VH Corner

Me and Marci dressed up like Dee Snider and Slash for Halloween!

I Wonder If This Is Going to Make My Fingers Pickle
October 29, 2006

Maritius

So many tempers on this race. I think the only team that kept their cool was the Cho brothers. The models were even snapping at each other on the island and they have been so nice to each other this entire time. I was trying to tell the model guys that they should stay away from the island detour since they get lost all the time, but they went ahead and got lost. They did manage to make it to the pit stop in second place.

I laughed at everyone that fell into the pit near the sails. I actually expected people to get angry or someone to get hurt from that, but everyone just laughed it off.

Back to the tempers though! I now go back on saying I like the single mothers. Actually, I do like Lyn. I don’t like Karlyn. She is mean and spends too much time arguing. Yes, what the beauty queens did with the tickets was rude, but I think she spent more time arguing about it with the beauty queens and models than actually getting the tickets. She just needed to see if there were four tickets left. If so, then it didn’t matter. She lets the beauty queens get her so worked up. It’s going to kill her. She does not deal well with being tired, which is what I’m guessing is leading to her constant grumpiness. I think that’s why we saw a lot of people grumpy this episode. The race is wearing them out.

She also was ready to ditch all the other teams when Lyn said that she wondered where the other teams were as a courtesy. I don’t think having an alliance this far into the game is smart for any team, but she needs to tell the other teams before they start the race that they are on their own. What Karlyn does is lets them think she is going to help them, take their help, but is ready to ditch them when she has the chance. Cho and Kentucky waited for the single moms again and again.

I am so glad that the Cho brothers decided to race to the mat. All of the alliance teams needs to say that their alliance is done, but it doesn’t look that way. Kentucky are going to lose waiting for the other teams when they are in the rare chance of being ahead of them. I really don’t think they will make it the next round, unless there is a fast forward again. They are pretty lucky with the non-elimination twice.

Rob & Kimberly were back in fine form! I can’t believe he killed the clutch and freaked out so much. Why didn’t he just push the car since it was in neutral, instead of wandering around in the road telling people to go around when there was no room to go around? It seemed only locals could figure that out for him and push his car off the road. Then Rob goes back to being annoyed by being in a foreign country and people not understanding him. Uggg. They need to leave. I laughed at Kimberly’s rudeness when she didn’t see Rob fall and just yelled at him “What are you doing?” when he was so far behind. haha! She is so awful.

I am not thrilled with the beauty queens. All I see is horse teeth and short shorts. They are super mean and I really hope payback comes to them soon.

Next week looks interesting with the “intersection”. I wonder what that is about.

A Scanner Darkly

Richard Linklater wrote and directed the story by Philip K. Dick s novel about excessive drug use and government recording everything about everyone. It was shot as a normal film, but has had each cell animated for a really trippy look.

I have never read a Philip K. Dick story, but I seem to love movies made out of his stories, like Bladerunner and Majority Report. Even when I don’t like the movie (Paycheck), I like the premise behind it, even though it has been poorly executed.

In this case, I didn’t really dig the story. I wanted to see it because the rotoscoping was very intriguing in the trailers. That is what it is called when each film cell is animated. It worked for the movie, but it also drove me crazy at times. Keanu Reeves plays an undercover cop trying to infiltrate a drug ring. In order to keep everyone safe, when he goes into the police station and talks to his boss, he wears a full body suit that distorts his image constantly while also altering his voice. You can’t tell if he’s male or female, black or white, or much of anything. He can’t tell the same about his boss or anyone else in that area of the police precinct. While the rotoscoping makes this much easier to show how he is morphing from one person to the next while talking, it messes with your eyes after a while. I couldn’t wait for the scenes to end when he was wearing that suit since it was driving me crazy.

