TOP 5 JESSE EISENBERG MOVIES

On the heels of an Oscar nomination and an extremely funny performance on Saturday Night Live, I decided we should take a look at the top 5 movies staring Jesse Eisenberg. He does not have a huge resume due to his age, but has some really quality films on there. As always, these are based on my opinion. Agree or disagree, let me hear about it in the comments.

　

5. HOLY ROLLERS

Premise: In Brooklyn, a youth from an Orthodox Jewish community is lured into becoming an Ecstasy dealer by his pal who has ties to an Israel drug cartel.
　
A very powerful movie that almost nobody has seen. This is the movie that showed me that Eisenberg was capable of playing for then just an awkward child who knows how banter. The movie is very touching and very gritty. It is not very easy to find a place to see this movie but if you have the chance I really recommend checking it out. Also has a great performance by Justin Bartha
　

4. ZOMBIELAND
　
Premise: The horror comedy Zombieland focuses on two men who have found a way to survive a world overrun by zombies.
　
The horror comedy genre is a very difficult thing to pull off. I’m not talking about horror movies that are so bad or cheesy that they make you laugh. I’m talking about a movie that is actually a horror movie with funny jokes in it. This may be the best example in the genre. Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson make for a hilarious duo, and the movie itself looks very cool and is compelling throughout. Definitely a movie that was much better then I ever expected it to be
　

3. THE EDUCATION OF CHARLIE BANKS

Premise: College student Charlie Banks has to face old problems when the bully he had an unpleasant encounter with back in high school shows up on his campus.
　
Another Indie movie that not many people have seen. Eisenberg plays the subtlety of Charlie Banks to perfection. This may have been the first movie that he really needed to carry and he showed he was up to the task. Bonus points for having Eva Amuri in the movie, I am in love with her.

2. ADVENTURELAND

Premise: A comedy set in the summer of 1987 and centered around a recent college grad who takes a nowhere job at his local amusement park, only to find it's the perfect course to get him prepared for the real world.
　
Greg Mottola’s anticipated follow up to Superbad was a fantastic movie. Full of comedy, heart and stellar performances all around, this was the movie that really got me behind Eisenberg as a leading man. I was really close to putting this movie at number one, but the movie that occupies that spot was ultimately a better performance by Eisenberg
　

 

1. THE SOCIAL NETWORK
　
Premise: A chronicle of the founding of Facebook, the social-networking Web site.
　
With how popular and successful Facebook has been, it was a tall order for an actor to portray the creator. Eisenberg manages to not only nail most of Mark Zuckerberg’s mannerisms, he actually manages to turn the often maligned billionaire into a sympathetic figure. Aided by what was a fantastic screenplay, Eisenberg gives a performance that’s more then worthy of his Oscar nomination
　
　



My Thoughts on What The Bears Need To Do This Offseason

We have all had a few days to digest the Bears loss to the Packers. This is not going to be an article about Jay Cutler, I have been very clear in my support for him. What this is going to be is a list of things the Bears absolutely need to do this off season. They are not really in any order, just things I think need to be addressed.


DRAFT AN OFFENSIVE LINEMEN IN THE FIRST ROUND- The Bears finally have a first round draft pick again this year. There should be absolutely no discussion on how that pick should be used. The O line played better as they year went on but the bottom line is Jay Cutler still got sacked more then any other QB in the NFL. O line is a position that teams usually can not address through free agency because once teams draft a good O linemen, they do whatever they can to hold on to them. The Bears front office draft history does not really inspire confidence that they can find a quality offensive linemen but they still have no other choice than to draft one in the first round


SIGN VINCENT JACKSON- The Bears refusal to go after a number 1 wide receiver for so long is nothing but frustrating. With so many wide receivers changing teams lately the fact that Johnny Knox is still this teams number 1 WR is a joke. Don’t get me wrong, I like Knox quite a bit, but the bottom line is he is a number 2 wide receiver. He breaks off routes way to early leading to many interceptions, and he is not a go up and get it guy. Vincent Jackson is the definition of a number 1 WR. He is big, he is quick, and he is tough. He can beat guys down field or go across the middle. Behavior is an issue with him but he is worth the risk, and you can just structure his contract to include penalties for poor behavior.


