Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Thursday, May 5, 2022

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Bridesmaids

 


Bridesmaids was a comedy written by SNL alum Kristen Wig, who plays Annie a woman in her 30s going through a typical mid-life crisis. She agrees to be the Maid of Honor at her best friend Lillian's (Maya Rudolph) wedding. She then has to plan festivities and get the other bridesmaids (played by Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Ellie Kemper) to the wedding and pull off everything without a hitch. Of course, there are a ton of hitches that come up along the way. The movie is really a spoof on the craziness of wedding planning, wedding events, the whole Bridezilla phenomenon, and more. The movie does have a lot of gross-out jokes and more raunchy comedy, especially involving Melissa McCarthy, who steals pretty much every scene she is in, but it is really meant to be a tongue-in-cheek comedy that makes fun of weddings, not to be taken seriously.

For those who get the Blu-Ray set, you get both the theatrical and extended (unrated) versions of the movie. The extended edition adds about five minutes to the run time, and really nothing that changes the movie or really makes it better. The extras include a commentary track with director Paul Feig and many of the cast members and writers, then there is a half-hour long behind the scenes documentary, deleted and extended/alternate scenes that run for almost an hour, a short gag reel, and then some in-character featurettes that basically have the actors riffing or improvising during different scenes (some of which were scenes that made the movie and others were not).

Overall, the movie is very good. It definitely has some of the raunchy and adult comedy that the Apatow universe of movies are known for (he was a producer on this movie), so it is not something I would call family-friendly by any means. It is almost a female version of The Hangover, although not as good as the original Hangover movie. As you can see from the widely varied reviews, not everyone will like it, but if you are looking for a more adult comedy this is definitely worth checking out. Personally, if you are on the fence about whether it is something you would like, I would try to stream it before shelling out for the physical discs. But, if you know you love the movie and like going through bonus material (or just prefer physical media to streaming) this is definitely worth the pickup.

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