Was awesome!  This will be spoiler-free, but I consider this a worthy sequel in almost every way.

Things of note: Mickey Rourke did an excellent job as Whiplash.  Scarlett Johansson is smokin’ hot.  Don Cheadle did a passable job in the role of Rhodey, however I missed Terrence Howard.  I think the difference between the two in physical appearance probably didn’t help… in fact the girl sitting next to me asked her boyfriend “is that supposed to be his friend?” when Cheadle walked on for the first time.

Anyway… more spoiler-laden review at a later time.  The only other thing of note: this movie is a prop-lover’s dream.  There was so much cool stuff in this movie that I am intentionally staying off the prop forum until I have another spending month.

Last night, Tasha and I joined the Waltons for a movie double-header where we saw Avatar and Sherlock Holmes.  I’m not even sure if I can adequately formulate in words how amazing the visuals were for Avatar.  The plot has been described as very much the same as Pocahontas or Dances With Wolves, which I agree with to some extent but the level of immersion into the world portrayed in the movie was the most impressive thing aside from the computer graphics.  The characters were a little predictable, but they were at least well-acted.  We were lucky enough to see this one at the 3D IMAX, which made the experience even greater as I had not seen a 3D movie before this one (which made this even more amazing!)

Later in the evening we saw Sherlock Holmes, which was better than I expected.  It was a little drier than I expected but that was good… I was afraid that the film was going to be too schtick-laden based on what was shown in the trailers.  The movie made me want to go read the short stories and novels again, which is a good thing.

Hopefully we’ll get to do this more often, it was a fun night with two very cool movies!

Roll up, friends and family, and prepare to hear a tale.  A tale of the WORST TELEVISION SHOW EVER, EVER.  You see, in my ongoing quest to acquire more nerd credibility than my friends I am constantly looking for new directions to expand my already astonishing nerd resume’.  Thanks to this cartoon over at XKCD, I quickly realized that I had not yet attempted to watch the oft-maligned Star Wars Holiday Special.

The Star Wars Holiday Special was created in 1978 amid the heady marketing juggernaut that was (and still is) the Star Wars franchise.  To find out more about the specifics of the show, you can check out the Wikipedia article but allow me to outline my favorite moments.  You get to meet Chewbacca’s family including his son Lumpawarrump, who is also known as *sigh* Lumpy and his aging, white, underbite laden father Attichitcuk, who is also known as Itchy.  Yes.  Itchy.

In their celebration of their hippy sounding Life Day (which I assume is like Christmas), the following travesties occur: Art Carney gives Itchy a device that he implies will provide Itchy “pleasure” (which succeeds in summoning images of a strange crystal haired black woman), Lumpy watches a strange parade of neon elves and later cartoons, and Bea Arthur sings along with the Cantina theme.  Oh yeah, and Jefferson Starship shows up entirely (I assume) because they had “Starship” in their name.

I can’t go on reliving these terrors any longer, but if you must see this thing for yourself you can watch the first part below.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Today, Tasha and I joined the Parsons in Denver to see Harry Potter 6 at the IMAX.  I have never gotten to see this grand triumph of technology before, and we even got 12 minutes of 3D in it for our $30 entrance fee.  I have to say, I really like the Harry Potter movies but their age is really starting to show.  Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) looked like he was about 35 in a few scenes, but aside from that the movie was pretty good.  The whole IMAX experience was excellent… and I had never seen a 3D movie in the theaters that I can remember, so that was a cool little treat as well.  It was a lot of fun, but it’d really have to be a movie that I want to see at that fidelity for the price.

The rest of the day went by quickly.  Paul and Kara are finally getting moved in to their new house.  Tasha and I were supposed to help them move, but they ended up driving through the night to get here instead of making it a two-day trip so we were just late enough to miss the hard work.  So instead, we all went to dinner after dropping off their rented truck in Boulder.

After that, Tasha and I spent the rest of the night on our grocery shopping.  What an exciting life we lead!

Tonight Tasha and I spent the rest of our date budget on dinner and a movie.  We saw “The Ugly Truth” with Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler.  It was pretty funny… a lot better than the reviews made it out to be.  There were a few previews for some movies that I wouldn’t mind seeing when they come out… “Funny People” has a whole host of comedians in it that I enjoy, and seeing a more detailed trailer makes it seem considerably more interesting to me.

But anyway, back to the movie… it was a standard fare romantic comedy, Katherine Heigl’s character was a control freak local tv producer and she unwillingly got paired up with Butler’s character named Mike, the misogynistic host of a public access show called The Ugly Truth.  Mike believes that men just want a pretty, sexy girl with very little substance.  Heigl’s character Abby believes otherwise.  The mismatched pair attempts to sway the other to their point of view, and eventually romantic comedy ensues.

I’d end up giving it a good solid B.  We’ll probably add it to our DVD collection once it comes out, should fit right alongside Love Actually in the romantic comedy section.

Tonight Tasha and I had a real date night for a change, hitting Angels and Demons and the new Star Trek movie. Both were very good, but the standout winner of the night for me was Star Trek. I’m not going to ruin it since many people haven’t seen it yet, but WOW was it excellent. I have been bored and nonplussed by the Star Trek franchise for quite awhile, but this lit me right on fire again.

It was so good that Tasha wanted to turn right around and see it again, and had we not already seen two movies tonight I might just have done it. Go see it. Right now. Why are you still reading this?