Like Family Guy before it, Futurama is a show that didn't really need to come back. It wasn't serialized, it didn't end with some agonizing cliffhanger, it had probably been gone long enough for fans to get over the loss, and for me personally, the four straight-to-video movies were a satisfying enough return that I would have been okay without a new season. But on the other hand, it also didn't need to be canceled and I always enjoy FOX's mistakes being rubbed in their faces, so here we are.
I'm not sure if the writers got rusty during the hiatus or if it's predominantly a new writing staff, but I have to say I was disappointed with the humour. Maybe they're just getting older and their tastes have changed, because the show is now similar to current episodes of The Simpsons in that it tries more frequently to either take the characters seriously or rely on the tired stereotypes of their personalities. Even an episode involving Leela stranded on a planet with Zapp Brannigan - which should have been gold because Zapp is such a ridiculous character - went in the wrong direction and failed to be funny, and footage of the show within a show, "The Scary Door", had a much funnier intro than its actual content. In most cases I probably got one small laugh per episode, if that. However, I still found this season watchable because they did have some cool and interesting science fiction story ideas, which was part of the show's original appeal anyway. And there is some obvious fan service present in the show's attempts to bring out nearly every minor character seen in Futurama's first run, but as a fan it's kind of hard not to smile with nostalgia when Hedonism Bot saunters into the room. I wouldn't recommend checking out this set for the comedic value, but if you just really enjoy science fiction then I'd say think about it.
Best Episode: The one I probably laughed the most at (but again, small laughs) was "The Futurama Holiday Spectacular", in which we get three short stories about Xmas, Kwanzaa, and Robanukah. But I think my favourite overall was "The Late Philip J. Fry", where Fry, Bender, and The Professor take a long journey through the future in a one-way time machine. That one was memorably cool, if not funny.
Impressions before seeing it Like Cloverfield before it, Super 8 kept its trailers mysterious so that they didn't really betray what it was about. Mystery = interest, and it was getting good reviews, so high expectations.
How was it? This was one of those movies that I was already liking in the first five minutes. It reminded me of The Goonies (and, I assume, Stand by Me, though I still haven't seen that one) because it was kids bordering on childhood and adulthood in a serious situation. These kinds of movies come with that wonderful sense of nostalgia for what it was like to be a kid and still feel like what you were doing was as important as what the grownups do. Even if it does take place in 1979, before I was born.
To explain it briefly, six kids are filming a movie when a crazy train crash happens right next to them. What they find spilling out of the cars, and the repercussions of the accident, lead to a lot of trouble and weird stuff happening.
With Spielberg producing, it's probably no coincidence that Super 8 feels like a Frankenstein of Spielberg films: there are elements of E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, War of the Worlds, and maybe even a little Jurassic Park. And let's not forget that he also produced The Goonies, which I mentioned above. To some that may make J.J. Abrams look like a hack for writing this, but it's better to borrow a little from each than to take a lot from just one. Anyway, I'd say this film is just as much mystery as it is sci-fi. We see a lot of weird things going on without an explanation for them, and we don't get a good look at the crazy alien monster until late in the movie. But as fun as all of the special effects and action and weird occurrences were, I just liked watching the kids be kids. Amidst all the chaos, Super 8 is really just six kids trying to make a movie, and since I am fascinated by filmmaking, that was fine with me. As a bonus, you even get to see their finished short film in its entirety during the end credits. Recommendation I can see this one making my top 10 of 2011 list, unless 10 more really awesome movies come out in the next 6 months. Highly enjoyable, and all those child actors actually held up really well in the acting department. I'm going to go with the typical movie blurb line and say "If you only see one movie this summer, see Super 8!"
I know people usually do these in December or January, but I needed time to see the potential candidates. I probably saw less than 20 films from 2010 so this wasn't that hard, but here were my favourites... UPDATE Nov. 28 2011:Machete has been bumped in favour of a much more deserving film (see #6).
10. The Town After Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck brings us an even more high tensioned and action packed crime drama. There are way too many heist movies and "one last job" movies out there, but rather than being a crappy blockbuster made purely for the cash, The Town plays more like a Scorsese film.
9. Toy Story 3 Pixar builds on what they established in the first two movies to bring us a slightly darker, more mature, and sweeter ending to the story of the toys we grew up loving. Is there anyone who can keep their eyes dry during the hand-holding scene?
8. 127 Hours A guy stuck in a canyon for a whole movie can be really boring if done wrong, and even though you know going in that he's going to cut his arm off and escape, 127 Hours is still a gripping look at raw survival. Well played by James Franco with some interesting but highly effective directing choices from Danny Boyle.
7. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World A movie for nerds who love video games and/or comics, it's this hyperreal and wildly entertaining ride with all kinds of cool special effects and references thrown in. If Sin City was the closest a movie can get to a comic book, Scott Pilgrim is the closest a movie can get to a comic book video game.
6. Blue Valentine Charming but tragic, and most of all, honest, this is the kind of romance movie they should be making more often. It's not idealized or polished, it's just real, and Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling played it perfectly with just the right amount of chemistry.
5. Kick-Ass It might have been this movie that started that wave of "superhero with no super powers" stories (and there are more coming), but none of them were as good as Kick-Ass. Funny, a good story, and some great action sequences, it's just very cool all around.
4. Hot Tub Time Machine Time travel movies are always fun, and what makes this one a blast is all the hommages to other time travel movies and 80's movies. Not all of it necessarily makes sense, but who cares? It's one of the funniest and most entertaining movies of 2010.
3. True Grit A good lesson in how remakes should be done: in the same general style as the original, even if there are still a lot of differences. The story is simple, but a very talented cast and a bit of Coen Brothers humour makes it a tour de force.
2. Black Swan Probably the coolest "art film" I've ever seen. Darren Aronofsky uses a canvas of accessible metaphors, black vs. white imagery, and creepiness to make us feel Nina's insane, over the edge obsession with a ballet role, and Natalie Portman was as equally as intense and frightening as everything else about this trippy flick.
1. Inception Easily the most epic movie of the year. I've always been fascinated with dreams and surrealism, so with a competent director and cast this was right up my alley. And I don't care what anyone says, it is NOT confusing!
Impressions before seeing it I just wanted to see this movie for its title. Not a lot of movies about art school.
How was it? Art School Confidential is like a painting: at first you only see the image on the surface, but if you watch the whole movie you will be surprised by a deeper meaning. It does start off like a typical college comedy and starts setting up romantic potential, preparing you for that kind of movie, but then it takes a more serious turn and pulls out some insightful commentary on things like success, creativity, and fame. Some of the more interesting scenes, for me, were the ones in the classroom when the art students were critiquing each others artwork. The main character, Jerome (Max Minghella), is a talented artist but the other students either ignore his work or bash it because, as good as he is at realism, his work is also "inside the box". On the other hand, everyone praises the work of Jonah (Matt Keeslar) for its simplicity and lack of adherence to any rules or conventions of artistic design - "It's like he's never seen another painting before", one student says in awe. In a subplot, one of Jerome's roommates (Ethan Suplee) is attempting to make a movie about the campus strangler but keeps getting stuck, so the beatnik girl suggests that he stop trying to make it like every other movie.
So what is art, then? Is this movie saying that art is not allowed to be conventional? Jerome knows he has talent and spends much of the movie frustrated that nobody else is acknowledging it (something I'm sure every artist goes through at some point), but does that mean that everybody else is wrong? I think it goes back to the old saying, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", and that is why they had Jerome fall in love with the art model (Sophia Myles). She poses nude for the class, but he draws her portrait from the shoulders up, suggesting a more intimate and respectful portrayal of beauty that she doesn't fully understand until the end of the movie. All of the budding artists at the art school have a certain pretentiousness stemming from their own preconceived notions of what art should be, but Jerome seems to be the only one who understands that real life is art, too, and that's why his style is realism. I also kind of liked the sad but true implications that fame and popularity do not necessarily have anything whatsoever to do with talent (Lord knows Paris Hilton is a perfect example of that), but I suppose the ending is a happy one. Jerome did say that he wanted to be a famous artist, but he didn't say that he wanted his art to be famous, or even good.
Recommendation I think it's a must see for anyone with an interest in art and the art business, because it has more to say about those things than one might think. Don't expect a raunchy college sex comedy like Van Wilder, because this isn't that. The reviews were mixed on this movie, but I really liked it thanks to my interest in art and creativity, and I found that the storylines did ultimately fit together, even if others didn't think so.
Today is the second anniversary of the blog, so thanks to everyone who stopped by (i.e. no one) over the last two years.
To celebrate, here's a special season-ending post recounting some of the highlights of the TV shows I watched this year.
Best New Show: I didn't stick with any of the new shows I watched this season, but then all of them are now canceled so I couldn't anyway. Running Wilde was the best of the bunch because the others can all be considered lame, and while I don't consider Wilde awesome (nowhere near as brilliant as Arrested Development), it had some funny moments.
