Episode 13: The Red Team
This was Elementary's stab at conspiracy theories. I think. It was another spy story, well Intelligence story more than spy story. It's about the way the Intelligence community operates and people who play that game. With the usual twists and turns, I didn't really know where this one was going at all.
This episode was also about Holmes getting back in with Captain Gregson after the whole incident in the previous episode. Their relationship is forever changed as Gregson can not get over the fact that Holmes was ready to murder someone. The Captain reinstates Holmes but tells him that things are different now and that he'll never really trust Holmes again. Then Gregson punches Holmes in the stomach saying htat there was something he wanted to get off his min.
Episode 14: The Deductionist
This episode is a little different in that there are two mysteries going on simultaneously. There is the main mystery - an escaped serial killer who is out to get the FBI profiler who put him away, but not because of that, because she wrote a book that lead to his father committing suicide. The second mystery is why Watson is getting kicked out of her apartment. The interesting part of both mysteries is that there is a tie between Holmes and the main mystery and Watson and the second mystery.
In the main mystery, Holmes has a personal history with the famous profiler, who had once been his lover, but now his almost enemy since she had profiled him for a scientific journal. Watson, obviously has a link to the second mystery since it's about getting kicked out of her apartment, but that's not what I meant. It mirrors Holmes link in that someone she has known for a long time and trusts - the building handyman - is involved in the activity that is getting her kicked out, even as he is delivering the message that she is getting kicked out.
Episode 15: A Giant Gun Filled With Drugs
Let me just do a mental rundown to be sure, but. Yes. No one was murdered in this episode. That is a definite milestone and I hope harbinger of things to come. Not that I expect we'll be foregoing the episodic murders or anything, but there might be more episodes out there that focus on other crimes. It is nice to have a variety of possibilities, after all.
Holmes has to help his former drug dealer rescue the man's kidnapped daughter. The issues between them are all about Holmes sobriety and whether or not he is as god of a detective sober as he was high. Of course, this is something very near and dear to Watson who at one point lays it out for the former drug dealer - Holmes and his sobriety are more important to her than the man's daughter getting rescued.
Even though I suspect that Holmes will already know, he is going to be devastated on a certain level when he finds out that Watson has been lying to him about staying on as his sobriety companion at his father's bequest. I think ultimately he will be flattered, but it might take an episode or two. This might even be the kind of thing that they end the season with.
Oh, and I really love the title for this episode.
Episode 16: Details
So much for my grand predictions immediately above. Holmes had already found out about Watson lying to him and staying on claiming to be working for his dad. The scene that was their 'confrontattion' was short and not much of a confrontation, more like a small work-around that would allow the show to go on ad infinitum without needing to ever talk about this again.
This time out we got to take a look at the main police detective that Holmes and Watson work with. He turns out to be just as much of a straight shooter as he seems to be, but they find out about his ex-con brother. The story is as much about those two patching up their relationship as it is about a murder which takes place.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Monday, December 30, 2013
Elementary Season 1 Disc 3
Episode 9: You Do It To Yourself
I've already mentioned this, but it bears repeating, I really appreciate the fact that Holmes gets stuff wrong and cops to it right away. He is continually developing hypotheses and for the most part lets the data guide him. If the facts, or what he sees as the facts, don't fit, he abandons that line of thinking and moves to an alternate line.
This is the first episode where we see Holmes making choices to support Watson as a friend, much in the way that she supports him. He tries, unsuccessfully, to to say he's doing things for a completely different reason, but it's obvious to both that sometimes he will do things because Watson needs his support.
Episode 10: The Leviathan
This was almost the episode that didn't have a murder in it. It was initially about a diamond heist that required a break-in into the world's most secure vault. I thought this was quite a lovely change, but a half an hour into the show, the bodies started racking up. Oh well, at least it was all about the diamond heist for a while. It was still good, mind you. I was just hoping to see an expansion of the mold of Elementary episodes.
We finally got to meet Watson's mom who turned out not to be nearly as beastly as she was being built up to be. The story was a bit on the stock side as far as these go - mom disapproves of line of work, meets charismatic boyfriend/partner/client who convinces her to speak her mind, mom says all she wants is for her child to be happy. Not that I want Watson's home life to totally suck or something, but it would be nice to see so meting a little less formulaic and a little more in line with her character.
Episode 11: Dirty Laundry
We're back to the usual solve the murder while discovering the twists along the way. I quite like it. I'm not sure how many people write each episode, but it must be several along with some fact checkers. I understand that as a writer you can tell stories about people who are smarter than yourself by controlling the scene. You give them a limited number of options while appearing to give them complete free will. If you give your detective the option of choosing the obvious suspect who of course is innocent or choosing the person once removed who won't make sense until later, the detective will never choose to pursue neither and instead go out for tacos. I know this to be true beyond a shadow of a doubt because the writer would not create the scene where they go out for tacos. You've still got to be smart to pull this kind of thing off, but you don't have to actually be as smart as Sherlock Holmes to write for him.
There was a nice little twist on how things normally work out when people in the suburbs turn out to be spies - it's the man who was concerned about the child he loved and not the woman - she was a spy until the end. Sure the bit about the girl pushing her mom and thinking that she killed her only to have it revealed that she didn't was a bit formulaic, but it was quite well acted. I actually was surprised at the quality of performance that both the teen-aged girl and the spy-father turned in, as it was well above what you normally see in a procedural.
Episode 12: M.
We finally get to him. You can't watch a series about Sherlock Holmes without wondering when Moriarty will turn up. The episode isn't actually named for Moriarty but for an assassin that he uses to kill seemingly random people. Holmes himself doesn't even know of Moriarty's existence until very near the end of the episode. Elementary has now provided itself with a nice background story that it can pull out at any time.
The other big deal this time out, maybe even the bigger deal, is that Watson is at her end of service as Holmes sober-companion. She's planning on moving out, and has her next job lined up. Homes wants Watson to stay on as much as she does, perhaps even a little more than she does. The fact that Watson lies to Holmes and tells him that his father is going to pay her for an extension as Holmes counselor is a lie that will come back to haunt her when she least thinks it will.
I've already mentioned this, but it bears repeating, I really appreciate the fact that Holmes gets stuff wrong and cops to it right away. He is continually developing hypotheses and for the most part lets the data guide him. If the facts, or what he sees as the facts, don't fit, he abandons that line of thinking and moves to an alternate line.
This is the first episode where we see Holmes making choices to support Watson as a friend, much in the way that she supports him. He tries, unsuccessfully, to to say he's doing things for a completely different reason, but it's obvious to both that sometimes he will do things because Watson needs his support.
Episode 10: The Leviathan
This was almost the episode that didn't have a murder in it. It was initially about a diamond heist that required a break-in into the world's most secure vault. I thought this was quite a lovely change, but a half an hour into the show, the bodies started racking up. Oh well, at least it was all about the diamond heist for a while. It was still good, mind you. I was just hoping to see an expansion of the mold of Elementary episodes.
We finally got to meet Watson's mom who turned out not to be nearly as beastly as she was being built up to be. The story was a bit on the stock side as far as these go - mom disapproves of line of work, meets charismatic boyfriend/partner/client who convinces her to speak her mind, mom says all she wants is for her child to be happy. Not that I want Watson's home life to totally suck or something, but it would be nice to see so meting a little less formulaic and a little more in line with her character.
Episode 11: Dirty Laundry
We're back to the usual solve the murder while discovering the twists along the way. I quite like it. I'm not sure how many people write each episode, but it must be several along with some fact checkers. I understand that as a writer you can tell stories about people who are smarter than yourself by controlling the scene. You give them a limited number of options while appearing to give them complete free will. If you give your detective the option of choosing the obvious suspect who of course is innocent or choosing the person once removed who won't make sense until later, the detective will never choose to pursue neither and instead go out for tacos. I know this to be true beyond a shadow of a doubt because the writer would not create the scene where they go out for tacos. You've still got to be smart to pull this kind of thing off, but you don't have to actually be as smart as Sherlock Holmes to write for him.
There was a nice little twist on how things normally work out when people in the suburbs turn out to be spies - it's the man who was concerned about the child he loved and not the woman - she was a spy until the end. Sure the bit about the girl pushing her mom and thinking that she killed her only to have it revealed that she didn't was a bit formulaic, but it was quite well acted. I actually was surprised at the quality of performance that both the teen-aged girl and the spy-father turned in, as it was well above what you normally see in a procedural.
Episode 12: M.
We finally get to him. You can't watch a series about Sherlock Holmes without wondering when Moriarty will turn up. The episode isn't actually named for Moriarty but for an assassin that he uses to kill seemingly random people. Holmes himself doesn't even know of Moriarty's existence until very near the end of the episode. Elementary has now provided itself with a nice background story that it can pull out at any time.
The other big deal this time out, maybe even the bigger deal, is that Watson is at her end of service as Holmes sober-companion. She's planning on moving out, and has her next job lined up. Homes wants Watson to stay on as much as she does, perhaps even a little more than she does. The fact that Watson lies to Holmes and tells him that his father is going to pay her for an extension as Holmes counselor is a lie that will come back to haunt her when she least thinks it will.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Elementary Season 1 Disc 2
Episode 5: Lesser Evils
For the first time we got to see Watson in her element. And to no one's surprise, it looks as if she were as good a doctor as Holmes is a detective, which of course is why the pairing works so well. We also found out that she had only been suspended from the hospital, not let go, and she couldn't practice medicine because she had let her license lapse, not because she had lost it. Could this be setting up for a future season closer where it is made to look as if she is going back to medicine and leaving the company of Holmes?
I don't set out watching these shows looking to predict the ending before it is readily obvious. That is not where the pleasure I derive from them comes into play. But, as I am a student of the medium and this genre, I do notice things not readily obvious to others. For example, in this episode we saw two rules of thumb at play that would seem to contradict each other, but in the end didn't, but of course I knew that right from the beginning because of ta third rule of thumb. Rule #1 - in shows that are less than 45 minutes long, if you see a background more than once, especially if the main has reason to talk to them about anything, related to the crime or not, they are almost always the guilty party. Rule #2 - the first blush suspect that is too perfect but has an ironcald alibi, is almost always the culprit. Now in this episode, these point to contradictory ends, but this is where the third rule of theumb comes in. Rule #3 - if there is more than one crime, counting multiple instances of the same crime as separate crimes for purposes of this rule, it is possible for contradictory rules to apply (this is just deduction), and you know it's correct if the two potential culprits either never meet on screen or have a seemingly meaningless encounter early on before either are established as culprits, the former being more likely and pointing to the at least one of the parties not knowing about the other and the second pointing to some type of collusion. It was the former in this case.
Episode 6: Flight Risk
I can only imagine how hard it would be to deal with someone like Holmes the way Watson does. Just when you think you're making some headway with the guy, he pulls a joke on you to prove that he is right, his point being that you should trust him even though he hasn't given you any reason to. In this case, he hired someone to impersonate his father whom Watson had gone to have dinner with. This ends up leading to what you would normally think of as the background story, i.e. the interpersonal relationship between Holmes and Watson, being the main story and the crime investigation the secondary story.
With this episode, we see a mini trend forming of murders that appear as accident or natural cause, but are only shown to be murders through an observation that Holmes makes while other (police) detectives are missing the clues. They are handling it well, better than a lot of other shouws would I think, for two reasons: he's hypothesizing and makes it very clear that he needs to gather more evidence before he is sure and also once he convinces one of more of the officials they are on board and work to solve the crime not to have a pissing contest with him. I can think of several episodes of CSI where this was the set up and they all had the person being so cocky about how right they were without any visible evidence that it made their work environment very hostile for the episode. Not that those were bad episodes, they were just more about melodrama and less about crime solving and character development.
Episode 7: One Way to Get Off
Every procedural seems to at some point in their run introduce the serial killer put away by one of the key figures before the show began. And in each one of these stories, there are some new killings that make it seem like the serial killer might have been innocent. And inevitably it turns out that they weren't, though sometimes it's not resolved in the same episode. You can now add Elementary to that list of shows., and they only waited until their seventh episode. Sometimes the shows, if they run long enough, will revisit that serial killer with either the same set up or something completely new that seems to exonerate them. It always works out that they were even more heinous than previously thought. I guess we will have to wait and see if Elementary will follow that route too.
We had some nice character building going on with the police captain this episode, and if we needed reminding that Aidin Quinn is a great actor, we got it. But, of course we didn't need it, still it was nice to see an episode more focused around his character.
Episode 8: The Long Fuse
The plot for this episode was rather unique as far as procedurals go. Several crimes were uncovered, but the murder that starts the ball rolling was time delayed by four years and not intended for the victims, but for someone who used to have the same office when a different company rented the building. This was accomplished by old tech getting accidentally upgraded by a new cell tower being pout in, and then someone dialing the wrong number which sets off the bomb. There were lots of twists and turns that involved Holmes testing theories that eventually lead him and Watson in the right direction. This was a nice spin on the bombing plot line.
We got to meet a new character this time out who while playing a quite minor role, I think will end up being a semi-regular. He is a potential sponsor for the drug support group that Holmes has to attend. There are lots of possibilities with a character in that role, and with this character in particular as they picked someone who on the surface seems about as different from Holmes as someone could be. Time will tell.
For the first time we got to see Watson in her element. And to no one's surprise, it looks as if she were as good a doctor as Holmes is a detective, which of course is why the pairing works so well. We also found out that she had only been suspended from the hospital, not let go, and she couldn't practice medicine because she had let her license lapse, not because she had lost it. Could this be setting up for a future season closer where it is made to look as if she is going back to medicine and leaving the company of Holmes?
I don't set out watching these shows looking to predict the ending before it is readily obvious. That is not where the pleasure I derive from them comes into play. But, as I am a student of the medium and this genre, I do notice things not readily obvious to others. For example, in this episode we saw two rules of thumb at play that would seem to contradict each other, but in the end didn't, but of course I knew that right from the beginning because of ta third rule of thumb. Rule #1 - in shows that are less than 45 minutes long, if you see a background more than once, especially if the main has reason to talk to them about anything, related to the crime or not, they are almost always the guilty party. Rule #2 - the first blush suspect that is too perfect but has an ironcald alibi, is almost always the culprit. Now in this episode, these point to contradictory ends, but this is where the third rule of theumb comes in. Rule #3 - if there is more than one crime, counting multiple instances of the same crime as separate crimes for purposes of this rule, it is possible for contradictory rules to apply (this is just deduction), and you know it's correct if the two potential culprits either never meet on screen or have a seemingly meaningless encounter early on before either are established as culprits, the former being more likely and pointing to the at least one of the parties not knowing about the other and the second pointing to some type of collusion. It was the former in this case.
Episode 6: Flight Risk
I can only imagine how hard it would be to deal with someone like Holmes the way Watson does. Just when you think you're making some headway with the guy, he pulls a joke on you to prove that he is right, his point being that you should trust him even though he hasn't given you any reason to. In this case, he hired someone to impersonate his father whom Watson had gone to have dinner with. This ends up leading to what you would normally think of as the background story, i.e. the interpersonal relationship between Holmes and Watson, being the main story and the crime investigation the secondary story.
With this episode, we see a mini trend forming of murders that appear as accident or natural cause, but are only shown to be murders through an observation that Holmes makes while other (police) detectives are missing the clues. They are handling it well, better than a lot of other shouws would I think, for two reasons: he's hypothesizing and makes it very clear that he needs to gather more evidence before he is sure and also once he convinces one of more of the officials they are on board and work to solve the crime not to have a pissing contest with him. I can think of several episodes of CSI where this was the set up and they all had the person being so cocky about how right they were without any visible evidence that it made their work environment very hostile for the episode. Not that those were bad episodes, they were just more about melodrama and less about crime solving and character development.
Episode 7: One Way to Get Off
Every procedural seems to at some point in their run introduce the serial killer put away by one of the key figures before the show began. And in each one of these stories, there are some new killings that make it seem like the serial killer might have been innocent. And inevitably it turns out that they weren't, though sometimes it's not resolved in the same episode. You can now add Elementary to that list of shows., and they only waited until their seventh episode. Sometimes the shows, if they run long enough, will revisit that serial killer with either the same set up or something completely new that seems to exonerate them. It always works out that they were even more heinous than previously thought. I guess we will have to wait and see if Elementary will follow that route too.
We had some nice character building going on with the police captain this episode, and if we needed reminding that Aidin Quinn is a great actor, we got it. But, of course we didn't need it, still it was nice to see an episode more focused around his character.
Episode 8: The Long Fuse
The plot for this episode was rather unique as far as procedurals go. Several crimes were uncovered, but the murder that starts the ball rolling was time delayed by four years and not intended for the victims, but for someone who used to have the same office when a different company rented the building. This was accomplished by old tech getting accidentally upgraded by a new cell tower being pout in, and then someone dialing the wrong number which sets off the bomb. There were lots of twists and turns that involved Holmes testing theories that eventually lead him and Watson in the right direction. This was a nice spin on the bombing plot line.
We got to meet a new character this time out who while playing a quite minor role, I think will end up being a semi-regular. He is a potential sponsor for the drug support group that Holmes has to attend. There are lots of possibilities with a character in that role, and with this character in particular as they picked someone who on the surface seems about as different from Holmes as someone could be. Time will tell.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Elementary Season 1 Disc 1
Episode 1: Pilot
Lucy Liu! That guy that used to be married to Angelina Jolie! Okay, I know that his name is Johnny Lee Miller, but he's not really on a name basis the same way that Ms. Liu is.
I think I kind of like the modern take on Sherlock Holmes (both here and Sherlock) portray Sherlock as egotistical and barely able to function in society, and in fact without Watson might not be able to function at all. Watson has also become much more of a partner and less of a sidekick. Actually, the Robert Downey Jr. / Jude Law movies are close to this model too, with it being more true for Holmes than Watson. The other main difference with the Downey / Law interpretations (other than the time it is set in, obviously) is that it is much more camp and action-oriented.
In an episode full of things I liked, it was like icing on the cake that they closed the show with an Elvis Costello song - Watching the Detectives.
