Super Frat

Mar08

Frat Boy At the Movies: Watchmen

by tonyd on March 8, 2009 at 1:10 am

Fanboys, bros, here’s the deal: Watchmen is a good movie adaption of a great graphic novel. Creator Alan Moore said in an interview (and I’m paraphrasing) some comics are just meant to be comic books.

That being said, the movie is pretty good and audiences that have never read or heard of the Watchmen will probably be mostly entertained. The character of Rorschach, played awesomely by Jackie Earle Haley, holds most of the plot together. This is not surprising, considering the amount of ass kicking he does. All the great moments are in there: Rorschach on the case, his origin, his capture, the jail scenes— They’re all great and follow the comic pretty faithfully.

But the story of the Watchmen is bigger than Rorschach and the story is way more nuanced in the comic book. Part of the reason the movie is almost three hours long is that the movie is constantly explaining itself. About 60% of that is justified, but the other 40% overburdens the audience. The story is somewhat streamlined, but then Zack Snyder and the team add touches that change the tone. Every line of dialogue that’s not from the comic book is noticeable. It’s not poorly written, it’s just not Alan Moore.

To his credit and that of his team, they find a fairly elegant way of collapsing together two major plot points. (Spoiler warning) ie: The alien invasion and Dr. Manhattan’s eventual exit. A lot of the extras are dropped off, but the stuff with the newstand and the pirate comic books wasn’t going to fly in a movie anyways, so you kind of expect it.

Where the movie goes from great to just good is the change in tone. The comic is bleak. Night Owl and Silk Specter are essentially helpless and caught up in the events, but in the movie they have some control over them. Just right at the very end. And it’s just a little happy and hopeful at the end. There’s also a five minute wrap up sequence with them and Specter’s mom that diehard fans should just completely tune out. (You’ll know it when you see it.) It almost ruins the movie, but thankfully, most of the awesomeness prevails.

There’s also a few touches during the final fight that come so tantalizing close to perfect, but one little detail is left out. Still, Rorschach’s sheer awesomeness mostly prevails, so I don’t think even the diehard fans will be disappointed. That the Citizen Kane of comic books has been turned into a mere Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back isn’t bad. Maybe that’s the closest you can get with an Alan Moore graphic novel.

Fair warning, Dr. Manhattan’s blue schlong is all up in this movie. In the comic book, it’s barely noticeable, but the dudity did get a little out of control. Some of it is balanced out by seeing Silk Specter’s titties, but, well, just be glad this wasn’t in 3D.

I give Watchmen 9 kegs out of 10, partially for the sheer effort of the movie makers and partially because I’ve always been a fan. A lesser fanboy would probably give it an 8. Whether your a fan or not, I think you will enjoy it and certainly the DVD will be full of awesome.

└ Tags: Frat Boy at the Movies, Watchmen

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Mar03

How to Waste 8 Hours in San Francicsco: A Tony Deeb Adventure

by tonyd on March 3, 2009 at 1:12 am

Hey Bros:

I’m still a little fried from Wonder Con (those red eye flights will do that to you). Don’t worry, we’ll have a strip for Wednesday and Thursday. In the meantime, let me take you on a brief tour of San Fran. First off, a big thank you to Brother Hollywood for hooking me up with the shared roomed at the Hotel Palomar. (Also on hand was Brother Lettering Samurai, Thomas Mauer.) My new nickname these days is “Tony Deeb”, thus the new column name.

It’s not every day you get to stay in a 4 star hotel and believe me, you see the difference! I got snowed in, thanks to the East Coast storm, but fortunately, Hollywood and LS were staying til Monday anyway. (They had driven up from L.A.) We had an awesome weekend and inducted new bros. But after the guys hit the road, I had nothing to do for eight hours, so I decided to see the sites.

One sight in the hotel room was the fucking bathrobe they give you. $210 if you take it in your suitcase “by mistake”.

But hey, it’s a nice room right? Even the extra bed we got was comfy.

And the view, awesome.

I decided to hit the streets and the fine people at Palomar made sure I had an umbrella in case it rained!

Of course, you also need a snack if you’re doing all that walking, so Palomar also gave me some California almonds. Yum!

After walking a few blocks, I decided the snack wasn’t enough. I had seen the sign for John’s Grill earlier and said to myself, “Any restaurant that’s been open 100 years has to be doing something right.” So I went.

Now most food in San Francisco is pretty pricey. The thing to eat is garlic fries, which we had been introduced to by Dave Wilbur from Minions of Ka the night before. (Hey, Dave.) John’s didn’t have that, but the place looked pretty ritzy. Seafood, being a little cheaper and good in San Fran, is a must. So I ordered me a Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail. Only $9.95!

Not only were they some big-ass shrimp, the horseradish sauce was fresh.

So fresh, in fact, it brought tears to my eyes.

It’s a good kind of hurt when you’re sinuses are burning from quality shrimp cocktail. The hamburger was just as delicious.

I’m getting hungry just seeing the pictures. John’s Grill also had a replica of the Maltese Falcon. The original used to be there, but it was stolen in 2007, sadly. Dashiel Hammett and Sam Spade used to eat there. One day, bros, we shall return the fabled bird to its roost! I swear it!

After that, I walked around looking for something to buy the missus. Then I wanted to see some of the sights and then I saw it…

There it was! What San Francisco is famous for, Game Stops! Great selection, right near Chinatown. More used games than you can shake a stick at. I resisted though, bros. I should finish GTA4 before buying new stuff. Next, I passed the chocolate place.

