The Cynical Critic

Last week the new Indiana Jones finally debuted, and for the most part, most hardcore fans of the series were disappointed. I went and saw the movie yesterday, and as I suspected, was mildly let down with the film as a whole. Anyway, I might as well give a review on the movie. However, I just got done reading something about this film before I wrote this, and to tell you the truth it kind of has put me in a crappier mood than before. In fact, it kind of has changed my outlook on this movie as a whole. Eh. More on this later.

So, as you know by now a fourth Indy movie has been in the works for quite some time, and the truth is Lucas had always planned on doing another one assuming him, Ford, and Spielberg could agree on a script. Unfortunately for us the viewers, it took them about ten years to decide on one. However, that must mean that the it was a script truly worth waiting for right? Wrong. What we got instead was a script that truly has no place in an Indiana Jones movie, nor does it even belong in an Adventure/ Action genre, and an overall let down from a man who is continuing to betray his fans, George Lucas.

The Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls (CS for short) really suffers from a plot that really just doesn’t seem to fit. If you don’t know by now (and you don’t want to read any spoilers), I suggest you skip this paragraph, because I am going to be discussing a number of the plot elements. The main idea behind the film is the discovery of aliens. Yes, that’s right. Indy is more or less on a quest to find an alien lifeform that supposedly once existed on earth. Now, to be honest this idea really isn’t terrible, and it certainly could be doable, considering Indiana Jones was never know for it’s realism. However, what this movie does wrong is that for starters, it makes the viewers think that Indy is still on a quest for some ancient artifact and yet when in reality he is just searching for some extra terrestrial lifeform (this isn’t truly revealed till about 3/4 of the movie). And if that weren’t bad enough, Spielberg actually chooses to show us not only the alien, but an actual alien spacecraft as well. As a result of this, it just makes the movie go from “believable fantasy-adventure”, to “unrealistic sci-fi”. It really seems to leave a sour taste in your mouth.

Okay, now that we are done discussing the plot, we might as well talk about the rest of the writing and dialogue. The past Indy movies have always been known for it’s combination of humorous writing, with fast paced action. Ford’s portrayal of Indiana Jones is always a character of both sarcasm, and quick wit. I feel that this movie really lacks in these areas. Numerous times in CS it really feels that their are these awkward lulls, where a character (most notably Indy) should have some sort of come back, or one liner targeted at an opposing character, but instead of that all we get is silenced. I really don’t think this is Ford’s fault, and that the blame falls squarely on Lucas’ recent writing abilities.

The acting in CS is both good and mediocre at times. Ford gives a really great performance in my opinion, and really seems to flesh out an older, more mature Indiana Jones. His age never really seems to be a problem, and the characters (as well as the actors I assume) do not try to hide the fact, as many of them even make jokes about how old he seems to be. Shia Lebeauf gives a decent performance as “Mutt”, Indy’s sidekick throughout the film. However, on the opposite side is Karen Allen who gives a “Meh” performance at best. A lot of the times it seems her character was thrown in for no other reason than pure nostalgia. Finally, Cate Blanchett gives a mediocre performance at best, and turns out to be probably the lamest villain in Indiana Jones history (however it’s possible that isn’t entirely her fault, and once again can be blamed on the writing).

As far as the action goes, Crystal Skulls definitely has some high points. Ideally, the motorcycle chase and the warehouse fight are both great scenes. Unfortunately, a lot of the other high action scenes are really ruined (at least in my eyes), by the over use of CG animation. Something I find highly unacceptable, especially when Spielberg himself promises that the film would be shot oldschool, and with little to no use of CG.

Finally, perhaps the worst thing about the Crystal Skulls is the overabundance of either “near impossible” scenes, or scenes that are entirely pointless and really take away from the mood and setting of the movie. Some of these ridiculous scenes include the anti-communist monkeys, Shia Lebeouf as Tarzan, all of the good guys falling down three separate waterfalls, and finally the infamous “fridge” scene along with the completely CG animated gophers. All of these scenes really make the movie feel almost more like a parody, and it’s really hard to take the film serious.

Overall, the Crystal Skulls really suffers from poor writing, and in the end their is no one to blame other than Lucas himself. As we all watched bastardize the Star Wars prequels, so too has Lucas inevitably screwed up Indiana Jones. It seems he has truly betrayed his fans for a quick buck. And to be honest, it really makes me mad. Both Ford and Spielberg originally turned down a script that almost the same theme as Lucas’, but after time Lucas eventually managed to convince the two into doing more or less the same idea.

