Toy Story 3

Impressions before seeing it
If you're part of generation X like me then you probably grew up with Toy Story and its sequel. And, like me, you probably enjoyed the first two because they're good movies. I knew Toy Story 3 was going to be good so I did my best to avoid spoilers (I think the only thing I kept hearing from people was that it made them cry) and was finally able to see it on Blu-ray. I may not have seen it in 3D at the movie theater, but there is nothing more visually stunning than a Pixar movie on Blu-ray.

How was it?
I was surprised that this one felt a little darker and more mature than the first two, but I suppose it makes a lot of sense: Andy has grown up and so have the kids who loved Toy Story when it was first released in 1995. And as Andy loses interest in his toys and they long to be shipped off to a daycare, we learn why Woody is special: because while the other toys just want to be played with and loved, Woody is the only one who loves in return. The toys were very quick to dismiss Andy, and I think it's because of this reason, not because they believed beyond a doubt that their owner was throwing them in the trash. Later, when they regret their choices and realize Woody was right, they learn that love is faith and loyalty, not indulgence or selfishness. Also they almost got destroyed.

I loved how the opening sequence was like a more souped up, fantasized version of the same scenario Andy was playing in the opening sequence of the first Toy Story. It's been several years since I saw the first movie but I recognized it right away and was delighted by the nostalgia. I did find some parts predictable, like *Spoiler alert!* when Lotso the teddy bear turned out to be the villain, which I was expecting soon after his entrance because he reminded me a lot of the Prospector in Toy Story 2, and when they were assigned a certain room at the daycare I knew a bunch of toddlers were going to run in and rip them to shreds, but as much as I dislike predictability it didn't affect my enjoyment at all. I still love the idea of toys coming to life when no one is looking, and that will always be fun to watch.

Recommendation
Play with your toys, kids. They're better at developing your imagination than video games are. Oh, and see this movie. Not all trilogies/franchises are able to maintain their quality from movie to movie (*cough*Shrek*cough*), but this is one of the good ones.

This Week in Television - Dec. 19-24, 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone who visits "What I'm Watching". It wasn't until I added the counter at the bottom of the site that I realized there might be a few more people reading than I thought... Or one or two people who come here way too often. Either way, thank you. :)

Survivor: Nicaragua (Season Finale)
So after screwing over a lot of people, instead of trying to earn the jury's respect by keeping people who deserve to be there, all season all anyone kept talking about was bringing people the jury hates to the finals. However, Fabio somehow managed to do both because Dan and Holly didn't deserve to stay and the jury was pissed at Chase and Sash (though Chase did collect a surprising four votes). Chase is dumb; Marty's question about a "dumber than a bag of hammers" award was not "BS". I understand that he was trying to complain about the bias of not being able to choose Marty, but that is an irrelevant bias since Marty was far from the dumbest player. I do call BS on Naonka's question, though. It seems like something the producers told her to ask in order to get an emotional reaction out of Fabio, because it otherwise served no purpose whatsoever, and while Naonka is certainly not above stupid and pointless, I don't buy that she would want to ask whether Fabio loves his mother. But it was funny how Fabio laughed every time the jury attacked Chase and Sash. He knew he had it in the bag, and I have to take my hat off to him because at the beginning I thought he was just a dumb, shallow meathead who wouldn't make it to the end and now I actually have some respect for him and am glad he won. Didn't realize he was 21 though; that makes me feel old somehow, and I'm only three years older than he is. For once I was glad for Jeff Probst's douchiness when he cut off Shannon at the reunion, even though it sort of sounded like he was going to admit that Sash was not gay because he had met his girlfriend. Saw it coming that Jane would win player of the season. I was surprised at the number of former Survivors in the audience though, because there was really no reason for them to come except to keep their faces in the spotlight (though I heard a rumour that Boston Rob and Russell Hantz are returning next season for a showdown that involves them having automatic immunity until the merge).

