Top ten television dramas

I found this list incredibly difficult and had to make some tough decisions (Sorry Homicide, X-Files and Veronica Mars). Also, I had this notion of putting things like ER or NYPD Blue on, even though I only watched a few seasons of both, but because those seasons were so strong, I felt like putting them on. However, that is not really how it works. If I did not watch the show all the way through, how could it really be a favorite of mine? The list does include 4 shows that are currently running, but I have faith in all of them. Alright, here we go.

10. Gilmore Girls- Correct, I have not yet seen all the way through the show's final season, but it belongs on this list. It is a funny, sad, beautifully written show with rich characters and an insane town of quirky people. Yet, it belongs on this list mostly because of how I watched it. It is a show my little sister and I watch together and that makes it more special for me. The show on its own is excellent, but that added personal touch makes it always watchable. Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham are a picture perfect mother and daughter team and everyone else just fell into place. I do love the rapid fire patter of the dialogue, but the show also had some great dramatic moments as well.

9. Dexter- Season four is about 5 or 6 episodes in and it just keeps getting better and better. I know some people had issues with season 3, but I think those people are stupid. Michel C. Hall's performance as Dexter is so incredible that I wonder if Michael C. Hall secretly moonlights as a serial killer. The show creates mood and tension as well as any other show and it is very weird that at times, I actually feel for Dexter. I want him to keep getting away with his crimes. The show has done a great job with the guest stars, getting amazing work out of Jimmy Smits and now John Lithgow, but the show is at its best when Dexter is juggling how to be a serial killer and the kind of guy everyone likes and trusts. I have no idea how this show will eventually turn out, but as long as it stays this creativey on fire, I am in for the long haul.

8. Lost- The only reason this show is so low on the list is because of the weak openings to seasons 2 and 3. When the show is good it is one of the best, but sadly, there are just too many bad moments to get higher on my list. Creatively the show really hit its mark in season 4 and has been burning ever since. The show has great rich characters and exciting action to go with a whole series of frustrating questions and unfinished storylines. I am not sure if the creators and writers can ever fully bring this show to an end and satisfy everyone, but I am excited to see how they try to do it this season. The show has been groundbreaking in how it uses the Internet to continue the story for people and I am sure the writers' room looks insane with trying to remember everything that has happened. When the show decided to fully embrace its sci-fi roots and have time travel, I was like, damn this just got even more awesome." Of course, having a villain/hero/whatever he is like Benjamin Linus, you are going to have some awesome things going on.

7. Supernatural- Taking its cues from shows like The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural has a very basic premise: two brothers travel the country killing demons, ghosts, vampires and all such other creatures of the night. Set to a classic rock soundtrack, and featuring a bad ass car, Supernatural has created one of my favorite television worlds. Like Buffy, every season has one big bad guy or storyline and then a whole slew of one-off episodes ranging from horrifically scary to absolutely hilarious and everywhere in between. The writing is strong and the two guys do some excellent genre acting. Every week the show creates an awesome tone and the tone changes from week to week. I love that the show is not afraid to get totally off the wall goofy having Paris Hilton in an episode, but also getting very serious having discussions about God and Satan and whether or not Man is worth saving. This is supposed to be the final season, but because of ratings, I doubt The CW will let it go. Personally, I am not ready to see The Winchester boys ride off into the sunset.

6. Angel- First of all, I love this show because it became very different from Buffy. The tone may have been similar, but this show always felt a bit darker than Buffy. Every season had a very distinct mood and the show was cancelled at least a season too soon. Angel fully embraced the idea of other worlds and became very much wrapped up in a mythology of an Angel with a soul. Angel was a good character on Buffy, but I felt that when he moved to Los Angeles, he really became more interesting. I thought the dynamic of Angel and Cordelia was fascinating and when Wesley joined, the show really started cooking. Every time they added a character, I thought it felt natural and completely understandable and even the move to running Wolfrom and Hart in Season 5 was absolutely the way the show was supposed to go. When the show ended prematurely, I was devastated, but I still have 5 seasons to watch over and over.

5. The Shield- This was the first show on Cable that I remember watching. I vividly remember the first scene of the first episode and thinking "Oh shit, this is serious television." Then later in that same episode our lead cop beat a guy with a phone book and I could not believe what I was watching. If Dexter worked hard to make everyone like him, Vic Mackey constantly dared everyone to hate him. He killed people, stole money, beat up any criminal in his path, cheated on his wife and was constantly under investigation, but he was smart. He was tough and had friends who would do anything for him. His crew was tight, until it wasn't. The final three seasons were so amazing it was hard to see it end, but it ended in such a perfect way, I felt at peace with it. Every actor hit his or her mark, the writing was sparse, but perfectly hard boiled and the direction was phenomenal. Every episode was fast paced, twisted and infinitely interesting and often times, it was a very sexy show. It is not an easy show to watch, but it was always worth it.

4. 24- In terms of pure action, no show has ever delivered more than 24. It is a pure fantasy but man what action it has. Keifer Sutherland's Jack Bauer is the ultimate action hero. He is part ass kicker, part amazing interrogator and part MacGuyver. He is a sharp shooter, a bare knuckle brawler, and the guy who save sour country by staying awake for 24 hours straight. He has sacrificed everything for our safety and the show almost never rewards him. No, instead they give him life threatening illnesses, a bitchy daughter and friends who are always dying. Yet, he keeps doing it. The show has tried to assassinate a president, it has taken the White House hostage and has nearly blown up Los Angels repeatedly. The show is entering it's 8th season and who knows what is going to happen, but with only one bad season to its name, I expect it to be pretty awesome.

3. The Wire- In terms of making a show feel real, this one wins. The Wire creates the most diverse complex and interesting web of characters on both sides of the law and every season the show tackled a different social issue. It was a brilliantly crafted show with no score, unless it was organically in the show and a cast that was so perfect, I cannot believe it was possible. The show treated every character with depth and honesty and gave real personalities to drug dealers and murderers. It was so very layered and interesting and every character was flawed. Every season had highs and lows, but the highs were always absolutely amazing. Plus, the show gave us Omar. Omar was a big black guy with a giant scar down his face who robbed and killed drug dealers and was feared by everyone, who happened to be gay. If you have never seen this show, I think you should do yourself a favor and rent it all. One day I will own the box set because I need this in my life. It is impossible to pick a favorite season because they are all so different from each other, which kept it fresh.

2. The West Wing- Yes, this is based mostly on the first 4 seasons, but they are so strong, they can carry some of the weaknesses of the final 3 seasons. Not that there are not good things that happen in the final three seasons, it is just Aaron Sorkin's voice really carried it. The actors are all wonderful and the show was a critical and commercial darling right from the beginning. Sorkin really found out how to perfectly wield his brand of dialog, storylines and politics in this show and the show excelled because of it. Seamlessly blending comedy and drama, this show covered any topic you can really think of and at the end was Martin Sheen's passionate, arrogant Jed Bartlet. Every character had a point of view, intelligence and was unafraid of clashing with anyone else. The confrontations were always full of fireworks, but it also never lost the sense of humor, which is why this show worked so well for so long. I had a hard time when Sam Seaborn left, but I recovered and there were some great things that happened in the final two seasons, with Jimmy Smits. However, the first 4 seasons are just the highest of caliber of television, really.

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer- Yes, I love the genre television and Joss Whedon's metaphorical show is tops. Buffy had the laughs, the scares, the hot chicks, the teenage angst, the off the wall episodes, the sex, the effects and did it all without really being a mockery of itself. Sarah Michelle Gellar had the perfect mix of ass kicking and girly mannerisms and was totally believable in every aspect of Buffy. The supporting cast was always exactly what it needed to be and the spawned a debate that will never be solved: Angel Vs. Spike (Spike all the way!!). For 7 seasons the show dared to try different things (a musical episode, an episode where no one could talk) and add characters that angered people or challenged people. It killed off Buffy's mother in a very real and depressing way and the episode that followed remains one of the most hauntingly sad I have seen on television. On any given day I can pop in any episode and get all the human emotions I can hope for and also get action scenes and cool effects. It has kind of been a blueprint for the action/supernatural genre of television, but none will ever match Buffy. I cannot really choose a favorite season, but season 6 is the most discussed because so many hate it, but I love it because it is the darkest and funniest season, plus it did give us an invisible Buffy and it also gave us the brilliant musical episode.

A decade's worth of movies: # 10

The show At the Movies was once a favorite show of mine. It is of course the show that started as Siskel and Ebert and then became Ebert and Roeper at the movies. When Disney wanted to mess with it and make it more about entertainment, they hired two douchebags and I stopped watching. Realizing their mistake Disney went back to what worked and hired two great film critics and took the show back to really reviewing movies. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune and A.O. Scott of The New York Times are two of my favorites to read and they were my two favorite guest hosts with Ricard Roeper, so my excitement level for At the Movies went right back up. Starting this past week, the show is going to feature each man unveiling one movie a week in their top 10 of the decade.

A few months ago Robbie approached me with the idea of coming up with a best of the decade list and it kind of festered in my mind, but a few weeks ago I started to really think about it. I rewatched a bunch of movies and thought long and hard about it. Then I watched At the Movies this weekend and it clinched it for me: I needed a list. So, Saturday night I started a list. It started at 50 movies, then I got it down to 33. Monday the list got whittled down to 25 and finally yesterday afternoon I got the the list all the way down to my definitive top 10.

