The internet has been rumbling about this for a few days, but I can now report with a sufficient degree of certainty that Arrested Development has been picked up by Showtime for two thirteen episode seasons. More as it comes in..
BREAKING: Development gets bail
The internet has been rumbling about this for a few days, but I can now report with a sufficient degree of certainty that Arrested Development has been picked up by Showtime for two thirteen episode seasons. More as it comes in..
G4 is Teh Suck
Allow me to jump on the G4 haters bandwagon while I eagerly await the report from Steve Jobs Keynote address in a little while.
What the hell are they trying to do? The recent acquisitions: Star Trek: TNG, The Best of Triumpth, The (Kimmel Carolla) Man Show, and Banzai. Not one of which has new content, with the possible exception of the overrated insult comic dog. The recent schedule changes: heavy expansion of syndicated nighttime content, reduction of original game oriented programming.
Is this the culmination of the sweeping changes that began when the screensavers became the new screensavers? Is this a desperate move to cut their losses? Is this a calculated aping of Spike Tv's format? No. Their half assed attempt to create something original is akin to a new house where you remodel one room at a time, finish, and realize your whims have changed so much that nothing fits together. The Tech TV leftover X-Play lives in the shadow of it's host, G4 staple and oft repeated Attack of the Show is interesting for about 5 minutes of it's 60 minute runtime (and a victim of re-retooling as recent as last week). The new syndicated content is front and center, but again offers nothing original.
The solution?
-G4 needs to save face in the eyes of what was it's core audience, tech nerds and gamers. Cut Attack of the Show down to a half hour, and stop forcing them to try to be edgy. If you claim to cover internet culture, cover internet culture, not try to be an all encompassing demographic grab (See recent segments the Lush, etc..). It is obviously a chore to fill an hour every day by the looks of the show. Some of the skits and other things are truly funny, but they could have a really great show if it was shorter, and as such eliminating the massive amounts of filler.
-Goodbye to Cheat. This retarded program stretches out a 20 second google search over a half hour, not to mention the horrible host.
-Replace the missing half hour of Attack with a Tech oriented show. This doesn't have to be as Techy as the screen savers, but maybe an Engadget show or something like that..think about it..they could give a segment to each popular facet of their site..5 minutes of daily Gadget, Videogame, and Apple news served in a real news format show with talking heads and such might be cool to see.
-Continue to add syndicated content, but be a little more discerning. Turner has made a living off of choosing this carefully, and there are a ton of shows that could do well. Bottom line is to make the choice, keep trying to appease everyone by only choosing shows that you think appeal to your gamer demographic, or try to make a broader swipe at the syndication market by syndicating good shows. I hear Scrubs will be up for a deal very shortly...
-Stop trying to shoehorn attractive people into your shows. Nerds are not attractive, and it just serves to distract from what you are doing. The hint: if they were around when you were Tech TV, they are probably OK.
-Tell Pereira and Lane that repeating easy and dated insults is not funny or edgy.
-Repeating ancient original content is not appeasing your original tech crowd.
Bottom line here is that with each sweeping change, this network seems to be digging deeper into it's own grave, and at the current rate, they can look forward to a quick death if the a la carte cable bill passes. It's time to start looking forward G4.
What the hell are they trying to do? The recent acquisitions: Star Trek: TNG, The Best of Triumpth, The (Kimmel Carolla) Man Show, and Banzai. Not one of which has new content, with the possible exception of the overrated insult comic dog. The recent schedule changes: heavy expansion of syndicated nighttime content, reduction of original game oriented programming.
Is this the culmination of the sweeping changes that began when the screensavers became the new screensavers? Is this a desperate move to cut their losses? Is this a calculated aping of Spike Tv's format? No. Their half assed attempt to create something original is akin to a new house where you remodel one room at a time, finish, and realize your whims have changed so much that nothing fits together. The Tech TV leftover X-Play lives in the shadow of it's host, G4 staple and oft repeated Attack of the Show is interesting for about 5 minutes of it's 60 minute runtime (and a victim of re-retooling as recent as last week). The new syndicated content is front and center, but again offers nothing original.
The solution?
-G4 needs to save face in the eyes of what was it's core audience, tech nerds and gamers. Cut Attack of the Show down to a half hour, and stop forcing them to try to be edgy. If you claim to cover internet culture, cover internet culture, not try to be an all encompassing demographic grab (See recent segments the Lush, etc..). It is obviously a chore to fill an hour every day by the looks of the show. Some of the skits and other things are truly funny, but they could have a really great show if it was shorter, and as such eliminating the massive amounts of filler.
-Goodbye to Cheat. This retarded program stretches out a 20 second google search over a half hour, not to mention the horrible host.