Episode 2: While You Were Sleeping
I love that when Sherlock is wrong that he can't admit it, likely due to his ego, and even more so that he attempts to turn it on whomever he is with. Like when they are at hospital and examining a woman in a coma which Sherlock believes to be fake, but upon discovering that he is wrong, he announces to her physician who has just come into the room that the "coma is real" as if the doctor hadn't been able to tell.
I compared Miller's Sherlock to Cumberbatch's Sherlock earlier, and while they are similar when using broad brush strokes, they are of course different when looking at them up close. Miller plays the character as much more circumpensiial, blowing more steam about not caring what other's have to say only to then act upon it. Also thus far he is not as separate from the goings on of the world, though does of course talk about not needing to know extraneous things because they will push out important things from his brain which he believes to have a finite capacity for facts.
Also, I thought the contrivance the killer used to provide herself with a seemingly air-clad alibi was rather ingenious. It's nice to see a procedural that is trying to out-do previous shows without going the Bones route of just making everything look 'grosser'.
Episode 3: Child Predator
This is he first of probably several episodes where Sherlock gets a key fact wrong because the criminal is smarter than your average bear. Not that they are smarter than Sherlock, but one of his flaws is assuming that everyone else is stupid until they show him otherwise, instead of the other way around, which means he is constantly either underestimating people or is completely right. Watson is a good example of the first kind of person.
When I typed in the title of this episode - I typed them all in for the season before beginning to watch the first episode, I thought to myself that this one was likely about a kid being abducted and it turning out that the kid was likely the predator being referred to. Doing a little bit of deductive reasoning on my own there - I am nothing if not a student of television. Not that I can do that with all or even most of the names of episodes, but certain kinds of shows, in this case a police procedural, uses a certain scheme for naming which means the name generally fit one of four categories: the pun, the a-ha, the deceptive (like this one), and the self-referential. I submit the names of all CSI episodes (from all the franchises), NCIS episodes (both franchises), Law & Order episodes (all franchises), Criminal Minds, Bones, Castle and probably some that I've forgotten. I've seen every episode of these shows up through their current DVD releases (not counting Law & Order of which I missed the first few years of and the last couple of years of L&O: SVU and L&O Criminal Intent). Some shows may favor one particular kind over an other, but they all use these four kinds of names.
Episode 4: Rat Race
I have to say that the quality of killer in this series is so far a bit higher than most procedurals, which shouldn't surprise me, because what kind of criminal are you going to throw at Sherlock Holmes? You want them to confound him, and I see there being two types, possibly three that can do that. The first and most obvious and the kind used thus far, are intelligent individuals that are adept enough at covering up their tracks that a normal police detective would be unable to catch them, and thus the need for Holmes. The second type is the 'force of nature' criminal and is someone that is outside of the culture so far that they don't operate withing the system of right and wrong and don't care about getting caught because they aren't aware that they're doing anything that would warrant them getting caught or that there is anyone who could catch them. The third possible type pops up every once in a while in the other procedurals, most often in Criminal Minds, and that is a partnership of two or more individuals acting toward the same goal. This can really muddy things up because the killer can seem to be doing contradictory things.
I am very happy with this show so far, particularly in that everyone is smart, not just Holmes. Given time Watson may prove his equal as a detective, and the police captain who calls Holmes in is also showing himself to be a very astute thinker. Television needs more smart shows.
Lucy Liu! That guy that used to be married to Angelina Jolie! Okay, I know that his name is Johnny Lee Miller, but he's not really on a name basis the same way that Ms. Liu is.
I think I kind of like the modern take on Sherlock Holmes (both here and Sherlock) portray Sherlock as egotistical and barely able to function in society, and in fact without Watson might not be able to function at all. Watson has also become much more of a partner and less of a sidekick. Actually, the Robert Downey Jr. / Jude Law movies are close to this model too, with it being more true for Holmes than Watson. The other main difference with the Downey / Law interpretations (other than the time it is set in, obviously) is that it is much more camp and action-oriented.
In an episode full of things I liked, it was like icing on the cake that they closed the show with an Elvis Costello song - Watching the Detectives.
Episode 2: While You Were Sleeping
I love that when Sherlock is wrong that he can't admit it, likely due to his ego, and even more so that he attempts to turn it on whomever he is with. Like when they are at hospital and examining a woman in a coma which Sherlock believes to be fake, but upon discovering that he is wrong, he announces to her physician who has just come into the room that the "coma is real" as if the doctor hadn't been able to tell.
I compared Miller's Sherlock to Cumberbatch's Sherlock earlier, and while they are similar when using broad brush strokes, they are of course different when looking at them up close. Miller plays the character as much more circumpensiial, blowing more steam about not caring what other's have to say only to then act upon it. Also thus far he is not as separate from the goings on of the world, though does of course talk about not needing to know extraneous things because they will push out important things from his brain which he believes to have a finite capacity for facts.
Also, I thought the contrivance the killer used to provide herself with a seemingly air-clad alibi was rather ingenious. It's nice to see a procedural that is trying to out-do previous shows without going the Bones route of just making everything look 'grosser'.
Episode 3: Child Predator
This is he first of probably several episodes where Sherlock gets a key fact wrong because the criminal is smarter than your average bear. Not that they are smarter than Sherlock, but one of his flaws is assuming that everyone else is stupid until they show him otherwise, instead of the other way around, which means he is constantly either underestimating people or is completely right. Watson is a good example of the first kind of person.
When I typed in the title of this episode - I typed them all in for the season before beginning to watch the first episode, I thought to myself that this one was likely about a kid being abducted and it turning out that the kid was likely the predator being referred to. Doing a little bit of deductive reasoning on my own there - I am nothing if not a student of television. Not that I can do that with all or even most of the names of episodes, but certain kinds of shows, in this case a police procedural, uses a certain scheme for naming which means the name generally fit one of four categories: the pun, the a-ha, the deceptive (like this one), and the self-referential. I submit the names of all CSI episodes (from all the franchises), NCIS episodes (both franchises), Law & Order episodes (all franchises), Criminal Minds, Bones, Castle and probably some that I've forgotten. I've seen every episode of these shows up through their current DVD releases (not counting Law & Order of which I missed the first few years of and the last couple of years of L&O: SVU and L&O Criminal Intent). Some shows may favor one particular kind over an other, but they all use these four kinds of names.
Episode 4: Rat Race
I have to say that the quality of killer in this series is so far a bit higher than most procedurals, which shouldn't surprise me, because what kind of criminal are you going to throw at Sherlock Holmes? You want them to confound him, and I see there being two types, possibly three that can do that. The first and most obvious and the kind used thus far, are intelligent individuals that are adept enough at covering up their tracks that a normal police detective would be unable to catch them, and thus the need for Holmes. The second type is the 'force of nature' criminal and is someone that is outside of the culture so far that they don't operate withing the system of right and wrong and don't care about getting caught because they aren't aware that they're doing anything that would warrant them getting caught or that there is anyone who could catch them. The third possible type pops up every once in a while in the other procedurals, most often in Criminal Minds, and that is a partnership of two or more individuals acting toward the same goal. This can really muddy things up because the killer can seem to be doing contradictory things.
I am very happy with this show so far, particularly in that everyone is smart, not just Holmes. Given time Watson may prove his equal as a detective, and the police captain who calls Holmes in is also showing himself to be a very astute thinker. Television needs more smart shows.
Friday, December 27, 2013
The Great Gatsby (2013)
First, I have a confession. I have never read The Great Gatsby. It wasn't the first book that I discovered that I could pass a class without reading, but it is one of the few that I've always meant to go back and read. I'm pretty sure that this film doesn't get me any closer to knowing the story that Fitzgerald intended than any of the other movies based on the book that I've seen. But, I'm also quite sure none have gone to the excess that this film has.
Second, I have another confession. I love Baz Luhrman's films. Moulin Rouge is one of my favorite movies of all times. There is a certain slickness and cultural pastiche in his films - the good kind of slickness. The films seem almost mythical or like an adult fairy tale because they feel removed from us, yet hit the chords that reverberate with the audience, usually through his use of music. Luhrman uses the hipper pop music of the current society and plugs it into a story that one wouldn't expect to hear that kind of music with, yet it works.
Right off the bat, the main character in this film, Nick Carroway (Tobey Maguire) comes onscreen looking like ___ (Ewen McGregor) who is the main character in Moulin Rouge. As we get to know the character, that initial reaction is only strengthened. They look similar. They are naive in a similar way. They both step into these wild party worlds beyond their previous imaginings. They both fall in love with the star of this new world. They both write a novel about their events after their love dies.
Of course the stories are different, and the love the main character feels is different as fits each film. But, most strikingly, the use of music is different. Moulin Rouge is a musical. The Great Gatsby is a film with a fair amount of music. There is no point where any of the main characters break into song in this film, unlike Moulin Rouge. I'm fine with that, Luhrman has done that before. However his use of music is also more subtle. The beginnign of the film is filled with hip-hop and jazz but by the end of the film there is less and less of this music and more traditional movie mood music. The more Carroway becomes accustomed to the wild world of New York and Gatsby, the less modern music there is. This does make a point which I caught, but it also made teh movie a little more mundane.
If you like Luhrman's films, you'll like this film. But, you will wonder if he traded some of his trademark flare for a story that has been told so often.
THe Great Gatsby at IMDb
Second, I have another confession. I love Baz Luhrman's films. Moulin Rouge is one of my favorite movies of all times. There is a certain slickness and cultural pastiche in his films - the good kind of slickness. The films seem almost mythical or like an adult fairy tale because they feel removed from us, yet hit the chords that reverberate with the audience, usually through his use of music. Luhrman uses the hipper pop music of the current society and plugs it into a story that one wouldn't expect to hear that kind of music with, yet it works.
Right off the bat, the main character in this film, Nick Carroway (Tobey Maguire) comes onscreen looking like ___ (Ewen McGregor) who is the main character in Moulin Rouge. As we get to know the character, that initial reaction is only strengthened. They look similar. They are naive in a similar way. They both step into these wild party worlds beyond their previous imaginings. They both fall in love with the star of this new world. They both write a novel about their events after their love dies.
Of course the stories are different, and the love the main character feels is different as fits each film. But, most strikingly, the use of music is different. Moulin Rouge is a musical. The Great Gatsby is a film with a fair amount of music. There is no point where any of the main characters break into song in this film, unlike Moulin Rouge. I'm fine with that, Luhrman has done that before. However his use of music is also more subtle. The beginnign of the film is filled with hip-hop and jazz but by the end of the film there is less and less of this music and more traditional movie mood music. The more Carroway becomes accustomed to the wild world of New York and Gatsby, the less modern music there is. This does make a point which I caught, but it also made teh movie a little more mundane.
If you like Luhrman's films, you'll like this film. But, you will wonder if he traded some of his trademark flare for a story that has been told so often.
THe Great Gatsby at IMDb
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)
The movie, originally known as the Wrath of Holmes, or How I Learned To Stop Hating and Love The Triblle, ultimately was renamed Into Darkness. I guess this is a reference to certain actions taken by certain individuals throughout the film, and I don't mean those taken by Khan.
To be completely honest, I think we saw a little glimpse of Mr. Abrams Star Wart part 7. At the beginning of the movie when Krik amd Spock get called to Starfleet Command HQ and they are wearing the very militaristic grey uniforms with the officer's hats, I thought, "all we need to see are the plans for galaxy's greatest weapon and it's Star Wars", and I of course meant the Death Star, but as soon as they walk into the Admiral's office we pan along a line of space ships from the current day up to the Enterprise and this monstrous gun-metal grey ship right after it. I was waiting for a fade-out to the Jedi Temple where any Jedi Knight that isn't called by name in the Star Wars movies to be telling a Jedi Master of the same ilk about a rumor they had heard about the Senate building an army.
There were many inside jokes for the Star Trek fanbase, most of which I actually got. Well, I got all that I got and am assuming that there were ones that I didn't get. In fact, every scene that Karl Urban was in was like he wasn't playing Dr. McCoy as much as he was playing DeForrest Kelley as Dr. McCoy, and was very entertaining while doing it. Despite this I didn't really feel like I was watching a Star Trek film. I half expected Tom Cruise or Colin Farrel to come on screen at any moment and introduce the sub-plot that would prove that I was watching just anothyer big budget science fiction film. This is not a complaint. I really quite liked this film. Benedict Cumberbatch acted the crap out of the role of Khan. People had told me that he was so far beyond the other actors, who were not slouching mind you, that it was like a professional in with dinner theatre troupe. I don't think that was far from teh mark. I would love to see him opposite Patrick Stewart - in anything, it doesn't have to be Star Trek related. Maybe they could find a role for Mr. Cumberbatch in the upcoming X-Men film. That. Would. Rock.
The main weak point of this film was the way it used it's female characters. Unfortunately, it used them teh way that classic Trek used famele characters - as scenery and second-class characters. I felt that way about all of the women in teh movie, but the Adniral's daughter, what the fuck? It appears that the whole point of having her in the film was so that she could say, "Daddy, please don't kill them." All she had done before then was make statements like, "I am too a science officer" and "Why yes Captain, I will have sex with you later." An homage to Star Trek is one thing, but this would have been the chance to show us just how important Uhura was in running the Enterprise.
Star Trek: Into Darkness on IMDb
To be completely honest, I think we saw a little glimpse of Mr. Abrams Star Wart part 7. At the beginning of the movie when Krik amd Spock get called to Starfleet Command HQ and they are wearing the very militaristic grey uniforms with the officer's hats, I thought, "all we need to see are the plans for galaxy's greatest weapon and it's Star Wars", and I of course meant the Death Star, but as soon as they walk into the Admiral's office we pan along a line of space ships from the current day up to the Enterprise and this monstrous gun-metal grey ship right after it. I was waiting for a fade-out to the Jedi Temple where any Jedi Knight that isn't called by name in the Star Wars movies to be telling a Jedi Master of the same ilk about a rumor they had heard about the Senate building an army.
There were many inside jokes for the Star Trek fanbase, most of which I actually got. Well, I got all that I got and am assuming that there were ones that I didn't get. In fact, every scene that Karl Urban was in was like he wasn't playing Dr. McCoy as much as he was playing DeForrest Kelley as Dr. McCoy, and was very entertaining while doing it. Despite this I didn't really feel like I was watching a Star Trek film. I half expected Tom Cruise or Colin Farrel to come on screen at any moment and introduce the sub-plot that would prove that I was watching just anothyer big budget science fiction film. This is not a complaint. I really quite liked this film. Benedict Cumberbatch acted the crap out of the role of Khan. People had told me that he was so far beyond the other actors, who were not slouching mind you, that it was like a professional in with dinner theatre troupe. I don't think that was far from teh mark. I would love to see him opposite Patrick Stewart - in anything, it doesn't have to be Star Trek related. Maybe they could find a role for Mr. Cumberbatch in the upcoming X-Men film. That. Would. Rock.
The main weak point of this film was the way it used it's female characters. Unfortunately, it used them teh way that classic Trek used famele characters - as scenery and second-class characters. I felt that way about all of the women in teh movie, but the Adniral's daughter, what the fuck? It appears that the whole point of having her in the film was so that she could say, "Daddy, please don't kill them." All she had done before then was make statements like, "I am too a science officer" and "Why yes Captain, I will have sex with you later." An homage to Star Trek is one thing, but this would have been the chance to show us just how important Uhura was in running the Enterprise.
Star Trek: Into Darkness on IMDb
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
World War Z (2013)
While I generally liked the musical choices they made for this movie, I've got to say that they totally passed up a golden opportunity to play "Channel Z" by the B-52s. Seriously though, teh music was great. One of the very first things I noticed about this movie is the appropriate music. Playing the didonent chords when teh zombiues come is brilliant and I think has the power to be iconic like the the Jaws theme.
I know that as a fringe member of the hipster community - friend of hipsters, but obviously not one since I use the term, and have you met me? Not very hipsterish - that I am not supposed to like this movie because it is so different from the book and perhaps even counter-thetical to i's premise. But come on, Brad Pitt as a sexy former United Nations investigator and sexy doctors at the World Sexy Organization, I mean World Health Organization. How could I not watch this? I suppose I could have watched it just to see how different it was and report on that. But here's my big (former) secret: I did not read World War Z. I tried, I really, really did. I had it checked out and renewed. I would get through the first couple of chapters and then wham! Full stop. Eventually I decided to read the final chapter and then work my backwards to the beginning at random intervals, but that didn't work either.
So, I just waited for the movie to come out. I know that there was a fair bit of drama with the production of this film, like Pitt firing the producers and re-shooting the whole end fo the movie. A big enough deal that they announced that they had blown so much money that there was no way to recap their losses. But, I can't tell you how it's different from the original ending. Nor from the book. And since I've already mentioned that I can't compare it with the book, we're left just looking at this through the lense of zombie movies.
The zombie movie that this film is most reminiscent of is Resident Evil, just without the stlightly too advanced tech and zombies that mutate into even worse creatures. The zombies are fast, visoous and turn quickly. World War Z goes for a more realistic response than Resident Evil did, but we could very easily find out in WWZII that patient zero was at the Raccoon City site.
There were some things in thsi movie that you don't normally see, like someone committing suicide onscreen ("Luke, you're our last hope..!" "Fuck that shit," BAM! "No, there is another, a sister, well a guy with long hair.") You also rarely see an amputation on screen, yet we see the Israeli gal going from bitten to being called 'Righty' in a heart beat. I don't know if either were necessary to the story, you could just have had the doctor succumb to the zombie horde, but the suicide does drive home the point that it is hopeless to try and figure it out.
The outcome of the movie is fairly predictable and not quite how I would have done it, but worked. And there are scenes that are predictable, like the satellite phone incident and the way the captain of the air craft carrier behaves. But none of these are enough to take away from this film.
I have no idea how awesome a movie that actually followed the book would be. It might be the best zombie movie ever, or it might just be confusing. But, I know that the movie they made is very good and worth watching.
World War Z on IMDb
I know that as a fringe member of the hipster community - friend of hipsters, but obviously not one since I use the term, and have you met me? Not very hipsterish - that I am not supposed to like this movie because it is so different from the book and perhaps even counter-thetical to i's premise. But come on, Brad Pitt as a sexy former United Nations investigator and sexy doctors at the World Sexy Organization, I mean World Health Organization. How could I not watch this? I suppose I could have watched it just to see how different it was and report on that. But here's my big (former) secret: I did not read World War Z. I tried, I really, really did. I had it checked out and renewed. I would get through the first couple of chapters and then wham! Full stop. Eventually I decided to read the final chapter and then work my backwards to the beginning at random intervals, but that didn't work either.
