rewind 2012: tv

It's been awhile, since I posted anything.  I thought I would have finished these by now, but what the heck, it's still relevant to me.  As  I wind down on the rewinding 2012, here's my thoughts on TV.  

1.  Breaking Bad

This show gets better and better every year.  This year really had Walt going to an especially dark place even freaking out Jesse his partner in crime.  I can't wait to see how this ends as the final season wraps up this summer.  An inventive and just unbelievably well done show.  

2.  Fringe

I have loved this show from the beginning and it finished up this year in January 2013 after 5 years.  The final season that started in September 2012 was riveting and a definite departure as they flash forwarded several years to an observer controlled society.  The previous season that ended in May 2012, wrapped up the alternate universe storyline they had built up for several years.  This sci-fi show was always a bit crazy and for whatever reason I just loved every second of it.  

3.  The Walking Dead

This show got really really good this year.   The current 3rd season has been one of my favorites.  The people are more fearful than the zombies I think.  The addition of David Morrissey as the Governor is absolutely fantastic.  The biggest craziest and emotional moment that made me realize that this season was gonna be amazing came in episode 4 of the 3rd season.  Lori died while giving birth!  We lost T Dog.  This episode was so good that it could've been a season finale and it was only a few episodes in.  I cried like a baby.   This show is must watch right away TV.  

4.  Parenthood

This show makes me cry every week.   This year's cancer storyline struck me so close to home it's just plain riveting TV.   One of the most normal shows in my top 10, this is a top notch written show created by Jason Katims and starring a fantastic and huge cast.  The Braverman clan gets to me like not many others.  I really hope that this show continues on the air and is back for more next year, since this was an especially good season.

5.  Parks and Recreation

This show makes me laugh like not many others.  I don't always watch live, but so funny.  The supporting cast is as good as the main leads.   It makes me laugh and their small town politics are just crazy.   Leslie Knope ran for council woman this year!  The relationship between Adam Scott & Amy Poehler's characters are just the heart of this show right now.   

6.  Awake

Kyle Killen created a trippy weird crazy drama that had me glued to the TV every week.  I even watched most episodes twice to try to get the connections.  I'm not sure that a show like this is intended to survive in the television landscape, but I really love it when they try.   Great show! 

7.  Survivor/Amazing Race

I listed these 2 shows together since they are a good guilty pleasure and are both reality shows on CBS.  These are fun and constantly getting dumber people to play.  The Amazing Race is fun to see where they go and what people are willing to do.  Survivor is always interesting to watch for the social politics.  I'm not sure why I enjoy them so much after all these years and I definitely have soured on other reality television, but these ones keep me watching.  

8.  Revolution

This show had such a good pilot that I was hooked right away.  Now, the idea that they are trying to build a mythology is a little off putting and the cast isn't super awesome, but each week I'm entertained and willing to see where they go.  Any show with Elizabeth Mitchell also gets a lot of chances to succeed with me.  I'm curious to see more about why the lights went out and what's going to happen now that they are starting to come back on.  

9.  Cougar Town

This show with Courtney Cox and a very funny ensemble cast is always hilarious.  I was a bit concerned when they were leaving ABC, but to my surprise, they came back in 2013 to TBS of all places.  It's a sweet and funny show and always makes me laugh - most of the time out loud.   

10.  Community

This show is funny and crazy all at the same time.  Chang trying to kill everyone at Greendale and take over as a dictator.  Troy and Abed in everything.   Their handshakes, their "morning show", and Troy's foray into the dark side of refrigerator repair.  You never know what will happen with this show.  I purchased Hulu Plus this year with the specific reason of watching all the episodes over the summer this year.  

