Quick Shots 7

Title: The Hangover.

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Heather Graham, Ken Jeong.

Brief Synopsis: Doug (Bartha) is getting married in two days, so his two best friends Stu (Helms) and Phil (Cooper) and his soon-to-be brother-in-law Alan (Galifianakis) head to Vegas for an all night party for Doug's bachelor party. The next morning Stu, Phil and Alan wake up in their hotel room and have no idea what transpired the night before. And Doug is missing.

Opinion: I thought this film was amazingly funny. It isn't often that you get this sort of comedy/CSI-type movie. The whole film is basically the three guys trying to retrace their steps and follow clues that they find to locate their missing friend. And it is done in such a funny way. Great film.

Grade:

Title: Old Dogs.

Starring: John Travolta, Robin Williams, Kelly Preston, Seth Green, Bernie Mac, Lori Loughlin.

Brief Synopsis: Two high-class sports agents, Charlie (Travolta) and Dan (Williams) are about to break the deal of their lifetime with a Chinese company. Charlie is the smooth talker while Dan is much more the brains of the operation. As things are progressing nicely, things of course hit a snag. Dan's one0night marriage to Vicki (Preston) apparently resulted in a set of twins. Now Vicki is off to the slammer for two weeks and needs Dan and Uncle Charlie to look after the kids.

Opinion: All of the cliches are here. Of course the two twins are going to ruin everything that Charlie and Dan have worked so hard to get, but in the end it won't matter. There were a couple of laugh-out-loud moments in the film, which is why my grade is better than normal. Nice to see Lori Loughlin dust herself off for a movie - sad that this movie was Bernie Mac's last film

Grade:

Title: Taking of Pelham 123.

Starring: John Travolta, Denzel Washington, Luis Guzman, John Turturro, James Gandolfini.

Brief Synopsis: Walter (Washington) is running the subway cars in NYC. On this day, a former employee (Guzman) and Ryder (Travolta) decide to take a subway car hostage and make a ton of money in the stock market. Ryder contacts the subway service and talks to, and begins to like, Walter. As the police do their best to capture the suspects and save the hostages, it is Walter's job to keep Ryder calm.

Opinion: It was an interesting film. I was pretty involved in it and it kept my attention. Not the greatest of action films, as the action was never really there, but certainly a decent watch. I was a bit disappointed with the ending, but I guess I can understand it.

Grade:

Title: The Usual Suspects.

Starring: Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Pollock, Benecio Del Toro, Chazz Palminteri.

Brief Synopsis: A group of guys thrown into a lineup decide to work together to make some quick money. They end up being pretty good at it and are asked to do a little more. Little do they know that they have just accepted a job for the infamous Keyser Soze.

Opinion: I was not as impressed as I thought I would be as I had heard many great things about this film over the years. I may have been a bit more impressed had I not know the twist ending going into it, but seeing as how I had never seen it before - I was bound to find it out beforehand. Still, a pretty decent film that I think may have been better had I lived under a rock.

Grade:

Title: Couples Retreat.

Starring: Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Malin Akerman, Kristen Bell, Faizon Love, Jon Favreau, Kristin Davis.

Brief Synopsis: Jason (Bateman) and Cynthia (Bell) are having marriage problems and are considering a divorce. In a last ditch effort to save their marriage they look into a resort that they hope will help them see if their marriage can be saved. In order to afford the trip the couple invites their friends along - but who believe they are only there for the fun part of the resorts. Instead all couples are forced to partake in the marriage counseling and drills, and in the end learn a whole lot more about themselves.

Opinion: I was expecting a bit more, but I still came away with a few great laughs during the movie. The ending, of course, is what most of us expected to happen as we got to know the characters more, but it was still fun to see which of these couples would be able to make it through the trip and remain together.

Grade:

Missing

Hey All. The second semester of my graduate program started last week. So, like last semester, my posts on here will be few and far between.

I will post when I find time and actually have something decent to post. So, if I get a half-dozen in during my entire semester I will be lucky.

Hope to be back strong in the summer.

Adios for now.

John From Cincinnati

Piggybacking off the wide acclaim of Deadwood the people at HBO allowed David Milch to do another show.

This one was not quite as good in my opinion, but there were certainly a lot of underlying themes happening in this show.

John From Cincinnati is about the Yost family, a family of surfers who were once pretty popular. Mitch Yost (Bruce Greenwood) is the father of the family, and a knee injury knocked him out of surfing for the most part. Butchie Yost (Brian Van Holt) is Mitch's son and an unbelievably popular surfer who flamed out and became hooked on drugs. Shaun Yost (Greyson Fletcher) is Butchie's son who was actually raised by Mitch and Cissy Yost (Rebecca De Mornay) because his father was a drug user and his mother, Tina (Chandra West), was an adult porn star.