But already being the fat fuck that I am, I decided against this. Later, at the airport, I stumbled upon another link in this sweet chain store and got a bunch of samples. Damn you Ghirardelli! At this point, I only had about 4 or 5 hours to go before my shuttle. I didn’t want to go too crazy running around. Then I remembered…

There was a Virgin Megastore near the hotel. I figured at the least I could check out some books or comics. But when I got inside, I was sorely disappointed…

The Virgin comic book section look like it was devastated by the Hulk. Plus there was no bathroom. And to the right…

This sort of closed room that looked like it once had books and comics. Virgin, you disappoint me. No place to sit, no bathroom, no cafe. I heard your airlines are cool, but if you’re going to treat comics like this, you might as well not carry them. Not wanting to spend money on a cab, I decided to explore the Hotel Palomar more.

Since I was checked out of the room, I was forced to use the “public” bathroom. I put it in quotes because the bathroom was on the 5th floor, far down a hall. No homeless guy was ever gonna find it! It was class all the way. No paper towels, just real towels.

Ah, the Palomar lounge. Free Internet, an honor wine bar and comfortable furniture. Now this was a place to read my comics! Sadly, most of the comics didn’t live up to the hype. A few did, including The Two Percent Solution. You can read my regular comics review column in Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine.

I walked around some more and realized that we were closer to Chinatown than I thought.

Sadly, I wasted too much time reading comics (story of my life). With an hour to go, I hit a little cafe we visited earlier in the trip and got a sweet crock of onion soup!

Aw, yeah! With Sourdough bread on the side! It was a French place. Cafe dela Presse or something. Good shit. With my time running out, I ran to Walgreens to get some gum for the plane ride. Now the homeless people in San Fran are everywhere. They don’t make no bones about being homeless, so some can get kinda of aggressive, even if they’re more polite than the ones on the East Coast. But this guy, cracked me up. I gave him a buck.

If you’re in the San Fran area, please help out a bro! The homeless need to get laid too! Well, that’s all from San Fran and Wonder Con. A great trip, awesome hotel and a awesome town. Can’t wait to go back next year. Look for a strip tomorrow, bros. Peace.

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Mar01

Frat Boy At the Movies: Confessions of A Shopaholic

by tonyd on March 1, 2009 at 1:55 am

Okay, first off, I’m not gay for seeing this movie. Isla Fisher is easy on the eyes and fantasizing about a potential topless scene can help you get through the movie. But it’s a chick flick, bros. A big ol’ chick flick and the missus finally dragged me there.

The basic premise, a girl who can’t stop shopping is ruining her life and can’t get a job at the fancy fashion magazine she wants. And, oh yeah, she falls for her boss, who happens to be handsome and rich. Not that that matters mind you, he eskews his family millions to make it on his own. Except for dancing and lots of crying scenes, this pretty much has all the elements of a chick flick.

But the good news is, it’s a pretty watchable chick flick. Isla’s hot, as is her roommate.

Played by Krysten Ritter. There are some funny moments, even if you’re not up on all the inside fashion jokes and shopping jokes. And, hey, John Lithgow has a cameo and it’s good to see him in something. Also, unlike a lot of chick flicks, this one didn’t make all the men stupid. They’re kind of boring, but they’re not stupid.

The movie is a bit long (almost the full two hours) and thought it moves fairly well, by the end I was getting pretty antsy. The talking manequins were weird, but kinda neat. Still, I would’ve rather have seen someone explode or Wedding Crashers on DVD. I give this 5 keggers out of 10.

└ Tags: Confessions of a Shopaholic, Frat Boy at the Movies

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Feb26

Frat Boy At the Movies: Push

by tonyd on February 26, 2009 at 1:01 am

The basic premise is the X-men meets Asian action movie. Chris Evans plays Nick Grant, a guy born with telekinesis powers and Dakota Fanning plays Cassie Holmes, a girl that can see glimpses of possible futures. The back story, like all mutants, Nick was hunted as a kid and his father sacrificed himself to save Nick. Division, the bad guys, killed Nick’s dad and want to start a huge army of mutants.

The movie lays out something that should be simple. The government coops the mutants and you either play ball or your life is miserable. Nick gets hunted down after 15 years, but instead of bringing him in, the Division guys let him go. Eventually Dakota Fanning shows up telling Nick that they’re going to find millions of dollars, but really, she’s using him to find her mother. On top of all that, Division is looking for this girl and there’s an experimental drug, mutant Chinese gangsters and a dozen or so other mutants running around.

Much like the X-men, there are probably too many mutants in this yarn. On the up side, it is paced well and action scenes are nice. Evans and Fanning are engaging to watch and the villain, played by Dijmon Hounsou, is okay. Ultimately, the movie feels like 50 issues of a comic book crammed into two hours. The story kind of ends, but doesn’t totally resolve, leaving room for sequels. Somehow, I doubt that will happen.

Still, I kind of like a convoluted movie now and again. It probably would’ve been a better TV show than movie. And, although I felt for the characters, the formulaic elements that were left out, left me thinking, “I think this movie needs another hour to explain itself.” It’s also a bad sign when you start to wonder how long the movie you’re watching is going to go on. It’s almost exactly two hours.

On the one hand, they get right into the superpowers right up front. But on the other hand, they try and do stuff like hiding the powers during the opening sequence. Why hide them? I already know what the movie’s about. Don’t you realize I already saw the trailer where Evans gets thrown all over the Chinese restaurant? It’s like making me wait for James Bond in a James Bond movie, you’re just stalling.

Also, Division comes off as vague, rather than clandestined and secret. It’s only at the end of the movie does Dijmon I.D. it as part of the U.S. government. That’s something that probably would’ve been better up front. Plus with all the renditioning and torture, why not throw that in as a way to make the bad guys badder?

I’m nitpicking, but overall, I liked the movie. I give it 6 keggers out of 10. It’s probably a better rental.

└ Tags: Frat Boy at the Movies, Push

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