SIGN NNAMDI ASOMUGHA- If the Bears are going to continue with the cover 2 scheme, its about time they upgrade the secondary. Depending on who you ask Asomugha is one of the 2 best cover corners in the league. Teaming him up with Peanut Tillman would form one of the best Cornerback tandems in the league. If there was one thing that we learned from the Green Bay game, it was that a team with good wide receivers is going to pick on Tim Jennings. The first 2 touchdown drives from the Packers were due to Jennings getting burned and harassed by the Packers receivers. We saw from this past off season that the Bears are willing to spend money, and the Bears need to make a splash by signing the best available player in free agency 2 years in a row.


DO NOT GIVE EXTENSIONS TO LOVIE SMITH OR JERRY ANGELO- Despite what I perceive to be an extremely terrible job in the Packers game, Lovie Smith had a great season. He took a team that no body predicated to make the playoffs and took them within a couple minutes of playing in the Super Bowl. Which is why I firmly believe he should keep his job. But last time Lovie’s team made a deep playoff run, it was followed by 3 years of futility. Let the man prove he can make the playoffs 2 years in a row. And let the man prove that he wont wet the bed in a big playoff game. Waiting until after the season makes even more sense when considering that the upcoming season might no even happen due to labor uncertainty. As far as Jerry Angelo goes, I would say even if the Bears make the playoffs again, there is no way he should be extended. He himself admitted earlier this season in a press conference that “This is not a very talented team.” His early round draft choices have almost been unanimous failures and the gaping holes that this team has had for the last few years are all still there. How long have we been saying the Bears need a stud Wide Receiver and help on the Offensive Line? Its time for Jerry to go


GET JAY CUTLER AN EXPERIENCED QB COACH- I don’t know anything about Shane Day really. I could pass him on the street everyday and never know it. He is not the guy that should be in charge of coaching a high profile Quarterback like Jay Cutler. I agree that this is something minor and should be the last thing addressed on this list, however I really feel like Cutler could benefit from a strong QB coach.


Did I forget something? Let me know in the comments!

My Thoughts on Greek "Leave It To Beav"

"You're my favorite lady that I've never had sex with."



With only a handful of episodes left in this “last semester” of Greek, I was more then a little skeptical when I saw that they were devoting an episode to a minor character like Beaver. Sure he has been involved in some major plot points like sleeping with Rebecca when her and Evan first started, but with so little time left I just thought the writers would be better suited to take that time to guide our characters towards a desired ending. Boy was I wrong. This was one of the more fun episodes of Greek in a while and even though parts of it were very uneven, it may have been just what the show needed going into the home stretch

We have seen a lot of KT’s come and go. Between Wade, Jeremy, Ferret, Ben Bennett and Pickle, the only ones who have been able to stick around (other then our main characters of course) are Beaver and Heath. From the little that we know about Beaver, we all expected him to be on the Cappie tour of never wanting to graduate. In this episode we not only learn that Beaver has a graduation plan, he is in his last year of an education major, but we actually learn his real name and reason he quit the football team after being a real recruit. Earlier this season I wrote that the one thing Greek has not been able to do well is introduce secondary characters and really make them stick. Beaver has seemed to be the exception to this rule but we knew next to nothing about him. The thing I enjoyed seeing the most was Beavers interactions with Casey. The only Male characters we ever really see Casey interact with are ones she has some kind or romantic history with (and her brother Rusty of course) Because of this we never really get a true male perspective on the issues Casey goes through in her personal life. It took someone who she previously thought of as a simpleton to really get her to understand that no matter what happens in her life, the original love triangle that has dictated so much of her life in Cyprus will never go away and never be undone.

The Rusty part of this episode did not really work for me. Sure it had its entertaining moments, but the problems between him and Dana seemed to have come from out of nowhere. We have not seen any kind of behavior that would have even hinted at Dana and Rusty having a power struggle. And for that one power struggle to complete end their relationship, just seems really far fetched. I understand they had to put Rusty on the path to kissing Ashleigh like we see in the commercials, and I have always enjoyed the interactions between the 2 characters, but I just felt like more background information could have been put into the Rusty Dana break up

OTHER QUICK THOUGHTS:

Every time I want to try to like Rebecca she has to do something else to cause drama.