Now, that you've seen my favorites, let's delve into some things that personally made me very disappointed.  American Horror Story: Asylum, had me very excited.  Last year's original American Horror Story was inventive, scary and riveting.  I found this season to be mired in clichés and gross out tactics each week.  I didn't enjoy Asylum and surprisingly stopped watching it mid way through the season.  Same for Boardwalk Empire.  I've also enjoyed this show, but it's pretty dense.  This year, it just got too dense or slow or something.  I wasn't enjoying it and with only 4 episodes left, completely stopped watching it.  Maybe I'll pick it up again on Netflix or something, but I was generally bored this year.  Others that started with high hopes and I quickly got bored with were Missing, The River, Alcatraz and perhaps most disappointing Sarah Michelle Gellar's Ringer.  The show was so complicated that I just couldn't wrap my head around it or enjoy it.  I gave it many chances since I loved Buffy, but not my type of show.  Pan Am, was a great period piece, but it just got boring too.  Animal Practice was heavily advertised during the Summer Olympics so I was very excited by it, but the show was not funny and it had a MONKEY!  The Olympics had me transfixed at times this year too.  I'm never sure with the Olympics, but it was very entertaining this go round.  

Other shows that I enjoyed, but didn't make my top 10.   Game of Thrones is fantastical and amazing each week. The seasons are much too short, but I love this show.  Looking forward to more dragons this year.  Scandal is a crazy little political thriller type soap and Kerri Washington is fantastic.  New Girl, How I Met Your Mother and Raising Hope make me laugh whenever I watch and even The Mindy Project.  I just don't find these to be must watch TV.  In new comedies, I seem to have grown the most fond of Go On with Matthew Perry.  The supporting ensemble is funny, but the premise of a support group for people who've lost loved ones is a bit on the depressing side, but it makes it real.   Good Wife is always interesting and kind of soapy.   NCIS is always fun to watch, but mostly for my cousin Chris's writing.  Veep with Julia Louis Dreyfuss got me hooked this year and I found it to be hilarious and I'm hoping it comes back for more soon.  Girls on HBO, I watched several times, but I just couldn't get into it. I know it wins tons of awards, but just not my cup of tea.   Newsroom by Aaron Sorkin is interesting but not sure if I'll stick with it next year.  We'll have to see.  Got a little bit boring as the season went on, but I did stick with it.  The reboot of Dallas was surprisingly fun and Falling Skies was interesting again.   Being Human always gets a space in the DVR too.   2012's big storylines were great and best when I watched 3-4 episodes at a time.   Finally, last year I was riveted by Revenge, but this year the show has gotten overly complex.  It's still sexy and filled with beautiful people and fun, but a little less addictive this season.  

As you can tell, there's lots of TV that I'm interested in checking out, but not a lot makes it to appointment TV.   What's for sure is that there is a lot of good TV being done and some of the best storytelling is found on TV.   Let's see what 2013 brings.  I've already noticed that so far for 2013 Arrow on CW is keeping me watching and looking forward to Game of Thrones coming back.  I'm sure Walking Dead will finish off great since each week has been even better than the last.  Finally, this summer will see the final season of Breaking Bad, which as you can tell from earlier in this post, I'm completely excited for.   

I'll try to write more as we go, but you never  know since I'm slow to update.   

no clue movie review - fred's 2010 oscar picks

It's Oscar Sunday! I like watching the Oscars. Not too many award shows that I still enjoy watching, but for some reason I always watch this one from beginning to end each year. I even watch the Barbara Walters Special. I hear this is her last year for that special. Anyway, not sure what the show will bring, but I always like to post my Oscar Picks.

This year I downloaded an official ballot from Oscar.com. You can too! I marked my picks with little stars and I think I did a pretty good job. District 9 for Best Adapted Screenplay could be a sentimental pick, but what the hell. Click on the picture to see my picks larger.
We'll see later today if I'm right.

I saw some of this year's nominated movies, but like every year I didn't see all of them. Here's a list of movies that I still need to see and want to see:
The Hurt Locker
Up In The Air
A Single Man
An Education
A Serious Man
Invictus
Un Prophete
The Last Station
The Lovely Bones
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Nine
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Julie & Julia
The Cove
Food, Inc.
There maybe more, but not sure. There are other movies that I didn't see too, but I may not see those at all. We'll see.

