Sunday (10/14)
Dexter
This is the first episode that I have reviewed of any show this season that is getting full marks. On top of this being a great episode, Michael C Hall delivered the best performance of the year in his speech at the end of the episode. It was a truly amazing speech about his addiction and the dark passenger that he lets take control was mesmerizing. Plus it lead to the great moment where Doakes thinks that Dexter is a drunk or drug addict and no longer suspects him for anything more devious. There was also a great storyline of Dexter hunting and killing a car salesman that included great moments where he ends up buying a minivan and doesn’t know why. Plus there was some good Bay Harbor Butcher detecting by Debra and Keith Carradine. Sweet episode.
10 out of 10
Monday (10/15)
Chuck
This was the first episode of Chuck that I really liked. I’m still not totally sold on the show, but for one night I was fan. Could it be because the rogue agent kept taking off her clothes throughout the episode? Maybe. On top of that fantastic plot point, there were some decent action scenes with the heist and then the showdown at the hotel. Until I actually choose to like the show, I don’t have much to say.
7 out of 10
Heroes
And the bloated cast makes itself known once again. This was a whole episode with nothing on Hiro or Peter, who are probably the 2nd and 3rd storyline behind Claire. Because of this we have too much Mohinder/Molly/Parkman and Mexican adventures. Both of these arcs at least delivered some good moments. The Molly plotline moved forward the whole previous generation of powers story so that’s good even if it means that Parkman’s dad is one of them. While Sylar is now rolling with the bleeding eyes siblings so at least he will break things up by killing folks. Micah’s new life in New Orleans also happened and if it weren’t for Rey Misterio I would have tuned the whole thing out. I am still unsure about where the Bennet story is going because Daddy Bennet should always see right through lies and Claire is just lying to his face now. Well Kristen Bell shows up next week so things are looking up. Hopefully Powers Boothe doesn’t show up and have her skull cracked because it is that and not Veronica Mars that I remember her for.
7 out of 10
Weeds
Well this episode finally started to clarify where this season was leading towards. Nancy royally pisses off 2 people by the end of this episode, and living the life that she does it is not good to give people a reason to mess with you. Having Celia see Nancy and Matthew Modine in action was cool since I hate Celia, but the whole pension argument between Nancy and Peter’s ex was annoying. This has all been thrown together so fast so I just don’t care about that woman yet. There was a nice Conrad/Silas scene and Doug getting audited was cool. We’ll see how the season finishes up.
6 out of 10
Californication
This is 2 in a row that has severely disappointed me. I think I watched the entire thing on fast forward and that was before I knew that there was a threesome involving Hank and his wacky bald agent. That never needed to happen and I don’t think it really did. Plus now not only is Mia pissing me off but also the agent’s Suicide Girl assistant is flying up the annoying scale. There was a little Hank and Karen at the conclusion so hopefully we can get back to that next week.
4 out of 10
Tuesday (10/16)
The Unit
Another solid effort by The Unit and for once the dual storylines both delivered the goods. Now this probably happened because Jonas was holding down the arc back on base. Actually Jonas’ story was really good with him boot-camping his daughter to get her ready before she enlists. The story with the rest of the team was interesting because people were lost and Bob, Mack, and Hector all got to have their moments to shine. I am starting to like this show a lot more than when I first watched it 2 years ago.
7 out of 10
Reaper
I still don’t have much to say about Reaper. There is usually amusing dialogue between Sam, Sock, Ben, and Andi so each episode goes by quickly. This week had a bunch of good scenes involving Spanish and the bird that Sam needed to capture the escapee. The Sam and Devil interplay over his contract was all right but not the best the show has done. Overall this was just a decent episode.
6 out of 10
Damages
This is building towards one helluva conclusion. This week’s episode was the first that actually made me think that there will be a second season. I had no idea how they were going to reconcile the Patty and Ellen relationship but they cleared that up with one conversation; Ellen never thought Patty played any part of her fiancée’s death, she was just saying that to get Patty back into the city. The final scenes between the 2 of them were great because after the entire season Ellen had flipped their roles and was completely using Patty. We also got to see just how and why David was killed which also revealed just how far Frobisher will go. On the other hand I am not too sure about Patty’s son showing up randomly but I will trust the show to make it all work. I am definitely amped for the finale this week.
9 out of 10
Wednesday (10/17)
Bionic Woman
This is just clipping along. There was just some serious information dropped this week. Jaime has an expiration date and Jonas has no answers at the moment. There was a real good fight scene between Jaime and Antonio, which capped off a decent little Central American journey for the 2 of them. I’ve seen the whole lying to the people you care about on Alias but the relationship between Jaime and her sister hasn’t annoyed me yet so that’s a positive. We are a bunch of episodes in and Sarah Corvus is still a more interesting character than Jaime Sommers; its not so much a problem but eventually that needs to switch.
7 out of 10
Life
I wouldn’t call this the first bad episode but it definitely was the first one that I didn’t care for. It was probably because there was more time spent on the case of the week than on Charlie searching for answers. There was a good scene with Charlie and the cop that arrested him but that it was short. The stuff was his lawyer was passable but I am more interested in the mystery. The case was the case and I don’t have much to say about it.
5 out of 10
Thursday (10/18)
Smallville
Hooray! This season will have at least one episode that I truly liked. Like many things in life, I give all the credit to Dean Cain. Whether or not his immortal will actually be Vandal Savage doesn’t matter at the moment, this was a real strong story. There were great scenes between Clark and Chloe and Clark and Lex because of the evil doctor. On top of that, we got some decent Martian Manhunter versus Supergirl scenes. This even included a horribly forced attempt at getting the name Martian Manhunter out there. No Lois 2 weeks in a row along with another wacky Lana storyline coming up still shows that there is not such thing as a flawless Smallville episode.
7 out of 10
Dexter and Damages go 1 and 2 for the second week in a row. This time they flip flop though because the Dexter episode was incredible. No Fox shows mean that there is no clear cut show to be in slot number three. Next week should be the last of the insanity with Damages concluding and I believe the Monday Showtime shows at their penultimate episodes.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Michael Clayton
Well, October has delivered at a level that has surpassed even my wildest dreams. Although, even I don’t dream about whether or not movies are going to be awesome so the previous sentence was a lie. Following on the heels of Into the Wild, Michael Clayton is another damn near perfect movie. This has become a weekly occurrence for October. This was an incredible character study with what may be the best performance of George Clooney’s career.
Scheming lawyers is just one of those bread and butter stories that show up all the time in movies. What separates Michael Clayton from the pack is that the movie is not centered on a whodunit or whether or not the prosecution will win the case; this is about who Michael Clayton is and what Michael Clayton does. And if there is a better actor to slip into the role of the fixer for a law-firm than George Clooney, I would be impressed by that man too. Clooney has made a career out of fast-talkers with all the answers and this is like the culmination of all those roles. Right from his entrance in the film playing in an underground poker game then traveling out to clean-up a client’s hit and run, you can see the type of man he is and the world that he works in. Before he is sent out to the Midwest to deal with the main problem of the movie, you see Clayton as the divorced dad who sees his son a couple days of the week, his complete financial failure over working with his brother to open a restaurant, along with what he deals with at work which is constant phone calls from people that need him sort shit out. Through all these scenes you can see Clooney’s growing disillusionment with what his life is which only gets worse once he thrust into the middle of the U-North lawsuit. At first Clooney is trying to work the U-North situation like any other problem he has fixed in the past, but as the truth comes out you can see him start to question what he is doing. Watching him work to find and help Arthur then move on to his confrontation with U-North, Clooney is completely in his element. And the credits sequence was a fantastic way to end the story.
Once U-North comes into the picture Clooney starts playing his scenes off of some heavyweights like Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, and Sydney Pollack. During nearly every minute of Michael Clayton there is some topnotch dialogue being thrown back and forth. Swinton is amazing as the head of U-North’s legal department who is desperately trying to protect her guilty company by whatever means available. There are multiple scenes showing her rehearse her speeches, spend significant amounts of time making sure her appearance is acceptable, and there is just the right amount of breathlessness to all of her decision-making. And forget it when she and Clooney match-up. There is something amazing about the way that Swinton is constantly on the attack while Clooney is just deflecting everything till he completely destroys her at the end of the movie. From the initial voiceover that starts off the film, Wilkinson’s Arthur Edens is obviously unhinged. Being the lead attorney defending U-North has beaten him down and brought out his psychological issues. But from that point on, you see Clayton putting everything together and finding out that Arthur wasn’t as crazy as he was acting. Wilkinson has some incredible speeches, the opening voiceover, in the alley with Clooney, and the phone call to U-North, and he delivers on each and every one of them. Lastly there is Sydney Pollack. He may have made his name as a director and he may only pop up every once and awhile, but the man is made for these types of roles. He is able to be both Michael’s friend along with cold bastard who is comfortable with people that he defends. There are no weak links in the cast and it pushes Michael Clayton to that top level.
Although I may have seen hundreds of lawyer movies in my lifetime, there was just something special about Michael Clayton. The story was airtight even though it was dependent on a mystery to keep you guessing. This was all about the characters and the performances by George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, and Sydney Pollack made the whole package something special. Michael Clayton completely blew away my expectations by being nearly flawless.
10 out of 10
Scheming lawyers is just one of those bread and butter stories that show up all the time in movies. What separates Michael Clayton from the pack is that the movie is not centered on a whodunit or whether or not the prosecution will win the case; this is about who Michael Clayton is and what Michael Clayton does. And if there is a better actor to slip into the role of the fixer for a law-firm than George Clooney, I would be impressed by that man too. Clooney has made a career out of fast-talkers with all the answers and this is like the culmination of all those roles. Right from his entrance in the film playing in an underground poker game then traveling out to clean-up a client’s hit and run, you can see the type of man he is and the world that he works in. Before he is sent out to the Midwest to deal with the main problem of the movie, you see Clayton as the divorced dad who sees his son a couple days of the week, his complete financial failure over working with his brother to open a restaurant, along with what he deals with at work which is constant phone calls from people that need him sort shit out. Through all these scenes you can see Clooney’s growing disillusionment with what his life is which only gets worse once he thrust into the middle of the U-North lawsuit. At first Clooney is trying to work the U-North situation like any other problem he has fixed in the past, but as the truth comes out you can see him start to question what he is doing. Watching him work to find and help Arthur then move on to his confrontation with U-North, Clooney is completely in his element. And the credits sequence was a fantastic way to end the story.
Once U-North comes into the picture Clooney starts playing his scenes off of some heavyweights like Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, and Sydney Pollack. During nearly every minute of Michael Clayton there is some topnotch dialogue being thrown back and forth. Swinton is amazing as the head of U-North’s legal department who is desperately trying to protect her guilty company by whatever means available. There are multiple scenes showing her rehearse her speeches, spend significant amounts of time making sure her appearance is acceptable, and there is just the right amount of breathlessness to all of her decision-making. And forget it when she and Clooney match-up. There is something amazing about the way that Swinton is constantly on the attack while Clooney is just deflecting everything till he completely destroys her at the end of the movie. From the initial voiceover that starts off the film, Wilkinson’s Arthur Edens is obviously unhinged. Being the lead attorney defending U-North has beaten him down and brought out his psychological issues. But from that point on, you see Clayton putting everything together and finding out that Arthur wasn’t as crazy as he was acting. Wilkinson has some incredible speeches, the opening voiceover, in the alley with Clooney, and the phone call to U-North, and he delivers on each and every one of them. Lastly there is Sydney Pollack. He may have made his name as a director and he may only pop up every once and awhile, but the man is made for these types of roles. He is able to be both Michael’s friend along with cold bastard who is comfortable with people that he defends. There are no weak links in the cast and it pushes Michael Clayton to that top level.
Although I may have seen hundreds of lawyer movies in my lifetime, there was just something special about Michael Clayton. The story was airtight even though it was dependent on a mystery to keep you guessing. This was all about the characters and the performances by George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, and Sydney Pollack made the whole package something special. Michael Clayton completely blew away my expectations by being nearly flawless.
10 out of 10
We Own the Night
We Own the Night landed right about where I thought it would land. You had cops and gangsters and the guy they needed to go undercover, we’ve been here before. Whether or not it would sink or swim was dependent on the performances and if the story brought anything new to the table. Well you could call out each plot point before they occurred so that’s not good, but the names on the top of the poster all busted their asses to raise We Own the Night to a decent level.
Although many names were advertised, Joaquin Phoenix carried this movie from beginning to end. This is his character’s story and Phoenix does not disappoint in showing the journey from the guy who runs the gangster’s bar to undercover to actual cop. All of these turns make sense and you can follow Joaquin’s thought process through each part of the story. In the beginning he just wants to run the club, party, and not deal with his family. Then his brother gets shot and you can see him take the first tentative steps to help the police. After losing his father, the only thing that matters to Phoenix is bringing down Vadim along with whomever he is connected to. This is just a great performance by Joaquin. Mark Wahlberg and Robert Duvall fill out the roles of his brother and father. The both of them are solid here. Although Wahlberg’s name has grown in recent years, his role is very much a secondary one in We Own the Night. He has a couple of good scenes where he goes at Joaquin in the beginning of the film plus a couple of really good ones at the end after everything has gone bad. Robert Duvall is Robert Duvall. When he shows up on screen, you instantly respect him. There is no reason every to question the man. The last name that was advertised was Eva Mendes and this is probably her best performance to date. In the grand scheme of things, that is not a high compliment. Still she is fine here as Joaquin’s girlfriend who does the annoying movie girlfriend turn of leaving once Joaquin decides to go all in and become a cop to bring down Vadim. It’s always nice to see Oleg Taktarov show up in his standard thug role. Good for him.
What held We Own the Night back was that there is nothing new here. This was a very by the numbers undercover police story. It was done well but there were only a few memorable moments. Setting it in the 80s was nice but after laughing at the clothes and hair that really can’t carry the whole film. The car chase and shootout in the driving rain was a nice action beat but it wasn’t Ronin or to bring to 2007, Death Proof. The big problem was that you could call out the turning points well before they happened. Start of with the easy life, family in peril, change of heart, life in danger, loss of someone close, its go time, roll credits.