Now with that all aside, Crystal Skulls isn’t a bad movie by any means. It certainly has Indiana Jones elements to it (in fact the first 45 minutes of it are really pure Indiana Jones gold), and the bond/ relationship between Ford’s character and Lebeouf’s is something that really adds to the series overall. Along with that, it’s still great to see Ford dawn the whip and fedora once more. Unfortunately, as a result of crappy writing, pointless scenes, and stupid CG animation, The Crystal Skulls turns out to be the weakest link in the Indiana Jones series. Personally, let’s just hope they make a fifth movie so they can end the series on a higher note.

6.2/ 10

Just last Saturday I went to the movies to see a new flick. Reluctantly, I decided on checking out the new Chronicles of Narnia movie. To be honest, I wasn’t a big fan of the first. As usual, Disney had toned down a lot of the action/ adventure in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and to be honest I figured they would do the same thing with Prince Caspian. To my surprise however, I was wrong.

For the most part, the first Narnia movie suffered from a number of issues. Number one, the acting was a bit unbearable at times. I think the movie really seem to suffer from it’s lack of experienced actors, and possibly even it’s “PG” rating. It’s really hard for me to take a movie serious that will absolutely go out of it’s way to show some one get killed, and that’s exactly what the first Narnia did.

Prince Caspian on the other hand, is a borderline PG-13 movie, that some how got away with it being PG (probably because most of the violence/ death is related to mystical beasts being killed, and not humans). While I am on this point, I might as well come out and say it, the battles in Prince Caspian are seriously awesome. The movie itself is two and a half hours long, but with the exception of the very beginning, it moves fast. Throughout the majority of the movie there are constant skirmishes, struggles, and all out battles. A couple of the fight scenes (one in particular) are extremely well coreographed, and considering the movies PG rating, are comparable to epic battles scene in movies like Brave Heart, and Lord of the Rings. Honestly, they really impressed me that much.

Another large improvement from the last movie has to be the acting. I was actually surprised at the number of emotionally powered scenes their were in this movie that really seemed to have my attention. Once again the visuals are top notch in Prince Caspian, as well as the landscapes. I don’t know if it’s the filming, or different location this time around, but Narnia definitely feels much more like a huge fantasy world than it did before.

Overall, Prince Caspian is definitely a film worth considering. If you are a fan of the Narnia series, then chances are you have already checked it out. If not, but you are still looking for something to hold you off till the new Indiana Jones movie, then I suggest checking this out. At the very least it’s worth a rental for the battles alone.

6.9/ 10

For the past week and a half or so my entire life has been consumed by a single force. I have been staying up late, and getting up early (ok, not really) all for the sake of this thing. Even when I’m not playing it, I am at least thinking about it, or playing it in my head. In case you don’t know what I am meaning, I am talking about the highly controversial game that just came out, Grand Theft Auto IV. GTA IV is a landmark in video gaming. It is a game that truly feels more like a cinematic experience at times. With a plot that rivals a big budget film, an environment that resembles an actual city, and controls that would make a Mario game jealous, GTA IV really delivers. But let’s take a more in-depth look on what this game has to offer, and see if it’s really worth the sixty bucks you’ll have to thrown down in order to enjoy it.

As you can see, graphically the game is a monster. I am still really amazed as to the incredible detail that is put into literally every inch of this game. I find myself occasionally zooming in on a car, or building in the middle of being chased by the police just to admire the particulars of everything around me. Things like dents in car bumpers, to cracks in the sidewalk, to numerous billboards stretched across Liberty City, everything really does look gorgeous. And it’s not even until you get to the game’s own version of New York City’s Time Square, does the game truly begin to overwhelm you with it’s graphical power.

Graphics aside, GTA IV is much more than just a pretty picture to look at it. Like all great art, GTA IV has depth (and boy, what an understatement that is). As far as the actual story mode goes, it is seriously huge. With over 90 playable missions, a cast of over a dozen voice acted (and let me say, very well acted) characters, more than a good hour of cinematics, the bare bones story mode will take players at the absolute least 30 hours to complete. Now throw in the countless side missions, openess and overall size of the city, and you have a game that will easily keep you occupied for many months to come. In GTA IV, Liberty City is absolutely huge. It spans three different islands, that are not only exceptionally large, but they are seriously crammed full with different buildings, sites and sceneries. I think it’s safe to say that Liberty City in GTA IV is easily the largest city in the GTA series.

