just saw Moonrise Kingdom aka Hipster Super 8.

and…it was awesome.

DIABLO 3 REVIEW

i’ve never played diablo but everyone was talking about the new game diablo 3 so i decided to review it for work. check it out it’s on youtube. 

“THE HUNGER GAMES” MOVIE REVIEW: THE ODDS ARE EVER IN THE AUDIENCES FAVOR

• above: 1-minute “The Hunger Games” video movie review (non-spoiler)
• below:  a semi-in-depth “The Hunger Games” movie review (very minor spoilers)
• note: yes, I am wearing a District 14: Tacos Shirt

“The Hunger Games” Movie Review

I don’t have a witty or interesting tidbit about how I got to the “The Hunger Games” screening the other night. I met up with a friend and we drank a little in preparation for a movie that I’ve been anticipating for the months since I finished Suzanne Collins’ series. I was a latecomer to “The Hunger Games,” but once I started reading, I was hooked. I couldn’t wait for the film, watched the trailer almost every day, and have been tracking tags on Tumblr of “Hunger Games” and “Katniss” for weeks. I don’t know why I finally decided to pick up the first book a few months ago, but I did, and it’s been an awesome trip. Even working with a bunch of sports dudes, geeking out over “Catnip” and Rue has been enjoyable.

We got to the theater around seven, and noticed the line was incredibly long, even for press. I had two tickets while others had just one, so I rushed to the front, and when security asked if I had any electronic devices on me I said “no” and was let into the theater. Right then, I felt like I won the Hunger Games, because with me was my new iPad. After finding a pretty good aisle seat in the front middle, I noticed Matt Patches in my row just as he noticed me. He hesitated with a question as to why I was in the theater, and then we both came to the quick conclusion that “the Hunger Games, it’s sports!”

Now I’m going to keep this short and simple, because if you are debating seeing the film, you should just go and check it out, and if you have read the books and are an insane fan (or moderate fan), there is a ton to love and you have probably been waiting months, if not years, to see it and will see it three times this weekend, so whatever I write doesn’t really matter. 

One thing I do want to point out is how awesome Lionsgate’s marketing strategy has been for the film. With all their promotional materials that’s been released, they have held off from really showing anything inside the arena during the Games itself. This is an insanely smart, deliberate strategy that sells the notion that when you buy a ticket to see “The Hunger Games” film you are in fact purchasing a ticket to the 74th Hunger Games. 

Also, the Games suck and they knew it so that’s why they don’t show anything (just kidding, they are pretty sweet).

While sitting in the close middle of the theater, I thought we had some pretty baller seats. However, the biggest problem I had at the beginning of the film was the shaky-cam. I don’t know if it was because I was too close to the screen or the drinks before hand, or a mixture of the two, but it was distracting. Instead of getting into the beautiful performance between Jennifer Lawrence and Willow Shields, I was thrown off by the cinematography that clearly sells the idea of the restlessness of District 12. 

Aside from the shaky cam, the production design, costume design, and tone of the frame in that scene was awesome. 

The performances are top notch - this isn’t some stale “Twilight” shit - director Gary Ross makes the audience and his cast members work for it, not mock it. In fact, from this moment on there should be NO comparisons to “Twilight” at all - these are two completely different blockbusters. “Hunger Games” is a story that was cared and nurtured to the screen, much like the “Potter” series.  Jennifer Lawerence as Katniss is a dream, Prim (Willow Shields), I can’t remember if she even said a word, but that’s what’s special - she’s so delicate in the film. Peeta is played as a lame dude by Josh Hutcherson, just as in the books - great job, Hutcherson. Miley Cyrus’ boo, Liam Hemsworth, even in his small role, was pretty baller as Gale. I loved how Elizabeth Banks disappears into Effie. Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, and Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman kill it - and you know they are the perfect actor for a role when you wish you had more time with them on screen. 

There is no way to complain about this movie because it’s a great adaptation of an already cinematic story. And the font that reads DISTRICT 12 on screen? Fuck yeah, that shit looks sick. The landscapes of the outer region of the district, the Capitol, the arena itself - all of it looks awesome. All your favorite moments are massive yet subtle.  

