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Writing is easy. You only need to stare at a piece of blank paper until your forehead bleeds.
At my lemonade stand I used to give the first glass away free and charge five dollars for the second glass. The refill contained the antidote.
I went to a restaurant that serves "breakfast at any time." So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance.
I hope that after I die, people will say of me: "That guy sure owed me a lot of money."

If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers.

How many people here have telekenetic powers? Raise my hand.
New York is an exciting town where something is happening all the time, most unsolved.
Did you ever get an itch on the roof of your mouth that only a gun barrel would scratch?
What's another word for Thesaurus?
It's easy to sit there and say you'd like to have more money. And I guess that's what I like about it. It's easy. Just sitting there, rocking back and forth, wanting that money.
I used to get bummed out when it rained. Then I realized that it's God's way of washing off hippies.
There's no place like 127.0.0.1
If Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at the age of 22, it would have changed the history of music... and of aviation.
I am getting an MRI to find out if I have claustrophobia.
When I was a baby, I kept a diary. Recently, I was rereading it. It said, "Day 1 - Still tired from the move. Day 2 - Everybody talks to me like I'm an idiot."
If I ever saw an amputee being hanged, I would just yell out letters.
Humor is always based on a modicum of truth. Have you ever heard a joke about a father-in-law?
I think a nerd is a person who uses the telephone to talk to other people about telephones. And a computer nerd therefore is somebody who uses a computer in order to use a computer.
Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must be a beverage.
Probably the toughest time in anyone's life is when you have to murder a loved one because they're the devil.
I was born by Caesarean section, but you really can't tell...except that when I leave my house, I always go out the window.
The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.
I once went to the drive-in in a cab. The movie cost me $95.
Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia.
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
I was wondering how my life would have been different if I'd been born one day earlier, and I thought maybe it wouldn't be different at all, except that I'd have asked that question yesterday.
They say I'm a horrible person, but that just isn't true. I have the heart of a young boy...In a jar on my desk.
Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy.
I was at the Wal-Mart, which is where I think everybody goes evetually. If they die without Christ.
Lottery: a tax on people who are bad at math.

Ponderings For 2010-08-23

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  • A handful of longer write-ups for this Ponderings post. I will quickly mention that I've been messing with some nifty little things throughout the site, such as the cool hover things on pages like the movie viewing log or the music album master list (which is a page I haven't really included in the menus or generally drawn attention to yet, as it's still a work in progress behind the scenes). Some more posts coming soon.
  • I just watched the pilot for ABC's upcoming series No Ordinary Family a bit ago. It's available to screen on ABC's site (with the code word "Extraordinary" which I think is case sensative) - or can be found online in most of the usual third party methods of tracking down TV stuff. I quite liked it. It's not spectacular or anything, but it's got a nice tone to it and a great cast, and features pretty solid production. I'm hoping to finally have a series that I really like a lot that stars Michael Chiklis. He's an actor I've always liked, but most TV shows and movies he's in I can only moderately like at best. The Shield was a show where I really liked about half the materials, but disliked the other half (and much of that was the stuff involving Chiklis' character). And The Commish was OK, but nothing great. And of course, there's the Fantastic Four films, which is naturally an easy connection to make to this superhero story in No Ordinary Family. The first of the Fantastic Four films was an absolute failure, while the second halfway decent. Though Chiklis did have a small role in Soldier - a movie for which I'm an unapologetic fan. I'm hoping that No Ordinary Family can finally be that thing that I really end up liking with Chiklis in it. Doesn't hurt that it co-stars Julie Benz and a nice array of supporting cast. While it may essentially be a live action variation on The Incredibles, it's definitely got a light enough touch to keep things fun. I'll look forward to how well it'll play out beyond the pilot. It's usually hard to judge a series based on the pilot, but this one's good enough to warrant hope for the series.
  • I've been watching some favorite Friends episodes this evening while I've been messing with stuff on the computer. One of the episodes holds a high place on my list primarily for one scene, which is at the end of this video. The moment I love is when Lisa Kudrow fearlessly begins to "sing along" to David Schwimmer's awful bagpipe playing. Phoebe and Chandler were always my favorite characters on the series, probably cause they are the two most like me (Phoebe's "whatever" approach to everything and Chandler's non-stop, sarcastic sense of humor). But this moment made me a permanent fan of Kudrow (as if I hadn't already been). The icing on the scene is the fact that Jennifer Aniston is clearly losing it on camera sitting there next to Kudrow, and they actually left it in there. It works, cause a real person sitting there would probably be laughing anyway (which is something more shows need to allow to happen on camera, imo). But Aniston is clearly trying to hide her reaction from blowing the take of the scene, and clearly failing at it. But when it comes to Friends cast members being unable to control their laughter, Kudrow is also the clear winner at that as well, as witnessed in many gag reel moments such as this and this.
  • Most anyone who knows me knows how much of a film score obsessive I am. Much of the time, if I'm not watching a movie or TV episode, I'll have film scores playing, be it at the house, in the car or otherwise on the go. I'll listen through most any of them at least once or twice. My favorites at any given time will get a fair amount of play on rotation, but every once in a while one will stick to the point that I listen through it at least once or twice a day, for quite some time. Well, the most recent example of that is Hans Zimmer's score to Inception. I was highly impressed by it upon first impression, but it's got this quality that just kinda gets under your skin - or more appropriately under your subconscious. The more play time I give it, the more I begin to consider that this may be one of the crowning achievements of his career to date (THE crowning achievement, perhaps?). Well, now another online fan has assembled it into a rather well laid out, non-stop mega-suite, which only further enables my constant play. I'm really hoping that this score gets a nice, deluxe edition release like Zimmer's score for Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight did. Oh, incidentally, if you're a fellow fan, there are two online exclusive score tracks available for free from the score's official site (that aren't on the commercial score CD/download release).
  • As somebody who goes to the movie theater on average a few times a week, it's occasionally interesting to observe things about other movie goers, or how advertising campaigns are playing out. Case in point: the trailer for Universal's upcoming thriller, "Devil." It's a moderately well assembled trailer that I've seen at least a dozen times now theatrically. What I find most interesting is that the audience is going along with the trailer right up until the text on the screen that reads, "From the mind of M. Night Shyamalan." At that point at least a good majority of the audience begins to snicker to themselves or simply laugh out loud. The first time I saw the trailer, it was in a packed midnight screening (I forget which film - Inception, perhaps?). At the moment where that text came up, darn near the entire audience simultaneously broke out in derisive laughter. If Shyamalan had been standing on stage, he would have been laughed right off of it. Now, I like most of Shyamalan's movies more than most other folks (I particularly loved The Village - and yes, I know I'm in a vast minority on that opinion). I haven't seen The Last Airbender, nor do I intend to, though I've had hours and hours of entertainment reading the superlative-laced, acidic reviews of the film. But at this point, I think Shyamalan's career has been completely decimated in the public eye. And you wanna know what the real kicker is to this whole thing? Shyamalan didn't direct Devil. He doesn't even have a screenplay credit on it. Just a producer and story credit. So it's essentially the kind of relationship that Steven Spielberg would have had to something like The Goonies. Then again, thanks to Warner having done much the same with that one, there's probably a good number of people over the years who figure that Spielberg did direct it, or at least write it. Well, Universal, you really need to disassociate Devil from Shyamalan and pull that "from the mind of" phrase from the advertising. You really aren't doing the movie any marketing favors at this point. With its lack of big name cast members, if Universal keeps up the Shyamalan advertising push with it, that movie is gonna completely flame out at the box office.
  • I've got my ticket for Sunday's upcoming Weird Al Yankovic concert at College Of DuPage ready and waiting. I posted a review of my previous outing to see his concert over in Indiana last month, and look forward to catching it live again this weekend. If you've never seen Al perform on tour, you really owe it to yourself to do so at least once.
  • Sniff sniff...

