[Music Video] Ariana Grande & Nathan Sykes - Almost Is Never Enough

Ariana Grande and Nathan Sykes from The Wanted release a music video, set in the studio, to their song from "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones" Soundtrack.  Its a very beautiful song.

[Movie Review] The Internship

When I first saw the poster for "The Internship," I thought it was going to be like "The Social Network" and be more about the making of Google.  The poster to me just has a serious tone to it that I wouldn't think it was a comedy.  However, seeing the trailer, I obviously knew it was a comedy.  I was excited for the movie.  I wasn't a fan of "Wedding Crashers" but in general I like Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson so I was looking forward to it.

The premise of the movie is all in the trailer, "The Internship" is about laid off salesmen that take an internship with Google.  No twist or b story.  They compete with college students half their age with their team of three other 21 year olds and 23 year old Google manager that were the "Outliers."  Vaughn and Wilson have to keep up with the task in order to be insured a job after the summer internship.  They also have to deal with jerk Graham (Max Minghella, the actor that played the sidekick jerk to Armie Hammer's twin main jerks in "The Social Network").

The movie is very funny and notes several things in our culture: The denomination of Google, the subculture of computer nerds that has the popular kids and and outcast, and human interaction online and off. The movie was not raunchy as "Wedding Crashers" but I actually found it to be more entertaining.

Some critics have sad that the movie is a long Google commercial, but I didn't get that at all.  I feel like life is so full of Google anyway that watching a movie with Google in it seemed natural.  It was cool to see the Google office and just the office culture of the institution. 

Overall, I thought it was a great movie.  It had good messages that weren't preachy.  It was a feel good movie that wasn't cheesy and definitely one of the better movies this year thus far.

[Movie Review] Spring Breakers

The filming of Spring Breakers seem like it got more advertising and promotion than the actual movie. Everyone remembers photos last year all over magazines of former Disney stars in bikinis filming scenes of drinking, partying, and shooting guns. The film has been criticized as being too racy before even a trailer was released. Its young stars, who are known for their previous teen projects, and being called out by the press for being too controversial. This was all decided before anyone knew anything about the actual characters. As Selena Gomez has said in interviews, there is the movie that the media thought they made and the actual movie they made, which are actually pretty different.

Spring Breakers starts off in a college town. Friends since kindergarten Faith (Selena Gomez), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Brit (Ashley Benson) and Cotty (Rachel Korine) are trying to get out of their boring town for spring break, but haven’t saved up enough money. Faith is disappointed because she wanted to see more than just the town that she is from. Candy and Brit have the idea to knock over the chicken shack in their town with Cotty as the getaway driver. After doing this, they all bus down to Florida, enjoying the fruits of their (illegal) labor by drinking, doing drugs, and scootering around. They eventually get arrested for the partying, but instead of spending two more days in jail, rapper Alien (James Franco) bails them out.

This is where things become uncomfortable. Faith, who (un) ironically deals with remaining faithful to her religion and doing what is seen as “right,” is uncomfortable around Alien and his lifestyle. She believes that she came on this trip to have fun with her friends, but doesn’t view this as fun anymore. Cotty, Candy, and Brit are infatuated with Alien and his lifestyle, and there is no clue how far they will go down the rabbit hole.

While the media has portrayed this film as a bunch of young girls partying in bikinis, there is a much deeper story to it. The film explores the girls’ morals, their breaking points, and their motivations in life. It also explores the glorification of the gangster lifestyle. The voiceovers in the film, which are voice mails that the girls leave their family members while on vacation, explore some of the inner thoughts of the girls and the type of people they present to their family. Each girl is a bit different, but you begin to question who views this as a break or an induction into a new lifestyle.

"Beatiful Creatures TV Spot featuring "High for This" by The Weeknd

While watching a "Catfish" marathon I saw one of the TV spots for the movie "Beautiful Creatures" featuring "High For This" by The Weeknd from his first mixtape "House of Balloons."  I knew the song was from The Weeknd, but at first I didn't recognize it as "High for This" because its not a single, so it seemed like a really random choice for a song for a trailer.  Most times songs in trailers are Top 40 songs.  However, I feel like the eerie tone and mystery to the song is perfect for the movie.  I haven't seen it yet, but I was planning on seeing it tomorrow even though I haven't read the books.  But honestly hearing The Weeknd made me more confident in my choice.