Now that you know what I didn't see, I thought I could give some mini-reviews of the nominated movies I did see this year.

Avatar: I absolutely loved this movie! Technologically, this is a masterpiece. What James Cameron is able to achieve with motion capture & animation is just brilliant. Brings this technology to a whole new level. I was able to feel completely immersed in his world as soon as the film began. I felt very connected to these characters and for the first time with motion capture the eyes of the characters really came alive. I mean Gollum in Lord of the Rings movies was fantastic, but this flick takes it to a whole new level. I think making this kind of a movie must have its appeal for actors as well in the same way an animated feature does. It's kind of odd to judge the acting, because some of it is enhanced by animation. Nonetheless, all the actors acquitted themselves well especially Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver. This film's story is simplistic - big bad corporation trying to steal from the natives and exploit their land & destroy nature. There's also the boy meets alien and feels more comfortable outside of himself storyline. Even though I feel the story isn't overly complicated, doesn't mean it isn't effective. I enjoyed the story in and out and personally felt it held up to repeated viewings. I've seen it 3 times now in different formats and enjoyed each viewing. Take the technology away and it's a different flick, but it's not all technology that makes this movie enjoyable. This flick has made a boat load of cash and I say good for Avatar. A good movie that really exploits the immersion of IMAX 3D in a whole new way. I highly recommend this movie.

UP: Another fantastic Pixar movie. I don't know how they keep coming up with these stories, but I throughly enjoyed this movie too. Saw it over the summer and the beginning where Carl is thinking about his life & his wife. Ugh, I definitely choked up. The movie is very touching and is very simple in story. The relationship between Carl & Russell is so well done though. Just another fantastic movie. And in a totally different way from WALL-E or Toy Story.

The Blind Side: Sandra Bullock has had quite the year! She was hilarious in the screwball romantic comedy The Proposal. This movie is definitely a different side of Sandra that we don't see very often. How can you not love this woman? This story of Michael Oher & the Toughys (especially Leanne) has been documented as not being completely true to life, but as a movie I don't give a crap. This is a heart warming feel good movie. I was in tears in many different parts of this movie. This flick definitely celebrates family however you define it. I defy you to watch this and not be moved emotionally. That being said, it's not a perfect movie by any means. Some very simple versions of things, like Leanne Toughy marching into the ghetto on more than 1 occasion without incident. Big giant clumsy Michael becomes a football star after Leanne telling him to protect her. But I don't care. This movie was made by the same director as The Rookie and that movie with Dennis Quaid also moved me. Bravo! Good luck to Bullock on Oscar night and I hope she wins Best Actress.

Coraline: I went to see this movie and saw it in 3D. It was really good. It's definitely not a little kids movie, not that they wouldn't enjoy it, but I think it's mainly animation buffs that would appreciate it. It's very dark and reminded me of The Nightmare Before Christmas of course that Tim Burton Henry Selick combo. It's really nice storytelling and the animation was fantastic. I'm sure it was better in 3D, since that looked amazing. I appreciated that there weren't a bunch of 3D gags to pull you in, I believe the days of 3D being used as gags maybe over. Most 3D these days are used to just enhance the film and add to your cinematic experience. I do enjoy animation of all sorts but this kind of stop motion animation is not seen a lot these days and I really appreciated the detail that they put into this. If you enjoy animation, then you'd probably like this flick.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Not much to say about this popcorn movie. It's loud, has tons of cool explosions and lots of giant robots from the get go. It's not much of a story that's realistic anyway. Is it fun? Sometimes. It's a very similar movie to the first Transformers and has all the same players. And yes Megan Fox looks amazing. This isn't the kind of movie that holds up to repeated viewing. Shia LeBeouf, Josh Duhamel and others are fine, but this movie is about big budget effects and big robots. I think it's too long, but other than that it was OK.

Star Trek: I'm not a huge Trekkie, but I've always enjoyed watching these movies. This blows all those other Star Trek flicks out of the water. It pays homage to the original films and doesn't try to ignore their existence while still rebooting the franchise with the original characters from the original series and films. This isn't an easy task considering the history and the fans. I loved Chris Pine as Kirk. He's funny and heroic. He plays well with Zachary Quinto as Spock who's stoic, but also is conflicted. In fact the whole cast is great. Zoe Saldana looks amazing in this movie. I also liked how the filmmakers showed us some tidbits from Kirk & Spock's childhoods. This movie has it all. Action, effects, crazy worlds, time travel and lots of fun storytelling. I was hoping that this movie would get a nomination for Best Picture this year since there were 10 nominees, but I'm glad it's getting some technical recognition. I really enjoyed this movie and this is already a part of my Blu-Ray collection and it holds up well to repeated viewing. I can't wait to see where they take these characters next. It was a blast. This isn't just a movie for Trek fans, this is a movie for fans of good movies.

District 9: I really enjoyed this movie. It is an original piece of sci-fi that isn't always sci-fi. I loved that the effects were seemingly organic to the picture. I loved that the effects didn't feel like effects. Motion capture with those aliens I believe, and boy did it rock! The best motion capture I think since Gollum in Lord of the Rings (besides Avatar, since I hadn't seen that movie yet when I saw this movie). This movie was well acted, well scripted, extremely interesting and engaging. I liked that the mockumentary piece is there, but then kind of abandoned. It really is a truly inspiring well done movie. I would watch this many times over. If you haven't seen it, you should! Really glad to see this one in the Best Picture race, even though it won't win, it's cool to see it among the nominees.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Great effects. Beautiful looking film. I found it exciting and well executed. These movies are highly enjoyable for me. I must admit that I think the last 2 Potter films haven't been extremely faithful to the books, but that doesn't bother me so much since I feel like they can exist outside of each other. I loved reading this book for different reasons than I enjoyed the movie. I think the movie plays up the teen angst much more than the book. The book was a bit more dark and sinister I think. Was it the best Potter? No. But it was an enjoyable Potter. Liked this a lot better than Transformers this summer.

Inglourious Basterds: This was a really great movie. Not as much blood as I had assumed in a Tarantino movie. just the right amount of violence for me. Lots of quiet sections too which surprised me. Acting was good but as usual the writing was fantastic. The language and the time taken between actors to speak the words are pitch perfect. Christoph Waltz deserves the supporting actor win. I'd also like to see it win Best Original Screenplay. A must see for Tarantino fans and maybe for those who aren't. I think it's his best movie since Pulp Fiction.

The Princess and the Frog: Disney's return to traditional 2D animation. I thought this movie was great. Fun, romantic, heart warming. All in the style of the modern classic Disney movies. Music wasn't as memorable I don't think, but it was good. Story is more of a dreams come true and always follow your heart type of story. I just felt good after watching this movie. I don't think it was as good as UP, but better than most animated movies out there.

Sherlock Holmes: Robert Downey Jr. is a great actor, but this film just wasn't fun enough. It was OK, but it just didn't hold up for me. I got bored in a lot of spots. I thought it was a great attempt at bringing a classic character to a modern day audience. But for the most part it fell a little flat for me. CG wasn't the greatest either. Action is a thumbs up though and saves this film from becoming a real snoozer. Great funny dialogue, but I think that is mostly Robert Downey's delivery. Probably the best Guy Ritchie movie in a long time, but that's not saying much since I didn't care for most of this other films.

The Messenger: I had a short post about this movie yesterday. A good flick, but overall disappointing and really depressing. Ben Foster delivers a great performance, but it doesn't go all the way since I felt a lot of it was one note and very angry. Woody Harrelson is great as the mentor and a former soldier who is at odds with his current profession and his attitude at living life. In the end, I didn't feel like over the course of the movie I learned too much more about these characters. I just kind of existed with them in an interesting set of circumstances.

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire: I said it before I'll say it again. A powerful movie and some brave and bold performances by the actresses Gabourey Sidibe and Mo'Nique. This is an excellent portrait of an abused teen and an unflinching look at families that just don't always make it. Blood is thicker than water is the saying, but in this film, escaping abusive family life is just as important in stopping the cycle of abuse. A very tough and hard movie to watch, but such an important one to see. Lee Daniels directs a masterpiece but one that will be tough for me to watch over and over again.

Crazy Heart: Jeff Bridges delivers the performance of a lifetime! Bad Blake is a beat down drunk who is only a fraction of his former self. He is leading his life down a path of destruction until he falls in love with a reporter who changes his life. Fantastic original music overseen by T Bone Burnett and great delicate direction by newcomer Scott Cooper. Maggie Gyllenhaal is fantastic too and so are all the other performances. Again, this is a tour de force performance by Jeff Bridges and that carries this movie. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out.

Thanks for reading the reviews and I'm going to enjoy the Oscars tonight. I hope you do too.

no clue movie review: 2010 Spirit Awards - winners & impressions

I’m a Film Independent member so each year I get to vote for the Independent Spirit Awards. I usually watch the show too on IFC since it’s a breezy show and there’s an open bar and it’s always interesting seeing free booze and speeches mixing. Also, each year, since I do get a vote, I get to see all kinds of nominated movies. It’s usually a mixture of big exciting finds, lots of depressing films, some really lame boring movies that I can't wait to end and finally a few I actually had found on my own and really enjoyed. I thought I’d offer my comments on the winners, the show itself and the many nominated movies I saw and the ones that I still want to see.

You can get a list of all the nominees and winners here since I’m bound to not hit all the categories and movies.

Precious was the big winner. 5 nominations and 5 wins. Best Feature, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best First Screenplay. The official film title is Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. This was an extremely powerful movie. It hit me seriously in the heart. It has fantastic performances by Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Sherri Shepherd, Mariah Carey & Lenny Kravitz and many more. Gabourey Sidibe plays Precious. An overweight illiterate teenager with an awful home life. Her whole life has been filled with horrific physical, mental and sexual abuse. It shows her struggle to put a life together for herself and her children. This movie is carried by the performances of Gabourey and Mo’Nique. They are powerful and for Mo’Nique - who knew she had that in her. She’s been getting tons of recognition for this role and rightfully so. The movie is amazingly tough to watch, but really should be watched. It’s raw and emotional and gut wrenching. I don’t know what else to say. This is the kind of powerful movie that I loved and may only watch it once. It’s that tough, but I would recommend it.

Crazy Heart won 2 Spirit Awards. It was up for 3. This movie was excellent too I thought. Not as tough to watch as Precious, but also featuring a really flawed lead character who undergoes a transformation. It deals with a country singer, down on his luck called Bad Blake. Bad is played by Jeff Bridges in what I would call a role of a lifetime that he was born to play. Brilliantly understated and tragic performance. You see Bad go through so much and out of those experiences some great music emerges as well. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall among others follow Bridges’ lead with their fantastic performances but this movie revolves around Jeff Bridges. It’s a fantastic little movie and I urge you to see it. And enjoy the music where Jeff Bridges and Colin Farrell both sing too.

Winner for Best Screenplay was my favorite find of the Spirit Awards season - (500) Days of Summer. I had wanted to see this movie when it was in theaters, but I missed it. It was a truly fantastic movie and unlike Precious, this could be easily added to my DVD/Blu-Ray collection. Interestingly enough, it’s the type of movie that doesn’t normally get honored at the Spirit Awards. It’s funny, heart warming, unromantic romantic comedy. It was really well done, but it’s not your typical romantic comedy since it’s story telling is kind of all over the place. It’s a very non-linear story but it works so well and delivers so much emotion - laughter, tears, excitement - all kinds. It’s a really well done well written movie that everyone should watch. Great performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel among others. Gordon-Levitt has really made a name for himself in the indie film circuit. I’ve loved him in recent years in Mysterious Skin, Brick, The Lookout and others. He was also in what I can only assume is awful, but haven’t seen it, G.I. Joe movie from last summer. Again, I don’t want to give away too much, but this is a fantastic movie in all regards and I look forward to watching it again someday.

Woody Harrelson won Best Supporting Male for The Messenger. He plays a soldier who notifies next of kin when a soldier dies. It’s an Iraq war drama about another soldier played by Ben Foster (who’s really good in this movie, but needs to show more of a range next time. Too angry all the time, even when he’s maybe looking happy. He was the kid in the Disney Channel series Flash Forward. He's also been in Six Feet Under and Freaks and Geeks.) who starts to fall for a widow of a deceased officer. This movie I found to be good. Not great. I think it’s a movie that is trying to say too much sometimes, not sure. Good performances and good story, but maybe a little too much of the same tough emotions all the time. I think the romance part was done well and brave to not go too far and stay poignant. Those scenes show real emotions but the characters only let you see what's on the surface. The rest is left up to the audience. This movie is worth watching, but it’s another tough and for me ultimately depressing movie even though I felt like the director tried to offer us hope at the end of the movie.

THE SHOW: I thought it was OK. Eddie Izzard was a bit crude and rude, but that’s Eddie Izzard isn’t it. Maybe a little too much polished looking show, but that isn’t 100% accurate. It was enjoyable and still moved at a good pace. I guess the polished part was that it’s starting to feel like a big awards show. They had a set this time and normally it’s just some podiums and a screen. Since it was on Friday night instead of Saturday afternoon, the mood was maybe a bit more glamorous too. Usually this is a T-shirts and jeans crowd, but they were all decked out this time around. I did miss the really corny singing silly songs about the nominated features. I always hated that, but found myself missing it. All in all, it was a fun show I guess. Maybe uneven. OH, and my one pet peeve was the fact that everyone kept saying “independent film” like it was some sort of virus. Once I’d like to watch this show and have them talk about the movies as movies. I understand that they want to highlight that a lot of these movies are done on small budgets and outside of the standard studio system. But most of the winners get released in theaters by Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate, etc. These aren't movies we only saw at festivals. Maybe if we just stuck to the idea that these are good movies that deserve to be celebrated and people should go out and see them or watch them on DVD. I did like the fact that I felt like we got to see more clips this year of the movies, so if you hadn’t seem them, then maybe you were intrigued by the clips to go seek them out.

Overall, I guess the movies this year were of a good quality. Here’s a few more mini-reviews of films that I got to see this year.

Amreeka: Great movie about a single mother moving to America from Palestine. Great understated movie about a family struggling to realize the American dream and caught between the culture they knew and the world they live in. Really a movie concerned greatly with identity. Well done and deserves a look. Nisreen Faour is a great find of an actress and there a lot of good performances by actors I had never seen. (Except Maeby from Arrested Development)

Paranormal Activity: Good little low budget psychological horror. I had seen this one in theaters in October. I thought it was a good movie with OK performances that scared the bejesus out of me. It’s one of those horror movies where you don’t see any blood or killing, but it’s what you don’t see that’s interesting. I left the theater feeling kind of nauseous. I find that the mark of a good flick. The problem is that this movie will probably not repeat well since the shock of it all has worn off. Who knows. Big indie hit though. Hope the filmmakers and actors get more opportunities after this.

Easier With Practice: This is a fucked up little film. The story of a guy on a book tour who receives an anonymous phone call from a woman in a hotel room and he continues on with a phone sex affair with her that kind of takes over his life. It’s whacked out and weird! Creepily enjoyable though. Shot with the RED camera it looks great. It’s also fairly well acted and feels like you’re watching real people. It’s worth a look, but the tagline for this movie would never had got me to watch it. Luckily, they sent me a DVD. The director is someone to look out for in the future. His name is Kyle Patrick Alvarez.

