Butter (2011)

“My name is Laura Dean Pickler, and this is the cut-throat story of greed, blackmail, sex, and butter.”

            No offense to anyone out in the Midwestern United States but how bored are you guys out there that you hold contests to sculpt butter? Is sculpting butter something you do out there in some states? I am only asking because the 2011 movie Butter is about bored pure white Midwestern people who take the contest of sculpting butter super seriously. (Forgive my assumption I am from the NY/NJ area we can be pretty rude and presumptuous people).

            Laura Dean Pickler (Jennifer Garner) is the wife of the Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell) the champion of butter sculpting in Iowa. She enjoys her husband’s success and attention it brings to both of them. Since Bob has won the contest for fifteen years in a row he is asked to step down out of the contest to give someone else a chance. Bob has no issues with stepping down he is just worried that Laura will go out of her mind, which is of course does. Laura goes so far as to go to the house of the head judge of the contest to speak to him, well not so much speak to him as to yell at him. Bob needs to get away so he goes to the local strip club where he is given a lap dance and some more by Brooke (Olivia Wilde). Laura somehow finds out that Bob is at the strip club and rams her SUV in their van where Bob and Brooke are having sex.

            Since Bob cannot compete in the butter sculpting contest Laura decides to enter herself. When she goes to enter she is the only one there until a young girl named Destiny walks in and also a woman who is a fan of Bob and also Brooke the stripper. Brooke is determined to kick Laura’s ass in some form after she hit the van and Bob has not paid her for the rest of the night they spent together.

            Destiny, for years, has bounced around from foster home to foster home. One year while at the Iowa State Fair she sees Bob’s butter sculpture of The Last Supper. She goes into the room and finishes sculpting the small grail. Bob sees Destiny doing this and he is impressed by her art work. After that Bob helps to place Destiny in a nice home with a very white couple. When they ask if she has any hobbies she replies that she does not have one but she decides to go into sculpting butter.

            On the day of the contest Destiny is declared the winner and Laura comes in second place. Laura is infuriated. She decides to manipulate a former boyfriend Boyd Bolton (Hugh Jackman) who is dumb as a stick, to say that he helped Destiny to carve her sculpture. The idea is so stupid because everyone could see that Destiny made the sculpture herself but Laura has such weight and made such a fuss the committee decides to let Destiny and Laura duke it out again at the Fair. Destiny’s sculpture is of her real mother holding her as a baby in a rocking chair. Laura’s is the moments after JFK is shot in the head in the car with Jackie Kennedy reaching out for the Secret Service member. That night Boyd decides to sabotage Destiny’s sculpture for Laura without her knowing. He melts the face of the baby. Destiny’s foster parents are totally upset that something happened to the sculpture the following day. Despite the melted part Destiny’s sculpture wins the contest.

            The cast of Butter was awesome. I am a HUGE GIGANTIC Jennifer Garner fan so of course I had to watch this movie. I have actually had the DVD for years and only just today finally watch it. Garner is hilarious. She has not really played outrageous, fake, uptight women before so seeing her as Laura Dean Pickler was a panic. I died laughing hearing Garner yell out “mother fucker!” in one part! (also have to say that I was dying her character’s name was Laura… it’s an Alias thing). Olivia Wilde is insane with the types of characters she plays in movies. She was so good as Brooke! Her character was pissed off and out for revenge. She did not do the revenge aspect that well but she tried her best and it was so funny.  Ty Burrell was alright. He was not like his character on Modern Family (am I the only one who has watched that show and totally hated it?) which I liked. Kristen Schaal plays the huge Bob fan. I cannot hear her voice and not want to immediately watch Bob’s Burgers! Rob Corddry and Alicia Silverstone play Destiny’s foster parents. The girl who played Destiny was fantastic! She was excellent acting with all these awesome seasoned actors. Hugh Jackman was alright as Boyd Bolton. Boyd was an idiot which is not a character I think we’re really used to seeing Jackman play.

            Butter was one of the most hilarious, ridiculous comedies I have ever watched. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. Trust me when I say I did not just like it because Jennifer Garner is in it, I would totally admit if a movie she was in was awful. Butter was just so good. I am so happy I bought it all those years ago. Definitely check out Butter if you are in need of a good laugh. 

Better Living Through Chemistry (2014)

“He forgot the first rule of the drug game. Don't get high on your own supply.”

            Life never turns out the way you planned it. Sometimes it does if you are lucky. Most of the people I know have had their lives shit on by reality and other mishaps. It sure as hell has happened to me. We also meet people we never thought we would meet and be friends with. Sometimes those people, both good and bad, shape you into the person you have become. We can change who we want to be, not drastically but steps at a time. (I am currently working on being a better me. It is hard fucking work!).

