Shopping Balloons and other useful items

From http://www.last.fm/music/Balloon+Shop

Ok, admittedly, Balloon shop is not a movie. It is, or better, they are a series of funny short vids posted by three guys.  Not, as you might have thought, this page. That page is an actual balloon shop. I'm not sure how you make a business that big out of selling balloons, but there you go. It's the twenty first century - you can sell anything! (Quote from Julian Smith). However, as warning, even if you love comedy, be careful. Balloon shop is great - if it's your type of humor. If it's not - well, you might just end up staring at the screen and thinking "How did that guy ever manage to convince me to watch this?" (answer: it's my amazing mental convincing powers, which I am even now pouring into this piece of writing).

Some of my friends look at Balloon Shop and crack up, others watch a video and think "well, this was a waste of my time". Just as quick review, I took a small poll among other bloggers and friends (January Galaxy, Andre Beren, elfantasmita22, Candy Panda, Emerald Avalanche, and Renaissance Man) and they gave Balloon Shop an average entertainment rating of 9.1 out of 10, and an intelligence rating of 5 or lower.

So if you're looking for intelligence - look somewhere else. But if you want entertainment - Balloon Shop is great. You can find all their videos on YouTube, however, to give you a taste of their videos, I will post one below in place of the traditional trailer.

How to train your Dragon

"This

is Berk. It's twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery. My village. In a word? Sturdy, and it's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunset. The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice or mosquitoes. We have... Dragons [...] Most people would leave, but not us. We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues." 

Hiccup is the son of Stoick the vast, chief of the tribe on this island. He has one problem. Well, actually a lot of them, but they can all be summed up in this: He's not viking like. Not that he doesn't want to help fight the dragons. The problem is that whenever he comes in, something bad happens. So to prove his competence, Hiccup decides to kill a dragon. Not much of a problem. Except that he doesn't want to get just any kind of dragon. He wants the ultimate prize. "But the ultimate prize is the dragon no one has ever seen. We call it the-" "Night Fury!" "...This thing never steals food, never shows itself, and never misses.” Despite all this, Hiccup is determined to bring down a night fury. In a battle with the dragons, he manages to approximate the night fury's position, and brings it down with a net. Does he kill it? No, or the movie would probably be called how to kill your dragon, not How to Train your Dragon. And as the illegal friendship begins, both Hiccup and the night fury have many problems coming their way.

How to Train your dragons is a movie featuring lots of fire, combat, and everything from weird to cool to random and funny between the vikings and dragons. Despite a lot of violence though, there is no real damage done  by dragons or vikings, even when beating with hammers, or clawing faces. Except for that toothless loses part of a steering wing. And, (Spoilers) Hiccup ends up losing a foot.

Because of its unusual ideas, HtTyD was a big hit, and was widely loved by audiences ranging from little kids to grown-ups. And for people who love dragons - it was basically one of the best movies ever. In the movie, a lot of values are stressed, including family, friends, and loyalty. Hiccup struggles to work with His dragon, Toothless, while maintaining his loyalty to the vikings, his friends and family.  And apart from that, there his crush on Astrid, a Viking girl. All factors combine to form a movie that's half-comedy, half-adventure. And it's great, one of Dreamworks biggest hits.

Cars 2

Once upon a time, there were cars. And once upon a time there were races. And once upon a time, the fastest, reddest, and most stuck-up of them all took a small "vacation" and was a lot more down to earth afterward. Now, a multimillionaire, Sir Miles Axelrod has developed a new alternative fuel called allenol, and to test it he is sponsoring the worlds first gran prix. The two main challengers: Lightning McQueen, our all-time favourite, and Francesco Bernoulli, a car as stuck-up, proud, and annoying as McQueen ever was.With McQueen: Tow Mater, the tow truck. And at a party before the races, a series of events leads some British agents to believe that Mater is an American spy who has come to help them against a group of criminal cars who don't like the idea of alternative fuel that might put them out of business.

As you can guess, Mater is not an American spy. He just happens to be in the wrong place at the right time. And he happens to know about old cars that don't work good since it falls in line with his work (did you know he's a tow truck?) Nevertheless, he sets out to bust the criminals, and to save his friend McQueen.

Cars is an interesting movie. It's animated and for little kids, except for one facts the plot is complicated beyond reasoning (well, mostly just the spy thing is complicated. Three races don't hold that much complication). Of course, every little kid will enjoy gunfights, explosions, and fast-moving cars, but that doesn't mean that they have any clue what's going on.

So really it shouldn't be all that surprising that Cars 2 got low ratings. Too complicated for little kids. Too boring for most of nowadays teens. Who is it for then? No one. Everyone. Maybe. However, on the upside, ratings aren't always true. My little brothers loved the movie, though they didn't understand a word. Many teens who aren't too cool for cartoon will enjoy it too. Half comedy, half action, it is almost a cartoonized, car-ized movie in the same catergory as RED. Funny. Weird. Cool.

Surf's Up

Filmmaker: Quiet on the set. And we're rolling. Cody Maverick interview, take one.
Cody Maverick: So why are you guys here to interview me?

 Everybody knows penguins surf, right? As he himself puts it, "As soon as there was the first wave, there was the first surfer. All you needed was a piece of driftwood or a block of ice, and you were off." Codys chances however, are slim. A colony as far north as Shiverpool doesn't usually get a whole lot of scouts except for when the annual Big Z memorial surf contest comes up. And when Cody gets his chance to go to the big surfing contest on the tropical island of Pen Gu, he does everything to go.

