Robin Hood

Over the past couple of months, I have offered you a couple of TV viewing options that you might have otherwise missed (Knights of Prosperity ["stealing from the rich to give to themselves"] and Andy Barker, P.I.). With that in mind, I am offering up another new show, Robin Hood; which premieres this Saturday, March 3rd, at 9 PM Eastern on BBC America (BTW, BBC America is my second most DVRed channel [behind NBC, naturally]. I currently record Spaced (Shaun of the Dead guys before they had Shaun of the Dead. When’s this going to get a DVD release?), Hardware (Starring Martin Freeman), and Hyperdrive (I don’t watch this one much though) and now Robin Hood.

Last night, I was able to watch the first 25 minutes (the show is an hour long) of the premiere episode (A little sneak peek is on BBC America On Demand right now). As you may have guessed, the story is about Robin Hood (“‘No Duh’ is a product of fear” – Kitty Farmer). So, you have your traditional characters (Robin, Little John, Maid Marian, and so on). I have to say that I enjoyed the first 25 minutes to the point that I was audibly upset when they cut it off.

There was a lot of good going on through out what I saw. The character of Robin is kind of arrogant but in a suave way (instead of a blunt way like Prince of Thieves’ Costner). The character comes of as a rebel with a heart of gold type. Cool enough to make out with a girl will her murderous father has his back turned, but nice enough to feed the families of people around him before he eats for himself.

Another bright spot is the combination of action, drama, and humor. Right from the beginning, we get started with some action. Soon after we get a few little quips to make us chuckle. Then some more action. Then the drama. I really dug that.

But as good as the story and characters are, there are some down points. First and foremost is the direction of the sword fighting scenes. It made me feel like I was watching a more serious episode of the Power Rangers. It was pretty cheesy. While we are talking about directing, I also did not enjoy the amount of slow motion used (has slo-mo ever been a good thing? [Don't you say the Matrix, because we all know that that was a terrible movie. Third out of the three Virtual Reality is reality movies that came out that year {#1 is Thirteenth Floor; #2 is Existenz; and #3 is The Matrix}]).

Overall, I would place it as the really successful, better looking, more charismatic cousin of Hercules/Xena. The action sequences are similar (but Robin Hood doesn’t use all that shitty CGI) and they carry a similar feel (legendary figures in a lower budget TV show).

So, if that sounds good to you. You should check out the Robin Hood on BBC America Saturdays at 9 PM Eastern.

Sports Illustrated

When  I was growing up, Sports Illustrated was THE magazine for sports enthusiasts. It was the magazine that you got excited when at the dentist’s office (because you knew that someone already did all the fun stuff in Highlights. I mean, the kids should have known that these are communal magazines. Don’t bust out the crayons and mark that up. Other people will want to use them in the future. Just do the puzzle in your head. Honestly. What’s wrong with you?). So, it comes with great dismay that I have to tear SI to pieces (kind of like those stupid Highlights marking kids. You know who you are.).

On my IE favorites, I have CNN marked. SI.com is part of the CNN website. Each day I’ll take a look at ESPN for the scoreboard and MSN-Fox Sports for the Dime Smack (see the side link) and Ben Maller’s Rumors. Later in the day, I’ll go back to ESPN for the Page 2 columns and an occasional MLB/NBA story. Every once in a while, I’ll go over to SI and peep some of their articles.

This leads me to me first complaint. The articles are littered with spelling typos (At least, I hope they are typos for SI’s sake). Just today, I was reading the last “I Hate Barry Bonds” article and noticed a blatant typo.  Here is the run-on sentence that contains said typo:

“Bonds’ attorney, Michael Rains, has thrown his share of smoke bombs to divert attention from the facts: challenging the authors’ right to profit from the book (he summarily dropped the challenge, with virtually no hope of success), and now trying to demand disclosure by the feds of how much money they’ve spent on investigating Bonds and, ironically enough, asking them to continue spending more money in the case by continuing to pursue the identify of people who might have leaked information, though the chief leaker already has been outed.”

Did you catch it? “By continuing to pursue the INDENTIFY of people?

Come on now. It’s an article that isn’t breaking news, so the writer should have had plenty of time to compose it. I mean, I can understand that maybe a writer slipped up and typed the wrong word (I know I do all the time) but where’s the editor? I caught that and I hold an Economics degree. Somebody hire an English major, please.