So, I just waited for the movie to come out. I know that there was a fair bit of drama with the production of this film, like Pitt firing the producers and re-shooting the whole end fo the movie. A big enough deal that they announced that they had blown so much money that there was no way to recap their losses. But, I can't tell you how it's different from the original ending. Nor from the book. And since I've already mentioned that I can't compare it with the book, we're left just looking at this through the lense of zombie movies.
The zombie movie that this film is most reminiscent of is Resident Evil, just without the stlightly too advanced tech and zombies that mutate into even worse creatures. The zombies are fast, visoous and turn quickly. World War Z goes for a more realistic response than Resident Evil did, but we could very easily find out in WWZII that patient zero was at the Raccoon City site.
There were some things in thsi movie that you don't normally see, like someone committing suicide onscreen ("Luke, you're our last hope..!" "Fuck that shit," BAM! "No, there is another, a sister, well a guy with long hair.") You also rarely see an amputation on screen, yet we see the Israeli gal going from bitten to being called 'Righty' in a heart beat. I don't know if either were necessary to the story, you could just have had the doctor succumb to the zombie horde, but the suicide does drive home the point that it is hopeless to try and figure it out.
The outcome of the movie is fairly predictable and not quite how I would have done it, but worked. And there are scenes that are predictable, like the satellite phone incident and the way the captain of the air craft carrier behaves. But none of these are enough to take away from this film.
I have no idea how awesome a movie that actually followed the book would be. It might be the best zombie movie ever, or it might just be confusing. But, I know that the movie they made is very good and worth watching.
World War Z on IMDb
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
The Road to the Avengers: The Avengers (2012)
Agent Coulson is dead! Long live Agent Coulson!
The first time I watched this movie I took it all in and mostly thought about everything that had been left out and hoped might make it's way into some future Avengers movie. You know, like Dr. Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne (leaving out Vision, Scarlet Witch, Tigra and the Flacon for the time being). Now, I know that the sequel deals with Ultron which must include Pym and possibly the Vision, depending on how they spin the tale. I wonder if the will go the X-Men route and introduce new team members each time because then I guess I'm okay with the ones that have been left out because you can add in Pym and Van Dyne in number two. Now that I think about it, the Hulk is good and all, but what about She-Hulk? She is way cooler, plus instant cross-over with the rumored reboot of hte Faantastic Four, which I guess we need...because heaven's forbid we should accept mediocre sales and mediocre special effects. If they had given the Fantastic 4 movies the same level of attention (to be read as "budget") that they did the Avengers and it's prequels, we would already have 3 of them and a She-Hulk spin-off movie.
THe other thing the movie missed, and in it's defense very few movies tie-in other movies, was a super-powered Manhattan. Fury and the Counsel make references to other super heroes I don't know if you have read many Marvel comics, but when big things go down in New York City, Spiderman tends to turn up. And when really big things go down in the Big Apple, one or more X-Men tend to pop-up - not to mention that Beast left teh X-Men to join the Avengers and could be a nice tie-in. These could have been cameos...who wouldn't love to see the latest actor playing Spiderman or hunky Hugh Jackman in a minute or two of this movie? I don't need to explain this to Whedon who did right for the X-Men for a bit and knows how the Marvel Universe works.
I have a confession to make. Let me just take a deep breath first. Okay. I liked Mark Rufallo as Dr. Banner. I tried not to, while trying to not hate the character just because it's Raffalo. Dammit. This happned to me a few years ago with Tom Cruise.
Whedon left something out of this movie that was in every single one of it's prequels - a hint at what is to come and what super heroes it might entail. Thanatos coming to earth for the sport of it is strongly implied, but I didn't see any references to specific heroes, and I was looking for them. Certainly the scene after the credits was entertaining and I thik appropriate, but not helpful towards giving a hint.
The first time through, I thought they didn't give enough time to Captain America, and too much time to the Black Widow. This time through, I still think that they didn't give enough time to Captain America, but I liked that Black Widow was a key member of the team and proof that S/H/I.E.L.D. super spies are pretty much street level super heroes. So, who do you take away time from to give to Cap? No one. You add in 3 minutes to the movie. Are you listening Joss? You give him a minute and a half more on the helecarrier to counteract Tony Stark's tireade against him and team play and to discover and react to the "Phase Two" that Fury has in the works. And you give him a minute and a half more in the battle of Manhattan. You could maybe show some more fighting, but the best way to use this time, would be to show him acting as the commander - perhaps further orders to the first responders - but even more importantly, you show him saving/rescuing the bystanders both on the street and trapped in the buldings. What he needed was a chance to show that he is the opposite of Stark in many ways, but is already a super-hero both morally and physically. Can you think of a better answer to Starks statement that all Rogers is comes from a test tube? Show the mettle in the man, who wades in to the thick of battle, not because his ego says he can do anything, but because his conscious tells him that it is his duty to defend those that cannot defend themselves.
Of the six movies, this one is easily at the top of hte heat. I hope that Joss Whedon does more than just write and direct the second Avengers movie. I hope there are other super hero films in the works for him and his team. And I secretly hope that at some point one of them includes Warbird (who has Avengers ties of course).
The Avengers on IMDb
The first time I watched this movie I took it all in and mostly thought about everything that had been left out and hoped might make it's way into some future Avengers movie. You know, like Dr. Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne (leaving out Vision, Scarlet Witch, Tigra and the Flacon for the time being). Now, I know that the sequel deals with Ultron which must include Pym and possibly the Vision, depending on how they spin the tale. I wonder if the will go the X-Men route and introduce new team members each time because then I guess I'm okay with the ones that have been left out because you can add in Pym and Van Dyne in number two. Now that I think about it, the Hulk is good and all, but what about She-Hulk? She is way cooler, plus instant cross-over with the rumored reboot of hte Faantastic Four, which I guess we need...because heaven's forbid we should accept mediocre sales and mediocre special effects. If they had given the Fantastic 4 movies the same level of attention (to be read as "budget") that they did the Avengers and it's prequels, we would already have 3 of them and a She-Hulk spin-off movie.
THe other thing the movie missed, and in it's defense very few movies tie-in other movies, was a super-powered Manhattan. Fury and the Counsel make references to other super heroes I don't know if you have read many Marvel comics, but when big things go down in New York City, Spiderman tends to turn up. And when really big things go down in the Big Apple, one or more X-Men tend to pop-up - not to mention that Beast left teh X-Men to join the Avengers and could be a nice tie-in. These could have been cameos...who wouldn't love to see the latest actor playing Spiderman or hunky Hugh Jackman in a minute or two of this movie? I don't need to explain this to Whedon who did right for the X-Men for a bit and knows how the Marvel Universe works.
I have a confession to make. Let me just take a deep breath first. Okay. I liked Mark Rufallo as Dr. Banner. I tried not to, while trying to not hate the character just because it's Raffalo. Dammit. This happned to me a few years ago with Tom Cruise.
Whedon left something out of this movie that was in every single one of it's prequels - a hint at what is to come and what super heroes it might entail. Thanatos coming to earth for the sport of it is strongly implied, but I didn't see any references to specific heroes, and I was looking for them. Certainly the scene after the credits was entertaining and I thik appropriate, but not helpful towards giving a hint.
The first time through, I thought they didn't give enough time to Captain America, and too much time to the Black Widow. This time through, I still think that they didn't give enough time to Captain America, but I liked that Black Widow was a key member of the team and proof that S/H/I.E.L.D. super spies are pretty much street level super heroes. So, who do you take away time from to give to Cap? No one. You add in 3 minutes to the movie. Are you listening Joss? You give him a minute and a half more on the helecarrier to counteract Tony Stark's tireade against him and team play and to discover and react to the "Phase Two" that Fury has in the works. And you give him a minute and a half more in the battle of Manhattan. You could maybe show some more fighting, but the best way to use this time, would be to show him acting as the commander - perhaps further orders to the first responders - but even more importantly, you show him saving/rescuing the bystanders both on the street and trapped in the buldings. What he needed was a chance to show that he is the opposite of Stark in many ways, but is already a super-hero both morally and physically. Can you think of a better answer to Starks statement that all Rogers is comes from a test tube? Show the mettle in the man, who wades in to the thick of battle, not because his ego says he can do anything, but because his conscious tells him that it is his duty to defend those that cannot defend themselves.
Of the six movies, this one is easily at the top of hte heat. I hope that Joss Whedon does more than just write and direct the second Avengers movie. I hope there are other super hero films in the works for him and his team. And I secretly hope that at some point one of them includes Warbird (who has Avengers ties of course).
The Avengers on IMDb
Monday, December 23, 2013
Pushing Daisies Season 1: Disk 3:
Episode 7: Smell of Success
In the continuing cavalcade of guest shots, this time we had one former bow-tie-wearing, bicycle-riding, big-adventure-having fellow. It was also one of the whackiest episodes yet, which is totally freakin' awesome.
I had become convinced that due to the shows' unorthodox subject matter and way of conducting itself that Pushing Daisies must have originally aired on one of the cable networks that can afford to put on an eccentric show because they're not trying for such a large piece of the ratings pie, especially six years ago when this show aired. But, it turns out that this show aired on ABC - I saw a trailer for the upcoming second season at the start of the DVD. Huh. Well, that's pretty darned cool.
In addition to the expected array of sight gags, was one particularly memorable verbal gag of our crew being underground in what is likely the cleanest sewer ever and trying to find the character they think is the villain, by "Follow the yellow thick hose"ing, as there was a yellow hose along the wall that was thicker than the other hoses. I thought it was funny.
Episode 8: Bitter Sweets
As the first season approaches it's finale, we see the dramatic climax approaching at a candy store moves in across the street from the Pie Hole, only to have one of it's co-owners murdered and Ned blamed for it. Of course he didn't do it, but he got to spend some time in jail while the others worked to clear him by solving the crime.
This sets up a finale that has psychopathic competitor and an unfortunate truth utter ed just before credits roll as Ned tells Chuck that he killed her father. We've been watching him worry about her finding this out all season, and of course we know that he didn't intentionally kill her dad because he didn't know how his special gift worked. But, this can't be good, but I think it will be entertaining.
Episode 9: Corpsicle
Oh snap! You know when you're watching a show and it has the feel that something big is going to happen but you don't know what it is? And then the show goes through the paces and as the end gets close you think that you were wrong, that there will be no big reveal and then pretty much out of a clear blue sky, lightning strikes? That's how I felt watching this episode. Maybe it was due to knowing it was the final episode of the season, but I think the way the story was written was leasing us towards all sorts of false conclusions, getting us ready for the big actual conclusion.
Our mysterious sewer-dwelling character from a couple of episodes is back and is close to figuring out Chuck's secret when out of pain and confusion over what Ned has told her, she decides to aid him. The sewer-guy, not Ned, that is. But of course that wasn't destined to happen, but it was resolved in a sweet way.
The big reveal at the end of the show, thus making everyone crazy for season two to start, was something I had suspected from early on when it was mentioned that none knew what had happened to Chuck's mom. Of course it had to be one of the aunt's, and the likely suspect was the emotionally distant one. Lo and behold, all hopped up on a mood altering pie, she confessed as much to Olive whom she though was a real mermaid.
In the continuing cavalcade of guest shots, this time we had one former bow-tie-wearing, bicycle-riding, big-adventure-having fellow. It was also one of the whackiest episodes yet, which is totally freakin' awesome.
I had become convinced that due to the shows' unorthodox subject matter and way of conducting itself that Pushing Daisies must have originally aired on one of the cable networks that can afford to put on an eccentric show because they're not trying for such a large piece of the ratings pie, especially six years ago when this show aired. But, it turns out that this show aired on ABC - I saw a trailer for the upcoming second season at the start of the DVD. Huh. Well, that's pretty darned cool.
In addition to the expected array of sight gags, was one particularly memorable verbal gag of our crew being underground in what is likely the cleanest sewer ever and trying to find the character they think is the villain, by "Follow the yellow thick hose"ing, as there was a yellow hose along the wall that was thicker than the other hoses. I thought it was funny.
Episode 8: Bitter Sweets
As the first season approaches it's finale, we see the dramatic climax approaching at a candy store moves in across the street from the Pie Hole, only to have one of it's co-owners murdered and Ned blamed for it. Of course he didn't do it, but he got to spend some time in jail while the others worked to clear him by solving the crime.
This sets up a finale that has psychopathic competitor and an unfortunate truth utter ed just before credits roll as Ned tells Chuck that he killed her father. We've been watching him worry about her finding this out all season, and of course we know that he didn't intentionally kill her dad because he didn't know how his special gift worked. But, this can't be good, but I think it will be entertaining.
Episode 9: Corpsicle
Oh snap! You know when you're watching a show and it has the feel that something big is going to happen but you don't know what it is? And then the show goes through the paces and as the end gets close you think that you were wrong, that there will be no big reveal and then pretty much out of a clear blue sky, lightning strikes? That's how I felt watching this episode. Maybe it was due to knowing it was the final episode of the season, but I think the way the story was written was leasing us towards all sorts of false conclusions, getting us ready for the big actual conclusion.
Our mysterious sewer-dwelling character from a couple of episodes is back and is close to figuring out Chuck's secret when out of pain and confusion over what Ned has told her, she decides to aid him. The sewer-guy, not Ned, that is. But of course that wasn't destined to happen, but it was resolved in a sweet way.
The big reveal at the end of the show, thus making everyone crazy for season two to start, was something I had suspected from early on when it was mentioned that none knew what had happened to Chuck's mom. Of course it had to be one of the aunt's, and the likely suspect was the emotionally distant one. Lo and behold, all hopped up on a mood altering pie, she confessed as much to Olive whom she though was a real mermaid.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Pushing Daisies Season 1: Disk 2:
Episode 4: Pigeon
This is the quirkiest episode yet of a very quirky television show. A one-armed escaped convict stowed away on a crop duster. A one-winged carrier pigeon that gets a replacement wing from a deceased parrot. A one-legged windmill owner and preservationist played by the cute redhead from Glee.
We learned the mettle of Olive and got to see her interact with Chucks's aunts whom she has now become quite fond of. Each of the four leads knows a little about that others that only they know and each in turn confronts that knowledge until most of it is out in the open.
This episode was full of action, not unlike Dummy but depended more on comedic timing which was pulled off quite well.
Episode 5: Girth
We got some insight into Ned's life, which we always do thanks to the wonderfully narrated flashbacks that begin each episode, but this time around we learn what became of the relationship between Ned and Ned's father after Ned's mother died and he had been shipped off to boarding school. We also learn why Ned doesn't like Halloween - see the first thing. It's very sweet that Ned ends up with Chuck's aunts who basically it's okay to feel the way he does about his dad because his dad was an asshole.
We also learn that in her life previous to working at the Pie Hole with Ned, Olive was an up and coming professional jockey until her career ended over the guilt of a fellow jockey who turns out not to be dead after all.
Episode 6: Bitches
This time out our guest star was the super cool guy from Community. Hardly super cool as the polygamist dog breeder who appeared stabbed to death because he slipped on his own spilt coffee which had been poisoned with arsenic. I've got to hand it to this shoe, thus far it's very creative with enough whacky to keep me completely glued to the screen. Which is a good thing since much of the actual subject matter is really depressing, at least potentially.
The whole premise of the show is that the pie maker has been reunited with a childhood crush, the book smart caretaker, whom if he touches even once, even for the very briefest of moments, she will die. I guess this is the ultimate romantic tale, that the two have a love that transcends the traditional interpretations of the word to the point where the two will deny what they want most to prolong what they have. Sigh. (But the good kind of sigh.)
This is the quirkiest episode yet of a very quirky television show. A one-armed escaped convict stowed away on a crop duster. A one-winged carrier pigeon that gets a replacement wing from a deceased parrot. A one-legged windmill owner and preservationist played by the cute redhead from Glee.
We learned the mettle of Olive and got to see her interact with Chucks's aunts whom she has now become quite fond of. Each of the four leads knows a little about that others that only they know and each in turn confronts that knowledge until most of it is out in the open.
This episode was full of action, not unlike Dummy but depended more on comedic timing which was pulled off quite well.
Episode 5: Girth
We got some insight into Ned's life, which we always do thanks to the wonderfully narrated flashbacks that begin each episode, but this time around we learn what became of the relationship between Ned and Ned's father after Ned's mother died and he had been shipped off to boarding school. We also learn why Ned doesn't like Halloween - see the first thing. It's very sweet that Ned ends up with Chuck's aunts who basically it's okay to feel the way he does about his dad because his dad was an asshole.
We also learn that in her life previous to working at the Pie Hole with Ned, Olive was an up and coming professional jockey until her career ended over the guilt of a fellow jockey who turns out not to be dead after all.
Episode 6: Bitches
This time out our guest star was the super cool guy from Community. Hardly super cool as the polygamist dog breeder who appeared stabbed to death because he slipped on his own spilt coffee which had been poisoned with arsenic. I've got to hand it to this shoe, thus far it's very creative with enough whacky to keep me completely glued to the screen. Which is a good thing since much of the actual subject matter is really depressing, at least potentially.
The whole premise of the show is that the pie maker has been reunited with a childhood crush, the book smart caretaker, whom if he touches even once, even for the very briefest of moments, she will die. I guess this is the ultimate romantic tale, that the two have a love that transcends the traditional interpretations of the word to the point where the two will deny what they want most to prolong what they have. Sigh. (But the good kind of sigh.)
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Pushing Daisies Season 1: Disk 1:
Episode 1: Pie-lette
For those of you who know who Jim Dale is, you will completely understand what I am about to say. When I heard the dulcet tones of Mr. Dale as the narrator, this show could have been about anything or anyone in any style and I would have watched it and enjoyed it just to hear him. If you don't know who Jim Dale is, he narrates audiobooks, as well as television shows it seems. I highly recommend you listen to him narrating The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling.
