Jan 31 2010

TV: Week of January 31

Category: TV,Upcoming — velveetahead @ 9:26 pm

There’s this little show that you might have heard about that is premiering this week: Lost. It’s the final season. Will we find out the answers? I don’t even care anymore. I just like the craziness of it all. Also this week,  in order to avoid getting killed by the Winter Olympics, Bones and Fringe will be going on hiatus. They’ll come back after the Olympics are over.

Pick of the Week

Lost
Channel: ABC
Time: 8/7c
Starring: Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Josh Holloway, Michael Emerson, Terry O’Quinn, Emilie de Ravin, Henry Ian Cusick, Jeff Fahey, Jorge Garcia, Zuleikha Robinson, Daniel Dae Kim, Ken Leung, Nestor Carbonell, Naveen Andrews, Yunjin Kim
Premieres: Tuesday, February 2
Trailer

Synopsis: Did Juliet really die? Did she reset the crazy time thing? Who the hell is Locke now? What is the smoke monster?

My Take: I am completely ready for head explody!

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Jan 29 2010

Movies Opening January 29

Category: 2010,Movies,Opening — velveetahead @ 9:54 am

Mel Gibson’s first movie in a really long time was barely hanging onto some good reviews throughout the week, but it ended up in rotten territory after more reviews came in from critics. Hardly anyone likes the When in Rome though.

Nationwide Releases

Edge of Darkness
When in Rome

Edge of Darkness
Directed: Martin Campbell
Starring: Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Bojana Novakovic, Shawn Roberts
Trailer

Synopsis: Mel Gibson gains a Boston accent and has nothing to lose, just like in Lethal Weapon.

My Take: Mel Gibson has gotten super wrinkly.

RT Score: 56%
RT Consensus: For better and for worse, Edge of Darkness offers vintage Mel Gibson, working within the familiar framework of a bloody revenge thriller.

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Jan 28 2010

Taken

Category: 2008,Movies,Reviews — jimz0r @ 7:02 pm

Liam Neeson is a former government agent named Bryan, whose dumb teenager daughter insists on going on an unsupervised trip to Europe with her friend.  Almost immediately after they arrive, they’re targeted by kidnappers who break into their apartment and take them away to be sold into prostitution.  As that’s happening, the daughter is able to call Bryan and give a brief description of the kidnappers.  After that, things get nuts.  Bryan flies to Europe, leverages some of the connections he has from his former profession and starts killing the people involved, while trying to track down and rescue his daughter.

The movie is completely implausible, but never takes itself too seriously.  Bryan is a complete badass in the vein of Jason Bourne, no big gun battles, just a lot of breaking limbs and snapping necks.  His daughter is annoying and stupid and I’m glad she’s kidnapped and absent for most of the movie.

My favorite part of the movie is a phone exchange between Bryan and the kidnapper, immortalized in the trailer and TV spots for the movie:

Bryan: I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

It’s a mindless, good time, for sure, and Liam Neeson is excellent.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Jan 25 2010

Avatar

Category: 2009 Reviews,Movies,Reviews — velveetahead @ 9:42 pm

The movie was hyped for months before it was released. We were supposed to be amazed at the technology. When I finally saw the trailer, I didn’t understand the hype. The story didn’t look too interesting to me and I didn’t see anything mind blowing. Maybe I was already amazed at Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies. If it was 3D that was amazing, then that isn’t super exciting to me. It could be my vision being a bit off, but I don’t like wearing 3D glasses over my regular glasses. I actually like to go to theaters with big enough screens so I can get away with wearing any glasses, but I think I am missing out on some 3D action due to it. You can take all of this into account when reading this review.

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Jan 24 2010

TV: Week of January 24

Category: TV,Upcoming — velveetahead @ 7:02 pm

Cable television has a lot of premieres this week with the third seasons of Damages and Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Psych continues its fourth season with its winter premiere on a new night. The only new premiere on network television is Kitchen Nightmares on FOX. This week also has the series finale of Dollhouse.

Pick of the Week

Damages
Channel: FX
Time: 10/9c
Starring: Glenn Close, Rose Byrne, Tate Donovan, Campbell Scott, Martin Short, Lily Tomlin
Premieres: Monday, January 25
Trailer

Synopsis: Patty Hewes is back, this time going against an investment firm. Ellen still doesn’t trust Patty and Tom is finally made a partner.

My Take: It went a little all over the place last season, but was still better than a lot of television out there. I also like eventually learning the mystery that is set up at the beginning of each season.

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Jan 22 2010

Movies Opening January 22

Category: 2010,Movies,Opening — velveetahead @ 9:46 pm

It is Paul Bettany’s week. He’s an archangel in Legion and Darwin in Creation. Neither one of them look very interesting though. The other wide releases don’t look too great either.

Nationwide Releases

Extraordinary Measures
Legion
Tooth Fairy

Extraordinary Measures
Directed: Tom Vaughan
Starring: Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser, Keri Russell
Trailer

Synopsis: A father goes to great lengths to pay for experimental research from the scientist that might find a cure for his sick kids.