            The character of Doug Varney in the movie Better Living Through Chemistry is a person who thought his life would go one way and met people that did change his life for the good and the bad. Doug has been working at his father-in-law’s pharmacy for years as a pharmacist. The father-in-law retired and instead of changing the name of the pharmacy to Doug’s last name the guy buys a new sign with his name on it. Doug does not even fight the situation he just lets his father-in-law walk all over him. His wife Kara also walks all over him. She does not let him get a word in edge wise and totally dominate him. Their son, who is twelve, is going through a weird awkward stage in his life. Instead of challenging all that is going on his life Doug lets things go because he does not want to deal with the confrontation.

            A delivery of medications has to go out one night. One of the workers at the store takes advantage of Doug and just leaves to go somewhere leaving Doug to make the deliveries. The last person he goes to is a rich woman with several prescriptions. When he gets to the door the woman, Elizabeth (Olivia Wilde), is dressed only in a nightgown and some sort of jacket holding a cigarette. She has him come into the house. She is clearly a repressed woman. Her husband leaves her alone for days at a time while he works closer to the city and she has no one around to talk to. Before Doug leaves, Elizabeth plants a big kiss on him.

            After that meeting with Elizabeth, Doug’s life becomes very different. She awakens passion and things in him he did not think he could ever do or feel. Elizabeth also gets Doug to make his own prescription cocktails to help his life out a little more. Doug goes from someone who was basically afraid of his own shadow to someone who seeks revenge and gains some control.

            Elizabeth and Doug planned on killing her husband but of course that does not go well. Doug actually meets the husband at a bar and thinks the guy is nice. Instead of just running away Doug decides to leave Kara. He becomes more assertive and even tells his father-in-law he does not give a shit what he thinks anymore.

            I liked the story of Better Living Through Chemistry. It was funny, dramatic, and even tense (I left out the tense parts they are too good to give away). I liked how this guy went from being walked all over to being this macho assertive guy all because of a woman and some mixed prescription drugs. I have never taken drugs to help me get through the day like Doug did (I do take Adderall for ADHD though. I do not know how I functioned through life without it) but I understand how meeting a certain person can help change your life and see things differently. The acting was good. It was weird to see Michelle Monaghan as this bitchy kind of woman who dominates her husband and represses things. Olivia Wilde was gorgeous and perfect as Elizabeth. Sam Rockwell played Doug. I do not believe I have ever seen him in anything else before. He was good he added a great craziness to his character. I say give Better Living Through Chemistry a watch it is worth seeing at least once. 

Tron: Legacy





From the moment I saw the trailer for Tron: Legacy I wanted to see the movie. I was like a little kid I was attracted to the cool lights… and the awesome, electronic soundtrack created by Daft Punk was a major plus. Watching this movie I did feel like a little kid the neon blues and reds were really cool. The action was alright I liked the motorcycles that come out of a stick you have to run and jump in the air to activate.

            While Disney is playing it up as an all 3D movie, only the parts where Sam Flynn is in The Grid are in 3D. I was mad that I to pay an extra three dollars to see a movie that is only partly in 3D. There is a message at the beginning of the movie telling viewers that some of the movie has purposely been filmed in 2D and some in 3D. Just know you need the glasses for The Grid/Tron scenes and that’s it.

            The story has a deep meaning of creation and a utopian society. Kevin Flynn set out to created a perfect world and found it. He created Clu to help him created the perfect world since he could not always be there. But since not all humans are perfect and Clu was made out of Kevin’s human likeness, the avatar created chaos and destroyed perfection. It is a plot we have seen before; it gets tedious after a while.

            I have never seen the original Tron before. The plot of Tron: Legacy is not hard to follow if you have never seen the original. There are some explanations for the new viewers so you won’t be completely lost.  Jeff Bridges reprises his role as Kevin Flynn and the avatar Clu. Since Clu has never aged and Jeff Bridges obviously has, a younger Bridges was computer generated. Sometimes the computer generated younger version of the actor looks horrible and sometimes when the camera is not too close on him it’s not bad.

            The acting was really good. Garrett Hedlund as Sam Flynn did a very good job of playing the risk taking character with a soft spot. He did not make Sam out to be a fool, the whole time you knew Sam had a heart for what his father has done but at the same time knew that that softness would not hold him back. Olivia Wilde was great, I always enjoy her acting. Quorra, her character, was being taught by Kevin to be a good fighter through Zen teachings and having her read classic literature. She was a bit naïve but it worked with the kick ass fighting skills she had.

            I liked Tron: Legacy but if I had a choice (I saw the movie with a guy friend who needs action and is in love with Olivia Wilde so there was no way he was willing to see The King’s Speech) I would have waited to see the movie on DVD especially since the whole movie is not in 3D.