Monthly Archives: June 2015

More! TV and movie bites

Movies, TV

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

I watched this a few weeks ago and didn’t write anything about it, so that should tell you how much it stuck with me. Not a bad movie, but it is very forgetable. It amounts to little more than a fantasy action film with great visuals (it looks amazing on BluRay). It feels like a waste of time to say prattle on about this movie other than, less really is more.

Horrible Bosses 2

Another not good, but not bad movie (there are a lot of those these days). The first movie is pretty good and made enough money to get the studio to order another one. Should they have? Not really. It’s got a few funny moments, but nothing even approaching a knee slapper or a rib tickler (the upper echelon of laughs, obviously). You aren’t missing anything if you don’t see this (Jennifer Aniston remains gorgeous though).

Mr. Robot

Ok, now something worth watching. This show just started on USA Network (!?) and it is fantastic. Loved the pilot. It’s about Elliot (Rami Malek), a brilliant but anti-social hacker who struggles to find happiness in a world full of brain dead and cruel people. He wants to change the world for the better and when Mr. Robot comes to recruit him for just such a purpose…

Rami Malek is fantastic as Elliot and a lot of his dialog sounds like how I write (big part of why I like this so much). Love Elliot as a character. A lot of cool ideas and execution, this show had me right from the opening scene.  I’m not an IT profesional, but the tech talk and hacking they show looks head and shoulders above what many hacker movies and shows have put out. It seems like they have writers/consultants who have actually done their research on how computer networks work. A lot of respect went into this show and it seems like a great season is in store for us. It already got greenlit for a second season too. I’m all in.

Falling Skies

The final season just started! Somehow Tom made it back from his suicide mission and the Espheni invasion has been sent reeling for the first time. The last push to take the planet back has begun! Good premiere to get back in, I”m looking forward to the rest.

Ink Master

It’s apprentice vs master this year. Really dig this show, but giving the human canvas more say in the deliberation is pretty stupid. Way too much bias at work.

Prisoners and Clones

TV

Orange Is The New Black- Season 3 had a much stronger ending than I thought was going to. I thought Piper was getting really soft and worn out, but they turned her something wicked for the end. She’s really becoming institutionalized which is surprisingly fun to see.

Pushing the backgrounds of the other inmates continued in this season which was great to see. Really creative and unique stories for each women, adds some much needed variety and depth to the show. They always manage to show off just enough in a good amount of time and insert the story where it fits into the overall narrative which is a real achievement. I like how self-contained they keep the stories, it’s never someone pouring their hearts out to a friend, but an internal remembrance of their past.  The people in their crew may know each other well, but they all have their secrets still.

This season ended a few story lines from season 2 while introducing a whole lot for season 4, so there is a lot to look forward to. So far Jenji Kohan has managed to keep the show on the rails better than Weeds.

Orphan Black- A good season, but not a great one, I think. Kept me engaged for all of its 10 episodes but something felt a bit off to me. Maybe because Sara gets out of every situation no matter what? I guess I felt like the stakes never felt that high, like they missed out on producing enough tension and suspense. Still a lot of great characters and moments so I’ll keep watching. They ended it by peeling back another layer to the onion, revealing a player who’s been pulling the strings from the shadows that no one knew about (how many times can you do that?). Here’s to hoping for more greatness with Season 4.

Wild

Movies

wild

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a Reese Witherspoon led movie. She’s been consistently acting, but in smaller parts for the last few years. Wild is a great reminder of what a fantastic actor she is.

After the death of her mother, Cheryl Strayed lost her way. After years of reckless choices catch up to her, she looks to nature to find herself. In the summer of 1995, she starts her on foot journey up the Pacific Crest Trail. For three months, she travels 1,100 up California, Oregon and Washington into Canada. Along the way she finds the person her mother always thought she was.

I liked Wild a lot more than I thought I would. A big part of how enjoyable this movie is is in the filmakers pacing and editing choices. It starts with Cheryl at the very beginning of her hike, struggling with the monstrous hiking pack she has. Her back story of her mother, her childhood and her failed marriage are perfectly spread without. It’s all given the right amount of time and context for the viewer to understand who Cheryl was, is and why she decided she had to hike an incredible distance.

On her journey, Cheryl is forced to be by herself. She can’t turn to any distractions or substance to run and hide from what has made her so unhappy. She has to learn and move forward, taking the time to understand why she’s done the things she’s done in her young life. Wild is the story of a person’s growth, a great introspective look on the human condition: what makes us tick, what makes us self destruct, and what makes us persist.

Along with the aforementioned terrific pacing and editing, is the sheer beauty of the Pacific Crest Trail. Some of the most beautiful untouched scenery the United States has to offer. Landscapes of all sorts, nature’s invitation to explore and conquer. Perfectly shot and presented.

Wild is the total package, I highly recommend it.