As I mentioned early, the story in this game is top notch, Hollywood quality. Unlike a lot of the GTA games in the past where the stories were pretty simple (I.E. character gets out of jail, character gets betrayed, character goes after person that betrayed him), GTA IV offers a very compelling story, and some of the most interesting and in-depth characters I have ever seen before in a video game. The game tells the tale of Niko Bellic, a Middle European fresh off the boat, lured over to America by his cousin, Roman. Roman promises Niko wealth, fame, and pleasure, but when he arrives, he finds out that just the opposite is true. The game then focuses on Niko’s endeavors, along with his successes and failures. Never before have I really seen a character with such flaws fleshed out in a video game, such as GTA IV does. Along with this, GTA IV has a number of great supporting actors that are all superbly voice acted. Altogether it makes an awesome cinematic experience, that really draws the player in.

Aside from the single player experience, for the first time ever in a GTA game, IV offers full online multiplayer support for up to 16 people. The game types included range from simple “Deathmatch”
game types, to games where it’s cops against criminals, to “Free Mode”, a game mode that simply allows you and up to 15 of your friends to navigate the city freely. Multiplayer itself is truly a lot of fun. Just getting a bunch of friends over to terrorize Liberty City is a blast, but along with that it also makes a huge game even bigger.

The controls in GTA IV have been improved. One of the most noticeable things in IV is the driving. All of the cars in GTA IV handle a lot more realistically, which can be seen as a bad thing at first, but after awhile players will easily adjust to it. Probably the best improvement is the new aiming and cover system. The aiming system has been completely redone, and finally gives players a targeting system that is comparable to actual First and Third Person shooters. The cover system works much like Gears of War, in the respect that players can get behind pretty much every object in game to provide a wall between them and enemy fire. Both these aspects really add to the gameplay in GTA IV, and they are a much needed addition to the GTA franchise.

Needless to say however, I do have a few problems with GTA IV. One of them being the exclusion of the weapons that has made the series so popular. It seems in order to make the game more realistic, Rockstar decided to throw out some of the more “fun” weapons. Gone is the flamethrower, chainsaw, katana, and many others. Also, the military, as well as tanks have also been done away with.

Of course these are things that I can live without, and happily give up for an excellent game in return. Overally, GTA IV is a game that is seriously worth the sixty dollars I spent on it. I have put easily fifteen hours into the game, and I am not even close to being half way done with it. On top of that, multiplayer is an awesome addition, and will keep me distracted for months to come. It’s quite simple really. If you have played any of the past GTA games and even sort of liked them, buy GTA IV right now. If you haven’t played any of the past GTAs and you are looking for an all around great game, go ahead and get GTA IV. Seriously. It’s that good.

9.5/ 10

Alright, I got a nice little review for those of you out there that are interested. Today I’ll be taking a look at the movie, “Lars and the Real Girl”. Surprisingly, I ended up liking this movie quite a bit. Anyway, let’s get started and take a look at this film.

Ryan Gosling (The Notebook, Fracture) stars in this semi-sweet comedy about a man who finds love within a plastic cased “love doll”. Emily Mortimer plays the part of the lead actress, and Lars’ sister in law. She gives a stirring performance throughout most of the film, as does Gosling. More on this later.
The movie starts off with letting the viewer get a taste of Lars’ character. On first glance he seems like the normal person. He lives next door to his brother and sister in law, has an office job, and goes to church on Sunday. For the most part, Lars seems to be a quiet fellow who keeps to himself. Eventually, Lars finds out about a site where he can create his own “woman”, and has one shipped to his house.

After his new girlfriend arrives, Lars brings her over to his brother’s house, and at first they are quite shocked with Lars’ new girl. Eventually, they end up going along with it on doctor’s orders, and so does the rest of the town, thus is the basic premise of the movie.

The movie itself seems to be broken up into two halves. The first half, seems to deal with Lars’ “problem” rather lightly, and a number of laughs arise from this. The majority of the comedy often comes from awkward or silent moments, when certain characters don’t know how to react to Bianca (the name of the doll). Also, more laughs generally arrive as the townspeople become more and more accepted with Bianca, and as a result she basically becomes a part of every one’s life. Now, it should be mentioned that the comedy in this movie isn’t the type of comedy you may find in say a movie like Borat, or an Adam Sandler type film. It’s definitely a type of comedy that you have to watch for to actually laugh at, and even then you may not find it all that funny. Regardless, I did find this movie to be rather humorous.

