Cru Jones Society

Release Date: April 16, 1999
Box Office Gross: $299,569
Rotten Tomatoes Freshness Rating: 60%
Pertinent Review Line: “In this season of blaming everything on the movies, a film like “SLC Punk!” will no doubt inspire knee-jerk moralists to deplore its depiction of an anarcho-punk lifestyle. But remember: A movie isn’t about what it’s about, but about how it’s about it. What “SLC Punk” is really about is Stevo’s ironic distance on his lifestyle – about the way he lives it and analyzes it at the same time. The message isn’t “live this way,” but “look at the way you live.” There’s a little something there for all of us.” – Roger Ebert, Sun Times

Somewhere in American society the notion that coming of age stories could only feature the likes of Dustin Hoffman being seduced by an older woman, or a New Jersey kid learning to stand up for himself through the power of martial arts. When this kind of story comes along featuring people with odd hair or weird clothes it will often fall to the wayside. As Roger Ebert pointed out, this is what happened with SLC Punk!. Continue Reading »

Release Date: April 23, 1999
Box Office Gross: $14,902,041
Rotten Tomatoes Freshness Rating: 93%
Pertinent Review Line: “This story might have lent itself to pratfalls and broad gags, but Mr. Payne keeps it chillier. He sees the frailties of all the film’s characters, even if its plot is supposedly about winners and losers. And for all its nicely malevolent humor this is a story that ultimately leads to disillusionment. As in ”Citizen Ruth,” Mr. Payne has trouble resolving real issues with a simple ending. But the sentiment voiced by McAllister is ’It just makes me sad.’” – Janet Maslin, New York Times

Election is a movie often beloved by critics and film dorks, but it made it into our underrated category simply because on the mainstream whole the movie lacks the praise it is worthy of. It is a movie that gets play time on TBS, but during the off hours. One someone would stumble upon by accident. But the movie deserves much more than that and I’m here to tell you why. Continue Reading »

The alt rock band Cake once sang, “I don’t know much about Cinco de Mayo/I’m never sure what it’s all about.” Mostly I agree with this. I know there’s something about Mexico and conquering France or something. Since this is the case I, along with a few of you, and many members of the ska music scene take this opportunity to participate in Cinco de Mustache. The 2010 edition has been a lot of fun and only slightly disgusting. Now let’s get on with this parade of lip ferrets. Continue Reading »

One of the best parts about the Derby aside from the fancy hats, the all day drinking, the mocking of celebrities and the general feeling of awesomeness that comes from watching the sport of kings, is the horse names. We like this aspect so much we devoted a Confessional Question to it (be sure to answer that). But today I decided to scroll the list of winners over the past 27 years and I picked out the four names I liked the best, and the four I liked the least. Continue Reading »

This past Saturday I went down to the local record shop and partook in the activities of Record Store Day. For those who don’t know, this is a day devoted to celebrating independent record stores, place like Championship Vinyl from High Fidelity. There are special releases and live music; it’s like the end of Empire Records only not as over the top. Continue Reading »

It has been another long week, on top of that someone decided to throw a tax day into the mix. We don’t have a cash refund for you, but we’ll do you the next best thing, links to kill some time. How that’s the next best thing we’re not sure, but let’s just go with it. This week we have for you chess boxing, Hank Williams, and some live action (sort of) video games. Now insert your coin, press start and try for the kill screen! Continue Reading »

In 1989, with a stolen concept from Japanese television and America’s new found love for the home camcorder, a show was born. Like many shows it was never expected to last very long, but this show was scrappy and has now lasted 21 years. “America’s Funniest Home Videos” is now legally able to drink and I would like to toast it in my own way with a look back at why I continually turn to this show to entertain me. Continue Reading »

Flogging Molly once sang, “Today is the worst day since yesterday.” Well that day is not today. It’s Friday, it’s Opening Day at Coors Field, and there is a sweet ass UFC fight tomorrow. Today looks to be a very good day. And we hope to add to the goodness with a fresh collection of links including jokes from pretty ladies, AWK, and some Star Wars talk. We know that last one got everybody excited. Now set your phasers for fun, and let’s get to it. What? Phasers are Star Trek, not Star Wars? Whatever, nerd. Let’s just get to the links. Continue Reading »

From Santa Claus to Homer Simpson, everyone loves a fat guy, and at some point these fat guys were fat kids. We’re celebrating 80s cinema with some reflections about two of our favorite little butterball kids from some 80s classics. Dagger gave us chubby little Vern Tessio this morning, and I offer you Lawrence Cohen. Continue Reading »

