Review: Cards Against Humanity

The box, cards inside and instructions

If you are easily offended, cannot laugh at yourself, or have a weak stomach, then Cards Against Humanity is not for you. For the rest of my friends who are truly horrible people, stay awhile and listen...

Cards Against Humanity is a darker take on the basic Apples to Apples formula. There are two types of cards; white and black. Black cards have a question or fill-in-the-blank phrase on them. White cards have nouns on them. Everyone draws ten white cards. Then one person draws a black card and reads it. Everyone else chooses a white card that they think best fits the black card and puts it face down in the pile. The person who drew the black card then reads the white ones and chooses his or her favorite. The winner gets the black card to keep score. Change who chooses the black card, rinse and repeat. Apparently the person at the end with the most black cards wins, but this game isn't really about winning. It about feeling absolutely horrible about the choices of white cards you've made. Oh, the choices...




Example of a Black Card

Example of a White Card

The cards themselves are very high quality and cost around $25 on Amazon. They come in a very nice box with a minimal instruction manual (the rules are not hard). You can also download all the cards from the website for free to print yourself. While this is a great option, I recommend buying the cards. First, the purchased cards are great and durable, plus who wants to print out all the cards and cut them out yourself? Second, and most importantly, buying the cards supports the game maker. Please support small game makers! And you're local comic shop! Down with Big Brother!!!




Chuck Norris, obviously!

The pictured cards are mild examples

The game is all about the people you play it with. The simplicity of Cards Against Humanity is that the game gets it out of the way so you can enjoy the company of the terrible people you are with. That is really what all games of this kind are about. I'm not going to get too philosophical when talking about a game that allows you do some many unspeakable things, but face to face games are important in this day in age where we are more likely to talk to our friends via Text, Facebook and the Twitter than physically to them.

Cards Against Humanity has been out for over a year, but hey it's new to us! Won't you come over and play?



Review: Ice Age: Continental Drift

Hobo Dan: I wasn't really looking forward to Ice Age: Continental Drift. It's not that I don't like the Ice Age movies because I really do (the first two, I did not see the third installment with dinosaurs) I've just had my fill of computer generated kids movies for the year (Brave), and am now in full anticipation mode for The Dark Knight Rises this Friday. That said, I really enjoyed this movie. It was everything you want in a summer movie for kids and had plenty of comedy for us adults as well. I was able to pick right up on the story without needing to have seen the last one.

The film itself is computer generated and looks great; not as good as Brave, but still great. The voice work is top notch and surprisingly full of stars. The Wife and I spent the entire movie trying to figure out who the voice of the villain was. We knew we'd heard it before and had that "duh" moment when the credits rolled (Peter Dinklage). The story was entertaining and full of fun moments. There is no reason to take it that seriously or get technical. It was just fun, that's the point. If you have kids, or still have a kid in you (not that any of you eat kids), go see this new Ice Age. It is great fun and I am going to say this and get flamed for it, but this movie had more noticeable 3D effects than all other 3D movies I have seen this year combined. Not a selling point for me, but at least I don't feel so ripped off for paying three extra dollars for a 3D ticket (had no other choice).

Also, the squirrel that make small appearances in all the films has his day, it is so gloriously funny...

The Wife: I love movies. Movies that appeal to the “elitist” crowd, hilariously dumb movies, romantic comedies and yes, even so-called children’s movies. I try to approach movies without judgment and enjoy them for what they are. People who think every single movie that they see must be “Oscar Worthy” really need to get over themselves. If you are one of those types, then you probably would never give the latest Ice Age sequel the time of day. And for that, I feel sorry for you, because once again Ice Age didn’t fail to entertain and keep me laughing!

Ice Age: Continental Drift is the fourth installment of the Ice Age franchise. Let me start by saying that I love the Ice Age movies, so perhaps this review could carry a shred of biased thought. The first Ice Age, of course, is the best one. The sequels, however, haven’t been bad. They have all been entertaining and made me laugh like a kid again. I like the Ice Age series because while they are geared for children, they contain many jokes and are funny enough to appeal to adults. I was slightly concerned that this particular Ice Age film may have lost its edge due to being a fourth sequel. This seemed to have happened to the Shrek franchise, which started great and then got a bit stale by the third movie (don’t get me wrong I still like all of the Shrek movies). However, Ice Age: Continental Drift held up nicely with it’s predecessors, and Hobo Dan and I both had a great time at the theatre watching it.