Odds and Ends Report

Movies, TV

Inherent Vice– Like half of director Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie, I didn’t get this one. I liked the visuals, there are some great actors (Joaquin Phoenix was fantastic in the lead role) I found it really hard to follow. It’s 1970’s Los Angeles and private investigator “Doc”, looks into the disappearance of an ex girlfriend. A plot like that is right up my ally, but I think the movie is just too long. I think I mentally checked out too many times and couldn’t put the pieces together as I missed too much. It’s something that happens to me in many of PTA’s movies. Can’t recommend it.

Sense8- The Wachowski siblings reach into the TV format for the first time in their storytelling careers. Many say their latest movies have been too packed with content to tell in the constraints of film so going on Netflix is pretty promising for them to really get into a new and fleshed out world for fans. Unfortunately, Sense8 is just a bloated TV show. While it has some good ideas and characters, it takes forever for anything meaningful to happen. With 12, 50 minute-ish minutes, the first season is a good three episodes too long. Multiple, overindulgent montages produce little more than eye rolls in lieu of good storytelling. There’s simply too many characters at play, this should be Sense6. Even if everyone has a big roll to play in the second season, Lito and Kala are a waste in this one. They drag these episodes down like boat anchors. There’s just not enough payoff in the end for anyone to care about them clogging up the rest of the show. Along with the spotty ideas is the dialog. While mostly well written, there are some terrible cliches and stupid dialog (that the actors are well aware of given their delivery). Comes off as really amateurish.

Orange is the New Black- I’m on the last half of the season and so far it’s the worst of the three so far (still good though). The really interesting thing is how the main character, Piper, isn’t the main character any more. It’s an ensamble show and she can be written out and wouldn’t be missed. The show would just be about the women of Litchfield prison (which it already is).

Transparent- Great show with Jeffrey Tambor as the lead, a real pick up for Amazon Originals. Really well written, acted and at 10 episodes gets a lot done. I just hate how Josh dresses, drives me nuts.

Hannibal is back for season three in all of its horrible decadent glory. This season is ditching the “killer of the week” formula so it’s shaping up differently than last season. The show that looks like every episode cost $5 million to produce is sharpening its claws in the darkness again.

Orphan Black ends this week, I’ll be back with more on that this weekend.

Ink Master returns next week, nice since I have no contest shows on right now until Face Off returns in July.

 

That Late Spring Slow Down

Movies, TV

It’s a bit quiet on the new TV front (The Following and Constantine are canceled) so now has been a good time to catch up on some movies and some shows on Netflix I’ve been sitting on.

The final season of Shameless (UK) finally went up on Netflix Instant and I charged my way through it. Solid season overall, a few actors returned for a bit which was great to see. Show ended on a positive note which I liked. Shameless went through a lot of changes in almost 10 years of production, I’m glad they got to bring it for a landing and the US version is still going strong so I still have more to look forward to.

Watched Re-Animator, a horror movie adaption of a HP Lovecraft story from 1985 which has been on my list for ages (I’ve been trying to do some spring cleaning on my queue, there’s stuff I’ve had on there for years that I need to make a move on). Re-Animator turned out to be pretty funny. 80’s horror flicks have a certain charm to them no matter the quality of the story and acting. The movie gets more absurd as it goes on with wilder and wilder special effects. I can see why fans have talked it up for so long.

Just finished season 3 of House of Cards, didn’t touch it since the release in February. The show seems to get weirder and weirder as it continues. If US politics were actually this interesting and outlandish, we probably wouldn’t feel so bad about all the muck ups going on today. This season focused a lot on Claire and Francis during Francis’ run up to his bid for re-election with a few bits of last season being wrapped up. Major character move at the end, it’ll be interesting to see how that levels things.

Jen Kirkman: I’m Gonna To Die Alone (And I Feel Fine) was really funny.

All This Mayhem- I love skateboard documentaries and this one about Ben and Tas Pappas did not disappoint. Tuck it, it’s a rough one.

No Tears For The Dead- Overall I liked this hitman flick. Runs a bit too long and kinda stumbles over itself at the end, but good overall.

Sense8- New series from The Wachowski Siblings for Netflix. Gives them the room to stretch in a sci-fi world without the time constraints of a movie. First episode is promising and I’ve heard good things so I’ll continue on with it.

Latest rumor going around is that the Top Gear guys may put a show together for Netflix…

Louie had a good season (it went really fast) and Inside Amy Schumer has been on a roll. She’s been getting a lot of press lately with a ton of praise so she’s finally getting the break she deserves. With a starring role in movie coming up very soon, her career is about to really rocket off.

Wayward Pines is pretty cool. Very Stephen King/Twin Peaks. I like that it’s only 10 episodes so the mystery won’t be drawn out and beaten to death.

On the magic front, Wizard Wars and Troy: Street Magic popped back up on Syfy out of no where. I dig them both so that was a fun surprise (Troy did some crazy stuff in this small stretch of episodes).

Don’t think I talked about these two, but I thought Arrow ended a bit soft while Grimm really ran with the ball for the finale. Long overdue if you ask me. Good stuff is waiting for next season.

Finally, Orphan Black continues to entertain. A new clone was introduced and the sneakiness hasn’t laid off! They got this show on a good track, there’s not much left of the season and things are really heating up.