The other half of the movie seems to be much more emotional, and really fairs more on the side of a Drama rather than a Comedy type movie. As Lars condition seems to grow worse, the viewer really gets a look at the type of person he is, and as a result it creates an emotional bond between the two. At this point, the movie really tries to focus on bringing out level of connection the characters in the movie seem to have, which in my opinion, works quite well. This half of the movie really seems to pull the viewer in, as well as possibly tug on their heart strings.

I guess while we are discussing the characters, now would be a good time to talk about the acting in this film. Gosling’s performance, to say the least, is well, great. It really is. He ended up getting an Academy Award nomination for it, which is fair, to say the least. He truly plays the part of some one who has some serious mental issues very well. He also does a great job of convincing the viewer that “Bianca” is actually alive. In fact, their are a number of powerful scenes where he is talking to her, that it almost seems like she is actually human.

Emily Mortimer’s acting is in this flick is also something not to be sneered at. She gives a great performance playing the part of the caregiver/ person concerned about Lars. I also feel that the chemistry between Mortimer and Gosling works quite well. Their are a number of scenes with them together that are down right powerful. Overall, she makes her character extremely real.

In the end, Lars and the Real Girl is a funny, albeit emotionally powerful movie, that truly shines with the addition of some great acting. If you are a fan of Ryan Gosling, or if you are at least just halfway interested in seeing what would happen if some one decided to date a sex doll, then I suggest checking this film out. Either way, Lars and the Real Girl is a really good movie, and it deserves credit for Gosling’s excellent performance.

7.8/10

Editor’s Note: I was mistaken about Gosling being nominated for his performance. The film was nominated for an Oscar, but it was for screenplay, not Ryan’s acting. I apologize for this mistake. On a side note, it seriously pisses me off that Gosling went unnoticed in his performance in this movie…

A couple of things first: Sorry for the lack of posts this past week. I have been really tired lately, and I have been struggling with things to review or look at (I haven’t been to the movies in months, and I have hardly had any time to rent stuff as well). On top of that, I haven’t played a new game in quite some time. Finally, I haven’t either bothered with new music. Basically, my life is pretty boring right now. But I’m sure you could careless about my piss poor excuses as to why I don’t bother writing. So, because of that, here’s a quick review of a movie I happened to catch over the weekend. Yay.

Dan In Real Life stars Steve Carell who plays a single parent struggling to raise his three daughters. Carell eventually takes his daughters to visit his parents as well as his family, where by strange luck he meets a girl. He falls for her, and it seems she feels the same, but their time is cut short as she gets a call from her boyfriend and she then leaves.  Later, Steve arrives at his parents cabin where his brother (played by Dane Cook) arrives with his girlfriend, who happens to be the same girl Carell had met earlier.

Although the movie certainly isn’t an Oscar winner or anything of that sort (nor was it meant to be), Dan In Real Life is still a decent comedy. Carell really seems to have found his role playing the part of just the average type guy. Dane Cook is definitely better in this film than his previous movie endeavours (Good Luck Chuck, and Employee of the Month). Cook is an actor who fairs much better as a supporting actor, as oppose to one where he plays the star role. Regardless, he plays the part of the younger, cool, hip brother, who you kind of want to hate.
Juliet Binoche also plays her part well as the main actress, and love interest for Carell.

Dan In Real Life isn’t necessarily one of those movies that will have you gasping for air because of it’s humor, but it certainly does have it’s funny parts. In a lot of ways I found this movie a lot like Meet the Parents, in the sense that a number of things consistently go wrong for the protagonist, but everything ends up working out in the end. Also, the humor in this movie is quite similar to Meet the Parents as well (which is a good thing). Regardless, it’s definitely better than Meet the Fockers.

Overall, Dan In Real Life is a decent, humorous comedy, and for what it lacks in over the top “LOL” moments, it more than makes up for it’s warm and charming characteristics.