She's A Marshmallow...

I just shot 99% of my evening on something unintended. iTunes posted all three seasons of Veronica Mars in 720p high def not too long ago. I just got around to snagging the eps and pulled up the first episode of season 3 to check out the quality (pretty good, btw). Now roll the clock forward nearly 9 hours and I'm done watching 12 straight episodes. Actually, let me rephrase that:

"I love this series." Put simply, it's #4 on my list of all-time favorite TV series. I have little doubt that I've seen every episode of this series at least half a dozen times.

As an avid TV watcher, I made no pretense that this series would last too long. The series started its life on UPN, already a network that pretty much sucked, but was at the time clearly in a major, flaming tailspin of death. Out of the gate, the series was one of those that was way too smart and witty for the demographic the network was attempting to sell it to. In other words, enjoy it while it lasts. Amazingly, the series managed to eek out enough success to hang on to life for a full two years. Then the network utterly collapsed. Even more impressively, Veronica Mars survived for one more year (well, a couple episodes short of one) on The CW, the now-combined UPN and WB. Alas, by mid-season on The CW, it was clear the series was finally doomed.

And here's the part that sucks about being an avid TV watcher. The biggest strength of the format is also one of its biggest curses. I'm referring to shows that attempt serialized storytelling. Very rarely do they hit the level of success to sustain a high enough audience for the long haul. For every Lost there are at least half a dozen excellent serialized shows that can't hold the audience week-in and week-out. The sitcoms and procedurals have a far easier time of it, where a viewer can randomly tune in to any episode with its self-contained plot. Veronica Mars was a show that did a remarkable job balancing the episodic mystery plot with the long running mystery. But unlike many shows, it paid off the long running mysteries. And unlike many series, it did a clever job following through on said long running mysteries.

But better character writing, dialog, cast and production, you would be hard pressed to find. While the entire cast is fantastic, Kristen Bell and Enrico Colantoni are the absolute anchors to the series. Between the character writing and performances, you will not find a better father-daughter relationship in the history of television, period. A world class supporting cast and a roster of awesome guest stars (featuring no less than Joss Whedon and Kevin Smith) rounds it all out perfectly. And they really know how to play out the witty, sarcastic, inventive dialog.

I still hold out hope that the feature film that Rob Thomas has been trying to get made will finally materialize. Yeah, it's a hope powered by prayers, dreams and pixie dust. But, since Starz unthinkably canceled Rob Thomas' current series Party Down, maybe he can concentrate on that Veronica Mars film. Now, where's that rabbit's foot...

Ponderings For 2010-08-05

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  • I've had this post half written and unpublished for darn near a month. I'm finally getting around to swinging back to it. So, some of this a bit varied in when I was actually writing it.
  • "Diane, I'm holding in my hands a small box of chocolate bunnies." If you're a fellow Twin Peaks fan, you would instantly recognize that line of dialog. Simply put, it's surely the greatest line of dialog that anyone has gotten with which to exit a scene. I've just finished watching an HD release of the Twin Peaks pilot, as the full series has recently gone up on iTunes in 720p quality. It's so great to see this series in such nice quality. Not that the previous DVD release was bad, cause it wasn't. But I personally love seeing older TV shows get lovely high def transfers. It's unfortunate that Kyle MacLachlan would drift through typically lukewarm films for so many years after Twin Peaks, cause his performance of Agent Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks is one of the best that TV has ever had. At least MacLachlan has gotten some good material recently on Desperate Housewives. At any rate, I look forward to seeing Twin Peaks on Blu-Ray in full, high bitrate 1080p quality. At least there are rumors floating that it'll get one, and seeing as it's shown up on iTunes in 720 HD resolution, I can only assume those transfers were floated onto iTunes for a reason.
  • NOOOOOOO! Starz canceled Party Down! This sucks. If a hilarious, ultra-low-budget series featuring a spectacular cast can't survive on a cable network as generally lame and low rent as Starz, then there's little chance of anything being guaranteed to survive on any network. Season 2 of the series was pure comedic genius. Grrrrrrrrrr. Well, given the acidic, pessimistic style of humor the show had, it appropriately figures. Now, to look forward to what Rob Thomas and his stable of other writers come up with next. No matter what the series, I'll be watching. After Veronica Mars and Party Down, I'm a guaranteed viewer of whatever's next in the pipeline.
  • I sit here at the moment watching the just-released Max Headroom DVD set from Shout Factory. No really, this bit isn't an old piece of this post. At any rate, I'd like to thank Shout Factory not just for finally getting this landmark series out on disc, but doing a great job with it. It's got very respectable transfer quality, and has quite a lot of interview material with cast and crew. After years of having only horrible quality copies to watch, or incredibly butchered syndicated versions (which were also of marginal quality), having a complete collection of the series in great quality is very nice.
  • "I think when you read this on the script, you think this is edgy, gritty film-making. Let's shoot it edgy and gritty. I thought no, let's shoot it like a Spider-Man, glossy Hollywood film. Let the grit and the edge come from what's on screen and that would be far more impactful. I'm also a big believer in 'if you can see what's happening on screen, you can enjoy it more.' DP's sometimes don't understand that." THANK YOU, DIRECTOR MATTHEW VAUGHN, for stating that (on the Kick-Ass commentary). I'm beyond tired of the obnoxiously hand-held, verity style that is all-the-rage in recent years.
  • You know, it was kinda inevitable that once the networks began streaming content from their own sites, they would begin inserting ads into the content. I don't mind it too much since it's typically just one 30 second or less bit at a time. But one problem is that many of them play the exact same commercial in every inserted break. Not just the same product or company, but the EXACT SAME COMMERCIAL. Oh, and the other thing - volume. Sometimes the inserted commercial streams via an entirely different platform and doesn't respect whatever playback volume you had set, and you get blown through the back wall.
  • YES! John Oliver is not only returning for the next season of Community (he'd been in a handful of the earlier season 1 episodes, but didn't show up much in the later ones), but he's getting to be more of a main character as the primary teacher role. Woo hoo! I love the series, and all the characters, but John Oliver is able to effortlessly steal every scene he is in. And the limited moments between him and Ken Jeong's character in earlier episodes were spot-on perfect, so I look forward to seeing him as the teacher and Jeong as the student. I'm counting the days until Community returns.
  • Huzzah! The excellent Shaun The Sheep will finally hit DVD in its full 40 episode glory in October. Thank you, Lionsgate.
  • Bummer. I missed Lisa Simpson's wedding...
  • An array of some great Daily Show fun.
  • One last little tid-bit: a great pre-flight safety briefing on a SouthWest flight.

Christopher Nolan Film Order

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OK, so I figured that after seeing Inception a couple times, I didn't have any hesitation in naming it my favorite film of director Christopher Nolan. Up to the point of writing this list, anyway.

  1. Inception (2010)
    This is that rarest of big budget studio film - full of originality, and something of a tough thing to consider marketing. It's the kind of project that often times only happens as the direct result of a director, writer or producer getting to capitalize on one or more huge successes they gave a studio. In this case, Nolan had delivered a couple huge franchise films for Warner Brothers in his two Batman films, as well as other previous films for Warner as well. Ultimately, this film feels free of studio interference, second guessing and lack of originality. Put simply, this is a masterpiece.
  2. Memento (2000)
    This fantastic psychological thriller was the calling card for the genius of Chris Nolan for many years, and still is to some degree. Featuring a radical narrative structure, Memento constantly keeps the audience on their toes, and dares the audience to try and keep up. It's an approach he would continue to use in future films, and would ultimately push to the near limits with Inception.
  3. The Dark Knight (2008)
    As if the great success that Nolan had in rebooting the on-life-support Batman franchise with Batman Begins wasn't excellent enough, this follow-up film pushed the limits of how ambitious and spectacular a comic book or "superhero" movie could be (though yes, Batman technically isn't a superhero). This film easily gives Superman: The Movie a run for its money as the all-time greatest comic superhero film. Nolan really leverages one heck of a phenomenal cast with this one. The movie will also have a bit of infamy involving the death of Heath Ledger go along with the marketing roll-out of the film.
  4. Insomnia (2002)
    This criminally overlooked psychological thriller features a wild variety of cast members come together and find a fascinating common ground. While it's a remake of a 1997 Norwegian film of the same name, it feels hugely original - without feeling the need to break out of the psychological crime thriller genre. I've always meant to see the original 1997 film (I've only ever seen a couple scenes of it). By the way, if you have an interest in the mechanics of actually shooting and editing a movie, I highly recommend checking out Nolan's commentary for this movie. It's unique in that it presents the film entirely in shooting order, with day and scene numbers on screen. You always know that movies are rarely ever shot in order, but watching it in the shooting order with Nolan's spot-on commentary of the challenges of this process is invaluable. At any rate, if there's just one thing I hope posting this list accomplishes, it's drawing more people to seeing this film. While many people have seen stuff like The Dark Knight, or at least been told they should see Memento, not a lot of people saw Insomnia when it was first out (Warner Brothers is heavily to blame, having used a truly wrong set of trailers and promos) and even fewer give it much attention in recent years. I highly recommend the lovely Blu-Ray release that just came out a week before I post this (I'm actually watching it as I type this).
  5. Batman Begins (2005)
    I remember first hearing that Chris Nolan was going to direct this much-needed reboot of the Batman film franchise, and being very curious as to what the end result would be. What we got was a fantastic, gritty and gutsy approach to the material. With a first rate production and a wildly successful cast, Nolan more than pulled off the tough challenge of breath life back into the franchise. Without a doubt, this film rebooted the franchise as a movie that was easily better than any of the previous films. Nolan was a respected director before this point, but his level of commercial success was still something of a question mark. This film answered that question. Nolan's ambitious style could actually lend itself to more commercially viable material.
  6. Following (1998)
    Yes, this is technically a student film that got some limited distribution. I first saw it on DVD after having seen Memento. One of the first things you notice is how low-budget and gritty the film is. It was made for something as paltry as $6,000. But, low-budget or not, this is a fascinating, original and engaging movie. It's easy to see the potential future of Nolan's directing (and writing) career while watching this. Like many of his films, they exist comfortably in their respective genre (in this case, psychological noir drama) but still feel very original. And like some of his future films, this one has a wildly ambitious narrative structure.
  7. The Prestige (2006)
    This is the only of Nolan's films for which I have a middling opinion. Yes, I do like the film. But I don't particularly love it. For as clever as some of the ideas might be, and certainly how fantastically produced it is, I don't think the movie as a whole works too brilliantly. What's worse is that I'm not entirely sure why. I do think that Scarlett Johansson's character never properly fits into the narrative, or ads much of anything to it. I consider The Prestige the weaker of the two magician period films from 2006 (I absolutely love the other of the two - The Illusionist). Ever since seeing the film, and knowing how much I love all of Nolan's other films, I'd wondered if perhaps it was just one of those things where it didn't correctly click with me while watching it the first time. So, I finally got around to re-watching it in its entirety a couple days ago, and am sad to say that my original opinion was pretty much spot on. I liked it no better or worse the second time around. But like I say, I do like the movie, I just don't consider it great. If there's one thing I really wish when I watch it, it would be to have a film that's as well produced as this is that's entirely about Nikola Tesla. Without a doubt, my favorite stuff in The Prestige is in the scenes with the brilliant and eccentric Tesla. I think the reason nobody's done a high profile biographical film of Tesla is how open ended and down trodden an ending it would have to have.

Dared To Be Stupid

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So, I saw "Weird Al" Yankovic in concert last night at Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville, IN. I had intended to order tickets months ago, but forgot about it while waiting to hear from others if they wanted to attend. I suddenly remembered earlier this week. Since it would just be me going, I thought I'd do a search for one ticket to see what I could get. I figured with it being just days away the selection wouldn't be good, but I actually got a nice seat. Sometimes you get lucky when just searching for a single ticket. It was a comfy aisle seat with a nice view. So I quickly ordered the tickets and looked forward to attending. Well, that is after paying the nearly $14 in Ticketmaster "convenience, processing and other such fees that are entirely for my benefit." At least picking up the tickets via will call didn't carry yet another surcharge (though fast shipping did, and even the option for you to PRINT THE TICKETS YOURSELF COSTS A COUPLE BUCKS MORE!). I loathe Ticketmaster.

I've been a fan of Weird Al for nearly as far back as I can remember. He broke onto the scene when I was a kid, and I've been a fan ever since. The lyrics to Michael Jackson's Beat It always sound wrong when I hear them. To me, that song is supposed to be Eat It. Actually, that's how most of the songs that Al has parodied end up being. When I hear the original version, it just sounds wrong. Of particular amusement are the ones that are in his brilliant polka medlies. For those, it's not the words that are wrong, but the performance. I've been a frequent concert goer for his shows going back at least as far as his 1991 The Deep End tour. And for the record, I still miss his live-only performance of Chicken Pot Pie (parody of Paul McCartney's Live & Let Die). While it was only a brief performance of the song that he used to include in his food medley sequence, it has always been one of my favorites.

At any rate, I figured I'd just toss in a quick bullet list of my highlights from the concert, in no particular order.

  • The highlight was getting to hear the new polka medley before it gets an official release. As always, I only recognized a few of the songs in the medley (I'm not much of a top 40 kinda music listener). But the song he uses to open and close the medley is so obviously ripe for inclusion, it's perfect. Said song being Lady Gaga's Poker Face. If after after a few seconds of trying to figure out how he could best include a song titled Poker Face into a polka medley, you really have no imagination whatsoever. Here's a quasi-decent, crowd-shot video of the medley. Yup, you guessed it - "Polka Face." I was cracking up when that opened the medley (and was the first song in the set list).
  • As a close runner up is a memory that will likely remain etched in my mind for quite some time. One of the 5 new songs that Al has released to date is Craigslist, a fantastic song performed in the style of The Doors. Of his 5 originals for the upcoming album that have been released online so far (all of which he performed live during the set list for this tour), it's my favorite. At any rate, the moment that I will remember for quite some time was a small kid, perhaps 4-5 years old, that for much of the concert was standing in the aisle next to where his family was sitting (perhaps 3-4 rows back from the stage) down in the front of the aisle I was sitting next to. By the time Al got to the end of Craigslist, this little kid began to specifically mimic Al's lackadaisical Jim Morrison style dancing (while dragging around the mic, etc). The simple visual of a small kid, in 2010, in front of the stage in the aisle at a concert "dancing" around like a highly stoned Jim Morrison (is there any other kind?), with the backdrop of all the mood lighting and smoke machines, was sublime.
  • The newest variation of the "Yoda Chant" continues to blow the mind. Al and the band have taken this to a wonderfully ridiculous degree. They've been extending and adding complication to this little diversion more and more over the many years they've been performing the song. He also had a kid that had been leaning up against the stage do a verse of Yoda on his mic. The kid's voice was, shall we say questionable, but the kid really went for it and it was quite funny.
  • I've seen Al perform I Wanna Be Your Lover a number of times in concert since he released the song a few albums ago. All those performances, where he wanders around the audience and hilariously interacts with the audience, are fantastic. But he was particularly on his game this time. He even stared down a moderately creepy dude who was wandering the aisles from time to time during the concert constantly snapping pictures, with some brilliantly chosen awkward romantic lyrics.
  • I also had to be amused by Al greeting everyone in Merrillville near the beginning of the concert. He stated (sarcastically, of course) that this was the 83rd, perhaps 84th, time that he's performed at Star Plaza Theatre. It's true that he frequently has Star Plaza Theatre as one of the tour stops. He's highly unreliable in choosing any actual Chicago locations for his tours (actually, he has none in the Chicago metro area this tour, sadly), but Star Plaza seems to be a favorite for his manager. I think I've seen him at that venue 6 times over the years. It's maybe an hour and a half southeast of Chicago (not far into northwest Indiana).

At any rate, it was great to hear the 5 "internet leaks" songs from last year performed live. And the new polka medley was a real treat. I might catch the show again in September in Rockford, IL. Until then, at least there's a good amount of bootleg video from the shows floating around YouTube.

Ponderings For 2010-07-09

The Right Person In The Wrong Place At The Right Time

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I was having a conversation with somebody a few days back who was not what one would call a confident airline passenger. When it comes to safety statistics regarding flying, you can chose a number of different ways to compare travel statistics between flying and other forms of travel, and typically make it come out however you wish. It depends on if you compare it per trip, per distance traveled, per hours traveled, and so on. Essentially, the conversation led to the fact that travel in general is something of a roll of the statistical dice. Yes, traveling in a car gives you more of a sense of direct control, but that doesn't mean a whole lot against things like drunk drivers and other things (like idiots who have no business driving in the first place). That, and flying just FEELS more unnatural to somebody in general (as it kinda should).

The conversation eventually led to how, particularly in the case of air disasters, many small things align in the wrong ways to cause a disaster. I have something of a fascination with this topic. One of my favorite series, documentary (which it is) or otherwise, is National Geographic's Air Crash Investigations (or "Mayday" or "Air Disaster" - depending on what name it airs under in the country in which you live). It's really rather amazing how well airline disasters play out as mysteries and as a study in unfortunate coincidence. Yes, sometimes there is a single act of stupidity or maliciousness.

After a while of discussing how small things can build up to a disaster, I also pointed out that the end result isn't always negative, and the person I was talking to brought up the recent example of US Airways flight 1549 ditching in the Hudson River, with famous Captain "Sully" Sullenberger actually managing to successfully ditch the thing in one piece. It was correctly recognized as a remarkable achievement, but the person I was talking to was surprised as I mentioned that it was hardly an isolated incident, and I mentioned just a few of other such examples from decades past that I happened to know off the top of my head - incidents such as these:

  • 1972's American Airlines flight 96: Like the US Airways Hudson River incident, this is a fascinating example of the right person being where they needed to be. Captain Bryce McCormick had actually partially anticipated a control feed design weakness with the at-the-time brand new DC-10 jumbo jet model and had done some testing in a simulator for being able to control a DC-10 with only the engines. Surely he wouldn't have figured that within less than 100 hours of flight time on the new aircraft model (on the 5th one manufactured, no less), he would face nearly that exact situation.  Make no mistake, Captain McCormick was clearly exactly the right person to be in the cockpit of that jet during the incident that transpired. Every passenger on that flight became quickly aware after their successful landing that their flight crew had undoubtedly saved their life. Captain McCormick saved every last passenger on the plane from a McDonnell Douglas design flaw that could have easily taken their lives with most any other flight crew on board. And like Captain Sullenberger, he did it with calm, dedicated precision. To add insult to injury, the exact same design flaw would kill more than 300 people in another DC-10 2 years later, irrevocably damaging McDonnell Douglas' reputation and fate. For other notable incidents of controlling an airliner with just the engines, check out the successful 2003 incident involving some incredible flying by a DHL cargo plane crew in Iraq, or the devastating 1985 crash of Japan Airlines flight 123 resulting in a single-crash loss-of-life record 520 fatalities.
  • 1990's British Airways flight 5390: This jaw-dropping incident is a textbook example of the smallest mistake causing a major emergency, and this one is conquered by multiple feats of professionalism and skill at their absolute best with something of a miracle mixed in. The captain of the flight was literally blown out the front of the cockpit after the windshield (mounted with slightly wrong sized screws) blew out causing an explosive decompression of the plane at high altitude. Co-pilot Alastair Atchison did a heroic job of bringing the plane back down for an emergency landing with what was essentially hurricane winds ripping through the cockpit. Not just that, but his fast actions actually managed to save the life of Captain Tim Lancaster, who unimaginably was actually hanging completely out of the front of the cockpit, whole-body flapping against the outside of the plane - desperately being held onto by flight attendants during the entire descent (essentially assumed dead, but they feared his body could damage a tail-mounted engine if his body flew free). Put simply, this situation was barely controllable, utter chaos. And it resulted in an unbelievable number of zero fatalities. Yep, the captain actually not only survived the incident, but was flying again within 6 months, and continued to do so for decades (and I believe still may be).
  • 1983's Air Canada flight 143: In another example of a simple mistake being conquered by some fantastic flying by a talented flight crew, the story of the "Gimli Glider" is quite remarkable. Yes, that same flight crew, through a number of small, contributing factors, were amongst those involved that failed to notice the error in calculating the fuel load with pounds rather than kilograms - resulting in the flight running out of gas mid-flight. Yet they deserve a huge amount of credit for saving all those on-board and also pretty-much saving the plane (which only recently retired from service in 2008). In particular, Captain Bob Pearson deserves some kind of brilliant insanity award for successfully forward slipping a powerless Boeing 767. It's something nobody had ever done before, and hopefully nobody will ever have to attempt again (a jet like a 767 with no control power ain't exactly the most nimble thing to try and control in such an awkward configuration).
  • 1988's Aloha Airlines flight 243: This infamous flight is one of those that's kinda hard to believe when you look at photos of the plane. It's nigh impossible to believe that anybody landed this plane with this much of it missing, with only a single fatality (a veteran flight attendant). The structural integrity of this thing was essentially held together by wishes and prayers, not only for the 10 minutes in flight trying to limp back to the airport but miraculously upon landing as well. This careful maneuvering and landing is remarkable considering how much of the fuselage was just plain gone, the result of something as simple as corrosive weakening.

