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.

How To Train Your Dragon the Review

Movies

Dreamworks Animation makes a winner of a movie! Hiccup, the black sheep of his Viking family, befriends a dragon. A first, to say the least. Vikings are dragons have been feuding for generations and as Hiccup discovers, everything they know about dragons is wrong.

An adaptation of the book of the same name, it’s a really cute story with some great characters. The art an animation in this movie is head and shoulders above anything they’ve done before. The art style is great an unique, the dragon designs in particular are really brilliant. They have this 3D illustrated look that reminds me a bit of Blizzards style of artwork. The animation on the people can look a little odd sometimes, but the work on the dragons is terrific. And the effects? The fire and smoke look real. The clouds! Look at the clouds!

Even though the story is very predictable, it’s still a really fun kids movie. Really well made, I’d love to see a sequel.

New Year

Life

After missing a full two months of any updates here (the longest ever, I missed 1 full month once before a few years ago) I made December a prolific one. Didn’t realize how much stuff I had stored up, feels good to write on a more regular basis. You really do get rusty, I was really flowing by the last updates I did.

No New Year resolutions, as I have done for awhile now. Why ball it all up for a goofy line at the beginning of a year? Just impress yourself every chance you get.

The Man Who Souled The World the Review

Movies

TMWSTW is the story of how Steve Rocco changed skating forever. Much like Dogtown did in the late 70’s, Rocco changed the landscape of the prominent skate style and gave the power of the growing industry back to the skaters.

Dogtown brought a new style of freestyle skating to the scene. Much more daring tricks with out of the box thinking soon morphed into Vert, taking all the headlines of the culture. This is around the mid 80’s when Tony Hawk was leading the charge blowing the minds of everyone while making crazy money. The skating industry was controlled by corporations, all the sponsors were strict running business. Follow the guidelines we’ve written and represent us well or get the hell out. Steve Rocco had a different take on his passion.

With an epic case of the “Fuck It’s” Steve made his own company called World Industries with the mind blowing skater Rodney Mullen in the late 80’s. Why should we jump through hoops that some old man in a suit dictates to us? They don’t skate, they have no idea what skating is. How can you respect and listen to someone who has no second thoughts of throwing you aside in the blink of an eye? Taking a hard stance against The Man, they attracted other top skaters who pushed street skating into a viable and massively popular sect of skating. Tons of new innovative talent emerged from this including Jason Lee, Mike Vallely, Daewon Song, and Danny Way (just to name a few).

It’s an amazing story, I loved every second of it. Seeing these big names as kids tearing it up having the time of their lives. All the talent got signature boards for themselves along with most of the profit from sales. This led to 16-17 year olds getting paid something like 6-10,000 dollars a month. It was pandemonium! Steve Rocco is a brilliant business man with no real business education. He didn’t like what was going on and just paved a new road that changed the lives of countless people. Spike Jonez started making skate videos for these guys as his first gig, Big Brother Magazine was started here which went on to spawn Jackass, not to mention all of the skate companies that this venture started in it’s surge and implosion (Blind, Girl, too many to list really).

I’m a sucker for skate films/docus in general, but this one had me from frame one. There is a ton of old fantastic footage and some terrific interviews from a lot of guys who were in the thick of it. Steve Rocco didn’t do it all by himself though and this docu shows that pretty well. World Industries meteoric rise and flame out demise is fascinating and inspiring tale. The collapse is almost like a Greek tragedy. This was released in 2007 but it’s a timeless story, watch it!

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work the Review

Movies

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is aptly titled. She’s been in the entertainment business for the better part of 50 years, an achievement that very few people are able to make.

For my generation I think it’s pretty easy to ignore Joan Rivers career. Her biggest hit was during the Carson Show years, she’s put together a few plays and she’s done stand up for pretty much her whole career. She’s actually very, very funny. She was edgy back when she started and she continues that today. Clawing her way through show biz (she really wanted to be an actress, but that’s never really panned out) Joan Rivers really hasn’t changed. A hard working women, she doesn’t take shit from anyone.