6.5/10

So some time last week one of my friends had been telling me about this movie he saw on cable. He told me that it looked like one of the worst movies he had ever seen. So naturally, it had become my duty to make sure I saw this film. The following review is an obvious film candidate for “Terrible Tuesday”, and unlike most reviews where I try to keep my final judgment to the end, their really is no way of getting around it with this movie. It sucks. Honestly. It’s horrible. No. It’s worse than horrible. It’s (and this is a word I rarely use) atrocious. It literally is a bane on the human race. So if that’s enough info for you, then I suggest you stop reading right now and save yourself the pain and misery I had to suffer. If you really don’t want your day ruined, just click on the little x at the top right hand of this window, and continue going on with the rest of your life.

However, if for some reason you are into cruel and unusual punishment, if by chance you really enjoy self mutilation, or if “S&M” is your thing (don’t worry though, thats not what this movie is about), then I guess you may want to continue reading. But don’t you dare say I never warned you.

Continuing on now for those of you that are truly brave, let me first tell you the title ad director of the movie before you decide to go any further. The movie was directed AND written by Jean Claude Van Damme. No, that’s not a typo. No, I haven’t lost my insanity (yet). This movie was literally written, directed, and acted out by Jean Claude Van Damme. He more or less did everything himself. Are you scared yet? Wait it gets better. Let me tell you the title of this film. Are you ready? Ok. Here it is:

THE QUEST

Yeah. Thats right. The name of the movie is The Quest. Seriously. This is quite possibly the most generic movie title ever conceived. Honestly, they could have just named the movie “fighting guy” and it probably would have been better. Or better yet, they could have just called it “MOVIE”. At least that way it would most likely get overlooked. So then, how are you doing? Are you still hanging in there? I’m guessing right about now that escape button on your keyboard is looking real nice. But if you do decide to stick it out, let’s continue. Here, let’s take a look at the movie poster for this film.

Wow. Yeah. I’m more or less speechless right now.

It says Go the Distance. Ok, I’m gonna go the distance. The distance to the rental store to take this piece of crap back.

So then, since you have allowed your eyes to see this horrible image, we might as well continue with the rest of this movie. The film starts out in a bar. An aged man orders a drink and sits down. Soon after a couple of extremely cliche’d “hoodlum” type guys walk in. They are classically dressed in both black leather and chains, and as if that wasn’t enough the leader guy is armed with a switchblade. Oh goody. Anyway, the three guys threaten the bartender, but are then stopped by the old guy, who is revealed to be Van Damme. The bartender asks where he learned to fight like that but Van Damme doesn’t answer. Cue the title screen. Yay.

The movie jumps back to 1925 (WTF), and shows a Van Damme who is a pickpocket and steals money to give to his “kids”. He is chased by the police while running through town on a pair of stilts, and eventually he stows away on a ship with some pirates. The pirates find him, but he is rescue by Roger Moore (the guy who played James Bond) and is then stranded on an island and force to learn Muay Thai. And just for clarification, I didn’t make any of that up. That is literally the actual first 45 minutes of the film.
Around this time what can only be described as a flashback occurs. At least I think it’s a flashback. It’s a completely different scene than from what was happening before. The scene depicts a boy and his mother sitting on a park. The boy picks up a piece of paper, and then the scene is over. It lasts about fifteen seconds.

After this, Van Damme escapes the island and meets Peter Moore again. Van Damme is obviously pissed, but Peter Moore tells him about this fighting tournament where the grand prize is a “Golden dragon, made out of gold.” Yes. That is an actual line from the movie. A Golden dragon made out of… gold. So Van Damme agrees, and they head off for the tournament. What follows is a good ten minutes of people riding on elephants, donkeys, horses, people walking up hill, people walking down hill, people crossing streams, and people walking through forests. Needless to say, one could leave, make a hot pocket, eat it, come back and they still wouldn’t had missed anything.

Eventually they get to the tournament and it is full of cliche’d fighters. Their is a guy from Germany who looks remarkably just like a Nazi even though Nazis didn’t exist yet. Their is a fat guy, who presumably plays the role of the sumo wrestler. Their is a Jamaican guy who break dance fights. Yeah. Then their is a little Chinese guy who fights like a monkey. Cool. Finally, their is a Scottish guy who fights in a kilt, and the main bad guy, some huge dude from Mongolia. As you can see, the cast is quite diverse.

