Television!

TV

A quick run down of the shows I’ve watched. A lot of winners so far.

Series 16 of Top Gear flew right by! A new Stig was brought in and the usual high quality car enthusiast programming continued on! The Christms special was a particular stand out.

Shameless on Showtime just finished up it’s first season and it was damn good. William H Macy rules, pretty much the whole cast does aside from the youngest kids. A lot of crazy stuff goes down every episode and the finale was especially rough. Not sure how Frank is going to live through it.

Face Off is the first show I’ve watched on Sci-fi (sorry buy SyFi is fucking stupid) in at least a decade. I can’t believe it took this long for a movie makeup competition to happen. It’s a great premise and the show found a great cast for it’s first season. I was happy with who won and look forward to the next season.

Skins, Season 3! As expected, no where near as good as the first season. The cast change was a tough one to get over, I found most of the characters to be more annoying than anything. JJ was my favorite, he was the easiest to relate to and the most believable. It wasn’t a terrible season, but it was a huge drop off in quality.

The two ABC shows I watch are Modern Family and The Event. MF is basically brilliant and The Event has gotten better since it’s cone back. It got really slow for awhile there and things seem to be picking up again.

Fringe continues to be the best Science Fiction show on TV. Just terrific writing and acting every episode. There’s some complex story telling going on but they manage to keep everything very clear and easy to follow. Changing the credits for the stories in the alt dimension (and for flash back episodes) is brilliant. When Olivia was possessed 2 episodes ago it got me worried that they took a turn down Stupid Lane, the concept and explanation was hard to swallow and this is on a show where the impossible is tested all the time. Looks like it’s going to be a quick and interesting arc so I remain positive on things working out.

Mad Men season 4 just hit DVD and I’m plowing head first into episode 7 this weekend thanks to Netflix. Great show and the new ad agency is surprisingly effective at breathing new life into the show. The story of these broken people continues to keep my interest high.

The second season of Archer is more than half way done and holy shit is it funny. I can’t even explain how great this show is. They take some dark subjects on and just steam roll you over with it.

Hawaii 5-0 is the only CBS show I watch, I enjoy it because it’s just a brain dead show. Like it just fits the cookie cutter mold and follows the most basic TV rules around but it works. Must be the cast and location that does it for me.

Justified on FX (this network might have the best collection of shows right now) is another winner. It’s fun stopping in on US Marshall Raylan rousting the creeps of his Kentucky home town. It’s got that Wild Wild West vibe going on that I really like, you don’t see that much these days. Special mention to Walton Goggins who plays Boyd, he’s amazing. One of the best TV characters around today.

NBC’s Thursday line up is pretty strong too. I watch Perfect Couples for Olivia Munn and while it isn’t the best show, it makes me laugh. Parks and Recreation is on a roll with its 3rd season. 30 Rock is always worth tuning into, I can’t really think of an episode I haven’t liked. The Office is a rough one though, I kind of watch out of curiosity now. There’s been more than a few terrible episodes and the show just feels tired. I can see why Steve Carell wants to leave and it may be in the best interest of the show. Michael Scott is just played out as a character. I like how they have things set up with Holly, it looks like they can move Michael on in a positive way and the combo of Will Ferrel and Ricky Gervaise giving the show a shot in the arm for the last few episode of the season could be great. I’m not sure if I’ll keep watching next season.

Spring It

Life

Dear Spring,

Please show up this is getting rediculous. You seem to be fighting winter off this weekend, but these sub 40 temps are way beyond old. Time to heat things up and make all of us happy again.

Yours Truly,

Nick

Salt the Review

Movies

Salt really took me by surprise, it’s the best action movie I’ve seen in awhile. I’m a fan of Angelina Jolie, she’s sexy, she commands screen presence and she really is a great actress. When she’s in a movie she really digs it shows. Salt it like a combination of Tomb Raider (the female hero lead) and the James Bond/Bourne series.