Kenny vs. Spenny (Series Finale Christmas Special)
That...wasn't what I was expecting. It was almost like an Americanized version of what the show has become: a showcase for Kenny and his weird characters while Spenny tries to be taken seriously from the background. This was the apex of what Kenny vs. Spenny has been turning into. If you're a loyal enough fan to remember season one, you'll remember that it was a show about competitions that happened to be funny, as opposed to a show that is about crazy, raunchy humour and happens to have competitions. There was a competition here (who can stay in a pine tree the longest?), but it was shown in snippets between sketches with humour so distinct that you could tell, for example, that "Silencio vs. Goldar" was written by Kenny and the Santa sketch with the corny, vaudevillian style jokes was written by Spenny. Not the best send-off for a show that started in a completely different fashion, but the reappearances of several Kenny characters was, at best, appropriately nostalgic. The only thing I laughed at (and fairly hard, too) was the actor playing Spenny. Everything he did was hilarious and at first it actually took me a moment to figure out that it wasn't Spenny. But the bottom line is that Kenny vs. Spenny was supposed to be a reality show, and while there were certainly numerous moments throughout the series that felt fake and scripted, this one was the most fake of all. None of it felt sincere until the final moment in the end credits: the guys hugging while Spenny apologizes for destroying the set and Kenny responds with "Nah, I thought it was funny." I guess they are friends after all.

Hero of the Week: Whoever that guy was playing Spenny on Kenny vs. Spenny. The one brilliant part of an otherwise mediocre Christmas special.

Douchebag of the Week: Shannon from Survivor. Voted off months ago and only spoke for another few seconds this week; still a dick.

This Week in Television - Dec. 13-17, 2010

Survivor: Nicaragua
That's the second time Chase promised to take someone on a reward and then didn't. He'll already be down at least three jury votes if he makes it to the finals. At least Fabio got him back by winning immunity. I was surprised that everyone voted for Jane. That was a selfish move because she deserved to win more than, say, Dan and Holly. But they were probably right in their suspicions that she would've taken the jury vote. Sunday's finale will be in next week's post (I'm rooting for Sash now. Everyone else who deserved to win got booted... maybe Fabio as a backup choice.), along with Thursday's special series finale of Kenny vs. Spenny.

Hero of the Week: Jane, for going down with a fight.

Douchebag of the Week: Chase, for being shady.

This Week in Television - Dec. 6-10, 2010

Glee
Last year Glee didn't get a Christmas episode because they ended the fall season with sectionals. I'm kind of glad they did this year because I generally enjoy holiday episodes of shows and this one wasn't too shabby. Sue as The Grinch was fun (though I'm aware that I praise everything Sue does except for last season's Madonna debacle), and Brittany's wide-eyed belief in Santa and magic was cute, and I had to laugh when those two arcs came neatly together in a recreation of the scene where The Grinch first meets Cindy Lou Who (Brittany even had the hairstyle). Brittany is the second best character on Glee (there is no third), and I must admit, grudgingly, that I was charmed by her whole storyline, from her conversation with Coach Bieste as Santa to her giddy reaction when Artie took his first step. But props to Mike for telling the mall Santa that he wants Channing Tatum to stop being in stuff. Me too, Mike. Me too.

Running Wilde
I was expecting a Christmas episode since all the other shows are doing it this week, but seeing as how Running Wilde probably isn't returning after the holidays, they might've had one in there but it looks like FOX isn't planning to air the last five episodes. Anyway, I thought this one was a little more fun than the last couple of episodes but it's still having some trouble being outright hilarious. Once again, we get another story where Steve and Emmy compete to prove each other wrong, and while this formula is getting old I'll let it slide this week because it was interesting to see them try to live each other's lives. They were successful at first, but ironically failed once they took on each other's mannerisms because they were basically carbon copies with all of the negative qualities that come with the job but none of the skill to perform adequately. With an eye-patched Fa'ad stealing the show again as he tries to become an A-lister.