Speaking of which, ill be very disappointed if Rebecca taking Capie does not have a lasting effect. Not only should Casey be mad that Capie went out with Rebecca, he was willingly immature to piss off Evan. Really not a step in the right direction to show Casey how grown up he is.

I wonder if we will get a similar episode about Heath now that we know that he lives a double life as a stripping guru of cheating

A few weeks ago I commented on how the lack of character introductions really forces Greek to try every pair possible from a romantic standpoint. Beaver and Katherine fall into that. As fun as a relationship as I think that could be, just last season Katherine was certain Rusty was the perfect guy for her. Now she’s with Beaver who is basically the complete opposite of Rusty.
　
An uneven episode that was saved by the great storyline with Beaver. I’ll give it an 8 out 10

Hey Everybody, Leave Jay Cutler Alone!

Steve Walsh.  Erik Kramer. Dave Krieg.  Rick Mirer. Steve Stenstrom.  Shane Matthews.  Cade McNown.  Jim Miller.  Chris Chandler.  Henry Burris.

Hold On, I’m not done yet, just a finger cramp

Kordell Stewart.  Craig Krenzel.  Chad Hutchinson.  Jonathon Quinn.  Kyle Orton.  Brain Griese

That was exhausting, but I feel like I had to do it. That my friends is the list of Bears quarterbacks to start since 1994.  Notably missing from that list is the Bears current quarterback Jay Cutler.  Cutler was under a lot of scrutiny in this the week leading up to his first ever playoff start.  You may be thinking Cutler had a bad game last week or maybe he was in the midst of a bad season.  But then you need to remember that he actually didn’t play last week because he led his team to a first round bye in the playoffs and he had statistically one of the beat seasons a Bears QB has ever had.  So why is Cutler so under the gun?   Because some people don’t like the way he acts in the media.  Cutler has never been “a friend of the media” and because of this it seems like sometimes members of the media are more critical of him when it comes to pure football ability.  Well I’m here to tell the members of the media and Cutlers critics to JUST SHUT UP

Going in to this season, I did not see one expert or even fan pick the Bears to win more then 7 games.  Here they sit at 11-5 and hosting a divisional playoff game and people have a problem with Cutler because he does not smile enough?  Give me a break.  Cutler has accomplished a very good statistical season despite playing behind one of the worst offensive lines in the league.  Cutler has also put together an excellent statistical season without having a Wide receiver that has ever had a 1,000 yard season.  No one mentions the fact that Cutler has found success despite learning his 3^rd offense in the last 3 seasons.  All these things are conveniently forgotten when talking about how Cutler doesn’t keep  enough eye contact when someone is speaking to him.  Last time I checked eye contact was not a statistical category in the NFL.

What frustrates me the most is the fact that people automatically consider Cutler a bad guy just because he is not extremely comfortable being in front of a microphone.  This became extremely evident when full- of -himself ESPN writer Rick Reilly came to town this week.  Reilly, who is notorious for making up facts for stories and writing in a manor that would make the most egotistical person seem humble, attended Cutler’s weekly press conference this week.  After asking some questions in regards to how well people know Cutler and not getting any serious responses, Reilly proceeded to ask Jay if he was ok with his public image.  Jay responded by saying that he didn’t know what his public image was and that he did not really care.  This led Reilly to basically call Cutler an unlikable guy.  My problem with this is basically two fold.  The first issue I have is that this has no bearing what so ever on his ability.  Looking at the list of quarterbacks above, you will find many people who were a lot of fun and media savvy, but you won’t find a winner in the bunch.  My other problem is all the evidence that people tend to ignore that actually would lead you to believe that Cutler is a really good guy.  Outside of all the work he does for Diabetes organizations, he also does a lot of other charity work.  My favorite story is one that is actually very recent.  Around the Christmas holidays a bunch of the bears visited a children’s hospital.  They brought a bunch of media outlets and fanfare with them.  Jay Cutler was not there.  He did however visit the children’s hospital hours later with his sister.  They bought presents for the whole floor.  Cutler was adamant that he wanted no media coverage of the event.  He was doing it just because he believed it was right.  Sounds like a pretty good guy to me