I can't really say that We Own the Night disappointed me. It could have been better, but I wasn't basing the entire fall on whether or not this delivered on the promise of it's great cast. What you ended up with was another fantastic performance by Joaquin Phoenix but it was nearly wasted on your standard undercover police story.
6 out of 10
Although many names were advertised, Joaquin Phoenix carried this movie from beginning to end. This is his character’s story and Phoenix does not disappoint in showing the journey from the guy who runs the gangster’s bar to undercover to actual cop. All of these turns make sense and you can follow Joaquin’s thought process through each part of the story. In the beginning he just wants to run the club, party, and not deal with his family. Then his brother gets shot and you can see him take the first tentative steps to help the police. After losing his father, the only thing that matters to Phoenix is bringing down Vadim along with whomever he is connected to. This is just a great performance by Joaquin. Mark Wahlberg and Robert Duvall fill out the roles of his brother and father. The both of them are solid here. Although Wahlberg’s name has grown in recent years, his role is very much a secondary one in We Own the Night. He has a couple of good scenes where he goes at Joaquin in the beginning of the film plus a couple of really good ones at the end after everything has gone bad. Robert Duvall is Robert Duvall. When he shows up on screen, you instantly respect him. There is no reason every to question the man. The last name that was advertised was Eva Mendes and this is probably her best performance to date. In the grand scheme of things, that is not a high compliment. Still she is fine here as Joaquin’s girlfriend who does the annoying movie girlfriend turn of leaving once Joaquin decides to go all in and become a cop to bring down Vadim. It’s always nice to see Oleg Taktarov show up in his standard thug role. Good for him.
What held We Own the Night back was that there is nothing new here. This was a very by the numbers undercover police story. It was done well but there were only a few memorable moments. Setting it in the 80s was nice but after laughing at the clothes and hair that really can’t carry the whole film. The car chase and shootout in the driving rain was a nice action beat but it wasn’t Ronin or to bring to 2007, Death Proof. The big problem was that you could call out the turning points well before they happened. Start of with the easy life, family in peril, change of heart, life in danger, loss of someone close, its go time, roll credits.
I can't really say that We Own the Night disappointed me. It could have been better, but I wasn't basing the entire fall on whether or not this delivered on the promise of it's great cast. What you ended up with was another fantastic performance by Joaquin Phoenix but it was nearly wasted on your standard undercover police story.
6 out of 10
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Into the Wild
I’ve been waiting and waiting for a movie to knock me upside the head and tell me that this is now the best thing you have seen this year. I did not expect that movie to be Into the Wild. The reviews told me it would be good, but this went well beyond good. This was a flawless film. You can credit the story, or Emile Hirsch’s performance, or Sean Penn’s direction, or just about anything associated with the creation of this movie. I just credit the fact that this smartass kid spent 2 years preparing to ditch society and live in the Alaskan wilderness ... 2 months later he starves to death. That is my kind of story.
First things first, Into the Wild is a beautiful film. Throughout the story, there are moments where the scenery is just breathtaking. This kid journeyed through much of the western half of the United States and Penn makes sure to capture each of his stops along the way. The Southwestern desert, the California coast, Midwestern cornfields, the Colorado River, and finally just some of the best shots of Alaska you will ever see. I could have watched this movie without sound and just relaxed and watched the scenery fly by. Also want to at least mention the soundtrack/score of Into the Wild. I may not be a Pearl Jam fan, but I can recognize Eddie Vedder. So the film had a nice mixture of songs that you have heard before in these types of stories plus a handful of original music by Vedder. All of it worked to just enhance the entire experience.
First things first, Into the Wild is a beautiful film. Throughout the story, there are moments where the scenery is just breathtaking. This kid journeyed through much of the western half of the United States and Penn makes sure to capture each of his stops along the way. The Southwestern desert, the California coast, Midwestern cornfields, the Colorado River, and finally just some of the best shots of Alaska you will ever see. I could have watched this movie without sound and just relaxed and watched the scenery fly by. Also want to at least mention the soundtrack/score of Into the Wild. I may not be a Pearl Jam fan, but I can recognize Eddie Vedder. So the film had a nice mixture of songs that you have heard before in these types of stories plus a handful of original music by Vedder. All of it worked to just enhance the entire experience.
Seeing as I want to highlight just about every significant performance from Into the Wild, I will try to keep it short. Obviously Emile Hirsch needs to be applauded first. He is the rock of the film. This was a role that in a lesser actor’s hands could turn the audience against the film. Christopher McCandless was stubborn, idealistic, and abandoned everyone that cared for him but Hirsch is able to make you still pull for him. This kid is teaching and learning at the same time throughout his journey. You believe every relationship that he develops along the way because they feel real. All of this is leading to his time alone in Alaska. These were amazing scenes to watch; especially once every thing starts spiraling out of control. This was definitely worthy of award recognition. Every other performance is a character whose life was affected by McCandless. The most memorable is Hal Holbrook who comes to love Chris so much that he offers to adopt him. Watching this stubborn old man climb a hill because of Chris’ mocking was unbelievable. I have to move on to my man Vince Vaughn next. Even in this serious movie, you can’t keep the man down. He is pretty much Vince Vaughn here but you can see how he becomes a real mentor to McCandless. The hippies come next. This is probably the best thing Catherine Keener has ever done. All of her scenes with Chris are heartbreaking because of how much he reminds her of the son she is no longer in touch with. Kristen Stewart kicked ass but then again she was in Panic Room so of course she rules. Finally we get to the McCandless family. His sister and the movie’s narrator was played by Jena Malone. Her relationship and love for her brother is one of my favorite parts of the film. As for the parents, wow do they suck. Of course William Hurt is just amazing as the father. How could this kid have grown up normal with that as his environment? Top to bottom, this was one of the best-acted movies of the year.
I don't feel that I am adequately explained the power of Into the Wild. There have not been many films that actually made me stop and think when they are end. Usually I stop and think why I just sat there for the last 2 hours. I sure as hell hope that it isn't cause I relate to the story, because I don't want to be anything like that idiot. There isn't a high enough recommendation that I can make. See Into the Wild.
10 out of 10
TV from 10/7 - 10/13
Sunday (10/7)
Dexter
I finally found the right price to purchase the first season of Dexter, so I was able to speed through it then watch the first couple of episodes of the second season. This is definitely a show that I regret not watching last year. I don’t really have a good reason other than I don’t even remember when it debuted so by the time I found out about it the season was half over. Still, this is a show that is meant for my viewing pleasure. A serial killer that works for the police and only kills bad people, that is my kind of premise. This week’s episode has Dexter reeling from the authorities stumbling upon where he sinks his victims along with trying figure out his inability to kill since offing his brother in first season finale. Lots of good stuff, Dexter’s attempts to kill Little Chino, all of his scenes with his sister, Keith Carradine showing up, Dokes’ maniacal stalking of Dexter, this is a great show.
9 out of 10
Monday (10/8)
Prison Break
Well I think I have to be kind to this week’s episode because they did insinuate that it was Sara’s head in the box. I don’t believe it because she is too important of a character to kill off screen, but that is what has been said so far. Nothing else really relevant to talk about it is just the regular stuff, Michael scheming, Linc scheming, T-Bag scheming, Sucre whining, whatever. The whole thing is repetitive.
4 out of 10
Chuck
Blah. This is not growing into a show that I will follow through to its conclusion. I am already watching the whole thing in fast forward. There doesn’t seem to be any emphasis on a show or season long storyline. Instead we get secret agent plot of the week. This time Chuck dances and that’s about all I remember. The action isn’t good enough to make up for the show’s deficiencies so I am starting to sour.
5 out of 10
Heroes
This is still moving at a snail’s pace, which is just a conceit of the show. The highlights for this week were some movement with Mohinder’s story, Jack finding out what is in store for him, the return of Sylar, and another Star Trek cameo. The Mohinder/Jack taking on the Company is probably the best thing going right now. I will remove my support for this plot if Jack dies; there is no Heroes if Horn-Rimmed Glasses man is not around. I was also a big fan of Sylar murdering the illusionist because she deserved it for screwing with Sylar. I have nothing to say about Grandma Uhura. On the other hand; Maya boring, Irish Peter boring, no Haitian, no Nathan, and ancient Japan is not all that interesting. But that is just the way Heroes go, some good, some bad.
6 out of 10
Weeds
This has been such a weird season. It isn’t building to anything, yet there is only a few episodes left. Peter’s death is still hanging around ready to screw Nancy’s life, but it seems like the show is waiting for Nancy to put her business back together before the DEA comes knocking. Well, this week started putting all of those pieces in place. Nancy is going full steam with selling weed again, the 38-pound Olson twin joins the team while Silas becomes Conrad’s bitch. I have high hopes for that arc because it hopefully means more Conrad and maybe even Heylia in every episode. I hate Celia so I don’t care about Dean becoming an invalid. The Nancy and Peter’s ex-wife may end up being worthwhile. I hope they are building to something decent to end the season.
7 out of 10
Californication
Damnit. This was not a good follow-up to last week’s fantastic episode. It could be that the show is better without Mia or Bill involved. Hank losing the material he had written because he was carjacked is a really lame excuse for making sure his life stays screwed up. The Hank and Karen scenes were painful because Hank is more fun when he is being a dick or when he is trashed. Charlie’s wife is a lesbian now? Huh? I do not look forward to the revelation that Hank slept with Mia because it is wrong that I am supporting the adult. But man Mia is an awful person.
6 out of 10
Tuesday (10/9)
Bones
Horse fetish? Is that what Bones has become? My hope that the cannibal society from the premiere episode would turn into a season-long arc was stupid and I should have known better. At least the chick that murdered her pony/guy/lover was hot. The Angela hypnosis story was fine but forgettable. All and all in was a rather dull hour.
5 out of 10
House
Have I mentioned how much I am loving this season? After last year became too serious, it seems like the mood has lightened. This has righted the House and Wilson relationship so that their interactions are back to being the best part of the show. This week it was Wilson’s saying “Good times” after being invited to an eye removal, plus Wilson fixing up then stepping in for House after he stuck a knife in the light socket. The Foreman B-plot was just more confirmation that he belongs with House since he is House Jr. or maybe Black House. The potential hires subplot is still holding up so I have no complaints.
8 out of 10
The Unit
I knew that we were going back to the usual episode structure this week, so I was just hoping that the first one would be strong enough to keep me interested. Surprisingly, this was still fun. The flying scenes include some cool maneuvers. Watching the Colonel and Mack abuse the guy trying to rebuild the command center was amusing. And Jonas in the Hazmat suit worked. I am still at a loss about what is going on with Mack and his wife, so that drags in every episode. Plus Bob’s wife at the radio station was fast forward material. Still, the whole package was good enough.
6 out of 10
Reaper
I don’t have much to say here. It is fun enough to bring me back week after week, but it is not excelling at anything. Ray Wise is the best part every week. But once the Devil disappears it becomes just a kind of funny buddy show. The bounty this week was chick made of bugs so we got some bad CG. Kind of drawing a blank, so that tells you how memorable this show is to me.
5 out of 10
Damages
Another freaking fantastic episode, I am going to feel the loss of this show a couple of weeks from now. There are just 2 episodes left and I still have no idea how this season or series is going to conclude. If there is going to be a season 2 then there has to be some sort of the reconciliation between Patty and Ellen but that seems very unlikely. This week we got to see enough of Patty after the fiancé’s death that I doubt she had anything to do with it. It looks like her breakdown may have been caused by Ray blowing the back of his head off right in front of Patty. I did not see that coming at all. Not much Frobisher this week, but with Ray’s suicide we are building to something with Frobisher and his lawyers. That is made even more obvious with Jack McCall from Deadwood showing up to replace Ray, that dude is a menace. Damages kicks ass.
9 out of 10
Wednesday (10/10)
Bionic Woman
I really like where this show is heading. Everything seems to be falling into place and the structure looks to be more about moving Jaime’s story along instead of dealing with a threat of the week. That makes it the style of show that I enjoy. The Jaime Sommer/Sarah Corvus interactions were great this week. Lots of information was revealed and it is nice that Sarah seems to be a grey character instead of pure evil. Plus we got a couple more sweet training sequences with Jae and even got attacked by a pipe-wielding Isaiah Washington. I hope they can keep it up and build something memorable here.
7 out of 10
Life
I’m still here and I am starting to like this more than Chuck or Reaper. This is very unexpected but I am really digging Charlie tracking down who ruined his life. The cop procedural stuff doesn’t really interest me, but shows like House and Bones have overcame my bias to that stuff so it is not unheard of. Charlie confronting the detective who worked his case was by far the best scene of the episode. But it was still fun to seem him purchase that tricked out car, pull over the man who married his ex-wife again, and the coyotes were amusing too. Maybe this show will stick around.
6 out of 10
Thursday (10/11)
Smallville
Aw yeah. This is the craptastic show that I fast forward through week after week, year after year. No Lois is an automatic deduction. Limited Chloe also hurts the cause. Extensive Lana makes it the worst possible combination of the three. I guess I can be nice and say that I was expecting much worse out of this Supergirl plotline. Nice Guy Lex can only work if they stick with it long enough. Hey look Jimmy came back! Well, at least there were bikinis but bikinis with out Lois seems like someone screwed up.
Dexter
I finally found the right price to purchase the first season of Dexter, so I was able to speed through it then watch the first couple of episodes of the second season. This is definitely a show that I regret not watching last year. I don’t really have a good reason other than I don’t even remember when it debuted so by the time I found out about it the season was half over. Still, this is a show that is meant for my viewing pleasure. A serial killer that works for the police and only kills bad people, that is my kind of premise. This week’s episode has Dexter reeling from the authorities stumbling upon where he sinks his victims along with trying figure out his inability to kill since offing his brother in first season finale. Lots of good stuff, Dexter’s attempts to kill Little Chino, all of his scenes with his sister, Keith Carradine showing up, Dokes’ maniacal stalking of Dexter, this is a great show.
9 out of 10
Monday (10/8)
Prison Break
Well I think I have to be kind to this week’s episode because they did insinuate that it was Sara’s head in the box. I don’t believe it because she is too important of a character to kill off screen, but that is what has been said so far. Nothing else really relevant to talk about it is just the regular stuff, Michael scheming, Linc scheming, T-Bag scheming, Sucre whining, whatever. The whole thing is repetitive.
