Review: Superbad

superbadA common theme among movies aimed at teens these days is to release R rated clips from the movie months ahead of time via YouTube. With any luck the videos go viral and everybody and their brother has seen the clips a dozen times before the movie is even released. Unfortunately, as often happens, the hype build-up is greater than the movie can possibly hope to be. This was never more clear for me than with the movie Knocked Up. I LOVED the videos that were being passed around before the movie came out. Then, I went and saw it at th theater and I can hardly remember laughing during the entire movie.

When I first saw the R rated trailer for Superbad on Youtube, I laughed my head off. I could not wait for the movie to come out. I tempered my enthusiasm hoping that I would not have a repead of my experience with Knocked Up. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. I saw the movie the first week it was out in theaters and I loved it. Seth Rogan as Officer Michaels and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fogell (McLovin) absolutely made this movie for me.

The characters in the movie are all likable. You find yourself rooting for the three unpopular guys (Evan, Seth and Fogell) who have their chance to hang with the in-crowd and hopefully get laid so long as they can use their new fake ID to obtain alcohol for the party. Of course everything that can go wrong does go wrong. When they finally make it to the party with alchohol in hand, they are the hit of the party. The girl Evan likes has way to much to drink, takes him upstairs to a bedroom and is throwing herself at Evan. Evan, being a really nice guy, won’t take advantage of her in her drunken state and narrowly avoids getting thrown up on when she pukes on the bed. The chick that Seth likes won’t make out with him because he’s drunk, and Fogell gets cock-blocked by 2 cops who burst in the bedroom seconds after he starts going at it with a little hottie.

There are plenty of funny scenes in the movie and the DVD has a decent gag-reel, line-o-rama and some other extras that make it worth picking up.

A very funny movie that I’m sure I’ll watch a dozen or so times.

Click Here to buy Superbad from Amazon.com 

Review: Fuji Finepix Z5fd 6.3MB Digital Camera

Recently I dropped and broke my digital camera so it was time to head to the store to pick up a new one. My requirements were pretty simple. I was looking for a pocket sized camera with a decent sized viewing screen and at least 5.0 MP. After checking out several cameras, I decided on the Fuji Finepix Z5fd 6.3 MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom.

finepix 

Like I said, my requirements weren’t very difficult to meet. So when I got the camera home and started using it, I was pleasantly surprised by all the extras that came along with it. The 6.3 megapixels capture enough detail that you can print photo-quality pictures up to 14 x 19 inches in size. The 8 x 10 prints I’ve made from shots taken with this camera are amazing.

The viewing screen on the back is a 2.5 inch scratch resistant LCD. This was an absolute must! The big screen makes it easy to use all the menu options, and when viewing the shots you’ve already taken it’s easy to see which shots you want to save and which you want to delete. I’ve been carrying the camera in my pocket most every day and there are still no scratches at all on my screen.

The Finepix Z5 also shoots video. When you are out with your friends and somebody is about to do something really stupid, it’s nice to have a video camera so quickly available. I have a 1 GB Xd memory card in my camera and can shoot about 15 minutes of video at 640 x 480 resolution. Once I get home it’s a piece of cake to grab the videos from the computer and upload them to YouTube.

The sliding lens cover makes for a super quick on/off switch. If you are putting the camera in your pocket, you will want to be careful not to slid the lens cover open.

The camera performs better than expected in low light situations. Here’s a photo I took at an awards show.

Derek at the Inc 500 awards 

The camera can also be set to several different modes depending on what you are shooting. The “Natural Light” setting takes two photos in rapid succession, one with flash and one without. Then, both images are displayed on the screen. This is great for shorts where you aren’t positive if the flash is going to be needed. I also like the “Continuous” mode. When using this setting, the camera will keep taking photos one after the other for as long as the shutter is held down. For capturing natural looking shots, this mode is fantastic.

The camera comes in three different colors. I bought the silver one for myself. My wife liked my camera so much she had be buy her the wine red model. It looks pink if you ask me. There is also a chocolate colored version as well.

Overall I’m thrilled with the Fuji Finepix Z5 camera. It far exceeded my expectations and would happily recommend the camera to anyone looking for a compact digital camera.

You can purchase the Finepix Z5 from Amazon.com. Or, if you would like to see all the technical specs for the camera, you can find them at fujifilmusa.com.