Back to the Machine

Okay. So, it's been a while since I've done any blogging and, with the new TV season about to kick off, I thought it was about time to start again.

I spent the long weekend catching up with a lot of summer TV shows (Rescue Me, The 4400, The Inside and a few reruns I missed during the regular season) and I also saw several movies.

Let's start with the movies.

First I saw The Skeleton Key. Kate Hudson is a hottie. The movies HooDoo roots were very cool. The Louisiana bajou (specifically around New Orleans which I imagine looks a LOT different these days for obvious reasons) is creepy enough to begin with without putting all the bad juju on it but while the plot was predictable and the I saw a lot of the "twists" coming ahead of time, the movie made me jump - a few times. I know, I know, it wasn't really that scary but remember, I'm a sissy. All in all, not too bad but lacking in true creativity. It's hard to take a horror movie seriously when all the people make such bad (read: cliche) decisions. Fairly tense though. I'll give it a C+.

Next up was Shaun of the Dead (on DVD). I'd read only good things about this movie. And despite a complete dearth of recognizable actors (aside from the always a bit odd Bill Nighy), this movie was very watchable. The dialogue was decidedly British - but then again it was in England and very, very funny. Low-budget but thoroughly enjoyable. A-

Then it was on to The Transporter 2. I've been looking forward to this movie since I saw the trailer for it a few months ago (and it was pretty nice to me on HSX as well). I loved the first one, with Jason Statham karate-chopping his way through the bad guys like some kind of low-key Jet Li but, honestly, this one was a bit hokey. Several times, people in the audience (me included) let out groans of disbelief as he pulled off suspension-of-disbelief stretching stunts. But, on the other hand, there aren't too many movies that feature the kind of ass-kicking showcased here and, frankly, I miss that - a LOT. So, despite it's over-the-top concept and a very bad (although this is not in any way a surprise given his recent performances) Matthew Modine (Amber Valetta though - so hot), I'm going to say that this is more like what I want to see in an action movie and give it a B.

To finish off the weekend, it was The 40 Year Old Virgin which, despite bad word of mouth from a few people, made me laugh out loud for at least the first hour +. Potty humor and bad pick-up lines made this movie a laugh riot. While I wouldn't say it's any kind of high cinema, I would say it's a quality comedy with enough of a heart to outshine any anti-Steve Carrell feelings you might harbor (and I harbor many - seriously, MANY). Still, B+ to A- (the A- would be mostly for Paul Rudd and Seth Rogan).

After Virgin, I got home in time to catch the majority of the Showtime movie (aired simultaneously on Lifetime (where I caught it)) Speak. Along the vein of like Thirteen, this movie shows a young girl dealing with date rape. Steve Zahn (who I love) and D.B. Sweeney (who I also dig a LOT) were pretty spot on as teacher and father, respectively, and the movies sparse dialogue was particularly effective. I'm a little enamored of girl-power movies (and TV shows) and this one showed that it's sometimes hard to be as brave as we'd all like to think we are. Let's just go ahead and give this one an A.

More later. Mostly TV for a while though.

Somewhere Between 16 and 20 Tapes

I've had this number on top of my TV now for about 3 months and the piles don't seem to be getting much smaller. Between it being summer and not working at night any longer (at least not exclusively at night anyway) and a few other intangibles (like Jill being my room mate now, for instance), I'm simply not watching as much TV as I would like to be watching. I still squeeze some in but I can't seem to make a noticeable dent in the piles of tapes on top of my TV. So, what follows is like TV reviews if you're like a month behind on TV (like me).

I've started watching that new Jenny McCarthy show on UPN and while most of the jokes are decidedly chick oriented, I still think Miss McCarthy is a credible comedy actress. Albeit, one with very feathered hair. She has impeccable timing and even when the lingo is a bit hip for a conventional joke she pulls them off. This show is definitely worth watching if you happen to be right there anyway.

Beauty and the Geek is not that good. I already want to kill that Richard guy. And the girls are nothing all that special either. Especially since they throw the nice ones out early.

Cuts with Shannon Elizabeth is definitely the worst show I've seen in a long time. Bad (and I mean truly awful) jokes don't help the already flawed premise of putting this show out to begin with.

I've been taping but still haven't seen The Closer (TNT), 30 Days (FX), Rock Star; INXS (Fox, I think), the new season of Rescue Me (FX), the new season of The 4400 (USA, I think) and the new season of Monk (USA). I did catch the first episode of The Inside and thought it was a bit murky and a little hard to pick up the back story on but still pretty good.

I'm hoping to get in some quality time with the idiot box sometime in the next week, so until then, this will have to do.