Visually, this movie looked great. It didn’t compare to Brave looks-wise, but let’s face it; Pixar is tough to compete with. Ice Age: Continental Drift was a perfect summer blockbuster for children, and one that parents, or adults like us, could enjoy as well. It delivered laughs and once again, the plot involving the hilarious trio of sloth, Sid, saber, Diego, and woolly mammoth, Manny, was hilarious. The squirrel from Ice Age nearly stole the show in his never-ending search of his beloved acorn. While I wouldn’t deem this latest installment of Ice Age to be Oscar worthy in the animated category, it was still a great movie and one that families will enjoy. Brave, of course, is the better of the two “kids” movies, but like I said above, Disney-Pixar is just hard to compete with. I should also mention that you get a fabulous Simpsons short prior to the movie, and I think we enjoyed that as much as Ice Age: Continental Drift, if not more. That was almost worth the movie ticket cost alone!

Zoo and Baseball

Rhino!

Last week’s 4th of July holiday served as a five-day weekend for us. With our power back (see Meltdown 2012 for an explanation) we basked in the glory of electricity and enjoyed a mini-vacation of sorts. Zoo, baseball, relaxation, and of course, beautiful air conditioning, made for an enjoyable time!

The Wife: On the 5th, we headed to the Columbus Zoo! Our annual zoo trip has become a summer tradition for us. Unlike last year, Google Directions didn’t cause a rage fest to occur and we made it to the zoo in perfect time without getting lost in the greater Columbus area. Boom! This may have been the hottest it’s ever been at the zoo as temperatures peaked over 100 that afternoon. Thanks Global Warming or Manbear Pig!? I am waiting for Al Gore to rescue us by taking this summer heat wave down to a breezy 75 degrees.

Complaining aside, the heat really didn’t bother us, and the day went swimmingly. Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming! We got excellent views of some animals we never see and I was able to get some fantastic pictures. Other than witnessing a giant brown bear stare me down through the glass as he took a massive poop and seeing the male elephant try to mount the female elephant multiple times, the animals were great! I appreciate Jack Hanna’s work at the Columbus Zoo to make it different from run-of-the-mill zoos. The animals at the Columbus Zoo thrive in a more natural habitat setting and the zoo has taken efforts to protect endangered species. They deserve kudos!

Hobo Dan: Melvin the elephant steps up to the plate and takes a few practice swings. The crowd roars in excitement, and because they are all lions. A few nervous Zebras in the upper deck whisper about steroids use and the Hall of Fame. Melvin ignores it all, he is in the zone. The pitcher, a tall orangutan named Muffins checks first base and waits for the signal from his catcher. Fast ball, down the middle is the call. Muffins winds up and lets it fly. Melvin tenses and then swings... What, huh? Sorry, I took one look at the name of the post and started writing.

This has been a seriously hot week! I think it went to my head. What better way to cure the heat illness? Go walk around outside at the zoo! The animals had the right idea. "Lets sleep in the shade." If aliens do visit this planet, what are the chances they see us as the most intelligent species? We are always out running around in inclement weather (sun bathing, skiing), attempting stupid stunts (sky diving, ramping anything off of anything, every event at the Winter Olympics) and generally engaging in meaningless, unfulfilling activities (Facebook, waiting in line, E!, video games, blogging). These animals have it right. If it's hot, sleep. If it's cold, go inside a cave and sleep. Hungry? Caribou anyone?

Inside PNC Park: Pittsburgh, PA. Go Buccos!

An even better cure for the heat sickness is sitting in direct sunlight for three hours straight watching guys play with their balls and sticks. Yay, homoexrotic baseball jokes! Seriously though, despite the power outage at the beginning of the week and the extreme heat, it was truly good to have some time off spent with the Wife. I love all the things we do together and am thankful we have the ability to do them. The only way the weekend could have been any better is if those two elephants at the zoo had gone at it so we could have filmed it to post up here. Don't pretend you wouldn't have watched...

The Wife: Friday and Saturday served as “staycation” days, although we did manage to drag ourselves out of the house once to see The Amazing Spider-Man! Sunday we enjoyed America ’s favorite past time as we ventured to PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, for a baseball game. PNC Park is absolutely gorgeous and is known to be one of the most attractive ball parks. Other than the scorching heat, it too, was a great day as the Pirates smashed the San Francisco Giants winning 13-2! Us Pirates fans have had a rough 19 years, so it’s been great to see this team doing well, and being there to witness such a great win was awesome. Go Buccos!

Below our some pictures from our travels:

Snake ssssss! Attempted Parseltongue and it posed. Lol Harry Potter FTW!

Gorillas are so cool

Adorable baby gorilla

Blog Note: As you know we have been doing some updates to the blog. Most recently we updated the About Dump and Relay tabs at the top of the page. Check them out!

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

This summer is another big one for super hero movies, so of course we had to review The Amazing Spider-Man for all you Dump readers!

The Wife: The Amazing Spider-Man is getting a really undeserved bad rep. Unfortunately this comes with rebooting a franchise so soon. Spider-Man 3 just came out in 2007; I mean, that's not even really that long ago! I am very set in my ways and Tobey Maguire will always be MY Spider-Man. However, with as much criticism and reservations as I had about The Amazing Spider-Man, I have to say it was a pretty good movie!

Was it blow your mind awesome? No. But it was ENTERTAINING! Even though I said Tobey is my Spidey, I think Andrew Garfield did a great job in the role. His interpretation is very different and I feel bad for comparing him to Tobey, but again, you will get those comparisons with a reboot so soon. Emma Stone was great as the character of Gwen Stacy, who I personally prefer to MJ. I don't dislike MJ, I am just more of a Gwen fan. Stone is so likable anyways and her performance made me enjoy the character even more.

While the plot did leave me very much with a "been there done that feel" due to so many similarities to Raimi's 2002 Spider-Man, I still really enjoyed The Amazing Spider-Man. It was very well paced with great action sequences. It had depth, despite some of the ooey gooey romance scenes between Gwen and Spidey (I mean seriously is all teenage love these days so angst filled?!). There were some moments where I felt ill from all the swinging Spider-Man effects, but some would call that a positive because you really did feel like you were in the movie. I, personally, could have done without all the first person view swing sequences though.

Overall, I would recommend The Amazing Spider-Man. If you are set in your ways and really liked Raimi's Spider-Man series, then you may have some issues. However, to a new generation, I can see this Spider-Man reboot carrying the same weight as its predecessor. Like I said, the biggest issue with this movie is that it came out too soon after the other series, and comparisons will be made, perhaps even unfairly. I am going to go out on a limb and say as a whole The Amazing Spider-Man may even be better than the 2002 version. To each his own though. Either way, if you see this, try to enjoy it for what it is and take joy in the fact that a new generation is getting their Spider-Man fix!

Hobo Dan: Haven't I seen this movie before? Yeah, in 2002 there was a Spider-Man movie. Tobey Maguire was in it, and so was Kirsten Dunst and Willem Dafoe and that stoner from Pineapple Express. I remember it like it was yesterday. Plot points? All the same. The only difference seems to be that the 2002 version is lacking the ever present 3D effects. Can I go back to 2002?

The Mildly Entertaining Spider-Man. I judged it from the moment I heard they were doing a reboot only ten years after the Toby Maguire version. So? I am working really hard to judge this on its own merits, but lets face it, ten years is NOT long enough to warrant a reboot. They MUST be compared. The Amazing Spider-Man is a pretty decent movie; despite the fact it suffers from Home Alone 2 syndrome. All the actors are good and the new Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is surfactant although far more emo than nerd. The story is your basic run of the mill hero origin story. Again I will stress it is taken almost exactly from the 2002 Spider-Man, but then again most superhero have that single set origin story that is always present in ever iteration. This one seems just a little too similar to 2002 for my tastes. Then again all the tweens this is apparently marketed towards may have never even seen the old version. The action is nice and the effects are on par with the expectations the year 2012 provides.

So why can't I like this movie? Well first, I paid three extra dollars to see this in 3D and noticed a total three 3D effects. A dollar an effect is a pretty steep price if you ask me. Maybe this has less to do with the film and more to do with the industry as a whole, but seriously, is anyone enjoying this price gouging? The teaser trailer for Despicable Me 2 had more 3D in it! Then there is the action itself. While this Spider-Man made swinging through the streets of New York look a little more terrifying, it also about made me vomit. Insert standard complaint about shaky cam (you've heard them all from me before, I won't bore you further). Then a few times the camera panned to a first person perspective and decided to be Halo or Call of Duty. No. No, no, no! Stop that. It's not cute, it's not awesome. It's giving me a brain tumor.

Every time Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy (yes nerds, Gwen not Mary Jane, no biggie in my book) were in a scene together being all twilight (my new word of interpersonal relationships involving teenagers; you like?), I wanted to bite my own tongue to fill my mouth full of blood. If this is how teenagers act towards one another these days, I'm not having kids.

Deep breath. This is a good movie. It may even be better than the 2002 Spider-Man we all seem to hold so dear. However, it is lazy. Only ten years later and we are already redoing Spider-Man, the film that arguably kicked off the Comic Hero movie craz? What's next a Green Lantern reboot after only two years? Okay, that is probably needed...

Review: Ted

During Meltdown 2012, we escaped to a theatre with power to see Ted. We hoped an idiotic comedy could temporarily let us forget all about our lack of electricity. So in a special saturday post for our Dump readers, here are our thoughts:

Hobo Dan: There were some truly funny moments in Ted. Then there were some truly dull moments. It's like Seth MacFarlane (director) had no idea what he wanted the movie to be. At moments it was Family Guy in live action. Then it tried to be serious. I don't tune into Family Guy for serious and I didn't go see this for it either. Up and down is how I'd describe it. The highs were pretty high and some very good laughs. The lows never got so bad it made me hate the movie, but they sure slowed it down. I kept waiting (anticipating) for the moment when the movie just went insane and never returned. It never came. It just predictably went on about its business.

Thankfully there were far more laughs in Ted than shown in the trailers. I hate it when movies, particularly comedies, give you everything in the two minute preview. All the actors did well, although I didn't buy Marky Mark (Mark Wahlburg) and Mila Kunis as a couple. The best part of the film for me was Patrick Stewart's fantastic narrations at the beginning and end of the film. Yes I do have a man crush on Captain Picard. Problem?

A totally serviceable comedy. Not the greatest ever made, but certainly not the worst. Unless you really like Seth MacFarlane, I'd wait for Netflix

The Wife: I went into Ted fully prepared and expecting to see a dumb, meaningless, unintelligent comedy. Well, mission accomplished, because that is exactly what I got! Ted was pretty funny. However, it is no where near the level of The Hangover funny, or even Horrible Bosses for that matter. Like Hobo Dan mentioned above, at times it felt like I was just watching Family Guy in live action format with a fuzzy bear. Even Ted (the bear), sounded a bit too much like Peter Griffin. However, this complaint was made up for when Ted actually said something like "I don't sound like Peter Griffin!" Well done, Seth MacFarlane. Well done.

As for the plot of the movie, it was what I figured it would be — absolutely ridiculous and silly. What else do you expect from a film that features a foul mouthed teddy bear? The dirty jokes, innuendos and other idiotic funny moments really worked. However, at times the plot became scattered and all over the place. Towards the end, the tone actually turns a little too serious for a movie of this nature. I found myself actually getting sad. I didn't come to see Ted for drama! Fortunately the "emotional" scenes quickly turned so the audience could get the expected happy, yet amazingly dumb and funny ending.

Acting wise, I think Ted featured a pretty good cast. That being said, the romantic chemistry between Mila Kunis's character, Lori, and Mark Wahlburg's character, John, wasn't really there. I love both of these actors and find them to be great in other roles, but they weren't believable as a couple. Anytime there was a kiss scene of some sort Wahlburg looked uncomfortable. Both Kunis and Wahlburg were good in their roles as their individual characters, but as a couple, not so much. Like Hobo Dan, I too, LOVED the beginning and end narration of Captain Picard. I may start a nerd war, but Star Trek: The Next Generation is the BEST! Ryan Reynolds also has a very short, but hilarious part in the film, which was probably one of my favorite scenes in Ted. Oh man, I love Ryan Reynolds!

Overall, Ted was funny. That being said, I'd save this one for Netflix.

Be sure to check back on Monday as we take on The Amazing Spider-Man in our Movie Monday post! Also, in case you are wondering, our electricity returned on Wednesday. Hallelujah!