But that’s only half the problem.

The other half is the amazing amount of space their website uses to advertise the “swimsuit” issue.

I like naked ladies as much as any other hetero man, but when I’m AT WORK looking for sports related news, less is definitely better.

It’s like SI only exists to publish one issue a year and the rest is all fluff. Honestly, go over to SI.com and count how many swimsuit ads you see. I skipped of over the homepage and went directly to the aforementioned article and I still saw 2 ads.

What’s even more disconcerting is the fact that for the past week or longer CNN’s homepage has listed “Beyonce – Swimsuit edition” as on of the two newest articles from SI. Do they think we are going to buy that this is A) an actual news worthy article and B) is still news after being around for a week?

Am I just being selfish about how I think the magazine should be run? I’m pretty sure the swimsuit issue is the big money earner for SI. So, my bitching about that won’t change anything. But then again, ESPN’s Page 2 has occasionally offered a “work mode.” This is a button you click and you get to view the content of the page with out all the formatting (i.e. it looks like you are looking at a text document). Why can’t SI do something like that?

Does anyone else agree with me on this? Let me know.

Saturday Night Live

This past Saturday, Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) was the host of SNL. So, I set-up the DVR to record it and watch later.

On Sunday, while you all were watching people play dress-up for 10 hours (aka the Oscars), I watched the taped SNL.

I have to say, I am far from impressed with the quality of SNL. The opening monologue was pretty funny (Rainn went through the SNL backstage and it was like The Office). There was a good skit or two, but apparently not good enough for me to remember (One was a SNL Digital Short [pretty much the only reason to watch the show now] about a company trying to come up with ways to save costs and as they go around each speaker gets more ridiculous). But besides that, it was almost unwatchable.

For me the turning point from watchable to god-awful was the Fred Armisan/Maya Rudolph skit about the Noonies (sp?).  These characters have been around for a couple of years now and have yet to be even the least bit funny. So, I guess it’s only a matter of time before they get their own movie (see: Superstar). The recurring skit is like a father joke (you know, the lame puns your dad would make up and then keep repeating them as if they were funny the first time. A classic example would be the old, “working hard or hardly working” line). It is just horrible.

The SNL weekly update has fallen off the chart since Tina Fey left (by the way, last week’s 30 Rock was the funnest show out of the Thursday night comedy block [Earl, Office, Scrubs, and 30 Rock]). Amy Poehler and Seth Meyer’s comedy stylings are too similar and when featured together it is just bland (they could go Poehler and Keenan [or is it Kal] and that would probably give it a little boost, but Keenan/Kal is too liable to laugh during the sketch).

Last the amount of show to commercials is unbareable and I watched this show from the DVR. We got to see one little skit that flops and then fast forward through 5 minutes of commercials. I don’t see how anyone could watch SNL live (is that redundant?).

The one thing I did note is that all the “good” bits were right at the front of the show. So, if you were to watch live, you could just tune in for the first half hour or so and then move on. Which brings up the question, “If everything good is done by 30 minutes, why is the show still an hour and a half?” Shouldn’t they just cut down the amount of time the show runs? Then if someone with real comedic weight was to host (i.e. Eddie Murphy, Mike Meyers, Tom Hanks, Jim Carrey, etc.) strecth it out to an hour or maybe the full hour and a half. How would this be a bad thing? On the down weeks, the staff writers would have to bust their asses to make their skit good because there is such a limited amount of time. Then if a big star were to come on, the amount of viewer entertainment would go up. How come Lorne Michaels isn’t calling me about how to run his show? Come on now.

Heroes (A.K.A. Meh.)

You know what? Heroes has gotten pretty dull.

It used to be that you could depend on a solid Hiro storyline, a decent Peter Patrelli plot, and a passable cheerleader plot.

Now, Hiro is powerless and has gotten kind of whiny.

The cheerleader has fallen to Jessica/Nicky terribleness.

Peter Patrelli has gotten a little bad ass (Do you think he’ll skull Isaac [ala Sylar] to make Hiro’s future come to truth?).

For me, though, the only reason to watch is Sylar. He is the only character who treats his power as a gift and uses it in day to day life.