Evelyn Salt is a covert CIA agent who has done a lot for the United States. When she’s accused of being a sleeper Russian spy, she goes on the run. This doesn’t bode well for her innocence so she’s chased down by her co-workers while dealing with a plot to assassinate the Russian President.

Everything works well here. Really great direction to complement the action scenes (and there are many of them), the stunt work in here is nothing short of fantastic. Great integration with CG and practical effects and the soundtrack is fittingly epic (I did hear a rather obvious Terminator ring to Salt’s “theme” though). They made Salt a really vicious assassin, she has a heavy dose of Batman’s’ preferred style of getting the jump on enemies and disabling them as quickly as possible with no second thoughts. With two dangerous sides closing in on her, you’re not entirely sure where her loyalty lies. Salt is a really smart character and I really liked that. Gun fights, fist fights, crazy car and on foot chases, some great espionage action which I love. Jolie rocks in this movie, I loved everything about it.

The Other Guys the Review

Movies

The Other Guys is basically what Cop Out wanted to be. The right mix of action and comedy (like Beverly Hills Cop) that works on both angles. This is a Will Ferrell movie, so if you don’t like his type of comedy, you probably won’t like it. This is less of a “Will Ferrell in X sports goof” and more of the SNL type direction that made him famous.

The Other Guys is a hard spoof of buddy comedies that is often ridiculous that works more than it fails (unlike Cop Out). Allen and Terry are the other guys on the police force, they’re planted right in the shadow of the super cops in their precinct. When those guys suddenly hit the skids, Allen and Terry are able to shine, finding an embezzlement scheme that will cement them as heroes. The set ups and homages are great, the backstory for Allen being such a push over was hilarious and Mark Wahlberg as Terry is the perfect pushing force behind the duo. Will and Mark work well, it shows on screen.

On the other half of the equation is the action which was done really well too. Some great action scenes were cooked up and executed really well, it wasn’t half assed. It complements the comedy side really well making a whole package of funny dialog with fun action scenes (car stunts are a real highlight). Check it out, I really liked it.

RED the Review

Movies

Retired and Extremely Dangerous is a fun action movie. Based on a graphic novel, Frank Moses is a retired CIA agent who is cruising through his life when danger comes to his doorstep. Requiring the help of some old friends and colleagues, Frank goes after the people who now deem him a serious threat.

RED is probably the best movie Bruce Willis has made in awhile, though I do find it hard to see Bruce Willis as playing anyone but Bruce Willis. Maybe he’s been rocking that same bald head for so long? Or that he seems to play the same character all the time. Denzel Washington has the same problem, although from his perspective that isn’t a problem. The rest of the cast is great though, I like Mary-Louis Parker, Helen Mirren plays a fun character and John Malkovich is always a treat when he gets to run around in a character with a few screws loose.

It’s a solid action movie from start to finish. They stretch the action to some unbelievable lengths on occasion, but it’s relatively real and they don’t go too far in the comic book direction. Hand to hand fights are done really well, the direction is nice and clean. The story isn’t insulting either so I can give this one a good recommendation.

Old Korn Videos

Uncategorized

This is just the start of the flood of old school Korn videos that have been showing up on YouTube in the past 2 weeks. The homemade movies that were made in 1996 around the time Life Is Peachy was made have been falling into the hands of some very generous fans. A lot of the stuff can be seen in the Who Then Now? DVD. The band was well on it’s way to super stardom and they were all about 25 years old here. You can see the passion and energy that made them one of the biggest metal bands in the world.

You can see quite a few videos from Kornmemorablia’s YT channel and the site is worth visiting too, Roger has an amazing collection.

Spartacus: Gods of the Arena

TV

Great season! In and out in just 6 episodes, this was a great prequel and a nice stop gap until the next full season starts in a year.

Being a huge fan of Blood and Sand, I loved seeing how the house of Batiatus rose to power. Watching him and Solonius as friends working together and seeing how they became enemies was fantastic. Batiatus and Lucretia strengthening their bond taking over the house from his father sets up the events in BaS really well. Every character that makes it has brilliant paths to it. Seeing Crixus learning from Gannicus which also worked into Asher’s own devious struggle for advancement was one of the best side stories.