Robert Downey Jr. is awesome. He’s a complete paranoid militant freak who assumes the government is out to get him. He plays this part well. Rory Cochrane also plays what could be his character from Dazed and Confused a few years later. He’s paranoid from the drugs, but he just thinks that bugs are out to get him. It is the most animated I have seen him in a long time, since he was about as exciting as one of the corpses on CSI:Miami when he was on that show. I thought he had forgotten how to act, but maybe he hated it there.

Keanu is Keanu. He’s the same no matter what he does. Winona is okay. Nothing really outstanding there.

I thought the movie went on a little too long. I thought it was over and then it send Keanu’s character out into some field to work. It needed to continue to actually show the “twist” at the end, but really wasn’t a twist, but I already felt like the movie should be over so I wasn’t thrilled when it actually ended. It was a bit of a downer all around.

Grade: C

Superman Returns

Superman has been away for five years. Lois is with a new guy and has a five-year-old son. Lex Luthor just got out of prison and he s pissed.

I was disappointed by this movie. It was very slow and not everyone gelled together. I love Smallville in all of its cheesiness, and this movie could have used some of that. It took itself so seriously for so much of the movie, that I really only enjoyed it when it lightened up a bit.

I like the scenes with Lex Luthor. Kevin Spacey did a great job with the character. Parker Posey was a little over the top, but she didn’t annoy too much. Jeremy’s arch nemeses really showed their teeth when there were two pomeranians, but then there was only one. He knows not to trust those dogs.

Lois Lane was horrible. Kate Bosworth is so extremely bland. Where was Lois’s spunk? Where was her fire? Where was her personality? Why would one guy, let alone two, fight over her, I have no idea. And what is up with poor Cyclops from X-Men getting screwed over and not getting the girl again. He really sucks with the women. Back to boring Lois though. There was no chemistry between her and Superman. I don’t know if it was her fault or his, but since she annoyed me when he wasn’t on the screen, I’ll blame her.

I liked when Brandon Routh was Clark and was acting goofy. He did a decent job of going from goofy to serious when he was Superman, but I would have liked to see more goofy.

I didn’t mind the kid being around, even though kid stories do not thrill me normally. Why it was such a surprise that he would be Clark’s kid, I have no idea. Everyone knew it, the moment they saw him. That was a stupid plot point.

Overall, the movie took too long to get to any action. Then when it was happening, it wasn’t overly exciting. This did not seem like the same director that made the first two awesome X-Men movies. I don’t know what happened, but I have no desire to watch this movie again, except for the very beginning with the evil dogs.

Grade: C+

Every Man for Himself
October 25, 2006

Did Sawyer really think that Kate loved him? Why did that Other guy care if she did? Seemed like a stupid question to ask. I did like how they tricked him into believing that he had a pacemaker and how Kate got out of the cage so easily before jumping right back in.

I liked when Jack told Juliet that he could care less about making her feel better. heehee! Jack isn’t mr. nice guy to everyone and as much as the Others say they aren’t bad, they are holding people there against their will. Seems pretty rude!

Where was Locke this episode?

So it does seem that Desmond can foresee the future and it isn’t just a dream thing unless he dreamed about lightening hitting Claire’s shelter.

I enjoyed Sawyer’s back story and how he conned that guy into telling him where the money was so he could get out of jail. Good ole Sawyer.

This episode was pretty good since I enjoy the Kate/Sawyer interactions and Jack/Juliet interactions, but I really enjoyed the loopiness of last week’s episode. I hope more are like that.

9:02
October 25, 2006

It said that two (or three) weeks had passed, but nothing seemed different. What is really wrong with the mayor? Who has the flu for that long? I have been wiped out by the flu before, but I was sick for two weeks. This seems longer than that. It has to be something else than the flu.

It seemed like nothing had changed since Eric hadn’t told April it was over, and his mistress was still wondering what was going on. She really has nothing better to do, I guess.

We finally get a hint about what happened with Jake. It sounded like some kind of robbery and someone got killed. Sounds messy! I see why he ran. Is that why his passport is flagged? I would think it would be for other activities like something terrorist related. Hawkins gave a good answer to his daughter when she asked if Jake was a good or bad guy since it fits him too. There is no such thing.