-Replace the missing half hour of Attack with a Tech oriented show. This doesn't have to be as Techy as the screen savers, but maybe an Engadget show or something like that..think about it..they could give a segment to each popular facet of their site..5 minutes of daily Gadget, Videogame, and Apple news served in a real news format show with talking heads and such might be cool to see.
-Continue to add syndicated content, but be a little more discerning. Turner has made a living off of choosing this carefully, and there are a ton of shows that could do well. Bottom line is to make the choice, keep trying to appease everyone by only choosing shows that you think appeal to your gamer demographic, or try to make a broader swipe at the syndication market by syndicating good shows. I hear Scrubs will be up for a deal very shortly...
-Stop trying to shoehorn attractive people into your shows. Nerds are not attractive, and it just serves to distract from what you are doing. The hint: if they were around when you were Tech TV, they are probably OK.
-Tell Pereira and Lane that repeating easy and dated insults is not funny or edgy.
-Repeating ancient original content is not appeasing your original tech crowd.
Bottom line here is that with each sweeping change, this network seems to be digging deeper into it's own grave, and at the current rate, they can look forward to a quick death if the a la carte cable bill passes. It's time to start looking forward G4.
Gervais Update
The New York Times posted on something that I talked about a few posts down. Karl Pilkington is a genius. The whole 12 episode run has been borderline genius.
12 episodes are up. The response has been so huge that they are now putting up another season of episodes for money. Gervais is actually going to charge 2 bucks per episode with 7 dollars for an entire season, but no one is quite sure how many episodes are going to be in a season.
Now I am one who doesnt like paying for much. I pay for an xbox live subscription and that really is the only other thing I pay for outside of the essentials (water, power, cable, broadband). But let me tell you, these podcasts have been so good that I am actually considering paying for the future eps of the Gervais show.
12 episodes are up. The response has been so huge that they are now putting up another season of episodes for money. Gervais is actually going to charge 2 bucks per episode with 7 dollars for an entire season, but no one is quite sure how many episodes are going to be in a season.
Now I am one who doesnt like paying for much. I pay for an xbox live subscription and that really is the only other thing I pay for outside of the essentials (water, power, cable, broadband). But let me tell you, these podcasts have been so good that I am actually considering paying for the future eps of the Gervais show.
Call me crazy..
I usually don't fall for reality shows, but I LOVE primetime game shows. Deal or No Deal has me yelling at the screen more than any non sports event ever has. God love this show and the inevitable primetime gameshow fad it will ignite.
Justin Fixes the (Classic) Movies: Garden State
Whew, this is an excellent movie. The first ever guy movie equivalent of a girl movie. Zach Braff shows us a whole new side, and the fanboy dream Portman struts her stuff too. That's not to say there aren't some flaws.
-Soundtrack subtlety. Yes, it's a great soundtrack. It's just too blatant and in your face in the movie. It's almost as if some scenes were written around the songs.
-Bad lines. New Slang is a great song, but it's not changing lives anytime soon. Did I mention I hate cringing during movies?
-Cliche. At one point, these twentysomething lost in life characters actually scream into the void, or an empty stone quarry.
-Large's arc is a bit too end loaded..we don't see him gradually change as much as we should.
Other than those few nitpicky things that I blew up way more than they are prevalent in this flick, this is truly a great movie. I recommend it to anyone. 9.6/10
Juggernaut Bitch!
I hate X-Men..however this youtube clip had me laughing out loud enough that I had to share. Click to enjoy the Juggernaut Bitch! Adult Swim needs to find these guys and give them a show.
Feed problem fixed
And here I was wondering why our headline ticker was broken and our feed subsription number had remained static for the last week. Anyway, I have isolated the problem code and taken care of it, so feel free to subscribe at will.
Justin Fixes the (Classic) Movies: Spider-Man
With the Spidey 3 hype machine kicking into second gear thanks to the Venom teasing poster seen here, I figure it is a good time to continue what will become an avalanche of me fixing classic movies. Let me re-iterate classic on this blog means classic to me, not classic to your parents. Here, I fix the movie that brought back comic book movies in a big way, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man.
Starring Bruce Campbell and featuring such young talent as Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and James Franco, Spider-Man kicked action movies on their ass, revitalizing a genre that had been stagnant thanks to the likes of Joel Shmuckmaker. Let me preface this by saying that I am a DC, Batman in particular guy, but I did enjoy this movie. Here goes.
-Aunt whatever her name was is a terrible actress. Michael Caine in Batman Begins? Great. This bitch? HARRIBLE!
-More Bruce. The only movie that couldn't use this advice, to be fair, is Evil Dead.
-Good and necessary creative change to the orgin story and "powers." The webbing issue is a great example of how to implement a change without shitting on the source material.
