Looking for the best show on tv?

Look no further than the Shield on FX, Tuesdays at 10 pm.

I will have more in depth thoughts on this landmark season after it ends next week, but it has already earned itself a spot in the "top tv shows of all time" list just due to its achievement in the field of excellence. The show refuses to sit on its laurels and just coast. It gets better with each episode.

For the uninitiated out there, pick up season 1 on DVD right now. If you aren't hooked by the end of episode 1, I will give you 5 dollars.*

*offer not valid because Faze is a liar*

March Madness

After what has seemed like an infinitely long lull in anything entertaining, March is gearing up to be one of those months that we stealing cablites treasure.

Movies in a big big way..though starting slowly with the unapologetically awful Ultraviolet (faze's review here), continues on with Alejandro Aja's remake of the Hills Have Eyes, Wachowski Bros' V for Vendetta, and James Gunn's Slither, all of which have some pretty great buzz.

In the TV world, we are graced with the return of Veronica Mars, Prison Break and of course the biggie, The Sopranos. Also (mid)season finale coming for the Shield.

On DVD we await the release of Good Night and Good Luck as well as A History of Violence, both academy nominees..and of course Peter Jackson's King Kong bringing up the rear.

With a lineup that could be matched only by April, this is looking to be a return to form and a huge month for the entertainment-nerd. Look for reviews and discussion of all of this and everything else that we find interesting right here.

End of an Era...Tivo hits delete on Lifetime Subscription

So, tivo finally announced their new pricing plans. They are now bundling service plans with the boxes rather than doing it separately like they used to. Starting next week you buy a tivo box with a subscription plan (you can either pay monthly for 1,2, or 3 years, or prepay for the entire duration of the plan).
The price for a TiVo box and a one-year service commitment is $19.95 a
month or $224 prepaid
The price for a TiVo box and a two-year service commitment is $18.95 a
month or $369 prepaid
The price for a TiVo box and a three-year service commitment is $16.95 a
month or $469 prepaid
There is an obvious price increase here and given that the previous life time subscription was just 300 dollars (which paid for itself if you held on to the tivo for more than a year and a half) it looks like the comapny is doing what it can to increase revenue. I love Tivo's software, but there hardware plans are just getting too expensive. Cable and satellite companies practically give away their DVRs...now if Tivo only made bigger deals with companies besides Comcast and was able to hold onto their DirecTV deal hings might have been different.

Justin Fixes the TV Shows: Sons and Daughters

Like most TV nerds, I was sucked into the marketing for Sons and Daughters. I've made a huge mistake.

Here goes:
-Why ape the one thing that sunk another show: Arrested Development's advertising strategy. All this did was get fans of AD to tune in..and if they are anything like me, they weren't impressed. Marketing can only get you so far.
-I am all for fleshing out characters, but there are just way too many here too, and they for the most part seem to have equal weight. Focus more on fewer characters, and perhaps think about making them likeable. The interviews all claim that this show would be more humane and identifiable than AD, but right now there are too many people to give a shit about any one of them.
-Three laughs. That was it during the entire hour for me, 2 coming from the glassed teen chick and one from the little girl, all three of which I knew were coming from their ad campaign. You have an identity crisis..are you going to try to balance comedy and drama like Scrubs? More like Desperate Housewives? or are you going to try to be balls out like AD? Decide and stick with it.


Overall, this is head and shoulders above most network sitcoms, but that isn't saying much. Given it's timeslot competition of Scrubs, I can not recommend this show. I do wish it the best and hope that ABC gives it time to get some footing and hopefully this show, which does have some potential, could get better.

TiVo Mobile

Verizon Wireless customers who have TiVo will be able to access their on-the-go tv schedules on their cell phones early this summer. This is the latest innovative idea from TiVo to differentiate itself in the market.

"TiVo isn't just about a great way to watch television but it's also about a great way to manage your TV life, and to do that, we realize TiVo can't be isolated. It has to be integrated with all these other digital devices in people's lives," TiVo CEO Tom Rogers said in an interview.

Sons and Daughters

We've all seen the ads for ABC'S improv sitcom "Sons and Daughters." They, for whatever reason, are trying to evoke Arrested Development. Outside of how little sense that strategy makes, buzz for this one is moderately good, so I will be checking it out (via DVR while watching Scrubs live) at 9pm this evening, and you probably should too. Reactions later this evening.

Justin Fixes Harry Potter and the Goblet of Shit

..well honestly thats a bit harsh. Allow me to backtrack.