Let’s break that down. Hiro used to do that, but has since lost his power and became boring. Peter doesn’t know wtf he is doing. The cheerleader hasn’t used any power since the series came back on air. Nicky/Jessica hates her superpower. Parkman accesses his power to find out stupid facts (like his wife is cheating, dump her and move on). Isaac uses his power to stalk Peter (that’s pretty freakin’ gay [sorry GLAAD]). The Haitian is just Mr. Bennett’s little bitch. Nathan Petrelli is almost on par with Sheriff Walt Bannerman (Dead Zone TV show) as far as acting chops.

So, from this point out I’m routing for Sylar until Stan Lee busts out his superpower bus driving skills and kills him. It’s only a matter of time, right?

New Movie Concept

As you know, I just finished the rough draft of my first screenplay. Now I am going to start working on a new screenplay concept. The plan is to finish the outline for new concept and then go back and rewrite the first screenplay.

I thought I’d give you a little preview of my next screenplay concept right here, right now.

I am going to title the movie, “Killer Crossover.”

The story revolves around a serial killer who is targets girls’ basketball players. In order to catch the killer, one dectective will have to go under cover to lure out the killer.

It’s Juwanna Mann meets Underclassman.

I’m hoping to get a young Rapper/R&Ber to play the lead. What do you think?

What? You don’t like it? Seriously?

It took me about 5 minutes to think all that up. The sad thing is that could actually get made now-a-days. Even sadder, my first screenplay isn’t much better.

But I am working on a new script. The concept is kind of like the Superman story, but with my own twist. I like how it is going so far, but I could foresee problems writing it (i.e. I want to cram too many things in it).

I’ll let you know when it’s finished.

Ultimate Avengers

A week ago I watched The Invincible Iron Man (Marvel Cartoon) and was impressed with the animation, but thought that the story could use some work.

Knowing this, I decided to give The Ultimate Avengers a whirl. I know it has been out a while, but I was never really all that interested until now.

So, the DVD arrived on Netflix on Saturday (how does anyone live with out Netflix?) and I watched it on Sunday (because Patti was at work).  It was almost the opposite of Iron Man.

The animation was mediocre (reminiscent of TV show animation).  But the story was really entertaining.

Overall I gave the movie 4 stars out of 5 on Netflix.

So, today (Tuesday 2/20) The Prestige came out on DVD. While I thought that movie was mediocre at best, Patti absolutely loved it, so I had to stop at Best Buy to pick it up.

While I was there, I flipped through the Sunday ad. I realized that a bunch of movies are on sale for $5 (Including Down in the Valley, The Punisher, and several others).

Among these, was the Ultimate Avengers DVD. I went ahead and pciked it up. But when I did, I thought, “if only I knew that this was on sale and that it was good, I wouldn’t have had to use up a Netflix slot on it.”

So, here I am. Letting you know that you can go to Best Buy and buy the Ultimate Avengers for $5 and enjoy a solid movie.

The Mikey Screenplay

If you don’t know, I’ve been working on writing a screenplay for some time now (I’d estimate it’s been about 8 months since I first started the idea). I’m glad to announce that I have actually finished the first draft (Yeah, I know it has been a long time for just a first draft).

If you’d like to read it, shoot me an e-mail at hinux1@yahoo.com.

The script does have quite a few things I need to work on. Here is a list of things that I think I need to work on:

A) The screenplay is only 78 pages (feature length screenplays fall in the 90-120 page range).

B) There is little to decipher one character from another. I focused more on the plot than the characters when writing. I plan on fleshing out my characters when I do the rewrite.

C) The ending is weak. I had a bunch of ideas on how to end it and none of them stood at as being great. So, I ended up with a mismash of concepts.

D) I used too much referrential humor. Sure, I find it funny, but I almost feel like I’ve just cut and pasted a bunch of other movies to make my own dialogue (even though that is kind of how I talk with my friends/family).

E) Too many characters. I think this works hand in hand with problem B. With the sheer number of characters. Even I, the writer, had difficulty keeping them straight at times.

F) Monosyllabic dialogue at the beginning. When I started, I didn’t have a real strong feel for dialogue and most conversations are just what needs to be said to move the story forward.

