Yay! Hangover II! Let’s do this–oh. Yeah. We already watched this done better. Damn.

When the Wolfpack hits Thailand for Stu’s wedding they’re ready for Stu’s mandated quiet weekend–complete with a night on the beach roasting marshmallows and drinking beer.  The next thing they know, they’re awake, in Bangkok, and in various states of unawareness.  Stu has a tattoo on his face, Alan has somehow had his head shaved, and they’ve lost Stu’s future brother in law–16 year old Teddy.  They begin their search for him and uncover the night’s events revealing trannies, riots, monks, and a chain smoking monkey.

Bottom line? What made the Hangover fun is run over with a mack truck and backed over with a tank for good measure.  Literally everything happens the way it did before.  It doesn’t ruin the entire movie but it does make a person yawn and discreetly check their phone for the time while wondering how much longer they have to endure this mess.  It’s funny in places, only because of how ridiculous and absurd the scenarios get.  The first one at least had character development.  The second relies too much on shock humor to get through its incredibly long run time.  Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) and Alan (Zach Galifinakis) carry the movie for humor but run dry almost halfway through.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Looks like Johnny Depp is hard up for cash…

Not as fantastical as the first, not even better than the third,  the fourth installment of this blockbuster series almost makes you wonder how Disney can just flush $20 million down the toilet and still smile.

The stand-alone pirates feature begins with more darkly than any of the others.  There’s a hint that this may just be for a little bit of an older crowd.  Jack Sparrow is well…Jack Sparrow. As with every begining of the Pirates franchise Sparrow narrowly escapes being captured only to be caught and propositioned.  We learn that Barbossa is now employed by his King and country.  The King in all of his kinglyness demands that, since Sparrow has been crewing up for the hunt anyway, he assist Barbossa in finding the Fountain of Youth before the Spanish expedition reaches it.  Jack is flabbergasted, he’s been too busy escaping to crew up for anythingof the sort.  So he escapes again to uncover the truth about who is impersonating him.

It would be amazing to be able to announce that this is the whole story but unfortunately everything in the movie is just a rehash.  Jack is captured, Jack escapes, Jack is captured, Jack escapes, etc.  There is absolutely no story  here.  Jack only proves that he’s amazing escape artist, Barbossa is a survivor and will adapt to any circumstance (we already knew that), and Penelope Cruz’s character, Angelica Malon–the supposed long lost daughter of Blackbeard– is limited despite being the only one with a really good story to tell, which could have filled the entire lengthy run time of the movie and would have been more interesting to watch.

Rating :2 out of 5 (Netflix it or Redbox it and you’ll fell so much better in the end result)

Anyone who has trolled Harris Teeter for wine on a slow night can pick out the wine connoisseurs from the “wine-can-I-get-a-little-help’s”. This could either be the way they take advantage of the wine of the month or the way they boast about their knowledge to unassuming and vaguely interested sales associates.  Either way, at some point you’ve wondered what it’s like to have tasted most of the varieties on the shelves enough to walk up and join the conversation either way.  Next weekend may just be your chance at the wine tasting night of all wine tasting nights.

NC’s 11th annual Wine Tasting Festival takes place at Tanglewood Park in Winston-Salem on May 28 from noon until 6:30 pm.  With over 30 wineries in attendance and four local entertainers commanding the stage you’ll have a whole day to taste, be entertained, and enjoy the wonderful ambiance that Tanglewood park offers. Not to mention several NC vendors will be on hand for you to try and view their various products made right here in the state.  Here’s where the frugal part comes in.  The tickets are $20 a person and before you can hiss and groan about 20 bucks floating out of your wallet think about all of those times you’ve spent wandering the aisles at your local grocery store.   How many bottles of wine have you purchased in the past only to find out that Cabernet Franc was too dry or Riesling was too sweet.  20 dollars to taste hundreds of different wines doesn’t seem too steep, now, does it? Didn’t think so.

Run on down to your local Harris Teeter and purchase tickets at the customer service desk to avoid paying an extra $5  at the door.  Either way you slice it parking is free no matter what.

For more about the event : http://www.ncwinefestival.com/

When Lillian (Maya Rudolph) gets engaged to her long time boyfriend, Doug, she assigns best friend, Annie (Kristen Wiig), to be her maid of honor.  Annie is ecstatic for her. Besides, how hard can it be to throw some party favors together and help pick out a dress?  After meeting the other bridesmaids which includes a drunk, a high strung mess, an innocent instigator, and Doug’s entirely too comfortable with  sister, she begins to feel overwhelmed.  With her own life hanging by a thread, can she manage the steadily growing out of control wedding?

Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph do a fantastic job as child hood friends steadily growing apart by the intrusion of the wedding.  Their jostling friendship is believable as is the impending destruction of said friendship.  Although the comedic chemistry really comes up between Kirsten Wiig and Melissa McCarthy (Megan), who really stole every scene she was in.  Other notable performances, John Hamm as the most over the top ass you’ll ever see and Rose Byrne as neurotic and lonely, Helen.

Bridesmaids makes you feel like getting up again after falling flat on your ass and shameless for laughing on the way back up.

4 stars out of 5

…we’ve got two restaurants side by side with a completely different feel.  Once upon a time on Spring Garden St. we had very limited eatery choices.  With a small corporate pizza place, a small Chinese place, and a small Italian place to hold our interest if you were anyone but a college student (for which the Sonic five blocks from campus seemed like a wild enough walking adventure) you pretty much had to look elsewhere for a dinner out.  Now, you have two more options, one of which includes Spring Garden Bar and Pizzeria.

