In the Loop Box

I’m a bit behind with the movie posts.  I don’t know if I mentioned, but in order to keep track of the movies I see in 2010, my goal is to include them all in blog posts. 
About two weeks ago I saw In the Loop and The Box.  I didn’t love either one.
In the Loop (2009)
short description from Netflix:

When the US president and the UK prime minister decide to invade a certain Middle Eastern country, skeptical American and British operatives do their best to stop the runaway train to war in this scathing political comedy.

This one got good reviews and it looked like it would be funny but I didn’t really get into it.  I recognize the humor and the play of politics and the media and how all of it comes together to actually shape the world we live in through decisions made based on those things and all of that, but it didn’t reach me (typical lately).  The New Yorker review agrees with me but there were several funny bits, I’ll admit, and I think that others would enjoy the movie. 

The Box (2009)
Ok, this movie’s premise was intriguing – a family receives a box with a big red button, if one of them pushes it they get $1 million but someone they don’t know dies.  Now, there’s no such thing as a free lunch and we all know that going in but the movie goes in some strange directions.  The director, Richard Kelly, is the same person that directed Donnie Darko, which explains a lot.  I liked Donnie Darko, but there were some parts that I didn’t 100% get.
If you’ve seen the movie (or aren’t going to and don’t care if you find out what happens) there is a great Slate Spoiler Special on this movie that explores all the bizarre things that happen.  All I’m going to say is that the extraterrestrial forces and the time and/or space traveling water box threw me.  See it for yourself.

"Peeptastic"

Denver's only major newspaper, the Denver Post, held its first annual "Peeps Diorama Contest."  I may be wrong here but I'm thinking it's possible they are getting money or some kind of incentive from the Peeps company.  That's not important.  What is important is that the Peeps contest had A LOT of entries.  What I went ahead and did for you was peruse all 180+ entries and pull out some representative samples.  Oh, let me tell you right now that I had no idea this contest was going on.  Otherwise I would have had a peep in the race, as it were.

"Cute" 
As you might imagine, there were many entries from the 11 and under crowd (likely with parental help). Two examples:

This one falls in the cute category but it's special because it's transit!

"Peepatar" - there were several of these but not as many as the "lonely peeps club band" themed.

Witty, eh?

Uncertain

Sure, I get it, they are Peep musicians but...?

Are they supposed to be in the nest and the 2-D mother Peep is drawn on the wall??

ADULT

These were very amusing to me.

Weird

Now there were some that I was surprised to find.  I'll let them speak for themselves. Brace yourselves - you may not want to look at some of these...

"Peepzilla" - notice the little corpses

It took me a second to figure out what was happening. The sun can be harsher to some more than others, and, in this case, I don't mean just red heads!

um.

"The Peeps are coming" and they are pissed apparently.

This one was untitled but we can go ahead and call it "Peep Chainsaw Massacre"