Before I unveil how this is going to work, I need to talk about how I decided on these 10 movies. It is a combination of things and different aspects are weighed differently. I wasn't sure if I should do just the ten best, or most replayable, or maybe 10 movies I felt defined this decade of film making. Should I look at them for what I felt at the time of their release, or movies that hold up over time? Eventually I came to the conclusion that it should be a bit of all of that. So my list will incorporate a lot of those aspects for different movies.

Alright, so the plan is this, for the next ten weeks I will release 1 movie on my list to coincide with At the Movies. I will also list each of those guys' pick and talk about for a brief second. This might turn out to be a colossal disaster and it is very time consuming considering I have like 4 people who actually read this, but I think I want it for me, so here we go!

Number 10

Michael Phillips: Minority Report- I like this choice, but only because it is unexpected, which is maybe not a good enough reason to be on a list like this. It did make my initial 50, but part of me wondered if it was just because Speilberg should be in consideration for any sort of best of list. I love the movie, but when I watched it over the last weekend, I didn't get the same excitement. Phillips did make a really nice case for it. This guy is so good on the television!

A.O. Scott: Million Dollar Baby- I did not care for this movie, really. My list does not include a Clint Eastwood movie, but if it did it would have been Mystic River. This movie is clunky in the pacing, and ultimately boring. I loved Morgan Freeman's performance, but that was about it. Scott does a good job of explaining why he picked it and this movie is very much a critic's kind of movie.

My pick: (500) Days of Summer- I know it feels early to put a movie from this year on the list, but seeing as how I have seen the movie 4 times, I think it qualifies. As a romantic comedy with a twist, I feel like this movie best expresses a group of young people who grew up in an age where movies and pop songs became our reality. This does not mean this movie is my favorite of this year (it is in the conversation for sure), but it best expresses the idea of what this list is to me. I would not be surprised if in a year or two, I think this movie should have been higher. That is how much I loved it. It is visually interesting, it has great dialog, a wonderfully intimate story and two adorably perfect actors. Plus a dance sequence to Hall and Oates!

Law Abiding Citizen

I have to be perfectly honest, the only thing that really got me into the movie theater for this was the director. F. Gary Gray makes thrillers that have a bit of an edge most of the time. He crafted The Negotiator, which is one of my favorite actor vs. actor thriller. Maybe that should not be enough to get me into a theater, but it made me think this movie had to be better than its totally generic trailer complete with completely generic dialog. It had to be better than that. Of course, the biggest downside to it going in was Gerard Butler. He is an actor who is capable of a sense of humor. he is charming and likable, except when he is in action movies, then he is far too serious. He needs that Jason Statham ability to not take all the ridiculousness seriously. He needs to lighten up.

The first two minutes of viewing this movie were hindered by a blurry screen and no sound, but from what I could gather, two men break into a house to rob it and end up killing the wife and daughter of Clyde Shelton(Butler) while he watches all tied up. The case is given to hot shot, up and comer D.A Nick Rice(Jamie Foxx) Rice does not like to lose, so if he does not have a slam dunk, he will take a plea. In this case, he gets one man to testify against the other so one killer gets the death penalty and the other gets only 3 years. Ten years later, Rice is the lead D.A and he goes to watch the killer get his lethal injection, but something goes wrong. Then the other killer end sup with his body chopped into pieces and Clyde is obviously the culprit. Once arrested, Clyde warns Rice that he is just getting started. he wants justice and he is not afraid to bring the whole city down on itself to make it happen. Judges die, cops die and a city goes into martial law without having any idea how Clyde is able to manipulate all of this from prison, even if he did used to be a spy or something even cooler and more impossible to believe than a spy.

While not nearly as thrilling as The Negotiator, Law Abiding Citizen is certainly a better movie than its trailer. There are aspects completely left out of the trailer that are intriguing, like Clyde, after he is arrested says he will make his confession and give other details in exchange for silly things like food from certain restaurant, or a better prison bed. These demands show Butler with a little bit of a twisted sense of humor in Clyde and it really opens up an interesting power dynamic between Butler and Foxx. Foxx is considered the more distinguished actor, with an Oscar to his credit, but he spends most of this movie, at the mercy of King Leonidas. This dynamic reminded me of what Foxx had with Tom Cruise in Collateral. I like it when a powerful actor has to play at the mercy of another, that is why I love these Actor Vs. Actor thrillers. They often offer this dynamic up for me.

Both men are up to the challenge. Butler does a good job of switching from totally calm and cool to being totally insane, which is called for when a character is a father and a killer. Foxx odes excellent work as a sort of weak minded man who goes to great lengths to have an untarnished record but then realizes he has to do better for his city and his family. There are some supporting players like Leslie Bibb or Gregory Itzen that do not really contribute too much, except as pawns or foils, but the picture moves along a brisk pace because of Butler and Foxx. The scenes between these two men drive the picture because they account for exposition, the driving action and ultimately the climax. if the movie were to fail, it would be because of these two men, but it doesn't fail. In fact, it is quite a bit more entertaining than I expected.

There is a ticking bomb aspect to the story, where the good guys have to find things within a specific time or things go boom or people die, so that certainly helps the pacing. Gray is a good at moving a movie along. He is a facilitator of tempo and while that does not seem all that impressive for a director, a thriller like this depends on on the tempo to be pushed forward. There is a great scene that is essentially a group of people staring at a clock waiting for 6am and the way it is shot and edited, the scene feels a lot more exciting than it really is. Then you throw in a scene of incredibly intimate violence, a scene where a bunch of car explode and a seriously awesome scene where a motorized little car thing has machine guns attached to it, you get the perfect amount of action scenes to balance all of the talking scenes.

There is a nice reveal in the third act that again makes the movie a little more than a by the numbers movie and while the movie cannot live up to the trite dialog threat of "It is going to be biblical", but what movie can back up that kind of claim, except a Roland Emmerich disaster movie. Law Abiding Citizen offers enough thrills and tense moments to be better than the average thriller and it was nice to see Gerard Butler loosen up a bit in an action movie, but I still think Jason Statham would have done it better. If you watch Dexter you will see similarities and perhaps, there will be a moment when you are on Clyde's side. It seems almost everyone was at some point. Maybe that is what is most interesting about the movie, but most of that stuff is missing from any of the footage they show in the trailers. In any case, I had a good time watching this movie and found myself curious as to how it was all going to end.

Final Grade: B-

Couples retreat

There comes a point in an actor's career where he can "write his own ticket." When he or she has a production company, or starts writing or directing, this person can fully decide on what to do. Different actors do different things with this power. Some take on smaller passion projects, some go for the glory and do something mammoth. Some, like all of those involved in the Ocean's movies, take the time to go on vacation under the guise of making a movie. Enter Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau. Vaughn has a production company, Favreau has new clout off Ironman and the two men once wrote a screenplay for a excellent little movie called Swingers. So, what should these two men do now? Obviously they decided to write a movie that put them in paradise! Oh also they get to married to the likes of Malin Ackerman and Kristen Davis. Not a bad gig if you can get it, right?

Jason(Jason Bateman) and Cynthia(Kristen Bell) are a couple on the verge of a divorce. They still love each other but they cannot have kids and the stress and pressure have pushed them to the brink. In a last ditch effort to save their marriage, they want to go to this island for couples who are trying to fix their relationships. They cannot afford it on their own, so they have to convince their other couple friends to go with them. After some cajoling, the other couples agree to go, but only because they think they can do just the fun stuff. Of course, when they get there, they find out they have to do it all, including couple's therapy. Dave(Vaughn) and Ronnie(Ackerman) don't think they need therapy but as soon as they get in, they start to have problems. Joey(Favreau) and Lucy(Davis) are married but hate each other and are only together for their daughter. They both cheat whenever possible, so this weekend is just torture for them and Shane(Faison Love) and Trudy(Kali Hawk) are a mismatched couple. She is 23 yrs old and he is 40 and they just fight all of the time. The paradise island offers all sorts of conflicts to go with the gorgeous back drop and for about an hour we watch these couples do their best to get angry, stay angry and ruin their trip.

Couples Retreat offers enough laughs to sustain the picture until the third act when the far too cheesy stuff comes into play, but it does not overwhelm an audience with laughter. It is funny, but in a far too polite way most of the time. I kind of felt like I was constantly waiting for the midnight show to start and see these characters really cut loose because I know these actors have it in them. Bateman is constricted the most by the material and the character. it almost felt as if he was suffocating under the sweater vests and prim speech. Vaughn and Favreau get most of the jokes, but having heard them so much funnier, this just felt tame. Who wants to see the two guys from Swingers be tame? No one, that is who. When one of the funniest gags in your movie is a little kid peeing in a toilet in home depot type store, you know something has gone wrong. That is not to say that scene isn't hilarious because it is and Vaughn's reaction to the goings on is priceless, but these guys wrote Swingers!

For their part, everyone does alright. Malin Ackerman's best line did not make it into the movie, but is in the trailer, so that was a downer but she is mostly believable as a woman married to Vince Vaughn. She manages to tone down her sexy model looks and just look like a hot mom. Kristen Davis gets to be the feistiest of the women and she looks smoking hot. I am not sure if it is because I have been watching Sex and the City lately and am used to seeing her all buttoned up, but Davis' body is slamming and she is not shy about showing off the curves. Kristen Bell is a lot like Bateman in that she is constricted by the prim and proper character she is playing. She lets loose towards the end, but she is capable of so much more, in my opinion. Faison Love and Kali Hawk probably get the most laughs because of how different they are. He is a seriously overweight man and she is a smoking hot college girl. She can be a bit annoying with the octave of her voice, but she is actually pretty funny.

