Laura Sees Movies: Horrible Bosses

Horrible Bosses is great.

I was stoked for this movie mostly because I am a big fan of most of the cast. I think Charlie Day is unbelievably funny, I'm a huge It's Always Sunny fan, I adore Jason Bateman, and I am also Team Jennifer. Although this does conflict with my love of Angelina Jolie's humanitarian work and tattoos, but I digress.

Horrible Bosses is a riot and the plot is perfect for these rough economic times. Literally, given the market, it does actually seem plausible that plotting to kill your horrible boss would be easier than looking for a new job.

It also seems that the boys, Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudekis all went to improv town and basically filled the script with terrific one-liners. Not to take anything away from the writing but their fingerprints seem to be all over most of the take away laugh lines.

Go see it. It's delightful and hilarious. Is it the funniest movie I've ever seen? Nope. But I loved it and I would see it again in a heartbeat. Thoroughly enjoyable, silly, a fun romp. Jamie Foxx makes a radically funny appearance as well.

Seriously, get a big bag of popcorn and go as soon as you can. A full theater full of loud laughs will make it more fun. Twizzlers too.

Laura Sees Movies: Thor

This guy is hot. I know women throw that word around a lot, but I am serious. This dude is the real kind of hot. He looks like a man and he's huge.

Take note. This movie is directed by Kenneth Branagh. DOESN'T THAT CHANGE EVERYTHING??!!! So fun.



Naturally, now that you know this, the movie has a super dramatic, almost Shakespearean quality, and it's awesome. It's all camp, but I think it's perfect. I've heard some people say this movie sucked, but I'm just imagining they have a bad personal relationship with Kenneth Branagh or they didn't know he directed it. Or they hate fun.

In contrast to the terrible exposition in The Green Lantern this flick weaves the  exposition into the fabric of the overall story. Basically the back story that explains Thor, who he is, and what world he comes from, runs parallel to the planet earth story line so you don't feel spoon fed or confused, it's all just part of the movie.

I need to mention that the main reason I enjoyed this so much is largely in part to Natalie Portman's performance. (and Chris Hemsworth's sexiness). In this, much like Liv Tyler's performance in the Marvel Hulk, you are 100% sold that this young lady exists, and that she would fall in love with this guy. For some reason, lame ass chicks in movies can really bring it down. Natalie Portman's a badass. I hope she goes back to being vegan now that her cookie demanding baby is born. It raises her badassness level.

Anyways I say go see it! That's right, I liked it that much. I thought it was fun, silly, and has some great laugh lines, and awesome action scenes. There's also another Avengers teaser after the credits so don't leave the theater.

Laura Eats Food: Red Bamboo is Delicious!

My second guest post for Vegansaurus is up. Read it!

Guest post: Vegansaurus NYC: Red Bamboo is Delicious!
Just for the record, I think that Vegansaurus is a hilarious and awesome website and you should be reading it already. If you don't want to, just read my posts! I'm so flattered that they like me! 

Love, Laura

Laura Sees Movies: Bad Teacher

I've already had like two people say to me, "why would you see that?" And all I can say is, well, I like crap.

Bad Teacher is medium entertaining crap.

It's not terrible. It's not great either which is slightly a bummer because I feel the premise and the Cameron Diaz character had the potential to be a really great comedy. But whatever I guess.

All of the best jokes were shown in the preview. The only thing that's even almost as funny as the stuff in the preview is this dry humping Justin Timberlake scene which I'm sure you've already heard about. and I don't even know if it was actually funny or if I was just remembering how funny the dry humping stuff in Going the Distance was. Plus it's fun to watch JT act like a dork.

Jason Segal is the best, I hope he wants me to be his girlfriend because I would be totally into that. He is hilarious and heartfelt. Such a winning combination for these types of movies. However, the laughs aren't enough to make it great, and like I said, the big hits are all his lines that you've already seen in the preview. If you haven't seen the preview I'm wondering how you decide which movies to go see, where you live, and what you do on a daily basis. In fact I'd like to study you so contact me.

Basically I say rent it or wait til it's on demand and watch it. It's not a total waste of time but I won't be buying the DVD or anything.

Laura Watches TV: The Glee Project

Ok. The Glee Project. Where to begin.