But, it turns out this show is totally sweet and has a bedtime story quality about it. It's not cluttered with things you don't need to know for the story to make sense. The premise is very interesting and one that I've seen, how shall we say it, borrowed for other programs. In the other shows I could tell it was being lifted from somewhere and now I know. I like the sparseness of the story and the quirkiness of the characters. We'll see if that can last.
Episode 2: Dummy
I've noticed that this show is often about cleavage. Or as Chuck says, her "upper body". It reminds me of how young boys view the world, kind of fixated on breasts but not knowing why or their importance just wanting to look.
For two people who can't touch each other, Ned and Chuck lead an awfully close life. Kissing through body bags and saran wrap is very romcom, which I suppose this show is. This episode is also about hideous looking cars that run on distilled dandylioin juice. And corpses used as crash test dummies. And boobs. Yet it somehow remained almost innocent.
Digby, Ned's dog was the first creature that Ned reanimated and the first one that he left alive permanently. That happened more than 19 years before the present day in which the show takes place. Digby looks the same as he did 19 years earlier. Does this mean that Chuck will not age either? Does this mean that they are immortal? And what about the frogs and insects that we see Ned reanimating when he was a boy? Are they still hopping or flying around?
Episode 3: The Fun in Funeral
The secret is out and Chuck now knows how Ned's power works, meaning that she knows someone had to die for her to be alive again. The pair have to confront and talk to the man that died for Chuck to be brought back. Chuck insist that Ned has to apologize and that she has to thank him for her gift.
Olive, after talking with Chuck's aunts, realizes who Chuck is and presumably just takes it as a matter of course that Chuck is indeed the murdered tourist who has been all over the news. Because that is the most obvious answer.
This show really has a YA feel about it. If Ned and Chuck were only teen-agers it would definitely be YA. That label works for me. I just hope they keep this tone going for the whole show.
For those of you who know who Jim Dale is, you will completely understand what I am about to say. When I heard the dulcet tones of Mr. Dale as the narrator, this show could have been about anything or anyone in any style and I would have watched it and enjoyed it just to hear him. If you don't know who Jim Dale is, he narrates audiobooks, as well as television shows it seems. I highly recommend you listen to him narrating The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling.
But, it turns out this show is totally sweet and has a bedtime story quality about it. It's not cluttered with things you don't need to know for the story to make sense. The premise is very interesting and one that I've seen, how shall we say it, borrowed for other programs. In the other shows I could tell it was being lifted from somewhere and now I know. I like the sparseness of the story and the quirkiness of the characters. We'll see if that can last.
Episode 2: Dummy
I've noticed that this show is often about cleavage. Or as Chuck says, her "upper body". It reminds me of how young boys view the world, kind of fixated on breasts but not knowing why or their importance just wanting to look.
For two people who can't touch each other, Ned and Chuck lead an awfully close life. Kissing through body bags and saran wrap is very romcom, which I suppose this show is. This episode is also about hideous looking cars that run on distilled dandylioin juice. And corpses used as crash test dummies. And boobs. Yet it somehow remained almost innocent.
Digby, Ned's dog was the first creature that Ned reanimated and the first one that he left alive permanently. That happened more than 19 years before the present day in which the show takes place. Digby looks the same as he did 19 years earlier. Does this mean that Chuck will not age either? Does this mean that they are immortal? And what about the frogs and insects that we see Ned reanimating when he was a boy? Are they still hopping or flying around?
Episode 3: The Fun in Funeral
The secret is out and Chuck now knows how Ned's power works, meaning that she knows someone had to die for her to be alive again. The pair have to confront and talk to the man that died for Chuck to be brought back. Chuck insist that Ned has to apologize and that she has to thank him for her gift.
Olive, after talking with Chuck's aunts, realizes who Chuck is and presumably just takes it as a matter of course that Chuck is indeed the murdered tourist who has been all over the news. Because that is the most obvious answer.
This show really has a YA feel about it. If Ned and Chuck were only teen-agers it would definitely be YA. That label works for me. I just hope they keep this tone going for the whole show.
Friday, December 20, 2013
Breaking Bad Season 2 Disk 4:
Episode 11:
No one ever expects the 12 year-old on the bike to be the shooter. Well, now I will. I knew it was a set-up but I was waiting for the ball to drop and the dude to get popped. That was pretty harsh.
This is one of those episodes that reminds me of the saying, "always darkest before the dawn". Except that this whole series is kind darkest before the dawn. It just keeps building and building and we've had this foreshadowing of an explosion at the White residence. Now with the drug deal on the line and the baby trying to come early, Walt can not make a right decision.
Meanwhile, Jesse has just tried heroine for the first time and Jane has relapsed. When Walt comes by for the product, he can't rouse either of them, though to be fair, he only tried to wake Jesse. Jesse who is conscious just long enough to tell Walt the meth is under the sink.
I know that this show is not glorifying drug use, even though one of the main characters is an addict. I recently heard an article which mentioned the leads in this show as anti-heroes. Until that interview, I had only thought of them as flawed, or perhaps even very flawed, heroes. You like Walt. You like Jesse. They have good reasons for what they do, at least in their minds, and they do try to do the right thing by their family and friends. But when Jesse tells Jane to leave so he can smoke some meth, you just know that she is going to lapse and that he only has it in him to try and send her away once. That's when I got the whole anti-hero bit. He's not just a guy with an addiction problem who wants to make some money, he's an addict that wants to make more money so he can do more drugs so he can make more money so he can more drugs. And if he gets to the fuck the hot girl from next door and gets he in on his little game, then all the better. You probably can't see the frown on my face, but it's there. What was once empathy with an occasional bit of sympathy is now antipathy towards Jesse. And I don't even know how I feel about Walt, who has been more than a bit mercenary as of late. Don't think that I'm complaining. This is riveting television. The acting and writing are good enough that I want to see the outcome. If they give me even a glimpse of the possibility of redemption for these characters, I will be hooked for the run of the show.
Episode 12:
Oh Walter, what have you become? I wonder about moral relativism and psychopaths. If they don't know that they are doing anything bad and no one else is involved, are they really doing something bad? What if there is someone else involved, but it's not something they're doing that hurts the other person, but a lack of doing something? What if we're not talk about a psychopath but a regular person who has lost sight of right and wrong? What if that person realizes that their inaction is tantamount to homicide if the situation were different? Unless the very start of the next episode shows a drastic change of situation, Walt has slipped over to the dark side and has embraced it completely.
Episode 13:
Lies. Lies and propaganda. To think that it all unraveled over one little question while under general anesthesia. For all of Walt's book smarts, he certainly lacks some common sense and is greatly short on his supply of wisdom. Sure, he didn't think that he was going to live long enough to have to worry about any of his lies coming back to haunt him, but when he found out that his cancer was in remission, he should have worried a little more on covering his ass. One call to his mom and a nicely worded email to Gretchen and he might have made it out of this season with a family living at the same house as him.
Now I'm sure about the causal relationship between Walt's inaction the previous episode and the mid-air collision this episode, but I'm thinking that he has a fair amount of the moral blame on his shoulders. Of course, you have got to be wondering what the guys at air traffic control were thinking, just letting Q come back to work as if everything were okay, simply because he said he couldn't be by himself any longer. Not to mention that some of the blame will surely fall on Q himself. I'm not absolving Jesse in this either, since he is the enabler in Jane's relapse When Jesse finds out about Walt's inaction, he will likely try to kill Walt.
This season did not end in a happy place for anyone, certainly not us viewers.
No one ever expects the 12 year-old on the bike to be the shooter. Well, now I will. I knew it was a set-up but I was waiting for the ball to drop and the dude to get popped. That was pretty harsh.
This is one of those episodes that reminds me of the saying, "always darkest before the dawn". Except that this whole series is kind darkest before the dawn. It just keeps building and building and we've had this foreshadowing of an explosion at the White residence. Now with the drug deal on the line and the baby trying to come early, Walt can not make a right decision.
Meanwhile, Jesse has just tried heroine for the first time and Jane has relapsed. When Walt comes by for the product, he can't rouse either of them, though to be fair, he only tried to wake Jesse. Jesse who is conscious just long enough to tell Walt the meth is under the sink.
I know that this show is not glorifying drug use, even though one of the main characters is an addict. I recently heard an article which mentioned the leads in this show as anti-heroes. Until that interview, I had only thought of them as flawed, or perhaps even very flawed, heroes. You like Walt. You like Jesse. They have good reasons for what they do, at least in their minds, and they do try to do the right thing by their family and friends. But when Jesse tells Jane to leave so he can smoke some meth, you just know that she is going to lapse and that he only has it in him to try and send her away once. That's when I got the whole anti-hero bit. He's not just a guy with an addiction problem who wants to make some money, he's an addict that wants to make more money so he can do more drugs so he can make more money so he can more drugs. And if he gets to the fuck the hot girl from next door and gets he in on his little game, then all the better. You probably can't see the frown on my face, but it's there. What was once empathy with an occasional bit of sympathy is now antipathy towards Jesse. And I don't even know how I feel about Walt, who has been more than a bit mercenary as of late. Don't think that I'm complaining. This is riveting television. The acting and writing are good enough that I want to see the outcome. If they give me even a glimpse of the possibility of redemption for these characters, I will be hooked for the run of the show.
Episode 12:
Oh Walter, what have you become? I wonder about moral relativism and psychopaths. If they don't know that they are doing anything bad and no one else is involved, are they really doing something bad? What if there is someone else involved, but it's not something they're doing that hurts the other person, but a lack of doing something? What if we're not talk about a psychopath but a regular person who has lost sight of right and wrong? What if that person realizes that their inaction is tantamount to homicide if the situation were different? Unless the very start of the next episode shows a drastic change of situation, Walt has slipped over to the dark side and has embraced it completely.
Episode 13:
Lies. Lies and propaganda. To think that it all unraveled over one little question while under general anesthesia. For all of Walt's book smarts, he certainly lacks some common sense and is greatly short on his supply of wisdom. Sure, he didn't think that he was going to live long enough to have to worry about any of his lies coming back to haunt him, but when he found out that his cancer was in remission, he should have worried a little more on covering his ass. One call to his mom and a nicely worded email to Gretchen and he might have made it out of this season with a family living at the same house as him.
Now I'm sure about the causal relationship between Walt's inaction the previous episode and the mid-air collision this episode, but I'm thinking that he has a fair amount of the moral blame on his shoulders. Of course, you have got to be wondering what the guys at air traffic control were thinking, just letting Q come back to work as if everything were okay, simply because he said he couldn't be by himself any longer. Not to mention that some of the blame will surely fall on Q himself. I'm not absolving Jesse in this either, since he is the enabler in Jane's relapse When Jesse finds out about Walt's inaction, he will likely try to kill Walt.
This season did not end in a happy place for anyone, certainly not us viewers.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Breaking Bad Season 2 Disk 3:
Episode 8:
Is anyone surprised that Badger first proves that the guy trying to buy is a cop, and then talks himself into selling to the guy anyways? He was not the brightest of the dim bulbs Jesse picked to be his dealers, but still, you would think that unless he was high he would have had more common sense. But he doesn't. I think this is a great angle the writers have here. When the young cop is interrogating him, Badger says, "I thought we were going to hang out". Badger is this lonely loser, who likes to do meth, likes to make money selling meth, and is desperate for a friend.
Then we have Jesse back at the casa with Jane, who is way too good looking for this particular wanna be gangster. She does reveal that she's in recovery so maybe she's not too far removed from the lifestyle that Jesse is leading, and maybe she will prove to be motivation to do better in the future. Just who's version of better is at question.
The drug bust and slimeball lawyer are hilarious. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. At least Walter was not frozen by fear and put into action what he had counseled Hank to do - to take your fear head on and kick it in the teeth. It will be interesting to see how the lawyer shakes out. His character is as crooked as the day is long, but he has some code he works by, and I think he's as smart as he is ambitious. I guess that's the perfect combination if your an up and coming drug king pin.
Episode 9:
Is this Walt and Jesse's last cook out? This is one of those times where watching a show that is a couple of years old kind of spoils the effect, because I know that there are three more seasons of the show. But, that aside, while you're watching this episode you can't tell how it's going to go until Walt and family are sitting int he doctor's office and hearing the diagnosis. I saw the scan and thought what Walt thought when I saw it, but I also know from friends and family members that what you see on the scan is not necessarily what you think you are seeing, which is why we pay the doctors the big bucks.
Walt came down pretty hard on Jesse for a fair amount of the episode. Jesse is kind of an idiot, I supopse, and I also understand how frustrated Walt was spending what he thought was going to be his last weekend cooking with one easily avoidable mishap after another. You know that he cares for the kid during the scene where they are making the battery and Walt is explaining how things work and Jesse is grasping it and almost answers copper instead of just wire. I think if he would have said copper, Walt would have given him a congratulatory hug.
Somthing I like about both these characters is that they will do what other people consider bad things, maybe even what they would have considered bad at an earlier point in their life, but there are certain things that are sacred, like thier families and friends and no matter how much they complain each kicking in part of his profits to balance the other one out as the need arises. If it wasn't for the murder and providing this horrible drug, you could almost respect their choices.
Episode 10:
Talk about your mean drunks. Walt is either a horrible father and pretty much an idiot, or he is one sick bastard with a plan. I don't mean physically sick, because, well we already know that he is. Obviously, I'm referring to his treatment of Walter Jr. and the tequila. You have to wonder what Walt was thinking and what is going to come up between Walt and Hank.
Jesse's dad is supposed to be a bad-ass, but seems like a normal enough guy, I guess I can see why Jesse feels hurt when Jane won't introduce him, but then she does have a point since Jesse is the 'stoner' neighbor and meeting her dad for three seconds does not give you an accurate view of a person's character.
Meanwhile, back at the office... I will just come out and say it, I don't like Skylar. I haven't ever liked her. But, I don't dislike her. I just don't think that she is a good match for Walt. So, I don't really care what she does with her co-worker, except how it might impact Walt. This is not a bad thing. Really. I think it adds to the tension of the story. Please note that I said Skylar and not the actresses name - I think Gilligan made a conscious decision to portray her in a certain, oft-seeming unsympathetic way.
So, the leit motif at the beginning of about half the episodes this season has been a forensics team in haz-mat gear collecting evidence at Walt's house after an explosion and/or fire. This episode show more than we had seen before which included two, presumably, body bags laid out in the drive-way. When the next scene is the party mentioned above and Hank is talking about C4 on the turtle and one's mind naturally goes to the drug cartel's involvement in the explosion - as I think the producers want us to. But, as the episode progresses and Walt becomes Mr. Fixit, I wonder if it won't be him blowing up the house accidentally, or if the whole home repair schtick is just to set-up the last scene.
Is anyone surprised that Badger first proves that the guy trying to buy is a cop, and then talks himself into selling to the guy anyways? He was not the brightest of the dim bulbs Jesse picked to be his dealers, but still, you would think that unless he was high he would have had more common sense. But he doesn't. I think this is a great angle the writers have here. When the young cop is interrogating him, Badger says, "I thought we were going to hang out". Badger is this lonely loser, who likes to do meth, likes to make money selling meth, and is desperate for a friend.
Then we have Jesse back at the casa with Jane, who is way too good looking for this particular wanna be gangster. She does reveal that she's in recovery so maybe she's not too far removed from the lifestyle that Jesse is leading, and maybe she will prove to be motivation to do better in the future. Just who's version of better is at question.
The drug bust and slimeball lawyer are hilarious. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. At least Walter was not frozen by fear and put into action what he had counseled Hank to do - to take your fear head on and kick it in the teeth. It will be interesting to see how the lawyer shakes out. His character is as crooked as the day is long, but he has some code he works by, and I think he's as smart as he is ambitious. I guess that's the perfect combination if your an up and coming drug king pin.
Episode 9:
Is this Walt and Jesse's last cook out? This is one of those times where watching a show that is a couple of years old kind of spoils the effect, because I know that there are three more seasons of the show. But, that aside, while you're watching this episode you can't tell how it's going to go until Walt and family are sitting int he doctor's office and hearing the diagnosis. I saw the scan and thought what Walt thought when I saw it, but I also know from friends and family members that what you see on the scan is not necessarily what you think you are seeing, which is why we pay the doctors the big bucks.
Walt came down pretty hard on Jesse for a fair amount of the episode. Jesse is kind of an idiot, I supopse, and I also understand how frustrated Walt was spending what he thought was going to be his last weekend cooking with one easily avoidable mishap after another. You know that he cares for the kid during the scene where they are making the battery and Walt is explaining how things work and Jesse is grasping it and almost answers copper instead of just wire. I think if he would have said copper, Walt would have given him a congratulatory hug.
Somthing I like about both these characters is that they will do what other people consider bad things, maybe even what they would have considered bad at an earlier point in their life, but there are certain things that are sacred, like thier families and friends and no matter how much they complain each kicking in part of his profits to balance the other one out as the need arises. If it wasn't for the murder and providing this horrible drug, you could almost respect their choices.
Episode 10:
Talk about your mean drunks. Walt is either a horrible father and pretty much an idiot, or he is one sick bastard with a plan. I don't mean physically sick, because, well we already know that he is. Obviously, I'm referring to his treatment of Walter Jr. and the tequila. You have to wonder what Walt was thinking and what is going to come up between Walt and Hank.
Jesse's dad is supposed to be a bad-ass, but seems like a normal enough guy, I guess I can see why Jesse feels hurt when Jane won't introduce him, but then she does have a point since Jesse is the 'stoner' neighbor and meeting her dad for three seconds does not give you an accurate view of a person's character.
Meanwhile, back at the office... I will just come out and say it, I don't like Skylar. I haven't ever liked her. But, I don't dislike her. I just don't think that she is a good match for Walt. So, I don't really care what she does with her co-worker, except how it might impact Walt. This is not a bad thing. Really. I think it adds to the tension of the story. Please note that I said Skylar and not the actresses name - I think Gilligan made a conscious decision to portray her in a certain, oft-seeming unsympathetic way.