As is often the case with these movies, there are some secondary characters that get to be quirky, like a too handsy yoga instructor, Jean Reno as the love guru character and a Butler like character they all call Mr. Belvedere. Also, there are four different therapists, one played by Ken Jeong and another by John Michael Higgins who are both recognizable from bit parts in other comedies. None of these side characters is particularly funny, but they do get in some chuckles. The Mr. Belvedere character does get to be involved in what is probably the movie's one great scene involving Guitar Hero. Battling it out to "Lonely is the Night" Vaughn and Belvedere engage in some epic Guitar Hero playing. The scene is shown in split scene, multiple split screens, jump cuts and some other craziness and the facial expressions are very funny. It is the highest energy moment in the movie and made me wish the rest of the movie rose to the occasion.

There is some good comedy here, but I think watching these actors on vacation would have made a funnier movie. There was just too much talent to put out something only moderately funny. The scenery is gorgeous and it is shot impressively, but I am not sure they took enough advantage of the surroundings until the movie was almost over. Often time this movie felt like it could have taken place anywhere in the world and that is probably the true crime. If you are hoping the movie will take a sharp turn anywhere at all, be prepared to be disappointed as the movie wraps up in a strictly by the numbers way.

Final Grade: C

Television recap (Oct 18-24)

10. Community- This show is kind of back and forth for me, but I had a really good time with it this week. I thought all of the stories were pretty funny, but it was the non story that made me laugh the most. Aved believes that everything this group does is some sort of television show or movie scene, so when he exclaims that he is going to take the episode off, it is meta and very much in character.

9. Californication- This week's episode was not as good as last week's but as a way to set up what I imagine will be the big conflict of the season, it totally worked. Hank ends up semi hooking up with 3 different women only to have all three of them sit in his classroom as the episode ends. Oh Hank. Now the more base version of myself really just wants to talk about the beyond spectacular breasts of Eva Amurri, but this episode was more than just her breasts, although having them on display a few times doesn't hurt and to have Hank remark on how amazing they are doesn't hurt either!

8. How I met your Mother- So here we are with another episode not at all dealing with "The mother issue." I should be annoyed but the episode was so funny and so full of great moments, it is hard to get too mad. First, you have Robin trying to study to be an American citizen, which leads to great Canadian jokes, which this show does so well and so perfectly over the top. Then you have the road trip with Ted, Marshall and Lilly which is really funny, especially when they stop at a Bed and Breakfast. Everything that happens in the episode stays within the characters we have grown to love, so that was awesome and the audio book was super hilarious with Kenny Rogers reading it.

7. The Office- In a kind of weird turn of events, this show is on this list not for being funny. In fact, the comedy in this episode felt pretty flat until the tag at the end, but it was the serious stuff that got me here. Michael confesses to Pam that he is sleeping with her mother and Pam loses it. She swears, screams and then starts acting out and being kind of a bitch in the office. It is pretty shocking to see sweet Pam lose her shit, but it really changed the dynamic of the show for a little while there and for a show that keeps to the same basic premise every week, it was really refreshing to see something shocking happen.

6. Glee- Typically this show is only as good as its musical sequences, but overall I think this was the best episode so far. The musical sequences were perfect, especially Bust-A-Move and Sweet Caroline, but the non musical stuff was just as good. You get Quinn and Finn realizing how hard it is to not be cool and Sue falling in love and being semi cool and then you have Rachel and Puck fooling around a bit which leads to Puck having some great lines like "We are two good looking Jews, it is natural" or "Are you questioning my badassness. Check out these guns." Add in not having anything to do with Will's wife and you have a wonderful episode. Lea Michelle making out in a pleated skirt does not hurt any, either. Oh and Matthew Morrison singing the Thong. Yeah great stuff.

5. Dollhouse- There was not enough sexy Eliza Dushku in this episode, otherwise it would have been higher because this was by far the best episode of the season. We get Sierra's back story and a glimpse of Victor's back story, but mostly we get this amazing Topher moral quandary. Topher has always been the most interesting character in this show for me and so to watch him show signs morals and a conscience was pretty cool. When you add in the big bad boss lady telling Topher he was hired because he has no morals and you get some seriously good drama. This show is supposed to be examining morals and what memories mean and this episode really hit the nail on the head all the way through. Then you have the ominous ending and the realization that Echo is not only awake, but that she has help in trying to bring down the Dollhouse from the inside.

4. Modern Family- This is far and away the flat out funniest show I have seen in quite a while. Everything about ti works for me, but the gay couple is stealing this show and this week this did it again. First you get the great line "Don't spike our baby" then you get Cameron kind of hitting on Ed O'Neill in some perfectly awkward moments and in the end you get Cameron and Ed O-Neill doing a little quarterback and center while Ed's kids look on. Beyond just that though, you have other great stuff from every character including the kids. Then in the end, like in every episode, the entire family comes together and reminds us that family is all we have when it is all said and done. I keep waiting for this show to lose its steam, but so far it shows no signs of slowing down. I keep getting very excited for it every damn week. If you are not watching, start!

3. FlashForward- Beginning at the end of something is a nice and easy way to create drama right off the bat. It is a gimmick, yes, but FlashForward used it incredibly effectively this week and so from the opening moments I was hooked. Anytime the opening of a show features a car crash, Asians with guns and a car exploding you know you are in for some serious awesome. We also got a little romance in the episode and confirmation that one of the characters is gay. Oh and instead of googling someone you now Mosaic them. As far as moving the story forward, I am not sure this episode did that, in terms of mythology, but it revved up the action and gave us the possibility that maybe the flash forwards can be changed, which will really throw things up int he air and it all crazy.

2. Dexter- Oh Dexter, how do I survive when you are not on my television? I do not have the answer to that question, I just know I love you and all of your serial killing craziness. It is easy to be hooked on the cliff hanger because what an amazing cliff hanger it was at the end of the episode, but everything leading up to it was just as good. We are really starting to see a new side of Dexter and I am liking it because it is just adding to Dexter without taking away anything from who we know he is. This week was interesting because I don't remember a time when Dexter really went after a female, and such a sexy female, but it made for some really great moments including Dexter faking timid and that is always fun to see.

1. Grey's Anatomy- This might come as quite a shock because this show has kind of been middle of the road, but wow, what an episode. First of all, the show is completely void of in the hospital romantic drama and we just get medical drama. Then you have this heavily layered story and brilliant direction and amazing blocking and everyone getting in on the action and a great narrative structure. Finally it gives us a chance to really see the new and old characters interacting with not only each other, but within themselves. Lexi really shined as far as acting and character go, but you also had Alex fighting his personal demons and Christina just fighting to maintain her passion for what she is doing. However, it all paled in comparison to the quiet moment in the end with Derek and The Chief and Derek unsure of how anything is going to work in this hospital now. I am suspect that the show can keep this up, but for one week, this show was just outstanding.

Top 10 List: Television sitcoms

The half hour long television show, more commonly known as the Sitcom gets a bad rap, I think. Often times, people mock the predictable nature of so many of them and they are rarely good enough to sustain for long periods of time, especially these days. For my top 10 list, I decided to go with 10 shows I watched as they aired, so nothing like Happy Days, which I used to watch religiously in morning reruns. Also, I wanted to go with shows I watched all the way through, or if they are still on, shows I plan on watching all the way through. This eliminates South Park because, while I used to watch it without fail, I now rarely catch it. Okay, on to the list.

10. Entourage- The show still has its ups and downs, but when it is good, it is so good. I love how the characters are consistently evolving, with the exception of Vince, which feels real. The show can be very inside, which always cracks me up and they get a lot of actors and singers to come on and play hilarious versions of themselves. Through it all the show is littered with gorgeous naked girls, so that certainly does not hurt. Jeremy Piven gets the best jokes, but any scene where the four friends are just sitting around talking, smoking out or eating, is full of great real feeling lines. Having just finished season number 8, I think the show is getting ready to wrap up its run, but it is one I want to own because I know it is something I can rewatch.

9. Saved by the Bell- I maintain that this is the first show I had to watch. It was appointment television on Saturday mornings and the college years, while no good, were also appointment television. It was corny and full of cheesy episodes, but I loved it all. I loved the relationships, the jokes, the sight gags and above all, Zack Morris was the coolest guy in the world. He could freeze time! I have seen every episode countless times and can usually tell what episode it is going to be in the first few minutes. I was devastated when Kelly left Zack and could not believe it when Lisa and Zack hooked up. I wanted to be at Bayside High and I wanted to at the Max. But mostly, I just wanted to freeze time and be with Kelly Kapowski.

8. Scrubs- This might be the single most up and down show I watch on a regular basis. There are moments of pure comic genius and then there are just moments of pure disaster. However, I stick with it because no show mixes outrageous nonsense and deeply serious moments so well. In the first three seasons there were episodes that would crack me up and make me tear up. The characters are always fun and the continuity holds up pretty well. Zach Braff has done a wonderful job anchoring a very bizarre mix of actors and characters and they always find a way to make good use of guest stars. The show had the perfect ending to the series, but then ABC decided to bring it back with some tweaking. Who knows if it will be any good, but for quite a few years, this show did a whole lot right.

7. Boy Meets World- To me, this show anchored TGIF. There were some shows in the line-up that I enjoyed, but this was the real treat. Cory and Shawn were so much fun to watch as a sort of Odd Couple for the high school sect. I admit that towards the end of the run, I did not anticipate every episode, but I still watched because I grew up with Cory and Shawn. I remember their trials and how hard they fought to stay best friends with everything going against them. Cory’s parents were the perfect television parents and when you add in Mr. Feeney’s relationship with the family, especially Cory’s older brother and you get just good wholesome television with some great laughs.

