Wednesday, 1 October 2003
11:59pm
| S |
So I did. I went to UTC to do some shopping. I didn't buy anything but a hot dog on a stick and a lemonade. Then I went to the La Jolla Ralphs. Man, that's just the best supermarket ever. The meat department totally owns anything we've got out here in Mira Mesa. By the time I got back home, the construction dudes were mostly done. And I didn't get a headache. Yay.
Of course, now I am up late (it's almost 3am now) because the work I would have done during the day while the construction dudes were banging away, I had to do at night after they were gone. But I think overall, it was better this way. And now... I guess I'll just talk some more about the new TV shows that are out.
Las Vegas - OK. So I gave this show another chance. This time I thought it was a little better. It was a lot less whiz-bang-ooh-vegas-is-so-cool crap and more story line. A friend of mine actually liked it less because of that, but I thought it was an improvement. I was originally going to completely give up on this show because the first week they put it on against CSI: Miami... which is a clearly superior show. And since there is no such thing as HD-TiVo (yet), well, I don't really get to watch both if I want the full juicy HDTV goodness.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - What a twisted season premiere! More of the same great CSI with the same great Vegas locations without forcing the Vegas-ness on you. Unfortunately, they made it a "to be continued"... and Thursday nights is usually my poker night. I guess I'll just have to tape it this week!
Joan of Arcadia - This is a new show on CBS. I kinda liked it, and I thought the girl was kinda cute, even if she is, oh, 10 years too young for me. I'm such a dirty old man. Anyway. The title of the show is a pun on Joan of Arc. It's about a teenage girl who gets regular visits from God. The twist is, she never really knows what form he'll take next. One day he's a cute teenage guy. Next day, he's the lunch lady at school. That aspect of it is kind of fun, as well as the fact that there is often times no immediately obvious reason for why God asks her to do the things he asks her to do.
Time will tell whether this show will be successful in the long run, but the first episode itself entertained me enough to keep me watching it instead of Miss Match on NBC.
Miss Match - This is a new NBC show starring Alicia Silverstone. I didn't watch much of it because it was on at the same time as Joan of Arcadia and in the channel flipping battle, Joan won out. Why? Because the parts of this show that I did see read more like "Clueless: The Next Generation" than a completely new show. I doubt I'll tune in to this show again.
I'm With Her - This is a new ABC show with a pretty simple premise -- what happens when a big famous movie star chick falls in love with a lowly, regular joe high school teacher dude? When I first started seeing ads for it, my first reaction was that it seemed like it would be a decent idea for a movie, but can they really stretch it out into an entire series?
Well, I've watched the first two episodes now, and I was actually well entertained by it, so far anyways. I mean, despite the super chick-flicky premise, I think it actually has me intrigued due to my own fantasies of being "discovered" by some rich and famous movie star who is just looking for a regular guy. I can easily project myself into the position of the male protagonist. The only fault I have found so far is that though this is essentially a sit-com, the dude's friend (a fellow teacher) is just a bit too sit-commy for me.
And of course, two episodes only makes about 45 minutes of show when you take out the commercials. So it remains to be seen if there really is enough story here to make more than a movie (say, 90 minutes) out of it. I think I'll keep watching to find out, for now anyway.
8 Simple Rules - *sigh*... the first two episodes of the season were hilarious. This is such a great show, but knowing that I'm watching John Ritter's last work and that the show will never be the same without him jus depresses me to no end. But the first two episodes of this season were truly great, though I think the show took a bit of a racier turn, with a lot more innuendo than the first season had.
I particularly connected with the scene from the second show where John Ritter struggled to get the words out to encourage his attractive teenage daughter to practice safe sex when she hooks up with her boyfriend... and then immediately ran off and collapsed into the fetal position... I can totally imagine myself doing that if I were put in a similar situation. Which is why I liked this show in the first place, last year -- the show is the embodiment of my worst nightmare, being the father of teenage daughters!
Smallville - I didn't get into this show until last season, cuz it wasn't until last season that I heard it was in HD. And well, in years past, there wasn't a whole lot to see in HD, unlike this season, when virtually every major network non-reality TV show is being broadcast in HD. I can't ever recall having a problem in the past with wanting to watch two HD shows that were on at the same time.
