Entertainment
Immortals Giveaway
Immortals, a 3D action adventure epic that takes place in ancient Greece, opens this Friday. Henry Cavill, the guy from The Tutors and the new Superman, plays Theseus, a mortal villager chosen by Zeus to lead the charge against King Hyperion, a ruthless king played by Mickey Rourke who’s ravaging Greece in search for a super weapon that will destroy all of humanity. Hyperion’s aim is to wipe out all the mortals and take down the Gods of Olympus so he can rule the world. With the help of Phaedra, a sexy Oracle played by Frieda Pinto, Theseus assembles a small crew to take on Hyperion and save the world from total annihilation. Check out the trailer:
To celebrate the film’s release, we’re giving away an Immortals prize pack that includes a $100 Best Buy Gift Card, an Immortals Graphic Novel and an Immortals Men’s Tank Top. To enter the giveaway, follow us on Facebook and drop us an email below telling us why you want to see the movie. We’ll pick a winner at random next Thursday.
To learn more about Immortals, visit the film’s Facebook page or check out Twitter for all the latest of on the release.
Nov 10th
Call of Duty MW3 Midnight Warfare Events Tonight at GameStop Stores Everywhere
To celebrate the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, more than 4,400 GameStop stores will be hosting Midnight Warfare events. The party starts 8pm, when COD fans will have the chance to play the new game and participate in various Call of Duty-themed challenges. If you live in New York or LA, you should check out the massive Midnight Warfare events in West Hollywood and Union Square. You can meet some of the game’s developers and pick up your copy of the MW3 at midnight.
For more info on the Midnight Warfare events tonight, visit GameStop.com/CallofDuty.
Nov 7th
Killer Elite Review
A few weeks ago I went to a screening of Killer Elite. I went in expecting to see a Clive Owen movie with Jason Statham in it. But really, it was a Jason Statham movie with Clive Owen in it. That’s pretty much the best way to describe it. Less Inside Man and Children of Men. More Transporter 3 and Crank 2.
Not that there’s anything wrong with Jason Statham movies. You know how they go. Statham always looks a little worried, but deep down he knows, and you do too, that he can pretty much kick anyone’s ass in any situation. Statham dreams of a normal life with peace and quiet and a decent relationship, but you both know that won’t work out for the guy. He’s just too damn good at kicking ass, so he has to stick with the job.
There’s some quality action in this movie. The Clive Owen vs. Jason Statham brawl in the hospital is pretty intense. You got some sweet car chases, a couple crazy shootouts and entertaining death scenes. If you isolate the action, it’s hard to complain about this film. It delivers on pacing, on elaborate assassination plots and the whole cat and mouse chase thing. All that stuff works really well.
But then you get into the actual characters. Now this is supposed to be based on true-ish events, so the opportunity was there to build out these characters into interesting, layered people. That didn’t happen though.
Yvonne Strahovski is a prop in this movie. She plays Statham’s love interest and spends most of the film aimlessly walking around Paris. At the end of the movie, you know nothing about her; why she’s around in the first place, what she’s into, what she doesn’t like. I’m pretty sure if you paid me 50 bucks at the end of the movie to tell you her character’s name, there’s no way I could have done it.
Same goes with De Niro. He plays this father figure/super-assassin type, but really, he comes across as a tired old man doing a not-so-great impression of Robert De Niro. He just doesn’t have it anymore. I realize that we can’t expect a Heat-type performance here. I really wasn’t setting the bar too high. But De Niro just comes across a sad, fatigued, campier version of himself. Homey needs a vacation or he needs to get more selective with his roles.
Even amidst this Statham-driven world of super-action and underdeveloped characters, Clive Owen still shines. I’m totally biased here – I love the guy – but he was the best part of the film. If the lead role went to Owen, it’d be a totally different movie. He gets plenty of face time (even with that porn stache), and he makes the most out of it.
To enjoy this film, you just have to know what you’re walking into. It’s not a layered story about political intrigue, deep characters and interwoven agendas. It’s a Statham movie where villainous henchman run around saying stuff like “Remember, the only rules are, there are no rules.” (Seriously, that happened).
If you suspend your critical judgment, need for character development and just go into it looking for some action – real, elaborate, well-paced assassin/cat-and-mouse action – then you can just sit back and have fun with a not-so-serious movie.
Sep 28th
Bear Grylls Is Chatting on Reddit Right Now
Ever wanted to chat up Bear Grylls? You can right now on Reddit.com. Grylls is answering questions on anything, so if you want know what extreme situation will make him drink his own you know what, head over to Reddit and hit the guy up. Video and text responses to specific questions will be posted on the Degree Men YouTube Channel later this afternoon.
