TODAY I WATCHED (TV-series, Movies, Cinema Playlists) 2013

An episode of Breaking Bad.

Cards sweep of the Cubs. And today's lineup had no Molina, Holliday or Beltran. Cards finish tied with the best record in MLB and have home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs. We face the winner of the Pirates/Reds play-in game.

More Charlie's Angels

the EAgles get the beatdown from the Broncos.

The season premiere of Family Guy.

A couple okay micro-budget indie films redeemed by good performances.

Some Girl(s) (2013)
The Exploding Girl (2009)

A few series finales this weekend:

American Horror Story: Asylum: this whole show was just sheer fun and another decent ode to many horror movie memes of the past (especially the use of framing and set design with German Expressionism in mind). Nuts, insane, OTT, borderline preachy (but that's Murphy for you), and very very unpredictable, I look forward to the arrival of Coven.

Fringe: lots to say about this show, but for me season 5 was incredibly weak for a myriad of reasons. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, even choking up a bit at the final few minutes. I'm not fond of how everyone's emotions, motives, and complexities are telegraphed in overly sentimental ways even though it's character-driven. Also the fairly wooden acting isn't of help. But for sci-fi/paranormal, it's heady stuff and very provocative. I could go on here, but hell if I'm not long-winded enough already.

Breaking Bad: Good. f*cking. God. I'm an emotional wreck.

Insomniac Double Feature:

"28 Weeks Later" (2007)

Sequel to "28 Days Later" finds the U.S. military helping Londoners re-populate their ravaged city after the "rage virus" outbreak... but of course, even in a quarantined zone, the virus still finds it way in. Mayhem naturally ensues, and a couple of army types (one of whom is played by Jeremy "Hawkeye" Renner) are soon on the run, trying to protect a pair of children who may be the key to a cure for the out break.

I have never seen "28 Days Later" (though I want to now!)... but despite that I was able to pick up on what was going on in this sequel pretty easily and dug this one a lot. Plenty of action, decent amount of gore, and an overall bleak feel.

"The Warrior and the Sorceress" (1984)



David Carradine is the "Warrior" in this ultra cheap swords and sorcery flick. When he arrives in a small village, he finds two warlords constantly battling each other over control of the area's only water source.  Teaming up with the local sorcerer, he sets a plan into motion to get rid of both tyrants so the villagers can be free. It must be noted that the "Sorceress" in the title doesn't actually do much sorceress-ing (is that a word?) but she does spend the entire movie topless, so that's OK.

This hilariously cheesy flick almost cured me of my insomnia last night...but not quite!!

Caught up on DVR viewing:

Agents Of Shield
South Park
Revolution
Modern Family

The Doors: Mr. Mojo Risin - Story Of LA Woman

Thing that drives me crazy about these classic album series is how short they are. You have great interviews and good storytellers and the runtime is only an hour. Each song on LA Woman should have gotten an hour at least.

Phantasm II

Being used to an old dubbed VHS this thing looked insanely great on blu-ray. And it held up pretty well too since last I saw it. Thing I like about these types of 80's movies - they start all disjointed and meandering but by the final acts they kick into high gear. Today's horror, for me anyway, starts out strong (or has a strong concept) but then ends up not paying off. Not so here, once Mike and Reg get to Perigord this movie gets all kinds of fun.

Face/Off

Despite being completely non-sensical from a story standpoint, I've always really dug this movie. Since the disc looked screwed up I thought I'd see how it would play - ended up watching the whole thing once it started. Still find it wildly entertaining - gets me when they all have their guns drawn on each other at the church and Gina Gershon gives the line "I'm bored" .

corplhicks wrote:

Fringe: lots to say about this show, but for me season 5 was incredibly weak for a myriad of reasons. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, even choking up a bit at the final few minutes. I'm not fond of how everyone's emotions, motives, and complexities are telegraphed in overly sentimental ways even though it's character-driven. Also the fairly wooden acting isn't of help. But for sci-fi/paranormal, it's heady stuff and very provocative. I could go on here, but hell if I'm not long-winded enough already.

I enjoyed the entire series, I consider myself lucky that there was a 4th and 5th season to this show because it was losing money the entire time but Fox (for once) let the series play out instead of canceling it.  

The budget for the series was cut for Season 4 (the only way Fox would renew it) yet they managed to complete a very complex and interesting narrative.  The producers had a full-season plan for a 5th season but weren't sure if they would get a chance to even make it.  When the dust settled they were given 13 episodes to complete it but their budget per episode was cut in half from the already reduced Season 4 budget.  This forced them to make some painful staffing cuts including Lead Director Brad Anderson (who they could no longer afford) and many other writers & directors that had been on the show since the beginning.  They also had to hire cheaper VFX houses to complete the effects. The final season was produced primarily with new staff they were able to hire at a reduced rate.