Dagger was recently telling me how he had just watched Pineapple Express  and really didn’t like it. I agreed with him as I fell asleep about halfway through watching it and never bothered to re-watch the half I missed. As I thought more about how I did not care for that movie it dawned on me that I really do not like pot movies in general. In fact you could say that I hate pot movies. Continue Reading »

I never got  out of the single digit ages when I lived in the 80s and for me that worked fine. I had a great time enjoying things like the Smurfs and “Alf.” But as I watch all those movies I love from that decade I realize I wish that was when I was a teenager, despite the fact that I would be a lot older today. 80s movies teenagers took back the reigns from the disco loving jerks of the 70s and made it cool to be a teenager again. But eventually the cool teen would be replaced by horny morons who bang baked goods. But for one glorious decade they were king. Continue Reading »

Another April Fool’s Day has come and gone. We were fortunate enough to not play the role of fool to anyone. We hope you met the same fate. Now we have a weekend ripe with colored eggs and the start of baseball. But before we get to that we have our weekly collection of links. To help you waste your day we give you cars, MTV, and more Youtube videos than you really need. Now crack open that egg and read away. Continue Reading »

With opening day on Sunday, and due to our love of baseball, we thought we would get on the band wagon and give you our 2010 MLB preview reports. Over the next three days we will cover all 30 teams. We’ll start with the east and like Lewis and Clark, work our way west. The mornings will have our AL previews and at 12:30 (MST) you can catch the NL previews. Now let’s toss out the first pitch and get things under way. Continue Reading »

With opening day on Sunday, and due to our love of baseball, we thought we would get on the band wagon and give you our 2010 MLB preview reports. Over the next three days we will cover all 30 teams. We’ll start with the east and like Lewis and Clark, work our way west. The mornings will have our AL previews and at 12:30 (MST) you can catch the NL previews. Now let’s toss out the first pitch and get things under way. Continue Reading »

With opening day on Sunday, and due to our love of baseball, we thought we would get on the band wagon and give you our 2010 MLB preview reports. Over the next three days we will cover all 30 teams. We’ll start with the east and like Lewis and Clark, work our way west. The mornings will have our AL previews and at 12:30 (MST) you can catch the NL previews. Now let’s toss out the first pitch and get things under way. Continue Reading »

For the past two years, the Cru Jones Society has been a major part of my life. Spending the week looking back at these two years I realize I have a few random thoughts that by themselves do not warrant a whole post. Well, you understand how these random musing posts work, so here’s one centered more about our fun site that I call my internet home, though not the one marked as my homepage on the browser bar. Continue Reading »

When it comes to alcohol the most I ever think about it is, “What are we drinking? And has it gotten me drunk yet?” I thought I would change that for today. As I stared at the bottle of Jagermeister chilling in my freezer I started to say its name, as if it were singing Destiny’s Child to me, and I started to wonder what the hell the name actually meant. So I decided to look into it, and thought I would look up the name origins of some of the other liquors I consume. Now I will share this information with you, and save you some grunt work on looking up things you probably never would, because basically you have better things to do. Continue Reading »

Even though I was unfortunate and wasn’t able to go on the trip to Tucson, or maybe because I couldn’t go, I have been thinking a lot about vacations. I am more than ready to take one and I keep thinking about possible ones. However, it seems silly to speculate about how future vacations will turn out, after all I don’t know which vacation it will be that I get VD, hopefully none, but you never know. So instead, I though I would look back on my favorite trips I took as an adult.

I wanted to specify adult trips because there is something different about the trips one takes as a child and the ones as an adult. As a child almost every trip seems awesome. There’s no school and no cares. Your parents are taking care of all the arrangements and planning and everything. You just get to show up and have fun. But at the same time you’re at the mercy of your parents. They call all the shots and are just there. Plus the one key element that can change a lot of trips: booze.

Now that that’s set, let’s get on with it. Continue Reading »

We don’t know about you, but this has felt like a long week. But now it has finally come to an end. We’re just a few short hours from beer thirty and we plan on killing the time with some time wasting links. We invite you to do the same. And why wouldn’t you? After all this week we have frogurt, the best dead guy ever, and of course more Oscar talk. So duck the boss, kick back, and read on. Continue Reading »

By this point we are all aware that I am essentially a child in a man’s body. Not so much because I act immature, though I do have my moments, but this young age of mine revolves more around my enjoyment of toys, cereal, and cartoons. Today I would like to focus on that last one. Continue Reading »