Sep 13th
SENNA and ESPN Films 30 for 30 Blu-Ray Giveaway
Sports documentaries are usually super hit or miss. Some just fill the air with simple storytelling and a type of play-by-play chronicling that comes across as uninspired as a bottom ticker update. Other sports documentaries just really get to you, man. Like goose bumps, I-can’t-believe-that-really-happened-style get to you. SENNA definitely falls in the latter category. The film is a study of the life of famous F1 racer Ayrton Senna. It’s already won awards at Sundance and the LA Film Festival. SENNA is setting box office records in the UK and it’s generating some real energy here in the States. Here’s the trailer:
The film hasn’t reached its full release yet. It’s already playing in New York, LA, DC, San Francisco, Berkeley, Irvine, San Rafael, Cambridge, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, Miami and Philly. Here are the remaining release dates:
- August 26th Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Palm Springs, Palo Alto, Portland, San Diego, Scottsdale, Seattle
- September 2nd Charlotte, Knoxville, and St. Louis
- September 16th Kansas City, Milwaukee, Las Vegas
To celebrate the theatrical release of SENNA, ESPN Films has provided us with three Blu-ray sets of their 30 for 30 Series to give away to three lucky readers. Each set is valued at $74.99. Here’s a full list of all the titles:
Muhammad and Larry (1980)- Kings Ransom (2009)
- Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL? (2009)
- Without Bias (2009)
- The Band That Wouldn’t Die (2009)
- The Legend of Jimmy the Greek (2009)
- Jordan Rides the Bus (2009)
- The U (2009)
- The Birth of Big Air (2010)
- One Night in Vegas (2010)
- Straight Outta L.A. (2010)
- No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson (2010)
- The 16th Man (2010)
- Silly Little Game (2010)
- Run, Ricky, Run (2010)
- Guru of Go (2010)
- The Two Escobars (2010)
- The House of Steinbrenner (2010)
- Fernando Nation (2010)
- Pony Excess (2010)
- The Best That Never Was (2010)
- Four Days in October (2010)
- Marion Jones: Press Pause (2010)
- Tim Richmond: To the Limit (2010)
- Unmatched (2010)
- Little Big Men (2010)
- Into the Wind (2010)
- June 17th, 1994 (2010)
- Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks (2010)
- The Two Escobars (2010)
- Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks (2010)
I totally love this series, and I try to catch them whenever they’re on. The U and Pony Excess are two that are worth watching again with all the scandalous Miami football headlines making the rounds. If you prefer gut-wrenching stories that’ll make any dude’s eyes water, check out Without Bias or The Two Escobars. If you enjoy playing fantasy sports, Silly Little Game is a must-see.
Aug 22nd
Mike Tyson Main Event iPhone App
Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out was one of the best NES games of all time. The thrill of knocking out Soda Popinski or Piston Honda was a treasured memory for kids that grew up in the 80s. Today’s gaming tastes are much more sophisticated, obviously. You got complex, HD cinematic console games, large-scale gaming universes on social networks, and of course, time consuming mobile games like Words with Friends.
Sometimes it’s a nice change of pace to play an old throwback game. If you have a hankering for some Punch-Out, you don’t want to dig through your closet to pull out your NES console, then check out the Mike Tyson: Main Event app from SoBe and RockLive. The game is available for free on iTunes,
As an added bonus, SoBe’s also offering up a free trip to Vegas that includes a “Try Everything” experience with Mike Tyson. The person who owns the SoBe leaderboard after a month will get to fly out to Sin City with a friend and kick it with Iron mike himself. Not a bad return for some fun, time-wasting throwback mobile gaming.
Jul 29th
X-Men First Class Review
Let me start this off by saying that I’m not a comic book purist. Sure, I owned my fair share of comics growing up, but my comic book fascination was casual at best. I don’t know the back stories of every major comic book character. I’ve picked up what I’ve picked up with over the years. I’m not gonna win any origin story arguments with nerds, but I’m not going to totally be totally lost in these debates either.
So X-Men: First Class is a reboot of a franchise that needed some serious refreshment. The first couple X-Men films we’re pretty solid, the last one got kinda stale and that piece of trash Wolverine movie was borderline unwatchable. I went into X-Men: First Class with the expectation that James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are two pretty decent actors. S how bad could it be?
Well, it was awesome. For all the reasons I thought it would be awesome. The supporting cast isn’t shabby, but Fassbender and McAvoy make this film better than good. McAvoy single-handedly made Wanted watchable and Fassbender’s performance in Inglorious Basterds gets better with every repeat viewing.
These two guys bring new life to their characters. McAvoy adds depth to the young Professor X, the optimistic, diplomatic, naïve genius with budding leadership skills and cheesy pickup lines. Fassbender’s take on Magneto is fantastic. He balances light scenes with serious emotion while portraying the damaged, defiant realist who slides into super villainy.
