Booze Revooze: THE AVENGERS

[Click here for a guide to Booze Revooze and the rating system used]

From the juiced-box and the soundtrack: Soundgarden – Live to Rise

[Press ‘Play’ for the coolest thing you will hear all day.]

Ramblings: Why Chromosomes

Final Proof: 3 ½ Shots

 You know how you get drunk in a bouncy castle? Sure, the idea looks good on paper because you’re combining two of your favorite things, drinking and bouncing, and there’s lots of action and lots of fun and you laugh a lot and get your kicks and sure, there are some moments when you get a little tired but your friends are super even if their jokes are often lame but the biggest advantage and the biggest weakness is the exact same thing: drinking in a bouncy castle means you can’t break anything, hurt yourself or take any risks and it’s nice to know you’re safe but sometimes it’s better to leave the safety zone and take some chances and get into the shit. So you have sweet and innocent fun time and you’d do it again in a heartbeat unless something else more better, more intellectualer comes along. That’s what seeing The Avengers was like.

The Avengers is The King’s Speech of action movies. It’s very well made and technically perfect with all of the boxes of “good movie” checked, like beautiful actors and good action and quips and zingers and extra special effects and good guys that are 100% good and bad guys that are 100% bad and the good guy wins and the bad guy loses and they all live happily ever after. It’s like guys’ gymnastics where they have that one routine when everyone has to do the same one. The Avengers is like that: perfectly executed and routine.

“Yeah, this does not look gay in every way.”

But sometimes you want popcorn and not corny pop and hard rock not pop rocks and whiskey not wine coolers and quicksand not Disney Land and a lap dance not romance. At those times you’ll be glad for The Dark Knight–but not The Avengers.

Buzz Kills (Watch Out for Spoilers)

Sex: ½ Shot

“Wanna feel the prick of my arrow?”

Thank god they could find one super heroine in the men’s club, because this really is a men’s club, didn’t you see what i wrote up there about guys’ gymnastics? Who watches guys’ gymnastics anyway? Men who don’t think Scarlett Johansson is hot, that’s who.

Scarlett Johansson – Click on the Image for the Wallpaper

Plus there’s some unbelievable shots of her stuck to the bottom of my drawers, at the end of this review. Scroll down until you get to the “Continue Reading” link and click away.

You know who else i was happy to see here and it’s not Robert Downey Jr even though i was happy to see him too? Cobie Smothers or whatever her name is from How I Met Your Mother. She was already very cute in that show even if i didn’t recognize her here for a minute or two in her military uniform. Let’s just say she looks better out of it.

Cobie Smulders Wallpaper – Click on the Image for the Wallpaper

Not to mention the shots of her in my drawers, after the “Continue Reading” link down there.

Don’t forget Gwyneth Paltrow, who’s back once again as Peter Stark’s love assistant. And what a back and ass-instance she was. There was this one scene with her in denim short shorts and, like Gwyneth or not, you’ll like her. Like this.

Gwyneth Paltrow Wallpaper – Click on the Image for the Wallpaper

Yes, more pixxx of her in my drawers, after the “Continue Reading” link at the bottom of this page.

Silken Butterflies

The good news is that the magnificent Ashley Johnson had a brief appearance in The Avengers as “Waitress”. The bad news is that it was brief. Still, from the way she looked at Captain America, i have the impression we’ll be seeing more of her in the sequel.

For those of you more hooked on heroes than heroines…

Celeste E Hall giggled the whole walk home from this movie, confused like a deli patron unable to decide which hero was the hottest. To give her a hand, i thought i’d do a little poll dance. Vote below for the hero who carried you away the farthest.

If you need to examine these speci-men more closely, the full shots are after the “Continue Reading” link at the bottom of this post.

Scarlett Johansson In The Bar None

Drink: 0 Shots

What can i say, i got nothin’. The only notes i scrawled were:

• Stark offers Loki a drink. “Sure you don’t want one? I’m having one.” Whiskey from a snifter.
• [Later] Captured Loki says, “About that drink…”

Me So Horny

Rock & Roll: 4 ½ Shots

On a scale of Bright Star to the first Matrix, The Avengers holds its own (as i sometimes do, but with my left hand so i can pretend it’s someone else’s). Lots of action and only enough talk to knock it down 1/2 a shot. The special effects were solid and there was even some real rock and roll, beginning with the Soundgarden that kicked off this shit and including this old but still kicking AC/DC classic.

“Shit, I think I have this backwards.”

One interesting disappointment was the fights. Remember how you were a kid and talking to some buds while smoking some other ones, and you were all like, “Who do you think would win if [insert super hero] got in a fight with [insert different super hero]?” We now know the answer will usually be “It’d be a tie.” Especially if one of the combatants is Thor.