I would think all the liquor would have relaxed IRS lady by now, but I guess not. Why couldn’t she just ask if she could stay with Stanley. Why did she have to go about it all rudely?

The people of the town need to realize that they have to work together if they are going to get through this mess. It looks like things will never be the same, so they should be sharing food and supplies, and not worrying about what is theirs or someone else’s. It isn’t like money really matters any more. They should be on a bartering system permanently at this point.

Also, can’t they still have school, even with no power? They can teach class outside. There are still books and other supplies that don’t need power. They need to do something to keep the kids occupied.

Finally, Hawkins’ laptop works because it was rubberized, but does he has a permanent battery supply? How is it still working since it isn’t like he can plug it in to charge up the laptop.

The Great Stink
October 24, 2006

Rory was focusing on the wrong thing with Logan. Yes, I know he cheated on her in the past (well not really since he thought they had broken up), but her issue shouldn’t have been than he works with a beautiful woman. I think the bigger issue was he came into town for business, but he spent one of the two nights there with co-workers that he sees everyday! He should have only been with them for the morning meeting. Other than that, it should have just been him and Rory. She could be introduced to his co-workers, but not spend an entire night with them. She can do that when she is visiting in London around Christmas. There will be more time. She also has to either trust Logan or break up with him. She doesn’t trust him or else she wouldn’t have the issue with Bobbi. She needs to calm down.

Lorelai said outloud what I talked about last week with treating Christopher like she was used to treating Luke, by keeping her mouth shut since he didn’t want to hear her opinion about April. Chris actually values her opinion, even if they do end up fighting over it. It was cute to see them together with Rory in the car ride home. I also loved the mention of Emily being in jail and everyone enjoying the pictures on the cell phone, including Richard. Awesome!

I also learned that Chris’s daughter is named Gigi, not Gia, like I thought last week. At least I was close. I was all for getting rid of the daughter in Paris, but now they get to go to Paris!

I liked the little subplot about the pickles. It was amusing. I am also glad that there was a lack of April in this episode. Yeah!

Charlie Don’t Surf
October 24, 2006

This was the first episode of this season that reminded me of past seasons. I loved the dinner with Logan and Keith Mars. I liked Veronica trying to stop anything remotely bad from happening. Keith has good reason to be wary of Logan!

Logan seemed to be acting more like he was last season when he was worried about his finances and he thought he had found a half brother. I felt bad for him when it turned out to be a magazine story. Then when he thought his real half brother had screwed him over, but really hadn’t, I felt so bad for his brother. He assumes everyone is out to get him, since they usually are, and when someone is actually being a decent human being, he just made his life hell. Poor Charlie Stone.

I’m not a big fan of the fraternity/sorority thing in colleges, but those girls have to get over their hatred for the fraternity that they think did the rapes. They also have to quit blaming Veronica for trying to figure out the truth. I did like the gropey guys all getting their hands trapped in the mouse traps. haha.

Laura San Giacomo has really let herself go. I didn’t recognize her right away when she came into Keith’s office. They were cute together. Too bad her marriage is still together.

I was sad at the lack of Wallace, Mac and Piz in this episode.

Hiro’s
October 23, 2006

I still love this show, but the new message made me laugh. “Save the cheerleader. Save the world.” It does fit in with the comic book world that the show seems to take place with some cheesy dialogue between Peter and Mohinder when they first met in the cab, but couldn’t the writers come up with something better? Anyway, other than the wording of the message, I did like how Hiro showed up and gave Peter some clues to follow. I enjoyed watching him go find Isaac again, do the crazy painting thing (especially watching his eyes go all weird), and figure out the order of the paintings. I liked seeing the painting lined up as a comic book. I enjoyed Peter giving Hiro the message at the end of the episode like how Hiro gave him one at the end of the previous episode.

