it's getting way late and i don't feel like i can elaborate too much on orange county otherwise i'm going to be up late and tomorrow i'm going to be a bitch and all my coworkers will suffer needlessly. bottom line is this movie was refreshingly funny. after seeing a series of serious films - royal tannebaums, brotherhood of the wolf, lord of the rings, even behind enemy line (inadvertent humor doesn't count!) - it feels so good to finally go see a movie where i'm allowed to laugh for a change, without feelings of guilt. this movie isn't just funny, it's refreshingly funny, which means nothing was forced, the yuck yucks doesn't follow a formula, all natural comedy without all those preservatives you might find in other movies. this isn't a rush hour or one of those over-the-top gross-out movie satires. it's a very specific story, about a boy who's trying to get into his dream school after being accidently rejected (certainly we've all felt that same way, more or less), but all sorts of mishaps happen that sort of impede his progress.

jack black steals every scene in the movie, if you're a fan, you shouldn't miss it. when the movie's over, you'll mostly remember his scenes cause they're all so funny (besides, i think he spends almost the entire movie in his underwear, he definitely doesn't have a self-image problem). unlike shallow hal, jack black's last movie, in this one he doesn't have to be the straight man, and he's at his best when he's playing the verging on being out of control maniac. colin hanks has many of the same mannerisms of his famous father tom hanks, if you love his daddy, then you'll love watching his genetic offpsring do a pretty good impression of him on the big screen. colin hanks also has that perfect exasterbated look of utter defeat mixed with 21st century teen angst. there's a surprising amount of celebrities cameos in the movie as well, and you'll be gasping with surprised delight as celebrities appear out of the blue left and right.

cause it's an mtv productions movie, you're guaranteed a happy ending, and one that's not morally ambiguous, with a message suitable for those afterschool specials. the fact that shaun brumder wants to be a writer and goes through all the trials and tribulations that writers go through made it easy for me to identify with that character (though i don't consider myself a writer by any stretch of the imagination, it was interesting to delve a little bit in the mind of a writer).

so if you're like me, sick and tired of serious movies, and want to see a movie that's refreshingly funny and make you feel good afterwards, orange county should be high on your list.

today was rob house's first day working at srm as a freelance designer. it's only for a few weeks, but it's nice to be working with rob again, although technically we're not on the same project. for lunch i took him out to see some of the local eating places, and we ended up at the galleria mall because i had to buy a set of new headphones (my koss broke, i got a pair of sonys for $10 versus the koss for $25, and after trying them out, i think i'm going to buy another pair of koss, these sony earbuds hurt my ears). we got food at burger king and ate in the mall. the mall during lunch is the best place to catch screen house people and today was no exception. amongst the handful of ex-coworkers that we saw were julie and klea, who snickered at rob and me from a few tables away, but didn't drop by to chat. later i found out that julie was sick and klea had work to get back to. none of them had any idea what rob was doing here until i told them, the closely guarded secret finally revealed.

after work i met up with dan and elias at the screen house building (i was five minutes late, so very unlike me!) and we headed over to chinatown via the green line to boylston station, but first buying our tickets from the boston common theatre for the 8:40pm showing of orange county. for dinner we (based on my recommendation) went to the apollo restaurant where we had the korean bbq. the last time i had korean bbq was probably last winter. we ordered a dish of bulgogi and a dish of chicken, with an appetizer of grilled squid with teriyaki sauce. the squid was kind of nasty, when i saw the word "grilled" in the menu i figured it'd be cooked, but it was essentially raw. but guess what? we had a bbq grill, didn't we? so we ended up bbq'ing the squid, which turned out all right, although a little charred (squid meat is sort of tender, easily overcooked). we had two hours to kill before the movie started so we had a leisurely dinner, occasionally splattered by hot oil sizzling on the bbq pan. next time we're trying the tongue!

we walked back to the theatre, where john and brian were already waiting for us inside. together we went upstairs to our designated screening room for the showing of orange county. this was my first time at the boston common theatre, and it reminded me very much of las vegas, the very garish architecture and the amusement park quality of the interior design. when we got there, with just 15 minutes to spare before the movie started, the screening room was completely empty. we found the best seat in the house, the front of the middle section of seats, with the metal railing we could use as a foot rest. later the room filled up, probably about 15 more people came in. because we five guys sat in the most centrally located area of the theatre, we became the laugh track for the whole audience. if anything in the movie was funny, you'd hear us laughing first.

after the movie, john drove brian and dan home while elias took the orange line and i took the red. while waiting for the bus in harvard square, i noticed this young woman whom i was standing next to. she wasn't particularly attractive, but she was wearing red pants, and just the mere fact that she had the audacity to wear red pants made her attractive to me. i am irresistably drawn to red pants as a moth is drawn to the glow of a lightbulb. she was writing on something in her hand, and when i turned to look, i saw that she was working on a crossword puzzle. red pants and loves crossword puzzles? can this girl be anymore perfect? the bus arrived, everyone boarded, i made a mental note of which stop she got off at (just one stop before mine!), and hoped that perhaps our paths will cross again in the near future.