The film followers her for what looks like about a year from 2009 to early 2010 where she wins the Celebrity Apprentice. You get a good idea of what makes her tick and what pushes her to work well into her 70’s. For every success she had a crushing career blow (Carson gave her the spotlight to become famous, he ditched and blackballed her when she got her own talk show on FOX, her husband killed himself after her talk show was canceled, her plays did well only to be crushed by critics). It’s pretty amazing she’s had the steel mind to keep going and stay sharp…and she’s still really funny. I have a lot of respect for her now and I’d totally go see her do stand up One of the best scenes is where she offends a guy in the audience with a deaf joke and she manages to stomp on his throat, win the entire crowd back AND make him laugh at the joke she lays out to recover from his outburst. Really something to see and it really shook her up emotionally.

Highly recommended.

Fall TV Round Up

TV

My Fall 2010 TV Rundown: More Good Than Bad! A few shows have done their entire season while the rest are at the mid-term break.

Weeds-I really liked the direction this season started out in, but then it veered away from weed again. This show is really kind of all over the place, they really need to pull all the loose ends together and end the show this coming season (which it looks like they’re going to do). There is no where else for the show to go but to a conclusion. A lot of the best characters are gone, the same shit keeps happening. a resolution has to happen. The season wasn’t a total loss though, there was some good character developments with the kids and Nancy is really just a rotten person. Seriously, she should be dead with the stuff they’ve had her do. It does feel like I watch the show purely out of habit now though.

Hawaii Five-O-This turned out to be a fun show. I think I just like seeing Hawaii on TV the most because it looks so beautiful. But there are some good characters and stories going on here. My biggest problem is that it’s a CBS show. They all follow the same patterns and it sounds like the soundtrack is made by the exact same guy with a Yamaha keyboard. Things can get pretty corny.

The Event- Really promising. I liked the pace of the show at the start, but the last few episodes seemed to have slowed the pace up a bit too much for my liking. There is a clear understanding of how entrenched the aliens are in our society and we are at least hot on the trail of Leila’s sister (with some age related experiments on her). It’s still entertaining, there is a ton of unanswered questions, I have hopes they can keep it up for the remainder of the season.

Sons of Anarchy- Season 3 is complete and it was another solid season. Jax was on the hunt for his son all season, the club had some serious issues to handle at home on their own and it all came to a point in a fantastic season finale. There were some “really?” moments here and there (like Jimmy O’Phelan getting away in the apartment ambush) but I’m totally happy with the season. Still one of my favorite shows, great concept and fantastic characters with a cast to match.

Modern Family- Consistently funny, just a great sitcom in a sea of garbage (I’m looking at you Three and A Half Men).

Terriers- Great first season! The show starts with the suspicious death of one of Hank’s old friends and that story arc comes back for the last few episodes. I love the chemistry between Hank and Britt, the stories were really well made and it has that usual FX production standard behind it. Total treat for me to see Laura Allen as Britt’s GF Katie. She’s hot as hell and she was great on FX’s canceled series Dirt. Terriers took over Nip/Tucks time slot and I’m happy they made another winner. Totally looking forward to Season 2.

Always Sunny in Philly- Still one of the funniest TV shows around even if they are having an off season. It’s hit or miss from scene to scene but I still love The Gang to death.

30 Rock- This show keeps on trucking. So many great characters (Judah Friedlander’s character is getting the shaft this season though) and great subtle moments. The jokes come out flying in this show, it can be easy to miss one. Could you guys give Kenneth a break once in awhile? The poor bastard.

The Office- Now here’s a show I am definitely watching out of habit. It’s lost a lot of the charm it once had but at least they’ve pulled back the cast from being complete cartoon characters. I kind of just want to know how this season ends, I’m pretty sure I’m going to bail when Steve Carell leaves. Michael Scott is the whole point of the show.

Outsourced- I’ve really come to love this show. Interesting concept and holy shit is Pippa Black sexy. Are there any unattractive Australians? What the hell do they eat over there? Pippa is just a small part of the show of course so the laughs keep me coming back.