I found it very convenient that Hiro and his friend were dropped off in the “desert” that was really close to the diner. I kept cracking up each time Hiro talked about waffles. When Hiro saw Nathan come flying down, he was so cute! He was in such awe and their conversation was funny. I loved Nathan being amused by Hiro and his excitement. When Hiro got back to his car and started messing with it, that’s when I realized that he must not have drove from L.A. to Vegas and he was basically stuck until his friend showed up again.

I actually felt sorry for Nathan when Niki told him the truth about her arrangement to pay off her debt. He looked hurt that she didn’t happen to run into him the previous night. When Hiro’s friend showed up at Niki’s place, I found it cute instead of stalkerish. It seems she did too. I’m not sure what he was actually expecting either. Niki’s husband freaked me out! Crazy hiding in the wall guy. I now wonder what superpowers their kid has if they both have something.

Matt is going to give away his ability to his wife, if he doesn’t calm down with doing exactly what she wants. He needs to work on that. Now, it seems that he has the issue of hearing too many people’s thoughts, like when he was in the convenience store. Or maybe people’s thoughts get louder when they are frightened.

I really thought Claire was going to tell her father everything that happened, but I’m glad she told him about the almost rape. I thought he was going to kill the kid, but wiping his mind clean is a good alternative. He didn’t say he didn’t know who he was when Claire talked to him. He just said that wasn’t his name. I wonder if he was given a whole other set of memories. It’ll be interesting if we find out more about him. I hope he doesn’t just disappear.

Nice She Ain’t
October 22, 2006

Yes, there were major storylines going on in the episode, but I have a grave concern with the show: 80’s fashion! First, we had Danielle (finally remembered her name) with her high hair. It was down for a bit so I thought that craziness had passed, but no, it was back with a vengeance during the episode. Then Julie’s friend Sarah with her horrible ’80s hairstyle and shirt that belongs in Flashdance. I had heard rumors that ’80s fashion was coming back in style. I know the little emo kids love their black plastic bracelets, but someone must show these kids who were not alive in the ’80s that it is just a bad idea. Please just let our old yearbook photos be enough to remind us of those horrible ideas. I really don’t want to see neon and parachute pants back in style. I might start crying.

As for the rest of the episode, Nora came back. booooo! She has started to try to play Lynette and Tom against each other. I didn’t get her comment about how Lynette and Nora would have to start stripping just to make ends meet. Um, Lynette has a high-paying job where they can afford to not have Tom work. Why would she need to make extra money? Nora can do whatever she wants, but don’t drag Lynette into your sick little world!

I felt bad for Carlos when Gaby brought random guy home from the bar. I didn’t think they should have been together in the first season, but think they are both in different places now. I don’t think he takes her for granted like he did. She does still take his money for granted though. I loved Gaby banging the bed against the wall when Phil and Carlos were downstairs. Hilarious.

It is so weird to see Mike so untrusting of Susan. He is doing a good job making all of their chemistry they had before disappear. He doesn’t have any with Edie either. I don’t know why she doesn’t tell him about Ian’s situation where his wife is in a coma. It seems that Mike deserves to know the truth, but she is only telling him half the story and it isn’t even the half that makes her look good.

I will say again, that I am so glad Andrew is back. I loved the dinner conversations where everyone was picking on Danielle (I would too with that hair), including Andrew and Orson. Then when Andrew sees she’s trying to kill herself, lamely, he doesn’t mind waiting until his mother is done with her story and laughing at her trying to cut herself with spoons. I liked how Bree found out that Danielle was really having an affair with her teacher, and her comment to the motel owner about the fabulous new carpets. I liked how she got the teacher to end it too. All good stuff. Not too sure about Orson freaking out at the hospital though. I guess we’ll find out about that later on.

Finally, I don’t care if Julie and Edie’s nephew (forget his name) get together or not. I don’t like her saying she would write any part of his paper. Don’t be such a sucker! I’m glad she did something about it by the end of the episode, but can’t believe such a smart girl would fall for it to begin with.