Survivor: Nicaragua
If I were Sash I'd stop blindsiding people and start worrying about jury votes. I thought he was making a mistake after ignoring Fabio's request to tell him if his name comes up, and it turned out not to be necessary since he didn't go home, but it probably would have benefited him to say something to Benry. The reward challenge was hilarious because you could just hear Jeff getting a boner as Chase breezed through each round. Chase heard it too because he asked Jeff if he wanted to hug him. I almost thought he was going to accept.

Community
Ever since I first heard about it and then saw the promo photos, this episode was probably the television event I've most been looking forward to this season (except for maybe the return of Parks and Recreation). To be honest I ended up finding it slightly underwhelming. I mean the animation was awesome and it had some good moments (like the nerd that I am, I got excited at seeing the Lost season 1 DVD play a part), but it was lower on laughs, the singing was a little bland (although the songs were original - take that, Glee!), and while I'm a big fan of Abed and saw what they were aiming for, it somehow didn't affect me like it should have. But still enjoyable because I love stop-motion, and Teddy Pierce was weirdly cute.

30 Rock
Jack has always had issues with his mother and her harsh criticisms, and it was nice to see him trump her for once. I don't really consider her fake heart attack to be a proper retaliation because it was more of a cheat than anything else, so Jack still wins it. Tracy's career tends to take turns parodying either Eddie Murphy or Martin Lawrence (this time Eddie and the Norbit/Oscar loss situation). I think I'd rather see him just be an original character, although I always enjoy some obvious hand-over-the-mouth hose barfing. The two black swans costume was a good gag too, but I don't think it's a rekindling of Jenna and Paul's relationship. They were just two people who love to entertain.

The Office
This felt a lot like a classic episode from earlier seasons of The Office, thus making it awesome. It had some really funny gags (Erin thinking Holly is plain and uninteresting, Dwight having a wig for everyone in the office, Creed for some reason thinking Holly was a sassy black lady), and in spite of most of the characters experiencing some sort of Christmas disappointment, some sweet moments when things started to look up for each of them. I thought having Jack Coleman on the show would be cool, but as of this episode all it's done is given Angela yet another reason to act like she's better than everyone else. But it might make up for a funny storyline or two in the future, as it appears he is gay and might not even realize he is dating Angela. When I saw all the snowmen in the parking lot, I knew Dwight wasn't going to be in any of them. Too bad Jim didn't.

Fringe
This episode turned out to be a surprisingly deep character study. We rarely see Olivia so broken (not even when held captive on the other side), we've never seen Peter deal with being in the wrong and having a lot to apologize for (not that I can remember, anyway), and we've never had such a remorseful and well-intentioned "villain" (we may have come close when Peter Weller guest starred last season). The ballerina corpse puppet dancing scene and that whole storyline reminded me of the movie May - creepy and disturbing, but with sweet and moving undertones. And I actually kind of liked Peter and Fauxlivia together because, truthfully, she was more fun and laid back while our Olivia is mostly all business. But Olivia makes a good point: if you love someone, you would know when something is off. So did he just not love Olivia, or was he in denial about all of the signs? It might be more that he was just blinded by lust; he certainly responded strongly every time Fauxlivia wanted to get physical.

Hero of the Week: Pam from The Office, because that comic book actually was a really, really awesome present. She shouldn't have bothered to show it around because Phyllis isn't the type of dorky young person who would "get" it, and like Angela, Ryan likes to be a pretentious prick whenever possible.

Douchebag of the Week: Angela from The Office, for pointing out too many times that her boyfriend is a senator no one had even heard of until she started dating him. I don't hate Angela as a character, she can be funny, but this week her arrogance just got annoying.

Son of the Beach - Volume 2

Son of the Beach is probably my biggest guilty pleasure. It's stupid, cheesy, offensive, poorly acted, full of corny sexual innuendos and bad special effects - basically of low quality all around, yet I get a big kick out of it anyway. In order to properly appreciate this show, one must understand it on a satirical level: Son of the Beach is a parody/satire of Baywatch, a show which, while I've never seen it, I'm assuming shares all of the qualities I listed above yet is supposed to be a drama. It was probably begging to be made fun of.