Based on these battles:

• Thor v. The Hulk
• Thor v. Iron Man
• Thor v. Captain America
• Thor v. Loki
• The Hulk v. Black Widow

There were two cards that weren’t undecided:

• Black Widow v. Hawkeye (Black Widow by TKO)
• The Hulk v. Loki (The Hulk in a first round knock out)

Boring Technical Crap

Written by:

Stan Lee & Jack Kirby (comic book)
Joss Whedon (screenplay)
Zak Penn & Joss Whedon (story)

Directed by: Joss Whedon

Starring

Scarlett Johansson – Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
Cobie Smulders – Agent Maria Hill
Gwyneth Paltrow – Pepper Potts
Ashley Johnson – Waitress
Robert Downey Jr. – Tony Stark / Iron Man
Samuel L. Jackson – Nick Fury
Chris Evans – Steve Rogers / Captain America
Mark Ruffalo – Bruce Banner / The Hulk
Chris Hemsworth – Thor
Jeremy Renner – Clint Barton / Hawkeye
Tom Hiddleston – Loki
Clark Gregg – Agent Phil Coulson

Bottom Line

Definitely you should see this. If only because it’s the number one selling movie of all time. And you should see it on the biggest screen you can find. You know what they say, “Go big or go home (and watch it there).”

Al K Hall’s Drawers

Click on the link for the drawer shots…

Booze Revooze: A Drinker’s Skewed View of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL

[Click here for a guide to Booze Revooze and the rating system used]

From the juiced-box and the soundtrack: Eminem (feat Pink) – Won’t Back Down

Yeaman, once again, received this movie shitloads before the Americans and i don’t know what y’all in the States did to piss off whoever the fuck it was that decides these things but the powers that be-came to Yeaman where i watched this and snapped stills like this just so you’d believe i was there.

Sometimes i accidentally make art with this shit

The rest of the stills are in the drawers. Just scroll all the way down ’til you hit the link to click on to get into my drawers.

Ramblings: Go Proctologist

Final Proof: 3½ Shots

You know how you get drunk with a high class call girl? Ooh, she knows which of your buttons to push and when to push them and how to push them just right because she makes a business of doing pleasure with you while you lay back and let the pleasure wash through you and out of you like the warm rolling waves of intoxication carrying you overboard until you drown in the ecstasy only to wake up cold and wet and alone because you were way deeper into her than she ever was in you and she was only going through the motions when she took you for your ride but what a fucking ride it was all the way around the world and anyway, you weren’t paying her to be sincere, just to take you away for a couple hours. That’s what Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol was like.

[Cue Mission Impossible Theme: Da – da da duh dada Da- da da duh dada nene-oo – nene-oo (Da – da da…)]

All Three Food Groups

There i was at work and i knew the movie was premiering early and i was supposed to be working on reports and taking some calls but i cleared my phone schedule and walked right out the front door acting all normal even though i was cutting out prematurely and the boss was watching me… Then, i didn’t have enough time to eat dinner so i had a candy, popcorn and Coke Zero dinner (see photo) at the theater and to top off this action packed excursion to the movies i also had an impossible mission which was to stay awake because i’d been sleeping around 4 hours a night every night and that was catching up to me so would i be able to stay awake for the whole film after a 2-course (popcorn and candy) meal?

Nene-oo, nene-oo Da -da da duh dada…

Cutting to the chase, like a cheap hooker on meth-laced Irish coffee it was mercifully easy to stay awake the entire time. There was a lot of action and what worked in MI: Ghost Protocol was that the action scenes were strung together well and that the scenes were both rather original and well shot.

Sometimes action movies only have two or three action scenes and the rest of the movie is guys crying and sharing their feelings, or sometimes there’s a lot of lazy action when the director can’t squeeze out any original ideas so he pinches everyone else’s and you get one cliche car chase followed by a hackneyed karate fight scene, but not here, man. Here the action comes non-stop and hard and you even get Tom Cruise doing his own stunts which gives this puppy a certain credibility.

The acting? The acting was perfect because there was none of it. We don’t fucking need acting if we have action, all we need is Paula Patton, Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner looking good while they do exciting shit and that works.

There were some downers to this. First off, everyone’s gonna tell you this movie was funny because it had humor mixed in with the action which is bullshit. They dragged Simon Pegg into MI: Ghost Protocol just for these moments but it’s all just standard boring obligatory comedy you’ve already seen on Get Smart reruns—not as edgy as the action, s’what i’m saying.