-The Green Goblin's costume looks like shit. Granted, it's par for the course on Marvel bad guys, and the source material for this guy is pretty bad, but they could have done better than this. Plus points for fleshing out what was a pretty shitty character. Minus points for basing quite a bit of the "trilogy" on this arc.
-The era of one liners is over. They are kept to a minimum here, and used far less than in the overrated X-Men movie, but still a little cringey when they pop up.
-More Bruce
-The inability to take their characters to dark places is what always pissed me off about Marvel. This movie does nothing to change that. Hopefully we'll finally see this in the third flick.
-I miss organic special effects. The CGI here, though for it's time was something great, is actually hard to watch now.
-Kirsten Dunst needs a tan and a sandwich.
Spider-Man: Doesn't compare to Batman Begins, but for what it is, the best Marvel adaptation to date, including it's own not too good sequel. 8.4/10
Justin Fixes the (Classic) Movies: Braindead
As promised, here goes my first classic review. Braindead, for those in the know, is one of the early works of now legendary director Peter Jackson. It has a few slightly gory scenes, and possibly a plot. Here's how to fix it:
-Give us a definitive cut of the movie. Braindead (The UK/Aussie cut) is too long, Dead Alive (The USA cut) is way too short and butchered. If you happen upon the even shorter an more butchered "Video Cut," burn the tape.
-Give us a definitve DVD of the movie to support said cut. Peter Jackson is pretty good with DVDs, and this is currently his only flick that isn't supported with a killer set. Even his mediocore "Bad Taste" has a 2 disc set with holographic cover.
-Someone explain to me who saw this movie and thought "Man, this director would be great for Lord of the Rings."
-Do more movies with this amount of gore. Hell, just insert the lawnmower scene into any movie. If that scene was in Dukes of Hazzard, I'd not only give the movie a 10 and own it, I would pay to have it screened in churches.
Dead Alive: 8/10
Braindead: 9.8/10
Ultraviolet will fail
Yeah, I realized my gaffe..the movie isn't out until next weekend, so expect a review then. But until that..my analysis of the ad campaign for the flick. This movie will fail, and it's the studios fault.
(I am giving Wimmer a lot of upfront credit. I think that he has proven he can take a run of the mill premise and make something special, so we will assume that the movie is good.)
The ad campaign is horrible. What sets this flick apart from any dime a dozen female herione flick? What even sets this apart from Aeon Flux, or Underworld? Is this a popcorn flick, or is there something more at work?
Had it not been for Wimmer's attachment to this, it would fly completely under my radar. Since no one knows who the hell Wimmer is, I have a feeling you'll see this movie fly under everyone's radar, and relegate Wimmer to lo-budget for the rest of his career. Look for this movie to unfortunately tank next weekend.
(I am giving Wimmer a lot of upfront credit. I think that he has proven he can take a run of the mill premise and make something special, so we will assume that the movie is good.)
The ad campaign is horrible. What sets this flick apart from any dime a dozen female herione flick? What even sets this apart from Aeon Flux, or Underworld? Is this a popcorn flick, or is there something more at work?
Had it not been for Wimmer's attachment to this, it would fly completely under my radar. Since no one knows who the hell Wimmer is, I have a feeling you'll see this movie fly under everyone's radar, and relegate Wimmer to lo-budget for the rest of his career. Look for this movie to unfortunately tank next weekend.
OK I Hate Her.
Meredith Grey.
Ellen Pompeo, the actress who plays her did an interview with TvGuide's David Keeps. She spoke about why she gave up her movie career for the small screen, the main reason being she wanted to play a strong female character. OK, "seriously," (the cast says seriously about 20 times in every episode, is it just me?) Meredith Grey is super annoying, emaciated and completely self-involved. Many of you share the same sentiment on message boards. Her pining over Dr. McDreamy and sleeping with whoever and whenever makes me want to pull a Plath, roasting my head in an oven. And now she slept with O'Malley!!! O'Malley. I hope Shonda Rimes and the rest of the writers give her a life because I am very close to being over this show.
Fazer on Films: Beverly Hills Cop I and II
Ah the '80s, the hair was big, the music was loud, and the action movie was not holding back. This decade was also the decade that introduced the world to Eddie Murphy, probably one of the most influential black comedians/movie stars ever. It is insane the number of people Eddie gave a start to just because he liked their stand up act. Here are a few you might recognize: Chris Rock (beverly hills cop I), Damon Wayans (beverly hills cop II), Arsenio Hall (coming to america), bronson pinchot (beverly hills cop I), and more recently Dave Chappelle (the nutty professor). Eddie had already hit it big with 48 hours, but when Beverly Hills Cop hit he entered a new realm of stardom.