Worst New Show:My Generation, canceled after two episodes I believe, which tells you a lot. I only watched one, which tells you even more. The concept was kind of interesting on paper, but they blew it.
Best Comeback: After a slightly sub-par season last year, 30 Rock came back with a lot of hilarious episodes, to everyone's relief.
Worst Comeback: The series finale of V had some good moments, but it was one of those shows where too many characters are acting like morons every episode. Glee is also frequently flawed, but at least that show has Sue Sylvester, and I would rather watch her than Tyler Evans any day.
Most Creative: No contest, the answer is Community. It's one of the most creative shows on television right now, and this season we got a WIDE assortment of experimentation in genre and style. It's like nothing else on TV right now, and I am totally ready for another season of parodies, pop culture references, and ridiculous fun.
Least Creative:No Ordinary Family, a show so bland that it did literally nothing new whatsoever and tried to disguise that fact with cool superpower effects. However, the cool superpowers are what kept me watching for a few episodes (ditto for The Cape's nerd factor), and why My Generation got "Worst New Show" instead.
Best Finale Cliffhanger: Cliffhangers are usually better suited to dramas, but I have more comedies on my schedule, and Fringe was more "WTF" than cliffhanger, so this one goes to Parks and Recreation, which actually kind of pulled out multiple cliffhangers for each of its characters.
Hero of the season: Michael Scott from The Office, who won the hero award more times than anyone else this season (4, to be exact). I've always enjoyed his antics, but as he finally made his exit this year, we saw Michael grow into someone who is wiser, more mature, and more likable than he ever was in the old days, and he made us miss him. Runners up: Pam from The Office and Andy from Parks and Recreation, who each scored 2 hero awards this season and had some touching moments of their own.
Douchebag of the season: Yes, folks, it's Tyler Evans from V. Most of the characters on that show are often stupid and/or bland, but Tyler outshines them all and, if I'm not mistaken, was considered the worst character on television by everyone who ever watched. He was a whiny, angsty, ignorant tool who was only ever motivated by daddy issues and wanting to jump Lisa's bones (okay, can't blame him for that one), and I was complaining about him almost every week even though he only made douchebag twice. Runners up: No one is as horrible as Tyler Evans.
BONUS SNEAK PREVIEW! After watching some trailers for upcoming shows, I have decided which ones I may be interested in next season. Here they are, in order of how excited I am to see them (most to least):
New Girl An obvious choice for me, seeing as how it stars Zooey Deschanel. But it actually does look really funny thanks to Zooey's comedic talents (and adorableness), and it's refreshing to see the girl play the funny one while all the guys are the straight man. My only concern is that it's on FOX, which pretty much means that it will be canceled unless its ratings are in the top ten.
Awake The trailer for this show was really cool and effective in making an impression on the viewer. Someone in the Youtube comments said it had been haunting them for days after watching it, and I think that sums up its intrigue. Awake is about a man struggling with two alternate realities after a car accident with his family: one where his wife died, and one where his son died. From the footage shown, it looks like it starts to affect his sanity due to not knowing which reality is real, if any of them. Looks well done, too. Definitely on board.
Once Upon a Time This may or may not be one of those things that suffers from too many special effects and not enough substance, but I might check it out for the fantasy element. It's basically just about a fairy tale town full of fairy tale characters and dark mysteries. It's too early to tell, but it could be cool or it could do to fantasy what No Ordinary Family did to super powers, by which I mean ruin it with mediocrity.
The Playboy Club Everyone is saying this show is a rip-off of Mad Men, and it could be I suppose, though I think the only thing they really have in common is the time period and womanizing men in suits (which can be attributed back to the time period). For me, the trailer got interesting when one of the bunnies (Amber Heard) accidentally killed a dude. I kind of like those murder cover-up stories for some reason.
Smash Not entirely sure about this one, but I think I'm only interested because it is a musical that has the potential to be a lot better than Glee. This one is a drama, it's not set in high school, and will apparently have some original songs (though Glee did start dabbling in that one this season). On a side note, I find it funny that NBC is attempting to pull in viewers by ripping off FOX's most successful shows - first The Voice, after American Idol, now Smash, after Glee. But I like NBC better than FOX, so I'm all for it. Not going to watch The Voice, though.
Suburgatory This one is at the bottom of the list because the trailer wasn't really that funny, but it had that energy that makes me think maybe it could be funny but they just didn't include the best parts in the trailer. Probably not, but I might take a look anyway.