Now what about what we all paid to see? THE HUNGER GAMES! The whole thing is pretty good. My biggest “problem” with the film is that the book was still so fresh in my mind I was constantly hoping or predicting what would happen next or wish scenes would play out longer or this or that. I’m sure a ton of fans are going to love this film regardless. With “Harry Potter,” the gaps between me reading the books and seeing the movies were years, and that became a benefit to my cinematic experience, because  I didn’t mind the stuff they left out or altered because I was revisiting it through a different glass. Here I wanted my same glass.

The Games are pretty cool, but the cornucopia is not the beautiful cornucopia you have in your head. I barely know who Wes Bentley is, but I liked his portrayal of Seneca Crane and I enjoyed how they fleshed out the larger scope of the Games and what’s going down in the Capitol. These are extremely smart decisions on the filmmaker’s part to both streamline the film and open up the world of the trilogy. This makes these additions not jarring but extremely appropriate additions to the book and the mythology. Yet, some of my biggest problems besides shaky cam is that the film is a “best of” the book. While I know they needed to stick it in under two hours and thirty minutes, at times certain scenes felt rushed and certain scenes missed the emotional impact of the books. But so many scenes captured the emotional impact that it’s hard to get greedy.

Even with MY problems this film IS awesome. This is how you do an adaptation of a franchise correctly. The writing, the acting, the cinematography, and direction - it’s all there and appropriate. And what about the adaptation? As bummed as I am that it is a “best of / quick hits” of the book - it’s the best adaption you can ask for, an amazing world with not too many dramatic changes from the book.

My biggest advice going into the film is do not expect what you expected. Just go in not assuming you know what’s going to happen. This is an adaptation of a pretty cool story and it’s a pretty cool movie, and you will find yourself very quickly wanting to go back to Panem & relive The Hunger Games. 

Achievement Unlocked: Beat the Blue Print Juice Cleanse

Prologue

So I decided to do a juice cleanse. I remember being in college, hammered at a party and a guy strolled in with a water bottle with some disgusting fluid in it. He looked miserable. I asked him what was going on and he said he was ‘cleansing’ by concocting some water, maple syrup & cyan paper. It sounded horrible. I guess it was horrible. I vowed that day I would never do something like that. I love to eat. I’ll eat anything. 

Well fast forward a half a decade and I found myself in a situation of getting my wisdom teeth pulled. I really didn’t want to deal with my gums getting infected, and  just eating ice-cream & mash potatoes didn’t sound that appealing. I decided to man up and do a cleanse. But would I really concoct some disgusting watery substance that yellowed a plastic bottle over time? 

I was walking through the east village when I noticed those big plastered poster board things that I can’t describe in words but if you saw it you’d know what I’m talking about. It’s like paper graffiti but somehow it’s kinda legal? Anyways I saw some ‘poster’-ish thing and decided right then and there that was the one I was going to do - the Blue Print Cleanse.

Well.. actually I yelped a ton of them and it seemed the easiest. But that poster board was convincing. I liked the font and the #’s and the color of the bottles and how they were locally produced & created. Anyways I called the number and bugged the young lady on the phone with repetitively annoying questions like “what’s it like when I finish?!” “Is this the one celebrities do?!” “which level did you do?”

I thought I would impress the girl on the phone, who I was about to give over all my information to - who could potentially jason bourne my life - and went with the FOUNDATION CLEANSE. It would be six juices I’d drink over the course of the day for three days. Not too bad. No food, no other drinks, no alcohol (a huge bummer). Just these juices broken up into three extremely intense green juices, one spicy lemonade, some other delicious one I’m forgetting [edit: pineapple, apple mint], and almond milk. 

Now if you’ve read this far you see I’ve made a 100% concrete decision that I am going to do this. I would document my experience and share with the world. Just like I read a bunch of blogs talking about their journey through juice cleanse. Now this is where my journey goes one way and theirs another.

