Take the best movie trilogy ever (Sorry, Star Wars is out due to the other three films and really does anything else have a chance) and the best primetime animated series ever (Flinstones are the only one in the same breathe) and what do you get?
A masterpiece…
I’ll keep this short, mostly because I don’t really care about this sport, especially during baseball season. But I did go to a university that dropped football and now playing the first hockey game of the season for Homecoming, so I would be remiss not to comment on the Anaheim Ducks, no longer Mighty but strong enough to pry Lord Stanley’s Cup away from its rightful owners to our north. And in five games no less?
Why does no one care? Probably because everyone south of the International Boundary could give two squirts of piss about hockey.
I hate to be the rating harbinger but a major network 1.5 for anything is pathetic. In fact, it’s the worst rating, to borrow an Ali voice, Of All Time!!!
That means Joey, repeats of Touched by an Angel and my personal favorite, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, got better numbers than Hockey Night in Anaheim on the big Peacock.
Tim Cowlishaw has a great column about the 10 things to save the NHL. I don’t think it can be saved. They had their chance and blew it twice, first with a stupid strike that no one cared about, especially since the owners won, then the move that will eventually lead to their demise in this country, an item that Cowlishaw listed fourth but is the only one that matters in my book.
“Kiss up to ESPN. Make amends. There’s still enough room for programming at the world-wide leader to get your games back there. Versus gives the NHL no presence at all. The studio show has Bill Clement, a great analyst, in the misguided role of host.
Get back to ESPN – even if it’s ESPN2 – and get your highlights back on SportsCenter.”
I know I’m late with this for my readers, dangling in the low tens, but I wanted to share thoughts on the couple of films I saw last weekend.
The first was Children Of Men, an absolutely beautiful picture with Clive Owen proving that he is the top British actor of the day without question.
The film is based on the book by the same name. I haven’t read it, but I probably goes into a little more details about the fundamental truth necessary to understand the film.
Something happened in the world and by 2027, everyone is sterile. A great scene early in the film shows everyone focused on a television, watching a news story about the death of the world’s youngest person, an 18-year old from Brazil.
Before I give you a clip, courtsey of YouTube, I must say this is easily one of the best shot films in years. It looks great from all aspects, especially with the use of the one-shot, meaning no cuts, during action scenes. It adds so much to the movement of the movie.
I don’t give grades, I just advise to rent it and here’s a clip.
On to the next movie, one I’m sad to say I’ve seen, but will easily become a guilty pleasure, and that is Accepted.
I’ll start by saying that I’m folly for simple movies like this. I love P.C.U. with Jeremy Piven and it’s clear this wants to be that movie so bad.
But just like LeBron isn’t Michael (more like Magic), Accepted is not PCU and Justin Long is not Piven. Long was funny in Dodgeball, another guilty pleasure movie, and he’s funny here again.
Lewis Black is in this movie and luckily, they let him be Lewis Black, which is just fine for the role.
I couldn’t ruin the plot of this film if I tried. Basically, Long’s character doesn’t get into college. He makes one up with a website, logo and the whole nine. Gets a couple of friends in a similar situation and with the check for school, leases an old hospital.
Antics begin when other students who didn’t get accepted find the website. Of course, the big school down the road wants to demolish the school and yadda yadda yadda…
It’s a quick little thing. The blonde from “Sisterhood” is in it and cute
and it brings some laughs and it’s over before you know it. If you can catch it on cable and there’s nothing else on, it’s a nice time waster. Next up, I’ve got the final eight episodes of The Riches on my DVR and I’m hoping they won’t be the last…
For anyone who watches “The Showbiz Show” on Comedy Central, this is for you.
For those of you who don’t, but remember Spade from Saturday Night Live, think if they took the Hollywood Minute and made it into a somewhat entertaining 22-minutes for cable TV.
Enjoy.
If you didn’t like that, too much boobs could be one reason, then how about this gem during my favorite part of the show, “There, I said it.”
The Mets have dominated teams not named the Atlanta Braves this year, so tonight’s game with Tom Terrific against Johnathan Smoltzie is a must-win game in May.
Yes, it’s May. Yes, the Mets and the Braves will still have three more meetings down the road and each team will likely make the playoffs, either as the division winner or the wild card…
But Not So Fast My Friend!
In a marathon, it’s always key to have a mental edge. Both the Braves and the Mets have young players and to show dominance in either way can only help or hurt the mental stability of young tikes like Jarrod Salty, Jeff Frenchie, Brian McCan of Corn, Jo se’ Can You C, David “The Price is” Wright and John “State of” Maine.
Speaking of things coming up young…
(I didn’t realize that what we were talking about?)
(Be quiet. I’m trying to get fired!)
NBC will air the final six episodes of “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” starting tonight at 10 p.m. eastern, 9 central.
Studio 60 was a behind-the-scenes look at a SNL-type late-night variety show.
It originally followed Heroes, which created a sub-culture online that looks something like this.
It put me in the same place on Monday nights, kinds like my final two years of college when I would find Fuzzy, get fuzzy and flip between Monday Night Football and RAW.
