- And Soon the Darkness: The book savvy might associate the title w/ Joseph Conrad's book, while moviephiles would know this to be a remake of a 1970 British thriller. I just recognized the girl from Cloverfield and McCoy from JJ Abram's Star Trek.
- Anthony Zimmer: 2005 French film that inspired the inferior remake The Tourist 5 years later. I'm guessing they settled for that title because "Frank Tupelo" (the name of Johnny Depp's character) wouldn't have sold as well.
- Dinner for Schmucks: Another remake of a French comedy. Excellent, just found a torrent link for it.
- Easy A: Self-aware comedic version of The Scarlet Letter. Emma Stone is a comedy find.
- King of Thorns: Forgettable anime sci-fi "thriller" from the director of The Big O and Appleseed.
- Love in A Puff: Cute HK rom-com that embraces the sexiness smoking brings to actors, and brings that escapist romanticism that reminds me that this $#!+ doesn't happen
in real life to me.
- Mystery Team: Check out Donald Glover in his non-Community-related comedy work. I'm probably not alone in thinking his co-star D.C. Pierson looked like Napolen Dynamite w/ a bowl cut.
- Never Let Me Go: Starring Carey Mulligan, future Spider-Man Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley. Downer.
- Red: Grim Warren Ellis comic turned action comedy. Hurray for Hollywood.
- Red Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974: Speaking of downers, this film also convinced me that star Andrew Garfield might be too old to play Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man.
- Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1980: Movies highlighting police corruption just piss me off (probably because betrayal of the public trust hits too close to home), so after this film I couldn't take any more and just fast-forwarded the last film in this trilogy.
- The Other Guys: I had no idea where this film was gonna take me because the trailer seemed to by-the-book, comedy-wise. Adam McKay's work is anything but predictable.
- The Social Network: This film made me wish I was a computer geek w/ hot Asian groupies, minus the insanely jealous girlfriend. Also completed my Andrew Garfield film playlist for January.
- The Special Relationship: Unofficial third part of the Micheal-Sheen-as-Tony-Blair Trilogy. First saw The Queen (second part), haven't seen The Deal (first part). If you're well informed in political history you can't help but feel sorry for Tony Blair in this film, as he let his ambition and moral rectitude get the best of him in wanting to work w/ George W. Bush.
TV= 26 weekly shows, 70 episodes
10 O'Clock Live: The UK's weekly answer to
The Daily Show. Ran for 15 weeks. I can honestly say had it not been for this show and The Dailymail online I'd have no idea what the hell goes on in the British Isles, or that they can be as screwed up as America.
30 Rock: Season 5 of what I call a "hyper-reality" sitcom, w/c a basically set in a world where everything they do is funny, but I wouldn't want to live or work w/ these people. Also check out Tina Fey's book
Bossypants (w/c gave me the only rules I know about doing improvisational comedy) when you get the chance. I'd recommend Tracy Morgan's
biography but I got bored by it halfway through.
Archer: Season 2 premiere of one the smartest, slickest, sexiest and funniest animated shows out there. I'm sometimes bewildered at how Sterling Archer can be both a top-notch secret agent but clueless dunderhead at the same time. He's like a jerkier version of Maxwell Smart.
Bob's Burgers: The second animated series to feature H. Jon "Archer" Benjamin's unique, raspy voice, as well as other male comedies playing 2 female roles. When I see who did the guest voices at the end credits I'm convinced this just-ok comedy only exists to hire standup comedians (and Kevin Kline) to do guest voices because the main cast also consists of standup comedians.
Breaking Bad: When I first saw the pilot episode it didn't wow me. I thought it was going to be like
Weeds, but with (or rather
on) heroin. Passed on downloading the show. Fast forward 2 years and my cousin John was raving about it. Decided to give it another try, and I'm glad I did. Not only is this show nothing like
Weeds (for one thing it's a hour-long
drama), but it's by Vince Gilligan, the guy who wrote some of my favorite episodes of
The X-Files. Finished the first 2 seasons lickety-split, and now slowly-but-steadily dloading Season 3.