His first friend among the penguins who are going is in fact - a chicken. Chicken Joe. And as soon as they arrive, the two hang out together. However, when Cody challenges the infamous Tank Evans, it turns out he's not really that good at surfing. Okay. He sucks. Fortunately Lani, the lifeguard, takes him to a surfer named Geek who lives in the Jungle to heal Cody's injuries, and it turns out Geek is not only a pro surfer, he'll even help Cody make a board.

Two sides clash in this movie. On one hand you have Cody, the young energetic, ambitious Penguin who wants to win more than anything. On the other, you have a cool pro surfer, trying to show Cody that winning doesn't matter. What matters is that it's fun, and friendship is more important than trophies.

While this movie is made as a family movie and for small kids, teens can really enjoy it. It's packed with humor, as chicken Joe goes to search for Cody instead of just asking, and action with surfing. After watching this movie, you're also likely to have an almost uncontrollable urge to become a surfing pro yourself. So if you like sports, comedy, and random animals (from penguins and small birds to porcupines) Surf's up is for you.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

"So long and thanks for all the fish." This is the Dolphins final message before they leave planet earth. Why? Because a Vogon constructor fleet is building an interspace highway - and earth just happens to be in the way. Luckily for Arthur Dent, his friend, Ford Prefect, is actually from another planet, and through his knowledge manages to hitch a ride. However, both are soon kicked out of the Vogon spaceship (Vogons HATE hitchhikers) - into space, where they are picked up by another ship (against all odds) before they die. This ship has three inhabitants - Zaphod Beeblebrox, president of the Galaxy, kidnapped by himself, and now on a quest to find the answer. THE answer. To life. The universe. Everything. As start, he needs to find the legendary planet of Magrathea. Oh, and Zaphod is also Fords semi-demi-half-brother - they share three of the same mothers. Also aboard the ship: Marvin, a depressed robot, and Trisha/Trilian, a woman who Arthur Dent met at a dress party, and totally blew it with. This crazy cast strives to accomplish their quest, while avoiding Vogins, getting revenge for enemy political campaigns (don't vote for stupid), and trying to figure out what is really going on.

Hitchhikers guide is a full-out comedy - random ideas, little plotline, and lots of laughs. Whenever something good happens, Marvin is there to tell you. If something bed happens (say for instance two thermo-nuclear missiles are being fired at you) the optimistic board computer is always glad to announce. And throughout the movie, the book of  "The Hitchhiker guide to the Galaxy" is there to explain with short animations.

This movie is mostly directed at teens - too little sense for grown-ups, and too big diction for little kids.

RED

Frank Moses is just your average retiree. Almost. Except for the fact that he was CIA. So when a hit team pretty much levels his house, he knows, that something is up. He drives to pick up a girl he's been phoning with, putting her in danger, and takes off to find his old buddies, and to try to figure out why in the world someone would try to kill a CIA agent. It's not the Russians. It's none of his colleagues. So who is it? Well, to find out, watch the movie.

RED is easy to categorize. It's action (that took me a while - I mean, it's full of weapons, fights, agents and assassins, so it could easily be something else (that was sarcasm in case you didn't catch it)). And it's comedy. The CIA agents keep coming up with useless comments and memories - and it doesn't help that one of them is demented. After and intense gunfight with Secret Service, one of them remarks that he remembered them to be tougher.

If you're looking for a movie with high intelligence standard, don't pick RED. If, however you want a movie where you can just shut your brain off and laugh, RED is for you. Ratings for this movie were high, scoring a 95% with viewers, and a 61% with critics. So what does RED stand for anyways? Retired, and Extremely Dangerous: a four word phrase summing up the movie.

Equilibrium

The year is somewhere around 2200 A. D. World War III has just ended, and under the lead of a man who calls himself "Father", the surviving world leaders have decided that the reason for war, our ability to feel cannot be tolerated. At the cost of all feelings, and a lot of personal freedoms, it is ensured that there will never be war again. To ensure this, a new branch has been instituted: The Grammaton Cleric. With the (only) city-state of Liberia as base of operations, they strike out, working in strike parties to seek out and destroy all that oppose the theft of what is natural to them, rebels, criminals, or even those who don´t take their proxium, the drug used to eliminate feelings.
John Preston (Christian Bale) is the leader of the cleric. With his co-worker, Partridge (Sean Bean) he works his best to ensure peace - until his world is turned upside down.

Equilibrium is an action movie, full of gun- and sword fights. While blood is kept to a minimum, dozens of people are shot, beaten, burned, sliced and stabbed. If you like action and intense scenes, you´ll probably love this movie. The Clerics receive special gun training, ensuring maximal kills, and minimizing the chance of being hit by using a precise moving and shooting technique - making them almost invincible foes.

Romance is kept to a minimum - understandable in a movie without feeling. Feeling people, or "sense offenders" as they are officially called are almost only seen when fighting for their survival against Police, what appear to be SWAT teams without the insignia, and Clerics.
Color is also kept to a minimum. Except for in the dens of offenders, everything is black, white, grey, or a drab sort of blue.

In the end though, Equilibrium is a big hit, having made over half a million in the opening weekend on only 300 screens - in other words, it was running 24/7. Reviews have given it a popularity rating of 83 percent.

Personally, I loved it - and so did most of my friends (one mentioned that it was one of the few movies he watched after 11:00  pm and didn´t fall asleep). If you´re looking for an action packed movie to watch with friends, something to keep you awake and still have a good plotline - Equilibrium can be recommended.