Kano's Khronicles

I thought I should toss something up that explains why my blog posts have been few and far between and may not improve that much until I figure out my best option of doing so.

You see, I have started my final semester of grad school which is student teaching. This will be taking up the bulk of my next 16 weeks and the rest will be given to my family and the rest of that toward the new Fall TV season (which I hope to comment on in the future).

For the most part, I have done most of my blogging from my office. Well, with student teaching I no longer have an office to go to, so I am now doing what blogging I have time for at my home (which is difficult at times).

I feel that I may have to try to do a week's worth of blogs during the weekend if there is time for it.

Anyway, I hope to continue with the reviews while in this final stage of my grad program and hopefully come back with some more interesting things when that is complete. I will keep my mind flowing in trying to come up with new and interesting things to post - I hope I can at least come up with a few ideas.

Thanks for stopping by.

Veronica Mars: Complete Series

OK, sorry for the lack of a post for the previous week. My plans sort of got flipped upside down and now I will be searching frantically for a way to make posts in a reasonable manner. I will figure it out, but it may take some time.

Alright, onto the review.

I had been hearing about this show for years now - most notably from the rabid fans screaming about its cancellation. And for the past few years those same rabid fans pleading that this series get a few movies.

This was apparently a WB/CW channel show that I just never really found. I am a huge Kristen Bell fan though, so I decided to finally check it out once I found the time.

Bell stars as the tititular character Veronica Mars. She is the daughter of the former sheriff turned private investigator, Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni).

Each of the Veronica Mars seasons has a bit of an overall crime that Keith, and Veronica, are trying to figure out - with tons of smaller crimes and/or instances needing private investigating sprinkled in throughout the season.

The first season finds Veronica entering her junior year of high school after the loss of her best friend, Lilly Kane (Amanda Seyfried). Mars was the girl from the other side of the tracks that was welcomed in by the rich kids, including her best friend and her boyfriend, Duncan Kane (Teddy Dunn).

Keith mistakenly blames the death of Lilly on her father and loses his job as the sheriff and also gets Veronica shunned by her rich friends.

Veronica meets Wallace Fennel (Percy Daggs III) on the first day of school as she cuts him down from the flagpole - he had a run-in with the local biker gang and its leader Weevil Navarro (Francis Capra).

Wallace and later Mac (Tina Majorino) become Veronica's helpers in all things private investigating. During this first season she does all she can to clear both hers and her fathers name, and nail the right person who killed her best friend.

Another major character in the series is Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), who is the former boyfriend of Lilly Kane and constant bully of Veronica - until he somehow falls for her.

During the second season the major crime is when a group of students get murdered in a bus accident. We are introduced to a quartet of major characters including Mayor Woody Goodman (Steve Guttenberg), brothers Dick and Cassidy Casablancas (Ryan Hansen and Kyle Gallner) and their stepmother Kendall (Charisma Carpenter).

In the final season we basically get two different crimes throughout the season - while Veronica and the gang move on to college. She is joined by pretty much all of her major classmates except former boyfriend, Duncan. The first crime of the season is Veronica figuring out who is committing the rapes throughout the campus. The final crime is the death of the dean.

In the final season we get introduced to Veronica's new boyfriend and Wallace's roommate Piz Piznarski (Chris Lowell) and Mac's roommate Parker Lee (Julie Gonzalo), a victim of one of the rapes on campus.

The end of the show occurs as Keith Mars is trying to get his job back as sheriff and is taking on another private investigator, Vinnie Van Lowe (Ken Marino).

The first season of the show is probably my favorite. I liked the other two seasons and enjoyed parts of each a lot, but I felt it did slip a little after the first season. Not enough though that I wouldn't enjoy season a Veronica Mars film or two in the future.

It was also pretty fun to see a lot of the actors from this show also turn up in creator Rob Thomas' other show Party Down. That happened to star Ryan Hansen and had cameos by a lot of the Veronica Mars cast. But, Veronica Mars also had a few cameos itself from members of Party Down so that was pretty fun to see.

Grade:

Oz: The Complete Series

No, I am not talking about that magical place Dorothy met up with the Scarecrow. And no, I am not talking about Jim Levenstein's buddy from American Pie. No, I am talking about the HBO series that ran from 1997-2003.

I had heard about the series Oz for a long time, but I had no clue what it was about. I knew that it was based in a prison and that it was pretty bad ass. Well, that is definitely true.

The term Oz comes from the name of the Oswald Correctional Facility and the "M" City started up by Tim McManus (Terry Kinney) which was nicknamed Emerald City.

In this part of the prison, prisoners live 2-by-2 in glass cells and are allowed out to mingle in a pretty up-scale (for prisons I believe) room. They do their own laundry and even have a computer room. So, a lot of the prisoners want to stay in this part of the facility.

Unfortunately, this also brings about a lot of what people fear about prisons: rape, death, drugs, etc.

The show is very eclectic in terms of characters, but we follow a handful of inmates for almost the entire run of the series.

Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen) was a lawyer on the outside with a drinking problem and on one night kills a young girl when he drives drunk. He is tossed in the prison and is immediately a fish out of water.

Vern Schillinger (J.K. Simmons) runs the Aryan brotherhood in the prison and in the first episode 'rescues' Beecher from Simon Adebisi (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). We soon find out that there was no rescue, but Schillinger intended to make Beecher his bitch and after burning a swastika on his ass raped him.

