Boiler Room

Impressions before seeing it
Didn't really know anything except that I generally dislike Vin Diesel.

How was it?
For some reason I thought it was going to be a heist movie, but I'm glad it wasn't because that would have interested me a lot less. Instead it's about a bunch of pushy salesmen (i.e. con men) trying to sell stock market shares to schmucks. That alone interested me and was enough for the movie, but they had to throw in this other story about Giovanni Ribisi's character being desperate for his father's approval, which I wasn't really a fan of. I mean I can understand what it might be like having a strict parent who is hard to please, and what it would be like to want someone's respect so badly, but it just seems so...weak. I'm not saying that to love or to want love is weak, but this guy is trying so hard to do what his dad wants that it's like he's not living his own life and can't think for himself.

So that is my one gripe, but I did enjoy this movie. It was interesting (and maybe a little infuriating) watching how these guys manipulated every customer into saying yes to them. Ben Affleck appeared to give the trainees some inspiring speeches (I don't care what anyone says, he has been in some flops but he's not a bad actor) and Vin Diesel gave an adequate performance after all - most likely the best of his career.

Recommendation
Boiler Room is an enjoyable salesman movie... that's about it.

This Week in Television - Nov. 16-20, 2009

Heroes
The stuff with Tracy getting help from Claire after losing control of her abilities was kind of pointless and pretty much the same story we got last season when Elle had the same problem. So if Samuel gets stronger around others with abilities, but he was somehow unaware of this without having seen the film, then the question of why he's gathering people is still up in the air. Disappointed that Sylar left Matt's body since watching those two duke it out was awesome, but maybe it will just continue with Sylar vs. Nathan.

V
Tyler is terrible at lying to his mom and stalling for time. Whatever the V's are planning to use him for, I hope they didn't need an intelligent person, because if so they will fail miserably.

Glee
No Sue at all this week, just some crazy obsessive teenage girls and Kurt trying to convert Finn to homosexuality. In a real life situation I would say it wouldn't happen, but since Glee tends to be unrealistic I wouldn't really be that surprised if Kurt and Finn hooked up at some point, even if it's temporary.

Modern Family
This episode was saved by its guest stars, Elizabeth Banks, who is cool, and Edward Norton, who I don't think of as a character actor but he does a good British accent. I also like the role reversal in having the wife be the one who is terrible with gifts and special occasions instead of the husband. Manny's attraction to Haley just seems like a recycling of the George Michael and Mayby thing from Arrested Development, although in this case I think Manny is Haley's... half uncle?

Survivor: Samoa
I didn't like Laura anyway. I'm still not really rooting for anyone in particular though, and there's only 8 left. Kind of a forgettable season in that sense.

Fringe
Awesome, I always found the observers really fascinating. Glad we got an episode to learn more about them. So if they are observing time, it must be that they are trying to either find something or learn something. And given that they are so bizarrely inhuman, why did that one guy start to have feelings?

Parks and Recreation
The hunting trip was kind of funny, but the best part was April and Andy wasting time doing mundane stuff like playing Marco Polo and practicing spit takes. I think they might get together at some point and would actually make a good couple (albeit a slightly weird one) since they're both so lazy and unmotivated.

The Office
Dwight's Recyclops costume was awesome. Kudos to Jim for punishing Ryan, because sometimes he can really be a smug prick. The ending was great when Dwight was so disgusted with the lineup for questions that he just ended up making suggestions for more efficient lineups.

30 Rock
Frank being the greenest person at TGS: funny; Dr. Spaceman making another appearance: awesome; Kathy Geiss's lawyer being a Teddy Ruxpin doll in a suit: priceless.

Flash Forward
Even back when Olivia first got the text, I knew it wasn't from anyone that Mark told. It's gotta be someone who was involved with the blackout. I like that the majority of the episode was about Bryce, because until now I thought of him as more of a minor supporting character. However it seems too soon to be introducing the girl from his flash forward and setting them up to be situated in the same country, because it looks like the first time they meet is in the vision, which would take place (and air) in the spring.

