Daily Archives: July 10, 2011

Television! The Summer season!

TV

Since the standard TV season is over, the summer series has kicked into high gear.

Top Gear (UK) is back in full force and good as ever. I think the US edition comes back on at the end of this month too. True Blood, the best trash on TV is back as well and the character arc changes they are making a pretty smart. The series was getting ultra whiney by a lot of the characters and many of them have grown up and changed in the first 2 episodes so that’s promising.

Real World/Road Rules challenge is back on (“Rivals”) and I just watched my first episode so that’s always fun to watch. Weeds is back too, which at this point I think I watch just out of habit now. They always do something to keep me watching and I genuinely like the characters. Last season had a crazy ending and they’ve jumped the timeline ahead 3 years which was a surprise for me. Much like True Blood a lot was getting stale so the writers have found a new road to shake off some shackles (plus the actor that plays Shane has become a man since last season and grown like a foot and a half, so that helps explain that). Still a bit early to see if it’s worked, but I’m hopeful.

I’m watching Franklin & Bash and Falling Skies on TNT, which are both new. I think F&B is the first lawyer show I’ve put any time into and I like it. Falling Skies is filling my sci-fi spot in place of Fringe (which had a fantastic season) and The Event which was canceled (bummer since the final few episodes were very good too). Wise choice with starting the show 6 months after the alien attack, we can avoid the expected “shock and awe” beginnings there and get on with things faster. Show seems kinda slow so far but it’s still intriguing. It’s 4 shows in so far and we’re getting a better take on the invading force, which I like.

Comedy is going strong with Wilfred and Louie on FX (continuing their awesome original programming line up, year round) and Futurama on Comedy Central. Last weeks Futurama in particular was really funny.

Transformers 3 the Review

Movies

Dark of the Moon lumbered into theatres recently and after being insulted by how bad Transformers 2 was, I was really wary of this one. I enjoy Michael Bay movies, I know what I’m in for when his summer blockbusters flash their stuff. Transformers 2 was a rushed trainwreck of a movie and I’m happy to see that Bay and his team pulled their shit together and made a fun movie to watch again.

The Decepticons are up to no good again, setting a trap for the Autobots to bring their home planet, Cybertron, back from the ashes. The human race isn’t going to come out on top if the Decepticon’s plan comes to fruition. Shia LeBeouf and most of the previous cast are back to run around the Autobots feet while all hell breaks lose. Hey, some humans need to help out the giant robots save the planet. Of course the movie has it’s fair share of problems, long run time that could have been pulled in here and there, forced humor, really awkward moments (the talk in the RV with Sam and his parents comes to mind first), but the movie makes sense and is often a lot of fun to watch. There are some really great action scenes and the mindblowing special effects (really some of the best CG ever put on screen, there’s many parts where it looks like there are real giant robots being filmed. Amazing composite work between CG and live action). It’s still cool just to see Optimus Prime and company transform! The addition of filming in 3D was done with a lot of care and it shows. Bay took all the right advise and kept just about all of it to adding depth to the scenes instead of that terrible “pop out at you” stuff. The technology forced him to shoot in wider and longer takes and that just helped every action scene pop and be memorable. The action scene on the highway was thrilling and the squirrel suit jump team sequence was some fantastic filmmaking. Carnage never looked or sounded so good.

Transformers 3 is a Michael Bay movie that works well. Knowing that, you’ll know what to expect so you can set your expectations accordingly. But lets be honest here, Transformers was a terrible cartoon to begin with. We ain’t talking about sterling source material to begin with. It won’t win over any of the hardcore haters, but you can’t please everyone all the time.

True Grit the Review

Movies

Last years Oscar contender, True Grit continues to prove that the Cohen Brothers are easily one of the best film makers working today. A remake of the book of the same name (and movie from 1969), it’s such a treat to watch a bad ass Western these days. A classic tale of revenge, young Mattie Ross hires a Marshall, Rooster Cogburn to find her fathers killer, Tom Chaney. She’s a tough girl who won’t take no for an answer, hell bent on seeing Chaney be punished for his senseless crime.

True Grit is awesome from top to bottom. A great script that is surprisingly funny is brought to life by a fantastic cast. Jeff Bridges (who has been on a roll these past few years), Josh Brolin (him too, thanks to the Cohens as well) and a surprise casting choice with Matt Damon as LeBeouf fill out the main cast. But the real star here is Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie and she’s amazing. The entire movie rides on her shoulders and she kills it in every scene. She’s relatively new to the business and at 15 years old her performance was that much more impressive.

Watch it!