The film is set in 1962, and that added a nice touch as well, especially when it came to January Jones and her wardrobe selections. Man, that chick was smokin’ in this movie, but she just can’t act. It’s a sad fact, but a fact nonetheless. Thankfully she didn’t have too many lines.
Kevin Bacon made me forget that he was Kevin Bacon by the end. That’s no small feat, that. His performance as Sebastian Shaw was pretty commendable, and he did the super evil thing pretty well.
I know some comic book fans are bitter about the origin story remixing that went down, but get over it. The franchise needed a Batman-style restart, and it went pretty well. With comic book back stories changing all the time in the world of actual comics, it’s difficult to be bitter about the way this film used its rebooting license.
Sound casting choices, good pacing, the strong relationship between the two main characters and some clever fictionalized historical plot maneuverings make this film a strong summer blockbuster. You’ll laugh (a little), you’ll cry (k, maybe not), but you’ll definitely be down to watch the next movie with this new team of X-folks. And that’s what a quality reboot is all about.
Jun 6th
Mancations Interview with Evan Mann and Gareth Reynolds
Travel shows can take on plenty of different forms. You got travel shows that focus on culture, food, sports, music, beaches, luxury, you name it. But what about a travel show for funny dudes that want to film themselves experiencing crazy shit. This is what Mancations is all about. It’s an unscripted comedy duo travel show that premiers on The Travel Channel this weekend (Sunday, 9pm). Mancations follows two lifelong friends, comedians Evan Mann and Gareth Reynolds, as they take on manly, bucket-list style challenges in different spots across the country.
These two funny dudes find the lighter side of things as they try stuff like Ninja school, Space Camp, Civil War reenactments, crab boat fishing, MMA fighting, Navy SEAL training and extreme watersports. The show takes Evan and Gareth out of their comfort zone and exposes them to these super serious, extra-masculine experiences. These guys have been performing improv together for the past 10 years, so they highlight the humor and find room for laughs as they try out all this crazy stuff. Not a bad gig if you can get it.
I talked with Evan and Gareth a few weeks ago while they were getting ready for a Civil War reenactment. We discussed the duo’s improv background, the show’s origin and the most enjoyable experiences they’ve had so far. Here’s full interview:
CS: How did you guys come up with the idea for the show?
EM: Well there was actually an article in the Wall Street Journal that was talking about Mancations. Gareth and I have been friends for like the last 13 years and have done a lot of stuff all throughout the country together. One of the things we did actually was we made a video a few years ago where we went to the Testicle Festival in Missoula, Montana. We documented it and made it into a video and it’s kind of one of the funniest things we’ve ever made. It seemed like a great idea for a show.
GR: I think we’ve kind of taken the idea of just sort of showing up at a place and being off-the-cuff and kind of in the element of the certain place and then kind of tying it into – like I’ve been saying – this Wall Street Journal article that’s really themed towards men’s vacations or guy getaway trips or something like that.
EM: Right.
CS: So what’s the most enjoyable experience that you guys have had so far?
GR: We’ve done some pretty crazy shit in the last month.
EM: For me it was when we flew out in these things in Arizona called “Ultralight Trikes” which are basically like motorcycles with wings that are controlled like a hang glider. They get up to like 10,000 feet. They corkscrew, they go super fast. Just you and the pilot in these really small things. It’s crazy. I mean they’re so light you can just flip them over. You could take off and land so easily, you can land anywhere. We were flying all through the desert, in between cactuses one second and then in the next second we would jet up to 3,000 feet and then right back down over the top of a lake. That was incredible.
GR: For me it was we went to Space Camp. Kind of capped it all off by going to Florida to do micro gravity which is just like weightlessness in the back of a vomit comet.
CS: (laughs)
GR: Which is terrifying and so surreal. We were actually just watching a ton of the episode, watching the first time Evan floats and the expression on his face …
EM: When we were at Space Camp we were just telling people we were gonna do it. These are people who have devoted their lives to space and they were so jealous. Then to actually do it and watch your body float, and float yourself, have water float in front of you, it’s just like- it feels like-
GR: It feels fake.
EM: It’s definitely one of those experiences that you can’t ever prepare for. You just have no idea what it feels like until you’re actually in the back of that cabin floating around in zero gravity.
GR: Yeah.
CS: Did you guys come up with the target list of things you wanted to do or was it a collaborative effort?
EM: Yes.
GR: Yeah.
EM: Yeah we did. We did back and forth with the network obviously, but when we got picked up for the series, after we made the pilot, we created a list of like 45 places. Places we’ve always wanted to go, also things we’re terrified of, just kind of a nice combination of things we think will 1) Make for good TV and 2) Things that we’ve always wanted to do.
