Yowazzup: A Directory of Happening Things

On Thursday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Seth Rogen talked about being rejected by Megan Fox on the ABC late night show two years ago.

Popularity: 1%

Monsters vs Aliens is a 3D animated film featuring the voice of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Rainn Wilson, Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Colbert, and Paul Rudd.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Susan and her Monsters friends in "Monsters vs Aliens"

On the day Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is getting married to weatherman Derek Dietl (Paul Rudd), she is hit by meteorite. When she gets into the aisle, she grows into a giant Susan. The military arrive as they are alerted by the meteor and capture Susan. She is sent to a top-secret facility led by General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland) and given a nickname “Ginormica”. In the prison, she meets other monsters: B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), a brainless, gelatinous blob; Dr. Cockroach Ph.D. (Hugh Laurie), a mad scientist who turns into a cockroach; the Missing Link (Will Arnett), an amphibious fish-ape hybrid and Insectosaurus, a giant grub that is even larger than Susan. The monsters are contentedly locked in the facility for the past 50 years but Susan feels incredibly isolated and wishes to return to her old life.

An alien called Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) is in the search for quantonium, the most powerful source in the universe and he finds it in Earth and thus deploys a gigantic robot to find and extract from its source, Susan. As the robot refuses to make peace after an attempt from the US President (Stephen Colbert), the President of the United States orders an attack on the robot. As all the attack from the military proves useless, General Monger convinces the President to use his top-secret monsters to fight the robot instead. The monsters agree with the promise of freedom if they succeed. Susan and the monsters manage to defeat the robot on the Golden Gate Bridge with her new-found strength.

Susan returns to her hometown and introduces her family to the monsters, but the monsters are rejected after causing panics in the party. Meanwhile, Derek breaks up with Susan, claiming she overshadows his career. Susan is devastated but realizes that becoming a monster has changed her life and Derek is just a selfish jerk. Susan is abruptly abducted by Gallaxhar and along the way kills Insectosaurus when he tries to save Susan. On the ship, Susan manages to release herself from captive and chases Gallaxhar, only to end up in the machine which extracts the quantonium from her body, making her normal again. Gallaxhar continues to use the quantonium to clone himself into armies so he can invade Earth.

With the help from the General, B.O.B., Dr. Cockroach and the Missing Link invade Gallaxhar’s ship and rescue Susan, in the process, activate the ship’s self-destruct sequence. Susan is separated from her monsters friends who are trapped inside the ship. In an attempt to save her friends, Susan embraces the quantonium and transforms her into a giant again allowing her to save her friends. The monsters are rescued by General Monger on the back of the revived Insectosaurus, who had transformed into a giant butterfly.

Overall, the film is amazing and is definitely catered for children and maybe some adults. If you love good-humored fun and Nickelodeon’s cartoons, you will love this flick.

My ratings: 7 out of 10.

Popularity: 1%

Observe and Report is a movie starring Seth Rogen and Anna Faris. Rogen plays a mall cop named Ronnie Barnhardt and is called into action to stop a flasher. But when Barnhardt fails to bring the culprit to justice, a police detective is hired to close the case. The movie will be released on April 10, 2009.

Popularity: 1%

Monsters vs. Aliens is an animated movie about a young California girl named Susan Murphy (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) who turns her into a giant monster when a meteorite from outer space hits her. She is taken to a secret government compound and meets a ragtag group of monsters also rounded up over the years. Monsters vs. Aliens will be released on March 27, 2009.

Popularity: 1%

Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) are housemates for 10 years. They look to solve their respective cashflow problems by making an amateur porno film together.

Popularity: 1%

Po (voice of Jack Black) is a fat and lazy panda. In fact, he is the laziest animal in ancient China. He works in his father’s noodle shop but dreams of being a kung fu warrior. Po studies kung fu history and idolizes the Furious Five, the country’s top martial arts masters — Master Monkey (Jackie Chan), Master Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Master Viper (Lucy Liu), Master Mantis (Seth Rogen) and Master Crane (David Cross). They are trained by Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) whose master is Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim).

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Master Oogway (a tortoise who knows kung fu) summons Shifu only to tell him his prophecy of Tai Lung (Ian McShane) will escape to become a treat to the civilians, therefore, Oogway must select a new Dragon Warrior to defend the town. The whole village gathers to find out which of the Furious Five will be the Dragon Warrior only to see Po accidentally being selected as the chosen one.

Po and Shifu in Kung Fu Panda

After learning the prophecy of Tai Lung’s escaping, Shifu sends Zeng (Dan Fogler), the messenger goose to send a message to Commander Vachir (Michael Clarke Duncan), a Javan Rhinoceros to beef up the security by as much as twice but Vachir arrogantly says no one can escape his prison, with 1,000 soldiers guarding 1 prisoner. Unfortunately, Zeng carelessly drops a feather which enables Tai Lung to escape and easily trashes all of Vachir’s soldiers who try to stop him.

When Shifu learns from Zeng that Tai Lung has escaped, Shifu consults Oogway only to have Oogway strongly tells Shifu to believe Po is the chosen one and slowly nurture him like the peach tree. Oogway then passes away like dust in the air. While Po is upset by his clumsiness and his failure in his earlier training, it is Shifu who convinces Po to stay when Po decides to leave. Shifu discovers that Po is able to climb up to the highest kitchen cabinet just to steal some cookies and therefore uses food as a whole new way of training Po. When Po is finally equipped with the kung fu to fight Tai Lung, Shifu brings down the dragon scroll to Po only for both of them to realize the scroll is totally empty.

Po, Master Monkey, Master Tigress, Master Viper, Master Mantis and Master Crane

Knowing that Tai Lung is on his way, Shifu asks his students including Po to help the villagers to evacuate the place, believing he will be able to at least, momentarily holds off Tai Lung. Po meets his father, Mr. Ping (James Hong) who finally reveals to Po his secret ingredient’s secret — nothing. Po finally understand the secret behind the blank scroll, which is nothing but to believe in oneself. He boldly goes back to the palace in order to face Tai Lung. The fight between both of them doesn’t last very long, but like the entire show, is nevertheless hilarious. Po, somehow, manages to defeat Tai Lung and earns the respect of the Furious Five as well as Shifu.

Overall, this is one of the best animated movie and definitely the best so far this year. Great voice acting by Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman, beautiful landscapes and background arts, what’s more, the dumplings and bowl of noodles look extremely real! Worth watching with the entire family.

My ratings: 9 out of 10.

Popularity: 3%