Everything I liked about the first season was present, such a well written and produced show. Can’t wait for the continuation of the story despite getting a new actor taking over for Andy as Spartacus.

Mini Review Mashup

Music

Before I catch up on some of the movies I’ve seen recently I’d like to give a shout out about Safety Words. Two guys who have made this sweet mash up with Wu-Tang Clan and some classic Nintendo game themes. The Ghostfaced Pixels Mixtape is some wild stuff. It’s like an hour long and has some really ingenious beats going on. Really impressive.


Apocalypto– From 2006 which I think predates Mel Gibson’s ‘I Might Be A Lunatic” DUI arrest and naughty quote fest. Mel has/had been a darling of Hollywood and this movie really just fostered his career. It’s really good! A Mayan tale that came out of no where, there isn’t a lick of English in here. Very little dialog actually, but the story and characters are very memorable. A conquering tribe sweeps through our main characters village and destroy everything he knows. Forced to hide his family and taken away as a slave our hero goes through a very rough road to stay alive and get back to his family. It’s a gorgeous movie, just really well made (Mel really loves close-ups). Action scenes are pretty intense although there is some bad effects (the boar) here and there.

Despicable Me– A really cute movie. A villain hitting some rough times figures he could use the help of some orphan girls to re-establish his dominance in the villian game and stomp out his arch enemy. There’s a lot of cliched and obvious writing going on here but the movie still works. Animation is really good, there some funny gags and the cast is solid too. The girls in particular are really good, but I just can’t get on the Steve Carell bandwagon; the guy is like Patrick Warburton. He has absolutely zero vocal range. You always know it’s him, same problem Mike Myers has. There had to have been someone better to get than him, I don’t think his name on the poster really made a difference.

The A-Team– This flick got pooped on by critics all over the place, but it was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. The cast really works and the action is really over the top. The filmmakers knew what they were making, they don’t take anything too serious and just have fun with it. Good story and editing, some imaginative action sequences and the majority of the FX look good. I’m down for a sequel.

Resident Evil: Afterlife– The 4th movie in the series, I pretty much asked myself, “Did this movie need to be made?” It’s not a horrible movie, it just feels like nothing actually happened in it. It’s a few scenes linked together by action scenes with monsters that people who have played the games will recognize. They pimped the hell out of the 3D they used to make the movie, but who cares when the movie just kind of lays there. I might have said “That looks neat” if I saw it in 3D but I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. They scaled back Alice’s superpowers from the last movie or so, but there is is still plenty of impossible things going on here. I just can’t recommend it. You haven’t missed anything if you haven’t seen it.


Frost/Nixon– I’ve been meaning to see this for awhile, it’s been in my list for a long time. Now that I’ve seen it, I’m glad I did. It’s a Ron Howard picture so you can imagine the look and feel of it from there. Ron Howard can always get a great cast for his pictures together and this film is no exception. The movie focus’ around the series of interviews that British talk show host David Frost conducted with President Nixon. This happened after Nixon was tossed out of office due to the Watergate cover up. Frost had to come up with a serious amount of money to get it done (he actually only came up with 30% of the funding while they were doing the interview) and he had very little support from his peers that he could do an interview that wasn’t a complete fluff piece.

Frost certainly had his work cut out for him. After Nixon left office, President Ford pardoned him of any possible wrong doing with Watergate, keeping him away from trial and out of harms way. So most of the country felt like a villain was able to duck and take cover, taking no responsibility for what he had done. Frost wanted to get Americans a confession, at the very least an explanation. With each side prepping for months to duke it out, Frost had to step up his game. The acting really sells the picture with Frank Langella as Richard Nixon stealing the show.