6. Home Improvement- Oh Tim Taylor how I love three. Whether he was building something incorrectly, mismanaging his marriage or embarrassing his children, Tim Taylor was hilarious. I never knew much about cars or tools or construction, but that did not stop me from laughing at Taylor’s troubles. The kids were all very different and all pretty funny, with JTT the break out star child. It is impossible not to mention Al Borlen, who provided a really nice counterpart for Taylor and of course, Wilson. Who can forget Wilson’s always partially obscured face? The show spun out of control as the kids grew up and JTT wanted off the show, but it always made me laugh and what more can I ask for from a show like this?

5. How I Met Your Mother- Often called the new Friends, this show really captured my heart from the first episode. I love the serialized aspect, as sitcoms are not usually serialized and I love the story telling and the narrative framing. The 5 characters are all very likable in different ways and everyone has a different favorite. I love how they create things like “The naked Man” or “Woo Girls” and also add the internet into so many episodes, but mostly I just these five people in their late twenties and early thirties still trying to figure out life. NPH is absolutely fantastic as Barney Stinson, the best sitcom character this decade without the last name Bluth. It loses its focus every so often, but “Slap Bet” remains one of the best episodes of any sitcom, ever. Yes, I stand behind that.

4. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air- If you did not watch this show, there is something wrong with you, plain and simple. This show was, at its best, an absolute crowd pleaser. Will Smith was incredibly funny, charming and brought a sense of reckless abandon to the show and everyone else followed suit. Every single actor committed 100% to each role and we were the better for it. Each character had episodes in which to shine, but it always came back to Will and Carlton. Their friendship was the core of this show from beginning to end. However, the show was not afraid to go serious and when it did, Smith delivered. I can very vividly remember how I felt during the episode when Will’s father came back, or when Will got shot. But those were the rare episodes, mostly the show just delivered laughs at a fast pace and besides, it gave us “The Carlton Dance” and for that alone it deserves a spot on this list.

3. Friends- In the 1990s this was my show. I know for many it was Seinfeld, but no, for me it was Ross, Rachel, Monica, Joey, Phoebe and Chandler. I love everything about this show, even the nonstop Ross and Rachel thing. Every single guest star was used perfectly, and every episode had great laughs. These were 6 people I wanted to spend time with every week and because of reruns, every day. It is impossible to pick a favorite episode or a favorite story line, but the group of episodes where people start to find out about Chandler and Monica is pretty priceless and the Thanksgiving episodes were always perfectly classic. This is another one of those shows where everyone had a different favorite character, but I could never choose just one. They all had things about them that I loved. I feel like Friends mastered all different kinds of comedy, and when the show ended, I knew I was watching the end of something special.

2. Arrested Development- Much has been made about this show. Sadly it is mostly about how the show was cancelled far too early. While that is true, the show should be celebrated for the comic brilliance of every single episode, character, actor and storyline. It is virtually impossible to pick a favorite character, or episode or even scene because everything about this show is absolutely, flat out hilarious. Television does not get funnier than this show and it was in every single episode. There was not a weak moment anywhere in the three seasons and to show its cultural significance, Jason Bateman is a kind of movie star now because of his work here. Hell almost everyone in the cast has found really good post AD work and that is rare in the world of sitcoms. It is a testament to the cast and everything else in this show.

1. Sports Night- To be perfectly honest, this show is not funnier than AD, but it takes the number 1 spot for finding a way to be not only hilarious, but thought provoking, brilliantly written and perfectly executed. Aaron Sorkin is my favorite television writer and it begins here. With episodes covering drug abuse, sexual assault, depression, drugs in sports and a real life actor’s stroke, Sports Night found a way to be functionally hilarious and still found a way to be serious. The actors all fit their roles and this is the show I come back to the most. It is my comfort food. It is the thing I watch when I need a pick me up, or when I need to cry. It can accomplish all of this in the same episode. I cannot really pick a favorite episode, but what makes this show is the relationships between all of the characters and how they interact in different ways. I have seen the entire series over 15 times and it still finds a way to make me laugh, and that is a seriously impressive feat, if you ask me.



Next week I will be doing this same thing, but for 1 hour long dramas

The Stepfather

Remakes to horror films are a dime a dozen these days and I have no real defense as to why I saw this movie, but there was something about it that looked interesting to me. Maybe it was the cast, I really do not know. The trailer pretty much gave away everything, although horror movies are rarely about the surprise these days. So on a Saturday night in Utah, I sat in a tiny 80 seat theater and watched this movie while innocent Mormon teens on group dates surrounded me in this PG-13 flick.

David Harris(Dylan Walsh) is a widowed man who lost his wife and daughter in a car accident a year before this movie takes place. He is trying to put his life back together and helping him is a divorced mother of three, Susan(Sela Ward). 6 months after they meet, they are engaged and he is living with the family. Susan's oldest son, Michael(Penn Badgley) has just come home from some nondescript military school for some nondescript behavioral issues and he is not exactly warming up to the idea of a stepfather. However, Harris seems like a genuinely nice guy who just wants the perfect family. Yet, he sometimes says things that come off as creepy and he is a bit mysterious, always paying in cash, not liking his picture taken oh and a killer on America's Most Wanted kind of looks like him. All of this arouses the suspicion of Michael who begins to find anything he can about Harris to prove he is a killer.

As far as horror movies go, The Stepfather is perfectly adequate. There is nothing terribly exciting about the movie, but it is not a total disaster either. The opening scene, while almost a carbon copy of the original is a nice way to set up the picture and Dylan Walsh does a really good job at making super nice seem super creepy at all moments. He also does a great job of showing the chinks in the David's armor and just how crazy the man is, especially in a late night scene where he is talking to himself, trying to pump himself up. Walsh has shined on Nip/Tuck, and I am not sure this movie will gain him a ton more movie roles, but he satisfied the role well enough for my tastes.

Penn Badgley is an action star in waiting, in my opinion. He is kind of slumming it in a PG-13 horror movie, but this is what stars of The CW do, so it is hard to blame him. He is a stoic, brave looking young man with big arms, an interesting voice and a pretty good screen presence. He is not the world's greatest actor, but he does what he is supposed to do. I think it is only a matter of time before he is getting action pictures, but even in those he will probably spend a lot of time shirtless, which was a running theme in this film for sure. The movie takes place in the middle of summer and the family has a pool so Badgley, and Amber Heard who plays his girlfriend, spend a lot of time in and around the pool.

Amber Heard, oh Amber Heard. Good God this girl is hot. He appears in 8 scenes and in 4 of them she is prancing around in itsy bitsy bikinis, coming out of water in slow motion and using her ample sexuality to flirt with Penn and the audience. Then she spends two scenes laying in bed in a tiny tank top and panties, for no other reasons than to make all those Mormon boys in the theater very nervously unsure of what to do. She is among the hottest young actresses out there right now, but she can't really act, so I am not sure if she can be called an actress. More precisely she is a hot piece of ass who will most likely always be in a bikini in her movies. Bikinis appear to have been created specifically for her body and any slow motion shot of her coming out of the water turns this movie into something so much better than it really is. If it seems extreme to devote an entire paragraph to the body of Amber Heard, well you have not seen the body of Amber Heard, then, because if you have, you would understand the need for a paragraph like this.

The Stepfather has a predictable climax, but it gets points for giving us a rain storm in the middle of summer just because horror movies are supposed to have the climax take place in the rain. it gets points for giving us a lesbian couple without making a big deal out of it. It has two or three moments that made most people jump and it actually deals with the horror film cell phone problem in a semi realistic way. This may not seem like actual good points for the movie, but the horror film cell phone problem is almost always annoying and in this movie, you actually believe both of the things that happen, can actually happen. There is nothing ultimately exciting or interesting in the movie, but I have seen many a horror film that were a lot worse than this movie. I was semi entertained, even if it was mostly for Amber Heard's bikini body.

Final Grade: C-

Where the Wilds Things Are

My favorite book as a kid was Harold and the Purple Crayon. Right underneath that was Where the Wild Things Are. I was obsessed with imagination. As I got older, I kept with the theme with books like A Wrinkle in Time. When my film education began, I always kind of wanted all three of those books to find their way onto the big screen in some way. I kind of figured if I were going to get a Harold and the Purple Crayon movie it would be animated and I never actually expected to get a Where the Wind Things Are movie because, well the book has a grand total of 300 and something words in it. Well, Spike Jonze was not about to let that stop him and for the last like 8 years he has been working on getting this movie made. Much was made of the delays and reshoots and Warner Brothers' displeasure with the dark tone, but with Final cut, Jonze did his best to stay to his original vision and after waiting for what seemed like years and years, the movie has finally been released!

Max(Max Records) is a kid with some serious issues. he chases the cat with reckless abandon. He has massive mood swings and he does not enjoy his mother's new boyfriend. He likes to put his wolf costume on and demand that his mother feed him. He lacks manners, is prone to fits of crying and lashing out at anyone and anything. One night he takes it too far and when he realizes it he takes off. he runs away from home and ends up in a little sail boat. Without fear, Max gets in the boat and sails away until he finds an island that has some light. The island is inhabited by "Wild Things." These Wind Things are creatures with animal style heads, but they walk on two feet and they talk. They are also neuroses riddled depressed individuals unsure of what is going on. In order to avoid being eaten, Max claims to be a king and these creatures are looking for anything to believe in, so they let Max be their king. Together they begin to build this massive fort, they sleep in a big pile and have fun destroying things. Max gets closest to Carol(voiced by James Gandolfini) and this causes all kinds of problems. Every time Max tries to help, things just get worse.