Then the show’s rating slipped from a solid lead-in (TV Talk), and the writers went away from what wasn’t working, but kept me interested, and concentrated on the romance and relationships and watched the ship go down faster than the Titanic, the boat not the movie.
Long story short, I’m DVRing the Mets-Braves and Studio 60, hoping not to be disappointed by either although according to my Info button, NBC is airing episodes out of order, which is their right but already has me nervous…
I’m late to write about this and I’ll do a better job in the fall with my TV rants, but…
- I’m sorry and glad to see “Gilmore Girls” end. For starters, I must thank my wife for introducing me to the girls from Stars Hollow because there is no way I would have plugged in…
If I hadn’t, I would have missed some of the best writing on TV. I didn’t watch “West Wing”, but did catch the short-lived “Studio 60″ and fell in love with the dialouge between characters. That’s what Gilmore did best.
Amy Sherman-Palladino was the culprit for the first six seasons, but left when the WB/CW didn’t ‘pony up the doe’. Good for her and bad for anyone who watched the show.
Season 7 was constantly sloppy and felt like it was patchworked together with scotch tape. The conversations slowed down and the timing moved more like a B-rate soap opera instead of the show that quietly straddled the line between comedy and drama for so many years.
After reading a review of the final episode I guess I’m OK with the finale, but even the end seemed just thrown together.
Yes the performances were excellent, but they always are. So what is that really saying? Whatever, it’s over and now we get to see a different side of Lauren Graham
But what about Rory, you ask?
Alexis Bledel is a fine actress. She was servicable in Sin City and held her own against a pretty stacked cast in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
Think about it, you had America “Ugly Betty” Ferrera, Amber “Joan of Arcadia” Tamblyn and Blake Lively, who’s a blonde.
Long story short, I think it’s sad that Amy didn’t get to finish her show, that the CW didn’t realize that without Gilmore, they’re stuck in the mud on Tuesday nights and nothing can protect Veronica Mars, that the supporting characters is what made the show great so writers that completely focus on the stars killed the essence of the show and…..
I’m really going to miss Paris Gellar.
She battled Rory at Chilton Academy for the title of “Most likely to attend Harvard”
Then the rivalry turned into friendship when they both ended up at Yale, which meant more of the great lines, faces and general attitude which made me jump back my DVR to hear whatever great line Liza Weil was to recite next.
Goodbye Paris/Liza, we hardly knew ye.
It’s been a while and I’ve got a lot to talk about, but I’ve gotta start with this past weekend…
While I could talk about my wife’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Baby 
or I could talk about my daughter’s reaction to receiving her birthday present of a new bike, basically a mean scowl and a question if there were more presents, I’m writing about what I experienced on Saturday afternoon.
I killed two hours and twenty minutes of my life and saw Spiderman 3
I hate being told about a movie before seeing it, and since I’m not a fat man in Columbia, I’ll try my best to review the film without giving anything away.
It’s a dark film. Dark with the introduction of Venom, an alien goo-like substance which arrives from space in a park right where Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson are enjoying some quiet time in the trees, thanks to a helpful web.
By the way, doesn’t Spidey have like Spidey-Senses and therefore would have heard/felt/sensed a comet-like meteorite rock land where the hell he was???
Anyway, the movie continues with other such random things — Why is Gwen Stacy’s character introduced and left to hang around with such a great lack of background?
Where is the Metaphysical Testing Facility located in New York City and how could a full control room of lab techs not notice a grown man standing in the Sand?
There are plot holes you could drive a truck through. It is about 20 to 30 minutes too long and as apted pointed out on “Ebert and Roeper” and most of the critics at Rotten Tomatoes, there are too many characters with too little development.
It seems to me they started in reverse, as in they knew what they wanted the final battle scene to be and worked their way backwards to produce it, but failed with the same strong foundation like its predecessors.
Despite all that, if you’ve seen the first two, you’re probably going to see the third and leave the theater justified with your money spent. It’s not the best Spidey film, but serviceable and I already know I’ll buy it just to complete the collection.
This is almost like the three X-Men movies. The first one was great, the second one was even better and the third was somewhat dissapointing. All in all, I left with a smile but it soon faded and I realize that I’m now waiting for just two films this summer…
Harry Potter because I listened to this book during a road trip with my wife and…
I record “The Tony Kornheiser Show” on my XM radio every morning because the 30 minutes of “Pardon the Interruption” just isn’t enough for me.
Anyway, I listen and at the end of the show, he reads emails over the air. I’ve always wanted to join the fun, but was waiting to add something funny to the conversation.
I think this is it:
I’ll start with Idol, which my wife forces me to watch. But after catching George W. and Laura do a PSA, do we have an “American Dreams” parody playing in real life?
Is Phil the lemur/alien going to reach the final two with a surge of votes from his home planet, only to rip off his mask from the ears when Bush shows up to congratulate the winner?