Anyway, last season ended on a major cliffhanger, with Clark running away from Smallville and heading off into Metropolis with the red kryptonite ring that makes people be "bad" (mmmmm... bad Lana) to escape from his problems. Meanwhile, Lex is about to die in a plane crash. Well, this episode mostly focuses on "Bad Clark" doing bad things in Metropolis while his friends and family back in Smallville do a lot of worrying about him. Meanwhile, everyone thinks Lex has died although he has been living on a desert island. While most of the episode was entertaining enough, the last 30 seconds were just crazy. The story of the whole series is just getting totally crazy now, progressing way beyond Clark discovering his powers, which is what a lot of the series focused on before.
CSI: Miami - This season premiere was more like just a regular episode... it didn't really seem to try to make itself into an "event" which is fine with me. Though I generally prefer the Vegas CSI, I usually have to settle for Miami because Vegas is on during my regular poker night. And CSI: Miami continues to be the best looking show on HDTV today. CSI has really gotten their HD film transfer process down. Their prime time HD picture quality continually just blows everything else away. In at a close second are the shows on ABC. Followed by NBC whose shows are still noticibly better than a good quality DVD... and bringing up the rear is the WB... with video quality that is just marginally better than a well mastered DVD. Certainly nothing like the eyepopping resolution and color that CBS is putting out! But now I'm just getting nerdy, so moving on...
Law and Order: Criminal Intent - This is the only Law and Order show I watch on a regular or semi-regular basis. The season premiere, similar to CSI: Miami turned out to be more like a regular episode than any kind of "event", and it was just as good as it usually is. I like this show because Vincent D'Onofrio's character is sort of a sadistic version of Columbo - always showing up at the most inopportune time for our villians, but rather than just being a mere inconvenience the way Columbo was, D'Onofrio's character is out there almost to spite the villians when he shows up. Again, my personal favorite of all the L&O shows.
Monday Night Football - Yep, it's in HDTV this year and good Lord does it look awesome. So much detail you can see every blade of grass. And such rich color it seems to just jump off the screen. Not to mention that ABC has gotten their HD football broadcasting act together since the somewhat disappointing showing of the Super Bowl last year (which was the only NFL game to be broadcast in HDTV last year!). Mostly eliminated were the terrible audio and video glitches from the superbowl... not to mention they now have the capability to do the "yellow line", the telestrator, and other visual effects that they could not do last winter. And they seem to be trying new stuff with the passing of every week. If you love football, there's just no better way to watch it than what ABC is doing this season on monday nights!
Good Lord, I watch a lot of TV. But, you'll notice that everything on this list is in HDTV. I hardly watch anything that isn't. The technology is far from perfected, and it's far from being available in every home, but I gotta say... it is sooooooooo worth it. So much so that I almost won't watch a TV show if it isn't in HD. Oh noes... I've become a TV snob!!!! But seriously, it's hard to go back, and this is really the first season where there really has been enough content out there to make HDTV worth a serious look. Gone are the days when I'd watch anything if it was in HD just to see the dazzling eye candy... now I can actually pick and choose and watch only the best! And more is on its way in the future, I'm sure!
Friday, 3 October 2003
11:59pm
| T |
Sounds pretty crazy already,
right? Well, Elvis and JFK have to battle a mummy that is terrorizing the
home. Now that is crazy. A lot of people were hyped up about this
movie because it stars Bruce Campbell, but if you're looking for another
Evil Dead or Army of Darkness, you won't find it here, so
don't come out to Bubba Ho-Tep looking for somethign along those
lines. Indeed, without giving away too much, I have to say that it wasn't
even what I expected from a movie with a plot synopsis like the one I just
gave you. But while I won't give any important plot points, I will disguise
the next paragraph so as to not give anything away to anyone who didn't
want to know anything about it before they saw it. But for the people who
are interested... highlight the text using your mouse in the blank space
below (or hit CTRL-A... CMD-A for mac) to read on...
Bubba Ho-Tep isn't really a horror movie, or an action movie, and though it has some extremely funny moments, it's not really a comedy either. It's really a drama with some elements of all of those other types of movies. And it's not really about Elvis, or JFK or mummies. What Bubba Ho-Tep is really about is being old. The struggles with dignity, respect, and an aging body that everyone goes through whether they are someone famous like Elvis, someone important like JFK, or just your aunt Flo. In fact, it really was a bit depressing because of that. So yeah, while it has those horror movie elements, and those comedic elements, what this movie is really about is growing old.
So again, while people looking for another Evil Dead will most definitely disappointed, this is a fun and interesting movie, worth giving a shot.
So there you have it. Unfortunately, this independent film does not have a real distributor, so it is in a very limited release. Check the website for a trailer and to see when it's coming to your town. It's only in San Diego for about a week, I expect similar situations in other cities.