To be honest - It was pretty boring and uneventful. I mean - I drank juices for three days. That’s really it. I was surprised how easy it was. I had no struggle by the end of day two and by the end of day three I felt I could easily keep going. Below is a terribly kept document of what happened: 

Day - 1: Friday

I went to the Pete & Pete Reunion and got pretty toasty. Beers & nachos & a ton of shots before the event at St Marks Bar and Grill. We had such a good time that our cute server drew a little happy shot on our bill. Maybe it referred to her excitement that the tab was so high she would get a good tip (which she did) but hopefully she was excited that we were about to reunite with our childhood favorites. Erin showed up and grabbed a burger, we downed our drinks and took off to the event. The event was eventful - cool to see all the cast and crew together on stage. Insane to hear how Artie was a crazy dude living in the east village and somehow landed on a child show. Doing a scene with little pete then running off to his trailer to smoke a cigarette (or maybe pot?). 

Day 0: Saturday

I woke up around 10am and cracked and cooked three eggs. I went into my surgery around 1pm and was out by 2pm. My mouth bleeding uncontrollably. My lip completely numb. I felt like crap. I didn’t eat anything else that day. I iced my face with a pantyhose contraption around my head and played Skyrim. 

Around 8pm the juices were delivered to my apartment. I was giddy with joy looking at them all. One thing that bummed me out was I purchased a bunch of icepacks for my face for icing and the ones that came with the juice cleanse were actually the best ones to use (in pantyhose) wrapped around my head. 

I passed out around 11pm.

Day 1: Sunday

At around 10am -  a day after my surgery I started my juice cleanse - I woke up not really hungry even though I hadn’t eaten anything in over 24 hours.

I started with the green stuff - simple called #1 Green Juice. Upon first taste I was stoked that the green bottle with a #1 on it tasted so good. I’ve heard a lot of complaining that it doesn’tt taste good and is a huge struggle but I was fine with it and the illusion (or reality?) that I was drinking insanely healthy stuff made me super stoked. 

As I began my juice quest - I also entered the companion guild in Skyrim and spoke to Farkas. He said he’d accompany me on a quest to retrieve a fragment of Wuuthrad, the Blade of Ysgramor, from Dustman’s Cairn - Farkas will be there to judge my valor. damn I thought. I didn’t need a baby-sitter for my cleanse and I certainly didn’t need one on this video game quest. 

I gulped down the rest of #1 from BPC and continued on both quests. 

The plan is you are supposed to take a juice every two hours or so. After about two hours I still didn’t feel that hungry - the distraction of the video game was nice but I took a break from my quest with Farkas in the Dustman’s Cairn to attempt juice #2 - P.A.M.

While still on my quest with Farkas. I’m deep in the Dustman’s Cairn. I’m not starving but attempted juice #2. P.A.M.(Pineapple, Apple & Mint). This one was pretty tasty. Great #2 of the day. So delicious. Maybe a little too delicious because I finished it fast. 

#3 was the Green Juice again and I took that right before I left to H&M to get a cheap suit for a video I would do with Sabia later. 

I headed to the studio uptown. I’m not hungry but keep feeling something. I get to the studio and we rehearse for Joe’s special project. It’s a pretty fun time. Everyone orders thai food and that’s when I feel my first exclusion from food. Everyone ordering something and me not. That’s the weird feeling - the exclusion - not being hungry. At this point I take the #4 Spicy Lemonade. It’s another pretty tasty concoction and probably my favorite. Everyone eats thai, we finish the project. I drink my third Green Juice (#5) of the day and head back on the subway.

When I get home I fire up Skyrim for two hours then drink the final juice of the day - #6 Cashew Milk. For some reason this is my favorite of the day. Mainly because I felt the weight of the milk in my stomach as a substantial substance. The vanilla taste was pretty delicious as well. You have to drink the final one around two hours before you go to sleep so I had to stay up and finished some Mockingjay on my Kindle before nodding off. 

Day 2 - Monday

I woke up around 7am and drank my first drink, #1 Green Juice. It was pretty good. I packed my free travel bag that the lady on the phone offered me in a simple exchange of “oh, do you want a free tote bag for your juices?”. I filled the bag with #’s 2,3,4,5. I drank them throughout the day with no hesitation. Again - the exclusion from eating was a bummer and I noticed walking through the streets of New York the “street meat” carts smelled for some reason insanely good. In the studio my day was preoccupied with filming hosted segments of shows and writing scenes so it wasn’t too bad. The one thing I noticed was I was craving to get to bottle #6 the Cashew Milk by the end of the day. All I could think about come the afternoon was that delicious Cashew Milk. I literally couldn’t wait to get in on that shit. I got home and played some more Skyrim. Then popped the Cashew Milk and was disappointed it was kind of chunky and not as smooth and delicious as the first day.