Was it a perfect season?  No.  The story really needed more episodes and a larger budget to pull off but I still think they made a very entertaining 13 episodes and they brought the character narratives to a satisfying conclusion.  

Walter and Olivia are two of my favorite TV characters from the past decade, I was happy to be able to spend 5 seasons following their story and I'm sure I will re-watch the series from the beginning a couple more times.

corplhicks wrote:

Breaking Bad: Good. f*cking. God. I'm an emotional wreck.

Best series finale ever!

Red Dwarf - DNA

S.D. wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

Fringe: lots to say about this show, but for me season 5 was incredibly weak for a myriad of reasons. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, even choking up a bit at the final few minutes. I'm not fond of how everyone's emotions, motives, and complexities are telegraphed in overly sentimental ways even though it's character-driven. Also the fairly wooden acting isn't of help. But for sci-fi/paranormal, it's heady stuff and very provocative. I could go on here, but hell if I'm not long-winded enough already.

I enjoyed the entire series, I consider myself lucky that there was a 4th and 5th season to this show because it was losing money the entire time but Fox (for once) let the series play out instead of canceling it.  

The budget for the series was cut for Season 4 (the only way Fox would renew it) yet they managed to complete a very complex and interesting narrative.  The producers had a full-season plan for a 5th season but weren't sure if they would get a chance to even make it.  When the dust settled they were given 13 episodes to complete it but their budget per episode was cut in half from the already reduced Season 4 budget.  This forced them to make some painful staffing cuts including Lead Director Brad Anderson (who they could no longer afford) and many other writers & directors that had been on the show since the beginning.  They also had to hire cheaper VFX houses to complete the effects.  The final season was produced primarily with new staff they were able to hire at a reduced rate.

Was it a perfect season?  No.  The story really needed more episodes and a larger budget to pull off but I still think they made a very entertaining 13 episodes and they brought the character narratives to a satisfying conclusion.  

Walter and Olivia are two of my favorite TV characters from the past decade, I was happy to be able to spend 5 seasons following their story and I'm sure I will re-watch the series from the beginning a couple more times.

It is mind-blowing that Fox of all networks complied with keeping this going; it certainly is unconventional matter (yes, that's a pun) for night-time TV. Now that I know about the budget issues in the final season I understand (although I thought the FX work was freaking hot compared to the previous seasons) why the dialogue was so trite and pedestrian at times.

Spoiler:

It's easy to nitpick a show like this--okay, it can be a bit fun too--but really what matters is that the ride was fun as hell and the finale was damn perfect. I plan on rewatching it as well. After Breaking Bad.

Watched the new season of Glee.

Okay, half of it. Ended up listening to Judas Priest. What a horrible show. Everything is so preachy and bleeding heart, full of banter that keeps reminding you the writers are trying way too damned hard to get high school kids to sound Tarantino. Music selections didn't work either.

Bones
Sleepy Hollow
Haven
The Good Wife (season 3)

The finale of Breaking Bad really was very good. A fitting end to a great show.  

Boris2008 wrote:

The finale of Breaking Bad really was very good. A fitting end to a great show.  

It really was perfect. I don't know if they could have done it any better. Other than making it four hours long, of course. But that last shot put a smile on my face. Made me feel young, as when the world was new etc etc...

Sleepy Hollow - I'm liking the mythology it's establishing

Doctor Who - The Aztecs

Reds vs Pirates to see who STL plays.

Go Buccos! (I hate the Reds, especially Johnny "the kicking little girl" Cueto.)

tohostudios wrote:

Reds vs Pirates to see who STL plays.

Go Buccos! (I hate the Reds, especially Johnny "the kicking little girl" Cueto.)

I am rooting for the Pirates too.

"CBGB" (2013)



In this comedic re-telling of the rise and fall of the legendary New York rock club, Alan "Die Hard" Rickman (!) plays Hilly Kristal, a two time loser who buys a dumpy bar in a crappy Bowery neighborhood and - almost by accident - turns it into Ground Zero for the punk rock explosion of the late 1970s.

There are some historically inaccurate bits, which are probably due more to music licensing hangups than anything else (the Ramones, auditioning for Hilly in 1974, play "I Got Knocked Down, But I'll Get Up," which is a Joey Ramone solo track from 2001), but otherwise I thought this was an entertaining, funny rock n roll flick with a great cast including Donal "Grounded For Life" Logue, Stana "Castle" Katic, Taylor (Foo Fighters) Hawkins (as Iggy Pop!), and Rupert "Harry Potter" Grint as Cheetah Chrome of the Dead Boys. Fun stuff!!

Breaking Bad...pilot episode.

Really fascinating to see the genesis of these characters, and how different they were before big change set in.

Just watched Commando for the first time in over 20 years. An absolute 1980s time capsule, full of laughs (intentional and possibly unintentional) and a ludicrously high body count!!