- It’s been a while, but you were talking about the lack of quality Keifer Sutherland movies and mentioned “Phone Booth“. The reason that movie sucks was because it was done before. Linda Fiorentino and Wesley Snipes starred in “Liberty Stands Still“. Same premise, but much better and released about six months ealier for home consumption.
- Lastly, you haven’t been as bad as most national pundits about bashing Barry Bonds during this whole steroids fiasco, but I’ve got one question, which might work better on PTI: What happens when Bonds breaks the record six weeks from now, then goes on to hit 55 out this year? Do we continue to think he was juiced or that he was juiced this year, after being tested by everyone from Selig to Mother Superior?
I’m under the belief that Bonds was one of hundreds of major leagues that used “performance-enhancers” (see Brady Anderson, but unless you throw everyone under the bus, you can’t just run over Bonds.
I’ve had Dish Network for a long time now. I first got it when I was in Middle of Nowhere, Missoura (Yes, I know it’s Missouri, but it’s not pronoucned that way and I hate going off on tangets to explain little things like this, so let’s just leave it be, shall we?)
Where was I?
Oh yea, it was there that I discovered the Digital Video Recorder or DVR. Since I was in the middle of nowhere, TiVo wasn’t even a thought and I was just giddy about recording my favorite shows and movies and watching them whenever I wanted to.
That’s how I got hooked on “24″ with Super Secret Rouge Agent Jack Bauer.
I would record the episode, then come back and watch it, skipping the commercials, then call my friend Sini and act like an excited 12-year old, talking about the Corry Feldman and Corie Haim hotline…
(Did I just date myself?)
Anyway, that’s what got me hooked. I’ve already talked about watching sports via my DVR and anyone who knows me now knows how I’ve got tapes and tapes of Simpsons episodes, shortly before they started releasing the DVDs.
All of this, slow-winding thought process, brings me back to Dexter.
I was sitting at home with my wife during a Showtime Free Preview and saw a commercial for “Dexter”. I liked Michael C. Hall’s work on “Six Feet Under”, a show that “jumped the shark” when Hall’s character, David Fisher, was car-jacked and forced to smoke crack and do other lewd acts before being released…
There’s clearly another tangent here, but I’ll leave it alone for now.
Anyway, I DVR’d “Dexter” and absolutely fell in love with the show. So much so that I watched the credits and saw it was based on the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay.
The show was good, but since Showtime is a crap channel and I wasn’t paying $12 a month for it, I was content to wait for a DVD release and read the book.
Well, I tore threw the book in about two weeks, which may seem a long time, but I don’t get as many chances to read for pleasure when I spend enough time reading my litany of newspaper websites for sports, including all five NYC papers and the Bergen Record.
That was so long ago, like Thanksgiving and some things that should not have been forgotten were lost…
History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge…
Or for about three months, I didn’t think about Dexter at all. that is until I got a letter from Dish Network. They basically showed me that I was about $5 away from getting all the channels, so like the TV pig I am, I signed up…
And now Dexter, episode two, is lying in wait on my DVR. I can’t wait to get back into this series, just like I’m sure you’ll gladly get back to whatever it is you were doing before reading this, so here’s a link to a taste of what I’m so excited about.
It doesn’t appear on my diploma, but I took enough credits to have a minor in history.
The majority of those classes were based in ancient Greek history, one of my favorite things growing up. I think the entire mythology of Zeus and his offspring, of Athena (oh, Athena) was very interesting.
Roman history is right up there, mostly because they did all the cool things the gods did, but it was actual human beings. Hence, my love of HBO’s ‘Rome’ is clear.
Titus Pullo carried the show from the opening scenes on the battlefields of Gaul till the finale, walking into the crowded Roman streets with his son, born from Cleopatra (Yes, that Cleopatra, not the localized one once associated with The Boy).
Dave Chappelle and others make fun of HBO, but it really is the best thing going for television today. When the simpletons at Fox cancelled “Arrested Development”, I really hoped the premier premium cable network would pick it up.
Alas, they tried and failed with Lucky Louie, although Louis CK is a funny cat on his own right, and were able to bring back Extras, another BBC production by one of the funniest men going, Ricky Gervias.
i think
will take you, to quote Mr. Burns, a Hi-Larious, moment from the creator of The Office for the British version of Comic Relief for Kenya.
Before I forget, I must thank Mr. Tony for the original reference.
But back to Rome…
So the series finale was Sunday night and as sad as I am to see it go, it had to end because, well, the producers followed the history of the event. So once Antony let for Egypt, eventually he would join the Queen, fight and lose to Cesear and that would be that.
But the beauty of this show was how they intertwined fictional characters like Pullo and Lucius Vorenus with historical people like Antony, Octavian Cesear and my favorite female character of all time, 
I’m saddened to see it go, but it does help because I need to stop watching so much TV, work more, pay attention to my wife and my weight and work on a book…
Either way, I’m sure I can relive all the violence, nudity, shocking twists and absolutely memorable items like someone cursing Atia on her doorstep, then committing suicide in front of her. (So Gangsta, So Gully, SO HOOD!!!)
As the song says, I will ramble on…