At any rate, these are but a small sampling of many fascinating commercial airline events. And yes, each of them is featured in an episode of Air Crash Investigations.

Ponderings For 2010-06-13

  • I have bunches of stuff to catch up on here. I have been, shall we say, a bit behind on the updates. We'll see how well I do getting posts online over the next week or two. There'll be some stuff from a little while back that I wrote but never got around to finishing off and publishing.
  • Wanna see a cool, impressive new form of art/advertising? Check out what a company called NuFormer is doing. Take a look at a number of their videos.
  • Speaking of creative, artistic types, here's one of the more impressive approaches I've seen.
  • There are lame "photoshopped" photos, then there's this gem.
  • You know, I really do think that Hollywood is going WAY too crazy with the horror movie remakes (though there actually have been some good ones, like Last House On The Left, Dawn Of The Dead or the sadly overlooked Willard). However, I can't help but love the cast they are assembling for the Fright Night remake.
  • Speaking of remakes, the recent teaser reel for Mortal Kombat: Rebirth has been getting fanboys hearts all atwitter. I gotta admit, it does absolutely nothing for me. Well, they did at least cast Jeri Ryan as Sonya Blade, so that's a good thing. To be honest, I really couldn't care less about most physical fight scenes in movies and TV. Unless they are particularly inventive (for example, Jackie Chan), I pretty much tune them out. It was always my least favorite part of Buffy (but they did do the occasional fun job with them). This new Rebirth teaser is essentially nothing but a complete bore for me. I rather enjoyed the silly first film. Though I utterly hated the second film (the ONLY good thing about having seen that theatrically was the studio attached trailer for Dark City). I really don't care if the new Mortal Kombat sucks or not. I'll need to see more preview material to even decide to give it a chance.
  • And on the subject of reboots, there's this destined-to-fail abomination: the remake of The Crow, directed by talentless hack Stephen Norrington.
  • Then again, many fanboys complain about the Resident Evil film franchise, and the upcoming, gleefully 3D fourth installment, Resident Evil: Afterlife. Frankly, I'm looking forward to it. For whatever reason, those films have continued to work for me. I'm also amused that this fourth film will feature yet another composer for the music (well, composers in this case). This will, however, be the first time the franchise returns to a previous director (though Anderson did at least script/produce 'em all).
  • For all you fellow fans of the fantastic series Chuck, here's the full video for Jeffster's music video from the (excellent) season finale.
  • Riddle me this: why is it everyone complains about popular music stars getting movie roles, but when one of them does it and manages to do a phenomenal job, not only does nobody see the film but that person doesn't show up in any more films? I'm referring to Jewel in Ang Lee's Ride With The Devil. I was recently watching the newly released Criterion Collection Blu-Ray edition of the film. Huge thanks go out to Criterion for giving this film the care it so greatly deserves. This new edition is a longer director's cut of the film, which takes an already phenomenal movie and manages to make it better. If you haven't seen the 1999 film (and given box office results, few others joined me in the trip to the theater), you really should. I still consider it Ang Lee's best film. I also consider it one of the best war films made, despite the fact that it doesn't quite fit the mold of the typical war film - even as a Civil War film. I do have a request for Criterion, though. In 2008, they released The Ice Storm on DVD, and did an excellent job with it. It's my second favorite Ang Lee film, and I'd like to see them also get it released on Blu-Ray.
  • Congratulations to Castle for some of the best "fourth wall" interaction I've seen. On an episode a month or two ago, the character of Richard Castle appears on a fictional talk show promoting the paperback release of his novel Heat Wave. Not only is Heat Wave a real book that was released under the fictional pseudonym (and it's actually a rather good book), but during this episode he promotes the July 27th paperback release of the book. And sure enough, the real Heat Wave book does, in fact, have an upcoming July 27th paperback release. It's a great attention to detail, and an amusing sense of meta humor. Heck, they've even referred to stuff on specific pages during episodes.
  • I'm way behind on Glee, which just finished up its first season. There are certainly aspects of the show that aren't perfect (too many of the music numbers, in particular), but I do overall like the series. But if there's one character that always works, it's Sue Sylvester, played by the always-great Jane Lynch. The Dangling Kitten, a great piece of writing from the show pointed out by Jane Espenson on her blog makes me finally wanna get around to catching up on the series.
  • That's it for now. A non-Ponderings post is due to show up tomorrow. It's another long one. Oh, and a couple more backfilled movie reviews should be showing up as well.

I Once Was Lost, But Now Am Found...

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...Was Blind, But Now I See.

Tonight saw the airing of the series finale of Lost. And as such, I thought I would do a brief write-up to say farewell to the show. First, the non-spoiler comments. I've been a big fan of Lost since seeing a leaked copy of the pre-air pilot during the summer before the show launched. As it turned out, that leaked copy was even an incomplete copy of that pilot episode (it ended well before where it should have - I don't recall exactly where). From the opening moments of the pilot, I knew this series was something different. As such, I figured it would die a quick, tragic, heart-breaking death. I figured something this original was never gonna succeed, given the track records of the broadcast networks and how much they love predictable programming. Much to my surprise, the show was a hit from the start, and remained so all the way through to the end.