Californication: After this season Hank Moody's antics starting to wear on me, because there's only so many times you can see him fuck up his life and yet still wonder how manages to seduce so many women, aside from the fact that he looks like David Duchovny. Speaking of w/c, the series is starting to look more like a vanity project for him. Aside from getting all the best lines, he also gets to do the "hot" sex scenes while poor Evan Handler, who plays his agent Charlie Runkle, has become a kind of comedic sex-foil, as in everything than can go wrong during sex will happen to Charlie.
Come Fly with Me: I remember Matt Lucas from Krod Mandoon, and David Walliams for having a last name like Walliams. While sometimes I can see the jokes coming a mile away, the way the humor is played reminds me the Ricky Gervais comedy style of being awkwardly funny. Also, racist depictions aside I'm impressed w/ how these two managed to multitask over a dozen characters between them for 6 episodes.
Episodes: The jokes were practically being telegraphed but took it's time in being told. In short: typical British sitcom comedy pacing. Gave up after the pilot.
Fairly Legal: While I like me some Sarah Shahi (real name
Aahoo Jahansouz...good call, whoever thought of her stage name), the USA Network again went for a light dramedy that is ok to watch but not all that compelling to dload (see
Burn Notice). And believe in or not Shahi was funnier in her previous series
Life.
Flashpoint: As with
House, this show about a S.W.A.T.-like team based in Toronto was once a favorite, but soon became formulaic and repetitive. The thriller-like pacing now just makes me go "meh," almost like how I'd treat
anything coming from Canada.
Fringe: I keep telling friends who want to start watching
Fringe to be like me and start w/ Season 2 because they hadn't worked out all the storytelling kinks in Season 1. And as a superhero comics fan I can better appreciate the concept of a parallel universe. Hell, the
Observer characters are derivative of
The Watchers from Marvel Comics.
How TV Ruined Your Life: As with
10 O'Clock Live, Charlie Booker shows us the evils of growing up whilst watching and absorbing British Television. If you thought American TV programming is bad, British television can be worse, but they come off as "classy" because it's done w/ an English accent.
Lights Out: Brain-damaged boxer turned mob legbreaker, starring that troubled cop from
CSI: Miami that killed himself behind Emily Procter's character. Passed after seeing the pilot, cancelled after 13 episodes.
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| Strong sister, Stoic sister and Sinister sister |
Mitsudomoe: After
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and
Code Geass I was looking for another anime series to get into. I actually first checked out
Mitsudomoe 2 and thought I was getting a
Star Rangers/
Bioman spoof, but that was only a storyline for the premiere episode. Turns out these 3 sisters and their dad -- whose unfortunate running joke is to be mistaken for a pervert-- are the focus of the show, w/ often splits into 3 episodes per half-hour, like w/
Dexter's Lab or
The Powerpuff Girls. It's mostly nonsense and cheeky stuff, but funny, nonetheless.
Modern Family: The most user-friendly in my list top 3 favorite comedies (including
30 Rock and
Community), in that I don't have to worry about explaining the jokes to my nephews/nieces when they watch it.
Onion News Network:
ONN is what
The Daily Show would be had they gone less talk-show and more
Not Necessarily the News, sans laugh track
. But I guess TDS got the balance right, because
ONN plays it so straightforward that at one point my mom thought she was watching an
actual newscast. They've fooled me several times as well, and always when I read a shocking headline on
digg.com before realizing the link was to
theonion.com.
Parks and Recreation: As with
Fringe (and
Prison Break before that), I started watching this regularly starting w/ Season 2, and it went from being a show I'd watch after
The Office to a show I'd rather watch
instead of
The Office.
Peep Show: Finished the lastest season (7) in one afternoon. I wish David Mitchell has his own podcast, but so far
this was all I found.