So, the leit motif at the beginning of about half the episodes this season has been a forensics team in haz-mat gear collecting evidence at Walt's house after an explosion and/or fire. This episode show more than we had seen before which included two, presumably, body bags laid out in the drive-way. When the next scene is the party mentioned above and Hank is talking about C4 on the turtle and one's mind naturally goes to the drug cartel's involvement in the explosion - as I think the producers want us to. But, as the episode progresses and Walt becomes Mr. Fixit, I wonder if it won't be him blowing up the house accidentally, or if the whole home repair schtick is just to set-up the last scene.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Breadking Bad Season 2 Disk 2
Episode 5: Breakage
I love that Jesse really is smart, no matter how stupid he sounds or looks trying to be street. Of course, someone who is moving more than a pound crystal meth a week is street, most likely. For all of Walter's concerns about the new business arrangement, Jesse has his stuff together and knows what he's doing. He's even right about acceptable losses, though of course Walter will never admit it, because, well quite frankly, he has no street cred, nor does he desire any. Walter's world is cut and dry - all about the numbers, whether they be the formulas for cooking the meth, the money collected, or figuring out the bills and planning for his family.
Hank's bravado is finally shown for that, even if to no one but the audience. We now know that for all of his big talk, that he's just as disturbed by killing Tuco as anyone would be at taking a life, and that he is just as afraid of the repercussions as you or I would be. I suspect we will see this played front-and-center this season. Maybe even more than once.
Episode 6: Peakaboo
Jesse has himself a fine crew of dealers. These guys are not good guys who made mistakes, these are the dregs of society, but they're nothing compared to the whore and her pimp, or whatever 'Spooge' is to her. These people are the lowest of the low, me thinks. It is so rare to see dirty people on television. I don't mean the fake-looking dirty used for comic effect on sitcoms, I mean the scabby, rashy, ain't-washed-in-a-month-or-more kind of dirty. You also rarely get to see junkies except as corpses or the crazies that the CSI has to deal with. Spooge and his, um, baby-mama, they're rare on television, they're genuine looking.
I was just commenting today how I would like to see more of the principal and Walter at school. Then, boom, Walter is teaching again and Carmen is having a little chat with him, saying that she is inspired by him and is there for him, in a discreet way if needed. I'm not expert, but that seemed to me like she was throwing out hints.
I am even more curious as to how Walter and Skylar met after seeing Walter and Gretchen interact. Last season, it was implied that she had dumped Walter to be with Elliot, and not able to deal with it, Walter left Grey Matters, and his shot at being uber-rich. But, now we have Gretchen saying that for no reason she has ever been able to discern, Walter walked out on her in the middle of a visit to her family. I am very intrigued.
Episode 7: Negro y Azul
We got a show-themed music video to start the episode. I think it's pretty cool that the producers don't feel tied down to a formula and I think that provides the freshness that makes this show so appealing, well that and the good acting.
I love that Walter gets off on being a bad-ass. And after a fashion, so does Jesse. Together they have the shared delusion that there bad-assness will get them the city and a corner on the meth market.
We also get to see Hank off in El Paso making himself look like a total idiot, even though when his machismo finally caves at the sight of an informant's severed head on the back of a turtle and he has to go to the car to keep from throwing up, he proves heroic when the bomb goes off and he gets right in putting a tourniquet on the guys leg to keep him from bleeding out. You would think that someone in the DEA in the Southwest would at least know basic Spanish.
I love that Jesse really is smart, no matter how stupid he sounds or looks trying to be street. Of course, someone who is moving more than a pound crystal meth a week is street, most likely. For all of Walter's concerns about the new business arrangement, Jesse has his stuff together and knows what he's doing. He's even right about acceptable losses, though of course Walter will never admit it, because, well quite frankly, he has no street cred, nor does he desire any. Walter's world is cut and dry - all about the numbers, whether they be the formulas for cooking the meth, the money collected, or figuring out the bills and planning for his family.
Hank's bravado is finally shown for that, even if to no one but the audience. We now know that for all of his big talk, that he's just as disturbed by killing Tuco as anyone would be at taking a life, and that he is just as afraid of the repercussions as you or I would be. I suspect we will see this played front-and-center this season. Maybe even more than once.
Episode 6: Peakaboo
Jesse has himself a fine crew of dealers. These guys are not good guys who made mistakes, these are the dregs of society, but they're nothing compared to the whore and her pimp, or whatever 'Spooge' is to her. These people are the lowest of the low, me thinks. It is so rare to see dirty people on television. I don't mean the fake-looking dirty used for comic effect on sitcoms, I mean the scabby, rashy, ain't-washed-in-a-month-or-more kind of dirty. You also rarely get to see junkies except as corpses or the crazies that the CSI has to deal with. Spooge and his, um, baby-mama, they're rare on television, they're genuine looking.
I was just commenting today how I would like to see more of the principal and Walter at school. Then, boom, Walter is teaching again and Carmen is having a little chat with him, saying that she is inspired by him and is there for him, in a discreet way if needed. I'm not expert, but that seemed to me like she was throwing out hints.
I am even more curious as to how Walter and Skylar met after seeing Walter and Gretchen interact. Last season, it was implied that she had dumped Walter to be with Elliot, and not able to deal with it, Walter left Grey Matters, and his shot at being uber-rich. But, now we have Gretchen saying that for no reason she has ever been able to discern, Walter walked out on her in the middle of a visit to her family. I am very intrigued.
Episode 7: Negro y Azul
We got a show-themed music video to start the episode. I think it's pretty cool that the producers don't feel tied down to a formula and I think that provides the freshness that makes this show so appealing, well that and the good acting.
I love that Walter gets off on being a bad-ass. And after a fashion, so does Jesse. Together they have the shared delusion that there bad-assness will get them the city and a corner on the meth market.
We also get to see Hank off in El Paso making himself look like a total idiot, even though when his machismo finally caves at the sight of an informant's severed head on the back of a turtle and he has to go to the car to keep from throwing up, he proves heroic when the bomb goes off and he gets right in putting a tourniquet on the guys leg to keep him from bleeding out. You would think that someone in the DEA in the Southwest would at least know basic Spanish.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Breaking Bad Season 2 Disk 1
Episode 1: Seven-thirty-seven
Damn. That Bryan Cranston is impressive. Not only does he act the crap out of his character, Walter, but he directs the episode too. We get closer to a big reveal, but you know, it's only the first episode of the new season, so they're going to make us suffer. Suffer is perhaps not the best term, though some of the characters, actually everyone except Marie and Hank are suffering.
Quite an interesting twist, the way Gonzo turns out to have died. Tuco may be the bad guy in all of this, but he's not as bas as Walter and Jesse think that he is, regardless of how the episode ends.
Episode 2: Grilled
Oh they do like to drag things out for us. Things really heated up, except for the chili powder kind of heat. It's nice to see that they're keeping leit motifs running into the second season. This show is actually quite good about reminding us of things from earlier episodes, which I really like and wish more shows would do. So many American television series have throw away episodes so that they can hook new viewers mid-season, or more likely keep viewers who may have missed an episode here or there. It is kind of ridiculous to expect someone to be able to catch each and every episode of a 22 to 26 episode season that airs weekly over a seven or eight month season. But, that's just part of the problem, the audience is treated for most shows like we are incapable of following a story arc that last most of the year. Sure, some series, I am thinking mostly of procedurals here, introduce a story in the second episode which is touched on two or three times throughout the season only to be wrapped up in a season finale which has some parts that won't be wrapped up until the start of the next season. The exceptions seem to be the shows following the model of British television which airs multiple seasons thorughout the year, each series being six to ten episodes if an hour or shorter and perhaps three or four if the show is in the 90 or 120 minute format. You can cut out all of the crap and follow a show over a month or two and get a good series arc as well as an arc per episode.
They say so much in this episode without uttering a word. The Theo character who can only communicate by ringing the bell is pure brilliant. When Tuco figures out that something is going on, and by asking not necessarily the right questions but still going on the right track, you wonder how Walter is going to get himself out of this one. Hank being just smart enough and just competent enough to track down the lowjacked car, only to end up in a shoot out is a brilliant outcome in this comedy of errors that is Breaking Bad.
Episode 3: Bit by a Dead Bee
Naked in the super market? I didn't see that one coming. And neither did anyone else. Walter is like scary smart and I don't think anyone realizes it. It really gets brought home when he asks the psychiatrist about doctor-patient confidentiality. Layers upon layers of stories and lies, all of which Walter remembers perfectly. He makes a comment about being surpassed by all of his peers, and it was clear he didn't mean the other teachers at the high school, to wit he had said that he was greatly overqualified. We know that his former grad school buddy is super rich based on work that they both did. I am wondering if there is more to that story, and I hope that they show it.
They finally brought us back up from the depths of despair, just so they can drive us back down as Walter and Jesse are each more estranged from their perspective families than they ever have been before. They bring us up, so they can take us down, so they can bring us up. You get the idea.
I was a little creeped out by the DEA agents in Hank's office giving him the grill of Tuco as a souvenir of his kill.
Episode 4: Down
Somehow, it seems that Walter and Jesse's lives were better when they were cooking meth and running from drug dealers who wanted to kill them than it is with their own families. Walter and Skylar's relationship has reached a new low, but I predict with Skylar's secret, well at least one of them, revealed at the end, there is some more down to go. I wonder how Walter and Skylar hooked up to begin with? There was the flashback sequence during an episode in season one where we see Walter working on equations in what looked to be a university setting, and a young woman looks on. Was that Skylar? Just the young her represented by a different actor? I had assumed this until right now, but there was the partner who had made all the money and the woman he was with had very close ties to Walter, too. I bet she was the young woman. Oh snap! Now I don't know anything about how Walter and Skylar got together. She has go to know that he's a major league brainiac, right? I know that she and her sister seem pretty self-absorbed, but she would have noticed something like that, wouldn't she.
Walter's life is great compared to Jesse's life, discounting the whole terminal cancer thing. Mr. and Mrs. Pinkman evict Jesse from his own house which they actually own and not without due cause. Jesse then ends up realizing he doesn't have any friends, and then his motorcycle and the last of his possessions gets stolen. He then descends even further when he falls into a chemical toilet and gets stained blue.
Damn. That Bryan Cranston is impressive. Not only does he act the crap out of his character, Walter, but he directs the episode too. We get closer to a big reveal, but you know, it's only the first episode of the new season, so they're going to make us suffer. Suffer is perhaps not the best term, though some of the characters, actually everyone except Marie and Hank are suffering.
Quite an interesting twist, the way Gonzo turns out to have died. Tuco may be the bad guy in all of this, but he's not as bas as Walter and Jesse think that he is, regardless of how the episode ends.
Episode 2: Grilled
Oh they do like to drag things out for us. Things really heated up, except for the chili powder kind of heat. It's nice to see that they're keeping leit motifs running into the second season. This show is actually quite good about reminding us of things from earlier episodes, which I really like and wish more shows would do. So many American television series have throw away episodes so that they can hook new viewers mid-season, or more likely keep viewers who may have missed an episode here or there. It is kind of ridiculous to expect someone to be able to catch each and every episode of a 22 to 26 episode season that airs weekly over a seven or eight month season. But, that's just part of the problem, the audience is treated for most shows like we are incapable of following a story arc that last most of the year. Sure, some series, I am thinking mostly of procedurals here, introduce a story in the second episode which is touched on two or three times throughout the season only to be wrapped up in a season finale which has some parts that won't be wrapped up until the start of the next season. The exceptions seem to be the shows following the model of British television which airs multiple seasons thorughout the year, each series being six to ten episodes if an hour or shorter and perhaps three or four if the show is in the 90 or 120 minute format. You can cut out all of the crap and follow a show over a month or two and get a good series arc as well as an arc per episode.
They say so much in this episode without uttering a word. The Theo character who can only communicate by ringing the bell is pure brilliant. When Tuco figures out that something is going on, and by asking not necessarily the right questions but still going on the right track, you wonder how Walter is going to get himself out of this one. Hank being just smart enough and just competent enough to track down the lowjacked car, only to end up in a shoot out is a brilliant outcome in this comedy of errors that is Breaking Bad.
Episode 3: Bit by a Dead Bee
Naked in the super market? I didn't see that one coming. And neither did anyone else. Walter is like scary smart and I don't think anyone realizes it. It really gets brought home when he asks the psychiatrist about doctor-patient confidentiality. Layers upon layers of stories and lies, all of which Walter remembers perfectly. He makes a comment about being surpassed by all of his peers, and it was clear he didn't mean the other teachers at the high school, to wit he had said that he was greatly overqualified. We know that his former grad school buddy is super rich based on work that they both did. I am wondering if there is more to that story, and I hope that they show it.
They finally brought us back up from the depths of despair, just so they can drive us back down as Walter and Jesse are each more estranged from their perspective families than they ever have been before. They bring us up, so they can take us down, so they can bring us up. You get the idea.
I was a little creeped out by the DEA agents in Hank's office giving him the grill of Tuco as a souvenir of his kill.
Episode 4: Down
Somehow, it seems that Walter and Jesse's lives were better when they were cooking meth and running from drug dealers who wanted to kill them than it is with their own families. Walter and Skylar's relationship has reached a new low, but I predict with Skylar's secret, well at least one of them, revealed at the end, there is some more down to go. I wonder how Walter and Skylar hooked up to begin with? There was the flashback sequence during an episode in season one where we see Walter working on equations in what looked to be a university setting, and a young woman looks on. Was that Skylar? Just the young her represented by a different actor? I had assumed this until right now, but there was the partner who had made all the money and the woman he was with had very close ties to Walter, too. I bet she was the young woman. Oh snap! Now I don't know anything about how Walter and Skylar got together. She has go to know that he's a major league brainiac, right? I know that she and her sister seem pretty self-absorbed, but she would have noticed something like that, wouldn't she.
Walter's life is great compared to Jesse's life, discounting the whole terminal cancer thing. Mr. and Mrs. Pinkman evict Jesse from his own house which they actually own and not without due cause. Jesse then ends up realizing he doesn't have any friends, and then his motorcycle and the last of his possessions gets stolen. He then descends even further when he falls into a chemical toilet and gets stained blue.
Friday, September 13, 2013
The Road to the Avengers: The Avengers (2012)
Agent Coulson is dead! Long live Agent Coulson!
The first time I watched this movie I took it all in and mostly thought about everything that had been left out and hoped might make it's way into some future Avengers movie. You know, like Dr. Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne (leaving out Vision, Scarlet Witch, Tigra and the Falcon for the time being). Now, I know that the sequel deals with Ultron which must include Pym and possibly the Vision, depending on how they spin the tale. I wonder if the will go the X-Men route and introduce new team members each time because then I guess I'm okay with the ones that have been left out because you can add in Pym and Van Dyne in number two. Now that I think about it, the Hulk is good and all, but what about She-Hulk? She is way cooler, plus instant cross-over with the rumored reboot of the Fantastic Four, which I guess we need...because heaven's forbid we should accept mediocre sales and mediocre special effects. If they had given the Fantastic 4 movies the same level of attention (to be read as "budget") that they did the Avengers and it's prequels, we would already have 3 of them and a She-Hulk spin-off movie.
The other thing the movie missed, and in it's defense very few movies tie-in other movies, was a super-powered Manhattan. Fury and the Counsel make references to other super heroes I don't know if you have read many Marvel comics, but when big things go down in New York City, Spiderman tends to turn up. And when really big things go down in the Big Apple, one or more X-Men tend to pop-up - not to mention that Beast left the X-Men to join the Avengers and could be a nice tie-in. These could have been cameos...who wouldn't love to see the latest actor playing Spiderman or hunky Hugh Jackman in a minute or two of this movie? I don't need to explain this to Whedon who did right for the X-Men for a bit and knows how the Marvel Universe works.
I have a confession to make. Let me just take a deep breath first. Okay. I liked Mark Rufallo as Dr. Banner. I tried not to, while trying to not hate the character just because it's Raffalo. Dammit. This happened to me a few years ago with Tom Cruise.
Whedon left something out of this movie that was in every single one of it's prequels - a hint at what is to come and what super heroes it might entail. Thanatos coming to earth for the sport of it is strongly implied, but I didn't see any references to specific heroes, and I was looking for them. Certainly the scene after the credits was entertaining and I think appropriate, but not helpful towards giving a hint.
The first time through, I thought they didn't give enough time to Captain America, and too much time to the Black Widow. This time through, I still think that they didn't give enough time to Captain America, but I liked that Black Widow was a key member of the team and proof that S/H/I.E.L.D. super spies are pretty much street level super heroes. So, who do you take away time from to give to Cap? No one. You add in 3 minutes to the movie. Are you listening Joss? You give him a minute and a half more on the helecarrier to counteract Tony Stark's tirade against him and team play and to discover and react to the "Phase Two" that Fury has in the works. And you give him a minute and a half more in the battle of Manhattan. You could maybe show some more fighting, but the best way to use this time, would be to show him acting as the commander - perhaps further orders to the first responders - but even more importantly, you show him saving/rescuing the bystanders both on the street and trapped in the buildings. What he needed was a chance to show that he is the opposite of Stark in many ways, but is already a super-hero both morally and physically. Can you think of a better answer to Starks statement that all Rogers is comes from a test tube? Show the mettle in the man, who wades in to the thick of battle, not because his ego says he can do anything, but because his conscious tells him that it is his duty to defend those that cannot defend themselves.
Of the six movies, this one is easily at the top of hte heat. I hope that Joss Whedon does more than just write and direct the second Avengers movie. I hope there are other super hero films in the works for him and his team. And I secretly hope that at some point one of them includes Warbird (who has Avengers ties of course).
The Avengers on IMDb
The first time I watched this movie I took it all in and mostly thought about everything that had been left out and hoped might make it's way into some future Avengers movie. You know, like Dr. Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne (leaving out Vision, Scarlet Witch, Tigra and the Falcon for the time being). Now, I know that the sequel deals with Ultron which must include Pym and possibly the Vision, depending on how they spin the tale. I wonder if the will go the X-Men route and introduce new team members each time because then I guess I'm okay with the ones that have been left out because you can add in Pym and Van Dyne in number two. Now that I think about it, the Hulk is good and all, but what about She-Hulk? She is way cooler, plus instant cross-over with the rumored reboot of the Fantastic Four, which I guess we need...because heaven's forbid we should accept mediocre sales and mediocre special effects. If they had given the Fantastic 4 movies the same level of attention (to be read as "budget") that they did the Avengers and it's prequels, we would already have 3 of them and a She-Hulk spin-off movie.