4 out of 10
Chuck
Blah. This is not growing into a show that I will follow through to its conclusion. I am already watching the whole thing in fast forward. There doesn’t seem to be any emphasis on a show or season long storyline. Instead we get secret agent plot of the week. This time Chuck dances and that’s about all I remember. The action isn’t good enough to make up for the show’s deficiencies so I am starting to sour.
5 out of 10
Heroes
This is still moving at a snail’s pace, which is just a conceit of the show. The highlights for this week were some movement with Mohinder’s story, Jack finding out what is in store for him, the return of Sylar, and another Star Trek cameo. The Mohinder/Jack taking on the Company is probably the best thing going right now. I will remove my support for this plot if Jack dies; there is no Heroes if Horn-Rimmed Glasses man is not around. I was also a big fan of Sylar murdering the illusionist because she deserved it for screwing with Sylar. I have nothing to say about Grandma Uhura. On the other hand; Maya boring, Irish Peter boring, no Haitian, no Nathan, and ancient Japan is not all that interesting. But that is just the way Heroes go, some good, some bad.
6 out of 10
Weeds
This has been such a weird season. It isn’t building to anything, yet there is only a few episodes left. Peter’s death is still hanging around ready to screw Nancy’s life, but it seems like the show is waiting for Nancy to put her business back together before the DEA comes knocking. Well, this week started putting all of those pieces in place. Nancy is going full steam with selling weed again, the 38-pound Olson twin joins the team while Silas becomes Conrad’s bitch. I have high hopes for that arc because it hopefully means more Conrad and maybe even Heylia in every episode. I hate Celia so I don’t care about Dean becoming an invalid. The Nancy and Peter’s ex-wife may end up being worthwhile. I hope they are building to something decent to end the season.
7 out of 10
Californication
Damnit. This was not a good follow-up to last week’s fantastic episode. It could be that the show is better without Mia or Bill involved. Hank losing the material he had written because he was carjacked is a really lame excuse for making sure his life stays screwed up. The Hank and Karen scenes were painful because Hank is more fun when he is being a dick or when he is trashed. Charlie’s wife is a lesbian now? Huh? I do not look forward to the revelation that Hank slept with Mia because it is wrong that I am supporting the adult. But man Mia is an awful person.
6 out of 10
Tuesday (10/9)
Bones
Horse fetish? Is that what Bones has become? My hope that the cannibal society from the premiere episode would turn into a season-long arc was stupid and I should have known better. At least the chick that murdered her pony/guy/lover was hot. The Angela hypnosis story was fine but forgettable. All and all in was a rather dull hour.
5 out of 10
House
Have I mentioned how much I am loving this season? After last year became too serious, it seems like the mood has lightened. This has righted the House and Wilson relationship so that their interactions are back to being the best part of the show. This week it was Wilson’s saying “Good times” after being invited to an eye removal, plus Wilson fixing up then stepping in for House after he stuck a knife in the light socket. The Foreman B-plot was just more confirmation that he belongs with House since he is House Jr. or maybe Black House. The potential hires subplot is still holding up so I have no complaints.
8 out of 10
The Unit
I knew that we were going back to the usual episode structure this week, so I was just hoping that the first one would be strong enough to keep me interested. Surprisingly, this was still fun. The flying scenes include some cool maneuvers. Watching the Colonel and Mack abuse the guy trying to rebuild the command center was amusing. And Jonas in the Hazmat suit worked. I am still at a loss about what is going on with Mack and his wife, so that drags in every episode. Plus Bob’s wife at the radio station was fast forward material. Still, the whole package was good enough.
6 out of 10
Reaper
I don’t have much to say here. It is fun enough to bring me back week after week, but it is not excelling at anything. Ray Wise is the best part every week. But once the Devil disappears it becomes just a kind of funny buddy show. The bounty this week was chick made of bugs so we got some bad CG. Kind of drawing a blank, so that tells you how memorable this show is to me.
5 out of 10
Damages
Another freaking fantastic episode, I am going to feel the loss of this show a couple of weeks from now. There are just 2 episodes left and I still have no idea how this season or series is going to conclude. If there is going to be a season 2 then there has to be some sort of the reconciliation between Patty and Ellen but that seems very unlikely. This week we got to see enough of Patty after the fiancé’s death that I doubt she had anything to do with it. It looks like her breakdown may have been caused by Ray blowing the back of his head off right in front of Patty. I did not see that coming at all. Not much Frobisher this week, but with Ray’s suicide we are building to something with Frobisher and his lawyers. That is made even more obvious with Jack McCall from Deadwood showing up to replace Ray, that dude is a menace. Damages kicks ass.
9 out of 10
Wednesday (10/10)
Bionic Woman
I really like where this show is heading. Everything seems to be falling into place and the structure looks to be more about moving Jaime’s story along instead of dealing with a threat of the week. That makes it the style of show that I enjoy. The Jaime Sommer/Sarah Corvus interactions were great this week. Lots of information was revealed and it is nice that Sarah seems to be a grey character instead of pure evil. Plus we got a couple more sweet training sequences with Jae and even got attacked by a pipe-wielding Isaiah Washington. I hope they can keep it up and build something memorable here.
7 out of 10
Life
I’m still here and I am starting to like this more than Chuck or Reaper. This is very unexpected but I am really digging Charlie tracking down who ruined his life. The cop procedural stuff doesn’t really interest me, but shows like House and Bones have overcame my bias to that stuff so it is not unheard of. Charlie confronting the detective who worked his case was by far the best scene of the episode. But it was still fun to seem him purchase that tricked out car, pull over the man who married his ex-wife again, and the coyotes were amusing too. Maybe this show will stick around.
6 out of 10
Thursday (10/11)
Smallville
Aw yeah. This is the craptastic show that I fast forward through week after week, year after year. No Lois is an automatic deduction. Limited Chloe also hurts the cause. Extensive Lana makes it the worst possible combination of the three. I guess I can be nice and say that I was expecting much worse out of this Supergirl plotline. Nice Guy Lex can only work if they stick with it long enough. Hey look Jimmy came back! Well, at least there were bikinis but bikinis with out Lois seems like someone screwed up.
3 out of 10
Damages holds on to the top spot but Dexter shows up and bumps House out of the second slot. Thankfully next week all the Fox shows are skipped for baseball so this won't have to be so much damn work. Then once October ends, Weeds, Californication, and Damages seasons finish so I might be able to get the reviews under 10 a week.
Monday, October 8, 2007
The 2007 List (11)
- Zodiac
- Eastern Promises
- The Lookout
- 3:10 to Yuma
- Talk to Me
- The Bourne Ultimatum
- Grindhouse
- Breach
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- The Kingdom
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
- Hot Fuzz
- Stardust
- Reign Over Me
- Rescue Dawn
- 300
- Black Snake Moan
- Superbad
- Hairspray
- Ocean's Thirteen
- Live Free or Die Hard
- The Simpsons Movie
- The Brave One
- Spider-Man 3
- Mr. Brooks
- Smokin' Aces
- Transformers
- Shoot'em Up
- Resident Evil: Extinction
- DOA
- Shooter
- Halloween
- Blades of Glory
- Reno 911!: Miami
- 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer
- The Condemned
- Ghost Rider
- The Pathfinder
September was another freaking dynamite month. I'm still without a showpiece for 2007, but I will take a couple 9 out of 10s at just about any time of the year. Starting to get pumped for what will be coming out over the next 3 months. Hopefully the disappointment will be minimal.
The Kingdom
When it was all said and done, The Kingdom was a damn good action movie that had delusions of grandeur. There was a real attempt being made to tell a deep story about the relationship of the United States and Saudi Arabia, but it never really delivered at the level that was intended. In fact it distracted me from the real strong final act of the movie. The Kingdom started fast then slowed down so that the FBI agents could actually do their job then blew everything up for the final 30 minutes.
The best part of The Kingdom and the reason I will watch and rewatch this movie for years to come is the kidnapping then rescue of Jason Bateman’s character. This was just one of those adrenaline on overdrive scenes that didn’t slowdown until all the bad guys were dead. There was a sweet car pileup to start with, then shifted to a decent car chase, an insane shootout outside and inside the apartment complex, some Jennifer Garner hand-to-hand, then big climatic showdown. While all this was going on you are constantly shown Bateman scratching and clawing to keep himself alive and all of his teammates flipping out over the situation. This was just a fantastic sequence created by Peter Berg.
Although this is not his greatest performance, The Kingdom is just another movie for Jamie Foxx to shine in. His meteoric rise is astounding. Foxx is now at the level where greatness is expected every time I see him onscreen. Dude, this Jamie Foxx and I kind of want to list all his work in the 90s and then say this man is one of the best actors working today. Jamie ended up doing some of his best work side-by-side with Ashraf Barhom who played the Saudi Colonel working with the FBI agents. The 2 of them were able to craft a real friendship in their scenes together, starting as adversaries then building to partners trying to avenge the bombing. Although Foxx and Barhom did the best work, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, and Jason Bateman all had their moments. Bateman may have seemed like a weird fit in this movie, but that didn’t stop him from constantly dropping one-liners whenever he was onscreen. He paid for his jokes by having the shit-kicked out of him during the kidnapping sequence. And Cooper is one of the steadiest actors working today. There is no such thing as too many movies with Chris Cooper. All that talent and Jeremy Piven shows up to act exactly like Piven does in all of his roles. It is going to get old soon but it worked here.
Just to explain where The Kingdom’s reach exceeded its grasp. It seemed like they were trying to tell this deep story about how when it comes down to it, we are no better than the people we call terrorists. A big flashy action movie didn’t seem to be the place for a final scene that was supposed to make you rethink your view of the world. I just had a 30-minute adrenaline rush; don’t try for deep thoughts after that.
I know that The Kingdom was originally meant to be released in the Spring and I get the feeling that they moved it to the Fall so it could get award buzz. That really makes no sense to me. I don't think it affected box office because this was going to make R-rated action movie money no matter when it dropped. In the end, The Kingdom was a good action movie that had a fantastic ending sequence.
8 out of 10
The best part of The Kingdom and the reason I will watch and rewatch this movie for years to come is the kidnapping then rescue of Jason Bateman’s character. This was just one of those adrenaline on overdrive scenes that didn’t slowdown until all the bad guys were dead. There was a sweet car pileup to start with, then shifted to a decent car chase, an insane shootout outside and inside the apartment complex, some Jennifer Garner hand-to-hand, then big climatic showdown. While all this was going on you are constantly shown Bateman scratching and clawing to keep himself alive and all of his teammates flipping out over the situation. This was just a fantastic sequence created by Peter Berg.
Although this is not his greatest performance, The Kingdom is just another movie for Jamie Foxx to shine in. His meteoric rise is astounding. Foxx is now at the level where greatness is expected every time I see him onscreen. Dude, this Jamie Foxx and I kind of want to list all his work in the 90s and then say this man is one of the best actors working today. Jamie ended up doing some of his best work side-by-side with Ashraf Barhom who played the Saudi Colonel working with the FBI agents. The 2 of them were able to craft a real friendship in their scenes together, starting as adversaries then building to partners trying to avenge the bombing. Although Foxx and Barhom did the best work, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, and Jason Bateman all had their moments. Bateman may have seemed like a weird fit in this movie, but that didn’t stop him from constantly dropping one-liners whenever he was onscreen. He paid for his jokes by having the shit-kicked out of him during the kidnapping sequence. And Cooper is one of the steadiest actors working today. There is no such thing as too many movies with Chris Cooper. All that talent and Jeremy Piven shows up to act exactly like Piven does in all of his roles. It is going to get old soon but it worked here.
Just to explain where The Kingdom’s reach exceeded its grasp. It seemed like they were trying to tell this deep story about how when it comes down to it, we are no better than the people we call terrorists. A big flashy action movie didn’t seem to be the place for a final scene that was supposed to make you rethink your view of the world. I just had a 30-minute adrenaline rush; don’t try for deep thoughts after that.
I know that The Kingdom was originally meant to be released in the Spring and I get the feeling that they moved it to the Fall so it could get award buzz. That really makes no sense to me. I don't think it affected box office because this was going to make R-rated action movie money no matter when it dropped. In the end, The Kingdom was a good action movie that had a fantastic ending sequence.
8 out of 10
Sunday, October 7, 2007
The Brave One
Alright, it is about that time for another vengeful Jodie Foster movie. The Brave One probably falls somewhere in between the superior Panic Room and the unnecessary Flightplan. There were a few hiccups along the way, but this was still a good movie. Jodie is able to do these types of roles over and over because she is able to pull of these characters. Having a better storyline than Flightplan helps The Brave One and it’s that depth in character that makes the difference.
There is just something about Jodie Foster that makes it seem okay that we have gotten three variations on same story in the last five years. She is able to create different characters for each of her journeys from peril to vengeance. The Brave One goes much farther than Panic Room or Flightplan. Erica Bain steps way over the line and enters Death Wish territory. But the difference is that the process destroys Erica. She knows Detective Mercer will catch her and she even encourages it. Jodie has the ability to start the story as a happy radio host who is soon to be married, shift to broken woman scared to leave her home, then slowly becomes the female Punisher, before the rather disappointing conclusion. I will get to the ending later. Although this is Jodie Foster’s movie, Terrence Howard is still able to shine in his supporting role. He took advantage of the handful of scenes he was given to create his character; the way he talks to the little girl in the hospital, the way he deals with his ex-wife, and all of his detecting scenes. Then once his relationship with Erica begins, Howard is able to show how Mercer slowly starts to realize that the vigilante he is looking for is right in front him. Once again, the ending nearly throws all this away. And come on since Boiler Room has there been a bad Nicky Katt performance? I don’t know if The Brave One needed a comic relief character but he was funny enough that I’ll take it.
I may have enjoyed The Brave One but it was not without its faults. The ending just didn’t feel right. I’m not so worried about people cheering about cold blooded killings because I know the world I live in; I just don’t think that the characters in this movie would have done that and just gone on to live their lives. It seems like they wanted almost a happy ending when this movie did not call for one. Plus the climatic scenes included some awful one-liners that actually turned Jodie into a cheap action hero. That really annoyed me.