Do you read the books? Better question. Did you read the books before the movies were announced? Then you will probably be bored here. Whats wrong?

-We're frickin four years in..we don't need to be amazed by the magic..and Harry certainly doesn't need to be constantly amazed by the magic.
-I fault the source material for being a little too descriptive and long winded, but the movie doesn't have to follow. Thats why it's an adaptation..you can take a little creative liscense and leave some stuff out instead.
-are the Death Eaters just the klan? Because those guys are laughable.
-The biggest problem with this, and every HP movie, is that the people involved do so little to adapt to film that sitting through this and knowing what is coming up a complete chore. It's as if you have already seen the movie before you watch it.

On a technical level, acting, directing, and everything else is good to go. The biggest plus this series has is it's ability to find actors that fit the roles perfectly. The source material isn't as compelling as let's say LOTR to make this series one to keep coming back to. I can't fault this for being a bad movie, and if this is the only way you know the series, you will probably be sufficiently entertained. Otherwise, I can't recommend this. The wow factor of seeing how they could possibly translate this into a movie is about all it has going for it. 7.8/10

Finally a good movie (Running Scared)

Short review:Of course no one saw this movie in theaters, but I think I have found an future cult classic...starring Paul walker. I am as surprised as you are. Running Scared is one of the more gritty and entertaining crime/mob dramas to come out in a long while.

Long review:I don't know what the deal is with Hollywood and crime stories, but they just don't do them well anymore. I mean the early 90s had some fantastic stories about criminals like Heat, Goodfellas, Casino, Usual Suspects, Donnie Brasco, etc. Now the mob movies we have to watch are Analyze This and The Whole Nine Yards...and their sequels. Anyway, I hope Wayne Kramer gets more work because his direction and writing in this movie is very good.

Some other critic already described this movie as sort of an urban fairy tale, and while I wouldnt have thought of that myself, its probably the best way to describe it. It all centers around Paul Walker's character who is muscle for the mob and generally handles gun disposal after they have been used. We see one particular gun involved in a shoot out between dirty cops, jamaican drug dealers, and the mobsters. Once this gun is put in Walker's hands for disposal the ride begins. The gun is the driving force of the movie and it passes from one wild character to the next. Walker's neighbor, a russian family, lights the fuse when the russian kid finds the gun, uses it on his john wayne obsessed abusive meth head dad. From there, the russian mob, the italian mob, mexican gangsters, pimps, child pornographers (in a super creepy part of the movie), and the cops become links in a chain following the path of the gun in question.

The plot of the movie is almost just a vehicle moving you from one wild character to the next, sort of like a Coen Brothers movie. You could percieve the massive coincedence that links all these characters together as a weakness of the movie. I know there were people in the theater saying "hey thats just unrealistic that those two would meet up!". But the characters were so intersting that the journey that got you there didnt matter.

I think the biggest surprise is the amount of violence in this movie and Paul Walker's performance (its a good performance). You actually forget its Paul Walker playing a role, very unlike the fast and the furious movies where its more "oh its Paul Walker trying to act again". The russian kid in the movie played by Cameron Bright (who was also in ultraviolet *shudder*) does a great job too. If you arent grossed out by violence and cursing that harkens back to the 70s and 80s era rated R movies, I think there is a lot to like in this movie. I also gotta give kudos to Kramer's directing style. Good use of slo-mo, good use of instant replay type moments, and great scenery. He uses clever editing involving the visual retelling of events and displacement of events in the timeline of the movie in a way that doesnt come off as Tarantino-esque. It just comes off as fun and entertaining. Its unfortunate that this movie isn't doing well in the box office because I am tired of these "soft" R-rated movies that have been populating the theaters. You gotta go all the way (like this movie) or not at all.

Wimmer's Sophomore Slump (An Ultraviolet Bashing)

I am guilty of believing in a false movie prohpet, and his name is Kurt Wimmer. After a career made up of script doctoring and writing Brian Bosworth movies, he got a chance to make a film combining his love for martial arts and action movies. Equilibrium starring Christian Bale was the result, a new age classic in my opinion. The thing that got me excited about Wimmer was his eye for action. He obviously revered the Golden Harvest Sammo Hung/Jackie Chan era martial arts movies and did not fall into the habit of cutting up all his fight scenes making them incomprehensible to the viewer. And he also did something no one expected, brought originality to the movies!!?? Gun-kata was a great little concept that could only exist in movies and was executed brilliantly. The script was pedestrian, but serviceable and made general sense. The movie was full of great actors...most notable Bale who was still a relative unknown at the time. The movie became a huge internet cult sensation and really built up the buzz over his second project "Ultraviolet"