The Town-Ben Affleck continues his rebith into Hollywood as a rising star. Not just in front of the camera, but behind it as well. Affleck co-wrote, produced and directed this terrific bank heist movie. I’m a fan of these types of movies and Affleck and his crew put together a great movie. The dialog is really good, the acting is terrific (Jeremy Renner is on a roll, he keeps putting out fantastic work) and I admire the direction. Affleck really has a good eye and I’m really impressed that he can film an action scene that isn’t a mess. Something that is a serious problem in Hollywood today. I never got lost in the action, the geography of the scene was always clear. The movie does suffer from the trappings of a heist movie (just one more job and we’ll quit!) but that isn’t enough to ruin the movie in anyway. I really liked it, check it out. Just one thing though, could you leave Boston behind for once Ben? There’s a whole world out there.

Skins

TV

I heard about Skins through MTV’s remake for the US. The first 3 series recently popped up on Netflix Instant and I decided to give it a spin as I was looking for a new tv series to get into. I knew it was about High School kids and it was supposed to be pretty provocative show. Being on British TV, they can show much more in terms of language and sex so that throws American’s into a tizzy.

Easiest way to describe the show is Harry Potter, but replace the magic with sex, drugs and the real world. You follow along with this group of friends through the last year or two of their high schooling and really, their childhood. They’ve known each other for years and the world as they know it, changes. Growing up is harsh.

I watched the first episode and slowly felt it draw me in. I caught a few minutes of the US version and couldn’t stick with it because it looked really fake. It felt too filtered and phony to get into it. After that I dove head first into the original series. I blitzed through 19 episodes (two series) in about 3 weeks. I fell in love with the characters. If a show can make me love it’s characters, it’s a wrap. There’s 9 main characters and while I didn’t love them all, I felt like they were all real. And more importantly, their relationships were real. The layout of the show is really smart, each episode focuses on one character (as you can see in the title of an episode). While one is the focus, the other kids come in and out, sometimes you don’t see a character for awhile, but in the end they each have their own full fledged background and story arc. Tony, Michelle and Sid are arguably the main characters, but everyone really has their moments.

The writing is really well done especially considering the subject. Each kid does fall into a stereotype, but guess what? Kids do fall into a stereotype. It’s really easy to make teenagers annoying, but Skins manages to walk that fine line of writing intense drama without falling into the dreaded emo pit. Skins manages to take on some After School Special type scenarios (drugs, sex, shitty parents, eating disorders) without being cheesy and insulting. No one is perfect, they all make mistakes and you’re going to yell “What are you doing! You idiot!” at the TV. But that’s what happens when you have the perspective of an adult and you see that they really are just kids and they just don’t know any better. You learn from mistakes and you become a better person when you recognize that and can grow up. It’s not all gold though, there’s some scenes that don’t work or are too soap opera-ish and some acting can get rough. The main cast is typically very good, some ancillary characters can be amateurish. The rough stuff is pretty minimal I think and the good far out ways the bad. I really like how it’s shot too, it has a more cinematic look and feel to it than a TV show.

It’s been 3 days since I saw the season 2 finale and it’s stuck with me since then. It burrowed down into my head and brought up some memories, it really made me think about life. Now my teen years were nothing like what’s on the show, but it throws out feelings and events that I think just about everyone can relate to (especially when you’re older and you’ve lived through some shit).

Very few movies and shows have a lasting effect on me and those become my all time favorites. There’s a big cast change for season 3 so while it’s the same show, it’s a different story. That could change my perspective on the show as a whole, but as it stands the first 2 seasons is some of my favorite story telling I’ve seen since Inception.

I hate work

Life

Man, I go on a prolific writing spree in December and completely eat dirt in January. It’s been brutal at work for the passed 3 weeks, just a never ending mountain of work. The worst is over I think, but there could still be some nagging left overs this coming week. And more snow. MORE SNOW. It’s like 1985 or something. Spring can’t come soon enough.

Quick mention for WTF with Marc Maron. It’s a brilliant podcast from a brilliant stand up comic, Marc Maron. Like any stand-up with his salt out there, he’s nuts. But he does some of the greatest interviews. He’s pushing 150 episodes now, each with a different comic (there are some 2 parters though, Judd Apatow, Louie CK, Carlos Mencia). You can get it from his website, through Itunes and the Zune marketplace. check it out.