The Brave One turned out to be nearly exactly what I thought it would be. I was wary of another Jodie Foster avenging woman role but thought that this might spin it enough to make it worthwhile. And that is how The Brave One turned out. There was some good performances and decent story, but the ending held this back from being something great.
7 out of 10
There is just something about Jodie Foster that makes it seem okay that we have gotten three variations on same story in the last five years. She is able to create different characters for each of her journeys from peril to vengeance. The Brave One goes much farther than Panic Room or Flightplan. Erica Bain steps way over the line and enters Death Wish territory. But the difference is that the process destroys Erica. She knows Detective Mercer will catch her and she even encourages it. Jodie has the ability to start the story as a happy radio host who is soon to be married, shift to broken woman scared to leave her home, then slowly becomes the female Punisher, before the rather disappointing conclusion. I will get to the ending later. Although this is Jodie Foster’s movie, Terrence Howard is still able to shine in his supporting role. He took advantage of the handful of scenes he was given to create his character; the way he talks to the little girl in the hospital, the way he deals with his ex-wife, and all of his detecting scenes. Then once his relationship with Erica begins, Howard is able to show how Mercer slowly starts to realize that the vigilante he is looking for is right in front him. Once again, the ending nearly throws all this away. And come on since Boiler Room has there been a bad Nicky Katt performance? I don’t know if The Brave One needed a comic relief character but he was funny enough that I’ll take it.
I may have enjoyed The Brave One but it was not without its faults. The ending just didn’t feel right. I’m not so worried about people cheering about cold blooded killings because I know the world I live in; I just don’t think that the characters in this movie would have done that and just gone on to live their lives. It seems like they wanted almost a happy ending when this movie did not call for one. Plus the climatic scenes included some awful one-liners that actually turned Jodie into a cheap action hero. That really annoyed me.
The Brave One turned out to be nearly exactly what I thought it would be. I was wary of another Jodie Foster avenging woman role but thought that this might spin it enough to make it worthwhile. And that is how The Brave One turned out. There was some good performances and decent story, but the ending held this back from being something great.
7 out of 10
Eastern Promises
London, Russian Mob, Cronenberg, Viggo, no prior knowledge of extended full frontal male nudity … Eastern Promises was an easy choice. I don’t think this reached the level of A History of Violence but it was still a great movie. There is just a real good vibe between Cronenberg and Viggo working right now. And Viggo wasn't the only one delivering memorable perforamances here. Eastern Promises was just a damn good film.
There is just something about Viggo Mortensen that sets him apart from other top-billed actors. He just slips into roles and disappears behind the character. There is little Aragon to be seen in Nikolai. The tats, suits, and sunglasses help disguise the man that Nikolai really is. You can see that he does not take joy in the life of a Russian mobster, but the reason why actually caught me off guard. Viggo does the menacing, the protecting, the violence, and also the nudity. Why was the ambush set in a bathhouse? Couldn’t it have been set somewhere that involved the wearing of pants? Ah well, it didn’t by any means ruin the movie. If Viggo held the movie down, Vincent Cassel bounced off the walls from beginning to end. It was his character’s arc that moved Eastern Promises up a level. Once again, I did not expect his arc to end where it did. When Kirill enters the movie, you feel that he is just the egotistical son of a mob boss who abuses his power. It also looked like he was being set-up to turn on Nikolai at the conclusion of the story. But it turns out that he is probably gay and his heart isn’t in being as brutal as his father. He had some great scenes; where he demands to watch while Nikolai has sex with a hooker, when he finds out that Nikolai has been promoted, and his final scene with the baby. It was just a great performance by Cassel. Another in a laundry list of acting praise goes to Armin Mueller-Stahl. He is able to switch from nice old Russian man willing to help Naomi Watts to downright evil mob boss. You even get to see him morph the 2 roles into 1 man when he meets Naomi in the hospital. Naomi Watts is the last name I am going to throw out there. She doesn’t have a flashy role like the others that I have mentioned but she is the character that the story is flowing through. I appreciate that she was never thrown into any cheap female in danger scenes; Naomi put the pieces together and worked with Viggo to keep the baby safe. There were numerous greats scenes with her and Viggo and also with Armin. This was an all around well-acted movie.
Of course I am attracted to the performances within movies first, but I still want to take the time to praise David Cronenberg’s direction. Eastern Promises is his second movie in a row that can almost be described as mainstream. I don’t know if that makes them better or worse than his past work but I definitely am a fan of A History of Violence and now Eastern Promises. The way he shoots violence is like no other director that I can think of. It is almost beyond real. When people are stabbed in Eastern Promises it is horrifying. He also makes the ending the work even if it doesn’t really make you feel like the story is over. I am going to start anticipating Cronenberg’s movies more and more now.
Eastern Promises is another great movie to add to the list for 2007. The team of David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen have delivered twice in a row. I don't have really anything negative to say about this film. In fact, I wish all movies were as good as this. This is an easy recommendation to make.
9 out of 10
There is just something about Viggo Mortensen that sets him apart from other top-billed actors. He just slips into roles and disappears behind the character. There is little Aragon to be seen in Nikolai. The tats, suits, and sunglasses help disguise the man that Nikolai really is. You can see that he does not take joy in the life of a Russian mobster, but the reason why actually caught me off guard. Viggo does the menacing, the protecting, the violence, and also the nudity. Why was the ambush set in a bathhouse? Couldn’t it have been set somewhere that involved the wearing of pants? Ah well, it didn’t by any means ruin the movie. If Viggo held the movie down, Vincent Cassel bounced off the walls from beginning to end. It was his character’s arc that moved Eastern Promises up a level. Once again, I did not expect his arc to end where it did. When Kirill enters the movie, you feel that he is just the egotistical son of a mob boss who abuses his power. It also looked like he was being set-up to turn on Nikolai at the conclusion of the story. But it turns out that he is probably gay and his heart isn’t in being as brutal as his father. He had some great scenes; where he demands to watch while Nikolai has sex with a hooker, when he finds out that Nikolai has been promoted, and his final scene with the baby. It was just a great performance by Cassel. Another in a laundry list of acting praise goes to Armin Mueller-Stahl. He is able to switch from nice old Russian man willing to help Naomi Watts to downright evil mob boss. You even get to see him morph the 2 roles into 1 man when he meets Naomi in the hospital. Naomi Watts is the last name I am going to throw out there. She doesn’t have a flashy role like the others that I have mentioned but she is the character that the story is flowing through. I appreciate that she was never thrown into any cheap female in danger scenes; Naomi put the pieces together and worked with Viggo to keep the baby safe. There were numerous greats scenes with her and Viggo and also with Armin. This was an all around well-acted movie.
Of course I am attracted to the performances within movies first, but I still want to take the time to praise David Cronenberg’s direction. Eastern Promises is his second movie in a row that can almost be described as mainstream. I don’t know if that makes them better or worse than his past work but I definitely am a fan of A History of Violence and now Eastern Promises. The way he shoots violence is like no other director that I can think of. It is almost beyond real. When people are stabbed in Eastern Promises it is horrifying. He also makes the ending the work even if it doesn’t really make you feel like the story is over. I am going to start anticipating Cronenberg’s movies more and more now.
Eastern Promises is another great movie to add to the list for 2007. The team of David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen have delivered twice in a row. I don't have really anything negative to say about this film. In fact, I wish all movies were as good as this. This is an easy recommendation to make.
9 out of 10
TV from 9/30 - 10/6
Monday (10/1)
Prison Break
What’s in the box?!?!? I can definitely say that this show is consistent. The problem is that it never improves. I appreciate that they have trimmed the amount of secondary storylines. Since the majority of the cast is in prison, their arcs keeping connecting which makes the show a helluvalot easier to watch. Michael is losing hope, T-Bag is scraping by, Whistler can’t be trusted, Mahone is losing his mind, Sucre is a drunk, and Linc failed in his mission. But none of this matters because they cliffhanged the show on the dreaded unknown box delivered by the evil people. What’s in the box?!?! I doubt it will be as cool as having it be Sara’s head.
5 out of 10
Chuck
I guess I’ll stick around but I am not all that excited about Chuck. There was nothing particularly wrong with the second episode, but at the same time there definitely wasn’t anything great. The dinner scene went on forever and the action wasn’t memorable. Still, Adam Baldwin working at the fake Best Buy is great. The female agent working at the hot dog joint with all the young boys just staring at her was amusing. Zach interacting with his sister, his buddy, the agents, are all usually funny enough so hopefully this show can find a groove soon.
5 out of 10
Heroes
The second season is starting off just as slow as the first season. The show is just good enough to keep me coming back but it took nearly half the season last year before it really delivered that knockout episode. I hope they can improve that schedule this time around. Still Claire cut her toe off and that ruled. Jack is still working at the Copy Kingdom and that rules. The Haitian was brought back and re-teamed with Jack, which is like giving me a gift of pure joy. I’m not interested in Maya and her bleeding eyes death power yet. Peter in “Ireland” is weak so far. I hope they can deliver on this Power that killed Sulu and is attacking Mama Petrelli. The ancient Japan plot is not as good as it should be although Kensei’s power revealing itself should kick things into gear. Cast gets huge again with at least Niki coming back next week so lets see if they can continue to juggle all these characters.
6 out of 10
Weeds
Celia gets naked… that’s bad nudity, bad bad nudity. I am not sure if there is much else that needs to be said about the entire episode. Well, Shane and Isabella getting high, touching boobs, and sharing tender moments was a nice scene. The porn set stuff just seems to be something for Andy to do for a couple of episodes. Hopefully stalker Nancy will lead to something good. There is still not enough Helia and Conrad and that is holding the show back.
6 out of 10
Californication
I complain last week and what happens this week? Hank is snorting lines of the back of a hooker. Hank is also drunk the majority of the episode, which just makes the show much more enjoyable. This was the episode where we got to see where Hank and Karen went wrong while at the same time putting them that much closer to being back together. By closer I mean they had sex. It is a good sign that the show was able to make the reading of the letter from Hank’s dad as emotional as was. This was easily one of the best episodes of the show so far.
8 out of 10
Tuesday (10/2)
Bones
This was just a by-the-numbers episode of Bones. There weren’t really any standout moments. Hodgins inability to deal with the hot FBI agent was amusing enough and Bones seeing her father in jail was okay but could have been better. Really the only thing I would want to watch again was drunk Booth at the end. It is still weird how they are tacking on these green-screen scenes with D.C. landmarks in the background.
5 out of 10
House
I am really enjoying this new season; much more than the beginning of last season. They have been able to make me rethink whether or not everything will be reset within a handful of episodes. Maybe Chase, Cameron, and Foreman won’t run back to be House’s pet monkeys. We’ll see. I can definitely take House abusing all the potential candidates for the rest of this month, especially if Kal Penn sticks around. Wilson continuing to abuse House is fantastic and that is the way their relationship should work not House screwing over Wilson to point of sending him to jail from last year. After all of 2 weeks, House is easily having the best season of the network shows I am watching.
9 out of 10
The Unit
This may be the last time I will really enjoy The Unit for a while. Instead of a mission a week, this was the culmination of how last season ended and the first 2 episodes of this year. Everyone is trying to expose who in the government is screwing over The Unit. Which lead to the awesome scene of them infiltrating the muckety muck dinner and showing The Man that they can get to him whenever they want to. Great stuff. The Mack torture scenes were good too, even if still don’t know what the hell happened between him and his wife. Please keep the Cerrano look.
7 out of 10
Reaper
Maybe Reaper will succeed. The tone of the show works with all the jokes and goofing off, instead of taking all the devil’s bounty hunting seriously. I hope they continue to injure Spanish every week since him getting shot by a nail-gun was one of the funnier scenes. Ray Wise makes the Devil menacing enough since most of his scenes are humorous with just the slightest bit of evil. I’m not too sure about the Workbench boss, but if it leads to Sock destroying merchandise to calm down it should work. Missy Peregrym has very white teeth, but is still hot. Reaper is holding steady at #2 of the new shows
6 out of 10
Damages
Damages is head-and-shoulders the best show that I am watching right now. There have been 10 episodes so far and none have disappointed. This week we finally got he big confrontation between Hewes and Frobisher. Somehow Glenn Close and Ted Danson were able to deliver by having the deposition slowly build to Frobisher exploding. This is capped off with Frobisher flipping out on his wife for sending the divorce papers to him the morning of his deposition. Ellen quitting then going to get drunk with friends was also very well done. They still got me wondering just what the hell happened to Ellen and her fiancé after the trial. I still hope Tom is not working against Ellen but there are still a few episodes left to make a bunch of reveals.
9 out of 10
Wednesday (10/3)
Bionic Woman
Although Bionic Woman hasn't put all of its pieces together yet, I still think that it is the best new show of the season. Right now it is because of potential. That awful human being yet good actor Isaiah Washington was introduced as Jamie’ handler this week. He’s another good character for the show. There was a damn decent training scene with Jamie and that guy who survived the Elecktra movie. The Sarah Corvus storyline looks like it will continue for a while so that’s a good thing. Jamie’s relationship with her sister is not dragging down the show. And I just love shadowy agencies that do good and the shadowy agencies that they stop. It’s the Alias fan in me.
7 out of 10
Life
I am giving Life a reprieve for at least one more week. This is based nearly entirely on this episode spending almost as much time on Charlie trying to figure out what was done to him and why than on the crime of the week. That along with the great scene where Charlie going to the barbecue at his old partner’s house, getting yelled at by the guy’s wife, then finding out that his partner kept his badge and his gun for him. The weekly crime was okay but nothing that you haven’t seen in a Law and Order or CSI. I hope they keep the larger storyline a major part of every episode because then I will stay till the show is cancelled before Christmas.
6 out of 10
Dirty Sexy Money
This gets the chop. I may continue to record it but I have no interest in reviewing it. Maybe if it survives past midseason I will check back in.
Thursday (10/4)
Smallville
Hey, we got a step up from last week. But since last week’s episode was awful, this is not high praise. I appreciate that they are not dragging out the awful Lana storyline, but at the same time find it hilarious that they push the reset button so hard that last year’s Lana/Lex arc is now gone. It was also good to see Clark visit the Fortress of Solitude because any Terrence Stamp is a good thing. The ending could also lead to something good as long as the secret government program has nothing to do with the Luthors, please be CADMUS, or Waller, or Brianiac. This week’s awful list; Lana was cloned, another Daily Planet editor that is not Perry White, possibly evil Supergirl, no Lionel.