The other thing the movie missed, and in it's defense very few movies tie-in other movies, was a super-powered Manhattan. Fury and the Counsel make references to other super heroes I don't know if you have read many Marvel comics, but when big things go down in New York City, Spiderman tends to turn up. And when really big things go down in the Big Apple, one or more X-Men tend to pop-up - not to mention that Beast left the X-Men to join the Avengers and could be a nice tie-in. These could have been cameos...who wouldn't love to see the latest actor playing Spiderman or hunky Hugh Jackman in a minute or two of this movie? I don't need to explain this to Whedon who did right for the X-Men for a bit and knows how the Marvel Universe works.
I have a confession to make. Let me just take a deep breath first. Okay. I liked Mark Rufallo as Dr. Banner. I tried not to, while trying to not hate the character just because it's Raffalo. Dammit. This happened to me a few years ago with Tom Cruise.
Whedon left something out of this movie that was in every single one of it's prequels - a hint at what is to come and what super heroes it might entail. Thanatos coming to earth for the sport of it is strongly implied, but I didn't see any references to specific heroes, and I was looking for them. Certainly the scene after the credits was entertaining and I think appropriate, but not helpful towards giving a hint.
The first time through, I thought they didn't give enough time to Captain America, and too much time to the Black Widow. This time through, I still think that they didn't give enough time to Captain America, but I liked that Black Widow was a key member of the team and proof that S/H/I.E.L.D. super spies are pretty much street level super heroes. So, who do you take away time from to give to Cap? No one. You add in 3 minutes to the movie. Are you listening Joss? You give him a minute and a half more on the helecarrier to counteract Tony Stark's tirade against him and team play and to discover and react to the "Phase Two" that Fury has in the works. And you give him a minute and a half more in the battle of Manhattan. You could maybe show some more fighting, but the best way to use this time, would be to show him acting as the commander - perhaps further orders to the first responders - but even more importantly, you show him saving/rescuing the bystanders both on the street and trapped in the buildings. What he needed was a chance to show that he is the opposite of Stark in many ways, but is already a super-hero both morally and physically. Can you think of a better answer to Starks statement that all Rogers is comes from a test tube? Show the mettle in the man, who wades in to the thick of battle, not because his ego says he can do anything, but because his conscious tells him that it is his duty to defend those that cannot defend themselves.
Of the six movies, this one is easily at the top of hte heat. I hope that Joss Whedon does more than just write and direct the second Avengers movie. I hope there are other super hero films in the works for him and his team. And I secretly hope that at some point one of them includes Warbird (who has Avengers ties of course).
The Avengers on IMDb
Thursday, September 12, 2013
The Road to the Avengers: Iron Man II (2010)
I got this one out of order too. It looks like the order should be - Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man II, Thor, Might Avengers. But, the inclusion of Black Widow and Nick Fury such significant roles, not to mention agent Coulson of course, added to the fact that they are actually discussing the Avengers Initiative at the end of the film makes this the true prequel to the Avengers movie. I like to think of if like comic books, which is of course a propos, and that the Iron Man title put out there September issue and it's concurrent with the Thor September issue, even though they actually came out two weeks apart - you don't necessarily read them in chronological order.
I'm familiar with War Machine from the comics and the movie version is pretty cool. From what I've read of the comics, it's after Rhodes left the army but he kept the suit and has kind of become this mechanical angel of death and justice. Pretty wicked stuff and nothing like how he started out, but if they ever do a War Machine movie, which I would totally see, it's interesting to ponder if they might go there.
Ivan Venko, I have never heard of. His fondness for the energy whips and bring Russian reminds me of Omega Red who is an X-Men villain, and one of the few I might add, that can stand toe to toe with Wolverine and in some situations over power him (whips that are unbreakable and drain away energy). I'm a little confused by his methods, I get the whole wanting Stark to sufferer, but wouldn't it be more effective to go about it in a different manner? I mean the best way would be to make Iron Man obsolete, but not by going the super-villain route.
The Justin Hammer character is one from the comics, but I'm not familiar with him. He certainly seems slimey enough. I hope that he gets used again. Having someone who is trying to compete with and better Tony Stark is as satisfying as having someone who is trying to take on Iron Man.
I've been kind of rating and ranking these movies as I go, and it's hard to say for sure, but I like this one at least as well as I like the first Iron Man movie. It's rare in comic book movies, and movies in general for the sequel to be better than the first one. Not that it can't be done, and I think this might be an example of that. Of course, the movie is only good because we have the first one setting things up for us, so I'm going to call it a tie. The final prequel standings are, in order, the Iron Mans tied at #1, Captain America at #3, Thor at #4 and the Incredible Hulk at #5. They're all decent though and I have enjoyed watching them a second or third time as the case may be. Of cource I am looking forward to all the sequels, Iron Man 3 at the top of my list (it should be out on DVD before the holiday), Thor 2 hits theatres in November and while I can leave or take the Asgardians, I am excited to see Natalie Portman's character in Asgard, and we have the Captain America sequel coming out next Spring, and I think I am looking forward to this one the most and can't wait to see how they handle Cap in the present day.
Iron Man II on IMBd
I'm familiar with War Machine from the comics and the movie version is pretty cool. From what I've read of the comics, it's after Rhodes left the army but he kept the suit and has kind of become this mechanical angel of death and justice. Pretty wicked stuff and nothing like how he started out, but if they ever do a War Machine movie, which I would totally see, it's interesting to ponder if they might go there.
Ivan Venko, I have never heard of. His fondness for the energy whips and bring Russian reminds me of Omega Red who is an X-Men villain, and one of the few I might add, that can stand toe to toe with Wolverine and in some situations over power him (whips that are unbreakable and drain away energy). I'm a little confused by his methods, I get the whole wanting Stark to sufferer, but wouldn't it be more effective to go about it in a different manner? I mean the best way would be to make Iron Man obsolete, but not by going the super-villain route.
The Justin Hammer character is one from the comics, but I'm not familiar with him. He certainly seems slimey enough. I hope that he gets used again. Having someone who is trying to compete with and better Tony Stark is as satisfying as having someone who is trying to take on Iron Man.
I've been kind of rating and ranking these movies as I go, and it's hard to say for sure, but I like this one at least as well as I like the first Iron Man movie. It's rare in comic book movies, and movies in general for the sequel to be better than the first one. Not that it can't be done, and I think this might be an example of that. Of course, the movie is only good because we have the first one setting things up for us, so I'm going to call it a tie. The final prequel standings are, in order, the Iron Mans tied at #1, Captain America at #3, Thor at #4 and the Incredible Hulk at #5. They're all decent though and I have enjoyed watching them a second or third time as the case may be. Of cource I am looking forward to all the sequels, Iron Man 3 at the top of my list (it should be out on DVD before the holiday), Thor 2 hits theatres in November and while I can leave or take the Asgardians, I am excited to see Natalie Portman's character in Asgard, and we have the Captain America sequel coming out next Spring, and I think I am looking forward to this one the most and can't wait to see how they handle Cap in the present day.
Iron Man II on IMBd
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
Steppenwolf
by
Herman Hesse
read by
Peter Weller
This is the book you get if you are are smoking crack while trying to use the library's reservation system. There is no Magic Carpet Ride here. However, it did present an opportunity to tackle a book I never would have thought of reading.
I have read many books and listened to many audiobooks. Very few of these, perhaps only a handful have prefaces by authors explaining how everyone seems to have misunderstood their work. Almost none of these books in my experience are works of fiction. This is one of those rare few, and you should really wonder when the author has to add a few pages to explain that the majority of the people who have read this book have found it a very depressing story, and that he contends that they miss the point. He says that not only his critics, but the fans of the book have all missed the point. I find this more than a bit daunting, especially because the narrator's forward spends 30 minutes setting up that the main character is very much the embodiment of Nietxche's philosophy.
If I had realized how prevalent a couple of words would be throughout this book, I might have been tempted to keep track from the beginning. It is hard to say which he used more - bourgeois or middle-class, Steppenwolf or lone-wolf - but it is a rare minute that goes by without one of these terms being uttered. It's really quite annoying, though I realize that he is using this to set and shape the character of the narrator and the main character. I am sure if these words were removed from the manuscript, it would be at least 10% shorter.
The structure of this book is interesting and a tad reminiscent of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. There is an outer shell that is the narrator, then the main character telling his story and then much time spent relating books he read, especially the Anarchist's Treatise about the Steppenwolf at a third level. This makes large chunks of the story very removed from the audience, which goes in tandem with the nature of the story.
I listened to this book with the author's note in mind and fully understand why he felt it necessary to add it. This is an extremely depressing book. The main character finds himself in a situation of his own creation where the only options are suffering, both physical and psychic, or suicide. Great sections, especially early on are spent on how one might come to accept suicide as an option and how that can actually make some stronger and deal with life longer. And did I mention that this is Hesse's attempt at putting Nietzche's philosophy into a character?
I've only read one other work by Hesse, that being Siddhartha. Interestingly, it is another book full of human suffering, but with the opposite conclusion. They do both have the same expository and over-explaining style.
If you've had to read Steppenwolf for some reason, I hope it was for a class which could then act as a support group (or maybe that you didn't actually read it but faked it). Otherwise, I couldn't imagine any reason why someone would put themselves through this. So much for card catalog happenstance finds.
Steppenwolf at Powell's Books
Steppenwolf Audiobook at Amazon.com
by
Herman Hesse
read by
Peter Weller
This is the book you get if you are are smoking crack while trying to use the library's reservation system. There is no Magic Carpet Ride here. However, it did present an opportunity to tackle a book I never would have thought of reading.
I have read many books and listened to many audiobooks. Very few of these, perhaps only a handful have prefaces by authors explaining how everyone seems to have misunderstood their work. Almost none of these books in my experience are works of fiction. This is one of those rare few, and you should really wonder when the author has to add a few pages to explain that the majority of the people who have read this book have found it a very depressing story, and that he contends that they miss the point. He says that not only his critics, but the fans of the book have all missed the point. I find this more than a bit daunting, especially because the narrator's forward spends 30 minutes setting up that the main character is very much the embodiment of Nietxche's philosophy.
If I had realized how prevalent a couple of words would be throughout this book, I might have been tempted to keep track from the beginning. It is hard to say which he used more - bourgeois or middle-class, Steppenwolf or lone-wolf - but it is a rare minute that goes by without one of these terms being uttered. It's really quite annoying, though I realize that he is using this to set and shape the character of the narrator and the main character. I am sure if these words were removed from the manuscript, it would be at least 10% shorter.
The structure of this book is interesting and a tad reminiscent of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. There is an outer shell that is the narrator, then the main character telling his story and then much time spent relating books he read, especially the Anarchist's Treatise about the Steppenwolf at a third level. This makes large chunks of the story very removed from the audience, which goes in tandem with the nature of the story.
I listened to this book with the author's note in mind and fully understand why he felt it necessary to add it. This is an extremely depressing book. The main character finds himself in a situation of his own creation where the only options are suffering, both physical and psychic, or suicide. Great sections, especially early on are spent on how one might come to accept suicide as an option and how that can actually make some stronger and deal with life longer. And did I mention that this is Hesse's attempt at putting Nietzche's philosophy into a character?
I've only read one other work by Hesse, that being Siddhartha. Interestingly, it is another book full of human suffering, but with the opposite conclusion. They do both have the same expository and over-explaining style.
If you've had to read Steppenwolf for some reason, I hope it was for a class which could then act as a support group (or maybe that you didn't actually read it but faked it). Otherwise, I couldn't imagine any reason why someone would put themselves through this. So much for card catalog happenstance finds.
Steppenwolf at Powell's Books
Steppenwolf Audiobook at Amazon.com
Monday, September 09, 2013
Oz The Great and Powerful (2013)
I've never read the Oz books and quite frankly have never had much urge to. (See what I did there? I used up my only clever bit on a bit of wordplay). I've always thought that Baum books were a bit juvenile, which is fine of course, but that doesn't appeal to me as an adult, and even less when I was a juvenile trying to hard to get what was "going on" by reading adult fiction. In college a friend suggested that if I were to read a series of books aimed at kids that I would be far better off reading C. S. Lewes, so that is who I went with and I've never regretted choosing the land of Narnia over the land of Oz.
I think every child of my generation saw three things growing up that help form our cultural identity - Bambi, the Sound of Music and the Wizard of Oz. I bet you thought I was going to say Star Wars, and while that was key, it's not as big as those three - kids today might have a different take on that though. Now, I was not a child when these three movies came out, but I was a child at the start of the home video revolution and syndicated television which showed old movies because they were cheaper to buy the rights to. I would guess by the time I had graduated high school in 1990 that I had seen each of these films at least a dozen times (Star Wars half that at best), the only other movie coming close at maybe half a dozen times was It's a Wonderful Life - the Jimmy Stewart version not the Marlo Thomas version which fortunately I have only seen once. In fact I knew a guy in college that had stumbled on to the generational zeitgeist that made these movies oddly appealing to us as young adults. Now, I normally don't use names in this blog, but this dude doesn't deserve my protection, his name is Pete, though perhaps as a mercy I have misplaced his surname at the moment. On Friday and Saturday nights, Pete would play these movies in his dorm room - he had one of the two singles on my floor - with the door open in hopes of drawing people in. He did this every weekend and for the first month or so, this just made Pete seem more interesting because why would a guy in her early 20s be watching these movies every weekend. Well, one reason was that lots of people stopped in for a little bit or a whole movie and hung out because they had something in common to talk about. I figured this out on my own and actually thought it was a clever way to say "I'm kind of shy, but let's hang out" which was something I could appreciate from my problem with shyness when I was younger. As the year progressed and the weekends I was on campus my room became more of a destination to go to from a fraternity party, I began to notice that girls who had come back to the room with us - there was a regular group of us plus whom ever we bumped into at the parties, these girls would head off to the bathroom and be gone long enough that someone would get sent to find them. One weekend about two-thirds of the way through the semester, all of the girls disappeared - the ones who initially went to the bathroom, and then the two gals who had been sent to find them. One of the guys, who was not embarrassed to go into the women's restroom if the need should arise went to find them and then didn't return. Now, I didn't think that anything wicked had happened to them, I just assumed they had found a better scene and neglected to come get me. I left a couple of fellows behind to hold down the fort, because I knew I would be coming back eventually since it was my room. As I approached the won en's restroom the other end of the floor, I heard laughter and music, the Sound of Music to be precise and all of the missing people were in Pete's room watching the end of the film. As credits rolled, the other guy from our group rallied the troops to head back to my room. As one of our female friends has having a bit of a hard time walking on her own, I helped her back. Fifteen or twenty minutes parsed and two of the girls hadn't come back yet. I thought that perhaps Pete had convinced them to watch the Wizard of Oz which was what he had tried to enchant all of us with as we left. These two girls were pretty, um, intoxicated shall we say, well they were pretty too, to swing the term in that direction too. I got back to Pete's room just as the door was closing. I could hear and see that the movie was still on. It was like claxons went off in my head, clearing any of my own fog that might have remained. I pushed in to see my two friends where I had left them and Pete was cozying up next to the blond who was just approaching the drowsy stage of drunkenness. It seems Pete had been sharing a bottle of wine with them while they watched the movie. I asked Pete what was going on. He said something to the effect that he didn't normally do so well as to get two girls, and not as pretty as these two surely and that I could "have" the brunette. how to describe how I reacted? I checked my anger by making a smart ass comment that went beyond facetious. Pete took at face value and said this is why he showed these movies every week, to lure in drunk girls that he would continue to give drink to and then "do what he could" In our dorm rooms in Belknap Hall, there were phones on the wall of every room and you could call any number on campus by just dialing four digits. I dialed my room and told them to come - to bring all my boys and bring all their guns. And then I did something I used another couple of times in college because it was damned effective. I called the fraternity that we had been partying at, and told them that some asshole had pinned the two girls in his room and as he got them even drunker was planning on fucking them if he could his small wretched prick into them, and of course I told them his name and what room we were in. The frat was just across a small plaza and some of those guys arrived before my friends did, several of the guys being from the same fraternity. We got the girls out and on their way home to sleep it off and when they were gone I was going to join the 7 or 8 fraternity guys in doing whatever it is we were going to do, which to be honest I hadn't thought that far ahead. One of the guys I knew quite well, pushed me out into the hall and closed the door after me saying I need not worry about this happening again. I didn't and it didn't. I never asked what they did to Pete if anything, but he never showed those movies with the door open again. Oddly enough, I would continue to see Pete around the academic buildings until I graduated because he was in the same major field as I was and he was always nice to me and tried to chat like we were old friends. I ran into him several years after college when he was selling business cards for a living and he acted like he had run into his oldest, bestest friend ever. He asked me to come have a drink with him and even as I declined walking away down the sidewalk, he followed me for almost half a block before he finally went on his way. As soon as I was around the corner I tossed his business card in a trash receptacle, lit a cigarette and wondered what he thought had happened that night. Pete had never been what anyone would have called smart, but surely he knew that I had instigated whatever it was that got him to change his ways. I thought the same thing then that I'm thinking now, "poor dumb fuck" and that if I ever run into him with a female of any kind, shape, age or form, I will tell them how I knew Pete when he was a rapist.
Years have gone since I've even thought about the Wizard of Oz, since it always reminds me of the above story, and the Sound of Music even more so, since I sat through the last few scenes of it with my friends feeling sorry for that bastard. Recently, right around the time that this movie came out in the theatres, one of the librarians was telling a younger patron about watching the Wizard of Oz while listening to the Darkside of the Moon by Pink Floyd. And I thought about when I did that in high school and how cool it seemed, and actually didn't think about Pete and the girls. I decided at that point that maybe I could James Franco a chance to put different memories in play for me.
James Franco, whom I tend to like in films often for his awkwardness, didn't seem like the obvious choice to me. If I had been casting this film, I think I might have gone with someone with a little more serious chops but who could still pull off the charisma-in-lieu-of-an-actual-plan quality necessary for this character. I would have gone with Joesph Gordon-Levitt. But, Franco did alright. His smile always seems genuine and that really work to the advantage of a character playing a con man.