Day 3: Tuesday - The Finals

I had my first bottle (Green Juice) around 7am. I was getting kinda hungry so busted #2 (P.A.M) at 10am. I drank the rest of them forgettably throughout the day. Now the big thing sprung at around 6pm when I was invited to dinner with my companies CEO. I couldn’t not go to dinner with the CEO and I couldn’t not eat at the dinner. Normally you are supposed to ease back into eating - but this was a special dinner so I went with my coworkers to this nice restaurant in mid-town. I ordered the swordfish & creamed spinach. I had a glass of red and we had a lively conversation. It was a fun time. I ate sparingly but more than I should have. 

I came home and drank #6 to complete my quest. I went to bed with a full belly. 

Day 4: Conclusion

So how did I feel? I’ve read a ton of accounts of people cheating with drinking coffee, eating hummus, etc. I technically went an extra day because I didn’t eat on day zero. While I approached my dinner on day three, I felt like I could easily go another few days and didn’t need to have that dinner. 

The most notable thing about the cleanse is that I did feel significantly lighter. After the dinner I eased into eating. I barely had yogurt, a cheese stick & a salad on Day 4. I realized that when I used to eat breakfast sandwiches in the morning they sounded horrible and all I wanted was a yogurt and banana for breakfast post-cleanse. Since the cleanse I’ve been carefully monitoring what I eat and drink. There was no drinking during the cleanse and noticed a few days after the cleanse when I had a beer it tasted horrible. The main reason for that is the cleanse resets your pallet. So yeah. It was awesome…until SXSW where I let loose & gorged myself with barbecue and unnecessary free drinks. 

Will I do it again? For sure. It was fun to do for my body and it’s a ridiculous way to feel superior to everyone you interact with (IE “Oh no I can’t drink, I’m doing a juice cleanse” / “oh I can’t eat I’m in the middle of my cleanse” / “oh it’s time for my third juice”). Not that I was doing that - but internally I felt like a god for attempting this. 

So yeah - take aways:

1. Juice Cleanses’ are not the end of the world

2. It’s pretty easy to do

3. They taste pretty good

4. Never go to SXSW right after a cleanse, do one after SXSW

5. You will feel lighter and lose some weight

6. You actually will have a different outlook on food and alcohol

7. You’ll feel like a champion

8. At most, I usually felt “kinda hungry”, never “OMFG I’m going to die I need food”

9. It’s fun looking forward to the next drink

10. DO IT (if you want too)

The Cabin in the Woods (spoiler-free) SXSW Review: The Movie You Didn’t Know You HAVE to See

It ended with a dance. 

It started in the pouring rain of Austin, TX. After a late afternoon lunch meeting I tried to hail a cab unsuccessfully. I swung into an American Apparel and picked up a big black umbrella. I walked over a mile in the cold disgusting storm. When I got back to the hotel - I unpacked, looked at the clock and decided to see ‘The Cabin in the Woods’. Why? I’m not a huge horror film fan but I’ve been “hearing good things” about the film and thought I’d check it out. As I walked back through the storm with my new black umbrella, I got to the front of the Paramount theater and continued to follow the line. The line wrapped around one corner, than another corner…than another. The line literally wrapped around a complete city block. 

I saw Sam from Fangoria in line and we had a forgettable conversation about how long the line was. As I got to the back of the line, I did the opposite of rejoice as I glorified my existence in the line and how much it sucked how far back I was. Minutes went by and I just kinda stood there. in line. in the cold. drenched from the rain. I tried to take some video of how exciting standing in line was but that went nowhere. 

After racking my brain about how I should of got there sooner & questioning why so many people were still standing in line in this horrible weather, while thunder continued to break my consciousness in the background. I got into the Paramount in downtown Austin & I got a fine seat in the far back left of what really is one of my favorite theaters in the country. Usually I prefer end seats but sat a couple in for a better view. An old man sat down to my right then slowly got up. He asked me to watch his books and binder. I said sure while I scanned twitter to see who was in the theater. 

