are two places that come to mind that dont happen to be tied down to a geeky nature.

While I'm in san diego one of the things i always look forward to is the food, I mean I'm a large dude after all so of course i enjoy eating. Its always nice to try something new and in San Diego you have plenty to chose from in the week or so that you attend comic con. Plus remember you can always add a place to your favorites and make it a place to revisit every year. Bar Basic has seemed to be one of the places i enjoy a quick visit to yearly.

I wanted to make a post before i left to head to San Diego (I live Wednesday morning, will land around noon) this isnt a review of a movie or nothing its just a little ramble i have about my Vacation time.

Hopefully i will post some neat news or some pictures off and on during the trip, I have borrowed a friends iPad so i should be able to post once in awhile but seriously comic con is a very busy week. Always doing something. But at the same time waiting in line can always be a bit of a downer so that could give time to tell you how awesome Thor actually looks and im surprised because i thought i was totally going to hate the movie (or something along them lines i hope...I really hope)

Something along the lines that might actually relate to The B Reel is I do hope to put together something special for the site while im in San Diego but time and well help will depend on if anything actually comes together.

What things are you most excited about from Comic Con? Are you attending this year? Do you hope to next year?

Also a friendly remind The B Reel also has a twitter so you dont have to actually comment on the website you can @Thebreel things to us as well.

Until next time. This rambling rant of  prior comic con adventures is over.

Skins Season 1 Review

 Let's just be friends, okay?

Creators: Jamie Brittain, Bryan Elsley
Release Date: January 13, 2009 (DVD)
Rated: Not Rated
Run Time: 425 minutes

I have never really put much thought into teenage drama shows until i found the British show "Skins" on netflix. It has to be one of the most in depth character driven shows i have ever laid my eyes on.

First thing to note is that yeah it is a British made series, which means it is way more adult then say Degrassi or some other American Teen drama that you may watch on TV. I want to say they have been in talks to bring it to the United States in a whole new remade version, which I have to say if they do it must be on ShowTime or one of the other channels. Letting it be on The CW or ABC would ruin it all together.

The show is about a group of teenage friends growing up in England, Going to school and hanging out just like any other group of friends would do. Which means they like to party, Drink and Smoke...Have sex. Things that teenagers do, With the censorship being much different for british television we are given more swearing and nudity and just more adult themes or teenage themes then most shows let us witness. It adds a whole new depth to the show from my point of view.

I have seen reviews that have said people come for the nudity in the series but have come to realize that the story drags them in and they no longer care about just seeing some British boobs, Which is a good thing because some people might be scared to view a show that may lack the censor ship Americans are use to. I say dont be afraid to live in the teens world.

Every episode revolves around one of the friends in the group, We still see bits and pieces of other characters but the focal point is always about exploring one character at a time, giving us that back story and making us care for or against these teens.

The first episode is about Tony, the main character in my eyes, He is the perfect kid. He is the ladies man and the best friend. But as the story goes on you may grow to dislike him. We have the best friend Side who happens to love Tonys girl friend Michelle but then this girl Cassie shows up and changes everything. We have other characters as well like Anwar who is a Muslim, with strict rules he fights a battle of his own faith and beliefs as his best friend Maxi is gay. So much happens in this series yet everything comes together perfectly. The show grabs you in with each passing minute, giving us an insight into their lives.


The show does however go a bit extreme at times but still keeps a pretty realistic take on other parts. But it is a Television show after all and not just a reality show. I think it was a very good mix of the two without going too far in either direction.

The cast is very young but as the show goes on you would think they have been doing this for a very long time, Every actor fits their role, They make that character for themselves. Its very hard to put into words how much i enjoyed every character and how the cast came together, they really seem like friends.
Some people might say they dont want to see the show because they dont know any of the faces, well The guy who plays Anwar is Dev Patel, From Slumdog Millionaire and The Last Airbender, Tony is played by Nicholas Hoult from About a Boy.

The show has a very crazy ending as well that you May not get a chance to see if you rent the dvd's as they had some issues with copyright laws. So i do recommend checking it out on Netflix watch it now as the scene was left in. It was a crazy ending that some may find very unfitting but to me it went with the crazy events that happened in the whole season.  They also have one final scene that gives you happiness and another scene that brings you worry. Perfect way to end a season.

The whole series has very good music from what i heard on the Netflix version(which as far as i know is what actually aired in the UK) but apparently like i said the DVDs have some copyright issues that might take away from the series as the music fits so well.

I really dont know how much more i could recommend this show to anyone, It has something for everyone honestly, it might be targeted at a more younger audience but i still think someone of an older age should take a view of the series. The writing is done so well and the acting compliments it perfectly, The camera work is very down to life in your face but with a steady shot, its not a crazy reality looking Real Word kind of show. It is still a production. Anyone who just likes a solid adventure in life should tag along with these teenagers as they grow in life.


