6th Floor Blog's Academy Awards

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Sara, Frank, and Scott.

Subject: 6^th Floor Blog Oscars

Again, please update your links to www.ceetar.com/6thfloor The blog will be updated there shortly. Likely this is the last post via blogger.

Presenting 6^th Floor Blog's Oscar nominees for must-see movies!

The Dark Knight

It seems like this movie only got recognition because Heath Ledger died after doing an excellent job portraying the Joker, but it was really an excellent movie. I'd even venture to say the best Batman movie ever.

I agree. It was a great movie; suspense, action, excitement. It borrowed from the comics obviously, but it was an original story, and a compelling one.

Quantum of Solace

Spectacular or not, you have to go see a Bond movie.

Action, explosion, gadgets, cars. It's hard to make a bad Bond movie, and that means it's always worth seeing.

The only thing to debate is if you liked the Bond Girl, or if the movie didn't have enough over the top explosions.

Wanted

This is certainly not a serious movie, and as such would never ever be considered a 'great' movie, but I sure enjoyed watching it.

Sometimes complete ridiculousness, like curving bullets, is fun. All the silly stuff they do such as Angelina Jolie (and that's almost enough of a reason to see a movie in it of herself) scooping up the cowering 'hero' with her car., is just zany. Sometimes it's more fun to just say 'screw physics'.

That was my entire college philosophy!

Cloverfield

We may be biased about this one, being in New York, but I felt this was a rather compelling movie, despite all the crazy cult hype.

The problem was people looking for a monster movie or comparing it to Godzilla. It wasn't about the monster, it was about the journey of the characters through the city while the monster attacked.

The reason they didn't just run for the border was a little bit of a stretch, but after you accept that, it was interesting. I enjoyed the different way it was filmed, as if from the camera the guy carried around the whole movie.

Now that was a little contrived. Who would keep carrying the damn thing around at that point? It must've been an awesome camera, but still, good movie.

Iron Man

I liked Iron Man. I know some didn't, but it was a good comic book movie, and he had some excellent cars.

It was half Iron Man, half Tony Stark. I think it was rather well done for an origin story movie. I'd like to see more.

He'll be in the Avengers movie right? When's that come out?

2011.

Damn.

Busy Week For Everyone

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Sara, Tabitha, Frank, Billy and Scott.

Subject: Leading up to New Years

“Busy Busy Busy!” Ann says, flinging bags onto the table.

“You’re telling me! George has me working extra hours lately. Sucks!” Scott says, as he puts on his coat.

“At least the money’s good right?”

“What good’s money if I’m always at work?” Scott grumbles, walking out the door.

“Speaking of work...Ann..you have to be like the worst blogger ever.”

“Come on! The worst? I can't be that bad.”

“It's been what, two weeks?”

“I know I know...not like I'm the New York Times with people waiting on me every day though.”

“New York Times? Bah! All the news in there is hours old. Truth be told, blogs are the news source of the future.”

“Especially among people our age. I definitely know more people that flip open their laptops first thing in the morning than people that go get the morning paper. Even if the first group is going to nytimes.com, it's not the same.”

“I read the Onion more often then I read a regular newspaper.”

“And watch the Daily Show or Colbert Report more than the regular news.”

“Okay, okay. I get it, digital age, new media, blah blah blah..It's not like it's a news blog. It's just fun entertainment. It's been almost two years and I don't even think I've nailed down a firm identity. Except that I blog about beer too much.”

“That's because we drink beer too much.”

“Come on now, too much beer? Never.”

“At least we're not all becoming beer snobs like Sara.”

“I read one book about beer and start appreciating it a little more and I'm a snob?”

“Aww, there isn't anything wrong with being a little snobbish, look at all those stuck up wine sommeliers.”

“It's not bad to appreciate quality, but I think those sommeliers, and the people that swear by them, take it a little too far. It's nice to actually enjoy a bottle of wine, or dinner, without it being 'perfect'.”

