A Million Ways to Die in the West: A Review

I am really lucky to get my hands on a ton of screener movie tickets.  It's a great way to see movies, and as an added bonus, I don't have to pay for them.  The only real inconvenience with screener tickets is that you have to arrive fairly early to the theatre in order to get good seats.  I can't complain at all though, free is awesome!  Last night I made the trek out to Silvercity Riverport in Richmond, BC to catch advanced screening of A Million Ways to Die in the West.  I, and from the sound of it, the entire theatre had a blast.

Seth MacFarlene wrote, directed and stars in A Million Ways to Die in the West.  He plays Albert, a cowardly sheep farmer.  After he fast-talks his way out of a gun fight he is branded a coward and his girlfriend leaves him for Foy (Neil Patrick Harris), the dashing owner of the Moustachory.  Contemplating suicide as means to escape the west, Albert finds himself in the middle of a saloon brawl where he meets the mysterious Anna (Charlize Theron).  Anna helps Albert find his courage as they slowly fall in love.  When a notorious gun-slinger (Liam Neeson) shows up in town looking for trouble, Albert must test out his new found courage.

Seth MacFarlene is not the best actor out there, but I felt that worked well for him in this film, especially when he is surrounded by other great actors.  A comedic western, with quick-witted dialogue from MacFarlene and a ton of sight gags, A Million Ways to Die in the West had me laughing from start to finish.  Throw in a few musical numbers, some poking-fun of old racial stereotypes and an interesting view of the oldest profession in the world, this film is definitely one of the best comedies I have seen in a while.

A Million Ways to Die in the West will be released to the general public on May 30, 2014.

Money no longer grows on trees

I'm sure that everyone has heard the phrase "money doesn't grow on trees."  Every time I heard this saying growing up, my inner voice would pipe up..."that's not true, money is made from paper and paper is made from trees, so technically money grows on trees."  How come my inner voice is a smart ass?

Thanks to the Bank of Canada, we have some lovely new polymer bills.  I know there are a lot of Canadians out there who are not the biggest fans of the new polymer bills.  They stick together, are kind of slippery individually and some of them smell like maple syrup, but I like them.  They're pretty, look neat with their see-through area and the heads are back in the correct direction.  Also, the new bills are a lot cleaner then the old paper bills.  Money is filthy.  Studies show that up to 85% of Canadian bills (and up to 90% of American bills) contain traces of cocaine.  At least with these new "plastic" bills we can clean them.

Polymer banknotes are made from biaxially oriented polypropylene.  In laymen terms, the plastic is stretched against a machine in two different directions.  It's basically the same process used to create certain types of food packaging.  Polymer bank notes were developed in 1988 by the Reserve Bank of Australia as an attempt to prevent counter-fitting, and in 1996 Australia switched completely to the polymer bank notes.  In addition to Australia and Canada; Vietnam, Romania, Israel and New Zealand are just a few other countries that use polymer bank notes.

It was sure a lot easier as a kid when you could think the money did grow on trees.  Now we have to work hard to have any money, and since money is now made from long dead microscopic organisms instead of trees, it's no longer a renewable resource.   Oh well, soon enough money will only be lines of computer code, paper/plastic bills will no longer exist.  Let's just hope that Skynet will only be a figment of James Cameron's imagination.

Afflicted: A spoiler free review.

I was lucky enough tonight to be able to watch a free screener of a new independent horror film: Afflicted.  When I first read what this movie was about, to be honest, I wasn't really interested.  The story is about two friends who set out on the tour of a lifetime, around the world in 365 days, documenting the entire process on film for their blog.  At the early stages of their trip something mysterious happens to one of the friends and he becomes "afflicted".

I thought the premise sounded quite boring and done before, but I figured I would give it a chance, after all it was a free screener.  I watched the trailer a few days ago, before seeing the movie.  I was intrigued.  I sure am glad that I decided to give this movie a chance.  Over the course of the movie, I jumped a few times and chuckled a little bit at the screamers in the audience.  Using the "classic" Blair Witch styling of filming, the movie was quick paced, thrilling and quite interesting and at no time did I wonder when the movie would be over.

Derek Lee and Clif Prowse, the writers/directors/stars of Afflicted, recently made a big splash at the 2013 Fantastic Fest, walking away with Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Director in the horror section of the festival for their film.  Their wins were well deserved.  I really enjoyed this movie and would recommend anyone to see it...even if horror/thrillers are not their usual cup of tea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtfSuXbPYUU

What have I gotten myself into?

So I have decided to write a blog.  Why?  I have no idea.  I don't have any theme or particular topic that I will write about.  I am not a writer by any stretch of the imagination.  This blog shall be a random assortment of various topics, ideas, thoughts, musings and anything else that doesn't really fit into a specific box.  So welcome!