Really, it was the women who stole the shoow, especially Mila Kunis and Michelle Williams at the Wicked Witch and Glenda the Good, respectively. These gals acted the crap out of their roles and looked good doing it.
Two of the main characters are CGI, so that's a bit hard to deal with. I mean the SF/X looked great and there are many scenes where one of them is being "held" by an actor and they did a good job of making it look like the actor had something or someone in their grip or sitting on their shoulder. The flying monkey, Finley, looked great, so did the evil flying baboons. Actually everything in this movie looked like Oz. There were great incredible scenic shots, while the people encountered payed homage in their look to the original film.
If for no other reason than that thee is some amazing eye candy, you should check this film out. It's not one you will buy and watch repeatedly, but it is one that you will be glad you watched, especially if it helps wipe out an old college memory associated with the Wizard of Oz that was less than positive.
Oz the Great and Powerful on IMDb
I think every child of my generation saw three things growing up that help form our cultural identity - Bambi, the Sound of Music and the Wizard of Oz. I bet you thought I was going to say Star Wars, and while that was key, it's not as big as those three - kids today might have a different take on that though. Now, I was not a child when these three movies came out, but I was a child at the start of the home video revolution and syndicated television which showed old movies because they were cheaper to buy the rights to. I would guess by the time I had graduated high school in 1990 that I had seen each of these films at least a dozen times (Star Wars half that at best), the only other movie coming close at maybe half a dozen times was It's a Wonderful Life - the Jimmy Stewart version not the Marlo Thomas version which fortunately I have only seen once. In fact I knew a guy in college that had stumbled on to the generational zeitgeist that made these movies oddly appealing to us as young adults. Now, I normally don't use names in this blog, but this dude doesn't deserve my protection, his name is Pete, though perhaps as a mercy I have misplaced his surname at the moment. On Friday and Saturday nights, Pete would play these movies in his dorm room - he had one of the two singles on my floor - with the door open in hopes of drawing people in. He did this every weekend and for the first month or so, this just made Pete seem more interesting because why would a guy in her early 20s be watching these movies every weekend. Well, one reason was that lots of people stopped in for a little bit or a whole movie and hung out because they had something in common to talk about. I figured this out on my own and actually thought it was a clever way to say "I'm kind of shy, but let's hang out" which was something I could appreciate from my problem with shyness when I was younger. As the year progressed and the weekends I was on campus my room became more of a destination to go to from a fraternity party, I began to notice that girls who had come back to the room with us - there was a regular group of us plus whom ever we bumped into at the parties, these girls would head off to the bathroom and be gone long enough that someone would get sent to find them. One weekend about two-thirds of the way through the semester, all of the girls disappeared - the ones who initially went to the bathroom, and then the two gals who had been sent to find them. One of the guys, who was not embarrassed to go into the women's restroom if the need should arise went to find them and then didn't return. Now, I didn't think that anything wicked had happened to them, I just assumed they had found a better scene and neglected to come get me. I left a couple of fellows behind to hold down the fort, because I knew I would be coming back eventually since it was my room. As I approached the won en's restroom the other end of the floor, I heard laughter and music, the Sound of Music to be precise and all of the missing people were in Pete's room watching the end of the film. As credits rolled, the other guy from our group rallied the troops to head back to my room. As one of our female friends has having a bit of a hard time walking on her own, I helped her back. Fifteen or twenty minutes parsed and two of the girls hadn't come back yet. I thought that perhaps Pete had convinced them to watch the Wizard of Oz which was what he had tried to enchant all of us with as we left. These two girls were pretty, um, intoxicated shall we say, well they were pretty too, to swing the term in that direction too. I got back to Pete's room just as the door was closing. I could hear and see that the movie was still on. It was like claxons went off in my head, clearing any of my own fog that might have remained. I pushed in to see my two friends where I had left them and Pete was cozying up next to the blond who was just approaching the drowsy stage of drunkenness. It seems Pete had been sharing a bottle of wine with them while they watched the movie. I asked Pete what was going on. He said something to the effect that he didn't normally do so well as to get two girls, and not as pretty as these two surely and that I could "have" the brunette. how to describe how I reacted? I checked my anger by making a smart ass comment that went beyond facetious. Pete took at face value and said this is why he showed these movies every week, to lure in drunk girls that he would continue to give drink to and then "do what he could" In our dorm rooms in Belknap Hall, there were phones on the wall of every room and you could call any number on campus by just dialing four digits. I dialed my room and told them to come - to bring all my boys and bring all their guns. And then I did something I used another couple of times in college because it was damned effective. I called the fraternity that we had been partying at, and told them that some asshole had pinned the two girls in his room and as he got them even drunker was planning on fucking them if he could his small wretched prick into them, and of course I told them his name and what room we were in. The frat was just across a small plaza and some of those guys arrived before my friends did, several of the guys being from the same fraternity. We got the girls out and on their way home to sleep it off and when they were gone I was going to join the 7 or 8 fraternity guys in doing whatever it is we were going to do, which to be honest I hadn't thought that far ahead. One of the guys I knew quite well, pushed me out into the hall and closed the door after me saying I need not worry about this happening again. I didn't and it didn't. I never asked what they did to Pete if anything, but he never showed those movies with the door open again. Oddly enough, I would continue to see Pete around the academic buildings until I graduated because he was in the same major field as I was and he was always nice to me and tried to chat like we were old friends. I ran into him several years after college when he was selling business cards for a living and he acted like he had run into his oldest, bestest friend ever. He asked me to come have a drink with him and even as I declined walking away down the sidewalk, he followed me for almost half a block before he finally went on his way. As soon as I was around the corner I tossed his business card in a trash receptacle, lit a cigarette and wondered what he thought had happened that night. Pete had never been what anyone would have called smart, but surely he knew that I had instigated whatever it was that got him to change his ways. I thought the same thing then that I'm thinking now, "poor dumb fuck" and that if I ever run into him with a female of any kind, shape, age or form, I will tell them how I knew Pete when he was a rapist.
Years have gone since I've even thought about the Wizard of Oz, since it always reminds me of the above story, and the Sound of Music even more so, since I sat through the last few scenes of it with my friends feeling sorry for that bastard. Recently, right around the time that this movie came out in the theatres, one of the librarians was telling a younger patron about watching the Wizard of Oz while listening to the Darkside of the Moon by Pink Floyd. And I thought about when I did that in high school and how cool it seemed, and actually didn't think about Pete and the girls. I decided at that point that maybe I could James Franco a chance to put different memories in play for me.
James Franco, whom I tend to like in films often for his awkwardness, didn't seem like the obvious choice to me. If I had been casting this film, I think I might have gone with someone with a little more serious chops but who could still pull off the charisma-in-lieu-of-an-actual-plan quality necessary for this character. I would have gone with Joesph Gordon-Levitt. But, Franco did alright. His smile always seems genuine and that really work to the advantage of a character playing a con man.
Really, it was the women who stole the shoow, especially Mila Kunis and Michelle Williams at the Wicked Witch and Glenda the Good, respectively. These gals acted the crap out of their roles and looked good doing it.
Two of the main characters are CGI, so that's a bit hard to deal with. I mean the SF/X looked great and there are many scenes where one of them is being "held" by an actor and they did a good job of making it look like the actor had something or someone in their grip or sitting on their shoulder. The flying monkey, Finley, looked great, so did the evil flying baboons. Actually everything in this movie looked like Oz. There were great incredible scenic shots, while the people encountered payed homage in their look to the original film.
If for no other reason than that thee is some amazing eye candy, you should check this film out. It's not one you will buy and watch repeatedly, but it is one that you will be glad you watched, especially if it helps wipe out an old college memory associated with the Wizard of Oz that was less than positive.
Oz the Great and Powerful on IMDb
Saturday, September 07, 2013
Now You See Me (2013)
If you've read me before, you know how I feel about Mark Rufallo. Well, if you read my discussion of a movie he'd been in. I don't normally talk about him. Really. Not even that one time., 'cause what I actually said was, "Hark! Buffalo!" Because while you were busy looking at me, I was looking at you and right behind you walked this 800 pound bison and I was just trying to tell you. I;m sure you remember that.
I'll make this short and to the point and will never mention it again. Mark Raffalo does not drag down every movie he is in or make the room you are in stink every time he appears on screen. Because every would include his whole body of work and he didn't bring down this movie or make the room stink just because he was on screen. That was the cat. The last bit that is.
What do you need to know about this movie? There are two things, but only the first one is essential to getting the most for your viewing dollar, which in my case was $0.00 because I got it from the library and it was worth every penny, and the fact of the matter is that you only need to pay attention to the first item as the second one is just an observation I made. First, listen to the voice over at the beginning. It will tell you everything you need to know to fully appreciate this movie. Everything one of the mains says to anyone else regarding magic or the nature of magic is directed at you, the audience member. The second item, is French women are hot, but you probably already knew that and so did they.
Now You See Me on IMDb
I'll make this short and to the point and will never mention it again. Mark Raffalo does not drag down every movie he is in or make the room you are in stink every time he appears on screen. Because every would include his whole body of work and he didn't bring down this movie or make the room stink just because he was on screen. That was the cat. The last bit that is.
What do you need to know about this movie? There are two things, but only the first one is essential to getting the most for your viewing dollar, which in my case was $0.00 because I got it from the library and it was worth every penny, and the fact of the matter is that you only need to pay attention to the first item as the second one is just an observation I made. First, listen to the voice over at the beginning. It will tell you everything you need to know to fully appreciate this movie. Everything one of the mains says to anyone else regarding magic or the nature of magic is directed at you, the audience member. The second item, is French women are hot, but you probably already knew that and so did they.
Now You See Me on IMDb
Friday, September 06, 2013
Escape from Planet Earth (2013)
I think I might now be through watching animated movies. Well, I should qualify that - mass market films aimed at kids and made by Americans, oh, and computer animated that is supposed to look computer animated. The exception to this rule is if they ever actually make that sequel to the Incredibles - I'll watch that. But really, I am through with this genre. I think I've been feeling this way for a while, but have kept watching them in hopes of finding another Incredibles. I haven't. But, to be fair, these movies aren't aimed at me, I just watch them because I'm on familiar terms with my library and watch a lot of things I wouldn't otherwise.
This film has the requisite slimming and close up on the computer animated hair/fur. It also has the requisite list of big name stars doing the voices, though I have got to say that this was voiced particularly well - likely the best work that William Shatner has ever done. There are the standard characters: hero who doesn't believe in him/herself at the beginning, cowardly wise-cracking sidekick, super-strong/tough sidekick with a heart-of-gold, brawny characters who are dimwitted and brainy characters who are scrawny in comparison.
Look, I'll be as objective as I can - this is on par with Despicable Me or Aliens Vs Monsters. If that is a good thing to you, or you're watching this with younger children, then go for it; but if my comparison is a bad thing to you, then pass on this one.
Escape from Planet Earth on IMDb
This film has the requisite slimming and close up on the computer animated hair/fur. It also has the requisite list of big name stars doing the voices, though I have got to say that this was voiced particularly well - likely the best work that William Shatner has ever done. There are the standard characters: hero who doesn't believe in him/herself at the beginning, cowardly wise-cracking sidekick, super-strong/tough sidekick with a heart-of-gold, brawny characters who are dimwitted and brainy characters who are scrawny in comparison.
Look, I'll be as objective as I can - this is on par with Despicable Me or Aliens Vs Monsters. If that is a good thing to you, or you're watching this with younger children, then go for it; but if my comparison is a bad thing to you, then pass on this one.
Escape from Planet Earth on IMDb
Thursday, September 05, 2013
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I had completely forgotten that Famke Janssen was in this movie, so it's an unexpected addition to my, apparently, ongoing Famke Film Extravaganza (FFE). She neither plays Hansel nor Gretel in this film, and since there are such few other possibilities, you should have already guessed that she's the main witch. She pulls it off well enough.
This movie is exactly what I expected it to be. That is such a loaded statement I realize and I do mean it in the good and bad ways implied. This is not a high concept film, it's an action flick trying to find a niche in the supernatural thriller / action subgenre. Lots of shooting, hit and blowing shit up, but not a lot of character development or complex storylines. That sentence is both the good and the bad. I would have loved to have seen some more character development - this is a short film so they could have another 10 minutes in and nobody would have minded. Or they could have used it more humor. They had some bits that were kind of funny and they could have expanded on those and perhaps thrown in a few more. To be completely honest, I don't really mind that they didn't. This film is comparable to Van Helsing, though Jeremy Renner is a poor man's Hugh Jackman, but Gemma Arterton who is new to me, is easily as good as Kate Beckinsale, maybe even better. Which is kind of funny since the other movies this is comparable to are the Underworld series.
There is one thing that I really dislike about this movie, and that is the use of language by the characters, especially Hansel & Gretel, who do have more lines than anyone else. I don't mean profanities, 'shit' and 'fuck' have been in use for hundreds of years, I mean that modernity with which they speak. The story is set in Victorian times and while I certainly don't expect to be hearing 'doth' and 'thee', I don't want to hear the phrases "shitty little berg" and "fucking hillbillies" Berg and hillbillies would be completely foreign to the English then, and quite possibly still are. They just wouldn't know those phrases.
To counterbalance the language, there is one thing they did which I really like - Gretel. She totally kicked ass and took names, but even more importantly, at least as far as overcoming gender stereotypes, she took a beating, in almost every single instance far worse than Hansel takes. It's not because she's weaker, quite the opposite. Gretel is the dominant of the two and puts herself right int the thick of it. And she manages to do it while looking hot. Related to this is the fact that peolpe in this movie are allowed to get dirty / bloody, and stay that way until they get a chance to clean up. It seems more real, somehow. It certainly fits in with the graphic nature of this film.
This movie ends with a nice hook for potential sequels. It completely ties up all the lose ends, so you needn't worry about that, it just also shows you what might be at some future time. And I for one will gladly watch a sequel.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters on IMDb
This movie is exactly what I expected it to be. That is such a loaded statement I realize and I do mean it in the good and bad ways implied. This is not a high concept film, it's an action flick trying to find a niche in the supernatural thriller / action subgenre. Lots of shooting, hit and blowing shit up, but not a lot of character development or complex storylines. That sentence is both the good and the bad. I would have loved to have seen some more character development - this is a short film so they could have another 10 minutes in and nobody would have minded. Or they could have used it more humor. They had some bits that were kind of funny and they could have expanded on those and perhaps thrown in a few more. To be completely honest, I don't really mind that they didn't. This film is comparable to Van Helsing, though Jeremy Renner is a poor man's Hugh Jackman, but Gemma Arterton who is new to me, is easily as good as Kate Beckinsale, maybe even better. Which is kind of funny since the other movies this is comparable to are the Underworld series.
There is one thing that I really dislike about this movie, and that is the use of language by the characters, especially Hansel & Gretel, who do have more lines than anyone else. I don't mean profanities, 'shit' and 'fuck' have been in use for hundreds of years, I mean that modernity with which they speak. The story is set in Victorian times and while I certainly don't expect to be hearing 'doth' and 'thee', I don't want to hear the phrases "shitty little berg" and "fucking hillbillies" Berg and hillbillies would be completely foreign to the English then, and quite possibly still are. They just wouldn't know those phrases.
To counterbalance the language, there is one thing they did which I really like - Gretel. She totally kicked ass and took names, but even more importantly, at least as far as overcoming gender stereotypes, she took a beating, in almost every single instance far worse than Hansel takes. It's not because she's weaker, quite the opposite. Gretel is the dominant of the two and puts herself right int the thick of it. And she manages to do it while looking hot. Related to this is the fact that peolpe in this movie are allowed to get dirty / bloody, and stay that way until they get a chance to clean up. It seems more real, somehow. It certainly fits in with the graphic nature of this film.
This movie ends with a nice hook for potential sequels. It completely ties up all the lose ends, so you needn't worry about that, it just also shows you what might be at some future time. And I for one will gladly watch a sequel.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters on IMDb
Wednesday, September 04, 2013
The Road to the Avengers: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Of the comic that make up the basis for which the Avengers and it's prequels are based on, Captain America is the one that I loved as a kid After a few years of reading it, I was introduced to the Avengers and then the West Coast Avengers, which i doubt we will see a movie about. While following Steve Rogers as the Captain as he lived the nomadic life around the U.S. I was also collecting old comics from the early 70s when Captain America teamed up with Falcon. Somewhere in here, others portrayed Captain America as Steve Rogers lost his way. And so did I. I was a fan of Marvel's Paladin, our lawful good hero who did what was needed because it was for his country and every question he had he kept to himself because a good soldier doesn't question his orders. This was interesting to me, fighting for the system even though you are becoming disillusioned by the system. And then when you can take it no more, the hero removes himself from the system. I would have continued to read the series had it continued to follow Rogers as teh main character and shown me how a true patriot deals with a government that is less than it is supposed to be. Sure, they could have had someone else playing at Captain America, but that should have been in the background, as Rogers was the key. But, they didn't do that. You could go issues at a time without even a whisper of Rogers and then it would be a couple of panels about how he was out finding himself. Instead we got comics about fighting without any of the turmoil. I was genuinely sad the day I cancelled my subscription, especially so because I also ended my Batman subscription at the same time (Batman had just wrapped up the Year One storyline which I thought was brilliant, and went back to that 80s whack-a-doodle of the month format - they guy who ran the comic shop tried to get me to hold on a little longer because Year Two was about to start, but I couldn't do it) I had moved to the X-Men as my main Marvel title by this point, though I still kept getting the Amazing Spiderman. I actually stopped collecting those within another year as I had discovered Vertigo and Image comics and was reading a lot of one-offs and mini series by small presses. Pretty soon, I even stopped buying those and was putting all of my money into AD&D even when our group broke up to go to college because I was reading the pulp fantasy novels set in the Forgotten Realms and buying the books and maps to set my own games there which never properly materialized.