Kenny vs. Spenny
Season 6 kicked off this week with two episodes. The first was "Who Can 69 the Longest?". I read some of the competitions online and was wondering how they were going to do this one without it being too literal - there was no disgusting oral sex involved, just harnesses keeping them attached to each other in a 69-like position. The funniest part was watching them try to move around, and having the crew decide that it was a boring competition so they tortured them to provoke surrender.
The second episode was "Who can touch the most breasts?", and within minutes the term was quickly distorted to include the breasts of men, cows, chicken, and plastic mannequins and dolls. Surprisingly, I don't think Kenny even touched any bare lady breasts and Spenny got several (They're worth 3 points!).

New record: 11 shows this week! Also, for the first time in... possibly ever... I have at least one show on every weeknight.

Overall rating for this week's shows: A+

This Week in Television - Nov. 9-13, 2009

Heroes
Man, Samuel is really working everyone. Still not sure exactly what his goal is. I'm not convinced that wanting to keep the other "special" people safe is his only priority. The Parkman vs. Sylar stuff was the highlight of the episode though, I am loving that plotline.

V
Still hate that Tyler kid. I like how Decker turned the tables on Anna, although Scott Wolf is admittedly one of the most forgettable actors out there so I wish he was being played by someone else.

Glee
I'll admit it, it was kind of sweet when they revealed that Sue has a mentally challenged sister. Kind of makes me like her more, even though I mainly like her for her hilarious evilness.

Survivor: Samoa
Damn, Russell keeps finding idols and playing them. I still think he'll get his.

Fringe
I knew it was the kid doing the mind control before they revealed it. They kept cutting to him every time someone was being forced to kill themselves. I don't think that human brains would taste like chicken but those kinds of random thoughts are why Walter Bishop is my hero.

Parks and Recreation
I liked this one. It wasn't necessarily the funniest episode, but I thought it was a cool episode idea to have everyone design a new mural for the town hall. Andy shining shoes seems like a perfect job for him somehow, I hope he keeps that one for a while.

The Office
Michael was kind of annoying in this episode, and I never find him as annoying as everyone else who watches The Office does. I guess I just wasn't really a fan of him staying in his southern gentleman character for most of the episode. The Mexican standoff at the end was awesome though.

30 Rock
I love that Liz Lemon's name on the foreign market is "Lesbian Yellow Sour Fruit".

Flash Forward
So I guess the whole debate they're getting into now is: can the future really be changed? On Lost they talked about how the universe has a way of course correcting, but does that apply on Flash Forward? I think what I'm actually most intrigued about is what they're going to do for the second season, which would take place after everyone's flash forwards come to pass (or not?). Maybe they'll all just have new flash forwards to stress about.

Overall rating for this week's shows: A

Black Dynamite

Impressions before seeing it
The trailer was hilarious, and I love the idea of not only setting a movie in a certain era, but taking it a step further and pretending it was actually filmed in that era as well.

How was it?
I don't think I've ever actually watched a whole blaxploitation film, but as long as you know enough about the genre I don't think you have to in order to enjoy Black Dynamite. First, a reminder: "parody" is defined as "a literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule." Black Dynamite is a parody because it does exactly that. Films like Epic Movie and Disaster Movie are NOT parodies, because they do not do that. Smart people know this already, but the word parody has been thrown around too much and with the exception of Black Dynamite and Walk Hard there hasn't really been a good parody movie in at least 10 years.

Anyway, this movie perfectly captures the blatant cheesiness of 70's movies. There are continuity errors, boom mikes, bad acting, cheesy dialogue, over the top action, ridiculous plot elements (my favourite being a scene where Black Dynamite and his friends talk their way through a trail of clues using obscure knowledge that no average person would ever know, and having no logical reason for using the methods in which they discover the clues), and nun-chucks (whatever happened to nun-chucks anyway? You don't see them in modern movies that much anymore). Usually when you put all of these things together it makes a god awful piece of crap, but only when it's unintentional. Obviously they are mimicking the genre here so in that case they hit the nail on the head and the combination of bad filmmaking elements just makes it lots and lots of fun. If I hadn't known about this movie and recognized a few familiar faces in it, I really would have thought it was made in the 70's. Kudos to the lead actor, Michael Jai White, for also co-writing this. I like when actors do some behind-the-camera work as well.