The series' success was ultimately driven by a few factors, essentially a perfect storm of elements. First, you had the exotic locales and staggeringly well produced style of the episodes. The island, and Hawaii by extension, was easily one of the stars of the show. There's a reason that Lost is one of the best series currently on Blu-Ray, cause it looks and sounds absolutely amazing. Second, you had an utterly amazing cast. It's a particularly diverse cast that plays off each other perfectly. Third, you had the utterly insane writing. This writing style was as much an experience as it was a massive tease. For every question the writers would answer, they would raise a half dozen more. Then, just to screw with you more, they would later make those original answers mean something else entirely. And to add to that sense of writing style, the writers would play with structure in mind bending ways. Never happy to let anything play out linearly, they would always be playing with different times and realities (and eventually time travel itself), and how they related to one another, typically deep diving into a particular character. In the end, the writing on Lost goes down as some of the most audacious writing in the history of television. Eventually, the viewers learned to just go with the flow. Only the truly obsessed would try to remember and actually track all the entanglements of the writing. And believe me, they have. I was of the "go with the flow" camp of viewers.

I will miss Lost, to be sure. But I'm happy that the producers went out on their own terms. It's one of those rare series that got to go out when and how it wanted. Thankfully, there are shows like Fringe (also from JJ Abrams' team of folks), to help fill the gap of deeply crazy and intricate storytelling that is left by Lost's departure. Now, for the spoiler-filled comments about tonight's series finale. Do not read on if you have not yet seen it. And, since it's simply a set of first impressions, I'm gonna just do a bullet point list. Overall, I loved the finale, but I'm gonna assume some won't, given the stylistic choice they took in terms of storytelling. Rather than try and wrap up all sorts of plots and answer tons and tons of questions, they chose to take an emotional, cathardic, character oriented closing. Perhaps the plot-centric ending would have made the hard-core nerds happier, but I was far happier with the emotional, character based closing. For all its plot twisting machinations, I hope Lost will be best remembered as a character driven series.

  • I loved the impressionistic and downright open-to-interpretation nature of the story. Frankly, I always expected the island to be the "purgatory" or afterlife side of the story. I was happy to see I was wrong, and which direction they went with that.
  • Best line of the episode goes to Miles: "I don't believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in duct tape." That's gonna be my e-mail signature for a while.
  • As soon as the wounded Jack walked past the shoe in the trees, I laughed out loud at where they were clearly headed for the final shot of the series. I immediately knew that they were gonna close it on the same shot as it all started - the infamous eye shot on Jack.
  • When they got to that final moment of him laying on the ground, they then added the PERFECT touch to it by having Vincent walk over and lie down next to him. I absolutely LOVED that little touch.
  • Fun trivia fact: Vincent gets to be the last one to "speak" in the series.
  • I really liked how they did all the moments of characters connecting with each other and realizing how they knew each other.
  • Of course, one of the true highlights was getting to see so much of the cast from over the years back together again. Seeing Maggie Grace return, and her moments with Sayid, was particularly great.
  • Getting to see Daniel and Charlotte again was also great.
  • And of course having Penny back together with Desmond is always great.
  • Another thing I liked was who was specifically missing - Michael and WAAAAAAAAALT! They were two characters that I never particularly liked on the series (though some of the stuff with Locke & Walt did actually work well). I was pleased that they didn't show up in the mix of the many characters to return.
  • Some of the previous characters made appearances earlier in the season, such as Ana Lucia, which was a nice thing.
  • The take-off sequence of the Ajira plane was nicely done.
  • Having Kate deliver Clair's baby again was a nice touch.
  • I really liked Ben staying outside the church at the end. Honestly, I really loved all of Ben's stuff in the final season (like that needs to be said - Michael Emerson was great as Ben through the whole series).
  • I loved the resigned moan reaction that Ben has when Sawyer clobbers him in the face with his elbow. Ben has been beaten up and smacked in the face so many times that the moan he makes is almost comical. Poor Ben.
  • All the stuff between Clair and Kate was great. Actually, Evangeline Lilly specifically deserves a heck of a lot of credit for her work in this finale. She was in top form throughout. But she always did such great work on the show, so I suppose I shouldn't be shocked that she can elevate her game to this level for such an emotionally charged send-off (and of all the behind-the-scenes stuff from over the years, she always seems to be one of the ones who loves her job and being on the show the most).
  • For a series fundamentally based around conflict, the finale is nice in that it is all about coming together and resolution.
  • Oh, and Hurley got a great line that pretty much sums up the series nicely: "This would be so sweet if we weren't all about to die."
  • Last, but definitely not least, there's Michael Giacchino's gorgeous score. As always, it's fantastic.

One of my summer projects will be watching through the series again from the start via the groovy Blu-Ray releases (I'm planning on doing the same for Battlestar Galactica). It'll be interesting to see all the complex plotting play out again in retrospect. Perhaps I'll try to track it all using the Lostpedia timeline. Maybe it might be able to be tracked when watched in fast succession.

Fall Series Of Interest

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Well, the networks have unveiled their line-ups of new series for the 2010-2011 TV season this week. Below is a list of the ones that I'll be checking out. This doesn't mean that some of the other ones that I haven't noted won't be great, just that nothing in the early descriptions or previews has caught my attention. And, of course, some of these may end up falling short of expectations.

ABC:

  • Mr. Sunshine (Preview) (Mid-season)
    This is my most anticipated new show on ABC. Sadly, I'll have to wait until midseason for it. The cast is spectacular, and the names behind the scenes are a good thing. Having Matthew Perry and Allison Janney get to have tons of fun can't be a bad thing.
  • No Ordinary Family (Preview)
    This one may end up being a disappointment, but it has some nice cast members and could certainly be a fun superhero genre show. It is garnering good early critical press and having Greg Berlanti (Everwood, Jack & Bobby, Eli Stone) as creator/executive producer is a major bonus.
  • Off The Map (Preview) (Mid-season)
    This series will automatically get a chance from me for no other reason than it stars Caroline Dhavernas (the brilliant star of Wonderfalls - one of my all-time favorite series). I would watch a remake of Cavemen (one of the worst TV series in decades) if it starred Dhavernas. Thankfully, it's not a Cavemen remake, but it doesn't particularly have a great pedigree. It has the danger of being just Grey's Anatomy in the jungle (given that it's from a couple of the folks behind Grey's and Private Practice, and the preview doesn't do much to show it as anything but). However, I'm happy to give it a shot.

NBC:

  • UnderCovers (Preview)
    JJ Abrams gets back to his Alias roots, with a bit of Mr. & Mrs. Smith thrown in for good measure. The preview looks decent enough, and one hopes with its fine pedigree it works better than the previews would appear.
  • Outsourced (Preview)
    A timely comedy which is basically a fish-out-of-water story wrapped inside a larger fish-out-of-water story, with some fun cast members. Definitely one I'll be checking out.
  • Harry's Law (Preview) (Mid-season)
    David E. Kelley series with a solid cast? Done, and done.
  • The Cape (Preview) (Mid-season)
    Summer Glau. Enough said. Still, I can't quite figure out what to make of this. The effects ridiculously poor, the writing seems rather cliche, and it seems to have trouble deciding if it wants to take itself seriously or not. Regardless, with Glau as one of the stars, I'll be giving it a chance.
  • Friends With Benefits (Preview) (Mid-season)
    Ryan Hansen, Fran Kranz and Ian Reed Kesler are reason enough to get me to check this one out. It may end up sucking, but it could pretty easily turn out quite the opposite.
  • Chase (Preview)
    While it doesn't look as good as other shows based around female US Marshals (Karen Sisco or the fantastic, current USA Network series In Plain Sight), I'll give this one a shot. In this case, the fact that the pilot was directed by the great David Nutter is a easy motivation.
  • Outlaw (Preview)
    This one is primarily promoted via the lead casting of Jimmy Smits. I'm not a big fan of Smits, nor do I dislike his acting. For me, it's the supporting cast like Jesse Bradford and Carly Pope that'll get me to give the series a shot. The amusing character side of the series looks well done, but the drama seems hugely cliche and obvious. We'll see.