This movie had little to do with any of my memories of Captain America. This Captain is based on the updated story, with the updated costume. This Captain America is a soldier first and a super hero only incidentally because someone needed to step up and he could and did. I have read some of the modern Captain America related series - trying to get through that whole Dark Avengers thing and ultimately taking a break which has lasted about a year and a half now, because it was too many series pulling in too many directions. Captain America in these comics was okay. I completely missed the whole Ultimates thing in the Marvel Universe and have always intended to read it, but haven't yet, so don't what influence that had on this film, but I suspect little.
Watching Captain America rushing into a battle while firing away with his pistol is hard to get used to but ultimately I can accept this interpretation because He's a soldier first. The harder thing to accept is Chris Evans face/head attached to the skinny actor that played the pre-serum Steve Rogers body. That is just freaky looking and more than a little unsettling.
Ultimately, I liked this movie. The character of Captain America stays true to himself and like this whole solider-out-of-time angle that they bring us at the end. The comic book aside for a moment, this is also the most accessible film of the four in the series I've watched so far. They really should have had more of Rogers in the modern times at the end. He's certainly got to be upset that everyone he knew is dead or in their late 80s or beyond. It's also a little sad that the second most interesting female lead of the four films (after Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts) won't be making a return unless it's in flashbacks - I though Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter was one of the better characters I've seen so far in any of these films.
Captain America: The First Avenger on IMDb
This movie had little to do with any of my memories of Captain America. This Captain is based on the updated story, with the updated costume. This Captain America is a soldier first and a super hero only incidentally because someone needed to step up and he could and did. I have read some of the modern Captain America related series - trying to get through that whole Dark Avengers thing and ultimately taking a break which has lasted about a year and a half now, because it was too many series pulling in too many directions. Captain America in these comics was okay. I completely missed the whole Ultimates thing in the Marvel Universe and have always intended to read it, but haven't yet, so don't what influence that had on this film, but I suspect little.
Watching Captain America rushing into a battle while firing away with his pistol is hard to get used to but ultimately I can accept this interpretation because He's a soldier first. The harder thing to accept is Chris Evans face/head attached to the skinny actor that played the pre-serum Steve Rogers body. That is just freaky looking and more than a little unsettling.
Ultimately, I liked this movie. The character of Captain America stays true to himself and like this whole solider-out-of-time angle that they bring us at the end. The comic book aside for a moment, this is also the most accessible film of the four in the series I've watched so far. They really should have had more of Rogers in the modern times at the end. He's certainly got to be upset that everyone he knew is dead or in their late 80s or beyond. It's also a little sad that the second most interesting female lead of the four films (after Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts) won't be making a return unless it's in flashbacks - I though Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter was one of the better characters I've seen so far in any of these films.
Captain America: The First Avenger on IMDb
Tuesday, September 03, 2013
The Road to the Avengers: Thor (2011)
I figure that after two nights of one mythological strong-man, it was time for another.
I noticed something this time through the movie that I missed the first time, probably because I was bedazzled by all the pretty things, but in the opening when Odin is relating the war a thousand years ago with the Frost Giants, at the end when Odin has claimed victory over the Frost Giant king, someone who is dressed in the same armor Loki wears picks up the glowy crystal power source to take back for safe keeping to Asgard, but then we cut to a later point where Odin is relating the same story to a young Thor and a young Loki. Is this a snafu or was the kind of armor just really popular among the forces of Asgard? In the battle scenes, you don't see anyone else dressed in it, implying it is a particular individual...who is not Loki. Do I even need to mention that there is also a very strong guy wielding a hammer against the Frost Giants? Okay, so the Loki armor is the armor he wore int eh comic book, not the stuff he wears in the movie, and the strong guy with the hammer has a winged helmet like the comic book. I guess I kind of answered my own question here - that it's rather an homage to the comic than a snafu.
But then, who knows, right? I mean we see Odin put his rune on Mholner right after he exiles Thor, but then we see the older scientist flipping through a book of Norse mythology and there is a picture of Mjolnir with the symbol on it. Maybe Odin was just activating what was already there?
Just like iwth the Hulk, I was never that big of a fan of the Thor comic though I really like the look of the Asgardians and read it from time to time. I think as an adult, it might appeal to me more, assuming that it is written for an adult of course. Also like with the Hulk it is not surprising that I like the movie better than the comic book. But, surprisingly I actually like this movie. Sure, it's got Natalie Portman and I'll watch anything she does and at least like her role in it, Black Swan withstanding as I didn't like any part of that movie. Anthony Hopkins is great as Odin, all beardy and buff. And Chris Hensworth is good as Thor. I can't imagine anyone pulling it off better, because it's not his acting that is chesy, it's the character.
I think a lot of people dismiss this movie as the one Avengers prequel you can skip. I even understand their reasons, on an intellectual level, but the fanboy in me thinks this is cool and the most like the comic book of any of the Marvel movies. Well, there is that Dr. Strange movie that is right on, but it's animated so not really in the same league. Thos is the most accurate portrayal of the comic book it is based on of any of the Marvel live-action movies. You have to accept a little cheesiness and let go of the mythological Thor.
A funny thing happened while watching the credits of Thor. I couldn't remember what the little scene was after they rolled. I thought on it as they rolled and realized that I don't think I had made it that far the first time. Which is kind of unlike me, so I let the credits roll and lo and behold, there is the little scene with the Doctor and Nick Fury looking at the cube, but of course the Doctor can see Loki who is telling him what to say. I knew the Doctor was in the Avengers, and Loki and the cube of course, but had missed this link in the chain. I also realized that it makes more sense for Thor to be viewed after Captain America, a that is the movie in which we first see the cube.
Thor on IMDb
I noticed something this time through the movie that I missed the first time, probably because I was bedazzled by all the pretty things, but in the opening when Odin is relating the war a thousand years ago with the Frost Giants, at the end when Odin has claimed victory over the Frost Giant king, someone who is dressed in the same armor Loki wears picks up the glowy crystal power source to take back for safe keeping to Asgard, but then we cut to a later point where Odin is relating the same story to a young Thor and a young Loki. Is this a snafu or was the kind of armor just really popular among the forces of Asgard? In the battle scenes, you don't see anyone else dressed in it, implying it is a particular individual...who is not Loki. Do I even need to mention that there is also a very strong guy wielding a hammer against the Frost Giants? Okay, so the Loki armor is the armor he wore int eh comic book, not the stuff he wears in the movie, and the strong guy with the hammer has a winged helmet like the comic book. I guess I kind of answered my own question here - that it's rather an homage to the comic than a snafu.
But then, who knows, right? I mean we see Odin put his rune on Mholner right after he exiles Thor, but then we see the older scientist flipping through a book of Norse mythology and there is a picture of Mjolnir with the symbol on it. Maybe Odin was just activating what was already there?
Just like iwth the Hulk, I was never that big of a fan of the Thor comic though I really like the look of the Asgardians and read it from time to time. I think as an adult, it might appeal to me more, assuming that it is written for an adult of course. Also like with the Hulk it is not surprising that I like the movie better than the comic book. But, surprisingly I actually like this movie. Sure, it's got Natalie Portman and I'll watch anything she does and at least like her role in it, Black Swan withstanding as I didn't like any part of that movie. Anthony Hopkins is great as Odin, all beardy and buff. And Chris Hensworth is good as Thor. I can't imagine anyone pulling it off better, because it's not his acting that is chesy, it's the character.
I think a lot of people dismiss this movie as the one Avengers prequel you can skip. I even understand their reasons, on an intellectual level, but the fanboy in me thinks this is cool and the most like the comic book of any of the Marvel movies. Well, there is that Dr. Strange movie that is right on, but it's animated so not really in the same league. Thos is the most accurate portrayal of the comic book it is based on of any of the Marvel live-action movies. You have to accept a little cheesiness and let go of the mythological Thor.
A funny thing happened while watching the credits of Thor. I couldn't remember what the little scene was after they rolled. I thought on it as they rolled and realized that I don't think I had made it that far the first time. Which is kind of unlike me, so I let the credits roll and lo and behold, there is the little scene with the Doctor and Nick Fury looking at the cube, but of course the Doctor can see Loki who is telling him what to say. I knew the Doctor was in the Avengers, and Loki and the cube of course, but had missed this link in the chain. I also realized that it makes more sense for Thor to be viewed after Captain America, a that is the movie in which we first see the cube.
Thor on IMDb
Friday, August 30, 2013
Atlas Shrugged part 2 (2012)
Part of me felt like I could start writing this before the movie even started. But, much like I made the agreement with Ayn Rnad 20+ years ago, I always wait until I'm done watching, not counting jotting down a note on scratch paper of course. One of the ladies I regularly talk about movies and television shows with tells me how she and her husband watch television and movies - they have something to read or work on while watching. If it's a really good movie, she might only get a little reading or sewing done. I'm not that kind of watcher. It's that whole social contract thing, but at least now, when it's crap I just stop watching.
Okay, I don't know what happened between part 1 and part 2, but damn, there is actually some good acting going on in this movie, and even more so, there are actors I recognize - like the opening scene with Robert Picardo. The drawback is that some actors have been replaced, and they're pretty noticeable changes. For example, oh lets see, how about everyone? Different production company, more money and voila, a whole new cast!
I swear that if I ever hear the phrase "who is John Galt?" again I will likely hit the speaker right in the nose. Truth. (Did I just say that? Gawwww.) Speaking of John Galt, they did continue to underwhelm me with the SF/X. When they dismantle the John Galt railroad line, and they show the super suspension bridge, it''s only one line running across, but in the first movie, it's very clearly two lines and wide enough to have held a third. Completely amateurish. As it turns out it's because they have (literally) blown their load on the bit train collision scene.
Instead of dwelling on the completely unsatisfying ending, let's instead reflect on Ayn Rand, science fiction author. Sure, when I read the book I didn't picture cold fusion engines, super steel or holographic mountains, but that's because I'm not one of the ielite. I only wondered who John Galt was until I saw something sparkley out of the corner of my eye. Did I mention the futuristic stealth jets?
Here's the important part - if you can make yourself sit through part 1, part 2 is the pay off, relatively speaking.
Atlas Shrugged on IMDb
Okay, I don't know what happened between part 1 and part 2, but damn, there is actually some good acting going on in this movie, and even more so, there are actors I recognize - like the opening scene with Robert Picardo. The drawback is that some actors have been replaced, and they're pretty noticeable changes. For example, oh lets see, how about everyone? Different production company, more money and voila, a whole new cast!
I swear that if I ever hear the phrase "who is John Galt?" again I will likely hit the speaker right in the nose. Truth. (Did I just say that? Gawwww.) Speaking of John Galt, they did continue to underwhelm me with the SF/X. When they dismantle the John Galt railroad line, and they show the super suspension bridge, it''s only one line running across, but in the first movie, it's very clearly two lines and wide enough to have held a third. Completely amateurish. As it turns out it's because they have (literally) blown their load on the bit train collision scene.
Instead of dwelling on the completely unsatisfying ending, let's instead reflect on Ayn Rand, science fiction author. Sure, when I read the book I didn't picture cold fusion engines, super steel or holographic mountains, but that's because I'm not one of the ielite. I only wondered who John Galt was until I saw something sparkley out of the corner of my eye. Did I mention the futuristic stealth jets?
Here's the important part - if you can make yourself sit through part 1, part 2 is the pay off, relatively speaking.
Atlas Shrugged on IMDb
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Atlas Shrugged part 1 (2011)
Do you remember reading this book? I bet you don't. I am one of the seven people in America that read this book of their own free will, by which I mean not as part of class requirement for university or to get in with the hot girls at the Young Republicans meetings. Let's be honest, most of those people didn't read it either. But I did. You see there used to be a time where I believed that once you started a book (or a movie or television show) that you had to finish it based on the notion that starting it was some type of social contract whereby the reader vows to finish the book at any and all cost and the writer agrees to write a book that is worth finishing. I didn't figure out until I was in my late 30s that many writers and even more readers were failing to hold up their end of the deal. If the book sucked from the reader's perspective, there was a clause in the contract that allowed you to complain about the quality of the writing, citing in detail with examples if so desired passages which utterly failed. By virtue of the social contract between Ayn Rand and myself I retain the right to any and all criticisms of the novel, Atlas Shrugged. First of all, it's longer than the Fountainhead which was plenty long enough, thank you very much. It's also downright pastoral in places describing what you see out the train window - reminding me on more than one occasion of the great Russian writers but without any of the interpersonal drama that at least makes those books interesting. Do we even want to go into the politics or gender issues? At least on the latter it was better than the Fountainhead, in Atlas Shrugged a woman could run a company and be subservient to a man instead of just being subservient to men. Okay, you really want politics? I don't think you can handle the politics, but I'll toss a little your way. The book is not as dense as the Fountainhead in this area, not that it was terribly dense. This book is the pinnacle of Libertarianism, wherein is put forth the notion that every person would be allowed to earn what he is worth, which he does by working hard. Oh, and I guess one or two women should get paid too, at least until they get married and can live on what their husband is earning. While the man is working hard and being fairly compensated the government should keep it's hands off his money. Period. There should be no taxes, regulations or required deductions, no exceptions. So, what about the people who can't provide for themselves? If they are unlucky enough not to have a man in their family that can help them out, never fear, because the ultra-capitalists are not immoral - they will give nicely to charity if asked. Rand is so clear in this book writing about politicians - there are no good ones. Thee is nothing that the government does which can be achieved by unfettered ultra-capitalists work in to let the market take care of itself. I must mention that Rand's idea of the ultra-capitalist (my term not hers) are self-made men who are captains of industry, and everyone striving to become these things. They make the best product they can, provide the best service they can, because it is a direct reflection upon their personal character - shoddy work or product equals shoddy character. The left is not very fond of Rand's works, but the right is very fond. The problem I see with this is that if they truly believe in her philosophy (google this and see who claims to be devout believers in her ideals) they will not go into government because all politicians, nor matter how well intentioned must at some point compromise their principles and therefore are not being the best capitalist they can be, and I do mean any compromise at all, not just with opponents. Not to mention that as a politician you take money from others whether they want you to or not, whether or not you are providing a service they want - this would be taxes. Few of the business people on the right could truly be for Rand's ideals because you are morally obligated to succeed or fail based on your own virtues - you can not take a loan or subsidy. Period. I think in some ways Rand and Marx are a lot closer than anyone would like to admit - while Marx thought the oppressed worker would rise up to overthrow the decadent and worthless bourgeoisie, Rand thought that the true captains of industry would rise up and overthrow the decadent and worthless bourgeoisie - same goals, just from the other end of the field.
I realize that no one is even reading at this point because Rand's long-windedness has inspired a bit of my own, but I feel obligated to at least give my impressions of the film.
The first thing you will notice in this film is the acting. It is truly mediocre at best. Every character is being played uni-dimensionally. I find it impossible to get emotionally involved with cardboard cut-outs. Some of the acting isn't mediocre, it's just downright bad and looks and sounds like the actor is reading off a cue card. Some of this is due to the source material - Rand's characters live in a black and white world with very clearly drawn lines. But the screenwriter and the director can still make that seem interesting.
They've updated the story in a few respects to make it reflect modern trends and to be set in the near-future. I don't mind this at all. I do think it is important to mention that the film's makers do not point the finger at one political party, and in fact it's implied that the problems facing the nation have been going on for some time which implicates both parties, but party politics are only implied at best as they really are sticking to the idea that all politicians are sanctimonious demagogues looking to cheat hard-working people out of their money. Kudos to them for staying on point.
Acting aside, because a good film with bad acting is still tolerable, this isn't a good film. I have mentioned it in this blog before, the one sin of film-making, whether it be for the small screen or the large screen is that you can not be boring. You can make me laugh, make me cry, make me howl with anger, but you can not let me fall asleep or change to something else.
Not a show stopper like the issue above, but just downright em brassing in this day and age, you can not use sub-par visual effects and expect to be taken seriously. You can be cheesy for comedic effect, but even that can not just be bad. There are several scenes of the train making it's maiden voyage on Rearden Steel rail lines that look horrible by having the train look crisp even though the scenery is not so sharp. And even bigger, the train traveling through shadowed areas but the shadows never falling on the train. There is one stretch along a waterway where both of these problems coincide, and then the train traveling right to left across the screen moves up a pixel while the backdrop stays still - I don't mean a bump in the track, I mean the whole train moves up a pixel for what must be two dozen frames and then moves back down. How sloppy.
Atlas Shrugged on IMDb
I realize that no one is even reading at this point because Rand's long-windedness has inspired a bit of my own, but I feel obligated to at least give my impressions of the film.
The first thing you will notice in this film is the acting. It is truly mediocre at best. Every character is being played uni-dimensionally. I find it impossible to get emotionally involved with cardboard cut-outs. Some of the acting isn't mediocre, it's just downright bad and looks and sounds like the actor is reading off a cue card. Some of this is due to the source material - Rand's characters live in a black and white world with very clearly drawn lines. But the screenwriter and the director can still make that seem interesting.
They've updated the story in a few respects to make it reflect modern trends and to be set in the near-future. I don't mind this at all. I do think it is important to mention that the film's makers do not point the finger at one political party, and in fact it's implied that the problems facing the nation have been going on for some time which implicates both parties, but party politics are only implied at best as they really are sticking to the idea that all politicians are sanctimonious demagogues looking to cheat hard-working people out of their money. Kudos to them for staying on point.
Acting aside, because a good film with bad acting is still tolerable, this isn't a good film. I have mentioned it in this blog before, the one sin of film-making, whether it be for the small screen or the large screen is that you can not be boring. You can make me laugh, make me cry, make me howl with anger, but you can not let me fall asleep or change to something else.
Not a show stopper like the issue above, but just downright em brassing in this day and age, you can not use sub-par visual effects and expect to be taken seriously. You can be cheesy for comedic effect, but even that can not just be bad. There are several scenes of the train making it's maiden voyage on Rearden Steel rail lines that look horrible by having the train look crisp even though the scenery is not so sharp. And even bigger, the train traveling through shadowed areas but the shadows never falling on the train. There is one stretch along a waterway where both of these problems coincide, and then the train traveling right to left across the screen moves up a pixel while the backdrop stays still - I don't mean a bump in the track, I mean the whole train moves up a pixel for what must be two dozen frames and then moves back down. How sloppy.
Atlas Shrugged on IMDb
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