Yeesh. Thats what I thought coming out of the theater today. My next thought was, "what have you done with the real kurt wimmer". The script is terrible...i mean Carnosaur 3 on the sci fi channel terrible. The dialogue is pure utter shit and literally makes you laugh out loud. The storyline is as derivative as they come. The CGI is piss poor, yet Wimmer chose to do an entire 5 minute vehicular chase scene with this same CGI. But the thing that really pisses me off is the action. It literally consisted of Milla Jovovich dancing around and fake hurting people and then having them all fall down. Maybe that had to do with the rating being brought down to pg-13 from R thanks to studio urging, but seriously the studio could not have made this any worse than it already was.

Extreme language to follow: Now, Mr. Wimmer has done almost no press for this movie. I am sure he is waiting to play the "studio interference" card on this one. FUCK THAT and FUCK YOU wimmer. This is all on your shoulders. It was utter shit and you are totally responsible for it. Milla can't be blamed because she has been serviceable in other tough girl roles. You wrote this shit and you directed it. You made the genius decision of having the camera track 19 times between the shades of violet and her soon to be aggressors. You made the decision of having the camera track from a guy's ear to the barrell of a gun!? You made the fucking decision of having action scenes take place OFF CAMERA. WE LIKE YOU BECAUSE WE THOUGHT YOU COULD DIRECT ACTION. Not because you are some sort of auteur. The action that made it onscreen is a pile of junk. You made the decision of shooting the final fight scene IN THE FUCKING DARK lit only by flaming swords?! FUCKING IDIOCY. Fuck you for making me watch that shit and I hope you never fucking work again.

Feeling Hot Hot Hot!!! (An Infernal Affairs Review)

Short Version:A very smartly written, well made Hong Kong Triad crime drama. Sure its a crowded genre, but this movie takes some interesting twists along the way and manages to keep the audience on its toes. Some awkward choices in editing and ambiguous/dangling story points do exist, but its a high class movie with great acting. I am sure it will be leaps and bounds better than the Scorcese remake.

Longer and more entertaining version: Ah the Hong Kong crime drama, this genre has been done to death since John Woo ripped through it with pistols akimbo in the late 80s and early 90s. Before you go on, if you haven't seen A Better Tomorrow 1 and 2, The Killer, and/or Hard Boiled I highly suggest you go watch those right now and not bother with this movie yet.

Andrew Lau (no relation to the actor in the movie Andy Lau) and his co-director Alan Mak managed to make an original triad gangster drama in a field of copycats. The basic core of the movie is relatively clever. The triads place several young gangsters with clean records in the police academy and expect them to be their eyes and ears in the police force. Andy Lau's character, Ming, is followed from the initial infiltration of the police academy to the cusp of a new high ranking position and a new life with his soon to be wife (who doesn't know who he is). At the same time, Tony Leung's character, Yan, is a hot shot police academy rookie and put in the undercover program very early and has been feeding information to the chief of police for the past 10 years. The story of both characters are told through flashbacks, which for some jarring reason use totally different actors to play the "young" versions of both characters.

At first, the movie literally feels like Hard Boiled just without all the action. Tony Leung is practically playing the same character he did in Hard Boiled. They even managed to steal/do an homage to a scene in Hard Boiled involving a gift from the chief of police to the long undercover cop on his birthday. The movie really gets interesting because of Andy Lau's gangster rising up the ranks and getting actual power in the police force and watching the choices he makes given this new power.

On the whole, the movie is wonderfully shot and makes minimal use of slo-mo. There are a lot of great rooftop shots of the city of Hong Kong. The acting is second to none. Tony Leung has been consistently putting in A+ performances in hong kong in a variety of genres. You can't even find an appropriate comparison to a Hollywood actor as far as versatility and dependability of performance. Andy Lau really has the meatiest role in the movie though and does wonders with it. I really don't want to delve to much into the plot because seeing it develop and how the characters react to it is half the fun of the movie.

In the next few months, Scorcese's remake of this movie, "The Departed", will be hitting with a pretty huge cast (Dicaprio, Wahlberg, Damon, and Jack Nicholson to name a few). He has chosen to set it in Boston with the Irish mob and the police force. Irish Mob? Why the hell would I want to see a Scorcese gangster flick with an IRISH MOB? Anyway, I am sure it will be far below the standard set by the Hong Kong version, but will get blown by all the critics because its a Scorcese film.

Watch the Hong Kong version and enjoy yourself. There are 2 sequels out, which arent as good apparently, but that is another review.

Sarah's Recommendations: Hustle and Flow

Overview: "Hustle and Flow" is an unequivocally optimistic story about a pimp who dares to dream in an environment where a sense of helplessness is the norm. Terrence Howard plays Dejay, the struggling drug dealer and seller of his female escorts. Through his drive to get his demos heard, the audience meets a whole host of characters with the same passion to imagine different lives for themselves, but since these different lives are intangible, they cannot fathom them. They just continue to dream for more than what they were born into.

Good: Terrence Howard gave a magnetic performance as Dejay. Howard made the audience feel for Dejay, inspite of his drug dealing and pimpin' ways. Kudos on the Oscar nod. Well-deserved. Sidenote-Howard is studying to get his Master's in Chemical Engineering. Wow, the brother is cute and DEEP.

The characters were all well-defined and we were able to see more than the stereotypical ghetto. I felt like I could get under their skin and almost understand their reality, it was a situation between entrapment in a cycle and trying to break it.

Bad: The movie was pretty self-conscious, like it wanted to be that rising from the streets (8-Mile) type of flick. Even though the characters were well-defined, I would have appreciated more of a struggle because realistically, this one-in-a-million opportunity is just that, one in a million. Making-it-big is not as easy as the movie made it seem, and I am sure a lot of that had to do with the pacing of the film and the limited time in which certain motifs were allowed to develop. The creation of the first demo tape took what seemed liked 5 mins. and its success on the radio had the same time allotment.

Recommendation: I say, watch it. It was pretty good. If you are looking for social commentary on pimps and hoes, look again. This movie is about having faith in a dream you know is bigger than yourself and all the insecurities that entails. I can appreciate it for telling me that.

No Ultraviolet for me

Well I usually am not swayed by reviews, but the downright Uwe Bollian 4% (what the hell, Wimmer?) on Rotten Tomatoes for Wimmer's Ultraviolet is going to keep me out of theaters this weekend. Fear not, however because this is an unusually good month, with next week's Hills Have Eyes remake from High Tension (which kicks ass) director Alejandro Aja, and the following week we have V for Vendetta, from some guys whos last movie(s) were the Matrix(es). Both actually have surprisingly high scores on RT right now, especially HHE, so consider my interest piqued. Also this coming week you will have my fixing of the fourth Harry Potter flick and an all important review of ABC's midseason (and quite strangely Arrested Developmenty looking) Sons and Daughters, as well as all the news thats important to me and my massive staff.

The Office

I will continue to be here on a limited role for the next week or so while I take care of some business here, but checking in, I wanted to give my full endorsement to the US Office. I had watched the pilot when it aired and wasn't very impressed, but I gave the entire series a shot (Via Itunes) and this is really a great example for sticking with something. A mediocore to slightly above average first season really comes into it's own in the excellent second season, placing it in the elite club of good sitcoms. Watch this, do what you have to do to catch up, excellent shit.

Tivo helps parents

Wow, what a let down in the world of tech news this week. First Apple just releases a friggin leather case for the ipod and now Tivo announces better parental control? What an underwhelming past few days.

Oh well, here's to hoping Ultraviolet is good. I rewatched Equilibrium tonight and it is still an amazingly good movie. I actually forgot how many recognizable actors are in it. You know anything with Sean Bean in it has to be good! For those who haven't seen it, definitely give it a shot and support Ultraviolet and Kurt Wimmer this weekend.

Tivo-lution

So, Tivo is making a big announcement tomorrow. Analysts have been predicting the fall of this company for years now, and the fact that Tivo is still around and has a very devoted fan base speaks volumes about its service. Not only is it the most functional DVR out there (they do have the most experience with it, since they practically invented it), but the customer service is second to none. I hope this deal is something bigger than just new subscription plans, which is what most people are guessing it will be. That or the already revealed series 3 box being brought to market. What I want to hear is that the Netflix deal goes into effect sooner rather than later. For those who don't know, the Netflix deal would in essence allow Tivo and Netflix users to combine both services. You schedule movies to rent on your netflix que...your Tivo downloads digital copies of these movies over night without you ever knowing, and then the movie (dvd quality of course) sits on your hard drive until it has been watched and then automatically deletes itself. I am sure the MPAA would have issues with this given the fact that the Tivo community loves to hack everything, but it would give Tivo an edge in the already overcrowded DVR market. This wouldnt be video on demand or pay per view or anything. It would be bringing the rental store to you through broadband with no need for snail mail.