Volume 2 consists of the second half of season two (which contained mostly strong episodes) and all of the third and final season, where some very unfortunate changes were made. First, Mayor Massengil was booted from the show because for some reason the network wanted to fire Lisa Banes, and Porcelain Bidet (Amy Weber) was added as a new lifeguard. Huge mistake. Porcelain was a one-note character: a spoiled, selfish gold-digger, and as with Jenna from 30 Rock, I just don't find that type of self-centered character to be funny. Mayor Massengil was a lot funnier and provided a lot of great (yet silly) storylines revolving around her rivalry with Notch in the first two seasons. Problem number two was that in the third season, they started using their money to improve the show's special effects. Normally that would be a good thing, but not on this show because I always found the cheesy low-budgetness to be part of the overall joke, and making things look better subtracts from that. My third problem with season 3, although a minor one, is that they changed Professor Milosovic's laugh and for the life of me I can't fathom why. The professor, a Stephen Hawking-like wheelchair-bound scientist, is easily my favourite character because of his hilarious computer voice and admittedly offensive jokes about his paralysis. His laugh was also one of the best parts because it was a robotic "Ha. Ha. Ha.", but in season 3 they suddenly decided to speed it up and make it sound more human. Lame. And in general the season 3 episodes just weren't as funny as the season 2 episodes in this collection, which I got a LOT of laughs out of.

Best episode: The one that was probably the funniest to me was the season 2 episode "It's Showtime at the Apollo 13!", where Jamaica becomes the first black lifeguard in space and Notch has to go undercover as a high school student to save her when the mission goes haywire due to a teenage hacker. Yes, I know it's a ridiculous plot - the lifeguards on this show often act as policemen, investigating crimes, going undercover, and making arrests - but that's part of the show's ongoing joke.

Eagle Eye

Impressions before seeing it
I remember being intrigued by the mystery of the trailer (who is calling these people and giving them random instructions, and why?) but then I didn't hear a lot of good things after its release so I didn't seek it out until it appeared on TV last night.

How was it?
The "cold opening" before the titles didn't draw me in because it was just some boring stuff about the American government trying to catch Middle Eastern terrorists (plus it had Michael Chiklis, who has never impressed me in anything and probably never will unless I decide to watch The Shield), but then afterwards we get to Shia LaBeouf playing Poker and it instantly becomes fun, because he is the kind of actor who is fun to watch. It gets even better when Jerry (LaBeouf) is framed via a huge stash of weapons planted in his apartment and he starts receiving phone calls from a woman's voice (an uncredited Julianne Moore) giving him specific and often dangerous instructions. Michelle Monaghan's character also starts getting these calls. I love stories where weird and mysterious things like this are going on - and perhaps it was also because the phonecalls reminded me of the early Matrix scenes where Morpheus calls Neo to guide him out of the office - so this was right up my alley.

However, once they started answering questions and revealing things, Eagle Eye lost its appeal for me. Not just because the mystery was gone, but because the answers were uninteresting, preachy, and a little silly. I found myself thinking of Arnold Schwarzenegger's The 6th Day, and how the first 20-30 minutes of it are actually cool and then it gets dumber and funnier as time goes on. But I think Eagle Eye is generally a better film than that one. There are some good performances here - I really enjoyed the scene where Billy Bob Thornton has Shia LaBeouf in an interrogation room and is trying to use a combination of good cop (without a bad cop) and reverse psychology to make him admit he is a terrorist - and there is fun to be had, I was just disappointed with the last half.

Recommendation
If, like me, you enjoy those "WTF is going on?!" type plots, then you might get a kick out of at least the first half. Eagle Eye is entertaining and, I suppose, not too shabby if you don't mind it jumping on the "our government is problematic" bandwagon like a lot of things are doing these days.