From the opening frame, I was completely enveloped inside this world. Everything about it works for me. The score, the acting, the directing, the tone, the effects, and the vision just hit me with such a powerful force, I had tears in my eyes for the first about 15 minutes. They were not really tears connected to a specific emotion, just tears of how beautiful it all was. Do not get me wrong, the movie is dark, violent, whiny, atmospheric and at times, too subdued, but those are all the reasons it is so beautiful. There is something magical about watching a film maker get to create the exact vision he wanted. Jonze and Maurice Sendak(The author) took great pains with both of their visions on this story and Jonze's filmed version, with a script from Jonze and Dave Eggers, is a powerful trip through the mind of a young boy on the verge of going crazy.

Max Records is a wonderful young presence on screen. He is a fearless little performer and it works to the advantage of the film. He is a cute kid, but he has an edge and he captures all of the sides of Max that Jonze is shooting for here. He has to carry the movie and he nails it all. he gets the quiet solitude of a young boy, but the recklessness as well. He seems to understand the character of Max to be a version of all young boys if things had not worked out so well. We do not know why Max is acting out, really. But that makes things more interesting. He appears capable to great love, but he is also mean and unlikable in parts. His imagination is grand, but it gets him in trouble, as well. The opening 20 minutes he really sets up Max to be someone we love and someone we want to hit, depending on what is going on.

After the opening 20 minutes, the movie shifts gears to the island where the Wild Things are and where Max finally gets to say those key words "Now, let the wild rumpus start." In this case, the rumpus is the destruction of whatever they can find. The Wild Things, each given names and a personality are their own dysfunctional family and Max wants to help. The Wind Things are created with full costumes that look gorgeous and flawless and they the faces are done with this spectacular CGI. There is never any doubt as to what they are feeling from the exquisite facial expressions. Then you add to that they are voiced by the likes of James Gandolfini, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O' Hara, Chris Cooper, Paul Dano and Lauren Ambrose and you have a serious winning team.

The island looks amazing and the giant fort they are building is breath taking. Spike Jonze's visual flare and his great use of light and shadows and interesting close ups mixed with these great wide shots, really keep Where the Wind Things Are from ever being dull. He is also not afraid of conversations. He trusts his audience and his performers that he can just let them walk and talk. The script is a wonderful blend of really funny stuff, genuinely touching stuff and some really dark stuff. Each of the creatures is depressed for one reason or another and almost everything they say has a hint of sadness to it, or an overtly depressing tone. There are times when it gets tough because there is an unrelenting sadness, but Jonze understands enough to know to mix in some funny stuff just when it starts to get too heavy.

Where the Wind Things Are is going to be a polarizing movie, I think. Some will find it too depressing and some will think Max is too whiny or annoying. However, I think I liked it because of all of those reasons. Childhood is a confusing and sad place sometimes and this movie does not shy away from that. Ultimately the movie sends a positive message, but it does not beat you over the head with it. You have to understand the story to understand the theme in the end. The final 10 minutes are incredibly touching and I think you need everything to happen before it in order to fully appreciate what happens in the end. I think it is a creation that fully shows the magic of movie making. I think it is a movie full of creativity, love and passion with a score that fits every single moment exactly. I know that I will be able to listen to the score and remember exactly what was going on during the movie. I love the primal screams in the songs when Max is going crazy and how it can be quiet and just bubbling over exactly when it needs to be.

I cannot say for certain if this is my favorite movie of the year, but it is certainly among the top films of the year. It moved me in ways a movie has not done in quite some time, and I cannot wait to see it again!

Final Grade: A+

An apology of sorts

Hello faithful, unfaithful and new readers!

Thanks for stopping by again, or for the first time. I hope you are all enjoying the site.

I want to take this time to apologize at the lack of content the last two weeks. With no regular income I am not able to see as many movies at the moment, so Monday and Tuesdays have been light. Then, when I get sub gigs, it is usually Wednesday and Thursday and I have not done Wild Wednesday or my Thursday list, because I have not pre-written them out due to Seussical.

I am in Utah this weekend and so I will not have time to watch every show of mine before Sunday, so this week there will be no Television Recap, unless I get the chance to watch them on Monday and maybe I will do it on Monday.

Next week will bring a review of where the Wild Things Are, a short essay thing on real life expectations of movies and a list of my 10 favorite sitcoms of all time.

Thanks for coming and sorry again for the delays.

Paranormal Activity

It seems as if every year there is a movie that catches everyone by surprise. It is usually a little indie movie towards the end of the year that catches fire and ends up getting hyped like crazy. For the last few years, it seems like Indie comedies have had this hype machine on lock, with Little Miss Sunshine and Juno, but about a decade ago a little movie called The Blair Witch Project had the entire industry in a tizzy. Shot for almost nothing the movie went on to make $140,000,000.00 domestically. The problem with that movie was that it sucked. It was nonsense that swept people up into some kind of hype filled hysteria. It is kind of inevitable for a tiny horror film with big hype to be compared to The Blair Witch Project, so when Paranormal Activity ended up getting a real release, the comparisons started flowing. This made me nervous, but I was still too excited not to see it.

A suburban house may not seem like prime real estate for a horror movie, but for one couple, it turns out to be their very worst nightmare. Katie and Micah(Their character names and real names) are a young couple living together and dealing with some possible supernatural forces, so Micah decides it would be a great idea to set up a video camera while they sleep to catch anything that might be going on. Micah takes a liking to filming things and is constantly filming, which is how we see this movie. Katie believes something is going on in the house and while they are sleeping weird little things do start to happen; the door opens and closes slightly, Micah picks up some weird noises, at times it sounds like someone else is in the house, but it is all very minor. Katie does not want to take any chances, so she calls in a psychic and he confirms there is something going on, but he deals in ghosts and this appears to be a demon, which he has to stay away from, so he gives Katie the name of a Demonologist, but Micah refuses to let her call. he wants to handle it his way, which is to antagonize it. Bad idea!

Paranormal Activity was made in 2007 and here we are in 2009 finally getting to see it. It has slowly been released and the hype from people is insane. As far as I could tell, the hype is all deserved. Never in my adult life have I had a scarier movie going experience. Paranormal Activity spends 75 minutes doing nothing but building up this insane, hair bristling tension and then 20 minutes doing everything it can to leave you sweating, panting and completely exhausted. It is a brutally small movie that is paced incredibly well and is out for nothing but making you uncomfortable. The acting is whatever, the writing is whatever, and sure there are moments when characters make horror movie decisions, but none of that matters when the movie cuts to the middle of the night because we know some seriously freaky shit is about to go down. That is how good this movie is at pacing. The movie can kind of lull us into a calm for the day, but as soon as the night vision is up and the camera positioned where it is at night, you automatically tense up.

Does it help to have someone near you who is deeply affected by horror movies? Probably, yes. Do people go into this movie expecting a good time and act accordingly? Absolutely! But is that so wrong? If I did not think the movie was scary, I would not have been clenched up in my seat. I would not have have exhaled so violently when the daylight came in the movie. I was into this movie because it is effective. The sounds, the lighting, the visuals and the overall feel make up for those stupid horror movie character choices. Sure, the boyfriend is a complete douche bag, who no one would ever really love, but the movie makes a really good reason for them not just moving and it actually provides a really good reason as to why shit keeps escalating.

When the demon starts haunting in the middle of the day, or leaving a shadow, or claw like footprints, It is impossible to find solace. When Katie says she can feel the demon and then her hair moves, it is scary, but nothing really prepares you for the final act. I am not going to ruin any of the ending for anyone who wants to watch the film, but it provides two incredible jumps, some seriously unsettling moments and then when it is over, it provides you no escape from the idea that "this is just a movie."

Paranormal Activity is not going to appeal to everyone. People who are prone to feeling scared in real life should avoid it and cynical assholes should avoid it. Sure, it has some holes and could be considered silly in some ways, but most movies are easy to pick apart in some juvenile way. This is the kind of movie best enjoyed around a large group of people and preferably at night, but I think it can be just as scary alone in a house. The movie still gets me, four days later and I cannot wait to see it again, if just to catch any more small things I started to pick up towards the end.

Final Grade: A (just for pure movie going experience)

P.S. Go see this movie with a girl who likes to bury her face, dig her nails in and scream. It really makes it so much more enjoyable.

P.P.S. Guys always ask a girl if she has a history of being terrorized by demons before moving in with her. It can save your life.

Television Recap (Oct. 4th- 10th)

This is merely a place holder. Normally I get this up in the morning, but with this being closing weekend, I have been too busy to watch a few of the shows, so I will get this done tonight instead. Sorry for the hold up.

EDIT

Okay, I am back and have watched everything I need to watch, so here we go.

10. The Big Bang Theory- The first truly hilarious episode of the season has finally arrived. Sheldon trying to condition Penny to good behavior with the help of chocolate was absolutely a great use of Sheldon and Penny together. Then the b-plot of the other two friends going to a Goth club was a really nice use of the second tier characters. In fact, this is kind of the best use of all 5 characters I have seen on this show in quite a long time.

9. Melrose Place- Some how this show keeps finding its way onto my television. Do I dare call it appointment television? I am still most interested in the hooker med student and now she has a madame, for real. She also had a very sexy strip tease, awesome. Then, the murder plot picked up a bit with us finding our about Ella's back story which was very well done, but mostly, Ashlee Simpson's character turned on the crazy to another level, which was wonderfully entertaining. I like the "normal" couple more on this show than on many shows, but I would not mind it if they got at least a little bit sexier overall.