Fringe- Best sci-fi show on TV by far. Kicks Lost in the teeth on a consistent basis. I think I’ve liked every episode they’ve made. Even the bad episodes are still good. The plot is so interesting, they don’t hold back for too long and the characters have some of the best and most believable relationships on TV. The main cast is so good together! The SFX on this show are top notch too. The CG work is really well done and whoever is doing the practical make up FX are geniuses. Too bad it looks like FOX is trying to kill another one of it’s best shows. Half way through the season and it’s had 4 multi-week breaks. They’re moving the show to Fridays which is all but a death march and after 6 episodes are going to take another break! Complete garbage handling of this show, fix your shit practices FOX.

Boardwalk Empire- I watched this show at the start sole because of Steve Bescemi is the leading man. He rules. It was a slow burn, but the show really made something of itself. The prohibition era in the US is some fascinating stuff, so the background is ripe for great story telling. Really cool seeing early Atlantic City and who isn’t a fan of old school gangsters? I’ve never seen Michael Pitt before (he plays Jimmy), he’s one of the more stand out actors on the show for me. Michael Shannon brings the insane Agent Val Alden to life too. Curious to see where they go with this next year.

Dexter- Season 4 was going to be a touch season to follow. I think the plot of idea of the team of killers lead by Jordan Chase was a good one. Julia Stiles as Lumen was great casting and fit the right void in Dexter’s life. He loses his wife and here is a woman he can save, even after saving her life (by accident, but that’s how these things happen). It brought up a lot of moral questions for Dexter who seems to want to bend the Code any way he can. He feels he’s more human than his father ever thought, even if it means his true calling in life really forbids it. The attraction of a soul mate can be understood by anyone and Lumen could really be with Dexter and know everything and be okay with it. So I liked the fundementals of it and none of the side character plots of the season got in the way too much. It was a REALLY sloppy season though. They wrote holes the size of buildings all over the place. Mountains of evidence left all over the place at every crime scene. Too many coincidental places for Dexter to be found in and the cell phone use by all the guilty parties bordered on the absurd. Any kind of real investigation would have busted Chase and Dexter. The finale was such a cop out it really shocked me. At the very least Deb should know what Dexter does now. She was right there, there was absolutely no reason for her to let Dexter and Lumen go without at least seeing them when she did track them down. They wanted a clean bill at the end to keep the next season open for them to write anything, but it’s bullshit. Having Deb find out in the last episode would set up some amazing shit and they way they handled it was beyond stupid. Some real missteps that I hope they never repeat.

Board to Death- Season 2 turned out to be a solid one. Another cast I really dig and I never thought I’d see the day where I thought Ted Danson was awesome. With such a short season, it’s easy to keep it all killer and no filler. A noir-rotic comedy really is the best way to describe the show.

Eastbound & Down- Kenny Powers is a scream! Love him to death. Another quick hit show on HBO. It’s vulgar and hilarious, some of my favorite adjectives. If you’ve seen the first season, head full steam into this one, it won’t disappoint. The relocation to Mexico really worked and the story arc was great. Hopefully the can turn around another season faster than it took to get season 2.

The Walking Dead- Love it! Best zombie show ever! Sure it’s the only one but lets not be picky. The production on this show is simply awesome. Cast is great and the writing is mostly good. The dynamics between the survivors is the best part, it just gets corny when a person is just a straight up stereotype though (the racist, the wife beater). The balance of gore/action is pretty spot on and there is some crazy potential here. The comic gets almost unanimous praise so I hope they stick to the books as much as they can, why mess with a good thing? The last episode was a bit rocky but not enough to make me condemn the show like I’ve seen some do. I hope they don’t rush into production as it seems like there is a lot of unsettled waters on the crew side (the entire writing staff was let go). Get everything nice and solid and go balls out into this universe. Could be a fantastic long running show.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (Pt. 1) the Review

Movies

The Deathly Hallows (Part 1) I can’t believe I didn’t write this after I saw it on opening weekend. Better late than never! If you’ve read anything I’ve written on here, you probably know I’m a big Potter fan, so I’m pretty biased on this series. With that said, Part 1 turned out much better than I thought it would. Reason being, there has been so much taken out of the book to make the films, I had no idea how they were going to address some of the most important and detail oriented scenes. For the most part, they made it work. The final book is where everything comes together, tons of background plots come back around to make certain things work. But there is so much left out, it leaves anyone who only watched the movies wonder what the big deal is.