If you haven’t noticed, Jay Cutler has my support.  I believe that he has shown me no reason not to.  His physical ability is not only so much better then any quarterback the bears have ever had, it is one of the best in the league.  He has taken a team that on paper is not that good and has carried them to within 2 games of playing in the Super bowl.  As far as his public image goes;  in a league where you have quarterbacks forcing themselves on women, throwing there pads into the stands, fighting dogs, and sending pictures of their penis to any woman they see, I’ll take a guy who sometimes forgets to smile in a press conference

My Thoughts on Greek "Fools Rush In"

"Without the loyalty and camaraderie of your brothers, fraternities are just another place to drink beer and chase girls."

With it being the last season of Greek and only 10 episodes at that, they writers have a lot to wrap up in what after tonight is only 8 hours or new programming.  I felt like last weeks episode was a good beginning to the CRU Chapter.  This week brought us more of a mixed bag, with some storylines I was fond of and some that I feel were really forced and solely put in place to keep old characters around and to not have to introduce any newer characters in the last season.  Let’s start with what I disliked first so we can end on a positive note

The major storyline that did not work for me was the whole Casey as ZBZ house mom thing.  That’s not to say that it did not have its moments.  I really liked the idea of Casey crashing on Rusty’s couch.  Just 2 short years ago Casey was pretending that Rusty did not even exist and now she finds her self in a position where she is sleeping on his couch listening to him and his girlfriend have Star Wars role-play sex.  I did not even have a problem with Casey being the ZBZ house mom for rush.  They were in a desperate situation and who better to help them out during rush then the former president?  My main issue is Casey taking the position permanently.  After she makes grand speech after speech about not wanting to be with Capie until he grows up, she is basically doing the exact same thing he is.  In the last two weeks we saw her fight tooth and nail to get back in to CRU law school and also find a way to interject herself back into every day ZBZ life.  I for one was looking forward to seeing how Casey would integrate with the Greek system while living apart from it, but this just seems like a lazy way to keep her interacting with all the usual suspects.

The fraternity storylines on the other hand were dead on.  We knew that as fun of a leader as Capie was, the house would eventually be in some trouble from a financial standpoint.  As a Greek system member myself back in the day, I can vouch that no matter how much brotherhood and positive energy your house has, at the end of the day if you don’t have enough of the all mighty dollar, there is very little you can accomplish.  And even though ultimately trying to actually rush people ended in failure (kind of) it was good to see Capie take a small step forward in to being ready to move forward.  It was also nice to see him realize that he needed to grow up and mature for himself, even if it helps him land Casey in the end.  On the other side of fraternity row, I also enjoyed the Omega Chi story.  I have always felt as though Calvin was a tad self righteous and even though his heart was always in the right place it was nice to see Evan call him out on always forcing his opinion on people.  Also on the flip side it’s good to see Evan growing up and not letting a screw up by Calvin ruin what might be his most real friendship.  The only part of the story that I am a little iffy on is Dale joining Omega Chi.  For the same reason that I don’t like the Casey/ZBZ story, it just seems really out of character for Dale.  Yes he has gotten more understanding over the last couple years but I just can’t help remembering how anti the whole Greek lifestyle he once was.  I am willing to be a little bit more patient and see where this goes.

SOME OTHER QUICK THOUGHTS…

Did anybody else completely forget that Rusty had a girlfriend?  I always really liked Dana and I’m glad she’s back but I just totally forgot about her

This week on the I Hate Trip scale – A solid 10 out of 10

They are really breaking out the old characters this season including Tagen and Officer Huck

On an unrelated note, is ABC Family really making a Mean Girls 2?  I might have to watch just to see the kind of train wreck that it will be.

Not quite as strong as last week so I will downgrade it by one and give it a 7 out 10

My Thoughts On Californication "Exile On Main St"

"You're not a piece of shit Hank, on paper or otherwise."