So, get a copy, read it for yourself, and let me know if there are other problems in which I should work on.

I appreciate any advise you leave for me. Thank you!

Hot Fuzz!

Pegg Accidentally Flashes Family Members

British funnyman Simon Pegg was left red-faced when he accidentally revealed his naked self to his entire family. The Shaun Of The Dead star made the mistake of showing his parents and siblings a home-made film without censoring the tape’s contents. He says, “I once showed a holiday video to my entire family and forgot there was a point where I flashed. I only realized about one second before it happened and couldn’t get to the remote in time to stop them all from seeing me pull down my trousers and reveal myself. My sister screamed and my mum said, ‘Ooh, that’s changed.’” The actor is next set to appear in cop comedy Hot Fuzz.

(This news snippet was taken off of IMDB).

Unseperable Movies-Songs

Over on AV Club, they have done an article on songs that are now defined by the movie scenes they were used in. You can read that article here. I had actually thought about his topic a few days ago while listening to the radio. While I agree with the subject, the AV Club’s execution would be considered poor at best. They listed 15 scenes/songs and out of them I only agree wholeheartedly with 2 of them.

The two that I agree with are the Resevoir Dogs - Stuck in the Middle With You and the Almost Famous – Tiny Dancer. I do want to note, though, that for some crazy reason, the AV Club compares Steeler’s Wheel to the Beatles instead of the obvious Bob Dylan comparison. But those two scenes/songs have been linked and will always stay as such.

Here’s a few song/scenes that the AV Club completely missed (and most are pretty obvious).

1) Wayne’s World – “Bohemian Rhapsody”

Honestly, can you listen to that song and not act out at least the head banging part?

2) Garden State Trailer – “Let Go”

Partially why the trailer was so badass. I must have watched that trailer 25+ times.

3) Back to the Future – “Johnny B. Goode”

“Your kids are going to love it.”

4) Undecided (TV Show) – “How Bizarre” 

A relatively shitty song but every time I hear of it, I think of that female roommate on Undecided who played it non-stop.

5) Ferris Bueller – “Oh Yeah” or if you’re like me, “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want.”

The “Oh Yeah” is pretty obvious. But “PPPLMGWIW” (geez, that’s long even with just the initials) takes over the Chicago Museum of Art scene and makes it beautiful. If only I had an IPod back in High School. I could have recreated that scene. That would have been bad ass.

6) The Naked Gun – “I Love L.A.”

Randy Newman would be nothing with out the add of Leslie Neilson, the Queen, and the Los Angeles Angels (including Reggie Jackson).

7) Donnie Darko – “Mad World”

The old school Tears for Fears song remade by Gary Jules. I can’t hear it with out thinking of all the people waking up at the end of Donnie Darko.

8.) Rules of Attraction – “I Can’t Live (If Living Is Without You)”

Any time I hear this Harry Nilsson song, my mind instantly goes to the suicide scene of Rules of Attraction.

9) Ella Enchanted – “Somebody to Love”

To tell you the truth, that scene is the only one I remember from the movie.

10) Joe Dirt – “Sweet Home Alabama“

As soon as I hear, “Turn it Up.” I’m transported straight into Joe’s car. ”Yeah, I’ve got a name for this car. Rusty.” “That shit’ll buff out.”

11) The Big Lebowski – Numerous – Any Eagles song

The Big Lebowski has so many scene/song combos that it is just insane. Think about the Spanish “Hotel California.” What do you see? Jesus licking the bowling ball. How about CCR? You got to pound the roof when you hear that in the car. But to me, most of all is any Eagles song. You end up saying, “I hate the fucking Eagles, man.” “If you don’t like my music, get out of my cab.”

So there you have 11 better examples than the ones the AV Club dropped and we’ve just touched the tip of the iceberg.

What are some of the scene/song combos that I’m missing?

Drive-In Movie Theater?

Have you seen this article?

Apparently a drunk driver was out cruising around and slammed into a local movie theater. The theater was in the middle of playing Dreamgirls. The SUV came with in inches of hitting a movie watcher. Some pretty crazy stuff.

I guess that is one way of making Dreamsgirls watchable though. (It at least adds a little originality to seperate it from Ray and Walk the Line).