8. How I met your Mother- I wanted to hate this because of the dig at having a degree in English, and it did not really further Ted's story, but You have to love an entire episode dedicated to all of Robin's quirks and dating habits. The Ted's douchey professor side came out and Barney was straight up hilarious and then in the b-plot, Marshall is used in perfect Marshall fashion, waiting for someone to take his old barrel. It is hard to explain, but Jason Segal commits so perfectly to the bit that you cannot help but laugh. I am looking forward to the show getting back to Ted's search, but I like these one-off episodes every so often.

7. Grey's Anatomy- I have to admit I am pretty impressed with the show this season. This week was a little too "Oh god" for me with Meredith being the sister with a match for her not-there father, but I thought it was handled very well. However, the combination of Izzie and Owen Hunt really worked for me this week. I think Heigl really rose to the occasion and McKidd is definitely the strongest male on the show, acting wise. I am very curious to see where this whole merger takes us, but so far it has made for such better drama than relationship drama. On the relationship front, though, I am loving Callie and Arizona, they are adorable!

6. The Office- Much like The Big Bang Theory, this has been a horrible season for this show. However, this two part wedding episode was absolutely delightful. I still had too many cringe worthy moments, as I am prone to have anytime Michael Scott makes big events worse, but the Jim and Pam stuff is just so darn adorable! A lot of the side stuff was truly hilarious, but Oscar getting downright offended when someone thought Kevin was his boyfriend, was far and away my favorite moment. The Chris Brown "Forever" Youtube inspired dance was pretty dumb, but I did not like the Youtube video much, and it was funny to watch Dwight kick a girl in the face. I hope this is the turning point of the season.

5. Modern Family- Far and away the funniest show on television right now. It is too early to say how funny it will be, so I am not going to make comparisons to classic comedy shows, but this is cooking on all cylinders early in the season. I am still a little unsure of the "awkward father" character, but the gay couple in Costco more than makes up for it. I loved their story of how they met and they are just super adorable and funny. Also, Ed O'Neill is really finding his groove as the more-than-a-little-mean grumpy man. The show is also finding a balance of sweetness, which is a welcome surprise, especially from the Hispanic wife character, sorry I have not learned the names yet, nor has anyone else.

4. Dollhouse- There are still some questions as to the relevancy of a place like the dollhouse and one has to wonder how a place with so many malfunctions can stay operational, but this week featured Eliza Dushku playing a kind of dumb, super peppy college girl in a little skirt and knee high socks, so I cannot complain. Dushku does tough well and she does sexy well, and in this episode she gets to do both, so score one for Dollhouse. This episode also featured some creepy serial killer moments and then some of the great comic moments the show is generally missing. I really liked the idea of the dolls transferring their imprints and having Dushku turn into the serial killer and Victor thinking he was a peppy college girl who loved to flirt and shake her ass. Also, Ballard's level of discomfort at having the dolls get "dressed up" is intriguing and his serial killer line was perfect, maybe he is not so humorless!

3. Dexter- When Dexter does something that I typically hate on television shows, it almost always gets it right. It is stunning just how rich this show can be. Michael C. Hall is having his best season acting wise and we are only two episodes in! Also, John Lithgow is such a joy to watch. So far he has not said much, but just watching him watch people is super cool and super creepy. I love where the season is headed and I hope they can keep up this break neck pace for 13 episodes. I believe this is the fastest moving season thus far. I truly cannot wait to for the moment where Dexter and the John Lithgow character meet. It is going to be like Dexter vs. Jimmy Smits all over again and that made for perfect television.

2. FlashForward- I still am unsure if this show can keep it up week after week, but so far, so effing good! This week brought us more knowledge as to John Cho's fate, as he worries he is going to die, but his fiance saw him in her FF? Hmmmm, is she lying? Is the mysterious phone woman lying? Also, we got another awesome cliff hanger, but this time instead of revealing another person, we get the reveal that this blackout has happened before, just in a much smaller sample size. Who or what is doing this? Joseph Fiennes is turning out to be a fabulous television leading man and his marriage to Sonya Walger is really the heart of the show and I think they are playing it just perfectly thus far.

1.Supernatural- This could be first based merely on the fact that Paris Hilton is in it and she gets her head chopped off. However, it is actually more than just that. First off, we have Sam and Dean doing an old school one-off mission to see if they can work together again. Then, we have all this tension between the two brothers that leads to some uncomfortable moments. But you also have some hilarious moments, like Ghandi attacking Dean, or Dean knowing random Ghandi facts. Paris Hilton playing some kind of creature who used to be famous ages and ages ago was pretty good stuff. It shows that Hilton is kind of in on the joke that is her life. The writing made good use of the idea that celebrity is so dumb these days and how there was a time when you needed a talent to be famous. This point was made by having the creature come in the forms of James Dean, Abe Lincoln, Ghandi and then eventually Paris Hilton. Well Played Eric Kripke.


I am starting to feel very torn about Glee. The musical moments are fantastic and I love the acting, but the stories are just not working for me. Pregnancy in high school is one of the stupidest television plots, ever and this show is not handling it well at all. What I want is more Lea Michelle in little skirts, please!

Surrogates

As anyone who knows me well knows, I have a very real fear of the world being taken over by machines. Call it Terminator syndrome if you like, but the machines are coming and they will be ushered in by our own obsession with robotics. Therefore, movies that paint robotics in a light that is damaging, are usually good in my book. The more Science Fiction that condemns robotics, the safer I feel about our chances as a human race to get smart enough to stop pushing artificial intelligence. So, in comes Surrogates, a sort of I, Robot-esque movie starring Bruce Willis in a bad wig. It comes from a Graphic Novel which meant the movie was probably not going to be dark and/or deep enough to do it justice. Now, I have not read the Graphic Novel, but I know Graphic Novels and this probably deserved an R rated film. However, we get a pg-13 movie, even though two of August's biggest movies were rated R and October's first hit was also rated R. R rated movies can work people! Okay, enough with the sidetracks.

14 years before the main action of this movie, a man named Cantor(James Cromwell) created a way for people to connect a robot to their brains to control the robots, but experience everything the robot experienced. It started as a way for wheelchair bound people to walk, or for amputees to still experience a full life. Before long, the military got in on the action and then the rich public and then eventually it was available to everyone. When the main action picks up, the world is very clean, and void of many crimes, but no one in the world is actually human. 99% of the population uses a "surrogate" to do everything, while the actual humans sit in their rooms connected to a computer. The surrogates do not feel pain and no matter how much damage they take, the owners do not feel any of it. it makes it so people can do anything they want. However, things go wrong when a weapon shows up that kills not only the surrogates, but the owners back in their chairs. The F.B.I picks up the case and agents Greer(Bruce Willis)and Peters(Radha Mitchell) are in charge. Greer and Peters do the usual agent thing, but things start to get very fishy when Greer ends up in a dread zone. Dread Zones are the small areas where people who are not part of the surrogate movement live. These are people who want to end the surrogate movement and they are most likely behind this weapon, or are they?

Surrogates moves at a brisk 90 minutes, but that is kind of the problem. There is a lot that could be done with this story. There are deeper darker psychological issues that could have been examined, but instead we get a 90 minute pg-13 kind of generic action movie. That is not to say the movie is bad, it just could have been more. By the time the characters started having true discussions about what it meant to be alive and what surrogacy really meant, it was time for the climatic car chase, fight scene and big twisty reveal. Things were rushed in order to fit this box of what an October pg-13 movies is supposed to be. It satisfies on that level, sure, but why couldn't it have been more?

If nothing else, Surrogates makes me want to seek out the source material. I am sure the world created in the Graphic Novel deals more in the darkness, whereas the movie can only touch up on it. In the movie there is a scene where the surrogates are "jacking" which is a drug, where they shoot electricity through themselves for a very pleasurable effect. I am sure in the novel, this is made into something more and I wanted something more. I wanted to know more about the motives behind these people never wanting to go outside. For what it is, Surrogates presents an interesting future and then sets out to wonder if it is a good future we are headed for.

Bruce Willis and company do well enough with the material, although Willis is kind of phoning it in, as he has a habit of doing these days. The CGI is pretty good, but it is a bit goofy to see a bad hair having Bruce Willis robot leaping through the air like a gazelle. That is not the fault of the movie, just me thinking John McClaine leaping through the air is funny looking. The surrogates are all very sexy, but the scenery is filled with gorgeous people of both genders, but the robots have this creepy shine on them so all of these gorgeous creatures are too shiny to be erotic, in my opinion. This is probably not the fault of the movie, but of my own eyes being creeped out by shiny people. Ving Rhames adds a nice touch as a prophet of the Dreads, but he is mostly wasted.

Surrogates is not too exciting, too game changing, or too cerebral, though it could have been all three of those things. It is a pleasant enough movie going experience, but I was never on the edge of my seat. The twist is incredibly predictable, but that is not really a concern of mine. What was a concern of mine was the wasted opportunity to do something interesting. 2009 has offered some really great examples of interesting film making and Surrogates could have added to that, but instead it will be a generic I, Robot without Will Smith and the budget.

Final Grade: C-

Capitalism: A Love Story

Michael Moore...Blahblahblah (that blahblahblah incorporates everything you know and hear about the man). Onto the review!

In a world (go back and say that with EPIC voice) where people are losing their jobs, their houses and their sanity, one man will stand up and give voice to the voiceless and that man is Michael Moore. He of gun control wanting, Bush hating and free health care advocating fame, is back and fatter than ever. With his hushed faux sincerity, ugly baseball cap and constant prying for the truth, Moore returns to find out what happened to the United State of America. The short answer, for Moore is Capitalism. Capitalism happened to America and because of it, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Moore is out to examine the effects of Capitalism, as well as the history of it. He recalls a time when Ronald Regan came through and changed business. He recalls when Americans stopped being able to pay for the things they needed with the money they earned and had to start relying on credit cards. He condemns every single secretary of treasury of the last 5 presidents for helping cause this down turn. And he does it all with that typical Michael Moore innocent voice and doughy frame.

Moore's movies are typically only as good as his stunts. And he has always had good stunts. This movie is no different. Here he goes out to all the big banks in an attempt to get back the bailout money to give back to the people. He wants to make a citizen's arrest of all the CEOs of major banking companies and before the final credits he goes as far as to wrap crime scene tape around every big banking firm's building. It is an audacious, hilarious and fruitless stunt, but he makes his point- the American people were robbed! The story leading up to the bailout might be the most interesting in the movie as Moore interviews members of the Senate to find out how the deal got done in backrooms witrh handshakes and under the table dealings. He cuts this with footage of outraged senators and compliant senators in senate hearings about the potential bailout. It is an interesting piece of Government and Moore is not afraid of worrying about boring people by showing it all.

In this movie, more so than the last two, I think, Moore has found good human stories. he has found stories of people with whom we can sympathize. He has also found a pretty shocking human story, in my opinion. He discovers that many big businesses take out life insurance on employees where they are the benefactor, so if an employee dies, the company can make money. One woman lost her husband to cancer and his place of employment made 1.5 million dollars off of the family's grief. This is a remarkably disgusting business practice and points to the greed of the CEOs in a Capitalist economy. One can argue the legal parameters and of course, it turns out it is legal, but what about the question of morals? At what point does money stop being the important factor?

I think that is Moore's major point in this movie: At what point does money stop being the most important thing in life? Moore puts all of the blame under this blanket of Capitalism and he makes some very convincing, entertaining and thought provoking points, but at one point does someone just factor in individual greed? Sure, Capitalism breeds a kind of greed, but don't aren't some people just greedy on their own? Moore's attempt at condemning the institution and some of the people who are behind the institution is admirable, but I think his scope is too narrow. He shows us a few examples of how well businesses can run when they are run as a democracy and how when everyone is happy, everyone makes more money, so he kind of covers his bases, but again, individual greed is inherent in some.

I do think this is Moore's second most effective movie (After Bowling for Columbine) mostly because of one story in particular. If you followed the news in the weeks before and after the election, you might remember a group of blue collar workers who had their plant shut down and were not paid because Bank of America refused to give the bosses credit to pay the employees at the end. These employees had a shut in at their former place of employment and it caught national attention. Obama applauded their efforts and the whole city rallied around this group of people, bringing them food and cheering them on. Because of the bailout, BofA could afford to give these people their just due, but they were refusing, and eventually the people had their say and BofA caved. In a sequence that brought tears to my eyes, Moore perfectly captures the human spirit to endure and persevere.

Capitalism: A Love Story mixes depressing images of run down houses with funny animated sequences. It opens with comparing us to ancient Rome and then from there Michael Moore does his Michael Moore thing. He is not going to convert any people as people know what to expect from him, but he has created an interesting documentary rich with human stories about how we, the under represented can rise up and fight back. Moore ends his movie with a call to action and that is what is required. People have to fight back and not accept the lot they have been given. It is a surprisingly humanistic approach, for a rich film maker to take, but that is what makes Michael Moore so unique. He lives in excess, but he preaches to the little guy and in this case, I hope the little guys listen.

Final Grade: A-

Zombieland

Among Zombie movie fans there is an eternal conversation of fast zombies vs. slow zombies. George A. Romero purists will cry foul at the 28 Days Later faster moving zombies and fans of the faster zombies will say that slow zombies just do not create a scary enough effect anymore in a world with automatic weapons. I tend to not get in the middle of such conversations because to me, a zombie is a zombie is a zombie. Flesh eating undead creatures are scary, whether they run or lumber slowly. However, the zombie movie is kind of, pardon the pun, dead. Resident Evil movies are kind of the closest thing we get to zombie movies and well, those movies have just spun out of control. Well, when the slasher flick died, Wes Craven created a series of slasher flicks meant to scare and point fun at slasher flicks. It rejuvenated the genre (whether that is good or not can be debated). So, it makes sense that the same would be done to the zombie flick. In comes Zombieland. I know, I know, Shaun of the Dead, but Shaun of the Dead was not so much a good zombie movie as it was a funny movie. The difference is subtle, but it is important.

Columbus(Jesse Eisenberg) is a young neurotic man who happens to be one of a very few human survivors of a zombie epidemic. He has survived because of his list of survival tips. He is kind enough to share his list with us, in a series of voice over narrations as he takes us on his road trip with him. His tips include "Limber up" "Always check the backseat" and most importantly "Don't be a hero." These tips have helped him survive which is remarkable because he is nothing special and does not seem adept at killing zombies. Enter, Tallahassee(Woody Harrelson), a good old boy with lots of weapons and a serious hankering for Twinkies, who happens to be a great zombie killer. Columbus and Tallahassee make an odd team, but they work well together and soon they are joined by the sister team of Little Rock(Abagail Breslin) and Wichita(Emma Stone) who con the guys a few times before they decide to join forces and head out to Los Angeles because there is a rumor that an amusement park out there is untouched by zombies.

In what should be considered a hybrid of road trip/buddy comedy/zombie/video game style movies, Zombieland is ferociously funny, disgustingly gory and absolutely spectacular. Jesse Eisenberg's rules of surviving a zombie Apocalypse are akin to Jaime Kennedy's rules for surviving a horror movie and Zombieland takes many cues from poking some fun at the zombie genre. However, Zombies are not prominently featured in this movie. They appear exactly when they need to appear, but they are certainly not the main characters. What we get are 4 very real feeling characters not quite sure why they are holding on, but doing everything they can to hold on to life. Columbus believes he has survived alone for so long because he never felt close to anyone anyway. He lived life as a loner before the zombies took over and so there was no real change. Tallahassee is harboring ill feelings towards the zombies because they took the one thing he loved, so his venom is understandable. The conning sisters still have each other and with the help of a well placed flashback, we find out they have always just relied on each other.

In fact, all of the flashbacks are well placed, especially Jesse Eisenberg's. It is funny, depressing and surprisingly scary. The movie is not after scaring us very much, but it does have a few nice surprises up it's sleeve. The zombies are of the fast moving variety, but they are not intelligent creatures and are easily killable in a variety of ways, which Tallahassee has some fun with. He does not appear to like to use the same weapon twice and we get some crowd pleasing sequences with him doing some serious killing. He is also prone to some freak outs, just to keep him sane and in a wonderfully cheery scene, the entire gang destroys some property to blow off steam.

When the movie makes it to Los Angeles, things really get good. First, the group decides to take up residence in a famous actor's house, which provides the movie, with what might be one of the best cameos I have ever seen in a movie. Half the critics have ruined it and you can find it on Zombieland's IMDB page, but I will not ruin it for anyone who wants to enjoy the surprise. This cameo is funny, not just because it is a cameo, but because it is perfectly placed and perfectly used and does not end in a way you might think it would. From there we get two nice touching moments from the different pairs of people, all of which prepare us for an amazing climax.

The title Zombieland is meant to conjure up images of a country overrun by zombies and the voice over narration calls America Zombieland repeatedly, but adding the word "land" to the end of something also conjures up images of Disneyland, or at the very least an amusement park where there are games about killing zombies. First time director Ruben Fleischer obviously understood what the screen writers were doing with the name and the climax because he sets up a climax for the ages. Set in an amusement park that still runs, somehow, Woody Harrelson goes on half a dozen rides in order to kill the zombies lurking on the rides in what amounts to a free for all zombie killing roller coaster. It is shot beautifully and the action moves at such a break neck pace that you cannot help but get sucked in. Then, in order to bring the point home more, Jesse Eisenberg gets chased into a haunted house in the amusement park.

Zombieland packs serious comedy chops of the physical variety and in the lines, but especially with the use of block lettering reminding us of the rules. Woody Harrelson is having about as much fun as a person can possibly have making a movie and he plays very well off of Eisenberg. Emma Stone is truly a sexy young actress making interesting movie choices and is sure to be a geek goddess if she keeps making choices like this. Abagail Breslin plays perfectly against type and is having as much as I have seen her have in quite some time. These four actors have helped create a zombie infested land that seem like it could be kind of fun to live in. The gore and splatter level should satisfy the horror nuts, but this movie is meant to be pure unadulterated Post-Modern fun and it succeeds on every level. This is a movie sure to entertain me for years to come.

Final Grade: A

On a side note, how sexy does Emma Stone look holding a chainsaw? mmmmm

Television recap (Sept. 27th- Oct. 3rd)

I have to admit, my television watching habits are pretty much out of hand, but I am not sure which shows I feel like I can get rid of. This week brought the return of Dexter and Californication, to add to the amount of shows I watch.

10. Californication- The shows third season opened with Hank Moody falling asleep during sex and that was not nearly the wildest moment in the episode. I love having Hank Moody back. He is one of the coolest anti-heroes on television. He flicked a cigarette at a guy on a bike, hit on a married woman, gave alcohol to a recovering alcoholic and wondered if his daughter and his daughters best friend were lesbians. I never know what to expect with this show, but I know that I cannot wait to watch. I am unsure of what I think about his ex-wife being in New York now, but if they continue to have phone conversations like the one in this episode, it could work.