4 out of 10
Big Shots
Adios. Take your place next to Dirty Sexy Money.
2 weeks in a row with Damages in first place and House in second. Plus we got an unexpectedly great Californication episode. Dirty Sexy Money and Big Shots are off the list. I am also not going to review Boston Legal and I recorded but haven't watched Pushing Daisies and Dexter.
Prison Break
What’s in the box?!?!? I can definitely say that this show is consistent. The problem is that it never improves. I appreciate that they have trimmed the amount of secondary storylines. Since the majority of the cast is in prison, their arcs keeping connecting which makes the show a helluvalot easier to watch. Michael is losing hope, T-Bag is scraping by, Whistler can’t be trusted, Mahone is losing his mind, Sucre is a drunk, and Linc failed in his mission. But none of this matters because they cliffhanged the show on the dreaded unknown box delivered by the evil people. What’s in the box?!?! I doubt it will be as cool as having it be Sara’s head.
5 out of 10
Chuck
I guess I’ll stick around but I am not all that excited about Chuck. There was nothing particularly wrong with the second episode, but at the same time there definitely wasn’t anything great. The dinner scene went on forever and the action wasn’t memorable. Still, Adam Baldwin working at the fake Best Buy is great. The female agent working at the hot dog joint with all the young boys just staring at her was amusing. Zach interacting with his sister, his buddy, the agents, are all usually funny enough so hopefully this show can find a groove soon.
5 out of 10
Heroes
The second season is starting off just as slow as the first season. The show is just good enough to keep me coming back but it took nearly half the season last year before it really delivered that knockout episode. I hope they can improve that schedule this time around. Still Claire cut her toe off and that ruled. Jack is still working at the Copy Kingdom and that rules. The Haitian was brought back and re-teamed with Jack, which is like giving me a gift of pure joy. I’m not interested in Maya and her bleeding eyes death power yet. Peter in “Ireland” is weak so far. I hope they can deliver on this Power that killed Sulu and is attacking Mama Petrelli. The ancient Japan plot is not as good as it should be although Kensei’s power revealing itself should kick things into gear. Cast gets huge again with at least Niki coming back next week so lets see if they can continue to juggle all these characters.
6 out of 10
Weeds
Celia gets naked… that’s bad nudity, bad bad nudity. I am not sure if there is much else that needs to be said about the entire episode. Well, Shane and Isabella getting high, touching boobs, and sharing tender moments was a nice scene. The porn set stuff just seems to be something for Andy to do for a couple of episodes. Hopefully stalker Nancy will lead to something good. There is still not enough Helia and Conrad and that is holding the show back.
6 out of 10
Californication
I complain last week and what happens this week? Hank is snorting lines of the back of a hooker. Hank is also drunk the majority of the episode, which just makes the show much more enjoyable. This was the episode where we got to see where Hank and Karen went wrong while at the same time putting them that much closer to being back together. By closer I mean they had sex. It is a good sign that the show was able to make the reading of the letter from Hank’s dad as emotional as was. This was easily one of the best episodes of the show so far.
8 out of 10
Tuesday (10/2)
Bones
This was just a by-the-numbers episode of Bones. There weren’t really any standout moments. Hodgins inability to deal with the hot FBI agent was amusing enough and Bones seeing her father in jail was okay but could have been better. Really the only thing I would want to watch again was drunk Booth at the end. It is still weird how they are tacking on these green-screen scenes with D.C. landmarks in the background.
5 out of 10
House
I am really enjoying this new season; much more than the beginning of last season. They have been able to make me rethink whether or not everything will be reset within a handful of episodes. Maybe Chase, Cameron, and Foreman won’t run back to be House’s pet monkeys. We’ll see. I can definitely take House abusing all the potential candidates for the rest of this month, especially if Kal Penn sticks around. Wilson continuing to abuse House is fantastic and that is the way their relationship should work not House screwing over Wilson to point of sending him to jail from last year. After all of 2 weeks, House is easily having the best season of the network shows I am watching.
9 out of 10
The Unit
This may be the last time I will really enjoy The Unit for a while. Instead of a mission a week, this was the culmination of how last season ended and the first 2 episodes of this year. Everyone is trying to expose who in the government is screwing over The Unit. Which lead to the awesome scene of them infiltrating the muckety muck dinner and showing The Man that they can get to him whenever they want to. Great stuff. The Mack torture scenes were good too, even if still don’t know what the hell happened between him and his wife. Please keep the Cerrano look.
7 out of 10
Reaper
Maybe Reaper will succeed. The tone of the show works with all the jokes and goofing off, instead of taking all the devil’s bounty hunting seriously. I hope they continue to injure Spanish every week since him getting shot by a nail-gun was one of the funnier scenes. Ray Wise makes the Devil menacing enough since most of his scenes are humorous with just the slightest bit of evil. I’m not too sure about the Workbench boss, but if it leads to Sock destroying merchandise to calm down it should work. Missy Peregrym has very white teeth, but is still hot. Reaper is holding steady at #2 of the new shows
6 out of 10
Damages
Damages is head-and-shoulders the best show that I am watching right now. There have been 10 episodes so far and none have disappointed. This week we finally got he big confrontation between Hewes and Frobisher. Somehow Glenn Close and Ted Danson were able to deliver by having the deposition slowly build to Frobisher exploding. This is capped off with Frobisher flipping out on his wife for sending the divorce papers to him the morning of his deposition. Ellen quitting then going to get drunk with friends was also very well done. They still got me wondering just what the hell happened to Ellen and her fiancé after the trial. I still hope Tom is not working against Ellen but there are still a few episodes left to make a bunch of reveals.
9 out of 10
Wednesday (10/3)
Bionic Woman
Although Bionic Woman hasn't put all of its pieces together yet, I still think that it is the best new show of the season. Right now it is because of potential. That awful human being yet good actor Isaiah Washington was introduced as Jamie’ handler this week. He’s another good character for the show. There was a damn decent training scene with Jamie and that guy who survived the Elecktra movie. The Sarah Corvus storyline looks like it will continue for a while so that’s a good thing. Jamie’s relationship with her sister is not dragging down the show. And I just love shadowy agencies that do good and the shadowy agencies that they stop. It’s the Alias fan in me.
7 out of 10
Life
I am giving Life a reprieve for at least one more week. This is based nearly entirely on this episode spending almost as much time on Charlie trying to figure out what was done to him and why than on the crime of the week. That along with the great scene where Charlie going to the barbecue at his old partner’s house, getting yelled at by the guy’s wife, then finding out that his partner kept his badge and his gun for him. The weekly crime was okay but nothing that you haven’t seen in a Law and Order or CSI. I hope they keep the larger storyline a major part of every episode because then I will stay till the show is cancelled before Christmas.
6 out of 10
Dirty Sexy Money
This gets the chop. I may continue to record it but I have no interest in reviewing it. Maybe if it survives past midseason I will check back in.
Thursday (10/4)
Smallville
Hey, we got a step up from last week. But since last week’s episode was awful, this is not high praise. I appreciate that they are not dragging out the awful Lana storyline, but at the same time find it hilarious that they push the reset button so hard that last year’s Lana/Lex arc is now gone. It was also good to see Clark visit the Fortress of Solitude because any Terrence Stamp is a good thing. The ending could also lead to something good as long as the secret government program has nothing to do with the Luthors, please be CADMUS, or Waller, or Brianiac. This week’s awful list; Lana was cloned, another Daily Planet editor that is not Perry White, possibly evil Supergirl, no Lionel.
4 out of 10
Big Shots
Adios. Take your place next to Dirty Sexy Money.
2 weeks in a row with Damages in first place and House in second. Plus we got an unexpectedly great Californication episode. Dirty Sexy Money and Big Shots are off the list. I am also not going to review Boston Legal and I recorded but haven't watched Pushing Daisies and Dexter.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
TV from 9/23 - 9/29
15 goddamn shows just this week. I am a sick bastard. Hopefully going forward I can get this done before the new week starts.
Monday (9/24)
Prison Break
We are jumping in on the second episode. I lost my chance to rant about how they literally reset the show back to the beginning. One of the brothers is in jail, one of them is trying to break the other out, and there is an evil conspiracy using them. It is so past ludicrous that it works for Prison Break. Episode 2 brought more of the same. Michael is the smartest man alive and can fix every situation, this time he MacGyver’s the broken water pipes. Linc gets to know shadowy organization #2. The annoying Sucre/Maricruz storyline is hopefully wrapped up cause it bores me to tears. Sucre working with the brothers is definitely a better use for his character. The best thing about the show right now is that Bunny from The Wire is the head convict in charge. He improves the show just by standing around. His butting heads with Michael should continue to anchor the show for me.
5 out of 10
Chuck
I hate pilots. All the characters have to be introduced, the premise needs to be clearly explained, and the status quo needs to be established but it still has to come in at less than an hour. So everything is smashed together to fit and it always feels rushed. Lets judge the 3 parts. The characters are good enough; Chuck seems to fit the role, the dueling agents are okay, and there are plenty of supporting characters to provide humor. The premise seems to be a one-note joke about a nerd saving the world. Will he always save the world straight from the floor of not-Best Buy? I was hoping for better action, but I always want better action. 24 and Alias has spoiled me. Plus there is another big government conspiracy to bother with again too. I’ll give it a few more weeks.
5 out of 10
Heroes
I came pretty dang close to despising the season 1 finale. Every single character coming together, multiple characters in mortal danger but no one clearly dead, and the time travel ending left me feeling annoyed instead of intrigued. Were any of these things fixed? Well no. The Hiro in ancient Japan plot was made better because of Sark as Hiro’s hero. On the other hand, it looks like no one died in the finale. Instead we get another secondary character killed. This grows tiresome; eventually someone big has to go. So I am still stuck with way too many people to keep track of which leads to storylines that I will check out for. I did like the new stories for Claire and Jack Bennet. In fact I want a whole episode to take place in Copy Kingdom. Nathan Petrelli’s beard is fantastically fake and ridiculous. Parkman still bores me. I am unsure about Mohinder. We’ll see about the new chick. I know Ali Larter will be back soon but do we need the kid? I miss Sulu already.
6 out of 10
Weeds
First Post-U-Turn episode and the show definitely suffers in his absence. His funeral is still the best scene even when he’s dead. Nancy grieving with the other gangbangers, Marvin trying to take control … U-Turn is a huge loss. That being said, Nancy and Marvin going to the summit with the Mexican gang was great. The porn set should have been funnier. The Matthew Modine story is still boring when Nancy isn’t involved. The Christian indoctrination school and the Olsen twin fits the show but it seems to be taking the place of Heylia and Conrad. I still love the tone of the show.
7 out of 10
Californication
The tone of this show is starting to confuse me. We are only halfway through the first season and instead of Hank being completely out of control, the story has already shifted to Hank trying to put his family together. Is it just going to be constant setbacks? That will get boring. Maybe I miss the constant nudity of the first episode. Or maybe Mia is just that annoying. Or maybe I don’t care about Hank’s agent. I do like when Hank spars with the director. Eh, it’s a half-hour that follows Weeds so I’ll stick around.
5 out of 10
Tuesday (9/25)
Bones
This show has constantly improved since it began airing. Which is a good thing since I have zero tolerance for procedurals. And one of the important aspects of a procedural is the need to get everything back to normal, so by the end of this episode Booth and Bones are a team again and Zack is back from Iraq. That means that there is nothing new here so it all comes down to the case and this week its cannibals. Good stuff with an actual hint at a larger case for the season to deal with. I’m intrigued, not so much the green screen stuff at the end but still intrigued.
7 out of 10
House
Just like how last season began with House walking; this season starts without his minions. I don’t trust it and am biding my time till everyone is back in the fold. Cameron, Chase, and Foreman are coming back eventually so all I can hope for is that their absence leads to good stories. Does it this time? Hells yes. The guitar kidnapping by Dr. Wilson is enough to make this a great episode. This included one of the best House/Wilson scenes of all-time, which is when he gives the sound that a guitar string makes when it is wound too tight. Plus switching bodies, House dickishness, and Cuddy proving to House he needs a team. The abuse of the potentials hires should carry the next few episodes.
8 out of 10
The Unit
I’m jumping back in after taking the second season off. Thank you second DVR box. Automatic high score because Jonas shaves his head and gives me Pedro Cerano flashbacks. If he threw in the Cuban accent this would have been the best hour of television all week. The wives sections still lose my attention. I have no idea what happened between Mack and his wife. But it is still fun to watch all the team members do their thing. Come on, Bob hid in the casket and shot the assassin checking Jonas’ non-existent dead body. I assume everything will reset after the second episode. But maybe they’ll surprise me.
7 out of 10
Reaper
This seemed interesting enough. Plus Kevin Smith directing was hook enough to get me to record it for future viewing. Devil’s bounty hunter seemed to be a damn decent premise. President Logan’s VP is the devil which you would think should have been the other way around. The star and his buddy seem to have good timing with the buddy being real funny in this role. It’s still the CW so everything skews young and not that deep. Plus I don’t know if the budget will allow them to do decent special effects for the demons and shit. Still for a pilot it didn’t bore me, so I will return for a little while longer.
7 out of 10
Damages
I may not watch every FX show but it seems like everyone I have checked out were well worth the effort. Damages seems to be the first one since The Shield to actually get me to come back week after week. The performances are so good, from Glenn Close to Tate Donovan to Ted Danson to Rose Byrne to Zeljko Ivanek to just about anybody who shows their face. The only real negative I have for Damages is that I am not a fan of the format; telling the story of the case while slowly revealing the horrible conclusion where Ellen’s fiancé is dead and we don’t know how or why yet. It works though. This week’s episode includes showing Patty breakdown in the future, the continuing revelation that Ellen can’t trust Patty or Tom, and just more awesome work by Ted freaking Danson. I still have no idea how this is going to wrap up while at the same time I have no idea how there can be a second season.