Hank Moody thinking of himself as a bad guy is nothing new. He’s had moments like this throughout Californication’s run. For the first time however, we the audience need the reassurance that we are not supporting a bad guy. Is Charlie’s assertion that Hank is not a piece of shit enough? That remains to be seen, but at this moment in time, Charlie is all Hank has. No longer does he have Karen or Becca to reassure him that his screw ups are merely just him being a loveable jackass.

Season 4 opens up 72 hours after Season 3 ended. Hank has spent the weekend in jail on assault charges. While in jail, everything Hank was hiding in his life has come to the forefront, namely the fact that he slept with a 16 year old girl who then later stole his novel about said act and marketed it as her own. He is met hilariously by his agent Charlie with a cigarette, some booze and the classic Hank Moody sunglasses. Hank can not go home because Karen and Becca will both not speak to him. He has a meeting with an attorney (played wonderfully by Carla Gugino) who feels like she can get him off the assault charges despite not getting along with him so well at first. The upside to Hank’s stay in the pokey is he has gained a lot f buzz from the entertainment community. So much so that the book that was revealed to actually be his, “Fucking and Punching”, is now being turned into a movie. Playing the role of Mia will be a young sweetheart actress looking to shed her good girl image named Sasha Bingham. Sasha immediately takes a liking to Hank and makes it her goal to have Hank write the script even though he is less then enthusiastic. Charlie also has something to gain from this as he is promised his old job at UTK if he can get Hank to commit to doing the script. Charlie brings Hank to a rendezvous at Sasha’s hotel room and predictably they sleep together. The next day at Hank’s arraignment he is informed by his lawyer that they are dropping the assault charges but they are arresting him for statutory rape. We end the episode with Hank, yet again, being hauled off to jail

Now that we got all that out of the way, let’s delve into what we saw in a little more depth. Hank is worse off now then at any point we have seen him. Not only is he in serious trouble with the law; but for the first time ever he has screwed up so bad that his family won’t even speak to him. Despite the fact that he was set up and never did know Mia’s true age, he still slept with an under age girl. When Karen says “You stuck your dick in a girl that’s the same age as Becca’s” the words hit the audience almost as hard as they hit Hank. It was almost as though he had never thought about it that way. And it seems that he’s finally gotten himself into something that he can’t just charm his way out of. The beauty in all of Hank’s screw ups are not that he convinces people that the things he does aren’t wrong, but it like he could almost bring you down to his level to understand his worldview. That is one of the things that make him such a great writer. He lets you know why he feels the way he feels.

The rest of the episode is focused on the rest of the world’s perception of Hank. His newly rediscovered celebrity, while welcomed by Charlie is somewhat of a burden to Hank. He just wants to make things right with his family. And after his first novel was turned into a sappy Rom Com, the prospect of him entering the world of movies again is less than ideal. But he knows part of getting his life back together is finding work. We all knew that he would eventually take the job, so when Sasha makes it her personal goal to convince Hank to do the script and to seduce him; we know that she will succeed on both fronts. The scene where they are actually fucking and Hank has her re enact the punching foreplay that he originally had with Mia, was not Hank reliving some sick fantasy, it was Hank asking to be punished for how he has been acting. He wanted to feel pain because he knows he deserves it. And when the pain of the punch was not enough, Hank has a dream in which he sees his two girls at home and how they are dealing with everything. By seeing this in his dreams Hank has to deal with the pain of seeing how much he hurt the only 2 people he loves

So things are set up for a bumpy ride for season 4. We can assume that season will see 3 stories; Hank attempting to reconcile his home life, the film adaptation of Fucking and Punching, and most importantly Hank’s ongoing battle against the charges of statutory rape. With Carla Gugino in the fold and Rob Lowe coming up in the future, the show has its strongest cast to date. The season premiere gave me great hope that this season will continue what has been an amazing ride. Lets just hope that Hank can finally get himself out of this abyss.

My Thoughts on Greek "Defending Your Honor"

"It's killing me to imagine not having my sister around. How is it not killing you?"