GR: Also what’s really weird is that we’re producing it so we’re spending two months in an office just coming up with the craziest shit we can think of and then to actually shift gears to actually being the people who are going to be doing it – it’s almost like you really just kind of back yourself into a corner and we’re like we are actually the people who are going to do these insane activities.
EM: Right. I mean you know right now we’re in Jefferson, Texas about to head to a Civil War reenactment. If you had asked me a year ago if I had ever in my entire life done a Civil War reenactment, I’m pretty sure the answer would have been “no.” But it’s something that’s interesting and loaded with characters and hopefully potentially really funny so here we are.
CS: So you guys have an improv background, where did you guys initially start doing improv?
GR: We actually met at Emerson College in Boston, we started doing sketch comedy and improv and then we met up in LA and we basically started a sketch group. Then that sort of bled into us making online videos and then that really got us into this campaign that we did where we just traveled the country talking to a ton of girls. And the way we shot it was really similar to the kind of way we’re doing this in the sense that we know where we’re going, we have an idea of who we’re going to meet, but we’re really – in this process – kind of married to the idea of keeping it realistic. I think it plays to our strengths in the sense that it is all just … it’s very improvy. We’re in a scene and wherever we are, we’re trying to make it funny. The way that we’ve done a lot of stuff is we’ll just kind of come up with an idea and then sort of just make it up as we go along with the structure.
EM: Yeah. And I think what’s great about this show is that the comedy kind of comes from the fish-out-of-water element. We just spent a week in the Poconos at Ninja Camp. Neither Gareth or I have really any martial arts training.
Jun 3rd
Nick Offerman Interview
Nick Offerman, who plays salty department head Ron Swanson on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, knows a thing or two about awesome facial hair. His character’s signature stache is Selekesque. Really, it’s that impressive.
Now Offerman is putting that impressive facial hair to work for a good cause. Offerman recently teamed up with Budweiser for the“Grow One. Save a Million.” campaign. The campaign asks guys to hold off on shaving for 10 days leading up to World Environment Day on June 5.
On average, dudes waste an estimated five gallons of water with each shaving session. By asking guys to grow out their beards and staches, Budweiser hopes to save 1 million gallons of water.
We got to chat with Nick about the campaign, his Chicago theater roots, beards vs. staches and woodworking. We also asked Nick who gets more laughs at home, him or his wife, the always funny Megan Mullally from Will & Grace and Party Down. Here’s the full interview:
To learn more about the Budweiser “Grow One. Save a Million.” campaign, check out Budweiser’s Facebook page.
Jun 2nd
Hangover 2 Review
The fine folks at Axe invited the MANjr team to the Hangover 2 premiere at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood on Thursday. Traffic getting there was absolute madness and Hollywood Blvd was closed off for an elaborate red carpet setup. Screaming fans lined the streets before, during and after the movie. A bunch of people even stuck around to check out celebs leaving the after party.
It goes without saying that the first Hangover film was incredible. Going into the sequel, I had my doubts that the magic of the first movie could be repeated. I mean, I get that they’re in Bangkok this time, but could the second film be as explosively funny as the first without a wholesale rehash of all the same elements?
Without a doubt, Hangover 2 leaned heavily on the formula of the first movie, but it still held its own as an outrageous, gut-buster. So many elements were repeated, but you just had to allow it. You just had to roll with it and just have a good time.
The premise of the movie is that Stu’s getting married in Thailand, so the guys fly out for his big day. Couple days before the wedding, one beer turns into so much more, and after a time-lapse shot accelerates the clock, we pick back up with the same drunken haze memory loss that served as the starting point for the last film. The Wolfpack is left with a lot of questions, and they have to piece together the events from the previous night in order to get their shit together and make it back to the wedding on time.
It sounds all too familiar, to be sure, but it was still a fun ride. Todd Phillips made another gorgeous movie that combined sweet cinematic shots, great music, just enough action and extra-bizarre details from a risky, ridiculous and elaborate night out.
Ed Helms is still stressed, Bradley Cooper’s still the instigator, Justin Bartha’s still underdeveloped and Zach Galifianakis steals most of the scenes (again). Add in some Ken Jeong, Paul Giamatti, Jamie Chung and a quick dose of Tyson, and you got a well-rounded cast that can re-live familiar glory without slipping into tired staleness.
Hangover 2 succeeded for all the same reasons that the first one did. It keeps you engaged and hits you with constant doses of ludicrous laughs. It’s well paced, well cast and well put together. If you’re looking for surprises, you won’t find any. But if you loved the first film, why not go for round two?
May 20th
