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. 

Showing posts with label 1990s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1990s. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

DVD/Movie Review: Can't Hardly Wait: 10 Year Reunion Edition

 


Can't Hardly Wait is the underrated and often overlooked late 1990s coming-of-age teen comedy. It is overlooked mainly because American Pie was released a year later and became a massive hit and franchise. This movie, released in 1998, was co-written and directed by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont. It stars Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ethan Embry, Seth Green, Lauren Ambrose, and Peter Facinelli. The supporting cast includes several recognizable faces (especially if you grew up watching TV and movies in the 1990s or early 2000s), including some who would become stars and/or appear in more prominent roles. They included Jason Segel, Jamie Pressly, Sean Patrick Thomas, Freddy Rodriguez, Donald Faison, Chris Owen, Selma Blair, Amber Benson, Clea Duvall, Breckin Meyer, and Eric Balfour. Jenna Elfman and Jerry O'Connell, who were more recognizable than the rest of the cast when the movie came out, had cameo appearances in the film. 

The movie is set during a graduation party in which all of the various high-school cliques show up. Several storylines occur in the movie, including Seth Green's character Kenny/Special K trying to get laid, the school geek Preston, finally taking his shot with the girl who doesn't know he exists (JLH's character, Amanda) who he has been pining after since freshman year and has just been dumped by the mega jock, Mike Dexter (played by Facinelli). Dexter is the subject of a humiliation plot by a group of nerds. Some of the storylines intertwine, and some are kept separate. Green is hilarious in the movie as the typical white suburban kid who thinks he is black, trying too hard to impress everyone. Hewitt does not do much in the film (besides looking pretty) until the end, and Facinelli plays a great asshole. It ultimately becomes a story of old friends reuniting, people from different high-school groups discovering (at least for a few moments) that they have something in common, and the guy trying to get the girl of his dreams. All mixed in with graduation party debauchery. 

The DVD release has many extras, including just under an hour of featurettes filmed in 2008, including interviews with Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont and several cast members discussing the film and what they think their characters would be doing ten years later. Then, there are deleted and extended scenes, the music video for Smash Mouth's "Can't Get Enough of You Baby," which featured members of the cast and clips from the movie, and two different commentary tracks on the film, one done for the original DVD release and one for the 2008 re-release. Deborah Kaplan, Harry Elfont, and Seth Green participated in both commentaries, and in the 1998 commentary, Faison, Facinelli, and Joel Michaely (one of the nerds) participated. In the original commentary track, Green started out using a British accent and seemed content to do it the entire time until Kaplan told him the joke was getting old, which Green brought up in the 2008 commentary. In the special features menu, a Special K 411 edition is listed, which appears to be another commentary track that would just feature Green in-character commenting on the movie, but it just plays the original 1998 commentary track again. 

Ultimately, the movie is a well-written and acted comedy that mixes in some drama. It does feel dated now, and certainly, some of the jokes they used would not be used today. It was not as raunchy as American Pie, and while there was some sex and a lot of swearing and drinking, there was no nudity. Most of the actual drinking was kept off-camera to keep the movie PG-13, and when we did see people drink, the actor was drinking non-alcoholic beer. Overall, the movie was pretty tame, especially by today's standards. While I would not say that it is as good as American Pie (or any of the American Pie movies with the main cast members) or that it is the best film in the coming-of-age comedy genre. That said, it is enjoyable and absolutely worth watching.

Saturday, January 7, 2023

CD/Music Review: Phi Collins: The Singles

 


If you were alive in the 1980s and 1990s and were a fan of pop and/or adult-contemporary music you heard Phil Collins a lot. Either because of his time as the lead singer of the group Genesis or his prolific solo career. This is a two-disc set (if you get the physical CD) that has all of the songs that Phil Collins put out as singles during his solo career. It is basically a greatest hits album and the songs on it cover his solo career from the early 1980s up through the mid-1990s. All of the songs have been remastered and pretty much all of his solo hits, including songs like Both Sides of the Story, Another Day in Paradise, You'll Be in my Heart, Against All Odds, and Take Me Home are included, along with some of his lesser-known non-smash hit songs. I definitely recommend this one to any fan of Phil Collins.