Recommendation
You definitely have to check this one out if you enjoy real parody and love cheesy lines. Lots of cheesy lines.

This Week in Television - Nov. 2-6, 2009

Heroes
Not sure I believe that Charlie is even still alive. I think her apology to Hiro was just a vision created by Samuel to get him on board with his plan. How many powers does this guy have, and how did he get them? LOL HE KILLED MOHINDER.

V
So this new show started up this week. It was cool, although I don't like Elizabeth Mitchell's teenage son and his friend. They're idiots and I don't care for them. The plane falling out of the sky when the ships arrived looked really cool, as did the ships themselves. And the reptile skin under the Visitor disguises. I like the idea of aliens pretending to be peaceful and helpful while secretly plotting to take over Earth. It's more interesting than just having them fly in and start blowing up major landmarks. I thought Morena Baccarin's performance was good too, she has a way of feigning pleasantness so that you can still kind of see that she is cold and robotic underneath. This show is apparently a remake of a mini-series but I have never seen it because it was almost before my time.

Survivor: Samoa
Russell wasted his idol, and in the preview for the next episode he looks scared and desperate. Sucker.

Fringe
The turning people into dust thing was cool. Nice to finally see a bit more character development with Broyles.

Parks and Recreation
Ron and Tammy were hilarious together. I thought it was an interesting take that he doesn't actually hate his wife, he only convinces himself that he does in order to resist her.

The Office
Michael dumping Pam's mom after finding out her age was typical Michael, but the best part of the episode was Dwight and Andy's polite favour war. When Dwight was offering bagels at the beginning I at first thought he had put something in them, but I suppose that's not his style.

30 Rock
I kind of hope they continue to use the robot guy in TGS sketches, just because of how stupid it would be. Did anyone else catch Liz referring to Gilbert Gottfried as "Sir Gilbert Gottfried"?

Flash Forward
Al did a brave thing by killing himself, but if I were him I wouldn't have jumped off a building. I kept thinking how hilariously ironic it would be if he ended up landing on the woman he was supposed to have killed in the future. I don't think this means everyone else's futures won't happen though, it only means they can be altered.

Overall rating for this week's shows: A

Mary and Max

Impressions before seeing it
Stumbled upon this little Australian animated flick I had never heard of. All I knew about it was the brief little synopsis, but it sounded like it could be heartwarming.

How was it?
So these two people who are kind of losers and have no friends end up randomly becoming pen pals and good friends over a long distance. It could have easily been done in live action but then it probably would have lost some charm. For one, the characters are meant to be ugly and that doesn't translate well to live action because most movies have to have good-looking actors in the lead (or so studios believe) in order to do well, so having them animated makes them cute anyway. But I think the animation is also important in giving it a unique visual style, especially given that much of it is in monotones and again that might bore some viewers if it were live action.

Early on in the film I was reminded of Amélie because of the lonely characters and all of the details about the specific things they like and don't like as well as their quirks. That means it was off to a good start because I love Amélie. It even had a narrator. But it branched off into its own movie, told mostly through letters to each other, about a growing friendship. It's one of those heartwarming friendship movies - and as I am noticing with this type of movie, the new friendship is always tested when there is some sort of fallout between them. Lost in Translation also comes to mind, especially given that we have an older man and younger girl here as well. It's not for kids though, it is kind of dark and at times depressing, and the ending is one of those things that makes you feel happy and sad at exactly the same time. By the way, the main characters are voiced by Toni Collette and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who are both awesome.

Recommendation
If you watch it, be prepared for the possibility of smiling, crying, or both at the same time. Should be enjoyable for most, because who doesn't like movies about characters becoming friends?