My Take: The critics talk about it looking like a tv movie. When I first saw the commercial on tv, I thought it was for a tv movie.

RT Score: 27%
RT Consensus: Despite a timely topic and a pair of heavyweight leads, Extraordinary Measures never feels like much more than a made-for-TV tearjerker.

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Jan 18 2010

Favorite Music 2009

Category: Listening,Music — velveetahead @ 2:05 am

I usually do my favorite albums from the past year, but I also downloaded a lot of singles that I loved. I didn’t want to forget them. For most of these, I have the albums to go along with the song, but some of them are just really good songs all on their own when the album didn’t really do it for me.

Below there is a clip of each song. The entire playlist is also available on YouTube.

Favorite Song 2009

Artist: Miike Snow
Song: Animal
Album: Miike Snow

How did I determine which would be my overall favorite song of the year? In 2008, I could not stop listening to “Sex on Fire” by Kings of Leon  over and over and over again. This year, that honor goes to Miike Snow’s “Animal”. I still am not sick of it. It is just catchy and makes my head start bouncing whenever I hear it. I heard it for the first time while I was listening to the new releases on Amazon, which I really need to get back to doing. I then heard the song a couple of times on 94.7. It wasn’t played too often, but I loved it. They are a Swedish band. I saw them live a few months back. They were excellent.

YouTube Preview Image

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Jan 17 2010

TV: Week of January 17

Category: TV,Upcoming — velveetahead @ 8:05 pm

The Golden Globes are tonight. They are my favorite award show since the celebrities are able to eat and drink before the awards start, so that makes some acceptance speeches entertaining. They also chair hop quite a bit so you never know who will be sitting where when the camera tries to find a certain celebrity. Starting tonight, 24 will be trying to kill everyone again with too much of it with two nights of two-hour episodes. Human Target will premiere tonight before moving to its regular Wednesday night. This Friday all the broadcast networks and quite a few cable channels will have holding a telethon for Haiti.

Pick of the Week

Human Target
Channel: FOX
Time: 8/7c
Starring: Mark Valley, Chi McBride, Jackie Earle Haley
Premieres: Sunday, January 17
Trailer

Synopsis: A personal security guard puts himself in harm’s way for various clients. He doesn’t have super powers, but a bit of a  suicide wish.

My Take: I love Mark Valley and hope this is the show for him. I think it looks like a lot of fun. I also love Chi McBride, even if he plays the same character in every show.

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Jan 15 2010

Movies Opening January 15

Category: 2010,Movies,Opening — velveetahead @ 2:38 pm

The Lovely Bones went into wide release this week. It’s reviews didn’t improve though since it is still rotten. Other than that, it is either Denzel Washington kicking ass or Jackie Chain kicking wussier ass. The only thing of interest to me is the Fish Tank British movie in limited release.

Nationwide Releases

The Book of Eli
The Spy Next Door
The Lovely Bones

The Book of Eli
Directed: Allen Hughes, Albert Hughes
Starring: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, Michael Gambon, Evan Jones, Jennifer Beals
Trailer

Synopsis: It is like an updated version of The Road Warrior with a random extra plot of teaching a girl how to be a killer thrown in.

My Take: It looks like it would be mindless, stylized fun.

RT Score: 45%
RT Consensus: It’s certainly uneven, and many viewers will find that its reach exceeds its grasp, but The Book of Eli finds the Hughes brothers injecting some fresh stylish fun into the kind of post-apocalyptic wasteland filmgoers have seen more than enough of lately.

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Jan 10 2010

TV: Week of January 10

Category: TV,Upcoming — velveetahead @ 4:54 pm

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! It is a cornucopia of new shows in one night, which is odd for January. The Simpsons has its 450th episode. There are also the season premieres of Big Love and Chuck. After tonight, Chuck will move to its normal time slot on Monday nights, pushing Heroes back an hour. How I Met Your Mother has its 100th episode on Monday night, which will feature a lot of singing. Just to confuse things, Fringe will air a new episode on Monday night while following up another new one on its usual Thursday night.

NBC renewed Southland for a second season. While the show was filming that second season, NBC canceled it before it ever got a chance to air its second season. TNT picked it up and will be running the first season episodes starting this week, followed immediately at what would have been its second season.

Season Finales: Sanctuary

Pick of the Week

Chuck
Channel: NBC
Time: 9/8c
Starring: Zachary Levi, Adam Baldwin, Yvonne Strahovski, Joshua Gomez, Sarah Lancaster, Ryan McPartlin
Premieres: Sunday, January 10
Trailer

Synopsis: Chuck got a new version of the Intersect downloaded into his head, which gave him various talents like knowing kung fu, the tango and Flamenco guitar. He has a bit of a problem controlling his new-found abilities though.

My Take: It is a fun, goofy, and romantic spy show that more people should watch. As TV Guide’s Matt Roush has stated, it would be a perfect fit on USA since it fits the mold of its other shows.

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