FOX:

  • The Good Guys (Preview)
    Technically this is a summer series, so it doesn't exactly count for the list of the 2010-2011 season. Not to mention the fact that the pilot episode already aired on Wednesday. The series kicks off on June 7th and will continue on into the fall season (fingers crossed). Let me tell you folks, the pilot is spectacular. It's non-stop fun featuring Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks in top form, lovingly poking fun at vintage buddy cop shows. I LOVED the pilot and assume the rest of the series will be fantastic. Watch the pilot yourself.
  • Raising Hope (Preview)
    If you couldn't guess about half way through the preview, this is from Greg Garcia, the creator of the brilliant (and criminally cancelled) My Name Is Earl. The various preview scenes have been great, and I have high hopes for this one.
  • Running Wilde (Preview)
    The combination of Kerri Russell and Will Arnet in an oddball comedy is reason enough to give this one a shot. The previews have been a mixed bag, but the funny bits have certainly shown plenty of potential.
  • Lonestar (Preview)
    A decent enough trailer and a pretty good looking cast give this one some potential. Not a strong desire to check it out, but I'll definitely give it a shot.

CBS:

  • Hawaii Five-0 (Preview)
    Totally looking forward to this one. They've got good source material to launch from with the original series (including a cool new version of the legendary main titles), and they've got a spectacular cast. I'm totally hoping they pull this one off well.
  • $#*! My Dad Says (Preview)
    The video preview of this may have improved my opinion of the possibility of this series working. I saw the notorious Twitter feed back when it originally started, and thought something that was 1% funny wasn't worth the effort in the slightest. When I heard they were taking the idea into a sitcom format, I rolled my eyes. However, my opinion has been slowly turned around. When I heard that Kohan & Mutchnick (Will & Grace, etc) were writing/producing, I was starting to think that it might work. Then there was word that Kohan & Mutchnick were going to get the legendary James Burrows (who had directed EVERY SINGLE EPISODE OF WILL & GRACE - and many episodes of the vast majority of the hit sitcoms from the last 4 decades) in the director's chair. And then I heard the final piece of the puzzle that gave me hope that this would work - casting the comedic genius of William Shatner for the quasi-titular role. It's such obvious and perfect casting. The preview seems a bit average, but it has that network sales spin feel to it, so the show may be a lot better than the preview would lead on. And I'm happy to hold out hope for any traditional 4-camera sitcom, since they are becoming such an endangered species. If James Burrows directing William Shatner doesn't work, perhaps the 4-camera sitcom format no longer deserves to live.
  • Mike & Molly (Preview)
    Speaking of sitcoms directed by James Burrows, here's another. This preview does little for me, but given the involvement of Burrows directing and the fantastic Chuck Lorre producing, I have hopes it'll work. And as a big fan of Gilmore Girls (and in no way embarrassed to admit it), I'll give most anything with Melissa McCarthy a shot. Swoosie Kurtz can't hurt the odds, either.
  • The Defenders (Preview)
    I'll give anything with Jerry O'Connell a shot, and this one looks like it's got some fun potential. One way or the other, it's gotta be better than O'Connell's utterly abysmal 2008 "comedy" series Do Not Disturb. Then again, it's impossible to think this could be anywhere near as good as his criminally overlooked and short-lived 2007 comedy series Carpoolers.
  • Blue Bloods (Preview)
    Tom Selleck, Bridget Moynahan and Donnie Wahlberg guarantee that I give this series a fair shot. Being written and produced by the people behind The Sopranos is strong evidence that I won't like it. BTW, I really hate the EPK style interview/preview format that CBS used in all their preview reels. It feels like such a cheap sales pitch.
  • Oh, and thank you CBS for renewing Medium (and for saving it last season when NBC made the bone-headed move of cancelling it). It's one of the most consistently great shows on the air and one I would hate to have seen die. I hugely enjoyed last night's season finale.

The CW:

  • Nikita (Preview)
    For the record, I'm a huge fan of the Peta Wilson original series (as well as the original Luc Besson film it was based on, and yes, even the John Badham directed US remake Point Of No Return). The preview clip shows a possibility of success, but I'm skeptical. Still, it does feature some nice cast members in Maggie Q and Xander Berkeley. It will surely feature a much better budget than the USA Network series, but I'm sure that Peta Wilson version of the series will still remain vastly superior.

Click the title or image for full review page. Check out the full list of 2010 films.

Hubble 3D

One Sheet
10

First, a little context. I'm a NASA/Space nerd. Well, I'm at least an amateur space nerd. I'm also a long time IMAX fan. The long history that NASA and IMAX have had together for some 30 years, spanning the life of the Shuttle program, is staggering in the quality of the final material. This film is no exception.

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The Switch

One Sheet
7

This film's strongest asset is the cast, without a doubt. Despite a fun central concept, this movie comes nowhere near escaping the traps and predictabilities of the genre. Production is solid, but fairly average - only boosted by the NYC locales. Bateman and Aniston have the experience and chemistry to make it work, and Thomas Robinson does a nice job with the role of the kid. Supporting cast, like Goldblum and Lewis help keep things fun. And it's great that the wonderful Caroline Dhavernas appears in a small little scene (she needs to be getting more prominent roles...). Overall, a fun enough romantic comedy. Hardly a great one, but entertaining and fun enough to work.

Rifftrax Live: Reefer Madness

One Sheet
9

Our beloved Rifftrax gang comes through with another winner of a live event. Featuring everybody's favorite anti-marijuana propoganda film, which the Rifftrax gang have covered before, one can't help but be entertained by both the hilariously bad source film and Mike & the boys doing what they do best - mocking the film. Also featured were a few great short films that the guys had some fun with. My favorite was the one about grass (ordinary grass, not the marijuana kind), but the other two were also great. One of the short films is available here on their bonus reward page for those of us who went to the screening. It encores again on August 24, so if you missed the first night, do try and catch that encore.

The Expendables

One Sheet
8

While this film certainly ain't gonna win any writing awards (it's about as traditional a "mercenary team" film as you'll get), this is a wildly fun and cool action film for a number of other reasons. The biggest one is obviously the who's who assortment of legendary action stars that writer/director Sylvester Stallone assembled. He even managed to get Arnold Schwarzenegger to make a brief cameo, which is impressive. And in terms of supporting cast, it's great to see Charisma Carpenter show up (after having Julie Benz co-star in Rambo, one wonders if Stallone is a Buffy fan...). The production quality is top notch, from cinematography to location and set design to the action sequence staging. If only the script could have been a bit more inventive.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

One Sheet
10

I haven't read any of the Scott Pilgrim comics (sorry, graphic novels), but I was familiar with them. That'll change, as I'm definitely gonna have to check them out. Put simply, this is one of the most original, freshest and fun films I've seen in a long while. Definitely one of the best of the year. Of course, I've been a long-time fan of director Edgar Wright, so I was also anxious to check out this movie given his flawless track record to date. I loved basically everything about this movie.

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The Other Guys

One Sheet
9

Despite the fact that the writing of the bad guy plot is a bit thin and never given the proper amount of time play out right (making the fun end credits feel a bit out of place), this is a hugely fun comedy. Frankly, with a film like this, if the plot holds together well enough to bind the comedy then it has done its job. And at that, it succeeds. Will Ferrell does the stuff he does best, and lands more than a few absolutely perfect comedic scenes. Mark Wahlberg is particularly perfect in his constantly annoyed character (between this and his great supporting role in Date Night, he should stick with comedy). The supporting cast is filled in with tons of well known actors, all of whom are great. Sam Jackson & Dwayne Johnson get to have a huge amount of fun.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

One Sheet
8

This movie works better than it really should. With a great cast and first rate production quality, it's a fun romp of a film. Key to making this all come together and work is the sense of humor. Without the charming and funny sense of humor, in both dialog and character, this movie would probably fall apart under the silliness of the material. The mythology of the story is fleshed out well enough to be interesting, but not overly drawn out as to make it tiresome. All in all, a nice and entertaining flick.

Salt

One Sheet
9

I liked this one perhaps a bit more than most folks will. I really didn't know a heck of a lot about this one before seeing it. It ended up being a very fun espionage based action film, done in a surprisingly old-school way. For nearly the entire movie, I had no idea where it was going, which is a kinda cool accomplishment for the genre. Kurt Wimmer's screenplay may be a bit scattered, but it certainly twists and turns with vigor. Phillip Noyce's traditional direction is a breath of fresh air, seemingly keeping as much in camera as possible with little reliance on visual effects. The cast does a great job, and the production is top notch . And while composer James Newton Howard lifts heavily from the likes of John Powell's scores for the Bourne franchise (surely heavily featured on the temp music track), Howard's score really works well.

Despicable Me

One Sheet
1

Having just read Roger Ebert's piece on how movie reviews are little more than subjective opinion (in defense of one of the rare negative reviews of Inception, which he simply doesn't agree with), I'm clearly forced to agree with the assessment after having just seen Despicable Me. So, here's my completely subjective opinion which is clearly not shared by most people. Heck, I'm a perfect example of what Ebert's article cites - somebody who utterly can't stand The Godfather. To use a grand tradition of movie critique technique, I shall play the film's title against itself - I thought Despicable Me was, well, despicable. Actually, that's not true. Unlike most reviews that I reserve my rare 1/10 score for, this is the even rarer one that I give that score to that I didn't actively hate. Let me put it this way - I couldn't have been more bored or uninterested in this movie if I tried. And, to be fair, some of it did annoy me, but that's not my main problem with the film. I did consider simply leaving about 2/3 the way through, but stuck it out.

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Inception

One Sheet
10

A number of others have used the term "masterpiece" to describe this film, and so will I. This is talented writer/director Christopher Nolan at his best. It's an immensely ambitious script with a production and cast that is more than up to the challenge. Despite Hollywood constantly turning one big-budget, unoriginal film after another, occasionally you get a unique film like Inception that stands out amongst the pack and demands special attention. It's that "pet project" that somebody like Nolan can get made after having major success on franchise films like Batman Begins and The Dark Knight for the studio. Put simply, this is one of the best films in many years. I loved every last bit of it. Before you see this film, be prepared to have your thinking cap on - if you fall behind in following it, you'll get lost pretty darned quickly.

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Solitary Man

One Sheet
9

You know how sometimes when you cast a notable actor in a role they can sometimes bring the wrong expectations or baggage to the character they are portraying? Well, every once in a while, that process has the opposite effect. In this case, you have Michael Douglas instantly lending the confident and flawed, born-to-be-a-salesman lead character to life. This is probably his best performance since Wonder Boys a decade ago. Getting to see him back together on screen with Danny DeVito is another big plus. The two of them play old friends particularly well, most likely cause they are old friends that have appeared in a number of films over the last few decades. Add in a fantastic supporting cast and you've got a winner. Definitely a great indie film.

Cyrus

One Sheet
9

Without a doubt, this one carries that "indie" feel and attention to quirkiness and character. While a mainstream movie would go more broad with the comedy, this approach comes at the comedy with a more subdued and subtle touch. Featuring a simple but entertaining script and a fantastic cast, this is one of those great under-the-radar gems.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Teaser One Sheet
6

Unlike most people, I don't love nor hate the Twilight films. I've never read the books. In fact, I'd never even heard of them before the first film came about. While I don't think this is a particularly great film, I do think it works a bit better than the previous two. For one thing, it has a more straight forward narrative and flows better. I'm a fan of Kristen Stewart as an actress, and she does well enough in these films. I've not cared for Robert Pattinson in these films, but he was better in this one than the first two. Taylor Lautner does an OK job. Billy Burke consistently has the best performances in these films. And Dakota Fanning has fun sinking her teeth into her Volturi role. Howard Shore's score is so-so, and in my opinion the weakest of the franchise.

Predators

One Sheet
7

An entry that's certainly worthy of the franchise, but a slight disappointment. Don't get me wrong, it's a good action film with a good cast and solid production. It just doesn't add much to the mix, and it kinda spins its wheels a bit as the film plays out. Most people were surprised with the casting of Adrien Brody, but I knew he could pull it off, and he does. Topher Grace gets some good stuff to sink his teeth into. And the rest of the cast does a good enough job. The Predator side of things never play out all too well, which is certainly one of the weaker aspects of it. Not as good as the original 2 films, but better than the AvP films. Though I do like AvP-R more than most folks. Frankly, the best thing about this film is John Debney's score. I can't believe how perfectly he captured Alan Silvestri's scores for the original 2 films, and manages to slip in some harder edge to it perfectly.

Knight And Day

One Sheet
6

This is a film that never quite capitalizes on its potential. If it were more interested in some of the interesting character ideas than finding the next action sequence, it might work quite well. That, and there are a couple completely stupid action scenes - particularly the airplane sequence and a vehicle chase scene near the end. Still, this movie isn't without enough fun material to come close enough to working. An entertaining enough summer action flick. One thing is for sure, this is the weakest film that James Mangold has directed. I know he doesn't like to repeat genres, so thankfully he won't get saddled with one of these less-than-brilliant action films again.

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