Daily Archives: September 21, 2012

Review Rampage!

Movies

I’ve watched a lot of movies waiting for the Fall TV season to come and most of what I’ve seen can be put into quick hits.

Shame- Michael Fastbender as a sex addict equals Fastbender in a shockingly boring movie. This movie was all hyped up because of it’s subject matter and nudity. I found his character to be so incredibly pathetic and weird that seeing the credits roll was the best part of the movie.

Hesher- Joseph Gordon Levitt is Hesher, a guy who just doesn’t give a fuck. Who is he, where is from, where does he go? No one knows. He befriends a kid, TJ who recently lost his mother and generally hates life. Hesher, through a weird series of events helps the kid through the most difficult part of his life. Liked this one a lot and it took me by surprise. It was on odd but unique and touching story. You’re never really sure where it’s going but in the end the story is a good one. Natalie Portman, Rainn Wilson and JGL are all awesome and Devin Brochu as TJ was really impressive.

Project X- A High School party movie using the found footage directing technique. It’s cast well, the situations get bigger and crazier…even though it doesn’t really do anything terribly new, I thought it was a fun movie.

The Grey- It’s Liam Neeson giving Les Stroud a run for his money! Can this guy do no wrong or what? This time he’s caught in the woods trying to survive. Aside from some awkward looking wolf puppet attacks, it looked awesome and was a fun ride. Really liked the ending.

The Thing- The new one. I’m kinda torn about this one. Carpenter’s the thing is pretty much a masterpiece so it’s really hard for anything to walk anywhere near this universe. I think it did a lot of things right, it looked like it took place in the same time and place, it fits into the beginning of Carpenter’s movie well. The paranoia was played up well and they wisely avoided directly ripping the big moments off from Carpenter. That said. they didn’t really have a huge moment to hang their hat on. They show a lot of the monster frequently and it reminded me a lot of the stuff you see in anime (especially Gluttony from Full Metal Alchemist). I really want to see a making of to see how and why they choose to do things, what’s cg and what isn’t. It looks like they did as much as they could practically, added CG to enhance and full CG where they had to. I’m wondering if just being able to say that they did it with cg makes it less intense. Just knowing it’s digital makes it easier to brush aside [there is some wild shit they did with the attacks]. I got confused a lot because all the guys have beards so they all look alike. When the eating starts it was difficult to remember who was left alive. I’m totally on the fence about this flick. It wasn’t bad, it respected Carpenters movie but there’s just something that wasn’t right. I guess i’m just thinking it shouldn’t have been made which sounds really harsh. That makes it sound like the Psycho remake.

Fall TV has started!

TV

For me, it started with Sons of Anarchy which is off to a rowdy start! A few people have already died and the stakes have never been higher. Might be the best season yet based on what’s going on right now.

Weeds has finished it’s run and it’s better sweet. The show hasn’t been that good for some time and it really was time for the show to wrap up. Going into the last 2 episodes, it was set up for Nancy to relaunch her empire legitimately, hooking up with a tobacco company that was betting on cannabis becoming legal in the US. So how was the end written? About 7 years after that episode. It was really jarring to set up with. Stevie is getting ready to have his bar mitzvah and the first time you see him you ask, who the hell is that? Last time I saw him he was 5! So jumping ahead, some old characters are brought back for a cameo or a helping hand. Nancy managed to convince Conrad to work with Silas to regrow MILF using the land bought by the tobacco company. She also manages to convince Guillermo not to kill her and team up to sell on his turf, giving him a share of the company. The bet works and the company takes off, they are in a legal drug trade. Now Starbucks wants to buy them out. So success finally comes to Nancy, but her family is completely splintered. For some reason they married and killed off the rabbi Nancy started seeing in this season which I can’t understand why. Silas has moved away and married his first girlfriend (the deaf girl from season 1 or 2) and has a young daughter. Andy took off running after finally managing to sleep with Nancy (which was SUPER weird) and never looked back. Doug made a cult and Shane is a drunk because he ran off with that loser cop from last season. So in the end, everyone comes back together so Nancy is reminded she isn’t completely alone. It was a bitter sweet ending. The last episode was so weird, that the end was just crammed in because more than one last season was being written when they started season 8. While the show paled in comparison to it’s start, I still liked the characters. The 5 main actors all stuck with the show and the last scenes is them sitting outside together smoking a joint. While the family is broken, you’re left with the feeling that everything will be alright. There is music playing over that final scene and Doug says something that makes everyone laugh, I’d love to know what he said. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t scripted, Kevin Nealon looked like he said something real to his castmates.

FaceOff is still a great watch and it’s sister show, Hot Set is now on right after it. It’s about set design/production and while it’s interesting, FaceOff is a much cooler show.

Boardwalk Empire is back for season 3 and I just remembered I need to watch it! After the shocking finale, this season has a lot to live up to.

The next 2 weeks see the return of more shows than I can really think of. Fringe being my real go to as it’s only going to be 13 episodes until the series finale! Happy it didn’t get canceled and they’re going to be able to give us an ending.