“The ones that write reviews like 'The bread was a tad too crispy, and the meat slightly below the appropriate temperature.' are useless to me. That's why I'm always skeptical about 'professional' critics. They're eating the food for a different reason than the average person, so why should I care what they think?”

“Kind of on the 'too much of a good thing' slant?”

“I never want to get to the point where I can't enjoy a McDonalds hamburger occasionally. I don't want to only eat fancy froo-froo food.”

“Or become one of those people that claims they can only get good food in France, and say they're bilingual even though they'd be lost in Paris outside of a restaurant?”

“I don't know if they'd be lost. As long as they navigated based on the restaurants. Besides, I doubt they're going anywhere else.”

“I don't picture those food snobs with their fois gras and $100 bottles of wine trekking up the stairs of the statue of liberty, that's for sure.”

“Not that there is anything wrong with that type of food. The French do make some excellent dishes.”

“Of course, but so do other places. Even here. I'm as unpatriotic as the next guy, but it always bothers me when people act like America, and specifically New York, doesn't have a derth of quality food and drink.”

“That's a very, very valid point. It'll have to be a topic for another time though.”

“What, you bored of talking to us?”

“No, but I have to go pick up my sister from the train, she's staying with us remember? Through New Years?”

“Oh, right. It's going to be a busy could of days.”

“It certainly is. But 2009! that's M M I X! It's exciting!”

“'tis just a number. New Yankee Stadium opens though.”

“Citi Field!” Sara shouts, exiting.

6th Floor Blog goes the the Movies

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Sara, Tabitha, Frank, Billy and Scott.

Subject: 6^th Floor Blog goes to the Movies: Iron Man

Frank and Scott are standing in the lobby of the movie theater waiting for the others who are in the bathroom.

“I understand why Billy has to use the bathroom, he drank that entire extra large sized soda, but the girls didn’t drink a drop! They can’t wait until we get home?”

“Girls to bathrooms like flies to honey.”

“That movie was excellent. Best comic book movie in a while.”

“The Mad Money slash Jim Kramer part was pretty funny. That guy is great.”

“Sell Sell Sell!”

“The house of pain!”

“Great movie huh? Slice of pizza on the way home?”

“How about a hot dog?”

“Whatever powers the Arc Reactor!”

“I don't think it's hot dogs.”

“I'd go for a hot dog.” Sara says, as the girls return from the bathroom.

“It's too early to head home. We should at least get some food, or some drinkee drinkees.”

“I'm in the mood for a good Cosmopolitan. That movie was okay, but I still like Spiderman best of all these comic book movies you drag me to.”

“You just like Tobey Maguire.”

Tabitha blushes, “Is that not a valid reason to like a movie?”

“I liked all his cars. Very cool.”

“Yeah, I liked this movie. I think it was because Marvel actually made it, rather than selling the rights to someone else to make it.”

“Makes sense. Now, let's get out of here and get some drinking in!”

“Amen to that!” Sara says, heading for the door.

6th Floor Blog goes the the Movies.....twice!

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Sara, Tabitha, Frank, Billy and Scott.

Subject: 6^th Floor Blog has been to the movies

As always, movie posts may or may not contain some sort of spoiler moment. Cloverfield was very predictable and they actually tell you the ending at the beginning, but Sweeney Todd was a little more surprising.

“I can't believe we saw two movies this weekend.”

“It really cut into our drinking time.”

“I only had one beer this entire weekend!”

“Wow. You must be going through withdrawal or something.”

“The one beer was a 24oz actually, so was really two.”

“Let's get out of here, get a drink?”

“Have to wait for Sara and Ann to finish up in the bathroom.”

“I'm surprised Ann made it through the whole movie with that gigantic-size soda.”

“She's lucky the movie was short. 84 minutes or something.”

“That is pretty short. I think it was a good length though.”

“Yeah. Longer would've been too long.”

“I don't know how that camera lasted even 84 minutes with them using it as a flashlight, and all the night vision while in the subway. Must be a killer battery.”