Deathly Hallows was a huge book (as most of the Potter books have been). Many cried foul at the decision of splitting the book into 2 parts and considering the movie turned out to be almost 2 1/2 hours long, it was the right move. It’s the end of an epic story and it deserves as much room as it needs (and the fan base is all for it). I thought the movie flew by, it’s constant moving and actually cuts out a lot of the meandering that the book did.

Most of the film falls squarely on the shoulders of the main 3: Harry, Ron and Hermoine. The whole story is more of an “on the road” tale so most of the standard Potter trappings are gone. No school, no classmates and non-stop danger from the very start. It’s a Nazi like take over in the magical world and the stakes have never been higher. It’s a small miracle that all three actors have stayed through the whole series and have done nothing but gotten better with each chapter. Without them, this movie would have totally fell flat on it’s face. The high production standards stay right on target with Deathly Hallows, the movie truly looks fantastic. Sound direction and soundtrack with beautiful CG and set work.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that “nothing really happened”, which isn’t true. But it’s a clear comment of the flaws of the script that don’t adequately explain how important each event is. For example, Dobby is a big character in the books and he’s really a lynch pin to the story (as is Kretcher) but they are all but absent in the movies. The last scene Dobby is in has no where near the impact that it did in the book. It’s brilliantly done on film, but there is so little background to him that non-readers really don’t understand. Plus, the first half really sets up all of the payoff in the end. It sets up the dominoes to fall (like what the Deathly Hallows are) but nothing is going to be pushed over until part 2. The end of the movie is extremely abrupt, but I can see why they decided to end it there. The audience has most of the pieces in their hands (again, more so for folks who have read the book) but are left holding them until part 2 comes out.

It’ll make much more sense when Part 2 comes out in the Summer and there is no reason not to think it’s going to be fantastic. It’s a real treat the the series has gotten such a good movie translation.

Exit Through The Gift Shop the Review

Movies

Exit Through The Gift Shop instantly became my favorite documentary of the year. One of my favorite movies of the year really, regardless of genre.

It’s the story of Thierry, a Frenchman in LA who at a young age became obsessed with video recording everything. Around 10 years ago. he takes notice of the underground graffiti art scene and quickly befriends one of the bigger names (Invader). Making friends and involving himself in the process, he makes connections with many artists around the city with his camera with him at all times. He tells everyone that he’s going to make a documentary about graffiti art, but has no intentions to (he has no idea how to make a movie are really doesn’t want to). With a stroke of luck and diligents Thierry meets the legendary Brit artist Banksy. They become friends and partners in crime (as it may be) and all of these influences eventually turn Thierry into “Mr. Brain Wash”, a successful artists who circumvents all of the hard work that the others have done.

This is an amazing story and it’s all true. By the end you’ll be flabbergasted about how Thierry managed to become an ‘artist’. It seems like a joke, but it’s not. Thierry is just a goofball, an interesting personality that got kinda lucky. He seems like a genuine person with no ill will, but his child like attitude and behavior steps on a lot of toes. This movie is the by product of Thierry’s failed movie. He actually manages to edit his thousands of hours of footage into what’s basically an hour and a half random clip reel. Seeing that it’s garbage, Banksy takes it over and by turning the focal point to Thierry, Exit Through The Gift Shop was made.

I can’t push this docu to people enough. It’s just fascinating. It’s really well made, it has a clear and thought full path that ends up pointing out that the art scene is truly made by people. Hype and perception alone makes art (regardless of quality and content) monetarily valuable and thus, desirable.

It’s funny, sad, crazy and mesmerizing all at the same time. Plus, there is some really amazing art with amazing people on display here. Highly recommended.