This is a new reality show (about 3 episodes in) that focuses on competition based performances to win a 7 episode arc on the regular Glee. A few initial reactions:

1) Isn't all auditioning technically competition anyway? Especially for a huge incredibly popular tv show? Ok I guess they're just taping it now.
2) It's on Oxygen?
3) That's an awesome prize. Really, that's no joke that's a real opportunity for someone.

Naturally I'm watching it. Because I watch EVERYTHING, especially the stuff that sucks. And I wanted to publicly say that I think this show is horrible and exploitative. It's also a guaranteed cry when you tune in so it's basically just emotional cutting on cable.

These kids are really talented. I'm not saying that lightly, I live in NYC, I'm friends with fancy professional Broadway people, I went to theater school (I feel like this is less qualifying since it was in Idaho but whatevs!), and I'm generally hard on everyone about everything. If they weren't talented I would be bitching about it here so you can trust, these are all gifted "contestants."

They're also like 9 years old. Ok, they're 18-ish, but they are babies! And in this show, they are learning songs, singing, dancing, and constantly performing for the real casting director, vocal coaches, and choreographers of Glee. These folks are not easy on them. They all get ripped apart a lot. And then they cry about it. And then I cry about it. Granted, I get overly attached to people competing on reality shows, but THIS IS SUPER SAD!!

As IF these kids don't have it bad enough ALREADY with the fact that they want to be triple threat professionals. DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD OF A LIFE THAT IS?!?!?! Artists are constantly suffering, and being ripped down, WHY AM I WATCHING THIS?!!!! It's horrible. They're so young, sweet, and talented, I just want them all to get one guest spot on one episode of Glee! Why do they all have to be dragged through the mud and then eliminated like this? It's awful!

Also the show is shot in tremendously high drama fashion, manipulating us into being totally wrecked by every elimination. Seriously, I actually find this show much more emotional (and in a BAD way, in an upsetting way) then regular Glee, the DRAMA show.

Not to mention that they are mostly singing songs that have already been done on Glee which you figure they must already have the rights to, and they will eventually try to sell these performances the same way they sell the Glee performances and music videos on Itunes. Was Glee really not enough of a cash cow for you people? REALLY? No? Oh, then you should get a bunch of teenagers hopes up and have them sing for free and then profit off of it.

*many of these are assumptions I do no know if the contestants are paid royalties for sales on their performances. however, my money is on not*
**also the songs and music videos are not currently available on itunes so hey, maybe they never will be but I would be surprised**

Ultimately this show is just making me dislike the Glee show that I already like. It shows me this incredibly ugly professional side of the creators and crew that I don't want to see. The magic of television is that I don't know that people are mean to Sandra Oh when she can't cry on cue. I don't want to see Shonda Rhimes get in a fight with her. I don't want to get to know all the amazing and talented actors that DON'T get parts on Grey's Anatomy. That's why the audition process ISN'T ON TELEVISION. Sigh.

I really really hope they do not do another season. When the winner of this show shows up on the regular Glee it is going to be lame. It is going to completely break the 4th wall for me and suddenly it's going to become this Brechtian experience where I'm hyper aware of how they got there and how I feel about it and I'm going to spend the whole time analyzing their performance. It's going to affect my enjoyment of the show. 


Oh well. I hope they prove me wrong and this turns out to be a much happier ending then it's seeming but I have to say that I doubt it. It's a doggy dog world out there in show business and the whole idea of this show was to put it on camera. De-pressing.

I need a candy.

Laura Sees Movies: The Green Lantern

Hey there readers,

I've decided to change up my blog a bit (bear with me). I'm going to be writing a combination of posts that encompass all my favorite things, as well as what I am about as an interested person and a writer. Basically I'll write about movies I see, tv I watch, and vegan food I eat. Hopefully it won't seem too weird or unfocused but I'm not currently enjoying the restriction of just writing about vegan stuff so I'm going to expand it. And besides, since I do write for US Weekly and tend to be entertainment inclined in general I figured I should get into more of that type of writing. Plus I'm interested in that so why not?

That being said, here we have it, my first movie review on the blog.

Ryan Reynolds abs, excuse me, I mean, The Green Lantern is not a great movie. I should have known better going into it, every reviewer I have even a shred of respect for totally panned it, but you know what? I like popcorn and I like going to the movies.