Zero Bridge: This movie deserves a mention for many reasons. It’s a fascinating movie. Shot by a director, Tariq Tapa, with a camera and no other crew and a bunch of non-professional actors in the war torn region of Kashmir. It deserves a look by anyone who likes watching different kinds of movies (notice I didn’t say “independent”). It’s a slow moving story, but riveting and held my attention. I wanted to know more about these characters throughout the movie and after the movie I thought about it for a few hours still. Interesting flick.

Humpday: I just didn’t get it. It was boring, seemed like interesting people having stupid conversations. I did find a few scenes humorous, but not enough to say go see this movie. It won the John Cassavetes Award for best movie made for under $500,000. This is one of the “mumblecore” movies. It’s the story of 2 straight guy friends that decide to make an amateur gay porn film. Again, I just didn’t get it and I was bored the whole time. Stars Mark Duplass of The Puffy Chair. Another flick I just didn’t get.

The Vicious Kind: This was a movie filled with good performances, but sadly for me, the movie wasn’t good. It was just an all negative portrayal of family life. The characters were too screwed up and to me did things that didn’t match themselves. Actors Adam Scott (he was in Party of Five), Brittany Snow (gorgeous girl from American Dreams & Hairspray (2008) ) and others are good, but can’t save this depressing ugly movie.

October Country: Real life family that have a lot of problems. Delicate and beautifully filmed movie that doesn’t ever seem exploitive, but is really depressing. Just reminds you of all the crazy things that can happen in your family. I recommend seeing it, especially if you like family portrait documentaries. Just don’t do a double feature day with this and Precious.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil: Winner of Best Documentary, this is a great real life film. Good find! It’s the story of a Canadian heavy metal band that was very inspirational to a lot of bands like Metallica & Slayer but never hit the big time. They struggle to bring new music to their audience. It’s really an inspirational story about never giving up and always keep working toward your dreams. I highly recommend this movie. Great movie and makes you want to bang your head to some heavy metal hard rock music.

Here’s a few movies that I haven’t seen yet, but want to:
Sin Nombre, The Last Station, Two Lovers, A Serious Man, A Single Man, The New Year Parade, Big Fan, Adventureland, Cold Souls, Downloading Nancy, Goodbye Solo, Fifty Dead Men Walking, That Evening Sun, Gentleman Broncos, Me and Orson Welles, An Education, A Prophet, Food, Inc., and More Than A Game.

Thanks for reading some mini-reviews and I’ll post my 2010 Oscar Picks tomorrow morning.

what I've been up to lately

I've been really busy and haven't been blogging much. I haven't been going to movies as much either. I haven't been doing much of anything except working and visiting with family. But I'm trying to do what I can and let everyone know about it. I'm on facebook all the time. Look me up. I'm also on twitter every day, almost. I've added that to a more prominent place on the blog now too. I have to try to make time to do more with blogging and the website. It's fun when I make time for it.

Anyway, here's some stuff I'm into lately:

TV
Dollhouse - another Joss Whedon gem. It took me a few weeks to get really into it, but this is a damn good show. Here's a quick clip
Battlestar Galactica - i can't believe there is only 1 episode left
The Amazing Race - I love this show always.
30 Rock - it sucked for awhile in the beginning, but has grown into the funniest show since Seinfeld
LOST - what can I say? THE BEST SHOW ON TV! It's got time travel, great characters, a story with so many twists and turns it makes me sick
ER - seems to be going out in style. Glad to see they are finally letting it go to rest though

MOVIES
not many. Saw WATCHMEN. Read my review, lazy bum. Watched some independent flicks in the last few months. I'd recommend The Visitor and LOVED Slumdog Millionaire. Most others weren't very good.

MUSIC
U2 - No Line on the Horizon
Kelly Clarkson - All I Ever Wanted
TPain & Justin Timberlake - Can't Believe It

Looking forward to: New Star Trek movie in May and Heroes getting back to telling good stories again

try to write more later. Thanks for checking it out

a new Ghostbusters movie

Who you gonna call? Ray Parker Jr. may be busy again since Sony is readying a reboot of the Ghostbusters movie franchise. It could be fun. Here's an article.