I don't want to make this a large posting so I will just run down some of the other major characters

• Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau) - provides the narration for the episodes while also being an inmate. Was paralyzed during his arrest so is in a wheelchair during the duration of the show.
• Ryan O'Reily (Dean Winters) - an Irish inmate who likes to make trouble with everyone by joining sides with everyone.
• Kareem Said (Eamonn Walker) - a Muslim activist who tries to rise above the violence and drug use happening in the prison.
• Miguel Alvarez (Kirk Acevedo) - a Latino inmate who longs to belong, but also tries to straighten his life out.
• Cyril O'Reily (Scott William Winters) - Ryan's brother who sustained a head injury and acts like an infant child.
• Chris Keller (Chris Meloni) - Is a friend of Vern, but also becomes the on and off again boyfriend of Beecher.

Along with McManus for the good guys we are given Warden Leo Glynn (Ernie Hudson), Dr. Gloria Nathan (Lauren Velez), Sister Peter Marie (Rita Moreno) and Father Ray (B.D. Wong).

It took me a few episodes to get into this series. It comes at you awfully quick and in a weird manner with Hill's narrations. But, it was a very enjoyable series that I am glad I took the time to watch. It has a ton of violence, swearing, drug use and male nudity - so if those things bother you I would stay away. If you can handle them though I would highly recommend checking it out.

As I was watching I started to see a lot of actors that I have seen in other shows together. Here are a few that I noticed:

• Dexter: Lauren Velez, David Zayas and Erik King.
• Lost: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Lance Reddick, Harold Perrineau and Ken Leung.
  
• The Wire: Wood Harris, J.D. Williams, Domenick Lombardozzi, Seth Gilliam, Lance Reddick, John Doman, Method Man, Clarke Peters, Reg E. Cathey, Toni Lewis, Frankie Faison, Michael Hyatt - to name the main ones.

That is all I can remember for now, but a pretty large amount of actors from the show have teamed up again on other shows - most notably on The Wire.

Grade:

The Bounty Hunter

I had heard some pretty bad things about this next movie, but I try not to let others influence me on films. Then, my brother-in-law said he thought it was funny - so I figured it had to be at least some where in the middle.

And that is what it was. Just another run-of-the-mill comedy. Nothing too ground breaking here, but also not one that pained me to death either.

The Bounty Hunter is yet another romantic comedy-type film that you basically know the ending and most of the plot just by knowing what the film is about. They tried to throw a curveball or two at the audience, but in the end it was exactly what was expected.

Milo Boyd (Gerard Butler) has lost his job as police officer and has taken up bounty hunting. He has also lost his wife, Nicole Hurley (Jennifer Aniston). Hurley is a newspaper reporter on the verge of cracking a major scoop - just when she has to be in court for assaulting a police officer.

Hurley decides to go after the story instead of attend her court date and Boyd is the lucky guy who is hired to track her down.

I am not really sure what Butler is doing with his career. I think he is trying to have a Bruce Willis-type career as he is mixing both the comedy and the action films. As of now there isn't really that huge action star that we used to have in the 80s (Stallone, Van Damme, Schwarzenneger) - although if Dwayne Johnson stops doing kid films he may be next in line - so I don't know why Butler wouldn't just corner that market. That is where he succeeds.

He is ok here, but I would much rather watch him in another Law Abiding Citizen film then watching him pine after women (that is why we have people like Ryan Gosling).

Anyway, like I said a pretty basic romantic comedy that you know what will happen before the end of the opening credits. But, they all have a different way of getting there and this one was just about average.

Grade:

Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

Like I have said in the past, it is very difficult for Mrs. Kano and I to watch movies any more until after my son goes to bed. Well, he is also a fan of movies and we as parents will watch these movies with him.

Sometimes, like in the case of a Shrek or Toy Story, I don't really mind watching them - because frankly I love those movies. Still, sometimes there is that stinker like The Tooth Fairy that leaves you a little less pleased.

Last year my son and I watched the first live-action Alvin & The Chipmunks and although it wasn't amazing, it certainly wasn't an abomination either. It was actually pretty sweet and had a little bit of humor.

So, last week we tossed in the sequel (or squeakquel whatever that means), Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and unfortunately it didn't live up the original. My son liked it, so that is what matters - but the kid in me did not (as much).

A few points that killed it for me (spoilers possible):

The subtraction without truly being subtracted of Dave (Jason Lee). In the film Dave has an accident and is forced to stay in the hospital for most of the film. Lee was probably what made the first film so interesting - so forcing him into the background was a big mistake. They 'replaced' him with cousin Toby (Zachary Levi), who just didn't live up to Lee.

Bringing back Ian (David Cross) as the villain. I mean come on - two movies and you have the exact same villain to overcome in both. I am not sure if Cross had a two picture deal or what, but there could have been a better storyline than bringing his character back.

One of the main parts of the first film was when the chipmunks help Dave get back together with his former girlfriend, Claire (Cameron Richardson). But, she is completely missing with no mention of her in the entire film.

A few things I felt worked, but with everything above didn't work as well as it should have:

The introduction of The Chipettes. Obviously if you are a fan of Alvin & The Chipmunks at all then you are familiar with The Chipettes, so it was only natural that they would be introduced at some point.

Both sets of chipmunks entering high school. Again, back to the cartoon - The Chipmunks lived life like any other kid, which included going to school. So this made sense to me - and opened up a ton of possibilities (including the sibling rivalry that become apparent with Simon and Alvin).

Look, I am not going to say don't see this film, but I felt it was sort of lazy to bring back the same exact villain as the first film (especially on the sequel immediately following that first film). Also, if you are going to have Jason Lee, why put him as a background character?

Grade: