So I saw two movies over the weekend: X-Men: The Last Stand and The Break-Up. One was much better than the critics said it would be, and the other was just as terrible as they claimed.

Like any geek, I enjoy a good comic-based movie. As a kid I never read any comics beyond Archie (man, I miss those stories!), so I didn't know all that much about X-Men that I didn't pick up from exes who watched the cartoon on Saturday mornings. I loved the first movie and enjoyed the second, but each of them seemed to drag and delve into mythology I wasn't familiar with. But this one just went for it. The action sequences were awesome, and the pacing was much better than the last two movies. I was shocked at the body count and flabbergasted at who all got hit with the "cure." And the ending left me with much to talk about with Elena on the short drive home. I understand that xmenophiles may be turned off by the lack of continuity between the movie and the comics, but I didn't mind it one bit. In fact, I dug it a lot.

The Break-Up, on the other hand, was very, very, very, horribly, very, fan-fucking-tastically bad. It was like an episode of Friends, except way less funny. I can't decide if Vincent D'Onofrio, who was cast rather brilliantly as Vince Vaughan's older brother, was playing his character as affected, or is just affected himself these days. Either way, he made me cringe every time he stumbled and stuttered through his lines.

The entire movie felt like the filmmakers only took one take. If Judy Davis flubs her line, just work around it. If Vince's timing is off, too bad. If the chemistry isn't there, get them to date in real life. If the story makes no sense, just slap it together and throw it onto the big screen. It was very unimpressive.

I'm listening to: I picked up two new albums this week: The Avett Brothers's Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions, which is kind of (ahem) country, but in a fun, Spirit of the West kind of way. There's a song called "Pretend Love" that I'm going to try my best to get my friend Jalapeno to play for the first dance at her wedding. I also finally picked up Amy Millan's Honey from the Tombs, which, somewhat coincidentally, is also a little bit country.

I swear, I don't like country!