The old man was gone for about eighteen minutes and I was getting concerned because I wanted to get something from the bar and go to the bathroom before the movie started. Finally he made his way back and struggled to sit down in his seat.  I ask to sneak by him, he reluctantly stood up again. I thought to myself  “Dude! I just watched your stuff for 20 minutes! give me a break.”

I jetted to the bar & hastily returned to my seat with a small popcorn, two beers and a water bottle. I sat down and got situated as the lights dimmed, a festival programmer intro’d the film, then Drew Goddard & Joss Whedon came out to huge applause and basically intro’d the film with a  “let’s get this started” (my favorite intros - let’s jus start the movie - no need to gush).

The lights dimmed, a funny SXSW bumper then, THE CABIN IN THE WOODS jolted the audience in their seats.

Like ‘21 Jump Street’, I went into ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ without a clue of what the movie was about. I didn’t see a trailer, All I saw was some promotional image on a blog of four young attractive leads in a a cabin a few months ago. 

This is the ONLY WAY to go see ‘The Cabin in the Woods’. Don’t watch or read anything about this movie. It’s so depressing but it’s true. Just go see the film. It’s awesome. Do not watch a trailer for this film. I can’t really review the movie without giving something away. I don’t want to talk about anything except go see it then I can post a “post-reaction” piece that’s just filled with my spoiler love. 

Basically it’s the first movie I’ve ever consistently said to myself while sitting in the theater “wow that was so cool” and “oh man, that was awesome” “wait what? This IS awesome!”

I kept saying those phrases internally to myself. Goddard & Whedon kill it in a love letter to the horror film genre and really - film in post-modern film in general. It’s an extremely fun film with great dialog, great references, subtle funny bits, great acting & corny acting. Chris Hemsworth is baller. The girls are cute & attractive and have a subtle extra layer that makes the film that much better than any other “typical” horror film. Oh & the typical stoner character? the most stereotypical one ever to grace film but somehow 100% tolerable and even likable because of that subtle extra layer. 

I think Devin Faraci kills it in his review commending the film as “game-changingly great”. He also notes that “Cabin” does to the horror genre as a whole what ‘Scream’ did to the slasher genre in the mid 90’s. Remember when the first ‘Scream’ came out people hailed it as a rule breaker and a completely original vision of the slasher. I know this film is better than ‘Scream’.

The film got so many applauses and cheers. That’s the magic of film festivals and especially with SXSW. The Paramount is so huge that everyone in the audience is engaged in the film - screaming at the horror, laughing at the comedy and gasping at the thrill of the film. 

I left the theater extremely stoked about the movie. I climbed over a seat to get out of the theater and an old usher looked me in the face and shook his head at me and mouthed “not cool”. I felt bad but took off to catch up with an old baseball player to have dinner. We had a good time but it was a long, big dinner with a variety of people I didn’t really know - but held my own. Right near the beginning I got a text from a dear friend about coming to ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ after party. I hastily tried to get out of the dinner and about an hour later I was down a back alley in rainy downtown Austin. 

I finally arrived and saw my friends, along with some of my fellow old film bloggers, including Devin Faraci. We shook hands. I had a 9 3/4 hat on and some scruff so the cute servers may have thought I was a somebody. A server with hipster glasses and a slight smudge of red lipstick asked if I wanted something to drink. I looked around and just said “champaign”, she was about to do a follow up question when I blatantly ignored her. In a panic she went over to Richard Jenkins table and poured a glass of champaign and brought it back to me. I thanked her with a brush off and kept talking about nothing with my SXSW roomie.