As we meet the family they are already torn apart. Cissy is completely strung out and Mitch is trying his hardest to find something of meaning. Then we meet John Monad (Austin Nichols).

The people who meet John believe him to be slow as he is only able to take what he hears and use that in his everyday language. He seems to have no real ability to think or speak on his own. Butchie sort of takes John under his wing.

Linc Stark (Luke Perry) meanwhile is trying to sign Shaun to Stinkweed Surfing, the same guy who signed Butchie years earlier and allowed him to flame out and become addicted to drugs.

There is really far too many things going on in this show to list here. Which is pretty amazing since it only lasted one season and just 10 episodes.

I enjoyed the show, it was confusing yet also made you think to be able to follow everything that was happening. I enjoy shows like that, but I am not sure I even got everything out of the show that it was trying to portray.

This show came on the air just a few years after Deadwood completed. And just like Deadwood it had an abundance of characters. Many of which actually followed Milch over from Deadwood.

Because it was only one season and just 10 episodes I can't give this that good of a grade, but I feel there was way more to come out of everything that was happening that Milch just wasn't able to tell during those 10 episodes. The final episode, however, was sort of like an ending - I am not sure if it was meant to be a season or series finale though.

Grade:

Deadwood

During the summer I took a literature course at college that was basically using television shows as a form of literature.

The teacher was great and constantly said, "What makes good television?" The course was amazing and I came away with a number of new shows that I had never seen, but was now interested in viewing.

The first of those shows that I watched were all five seasons of The Wire and I curse myself for never watching it. However, I was very happy to be able to watch all five seasons consecutively without having to wait.

Well, I tossed in the second series that I found interesting during the course and that was Deadwood. I have never been a huge western fan, but I have to say I was immediately drawn to the characters in this show. And there were plenty.

The show focuses on the new town of Deadwood, South Dakota in the late 1800's and for the most part tries to be pretty close to true events. The shows characters are based on real life characters from that time frame, including well known characters that pop up like Wild Bill Hickock and Wyatt Earp.

The main characters of the show are Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant), Sol Star (John Hawkes), Charlie Utter (Dayton Callie) and Alma Garret (Molly Parker). The show, however, is very eclectic with its characters as they stretch out almost as much as The Simpsons.

This show only stretches three seasons of 36 shows. It is very unfortunate that the show was canceled after the third season. Deadwood was amazing right from the start, however, the third season really was a gem and was building to something special - but it ended without a real conclusion. I feel season four would have been epic.

It is kind of fun to watch a town build out of nothing with no real rules, but some of the men around camp take it upon themselves to police the town - as long as it is in their own best interest.

There were rumors of a pair of Deadwood movies coming out, but that report has been squashed and it now appears that the show is finished as it is. It saddens me now that I have seen all of the episodes because like I said, the final season was building to an all-out battle between the Deadwood camp and George Hearst.

Grade:

Quick Rant: Steroids

Well, it has happened again. Another high-profile athlete has admitted to using steroids. And, yet again, it is the story of the week.

There is only one problem: I DON'T CARE!!!

Mark McGwire, former Oakland Athletic and St. Louis Cardinal, admitted using steroids during his playing career. The only real reason McGwire finally came clean is because he is coming back to baseball as St. Louis' hitting coach this season. Instead of this being an ongoing distraction, McGwire came clean and hopes the story would go away.

So do I.

It appears that every month now another athlete (mostly baseball players) are coming clean or getting caught using steroids. The glamor of these stories, however, has just plain wore off.

When the first stories came out, sure I was interested, it had never happened before and the athletes that we have been watching were proven to be cheaters.

Now, there is just no real story. It doesn't surprise me anymore. I just don't care. I watch sports to be entertained, just like I watch movies and television. Actors and actresses continually have plastic surgery or modify their looks so they can be in the game longer or get certain parts. Are steroids any different?

I don't plan on having any plastic surgery soon, nor do I plan on shooting up steroids in my bathroom tonight. But, some people choose to live that way - more power to them.

As far as sports, I watch because I enjoy the game. Most of these athletes, if not all, are professional athletes anyway, without the drugs. There are just some that look for a little more edge. They look to get back into the game from an injury, or perhaps prolong a career.

The problem is the media. Any time anyone of any importance is even mentioned in the same breath as steroids it is the news for a month. I can't take it anymore. This is not news to me, I want to hear about next weekends playoffs. I want to hear about the basketball games from last night and if Kobe Bryant's injury is significant - I don't care about a baseball player who used steroids but hasn't been in baseball for over seven years. It is not a story.

I will never get my wish. Especially because 103 players tested positive for steroids back in 2003 and ever so slowly, like nails to a chalk board, the names will get released and we will back here talking about it for another month.