“Maybe they had replacement batteries and just didn't show it to us. Could show up in the deleted scenes on the DVD.”

Ann and Sara return from the bathroom, and the six of them start filing outside.

“Much better. So did you guys decide if we should do something else now?”

“We decided we're going to get a drink, since it's been a dry weekend and Billy's going through withdrawal.”

“Big surprise.”

“Guinness withdrawal can be pretty rough.”

“We going back to Catalina's, or you want to just head over to that bar there.” Ann points at a bar across the street.”

“Let's check that one out. We can always bail and go to Catalina's since it's on the way home.”

“I was pleasantly surprised with Cloverfield. It was depressing seeing my old work building in the background when they took off in the helicopters, but other than that it was cool.”

“I was kind of annoyed that they pretty much told you how the movie was going to end at the beginning.”

They go into the bar, which is fairly empty, and order drinks and actually find an empty table to sit at.

“There were other ways it could end, but yeah, that was pretty much how they set it up at the beginning with those notes.”

“I like how they kept them in Manhattan and not escaping. It was a lot better than a lot of horror movies that are so unbelievable that they keep missing the escape opportunities.”

“The camera bouncing all the time was starting to become rather annoying though. I was thinking 'just focus the picture and stop shaking the camera!' about 15 minutes in.”

“That's true. They had some cool camera angles though, when he puts the camera down.”

“Yeah, really makes you focus on what they're saying to figure out what's going on.”

“They were pretty good about not making it too gory too. Not like Sweeney Todd.”

“Sweeney Todd was a little more artistic than gross though with the gore.”

“That last scene probably would make a cool wax statue.”

“Gross Billy.”

“It was too much singing for me. One or two of the songs were funny though.”

“The cannibal one.”

“I knew you were going to say that. I thought to myself, this is gross and about eating. Billy's probably loving it.”

“I was surprised I liked Sweeney Todd though. Johnny Depp is pretty good at switching roles.”

“Too gory for me, even if it was artsy. I actually preferred Cloverfield and I certainly didn't think I would enjoy that more. I do like Johnny Depp though.”

“I didn't like Sweeney Todd that much either. I probably shouldn't have seen two movies, and had popcorn at both of them after losing my job though.”

“Eh, I'll buy you the first beer to make up for it.”

“Sweet, free beer!”

It's Time To Go To The Movies!

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Sara, Frank

Subject: It’s Movie Time!

“I miss baseball.”

“Yeah, me too. I’m all for full disclosure, but I’d like to have an actual game to watch and discuss, not just allegations of cheating and who’s talking to who about acquiring who.”

“I’m surprised they don’t have a live blog and webcam on Johan Santana’s agent and the Twins GM. Those two must be wearing out the phone lines. If you’re having trouble placing a call in Minnesota, it’s probably because those two are on the phone.”

“No kidding. Islanders are on tonight, sans Simon. I may watch.”

“I’d lounge and watch sports. I think Ann’s going to be baking cookies, so we can ‘test’ them as she works.”

“Cookies! We should all go see a movie tomorrow night. Might be our last chance to watch a movie together this year.”

“That sounds good. Yeah, I think Tabitha’s actually going to be with her family for most of the time from Christmas to New Years. What should we see? I Am Legend?”

“How about Alvin and the Chipmunks?”

“Eh. There’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets.”

“I’d see that, but I don’t think Scott will. He was ranting about them making a sequel to that movie when we went to see the Golden Compass. I’m not sure what he has against it.”

“What’s left? Sweeney Todd? I don’t really know what it’s about, but it’s supposed to be good or something. Johnny Depp. Directed by Tim Burton.”

“I don’t always trust it when people say it’s supposed to be good. I’d see it though, but I don’t think it comes out until Friday. “

“There are a couple of midnight showings tomorrow. We could see it then.”

“Midnight? Bleh..I have to..oh wait! I’m off Friday! I’d do that then. We’d have to check with everyone else then though.”

“Sounds like a plan. Hey, it’s almost seven. Let’s get that ice-game going.”