"Ugh, what's all this sticky white stuff on the gloves?"

What else sucked? The CGI kind of. Sometimes it really worked (the sand storm) but other times (Red Square explosion) it looked like it was a teenager playing with his mom’s cell phone camera and an old version of Picasa, which was distracting. And that’s about all the sucky parts, which is why i liked Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol better than all the other Mission Impossibles especially because i can’t even remember any of them.

It’s worth the wait, babes.

Buzz Kills (Watch Out for Spoilers)

Sex: 2 shots

The first thing i jotted down in my notebook was about how the first three names in the opening credits were all guys. “In technical movie review terms, we critics refer to this as ‘A Bad Sign’,” is what i wrote exactly.

Girl Fight at the Bar: This Movie Rocks

On the other hand (and that way you can pretend it’s someone else’s), i kinda get that because this movie was all about the action and the director didn’t want to get it bogged down with romance, which is just fine with me because i don’t come to these things to watch awkward pretend kissing and uncomfortable sexual gyrating because i get enough of that shit at home. Truth be told, i was even pleasantly surprised the director resisted the temptation to stick in a romance where it wan’t necessary and didn’t even belong.

Still, would it have killed anyone to inject a few bathing suit scenes or gratuitous boobage in this movie? The closest we come (which is to say we don’t come at all) to that is Paula Patton changing down to a bra in the back of a taxi.

The lead female actor is Paula Patton (36) who does not get any romance on but who cares as long as we get to look at her looking like this.

Click on the Shot for the Wallpaper

There are literally tons more shots of her in my drawers down at the bottom of the post, after the “Continue Reading” link.  (And yes, “literally tons” because if you add up all her weight in all the pictures i’ma post of her then it comes to tons, so stop splitting hairs and get back to enjoying this shit.)

Thrown into the mix is 26-year-old mademoiselle française who’s hot because she’s a 26-year-old française mademoiselle named Léa Seydoux who has an accent on her name an everything which makes her butt loads exotic. i’m thinking about adding one to my name, to: Al K Hàll. What do yo think? Not as convincing as this, i bet.

Léa Say-Do

Click on the Shot for the Wallpaper

For those of you who are less into “Miss Shins” than “Posse Bulls” (oh shut up, i know) we get Tom Cruise (39):

Click on the Shot for the Wallpaper

There’s also a couple handsome wallpapers of him in the drawers (’cause i got Tom Cruise in my drawers, yo), just go beyond the “Continue Reading” click.

There’s also some of that Jeremy Renner (40) action.

And more in the drawers. With Tom Cruise. Jeremy Renner and Tom Cruise are both in my drawers, is what i’m saying.

Finally, we got some Josh Holloway. Why? Good question. He’s in the movie, is why, and he’s in the movie because Bad Robot helped produce this and Bad Robot is J J Abrams’ company and it created Lost which had Josh Holloway. Just like Bad Robot produced the only good Star Trek movie and Simon Pegg was in that as Scottie and so JJ brought him over to be in this one, too.

Anyway, here’s Josh. Just Josh ‘n’…

There are many ways to butcher those we love....

Shh, it’s a secret but there’s an extra special bonus collage all the way at the very bottom of my drawers down there.

Drink: 2½ Shots

Not so bad, actually. i mean, sure, alcohol wasn’t a fundamental part of the show but it didn’t need to be and there were enough references to keep a drinker satisfied. Here’s the dirt from my notes…

• [Jeremy Renner] drinking whiskey while giving back story
• In the party [Paula Patton] is drinking champagne and the Indian Mahjong [in my notes i have a special kind of long shorthand] asks if she likes it and she says she was always a bourbon girl.
• Beer in the bar with big black guy. Kronenberg?

Rock & Roll: 4 Shots

Not a lot of rock music but this movie kicked so much ass it’s shoes smell like the shit. Plus, there’s the Eminem song they play with the trailer, but i’m not sure i remember that actually being in the movie. Still, if you’re looking for a cool version of the Mission Impossible Theme…

Boring Technical Crap

Written by: 

Josh Appelbaum & André Nemec
Bruce Geller (television series “Mission: Impossible”)

Directed by: Brad Bird

Starring

Paula Patton – Jane
Léa Seydoux – Sabine MoreauTom Cruise – Ethan Hunt
Jeremy Renner – Brandt
Simon Pegg – Benji
Josh Holloway – Hanaway

Bottom Line

If i can succeed my Mission Impossible and stay awake through this after only 3 hours sleep, you can certainly handle it.

Al K Hall’s Drawers

Click “Continue reading” to access the Drawers where i keep the extra sexy and extra, sexy photos.