The interior is a classic pub set up with wooden round tables and a few group and intimate two people booths.  As for the atmosphere, it’s a pretty good mix between the twenty somethings and thirty somethings crowds.  The decor is simple and set up so that there are tables  placed far in the back if you need a bit of privacy away from the bar.  Or if there isn’t a bar stool left at the bar you can snag a table close by so you can still mingle and meet new people. The service was quick and pleasant even on a late night menu, although said menu was limited at the time.

Recommended dishes would be their gigantic and gooey Mozzarella sticks, their large chicken tender dish with honey mustard sauce, and their BBQ pizza.  For anyone missing Macaroni Grill’s classic BBQ pizza dish this place definitely fills the void.

And that is the last that will be said of Mr. Perry in this review.  With an all star cast of African American actors in what should have and could have been break out roles you’d think that this would be THE movie to see.  Wrong.  With all of the stereotypes and jokes it would be a comedy smash hit! Wrong.  The director and one half of the creator from hit series, The Game, wouldn’t steer us in the opposite direction we should be going.  So wrong there isn’t any other way to say it.  In the grand tradition of feel good black comedies we have a formula that should work in the favor of any script writer or director.

Two families from opposite sides of the socio-economic spectrum clash when their children decide they want to marry.  Socially relevant to the black community on a whole? Definitely.  With the gap widening more than ever between the two, this is a real issue that the main prospective audience could identify with.  Had this been a real take on the problems real couples (some of which, whom were probably sitting in the audience and shaking their heads) face then this might have been one of the better African American directed, acted, and produced this year.  Heck, it could have been one of the best in the past five years.

It’s a shame and a sham of a movie that tries too hard to follow what only appears to succeed in Hollywood these days.  Nothing about it was heartfelt or entirely memorable.  Missing this movie might be the best decision a  person can make about their finances this weekend.

Rating:2 out of 5 (for potential)

Chris Hemsworth gives a breakout performance as fallen Norse god Thor.

2011′s Thor is as epic as it’s 3d title boasts.  You almost forget that it’s a part of the Marvel-verse as Kenneth Branagh manages to weld the two worlds of Asgard and present day earth together without making it feel so gimmicky.  It felt closer to the way it was done with the Hercules and Xena Warrior Princess series in making the god world and the other worlds coexist in a believable way.

At the center of the story, the mighty Norse god is banished from his homeland due to his arrogant and reckless ways, which have caused the destruction of a shaky truce between his people and their age old foes.  The ancient war that threatens to break out weighs heavily on his mind once he reaches earth and realizes he is without powers, without friends, and incapable of going home.

Natalie Portman does alright as Jane Forester, the female scientist who discovers Thor after his crash landing.  This felt like such a dive for her, after Black Swan where she played the lead dysfunctional ballerina, that it wasn’t  clear as to what she was doing in the movie.  Jane Foster could have been just as ably portrayed by a cardboard box. In fact, Jane Foster might as well have been left out of the movie as a whole.  She’s not a typical love interest in that there’s no angst or believable attraction to keep them together or apart.  It leaves the audience wondering when exactly they fell in love enough for them to want to keep looking for each other.

Chris Hemsworth was appropriately manly and chauvinistic in his role. Opposite him Tom Hiddleston held his own as Loki, the conflicted trickster brother eying the throne. He played the perfect villain in that he was never completely good or evil but connects perfectly with anyone in the audience who has ever felt betrayed.

The only other actor who garnered excitement was Stellan Skarsgard who as usual plays a conflicted man being pulled in over his head–if you count the after the credits scene.

If you have to see any 3d movie at all right now, this one is it.  The slick look and feel of the graphics are on par and make you feel like it’s worth the money.  The story, not so much.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

North Carolina’s own Danny McBride leads a band of heroes and villains alike in the ultra-campy comedy, “Your Highness”.

Your Highness answers the question of what would happen if the Princess Bride tripped on it’s way to the children’s section at your local rental shop and fell into the abyss of black comedy and fart jokes.  It has it’s charm around the first half of the film, deftly trying to reach where unusual meets ordinary plotline (a la Dogma) but fails to reach a point where comedy and fantasy can meet amicably and work well.

When Prince Fabious’ virgin bride, Belladonna, is kidnapped by the powerful yet whiny Leezar he and his dubious brother Thadious embark on a quest to save her. Meanwhile, young Isabel, a final surviving member of an order of noble knights, meets up with them on the trail and provides problems considering she’s after Leezar, too. The trio fight and bicker their way to the end, which, might I add, includes a battle scene in the middle of a human sacrifice ceremony.  The story quickly falls into the more awkwardly gross than funny hill and you find yourself trying to laugh at such things as Danny McBride carrying the–ahem–manly parts of a recently conquered minotaur.  It makes fun of all of your favorite medieval comedies and never releases it’s hold on the potty humor long enough for you to enjoy a pleasant moment of well placed schtick. It tries to hard only to prove to its audience that we have seen it all before and we’ve seen it done better.

The only props to be handed out go to Natalie Portman who shines through this piece playing a serious yet humorous woman warrior on a quest for revenge.

Read More at http://www.mentodaymagazine.com/

In 2006 I read an article in the Greensboro News and Record about a man who wrote a blog about woodworking. The article stated that over time he built up enough of a following that his blog attracted several advertisers, which brought in a stream of revenue that enabled him to eventually quit his day job. From then on, he just blogged a few hours each day. That was all I needed to hear. I was totally inspired. I went out and set up a blog that same day. I worked hard on it, took photos, and wrote posts several times each week.

Read More at http://www.mentodaymagazine.com/