Vegas, Baby, Blah!

Okay, we get it, enough.

"21" tells the story of MIT students counting cards and taking Vegas for millions. It also shows-not-tells that Boston sucks compared to Vegas. Las Vegas is Oz; we're Kansas. There, you get to be anyone, anything. You're throwing money around, wearing designer suits, and banging hot chicks. Here, you're stuck miserably walking alone through "wintery mix".

Or so the juxtaposition of shots in "21" would have you believe.

On behalf of the great city of Boston, I would like to say:

1) Coming home from Vegas sucks, no matter where you live, and,

2) Living in residential Vegas sucks most of all.

Alright, location tirade, over.

Meanwhile, "21" is an okay movie. The underdog hero falls in with a powerful crowd, gets corrupted, redeems himself, etc. It's based on a true story, and the book, "Bringing Down The House." We like Jim Sturgess as the lead, despite his weird accent. There are also some new characters that weren't in the book, namely a blond love interest. Overall, everybody's fine in the acting department. The soundtrack was a little underwhelming. What I really liked, though, were the clothes.

Considering the amount of trouble other Vegas movies delve into, this one stays pretty PG.

Final Score = B-

Creepy PAs

Having just rewatched "Boogie Nights", we would like to award Philip Seymour Hoffman some sort of prize. His portrayal of Scotty J is one of the creepiest PAs we have ever seen.

And we have seen some creepy PAs.

A Civil Action (1998)

"A Civil Action" is Boston's version of "Erin Brokovich". Based-on-a-true-story, a lawyer fights against big company polluters on behalf of working class people, and their leukemia-stricken children. This Boston lawyer has the Brokovich tenacity, but unfortunately is a greedy jerk. Oh well, it's still a good movie.

Every rising middle aged star from the 1990's makes an appearance in this film: post-"Fargo" William H. Macy, pre-"Sopranos" James Gandolfini, post-"Misery" Kathy Bates, pre-"Monk" Tony Shalhoub... the list goes on. John Travolta, post-"Pulp Fiction" miraculous comeback, stars as the arrogant but not quite competent lawyer who bankrupts his firm.

The real star, however, is Woburn. Dirty, dirty Woburn. The drinking water smells like a Disney park ride, and sometimes the river catches on fire, but you can't beat the location! Characters keep describing it as a quaint New England town. They clearly didn't see the strip malls. At least they pronounce the name correctly.

This movie is interesting, well-made, and true to life... which does make it a bit of a downer. Still, it's got a heart and a subtle sense of humor. If only they'd left out the line about Roger Clemens.

Final Score = A-

The Top 5 Things We Learned About College... from Boston Movies

We've been rewatching some movies in our recently abundant spare time (cough-unemployment-cough), and thought it worth mentioning Boston's second most cliche movie setting: College.

Boston has a shitload of institutes of higher learning. If Boston movie characters aren't cruising around Southie in a beat up car, then they're probably attending college classes somewhere. If it's a Matt Damon character, then he's cruising through Southie on the way to class.

THE TOP 5 THINGS WE LEARNED ABOUT COLLEGE... FROM BOSTON MOVIES

5) Nothing says Boston movie like a Harvard sweatshirt.

Boston has 17 colleges, but you'd never know it. All movie students commute across the river to Cambridge, a completely separate city, to attend Harvard. Or maybe MIT. They most certainly do not go to BU, Northeastern, BC, Emerson, or Suffolk.**

**The rare exceptions that we could think of are Matt Damon's character in "The Departed" (Suffolk), and the ex-girlfriend from the Facebook movie (BU). Still, it's sorta implied that they would've gone to Harvard if they could get in.

4) Professors are perverts.

Alec Baldwin's sleazy professor in "My Best Friend's Girl". Stellan Skarsgard's creepy math professor in "Good Will Hunting". Victor Garber's sexually harassing law professor in "Legally Blonde". Who said there was no easy A at Harvard? Just see the professor after class....

3) Janitors and homeless people are smarter than the students.

This might actually be true. While we're specifically referencing "Good Will Hunting" and "With Honors", there's also a real life example of this: BU once invited the late Mr. Butch, the homeless King of Allston, to give a lecture. Now that would have been a great movie scene!

2) We only have tiered lecture halls in Boston.

That way, when the professor makes a joke, smarmy laughter ripples uphill. The class always seats 200+ people. We don't know how to build a classroom any other way.

A little fun fact, by the way: If you're watching a Harvard movie, it probably was not filmed at Harvard. Ever since the crew of "Love Story" damaged property, the University hasn't let a film crew in their buildings.

Instead, we often shoot at BU or Suffolk, regardless of what the script says. No wonder all movie classes look the same.

Degenerates.

Ruined it for everyone.

1) These schools are incredibly easy to get into...

Especially if you're poor. There must be a "Compellingly Lower Class" box on the Harvard applications. Dead parent(s) and a chip on your shoulder? Make sure to include that when you apply!

Because nothing says "underdog" like going to Harvard.