Dont be a wanker, Jump into Skins now.

The Last Airbender

I find myself to actually be a fan of director M. Night Shyamalan, I enjoyed most all of his films(besides his latest "The happening" but i also dont find myself a fan of Marky Mark) So when the reviews started to roll in for his Retelling of one of the greatest Adventures of all time, I wanted to tell everyone "No way it cant be that bad, Have you seen the previews?"

But everyone kept telling me No...It is that bad, The reviews just kept coming in saying the 3D is horrible and the cast is all wrong or that M. Night has broken everything we as fans had dreamed for.

I waited til after the weekend to see it, let everyone else judge it and get the hate out of the way. Then this past Wednesday i finally went to a 5:20 showing at my small town theater, surprising the theater was not empty as we had about 15 people in the seats by the time the movie started to roll.

The start of the movie is amazing, by the start i mean the Paramount logo bending from water and Nickelodeon logo on fire with some ear going on. All of this was a nice little touch. Then we had the intro setting up the past, It also opened kind of like the cartoon with the shadow figures of each nation bending.

By this time i was pretty hyped but i noticed that it did seem a bit cheesy to me, but hey its still a comedy right? the show had lots of laughs along the way.

I was wrong...The movie did start off with a middle joke from Sokka but that happened to be only one of say 3 jokes i can remember? Thats not a very good amount of attempts at comedy. I do like the attempt at the Sokka/Appa joke but it was only one time and at the start of the film.

The acting from Katara was horrible, I understand she is young and everything but even the camera work didnt help at all, The cuts and the way they try to show emotion just failed. I was already disappointed in the movie and had no reason to think other wise at this point in time.

When Zuko shows up...His scare was of course lackluster to say the least...Not to mention his hair was short, which to me was honestly a big deal as it played a solid part of his character in the animated series.

We move on to the first real action scene of the movie, Aang or should i say Ung? Yeah before i go on...That really did bug me that they didnt say the name right, Its from a cartoon that always said it one way, why change it? Odd to me.

Aang is taken captive on the firenation ship with Zuko and his uncle, then he breaks out an we get appa in a bit of action...and Katar and sokka are now part of team avatar(which of course they dont bring up) So we now have the team together even tho they have hardly said anything to one another.

We fly to the air temple real quick and all....Annoying to say the least, But the air temple means Momo, one of the coolest sidekick characters of anything, along with Appa they are a great team, Appa has shown some character in his two or so scenes thus far so adding MoMo now should bring the film back to my attention.

No.

Momo or the flying lemmer bat is introduced and flys around. Pretty bad CGI as well if i do say so myself, but we dont even really get to know Momo, which shouldn't surprise me since we still dont know the other characters in this movie.

We then go to the earth kingdom, free some folks and well basically head to the end of the movie and do some battling.

I really dont want to spoil whatever it is that they offer me to spoil but we do have a few fight scenes, including one with the Blue spirit which isnt have bad. The earth bending was also kind of cool but i still must say the CGI did come off worst then i had expected, the previews for some reason defiantly looked better, maybe just being in actual full length motion?

Another big issue i have with the movie is the all powerful Fire nation, you know the guys leading this war against the other nations, They are not nearly as powerful as they should be. They need a fire supple to actually attack, They dont really tell you this until towards the end but any time we see a fire bender he of course has a giant fire ball or a fire pit burning around him

They do finally say something about this towards the end with Uncle making his own fire, I guess this is a spoiler but come on, they all should be able to make fire...Something i just found stupid.

The final fight scene is decent, i really liked the slow down fight with Aang and the fire benders or the soldiers anyways. but it still came off on the weak side of things.

Over all the movie is a huge disappointment even when everyone had already told me. I just couldn't believe how bad it was. If we had never seen the show, This movie still failed to be any real entertainment, with poor camera work and horrible acting, this is easily one of the worst films i have seen in ages.

As i walked out of the theater i turned to my friend and said "To make things easier, what DID you like?"

It seemed like the firenation ships win for the coolest part of the movie. The CGI wasnt all that bad but you still leave thinking what if it was more polished? Or if the acting was decent? The camera work didnt feel like someone was just panning around zooming in and out and slowing stuff down?

I will give it a second chance on blu ray, hopefully they add some time to the movie as i think the biggest failure is the lack fo any character development. Which maybe is because the actors are that bad....But we still never cared for anyone while watching this film.

I could rant on and on...Things keep popping into my head as i type.

The very end of the film did make me kind of smile but at the same time do i really want to see Book 2 turned into dirt? I know its about earth bending but Air was turned into a plastic bag wrapped around our heads and let us gasping for anything but what they gave us.

I'll end this rant of a review, But what did you think of the movie? Will you give it a second chance? Will you see book 2 if its made?