9. Modern Family- This show is really coming along nicely. Every week we get three separate stories and they may not even connect. Your enjoyment level will depend on what you think of all of the characters in any given episode and so far I am most taken with the gay couple with the little daughter. I am especially loving the bigger gay guy. This week featured the following exchange, which is all I needed to put it in my top 10.

Gay #1: I know, I know, I'll dance like a straight guy.
Gay #2- No smacking your own butt.
Gay #1: But that's how I make my horsie go!

8. Melrose Place- This is another show I figured I would burn out on after a few weeks, but so far it still has my attention. The serial aspect of the murder mystery keeps things interesting, but it is still soap opera-y, which I need with this show. This week brought some good Elle (Katie Cassidy) moments and brought a former Melrose resident back home. I am not sure what exactly is going on most of the time, but again, a girl who wants to be a doctor is hooking, so things cannot be all bad, especially now that she might have a madame! The engaged couple remain the moral focus of the show, which is nice, but I am still waiting for the show to get steamier.

7. How I met your Mother- This episode kind of encapsulates why I love this show- it featured the absolutely absurd and the truly romantic. First we get that the group often sees doppelgangers of the group- Lesbian Robin, Moustache Marshall and now Stripper Lilly. It is hilarious and ridiculous. Then Ted goes on a blind date with a girl he went on a blind date with 6 years ago. Ted remember tat he did not call her because he is looking for someone who loves his quirks, not someone for whom he has to change. It is a wonderfully romantic notion and it balances out just how absurd it is to have a Moustache Marshall.

6. Grey's Anatomy- I was getting to the point that I felt I watching this show out of duty than anything else last season. However, the show is really cooking so far this season. I am loving the new drama of everyone worrying about jobs. So far the romantic drama has taken a back seat and that is a welcome change for me. I love who Alex is becoming for Izzie, I love who Owen Hunt is becoming for Christina and I love Arizona and I love that Derek has taken charge as The Chief wusses out. However, this week the patients were the key. How amazing was the woman with the crazy son. I really thought it was a powerful story. I think people prefer this show when it is a romantic drama, but I like when it goes away from that for a while. Then we get to see that most of these people can actually act.

5. Glee- This was the first episode I loved. This was the first episode where the non musical stuff was just as good as the musical stuff. Finally the show was deserving of the hype. This was reached by not having Will's crazy wife be featured very heavily. It was also reached it by having Kristin Chenowith guest star as a boozy former high school peer of Will's. Of course, the musical stuff still wowed, especially Chenowith knocking out Carrie Underwood's "Last Name." I would have liked to see Lea Michelle and Chenowith have more to do together and I wish the duet from Chenowith and Morrison would have been more of a duet, but those are minor complaints. I absolutely loved "Somebody to Love." I thought it was a powerful moment.

4. Dollhouse- I was not sure from the previews, if I would enjoy this episode, but man it was awesome. There was not a lot of fighting action, but I think, it gave more of a reason as to why the Dollhouse exists for people and asked all kinds of moral questions, which is what the show is trying to do. Eliza Dushku's Echo had her mind make her think she had just given birth and in order to do that Topher altered her at a glandular level, which is brand new. He talks about the possibilities, in the first of 3 or 4 conversations about the moral properties of the project. Having the former agent Ballard as Echo's handler adds a level of intrigue to the show and just like the premiere, Ballard and Echo have a very interesting conversation to close the episode.

3. FlashForward- Oh FlashForward, can you possibly keep up this crazy amazing momentum for 22-24 episodes?? God, I hope so! Week two of this glorious new show brings more questions, possibly answers a question or two, but mostly it gives us a bunch of awesome scenes and wonderful acting. Now we know that it is possible 2 people were moving during the blackout. Also, will the children be the key? Can the future be altered in some aspects and made the same in others? These are the questions this show is perfectly asking. The pacing was very strong, even if the one comic moment fell too flat for me and then, just like last week, we get a kick ass cliff hanger. I am going to continue going along for this thrill ride and maybe, just maybe, us Lost fans are being left in good hands.

2. Supernatural- Dean goes to the year 2014 after the Apocalypse and finds the world in absolute ruins. Castiel is no longer an angel but a pot smoking hippie who engages in orgies, but mostly, Dean sees that Sam gave into Satan and is now a vessel for the Devil. The bleak look of the future is consistent with the show and it was even caused by something in the shows already established mythology, which was nice. Plus, Dean ran into the 2014 version of himself which led to some classic Dean moments, but also showed us that the brothers need each other to retain the humanity that could easily be lost in a world where all they do is battle the evil of the world over and over again. It took seeing that world to make Dean realize what is important and the brothers were reunited after two weeks apart.

1. Dexter- My favorite narrating serial killer is back! And he has a child! And that is all kinds of fun! Oh and Jon Lithgow has entered the picture as a very naked serial killer. Man was he amazing with only two or three lines. Keith Caradine returned as the serial killer hunter to add more grief to Dexter. I am not sure how much I want to say about the actual episodes because one of the few faithful readers of this blog watches this show on DVD, and I do not want to spoil it for her (Hi Taylor!). So I will just say that having Dexter back on my television makes for funny, creepy and interesting television. And Michael C. Hall is fantastic as a more frazzled out of sorts Dexter.

Anytime Movies week #5

An Anytime Movie is a movie you can put on at anytime and be perfectly content. They are movies that do not depend on mood. You do not worry about how long they are, or anything else. They suit you at anytime. They are rainy day movies, or I-am-not-doing-anything-else movies. They are go to standards. This collection does not represent my all time favorite movies, but the movies I can put on and be immediately happy I did. Yes, two are featured in my all time favorites, but that is not the point. These are the movies that do something to me every time. Movies I never tire of. I have 25 of these movies and for the next five Sundays I will be rolling out 5 of them. They will be semi-grouped into genre or have a connection in some way.

Well the final week of Anytime Movies is here. I hope my faithful readers (all three of you) enjoyed the series. For the final installment we have what I call Hyper-literate cool movies. This could also be known as Tarantino Syndrome. Granted one of the movies doe snot exactly fit it, but it has elements, so it works.

Again, in no particular order:

1. Reservoir Dogs- Inglorious Basterds may end up being Tarantino's true masterpiece, but Reservoir Dogs is Tarantino at his least "knowing." The movie is not really winking to the audience, it is just awesome. The story is jumbled, the dialog is crisp, the music perfect and the violence is in quick bursts of bloody awesomeness. Each performance adds a nice element to the movie, but Tim Roth steals the show. However, as it is Tarantino, nothing in a Tarantino movie is bigger than the man himself. His sense of cinematic vision is unsurpassed. His ability to get a shot that looks so effortlessly cool started right here in this movie. There is a reason it is one of my all time favorite movies. I can never imagine a time when I will ever be bored of watching this movie.

2. The Usual Suspects- This is my all time favorite movie. It would make sense then, that this is an Anytime Movie. Bryan Singer's direction, Chris McQuarry's script and each and every performance in tandem make this a cannot miss film. Kevin Spacey, in a star making role, crafts one of the most unforgettable characters in cinema and the twist, oh the twist. The twist was so good, that the first time I saw it, I paid to go watch it again, just to see if I could catch it. However, the movie is more than just a clever twist. The story being weaved from different perspectives, involving a cast of criminals is always interesting and the framing device is a nice touch. Bookending does not always work for a movie, but in this case it is perfect. In fact, everything in this movie is perfect. yes, even Steven Baldwin.

3. In Bruges- Funny, sadistic, racist, violent, and charming are not always words that go together, but they all describe this wonderful little movie I wish more people would see. It comes straight out of Tarantino 101, but it gets an A in Tarantino. There is no big surprise twist, just a lot of snappy one-liners, brutal violence and super cool shots. Colin Ferrell reminded me that he is a very good actor in the movie and Lord Voldemort(Ralph Fiennes) swoops in and steals the movie with a crackling energy and very foul mouth. Throw in a midget, a town that becomes a character and discussions of a racial war, mix them all up, and then sit back and enjoy the show. Do yourself a favor and see it!

4. Lucky # Slevin- Yes, the twist is telegraphed about 15 minutes in, but the movie is not about the twist. The twist is secondary. The fun is watching it all unfold. Josh Hartnett has never been better as a guy who is just too cool for school. Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Lucy Lui and Ben Kingsley all make nice appearances, but Josh Hartnett is this movie. it kind of lives and dies with his ability to shoot out quippy and punny one-liners with the gusto to really sell them. The movie is another film out of Tarantino 101, and while it does not succeed as well as In Bruges, it does enough things right to warrant me watching it repeatedly. It never takes itself too seriously, which is essentially for movies that are blending the comic and the overly violent comic.

5. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang- if you have ever asked me to recommend a movie to you, chances are I have offered up this movie as a suggestion. That is how crazy I am about it. It has a perfect script. Yes, perfect. It is so full of wonderfully META moments that pop off the screen when given with perfect dead pan by Robert Downey Jr. The dialog is so smart and hilarious that I am still catching things with every viewing. It is a movie for people who love movies and understand how movies perceive to work. It has some fun with the concept of a narrator, and an unreliable one at that. It is a funny story, mixed with a semi serious murder mystery and it has Val Kilmer as a gay private eye whose ringtone is I Will Survive. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the movie and I seriously implore to seek it out if you have not seen it. Or to go see it again if you have seen it.

Well there you have it, my Anytime Movies. I had a lot of fun with this series, mostly because I recently rewatched all 25 of these movies.