Anyway, to make this as painless as possible, Van Damme fights a bunch of these guys, and ends up winning. He then takes on the Mongolian guy who as literally crushed everyone in his way. He loses pretty bad at first, but then for no real reason comes back and wins. At first I didn’t really realize this was the last fight, because the movie must have decided that it wasn’t a good idea to lead up to it at all. After the fight was over the next scene was another flashback of the little boy and his mother. This time the boy crumples up a piece of paper and the scene ends. The movie then goes straight to the credits.

Ok, so basically at this point I am just sitting their with this look on my face as if to say “WTF.” During the time of the flashback scene I was expecting something to happen. But then it was over. So then I thought, “Oh, I bet they are gonna explain it’s relevance to the story that just happened.” Instead, immediately after that scene the credits begin to roll. I just sat there, confused and puzzled. Until finally it dawned upon me:

The flashback scenes have absolutely no purpose to them whatsoever. They are entirely, pointless.

Aside from that their isn’t a whole lot about the movie to be said. As you may have read the plot is basically horrendous. I guess I should mention that this movie has the distinction of having quite possibly the worst soundtrack I have ever heard. At certain points in the movie I felt like shoving dull butter knives into both my ears. It really is that bad.

I give this film a 7.5 on the crap-o-meter. If you are really looking for a terrible film, this may suit your wants. Finally, if you really don’t believe anything I just said, take a look at this movies trailer. If you don’t at least chuckle at just how bad it is, then congratulations, because you sir are either dead or a robot.

So it’s Tuesday today, and yet their seems to be no sign of a “Terrible Tuesday” post. Yes, that’s right. For the time being I am way too lazy to think of something worthwhile to review. Or for that matter, something crappy to review. However, time dictates that I try to post something at least once or twice a week in order to attract viewers. Go figure. So here it is. My completely and utterly pointless review of McDonald’s Sweet Tea. Are you mad yet that you even bothered to click on the link to visit my blog? Well too bad. It doesn’t even matter at this point if you read this or not. All that matters is the TRAFFIC I receive from you being here. HAHAHAAA.

Ahem. Well, anyway, I guess we might as well get this time waster over with. Here’s a pic in case you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about.

Yay. It’s a picture of tea. Yay. This is a review of tea.

I guess I should start with describing the product or something. In case you haven’t notice the thousand commercials that have been advertising this product, McDonald’s released their own version of Sweet Tea some time last month. The tea itself comes in a special “ICECOOL” container that supposedly layered with a styrofoam of sorts in order to keep your drink “Nice and frosted.” Yeah. Basically it’s a cup. Why does McDonald’s feel the need to give you a different cup than what they serve all their other drinks in? I really have no clue on this one. The tea itself costs 99 cents, so technically it makes it cheaper than their cheapest soft drink (which is a dollar). Just think of all those great things you could be buying after saving a penny. You could:

• Ride the horse at Meijer
• Buy a stick of gum
• ????

• Kill some one by dropping it off the top of the Empire State Building

Yeah. Doesn’t the feeling of saving one cent make you feel all warm and special? Yeah… Okaay. Anyway, let’s move on to the taste aspect. For the most part, McD’s Sweet Tea isn’t bad. However, it is a bit too sugary for my tastes. Now I know it’s SWEET tea, but it is so sweet it almost gets to the point where it is so overbearing that you don’t really even get to taste the tea part. Also, it might have been just me, but I swear the tea had a really weird after taste. I don’t really know what it was, but it definitely tasted kinda icky on the way down.

Comparing McDonald’s Sweet Tea to that of my favorite brand of Iced Tea, Arizona Tea, I feel that for the most part McDonald’s really fails in comparison. Although you do get more tea from McDonald’s in the ounce for ounce category (McD’s gives you 32 ounces, Arizona cans are around 24 ounces), it can be assumed that a good amount of that will be made up of ice (when I got mine, it was easily 35% ice). But as far as the overall taste is concerned, their really is no match. Arizona demonstrates why they are the kings of iced tea. Their Sweet Tea is exceptionally sugary, yet they also blend the tea with it nicely so neither flavor overpowers the other. Not to mention I feel that Arizona’s regular Iced Tea with Lemon beats the crap out of both sweet teas any day.

In the end, McD’s Sweet Tea isn’t a bad deal by any means (with the summer months ahead it may serve to be a nice alternate to that of a soft drink), but overall the drink really leaves you feeling less than satisfied. But then again, maybe I am just being overly critical…

Wow. I can’t believe I just wrote a review on iced tea. Terrible.