I'm not sure what it was about. And I just saw it a few hours ago so that seems slightly ridiculous. I am sure that Ryan Reynolds is totally sexy and very charming. I want him to be in lots of movies. Comedy movies preferably, but whatever.

The entire exposition is super weird as they try to sum up the Green Lantern universe for us in about two minutes. I imagine this is difficult as it was created and fleshed out by multiple authors over the course of several hundred comic books. It felt rushed and simplified and forced. I found it confusing. And I like to think of myself as a pretty clever lady.

The "emotional" scenes are horrible. The only saving grace is Ryan Reynolds being funny, which obviously comes naturally to him. Beyond that, it's awful. The action scenes are fun, but there aren't many of them. (surprising, I know, as it is a comic book movie) The end is pretty good.

Peter Sarsgaard (who I LUV) is sort of a bad guy in this and it's ok. It's way too campy and his character is a total joke, I couldn't care less about the guy, but he is an incredible actor and manages to inject some humanity into it, which is saying a lot. I'm also a sort of Blake Lively fan but she is terrible in this. Her performance is completely flat, although she does look great as a brunette.

In general I have a problem with the way most movies cast comic book women but that might be a larger problem I have with the current young women who are stars in Hollywood today. It just feels like none of them are real, down to earth, or interesting. They're all just super hot and some of them are ok actresses. Blake Lively (who I adored in The Town btw-great casting) is not a bad actress she's just dull in this. (not all her fault, lots of fault owed to the dialogue) But I also just had trouble believing that she could fly a plane. I mean, seriously? I'm supposed to believe that Blake Lively is a pilot? Have you ever met a female pilot? They are not Blake Lively-ish.

Anyways, I guess you shouldn't go see it. It's sort of bad and confusing. Unless you're a huge Ryan Reynolds fan then you've probably already seen it. I hope they don't make a sequel. Yeesh.

All About Samantha

Hey everyone!

June is "Adopt a Shelter Cat Month" and I thought I'd go ahead and tell my cat's story in honor of this awesome month. (It's also dairy month or something-BOO)

I have lived in Brooklyn for about 5 out of the 7 years I've been in NYC and one thing that you can't miss about this borough is all the stray cats. It breaks my heart and thank god I don't live alone or I would probably take all of them in. Thankfully there are lots of shelters in NYC doing this for me. I think cat adoption is a cool thing to promote.

This is Samantha

I know! She's such a pretty girl. She's also a total slut which begins our tale. (tail? yes, no? too much?)

Samantha was a pregnant alley cat who rubbed up on a pair of legs belonging to the right person. A friend of my friend felt her little kitties moving around inside her and just couldn't leave her on the street. He and his girlfriend took her in and waited for the cuties to be born. After finding homes for the kittens they wanted to also find a home for mom. I volunteered and shortly later she moved in.

We became fast friends.

Samantha is brave, weird, and lazy. She is super friendly, loves to rub on your legs, demands that the bathroom door always be open, and will not tolerate me hitting the snooze button repeatedly She has a low grumbly purr, hogs the bed, and likes to sit on my lap when I'm trying to write. She's also super talkative and is responsive to conversation directed at her. It's very cute.

One of the things I noticed about Samantha when her kitties were around was that she seemed like she did not want to be a mom. Obviously she hooked up with some male alley cat while she was in heat and was not intending to get pregnant. (as if cats EVER intend to get pregnant) Her foster parents said she was very loving and protective when her kittens were helpless and new but as soon as they were exploring and eating dry food she was over it. You could tell she did not want to be a mom and was bummed out about the whole thing.


Ok I feel like this got a little heavy just now. Cute picture of the cat!

Anyway. Bottom line. Samantha is awesome. You should adopt a cat too! Think you hate cats? You've never had a cat. They are such great pets. (I am sad if you have allergies)

Check out Clyde. He is an orange tabby in Queens looking for a home. I had an orange tabby in college and he was so loving. Orange tabbies are shy so you have to be patient but once they open up they are amazing.

How are you celebrating Adopt a Shelter Cat month? I'm feeding Samantha baby food. I've never seen a cat look so happy. It's like cat crack.

Hope you're all well out there. Until next time, I'll be sleeping on the floor until I can figure out how to get this one to share the bed with me.

All the best!
Love, Laura