Portlandia: I'm not familiar w/ Portland's culture and history, so I'm sure the skits that made me go "weh?" had local Portlandians taking it in stride or guffawing in glee.
Saturday Night Live: Stuck around for the Digital Shorts or Weekend Update, because overall their jokes make me long for when Tina Fey was the head writer. While I'm sure Seth Myers is ok, I think he saves the best jokes for himself when he does the fake news.
Scooby-Doo! Mystery, Inc.: The latest incarnation of the Scooby-Doo series, now w/ scarier intros, or at least not ones I'd show to my toddler nieces/nephews. The big changes include having the main characters parents as supporting characters, Shaggy and Velma as
a couple, and Scooby-Dee having an understandable speech pattern.
The Good Wife: My favorite non-typical legal drama, not to mention the
only legal drama I'm watching right now. (Will get to
Garrow's Law and
Silk, eventually.) When Eileen and I talk about the most recent episode I praise while she gushes about it.
The Office: Gave up on it earlier in the season, but out of curiosity if not closure, I dloaded the episode leading up to Michael Scott's resigning, his proposing to Holly, and the one where Will Ferrell first appears on the show.
The Ricky Gervais Show: An edited cartoon version of their Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington's podcast w/c I've already listened to in mp3 format. Lord knows why I bother getting this in 720p format, but I'm glad I do.
Upstairs Downstairs: Admittedly when this first came out I thought it was made to fill the void
Downton Abbey left when that show's first season was over. Turns out it's a remake of a series in the 70s that went on for 8 years. This version only had 3 episodes for Season 1, but I'm a fan of Keeley Hawes and look forward to Season 2.
White Collar:
Catch Me if You Can: The Series as it's
not known as, also from The USA Network. I like that Peter Burke (played by the likable
Tim DeKay) is unlike most TV FBI agents in that he can actually catches wind of what his foil Neal Caffrey (
Matthew Bomer) is up to and puts a stop his plans whenever possible, but the long-winded mystery of the music box eventually put me off the show.
All Star Superman: I thought DC missed out when they cast Christina Hendricks to voice Lois Lane but not Jon Hamm for Clark Kent in this adaptation of the Grant Morrison-Frank Quietly maxi-series. (Seriously? Mike the plumber from Desperate Housewives?) Hell, had they also gotten John Slattery instead of Anthony LaPaglia for Lex Luthor it would've been Mad-Men-ly perfect!
Jackass 3D: I've said it never so I'll say it now: poop viewings should stay in the toilet. Funny in some parts, disgusting in the rest. Johnny Knoxville is the Bear Grylls of comedy.
Justice League: Crisis on 2 Earths: This movie gave us what Grant Morrison's JLA: Earth 2 did not, namely an all-out slugfest between the Justice League and the Crime Syndicate. We're also treated to a nihilistic Owlman and Mr. Big as Lex Luthor. Speaking of voice actors, I wish people would stop complaining whenever Kevin Conroy isn't cast as Batman in these animated movies. He may be the best, but variety is good so as not to have us get sick of hearing him all the time. It's not like Bruce Greenwood, Jeremy Sisto or Billy Baldwin did a terrible job doing the raspy voice. If anything it was Christian Bale that gave Batman a lisp!
Let Me In: I had a long online chat w/ my "purist" film friend who preferred the original Swedish Let the Right One In over my favoring this faster-paced American version. While I agreed that the atmosphere and mood set the Swedish one perfectly, Let Me In concentrated more on the suspense angle, and just as well it did. Vampires should be scary again, not glamorous.
L'illusioniste: Leisurely-paced French cartoon w/ nary a spoken word. Beautifully animated, but it was more a like stroll in the park than a day at Disneyworld.
The Tourist: As I briefly mentioned in the January post, this is the inferior remake of Anthony Zimmer. You won't even hear the name Anthony Zimmer in this version, just "Frank Tupelo." I think I'll just dload director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's (gesundheit) previous film The Lives of Others, instead.