9 out 10
Wednesday (9/26)
Bionic Woman
So I have been trying to replace Alias for 2 years now. 4 years if you want to remove the last 2 years of Alias from the record books. Here’s hoping Bionic Woman can do the job. After the pilot, I am not jumping ship so that is a good start. As a pilot, this avoided many of the pitfalls. By the end of the episode I really didn’t know how each hour would go down which I liked. Jamie Sommers was introduced, fucked up, then rebuilt using magical technology. Another world famous shadowy conspiracy was introduced. Evil doctors, sketchy doctors, kung fu dude, whiny sister, evil bionic woman, and no Isiah Washington were all introduced without feeling forced. I was hoping for a better fight scene at the end but it didn’t suck and hopefully the show can grow into great action. I could do with out the aggressive soundtrack playing over every important scene. Still I feel pretty good about this show at least lasting the season.
7 out of 10
Life
Second most precarious show, if it doesn’t vastly improve over the next week or so I will not stick around. It is just a cop drama with the all-necessary twist. I don’t have much to say. Calamity Jane and the overarching mysterious conspiracy may keep me coming back but it is touch and go right now.
4 out of 10
Dirty Sexy Money
This is a step above Life but still behind Bionic Woman, Chuck, and Reaper for new shows that I am going to follow. I like Peter Krause and I like Donald Sutherland so here we go. It could be fun. Lots of Darling children running around acting crazy, William Baldwin sleeping with a tranny hooker, priests with illegitimate children, and other real soapy situations. Then again the soapy nature will probably be the reason why I fall off this show. Then again the omnipresent conspiracy over Peter Krause’s dad’s death might keep me coming back.
5 out of 10
Thursday (9/27)
Smallville
Still crap and I am still watching. Smallville has not improved and in fact has probably worsened. Another female is added to the cast so there will be even less time for Chloe or Lois which sucks. Of course Bizarro was finished off before the end of the episode because there is a new season to start building even though the conclusion will be rushed and lead to nothing for next season. And the Lana reveal at the end was just awful. How stupid do they assume the audience is if they feel that people believed she was dead and would be shocked by her still being alive? There is nothing promising about this season.
2 out of 10
Big Shots
This is the worst new show that I watched. I will record next week’s episode and that will be the final call. Outside of Vaughn from Alias, I have nothing positive to write. Christopher Titus in a semi-serious role? Yet he is still doing his stand up? Do we need more tranny hookers on ABC? This seems like more soapy drama that doesn’t interest me at all. I do not have high hopes.
3 out of 10
Damages wins for the week with House coming in second. I wasn't blown away by any premiere but at the same time I have nice slate of shows to follow.
Monday (9/24)
Prison Break
We are jumping in on the second episode. I lost my chance to rant about how they literally reset the show back to the beginning. One of the brothers is in jail, one of them is trying to break the other out, and there is an evil conspiracy using them. It is so past ludicrous that it works for Prison Break. Episode 2 brought more of the same. Michael is the smartest man alive and can fix every situation, this time he MacGyver’s the broken water pipes. Linc gets to know shadowy organization #2. The annoying Sucre/Maricruz storyline is hopefully wrapped up cause it bores me to tears. Sucre working with the brothers is definitely a better use for his character. The best thing about the show right now is that Bunny from The Wire is the head convict in charge. He improves the show just by standing around. His butting heads with Michael should continue to anchor the show for me.
5 out of 10
Chuck
I hate pilots. All the characters have to be introduced, the premise needs to be clearly explained, and the status quo needs to be established but it still has to come in at less than an hour. So everything is smashed together to fit and it always feels rushed. Lets judge the 3 parts. The characters are good enough; Chuck seems to fit the role, the dueling agents are okay, and there are plenty of supporting characters to provide humor. The premise seems to be a one-note joke about a nerd saving the world. Will he always save the world straight from the floor of not-Best Buy? I was hoping for better action, but I always want better action. 24 and Alias has spoiled me. Plus there is another big government conspiracy to bother with again too. I’ll give it a few more weeks.
5 out of 10
Heroes
I came pretty dang close to despising the season 1 finale. Every single character coming together, multiple characters in mortal danger but no one clearly dead, and the time travel ending left me feeling annoyed instead of intrigued. Were any of these things fixed? Well no. The Hiro in ancient Japan plot was made better because of Sark as Hiro’s hero. On the other hand, it looks like no one died in the finale. Instead we get another secondary character killed. This grows tiresome; eventually someone big has to go. So I am still stuck with way too many people to keep track of which leads to storylines that I will check out for. I did like the new stories for Claire and Jack Bennet. In fact I want a whole episode to take place in Copy Kingdom. Nathan Petrelli’s beard is fantastically fake and ridiculous. Parkman still bores me. I am unsure about Mohinder. We’ll see about the new chick. I know Ali Larter will be back soon but do we need the kid? I miss Sulu already.
6 out of 10
Weeds
First Post-U-Turn episode and the show definitely suffers in his absence. His funeral is still the best scene even when he’s dead. Nancy grieving with the other gangbangers, Marvin trying to take control … U-Turn is a huge loss. That being said, Nancy and Marvin going to the summit with the Mexican gang was great. The porn set should have been funnier. The Matthew Modine story is still boring when Nancy isn’t involved. The Christian indoctrination school and the Olsen twin fits the show but it seems to be taking the place of Heylia and Conrad. I still love the tone of the show.
7 out of 10
Californication
The tone of this show is starting to confuse me. We are only halfway through the first season and instead of Hank being completely out of control, the story has already shifted to Hank trying to put his family together. Is it just going to be constant setbacks? That will get boring. Maybe I miss the constant nudity of the first episode. Or maybe Mia is just that annoying. Or maybe I don’t care about Hank’s agent. I do like when Hank spars with the director. Eh, it’s a half-hour that follows Weeds so I’ll stick around.
5 out of 10
Tuesday (9/25)
Bones
This show has constantly improved since it began airing. Which is a good thing since I have zero tolerance for procedurals. And one of the important aspects of a procedural is the need to get everything back to normal, so by the end of this episode Booth and Bones are a team again and Zack is back from Iraq. That means that there is nothing new here so it all comes down to the case and this week its cannibals. Good stuff with an actual hint at a larger case for the season to deal with. I’m intrigued, not so much the green screen stuff at the end but still intrigued.
7 out of 10
House
Just like how last season began with House walking; this season starts without his minions. I don’t trust it and am biding my time till everyone is back in the fold. Cameron, Chase, and Foreman are coming back eventually so all I can hope for is that their absence leads to good stories. Does it this time? Hells yes. The guitar kidnapping by Dr. Wilson is enough to make this a great episode. This included one of the best House/Wilson scenes of all-time, which is when he gives the sound that a guitar string makes when it is wound too tight. Plus switching bodies, House dickishness, and Cuddy proving to House he needs a team. The abuse of the potentials hires should carry the next few episodes.
8 out of 10
The Unit
I’m jumping back in after taking the second season off. Thank you second DVR box. Automatic high score because Jonas shaves his head and gives me Pedro Cerano flashbacks. If he threw in the Cuban accent this would have been the best hour of television all week. The wives sections still lose my attention. I have no idea what happened between Mack and his wife. But it is still fun to watch all the team members do their thing. Come on, Bob hid in the casket and shot the assassin checking Jonas’ non-existent dead body. I assume everything will reset after the second episode. But maybe they’ll surprise me.
7 out of 10
Reaper
This seemed interesting enough. Plus Kevin Smith directing was hook enough to get me to record it for future viewing. Devil’s bounty hunter seemed to be a damn decent premise. President Logan’s VP is the devil which you would think should have been the other way around. The star and his buddy seem to have good timing with the buddy being real funny in this role. It’s still the CW so everything skews young and not that deep. Plus I don’t know if the budget will allow them to do decent special effects for the demons and shit. Still for a pilot it didn’t bore me, so I will return for a little while longer.
7 out of 10
Damages
I may not watch every FX show but it seems like everyone I have checked out were well worth the effort. Damages seems to be the first one since The Shield to actually get me to come back week after week. The performances are so good, from Glenn Close to Tate Donovan to Ted Danson to Rose Byrne to Zeljko Ivanek to just about anybody who shows their face. The only real negative I have for Damages is that I am not a fan of the format; telling the story of the case while slowly revealing the horrible conclusion where Ellen’s fiancé is dead and we don’t know how or why yet. It works though. This week’s episode includes showing Patty breakdown in the future, the continuing revelation that Ellen can’t trust Patty or Tom, and just more awesome work by Ted freaking Danson. I still have no idea how this is going to wrap up while at the same time I have no idea how there can be a second season.
9 out 10
Wednesday (9/26)
Bionic Woman
So I have been trying to replace Alias for 2 years now. 4 years if you want to remove the last 2 years of Alias from the record books. Here’s hoping Bionic Woman can do the job. After the pilot, I am not jumping ship so that is a good start. As a pilot, this avoided many of the pitfalls. By the end of the episode I really didn’t know how each hour would go down which I liked. Jamie Sommers was introduced, fucked up, then rebuilt using magical technology. Another world famous shadowy conspiracy was introduced. Evil doctors, sketchy doctors, kung fu dude, whiny sister, evil bionic woman, and no Isiah Washington were all introduced without feeling forced. I was hoping for a better fight scene at the end but it didn’t suck and hopefully the show can grow into great action. I could do with out the aggressive soundtrack playing over every important scene. Still I feel pretty good about this show at least lasting the season.
7 out of 10
Life
Second most precarious show, if it doesn’t vastly improve over the next week or so I will not stick around. It is just a cop drama with the all-necessary twist. I don’t have much to say. Calamity Jane and the overarching mysterious conspiracy may keep me coming back but it is touch and go right now.
4 out of 10
Dirty Sexy Money
This is a step above Life but still behind Bionic Woman, Chuck, and Reaper for new shows that I am going to follow. I like Peter Krause and I like Donald Sutherland so here we go. It could be fun. Lots of Darling children running around acting crazy, William Baldwin sleeping with a tranny hooker, priests with illegitimate children, and other real soapy situations. Then again the soapy nature will probably be the reason why I fall off this show. Then again the omnipresent conspiracy over Peter Krause’s dad’s death might keep me coming back.
5 out of 10
Thursday (9/27)
Smallville
Still crap and I am still watching. Smallville has not improved and in fact has probably worsened. Another female is added to the cast so there will be even less time for Chloe or Lois which sucks. Of course Bizarro was finished off before the end of the episode because there is a new season to start building even though the conclusion will be rushed and lead to nothing for next season. And the Lana reveal at the end was just awful. How stupid do they assume the audience is if they feel that people believed she was dead and would be shocked by her still being alive? There is nothing promising about this season.
2 out of 10
Big Shots
This is the worst new show that I watched. I will record next week’s episode and that will be the final call. Outside of Vaughn from Alias, I have nothing positive to write. Christopher Titus in a semi-serious role? Yet he is still doing his stand up? Do we need more tranny hookers on ABC? This seems like more soapy drama that doesn’t interest me at all. I do not have high hopes.
3 out of 10
Damages wins for the week with House coming in second. I wasn't blown away by any premiere but at the same time I have nice slate of shows to follow.
Television 2007-2008
What is the second greatest television invention of my lifetime? Digital Video Recorder. This glorious device allows me to be both a useless slave to the television while at the same time not wasting hours every night watching first-run shows. It is beautiful. Oh and here is the rest of the top 5:
5. Non-stop SportsCenter throughout the morning (I can’t tell you how important this was before the internets)
4. Multiple HBOs and other multiple pay-cable movie stations (There are 50 movie channels so there has to be a decent movie somewhere)
3. HD (Are you kidding me? Do I even need to explain this?)
2. DVR
1. The Sopranos (This is not what you think. Although The Sopranos was that good of a show, it is not the adventures of Tony Soprano that is important. Ever since this show aired television has become the home of real talented people who no longer see it as a step down from films. Which in turn means more and more worthwhile television programs. Plus The Sopranos kicked an unidentifiable amount of ass in the beginning.)
The point of this post is to detail how I will be dealing with this television season. Now I do watch shows from June through August, but it is hard enough for me to keep up with just movies so I needed to wait until the network season began. And this is how it is going to go down. It will happen once a week, maybe a paragraph per episode, and a quick grade. For this first post I will detail the sheer ridiculous amount of shows I watched and state which ones I will continue to watch and review.
Sunday
There are no reviews as of now. I barely pay attention to The Simpsons and even if I did I wouldn’t review it. There are no HBO shows I care about until The Wire shows up again. I am counting the fricking days. Dexter just started up this Sunday on Showtime and I may throw it on; serial killers can be fun.
Monday
Here we go. Prison Break, Chuck, Heroes, Weeds, Californication and when that sweet time returns 24. K-Ville got the axe after one show. I'll steal the joke that both The Simpsons and South Park have made in the past. K-Ville is either another version of Police Cops or Cop Drama; take your pick. I don’t follow many procedurals and television cop shows all seem bland to me after The Wire and to a lesser degree The Shield.
Tuesday
Here we go again. This day will include Bones, House, The Unit, Reaper, Damages, and maybe Boston Legal. The Shield will follow if and when it shows up.
Wednesday
The craziness tapers off here. Hump day has Bionic Woman and Lost after the New Year. I may or may not include Life or Dirty Sexy Money but I need a couple more episodes to see if I will like it or not.
Thursday
I will piss on Smallville for another year because I will see things through to the end. Although I may end up watching the NBC shows, I have no interest in reviewing them. I highly doubt Big Shots will last.
There ain’t nothing worth reporting for Friday and Saturday. Then again Val Kilmer was on Numbers so I could change my mind.
5. Non-stop SportsCenter throughout the morning (I can’t tell you how important this was before the internets)
4. Multiple HBOs and other multiple pay-cable movie stations (There are 50 movie channels so there has to be a decent movie somewhere)
3. HD (Are you kidding me? Do I even need to explain this?)
2. DVR
1. The Sopranos (This is not what you think. Although The Sopranos was that good of a show, it is not the adventures of Tony Soprano that is important. Ever since this show aired television has become the home of real talented people who no longer see it as a step down from films. Which in turn means more and more worthwhile television programs. Plus The Sopranos kicked an unidentifiable amount of ass in the beginning.)