This Week in Television - Nov. 29-Dec. 3, 2010

Glee
The worst Glee episodes are the ones without Sue Sylvester. Not just because Sue is awesome, but because in her absence they tend to fill the time with even more of that high school relationship drama crap. This was one of those episodes. And it was Sectionals too, there should have been more tension and urgency and epic performances, but there weren't. Especially not from The Warblers, who were mediocre and only tied New Directions so the writers could have Kurt at Regionals. And why was there a club of old people? Yeah, last year's Sectionals was a much better episode. At least I got a laugh out of the song selection - Mr. Schue loves his 80's music!

Running Wilde
I didn't really laugh at this episode until the last few minutes, when a ridiculously blond-haired Fa'ad and Jonathan from 30 Rock were pretending to be doctors. Almost turned into an inside joke when Steve claimed not to have heard of 30 Rock when Will Arnett has made several guest appearances on it.

Survivor: Nicaragua
I know Jeff Probst hates quitters, and I can understand that, but it was still unnecessary for him to rub it in their faces and humiliate them further. They know it's embarrassing and the audience can form their own opinions about it without Probst telling the viewer to hate them. But, you know, he's probably going to win Best Reality Host again at the next Emmys. But I can't say it wasn't nice to see Naonka leave after all her smack talk and bragging that she was going to win.

Community
Not being part of the drinking scene, I can't say this episode resonated with me, but it did have its moments (Pierce trying to cut the birthday cake, Shirley's drunken past that was no doubt an inside joke stemming from the season 1 commentaries). And it's nice to see them using Annie a little more this season, because last year she was often a little too straight to have anything funny to do, but this week and the previous episode have showcased Alison Brie's comedic talents better. But Troy and Abed were right when they said, respectively, "Alcohol makes people sad" and "This is a really dark chapter in our group's story," because this episode was more about putting the characters in depressing situations than making us laugh. Luckily I love the characters, and the fact that Community can do something completely different each week and still be great.

30 Rock
Even though Jenna and Paul's relationship is a weird one, it was the perfect situation for both of them since they're both obsessed with Jenna. I actually kind of felt sorry for them when they broke up, although it was necessary because obviously Will Forte can't stick around forever. Loved Jack putting down (twice) men with curly hair and people who need glasses as lesser beings. Not necessarily saying I agree, just thought it was funny. Tracy's fake son's ideas were also funny due to being so shady and stupid, but the best part was Liz at the end, having the "chain reaction of mental anguish" come back to her via the dude in the Godzilla costume. "DAMN YOU, GODZIRRAAAAAA!"

The Office
After some sub-par episodes, I really liked this one. I always liked Oscar though, because he is probably the most normal and sensible person in the office, and maybe it's not such a bad thing for him to correct everyone because most of the people there are either dumb or crazy. Andy is coming off as a lonely guy, clinging to Darryl the way he stalked Michael when he first arrived in season 3. Always funny to see Dwight's failure to understand and/or care about how to please people, but I think my favourite moment was Erin's unfounded suspicion that they hired her so they could kill her and collect her life insurance, followed by Michael's reaction to it.

Fringe
Very cool episode. I love how each week the opening titles have been telling us which universe we're going to see, and this week even the credits switched back and forth because that was the format. I liked that the previous episode was a set-up for "Foyles" to help our Olivia get home (I had a minor fear that he might turn her in after being suspicious of her FBI comment). Peter was in the zone this episode, testing Fauxlivia and the shapeshifter for their identities and taking swift action when they failed. As was Walter for coining the term "vagenda". But now that both Olivias are back, the only loose thread is the crazy doomsday device, which I'm honestly not that interested in at the moment, but I hope they'll work on it.

Hero of the Week: Peter from Fringe. Walter is generally awesomer, but Peter was cool this week.

Douchebag of the Week: Jeff Probst from Survivor again. I don't care if everyone else is hating on the quitters, the dude is not nice.