As Greek returns for what is looking to be its last season, something strikes me as odd. The show basically has not introduced any main characters since the first couple episodes of season 1. Our main players are Rusty, Casey, Evan, Cappie, Rebecca, Dale, Calvin and Ashleigh. The show has aired 65 episodes now and sure we have some recurring characters on the outside such as Beaver and some of the ZBZ girls, but all the main characters are the ones introduced in the pilot. I was having a conversation with my friend Jason and we could not figure out another show that has been able to do that. Maybe that is why this is the time for the show to end, we have basically seen these people do everything they can do in this setting.

We open the season with our seniors, minus Cappie, graduating. We learn that Casey and Cappie are still broken up. We then flash forward 3 months with everyone getting ready to start new chapters in their lives. I must say every time a show tries to jump in the future, I’m pretty skeptical, but more often then not it ends up working. Obviously this is just the first episode of the season so the jury is still out on how effective it will be but so far it seemed to work.

The show has done a great job evolving Rusty while still keeping his lovable geek qualities. The way he is willing to defend his sister even when it involves standing up to his fraternity big brother was not only admirable but very in character. Rusty has gone through such a transformation in his life while at CRU and his sister has been by his side every step of the way, so why wouldn’t he defend her against a guy who so clearly has issues

And speaking of Cappie, he was my only real issue in this episode. We have always known that he was immature but the way he is written in this episode, for the first time, i viewed him as an ass. That very well might be exactly what the writers intended, but i was just not a fan. I love Cappie because he is fun loving but at the same time very smart and a great guy. Seeing him be a jerk was not something i enjoyed and hopefully as witnessed by his speech to Casey at the end of the episode he turns it around

Some Quick Ramblings...

I am interested in seeing how Ashleigh goes from interning in New York to making out with Rusty as we see in commercials

Has Greek ever had a more one dimensional character then Tripp? He is pure evil right down to the ginger colored hair

Becca as ZBZ president could be pretty fantastic, but why is Casey still going to live in the house?
Fresh off becoming the biggest star in the cast, lets hope Clark Duke gets some major screen time this season

Id give this episode an 8 out 10. Might be a little high but I’m just happy to have GREEK back in my life. What did you all think?

My Thoughts on How I Met Your Mother "Bad News"

Well after a long layoff for the holidays, I am back to review How I Met Your Mother. To recap, this season has been somewhat of a mixed bag. There have definitely been more good episodes then bad which is a significant achievement compared to last years mostly disappointing season. Heading into the holiday break we saw a very strong episode in False Positive. With so many reruns over the past two weeks i was very anxious to dive in to a new episode of HIMYM.

And while not as strong as False Positive on a comedy front, something happened at the end of this episode that had not happened in a long time with this show; I actually got emotional. But because that happened at the end, lets discuss the rest of the show first

We continue with the overriding theme of this season being Marshall and Lily’s pregnancy. It was nice to see an episode where Lily did not annoy the crap out of me. And while the whole sterility story is one that every sitcom dusts off when a character is inevitably going to be pregnant, It did lead us to the gang finally finding Barney’s Doppelganger. Neil Patrick Harris really got to shine here in playing his usual funny self as Barney and also getting to play the straight laced Doctor.

Robin’s story in the episode was not good at all in my opinion. It seemed really weird placed in this episode and kind of just felt like a "Best of Robin" episode interjected into a regular episode. The only good thing that her story brought us was the continuance of a drama free, helpful friend, Ted. In False Positive we saw Ted be the voice of reason for everyone in the group, and while this week his advice to Robin is not dead on, it was still nice to see him not have his own drama and to be a good friend and not focus on whatever is going on in his life. On a side note, Josh Radnor’s kicks can always make me laugh

And now we reach the best part in the episode. The emotion on Jason Siegel’s and Alyson Hannigan’s face was enough the sell the scene for me. Even though Marshall’s dad dying was very abrupt, it really allowed HIMYM to regain its emotional footing. It was a good memory that as goofy as HIMYM could be, this is a show, much like Scrubs before it, that separates itself from other comedies by being able to nail emotion so well when it needs to.
　
QUICK HITS

This is like a black cat walked through my uterus

Its like looking into a poorly dressed mirror

Leave the model of the vagina

How you doin Lily? Should i have a boner?

Gynomite!

I’d give my first born to not be able to have children

I’m here every Thursday!
　


Good way to start the year, I’ll give it a 7 out 10. Suit up!