The point of this post is to detail how I will be dealing with this television season. Now I do watch shows from June through August, but it is hard enough for me to keep up with just movies so I needed to wait until the network season began. And this is how it is going to go down. It will happen once a week, maybe a paragraph per episode, and a quick grade. For this first post I will detail the sheer ridiculous amount of shows I watched and state which ones I will continue to watch and review.
Sunday
There are no reviews as of now. I barely pay attention to The Simpsons and even if I did I wouldn’t review it. There are no HBO shows I care about until The Wire shows up again. I am counting the fricking days. Dexter just started up this Sunday on Showtime and I may throw it on; serial killers can be fun.
Monday
Here we go. Prison Break, Chuck, Heroes, Weeds, Californication and when that sweet time returns 24. K-Ville got the axe after one show. I'll steal the joke that both The Simpsons and South Park have made in the past. K-Ville is either another version of Police Cops or Cop Drama; take your pick. I don’t follow many procedurals and television cop shows all seem bland to me after The Wire and to a lesser degree The Shield.
Tuesday
Here we go again. This day will include Bones, House, The Unit, Reaper, Damages, and maybe Boston Legal. The Shield will follow if and when it shows up.
Wednesday
The craziness tapers off here. Hump day has Bionic Woman and Lost after the New Year. I may or may not include Life or Dirty Sexy Money but I need a couple more episodes to see if I will like it or not.
Thursday
I will piss on Smallville for another year because I will see things through to the end. Although I may end up watching the NBC shows, I have no interest in reviewing them. I highly doubt Big Shots will last.
There ain’t nothing worth reporting for Friday and Saturday. Then again Val Kilmer was on Numbers so I could change my mind.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Resident Evil: Extinction
YES! There have been times these past few years where I worried that there wouldn’t be a third Resident Evil movie and I will admit that I wept at the thought that the franchise had ended. But here we are and Resident Evil: Extinction is out for the whole world to see. And thankfully it is exactly what the original and Apocalypse was, pure enjoyable trash. The big change this time around is that we are now firmly within the world of Mad Max and Alice is now Jean Grey. How sweet is that?
There were so many unanswered questions at the end of Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Wait you don’t care? But she killed the security guard with her mind? Dude, her mind made that guy’s eyes bleed! And how was this all explained in Extinction? Um, it wasn’t explained so I will assume Umbrella turned her into Jean Grey. Telekinesis rules. So Milla Jovovich starts off with her new mutant power along with riding a bike through the desert like freaking Mad Max. I cannot be more excited to write that sentence. But I can’t say that it is all great for Alice this time around. Although she was nude during many scenes in Extinction, they went with the whole strategic covering of the naughty bits. That’s not the Resident Evil I came to know and love. Give me a moment to get over this loss.
They brought back lots of other survivors from the second movie. Which was better than how Apocalypse only brought back Alice and I’ll stretch to include the flashback to the guy who became Nemesis. Extinction brought back the evil doctor, the STARS dude, and for whatever sick twisted reason Mike Epps. Don’t ask why the 2 most important other non-Alice survivors, Jill and the little girl, were ignored because I don’t have an answer for you. Seems like that shouldn't have been left hanging. The two additions to the cast that left any sort of a mark were Ali Larter and Ashanti. Well truthfully I just wanted to mention that Ashanti was in the damn movie because do you remember when Ashanti was relevant? Ali was completely acceptable as Claire. It is amusing to see her act badass but Heroes has made that seem less ridiculous. You won’t confuse her with Michelle Rodriguez but this isn’t exactly Denise Richards as nuclear scientist. No one else matters because they are just all cannon fodder. Introduce them, give them an obvious character trait, then kill them violently, and the more the better. I almost forgot; the head of Umbrella is a badass because he wears sunglasses to major company meetings. Sunglasses! Indoors! In a professional setting!
Do you really care about the story? All that matters is zombies appear and get killed in massive numbers. Birds have been infected, swarm, and peck people to death. Umbrella’s plans don’t even make sense. And the ending leaves multiple plotlines for the hopefully 4th Resident Evil. Man, I can only dream.
Lets get this straight. I do not recommend Resident Evil: Extinction. While the franchise is not awful, it sure as hell wouldn’t be confused with quality. What can I say? I am a sucker for the continuing adventures of Alice vs. the Umbrella corporation. This is just more of the same.
5 out of 10
There were so many unanswered questions at the end of Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Wait you don’t care? But she killed the security guard with her mind? Dude, her mind made that guy’s eyes bleed! And how was this all explained in Extinction? Um, it wasn’t explained so I will assume Umbrella turned her into Jean Grey. Telekinesis rules. So Milla Jovovich starts off with her new mutant power along with riding a bike through the desert like freaking Mad Max. I cannot be more excited to write that sentence. But I can’t say that it is all great for Alice this time around. Although she was nude during many scenes in Extinction, they went with the whole strategic covering of the naughty bits. That’s not the Resident Evil I came to know and love. Give me a moment to get over this loss.
They brought back lots of other survivors from the second movie. Which was better than how Apocalypse only brought back Alice and I’ll stretch to include the flashback to the guy who became Nemesis. Extinction brought back the evil doctor, the STARS dude, and for whatever sick twisted reason Mike Epps. Don’t ask why the 2 most important other non-Alice survivors, Jill and the little girl, were ignored because I don’t have an answer for you. Seems like that shouldn't have been left hanging. The two additions to the cast that left any sort of a mark were Ali Larter and Ashanti. Well truthfully I just wanted to mention that Ashanti was in the damn movie because do you remember when Ashanti was relevant? Ali was completely acceptable as Claire. It is amusing to see her act badass but Heroes has made that seem less ridiculous. You won’t confuse her with Michelle Rodriguez but this isn’t exactly Denise Richards as nuclear scientist. No one else matters because they are just all cannon fodder. Introduce them, give them an obvious character trait, then kill them violently, and the more the better. I almost forgot; the head of Umbrella is a badass because he wears sunglasses to major company meetings. Sunglasses! Indoors! In a professional setting!
Do you really care about the story? All that matters is zombies appear and get killed in massive numbers. Birds have been infected, swarm, and peck people to death. Umbrella’s plans don’t even make sense. And the ending leaves multiple plotlines for the hopefully 4th Resident Evil. Man, I can only dream.
Lets get this straight. I do not recommend Resident Evil: Extinction. While the franchise is not awful, it sure as hell wouldn’t be confused with quality. What can I say? I am a sucker for the continuing adventures of Alice vs. the Umbrella corporation. This is just more of the same.
5 out of 10
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Shoot 'Em Up
One of the great things about seeing so many movies is that sometimes I am glad to see just a so-so movie. Shoot ‘Em Up can settle itself in a nice spot right in the middle of the list. You know … spread itself out and share stories with the rest of the mediocre movies of 2007. The highest praise I can possible give for this movie is that it will definitely improve when you watch it 10 minutes at a time on cable. Conversely, watching Shoot ‘Em Up straight through in one sitting does not leave you feeling like you just saw anything worth remembering or even spending a single brain cell on.
Clive Owen may have become the go-to actor when the role calls for weathered, shadowy, long coat wearing, disgruntled anti-hero, but Smith in Shoot ‘Em Up was a Xerox of a Xerox. It was closer to a Clive Owen impression rather than anything else. Still who doesn't like Clive Owen? Seriously? Your opinion is now worthless to me. On the other hand, Paul Giamatti gets to play the most un-Paul Giamatti character he has ever had the chance to portray. That is probably the reason why he ended up in this. He saw the opportunity to be a crazed lunatic instead of downtrodden guy, or some guys best friend. Not the best performance of his career but at least its memorable with his wacky one-liners and manic facial expressions. The only other person worth mentioning is Monica Bellucci and I have now mentioned her. That wasn't nice. She is great in her role as hooker. Sorry, lactating hooker. Yeah don't look at me, I didn't
Since the actors weren’t the problem with Shoot ‘Em Up, I’d place the blame on the story since this movie felt more like an excuse to create elaborate gunfights. Then someone went back and backfilled all the reasons why these crazy action scenes were occurring. And by backfill I mean Madlibs. Don’t get me wrong; when I'm watching this for the 47th time on one of the six Cinemaxes the shoot-outs will still be fun. My assumption is that the writer/director, Michael Davis, played a helluvalot of video games while imagining this movie. Actually the use of a carrot as a murder weapon in multiple scenes couldn’t have originated from a video game so maybe Mr. Davis is just insane. Hmm lactating hookers, using a bullet to severe an umbilical cord, yes crazy is an acceptable explanation. There really isn’t much more to be said about the story. It seems to exist in the fabulous alternate reality where massive levels of violence take place around every corner. Fully trained assassins and mercenaries are available in large quantities. If only it were true. If only…
You would think Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, gunfights, Monica Bellucci hooker, what could go wrong. Yeah well don't get your hopes up kid The gunfights weren't even good enough to make the whole thing worthwhile. Off you go Shoot 'Em Up straight into the mediocre basket.
5 out of 10
Clive Owen may have become the go-to actor when the role calls for weathered, shadowy, long coat wearing, disgruntled anti-hero, but Smith in Shoot ‘Em Up was a Xerox of a Xerox. It was closer to a Clive Owen impression rather than anything else. Still who doesn't like Clive Owen? Seriously? Your opinion is now worthless to me. On the other hand, Paul Giamatti gets to play the most un-Paul Giamatti character he has ever had the chance to portray. That is probably the reason why he ended up in this. He saw the opportunity to be a crazed lunatic instead of downtrodden guy, or some guys best friend. Not the best performance of his career but at least its memorable with his wacky one-liners and manic facial expressions. The only other person worth mentioning is Monica Bellucci and I have now mentioned her. That wasn't nice. She is great in her role as hooker. Sorry, lactating hooker. Yeah don't look at me, I didn't
Since the actors weren’t the problem with Shoot ‘Em Up, I’d place the blame on the story since this movie felt more like an excuse to create elaborate gunfights. Then someone went back and backfilled all the reasons why these crazy action scenes were occurring. And by backfill I mean Madlibs. Don’t get me wrong; when I'm watching this for the 47th time on one of the six Cinemaxes the shoot-outs will still be fun. My assumption is that the writer/director, Michael Davis, played a helluvalot of video games while imagining this movie. Actually the use of a carrot as a murder weapon in multiple scenes couldn’t have originated from a video game so maybe Mr. Davis is just insane. Hmm lactating hookers, using a bullet to severe an umbilical cord, yes crazy is an acceptable explanation. There really isn’t much more to be said about the story. It seems to exist in the fabulous alternate reality where massive levels of violence take place around every corner. Fully trained assassins and mercenaries are available in large quantities. If only it were true. If only…
You would think Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, gunfights, Monica Bellucci hooker, what could go wrong. Yeah well don't get your hopes up kid The gunfights weren't even good enough to make the whole thing worthwhile. Off you go Shoot 'Em Up straight into the mediocre basket.
5 out of 10
Thursday, September 13, 2007
3:10 to Yuma
Man, so freaking close to being that first 10 out of 10 flick for 2007. That means 3:10 to Yuma is another great movie that falls just short of hitting every note. But those 2 sentences will be the extent of my whining in this review. I will take some time to explain why the ending misplaced its logic along the way but it will be written in the form of a critique and not the words of a petulant child. Anywho Russell Crowe and Christian Bale in a rare legit Western, that alone brings me through the door.
I never list Russell Crowe as one of my favorite actors, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t one of the best actors working today. The man is completely in his prime and performs on a level that few can reach. His work in 3:10 to Yuma may not best Gladiator but it sure as hell is better than Virtuosity. Yes I am bashing Virtuosity again and yes this will not be the last time it is mentioned this year. You just wait for American Gangster when the dream team of Crowe and Denzel reunite on the 12-year anniversary of that masterpiece. Man, I cannot believe that has been 12 years since Virtuosity stole Christmas for the entirety of Whoville. So … back to 3:10 to Yuma, Crowe is able to make Ben Wade just the right amount of evil while still having the intelligence to be in control of nearly every situation he faces. Even when he spends nearly 2/3rds of the movie in shackles, you still feel that he is the one calling the shots. You see him working the angles with every single one of his captors, you see him pocket the fork during dinner, you see how even when he kills it is fast and serves a purpose, and even though it strained credibility in the end, Crowe is able to show the growing changes in his relationship with Christian Bale’s Dan Evans. This is definitely one of the best performances that will show up this year. Even though I spent a large chunk of space on Crowe that is not to say that Bale did not hold up his end of the bargain. Christian Bale is like a character actor who has somehow been able to not get stuck with that tag and become a headliner. He is always solid. Bale has definitely become the go-to actor if you need to cast a one-legged Civil War veteran who can no longer support his family. I enjoyed the desperation that is constantly beneath the surface for Bale throughout 3:10 to Yuma. Because once again when the climax of the film shows up, you better be attached to the characters since the storyline is not going to hold up to intense scrutiny.
There are 2 more actors that I need to highlight. It is always nice to see Peter Fonda. Even better when he gets to play a bastard Pinkerton hired to take down Ben Wade. Like the great Al Sweargen would say “Pinkerton cocksucker”. Fonda meets a worthy end to his character. "Even bad men love their mamas." Great line. The other name that needs to be mentioned is Ben Foster. I don’t know where he has been hiding this performance, but 3:10 to Yuma is easily the best thing I have ever seen him in. If Ben Wade is evil, Charlie Prince is downright psychotic. And this isn’t just because of the body count; there were always bad intentions behind Foster’s eyes. Plus he killed Luke Wilson, which was sad because Luke seemed to be having a good time messing around in the Old West. There were multiple actors performing at the top of their games here.
Screw it, I held it together long enough. Why the hell was Crowe following Bale through town once the bullets started flying? I can understand a growing respect that leads to not wanting to see the man killed, but actively helping your captor? Was it that difficult to end this story? Damnit, the ending is so important to get right and it fouled up what could have been a classic.
Now that I get that out of my system, 3:10 to Yuma kicked a large quantity of ass. I have always been partial to Westerns, mainly because when they are done right they are so damn awesome, so I was already excited before the trailers ended. Then throw in some great performances headlined by Crowe and I have no real complaints. Don’t take my bitching about the ending seriously, 3:10 to Yuma is worthy of paying for admission and a great start to the home stretch of 2007.
