NOBODY ON THE ROAD, NOBODY ON THE BEACH

- The Hangover is a fun little comedy; it's nothing too big or spectacular but it keeps up its brisk energy through all of its, fairly short, running time. If you've seen the commercials, you basically know what to expect, it's a film about a wild night in Vegas and the morning after, with everything that entails, but, for the most part, the film stayed away from gross-out gags and kept firmly in the realm of absurdity, buddy banter, or slapstick. This is a good thing because the film doesn't use its R rating as an excuse to pile on nudity or potty humour, not to say that that sort of thing isn't in there but it's used sparingly and intelligently. The film also has an excellent, if B-list, cast who know how to give this thing a deft comedic touch; whether that means Bradley Cooper's smarmy jerkiness, Ed Helmes' henpecked shtick (by the way, his bitchy, overbearing girlfriend was funny but points out the problem that most of these movies have in handling female characters) or Zach Galifrankis' off-the-wall absurdity. It's probably the best of Todd Phillips' movies, though I haven't seen Old School in a while, and I think he's one of the guys who gets how to do stupid comedy correctly, so, that's a meaningful, if slight, compliment.

- I'm planning to re-watch all of Lost up to this point over the show's hiatus to see if I can "pick up" anything that I may have missed the first time around. If I do notice anything I think is critically important, though I doubt will, I'll be sure to post it.

- This is really a thing that need no further mentioning but, man, that New Moon trailer is awful.

- Terminator Salvation is good but it's sort-of overly grim, there's no chance for even a bit of humour to poke in through the dark, post-apocalyptic, world (which, to be fair, is pretty immaculately constructed). That's kind of disappointing because I think that the first two Terminator films, let's try to forget about the third, were some of the most successful action pictures in terms of integrating comic relief into their fabric. Also, Christian Bale is still doing that friggin' Batman-voice, I seriously hope that that's not going to be his "thing" from now on because he's a really good actor who I'd hate to see get stuck in one-note performances (though, the trailers I've seen for Public Enemies do assuage my fears a great deal). Sam Worthington is a real discovery, though; he's consistently great in this thing, even when forced to spout some pretty absurd dialogue. The other actors didn't really hit me one way or the other, expect that I thought Moon Bloodgood was a little weak, Common always sounded like he was about to break into a rap, Helena Bonham Carter was in there for roughly five seconds and Anton Yelchin's American accent is weird. Good action throughout, with great special effects and effective camerawork. I would be happy to revisit this world for the inevitable sequels, though I wish that those films won't be so self-serious. Even still, for a guy who's only other credits are some football movie and the Charlie's Angels films, McG did a good job here, and if you're in the mood for some action, and you've already seen Star Trek, I'd recommend checking this out.