The party was definitely winding down by the time I arrived. The two beautiful leads in the film were already gone before I arrived but Jenkins was partying strong. I then was hovered around director Drew Goddard talking about something when Joss Whedon came over and pulled Drew to the dance floor. He did the animated motion of “get over here” with a head nudge and his two thumbs and Drew and Joss headed to a group of cute properly dancing to Jay-Z’s/Kanye’s “NiSTaRs in Paris”. Everyone started making there way to the dance floor and I stood there in front of a big ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ step and repeat. I was feeling in the dancing mood - with the mixture of lack of sleep & the champaign. I observed as Joss was dancing having a good time. The beat of the music makes anyone dance. But while he appropriately dance with a group of cute girls. I knew that wasn’t for me. Why would I go on the dance floor and dance with Joss and these girls? I knew right then why I wouldn’t - I didn’t deserve it. What did I do to deserve to celebrate the achievements of this film. I didn’t do anything. I sat in a theater and drank two beers while watching and was extremely entertained - one of the best movies I’ve seen in forever and the best movie i’ve seen this year. 

I grabbed my bag and coat, looked around and headed out of the bar into the raining back alley of downtown Austin. A few of us headed to the opening night party of the SXSW film festival and had a good time drinking some beers, doing laps, enjoying company and talking scandals. 

Someday I’ll dance.

HOLYFUCKTHISMOVIE.

*spoiler free*

Caught a screening of Sony Pictures 21 Jump Street last night and I have amazing news. It was fucking awesome. While concerned about how it would work out and be another ‘remake’, I downed a couple Corona Light’s in the office before I took off to the screening. I arrived and sat down next to an older gentlemen with long fingernails. I debated talking to this dude but just hastily turned on my Kindle and began ‘Catching Fire’ (it looks like ******* is in some shit, not stoked about that).

Anyways as you may or may not have heard. 21 Jump Street tears apart the idea of a ‘remake’ both literally and figuratively. The film stars The Vow’s Channing Tatum & Academy Award Nominee (that’s never going to get old) Jonah Hill. Channing, who I usually think sucks, was awesome in this movie and a great actor in his role. Jonah Hill kills his parts, in a thinner (again literally / figuratively) version of his trademark comedy. 

Notable performances and cameos abound, the story is great, Ice Cube kills it as the stereotypical angry police chief and Brie Larson is a great addition as the love interest. My boy Davy Franco is still kind of awkward to see on screen but works well as “the cool guy” in school. 

I really don’t want to spoil anything. The worst thing I’d say to do is watch the trailer because the jokes are built upon and lead to more and more crazy aspects, and feel the trailer ruins the middle ground of apparent jokes. But all in all, the best stuff is thankfully not ruined in the trailer. 

My favorite thing about the film, besides that it’s the funniest movie I’ve seen since Bridesmaids, is the same thing I like about that film - the story. Yes we’ve seen the buddy cop thing a million times but directing duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller bring a fresh approach to both the ‘remake’ & the ‘buddy cop’ film. I found myself overly invested in the story and trying to figure out the case. Each moment of action I was invested in and some how worried of these guys’ safety - both emotionally & physically. It’s almost as if being called 21 Jump Street is the worst thing about it but at the same time it’s the best thing because of how insane they go with what could have been another bs remake.

 Lord & Miller know how to tell a story & have fun, Channing and Hill know how to take that story and make it insanely entertaining. One of my favorite films of the year so far.

21 WESTIES!

The Amazing Spider-Man “Untold Story” Event

This afternoon I caught a special presentation of the upcoming Sony Pictures’ The Amazing Spider-Man, set for release this July 3^rd.

After going to the dentist earlier today, I swung (har har) into my office near Union Square and checked in on a few projects, answered some emails, watched some cuts, jumped on a few conference calls all while mildly anticipating my afternoon. I was invited over the weekend to a “special event” and, through the tip off of a sponsored hashtag on Twitte, it was plain to see that it had something to do with Spider-Man. In an effort to not spend millions on Super Bowl commercial space, and not get lost in the hype of all the other brands competing for eyeballs, Sony made the genius move of offering a sneak peak of “The Untold Story” to hardcore Spidey fans the day after the big game.

As I sat waiting for the event to begin, a cute journalist sat next to me reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I racked my brain on how to start talking to her for a moment but decided to continue my adventure with Katniss and the remaining six tribunes on my Kindle instead. 

In an event that clocked in around just 30 minutes, Sony actually pulled off the best fan sneak peak event I’ve ever attended. While still peppered with corny pre-selected fan questions [Question: Andrew, Why did you want to play Spider-Man?, Answer: I’m not an idiot!] and the awkwardness that always come with live simulcasts from multiple cities, fans who stood in line (some since eight in the morning) had a freaking blast.