9 out of 10
I never list Russell Crowe as one of my favorite actors, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t one of the best actors working today. The man is completely in his prime and performs on a level that few can reach. His work in 3:10 to Yuma may not best Gladiator but it sure as hell is better than Virtuosity. Yes I am bashing Virtuosity again and yes this will not be the last time it is mentioned this year. You just wait for American Gangster when the dream team of Crowe and Denzel reunite on the 12-year anniversary of that masterpiece. Man, I cannot believe that has been 12 years since Virtuosity stole Christmas for the entirety of Whoville. So … back to 3:10 to Yuma, Crowe is able to make Ben Wade just the right amount of evil while still having the intelligence to be in control of nearly every situation he faces. Even when he spends nearly 2/3rds of the movie in shackles, you still feel that he is the one calling the shots. You see him working the angles with every single one of his captors, you see him pocket the fork during dinner, you see how even when he kills it is fast and serves a purpose, and even though it strained credibility in the end, Crowe is able to show the growing changes in his relationship with Christian Bale’s Dan Evans. This is definitely one of the best performances that will show up this year. Even though I spent a large chunk of space on Crowe that is not to say that Bale did not hold up his end of the bargain. Christian Bale is like a character actor who has somehow been able to not get stuck with that tag and become a headliner. He is always solid. Bale has definitely become the go-to actor if you need to cast a one-legged Civil War veteran who can no longer support his family. I enjoyed the desperation that is constantly beneath the surface for Bale throughout 3:10 to Yuma. Because once again when the climax of the film shows up, you better be attached to the characters since the storyline is not going to hold up to intense scrutiny.
There are 2 more actors that I need to highlight. It is always nice to see Peter Fonda. Even better when he gets to play a bastard Pinkerton hired to take down Ben Wade. Like the great Al Sweargen would say “Pinkerton cocksucker”. Fonda meets a worthy end to his character. "Even bad men love their mamas." Great line. The other name that needs to be mentioned is Ben Foster. I don’t know where he has been hiding this performance, but 3:10 to Yuma is easily the best thing I have ever seen him in. If Ben Wade is evil, Charlie Prince is downright psychotic. And this isn’t just because of the body count; there were always bad intentions behind Foster’s eyes. Plus he killed Luke Wilson, which was sad because Luke seemed to be having a good time messing around in the Old West. There were multiple actors performing at the top of their games here.
Screw it, I held it together long enough. Why the hell was Crowe following Bale through town once the bullets started flying? I can understand a growing respect that leads to not wanting to see the man killed, but actively helping your captor? Was it that difficult to end this story? Damnit, the ending is so important to get right and it fouled up what could have been a classic.
Now that I get that out of my system, 3:10 to Yuma kicked a large quantity of ass. I have always been partial to Westerns, mainly because when they are done right they are so damn awesome, so I was already excited before the trailers ended. Then throw in some great performances headlined by Crowe and I have no real complaints. Don’t take my bitching about the ending seriously, 3:10 to Yuma is worthy of paying for admission and a great start to the home stretch of 2007.
9 out of 10
Monday, September 3, 2007
Second Act Over the Last 5 Years
Now its time to judge the Summer movies of this year to the previous 5 years. Get ready for some badass lists.
2007
2007
- Talk to Me (9)
- The Bourne Ultimatum (9)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (9)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (8)
- Stardust (8)
- Rescue Dawn (8)
- Superbad (8)
- Ocean's Thirteen (8)
- Hairspray (8)
- Live Free or Die Hard (7)
- The Simpsons Movie (7)
- Spider-Man 3 (6)
- Mr. Brooks (6)
- DOA: Dead or Alive (6)
- Transformers (6)
- 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (5)
- Halloween (5)
Average Rating: 7.24
2006
- A Scanner Darkly (9)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (8)
- Miami Vice (8)
- Little Miss Sunshine (8)
- The Descent (8)
- An Inconvenient Truth (8)
- Mission: Impossible III (7)
- Superman Returns (7)
- Clerks II (7)
- Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (7)
- The Da Vinci Code (6)
- The Break-Up (6)
- X-Men: The Last Stand (6)
- Waist Deep (5)
- Click (5)
- The Omen (5)
- Snakes on a Plane (5)
- The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (4)
- Poseidon (4)
- Idlewild (4)
- Lady in the Water (4)
Average Rating: 6.24
2005
- Batman Begins (10)
- Layer Cake (9)
- Cinderella Man (9)
- Hustle & Flow (8)
- Mr. & Mrs. Smith (8)
- Wedding Crashers (8)
- Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (8)
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (8)
- Broken Flowers (8)
- 2046 (8)
- Unleashed (8)
- Four Brothers (8)
- Kingdom of Heaven (7)
- The Devil's Rejects (7)
- War of the Worlds (6)
- The Brothers Grimm (6)
- The 40 Year Old Virgin (6)
- The Longest Yard (6)
- The Dukes of Hazzard (6)
- Kicking & Screaming (6)
- The Island (6)
- Fantastic Four (5)
- Sky High (5)
Average Rating: 7.22
2004
- Spider-Man 2 (10)
- The Bourne Supremacy (9)
- Collateral (9)
- Crash (9)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (9)
- Garden State (8)
- The Manchurian Candidate (8)
- Maria Full of Grace (8)
- I, Robot (7)
- Anchorman: The Legend of the Ron Burgundy (7)
- Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (7)
- Super Size Me (7)
- Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (7)
- The Terminal (7)
- Troy (7)
- Coffee and Cigarettes (6)
- King Arthur (6)
- Van Helsing (6)
- Without a Paddle (6)
- The Chronicles of Riddick (5)
- The Day After Tomorrow (5)
- Fahrenheit 9/11 (5)
- Napolean Dynamite (5)
- AVP: Alien vs. Predator (4)
- The Village (3)
- Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2)
- Catwoman (2)
Average Rating: 6.44
2003
- X2 (10)
- Whale Rider (10)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (9)
- 28 Days Later... (8)
- Bend It Like Beckham (8)
- Open Range (8)
- The Italian Job (8)
- The Matrix Reloaded (7)
- Swimming Pool (7)
- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (7)
- S.W.A.T. (7)
- Seabiscuit (6)
- Hulk (6)
- Bruce Almighty (6)
- Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (6)
- 2 Fast 2 Furious (5)
- American Wedding (5)
- Hollywood Homicide (5)
- Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (4)
- Bad Boys II (2)
- The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (1)
Average Rating: 6.43
2002
- Hero (10)
- Road to Perdition (9)
- Signs (9)
- Spider-Man (8)
- The Sum of All Fears (8)
- K-19: The Widowmaker (8)
- Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (8)
- Insomnia (7)
- Minority Report (7)
- Undercover Brother (7)
- Austin Powers in Goldmember (6)
- Men in Black II (5)
- Mr. Deeds (5)
- Scooby-Doo (4)
- xXx (3)
- Enough (2)
- Bad Company (1)
Average Rating: 6.30
First thing I noticed is that I am about 5ish movies behind and that is influencing the average rating. Due to cable and whatnot I will end up seeing a bunch of crap that came out this summer and it will probably lower the average. But that hasn't happened yet so I can only judge what I have seen so far. An that judgment lands 2007 in first place by a hair over 2005. They are very similar years although I would take 2005 since it has Batman Begins and Layer Cake which are both better than anything I saw in 2007. And wow last year was just awful with only a handful of great movies and an endless supply of mediocre. Looking back 2004 might have the best selection at the top (Spider-Man 2, The Bourne Supremacy, Collateral, my favorite Harry Potter, and Garden State which I have probably seen 100 times) yet since I have seen 27 movies released between May and August of that year and that is just too many flicks to keep a high average.
I don't like all these numbers telling me how great 2007 is, yet the best movie I have seen is Zodiac and the best blockbuster was The Bourne Ultimatum neither of which I would be comfortable with being #1 for the year.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
The 2007 List (10)
- Zodiac
- The Lookout
- Talk to Me
- The Bourne Ultimatum
- Grindhouse
- Breach
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
- Hot Fuzz
- Stardust
- Reign Over Me
- Rescue Dawn
- 300
- Black Snake Moan
- Superbad
- Hairspray
- Ocean's Thirteen
- Live Free or Die Hard
- The Simpsons Movie
- Spider-Man 3
- Mr. Brooks
- Smokin' Aces
- Transformers
- DOA
- Shooter
- Halloween
- Blades of Glory
- Reno 911!: Miami
- 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer
- The Condemned
- Ghost Rider
- Pathfinder
So August was a damn decent follow-up to the great month of July. What started off as a sketchy summer, ended up being strong showing. Another month has passed and I still don't have a signature film for all of 2007 and I highly doubt that September will provide me with what I am looking for. Then again maybe 3:10 to Yuma, The Brave One, or much needed third Resident Evil flick will take the ball and run with it. Well I'll know soon enough.
Halloween
I never claimed that all my decisions were worthwhile. For a minute there, I was legitimately excited for Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween. Looking back on it, I can’t give you a really good reason for my anticipation. The Devil’s Rejects was a good time but it didn’t exactly change my life. Well, it did show me how not to be a deranged serial killer. That was helpful. Sadly Zombie’s version of Halloween never really made it to that next level. In the end it was just another body count flick with Sabretooth running around in a mask.
The original Halloween was more psychological drama than blood-soaked slasher. I never saw the rest of the god-awful franchise but since the remake was based on the first movie everything else is irrelevant. Zombie definitely played homage to original, he just added in details that weren’t there 30 years ago. Of course everything he created was a bit more twisted than anything John Carpenter filmed. Now Michael Myers’s mother is a stripper (of course played by his wife Sheri Moon), prior to being arrested and locked up Michael adds 3 more to the body count besides his naked sister, then there was about 5 more bodies while he was in the insane asylum, and there is another murder at a truck stop, but once Michael returns to Haddonfield Zombie doesn’t alter the story all that much. My main problem with Zombie’s version is that he removed what I felt was the best part of the original Halloween. Carpenter kept Myers in the shadows until about the last third of the film. With the excessive violence that occurred with the 10 year-old Michael and then all the killings within asylum, there wasn’t the same build-up of tension once he started stalking the soon to be naked teenagers. You know what he can and will eventually do to everyone left alive. I will admit that Mr. Zombie has a flare for visualizing brutality. So even though it may have hurt the overall film, watching Michael beat the school bully to death or his stalking of all the people he hates in his house were all shot from interesting angles. In fact all of the violence looks good even though there is just too damn much of it.
I will give credit to the remake for recreating many of the scenes from the original. It is still Laurie Strode and her 2 friends being stalked at the end, Myers does show up in the many of the same places, one of the boyfriends is still stabbed through the chest and hung on the wall, Myers still dresses like a ghost before killing one of the girls, many of the famous lines are repeated, Zombie doesn't screw with music too much (well except for having Love Hurts playing in the scene when 10 year-old Michael decides to kill everyone in the house because his Halloween was ruined), and thankfully there is still tons of nudity. There were also 2 great casting choices. Malcolm McDowell takes on the role of the Dr. Loomis and goes from hippy doctor to silver haired hollow man who spent his professional career studying Myers. And I was even more excited that Doc from Deadwood was the Sheriff. I cannot think of a situation where Deadwood actors show up and not immediately improve my spirits. Still Doc’s appearance could only help so much; in the end Halloween was just another slasher flick.
Although Halloween has no chance of even cracking the top half of 2007, there will be much worse films beneath it. This was a completely acceptable body count movie. Michael Myers brutalized and mutilates a mess load of people. Zombie has a way with violence so it never gets boring. In the end Halloween is just dragged down because the original was just plain better. Still everyone loves a good stabbing so this will not hurt for an audience.
5 out of 10
The original Halloween was more psychological drama than blood-soaked slasher. I never saw the rest of the god-awful franchise but since the remake was based on the first movie everything else is irrelevant. Zombie definitely played homage to original, he just added in details that weren’t there 30 years ago. Of course everything he created was a bit more twisted than anything John Carpenter filmed. Now Michael Myers’s mother is a stripper (of course played by his wife Sheri Moon), prior to being arrested and locked up Michael adds 3 more to the body count besides his naked sister, then there was about 5 more bodies while he was in the insane asylum, and there is another murder at a truck stop, but once Michael returns to Haddonfield Zombie doesn’t alter the story all that much. My main problem with Zombie’s version is that he removed what I felt was the best part of the original Halloween. Carpenter kept Myers in the shadows until about the last third of the film. With the excessive violence that occurred with the 10 year-old Michael and then all the killings within asylum, there wasn’t the same build-up of tension once he started stalking the soon to be naked teenagers. You know what he can and will eventually do to everyone left alive. I will admit that Mr. Zombie has a flare for visualizing brutality. So even though it may have hurt the overall film, watching Michael beat the school bully to death or his stalking of all the people he hates in his house were all shot from interesting angles. In fact all of the violence looks good even though there is just too damn much of it.
I will give credit to the remake for recreating many of the scenes from the original. It is still Laurie Strode and her 2 friends being stalked at the end, Myers does show up in the many of the same places, one of the boyfriends is still stabbed through the chest and hung on the wall, Myers still dresses like a ghost before killing one of the girls, many of the famous lines are repeated, Zombie doesn't screw with music too much (well except for having Love Hurts playing in the scene when 10 year-old Michael decides to kill everyone in the house because his Halloween was ruined), and thankfully there is still tons of nudity. There were also 2 great casting choices. Malcolm McDowell takes on the role of the Dr. Loomis and goes from hippy doctor to silver haired hollow man who spent his professional career studying Myers. And I was even more excited that Doc from Deadwood was the Sheriff. I cannot think of a situation where Deadwood actors show up and not immediately improve my spirits. Still Doc’s appearance could only help so much; in the end Halloween was just another slasher flick.
Although Halloween has no chance of even cracking the top half of 2007, there will be much worse films beneath it. This was a completely acceptable body count movie. Michael Myers brutalized and mutilates a mess load of people. Zombie has a way with violence so it never gets boring. In the end Halloween is just dragged down because the original was just plain better. Still everyone loves a good stabbing so this will not hurt for an audience.
5 out of 10
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