BHC was a pretty fantastic achievement. The movie constantly managed the huge onscreen persona of Eddie within the movie. Martin Brest, the director, managed to setup a legitimate structure to the movie and gave Murphy 3-4 playground scenes to just go at it and let loose. The movie is no directorial showpiece, but it mixed decent action with great comedy and some good characters. Any fans of the BHC series know and love Billy Rosewood and John Taggert. Those two characters themselves could have carried a movie, but they made for great foils for the wisecracking Axel Foley. Of course, Judge Reinhold was genius as always in his portrayal of a goofy white guy not quite with the situation. One of my favorite scenes in the entire movie is when Foley breaks into the customs holding department and at the drop of a dime puts on the "inspector routine", which you know had to be improvised, and totally kills it..."How can a black man, dressed like me, just walk right in here and start snooping around?" Also, you gotta give a mad shout out for the music in the entire series. Obviously the "Axel F theme" is something of legend (and my cellphone ringtone), but then there was "the heat is on", "shakedown", "nasty girl", etc.
BHC II directed by Tony Scott took a more action approach to the series, but definitely did not skimp on the comedy. People accuse of Tony Scott of being very edit happy in his work, but his earlier stuff was pretty serviceable. There were some nicely shot robbery scenes in this movie, but when it came to the comedy aspects he once again just stepped back and kept the camera on Eddie. A whole multitude of scenes exist in this movie as well with one of my favorites being eddie getting the construction workers to stop renovation on the house..."weren't you at the meeting? You didnt get the new plans? They dont want any 90 degree angles in this house!" One thing I really enjoyed in this movie was how they advanced on the Rosewood, Taggart, Foley relationship. They established something great in part 1 and it was nice to see it being built upon.
All in all, Beverly Hills Cop I and II stand as landmark action/comedy pieces. They were big hits early on for Simpson/Bruckheimer and I feel you can see the influence of these two movies on a lot of the future projects coming from those two producers. In general, it sort of jumpstarted the whole Adult action comedy genre and really hasn't been emulated too well in the 20 plus years that followed.
Fox Fights Back!
With the recent combination of Warner Bros. and CBS corps creating the CW network, Fox has followed in the same step. Rupert Murdoch and company have made plans to create My Network TV. It will start in the late summer with English-versions of the popular telenovelas in the Latin community.
Because of the CW network birth, many Fox stations carrying UPN shows were left with blank schedules. So Fox fought back with this network carrying sassy, sexy, sensational dramas broadcasted 2 hours a day, 6 times a week. News Corp. President Peter Chernin said, "The whole feel of My Network TV will be different than anything else that's on broadcast television today."
This new network will probably kill a lot of the CW ratings who is expected to get a lot of the hard to reach young-adult demographic with shows like Smallville, Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars.
Because of the CW network birth, many Fox stations carrying UPN shows were left with blank schedules. So Fox fought back with this network carrying sassy, sexy, sensational dramas broadcasted 2 hours a day, 6 times a week. News Corp. President Peter Chernin said, "The whole feel of My Network TV will be different than anything else that's on broadcast television today."
This new network will probably kill a lot of the CW ratings who is expected to get a lot of the hard to reach young-adult demographic with shows like Smallville, Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars.
Show to debut on Itunes
Surprisingly it is NBC that is breaking boundaries here. Some generic looking crime drama, Conviction, is the first show to debut on Itunes before it's series premiere. This is a pretty bold way to push a show, and I sincerely hope it catches on. People who would have never heard of this show have probably already watched it..all in all, a big plus for NBC and hopefully a sign of things to come.
It's not to say that I don't think that the Itunes structure can suceed, it's just that anything to drum up support that is out of the ordinary is cool to me, and if it involves alternate distribution, even better.
It's not to say that I don't think that the Itunes structure can suceed, it's just that anything to drum up support that is out of the ordinary is cool to me, and if it involves alternate distribution, even better.
Slow news day..
Since it is not my goal to be an all encompassing news site..just to post shit that I (or my staff) find interesting or at least have an opinion about..I have found myself with something of a problem these last couple days..nothin to talk about. In lieu of that, It's about time for a self serving site update.
I've doubled the blog staff..at the very least we will have a constant stream of content. Welcome to all the new folks...even though the only new one I think we have heard from is Sarah.
The podcast is far from dead..just concentrating here at the moment.
I'll be making my return to the theater..we'll I saw Hostel there but i'd like to forget that... Anyway, I'll be seeing Ultraviolet this weekend, so you'll have your first theatrical Justin fixes the movies Column.
Catching up with some TV shows at the moment. Finished the wonderful second season of Entourage, going to start working on the entire run of the US office..and maybe even Battlestar.
The above picture is actually an SOS. Pictured here is "head of blog staff" and podcast co-host Canadian Jake and one of our new writers Andrew. If anyone has seen Jake, please contact stealing cable immediately.
Have a good day..hopefully something interesting will happen tomorrow.
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