The event was simulcast, with cast and crew piping in from LA, NYC, London, and Rio, along with a few other locations across the globe. Los Angeles got director Marc Webb (get it? “Webb”?), London got Rhys Ifans, Rio got Emma Stone, Avi Arad and one other producer. Luckily, NYC got MTV’s always-a-pleasure-to-see Josh Horowitz as the event’s emcee, along with Spider-Man himself, Andrew Garfield. After the multiple-city intros of talent, the lights dimmed and we put on our 3D glasses to check out the new trailer, which premieres tonight at midnight PST.

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably wondering what I actually saw, and to that I can only say that I saw the Spider-Man movie I’ve always wanted to see. While there are tons of critics who are baffled by the reboot and love Raimi’s series, I have a confession: I never really liked the original trilogy. And you know what’s batshit nuts? I like the often-maligned third film the best, mostly because of how insane it is.

I’ll leave describing the trailer to the side (because you are going to see it within mere hours of my posting this) but suffice to say, the 3D looks awesome and lots of talk after watching it consisted of murmurings that this looks way better than The Avengers.  

 What I can talk about is the insane 10+ minute preview of the film we saw. The worst part about it was that I now feel like I’ve seen the whole movie, but the best part about it? I’ve seen a pretty great Cliff notes version of a film that looks pretty great. The action is stylized. This isn’t a new Spider-Man / Peter Parker – this is the Spider-Man / Peter Parker we’ve all “imagined.” He’s not a huge stupid loser, he’s an outcast, orphaned dude. He wears a Ramones tee-shirt! That’s not a loser, that’s a cool dude! His glasses don’t look like fake movie glasses, he wears cool ones!

 The most hipster/indie scene involves Peter Parker getting scolded by the greatest Uncle Ben ever, Martin Sheen, in the school hallway. Gwen Stacy stands cutely in the background. After Martin, er, Uncle Ben notices Gwen, he busts Peter’s balls in front of her (in a hilarious fashion), leading to his exit and Peter and Gwen finally being alone in the hallway. They awkwardly chat as Peter tries to ask Gwen on a date [pictured above]. They are both super into it, super cute about it, and they literally don’t make any sense with their words. It’s Webb’s humble homage to his 20s-angst from 500 Days of Summer. (I also think a Coldplay song is playing in the background – but may have been temp music.)

 Other notable awesome scenes include:

-     Peter Parker seems like a realistic teenager, from mannerisms to unpreparedness

-     Peter testing out his powers looks so much cooler than Tobey ever did

-     There’s some sweet backstory with his parents

-     The Lizard looks like a cross between the Gumbas in Super Maro Bros. The Movie and the leaked Pez dispenser

-     This Spidey is cool

-     Doesn’t look like Peter works for the Daily Bugle, he does the school newspaper though

-     He’s good at skateboarding

-     The 3D looks sweet and was legit shot in 3D which is always good

-     You actually feel like the web shooters are an actual device as opposed to an afterthought; the web shooters also flash red

-     Denis Leary as Captain George Stacy is awesome

-     Spider will probably get unmasked at some point, he will also probably run out of web-shooting cartridges at a critical moment

Some other highlights of the event included:

 Emma Stone talked the differences between Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson, and the key difference (besides their hair color) is that “Gwen falls in love with Peter Parker, Mary Jane falls in love with Spider-Man”.

 Andrew Garfield, who is the most humble dude to ever jump on a mic and promote a film, talked about how he’s just the guy in the suit and Tobey was before him and hopefully after he’s Spider-Man a “half-Hispanic, half-African American actor” will play him.

Afterwards, I grabbed a beer with some of the bloggers who enjoyed the footage, but were concerned that they saw everything. But what did you expect? They promised we’d get a glimpse of “The Untold Story,” and boy did we ever.

new 30-second movie review is up for Chronicle, in theaters now. Some notes about this video:

- I threw up minutes before we filmed this (i’m crazy sick right now)

- my roommate fell asleep in the movie (it was a midnight showing btw)

- we also sat in the front row, 2 1/2 westies for that experience