Just watched episode 3 of season 3 of True Blood and I'm disappointed once again. This show was fresh and thrilling, albeit disturbing, when it first came out, but it seems to be relying far too heavily on the disturbing side lately. I'm not sure if they've lost some writers or just run out of good ideas, but it really seems to be flailing.
The 2nd season marked the start of this decline. I liked the storyline with Jason going off to join the religious cult but the whole maynad thing was just stupid. The relationship between Bill and Sookie just didn't seem to be the same as the first season either. It was nice to see more of Erik, but they completely underutilised Godric and wrote him out of the series far too quickly.
So far in this series they've struggled to establish any firm storylines. They've thrown lots of new characters into the mix, including 2 extra shifters, multiple packs of werewolves, another vampire kingdom with fresh alliances forming and even Nazis (and remember this was all done in the span of 3 episodes!). This overkill reeks of desperation, and their main problem is that they've split up most of the key characters leaving many scenes lacking.
I'll give it another couple of episodes to find its feet, but if it doesn't improve I'm going to have to drop it from my Sky+ planner. There's just too much other good stuff to watch lately!
Friday 4 February 2011
Thursday 3 February 2011
Love Happens
Since it's almost Valentine's Day I thought it was about time I reviewed the movie Love Happens, which I rented about a month ago. I didn't really know much about it when I rented it, I just knew it had Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart in from the billboards, and they seemed like an unlikely combination for a romance movie so I was intrigued.
It is a bit of an odd movie. Aaron Eckhart plays a self help guru called Burke Ryan who holds seminars to help people get over the death of a loved one after his own wife died and he wrote a book to help himself get over it. However, he's ashamed and unhappy because he isn't really over it, and this is only magnified when a TV network wants to sign him up to host a talk show and go national.
Jennifer Aniston's character is an eccentric yet gloomy florist who gets kicks out of vandalising public places with obscure words such as "quidnunc" and "poppysmic". Predictably she helps Burke move on and he makes her happier as they fall in love.
Rating 5 out of 10 - Passed the time nicely but could have done with more humour to lift the mood at times. Not really that memorable or worth watching again either.
It is a bit of an odd movie. Aaron Eckhart plays a self help guru called Burke Ryan who holds seminars to help people get over the death of a loved one after his own wife died and he wrote a book to help himself get over it. However, he's ashamed and unhappy because he isn't really over it, and this is only magnified when a TV network wants to sign him up to host a talk show and go national.
Jennifer Aniston's character is an eccentric yet gloomy florist who gets kicks out of vandalising public places with obscure words such as "quidnunc" and "poppysmic". Predictably she helps Burke move on and he makes her happier as they fall in love.
Rating 5 out of 10 - Passed the time nicely but could have done with more humour to lift the mood at times. Not really that memorable or worth watching again either.
Wednesday 2 February 2011
And here's some I prepared earlier
No time to write a new blog post today, but I'm on a roll so I thought I'd recycle some of the reviews I posted on Flixster a while ago.
Clash of the Titans Rating 2 out of 10 - Bad acting, rubbish dialogue, poor use of 3D, and very cliched. The original was better, all this version improved on was the special effects, but they're half the fun of the original. Also very disappointing performance from Sam Worthington after stealing the show in Terminator Salvation and Avatar.
The Hangover Rating 10 out of 10 - Laughed till it hurt, had to look away at one point so I could breathe! Best comedy I've seen in years and it's still funny the second time!
Daybreakers Rating 7 out of 10 - Solid intelligent plot that was slightly undermined by the gratuitous gore (but hey some people see that as an added bonus). Would have liked more details in the back story about how the disease spread but they're probably saving that for a sequel. Still managed to add some new dimensions to the vampire mythology though.
Monsters Vs Aliens Rating 7 out of 10 - Worth watching for the insectosaurus alone!
2012 Rating 9 out of 10 - Breath taking special effects sequences that make me want to see it on the big screen again, good performances from John Cusack and Woody Harrelson, not a boring moment. A brilliant return to form for the apocalyptic action movie!
Sherlock Holmes Rating 6 out of 10 - Holmes and Watson were great but the bad guy was uninspiring and the scene on Tower Bridge seemed a bit gratuitous too (look Mom I'm in London!). Refreshing to see a period drama that's not some stuffy Dickens or Austen remake though.
Avatar Rating 9 out of 10 - Amazing effects, gripping action scenes and a satisfying yet predictable ending.
Inglourious Basterds Rating 9 out of 10 - Much better than I expected, worth watching for Brad Pitt's accent alone!
Funny People Rating 6 out of 10 - Haven't quite made my mind up about this one yet. It was funny in places but the story was also depressing. It's not as good as you would expect given all the big names in it either.
District 9 Rating 7 out of 10 - Decent storyline but too slow moving, would probably have worked better as a TV series. It just started heating up at the end so I'm hoping there will be a sequel to finish off the story properly. The setting in South Africa and local actors made a refreshing change from the usual Hollywood movies too.
Clash of the Titans Rating 2 out of 10 - Bad acting, rubbish dialogue, poor use of 3D, and very cliched. The original was better, all this version improved on was the special effects, but they're half the fun of the original. Also very disappointing performance from Sam Worthington after stealing the show in Terminator Salvation and Avatar.
The Hangover Rating 10 out of 10 - Laughed till it hurt, had to look away at one point so I could breathe! Best comedy I've seen in years and it's still funny the second time!
Daybreakers Rating 7 out of 10 - Solid intelligent plot that was slightly undermined by the gratuitous gore (but hey some people see that as an added bonus). Would have liked more details in the back story about how the disease spread but they're probably saving that for a sequel. Still managed to add some new dimensions to the vampire mythology though.
Monsters Vs Aliens Rating 7 out of 10 - Worth watching for the insectosaurus alone!
2012 Rating 9 out of 10 - Breath taking special effects sequences that make me want to see it on the big screen again, good performances from John Cusack and Woody Harrelson, not a boring moment. A brilliant return to form for the apocalyptic action movie!
Sherlock Holmes Rating 6 out of 10 - Holmes and Watson were great but the bad guy was uninspiring and the scene on Tower Bridge seemed a bit gratuitous too (look Mom I'm in London!). Refreshing to see a period drama that's not some stuffy Dickens or Austen remake though.
Avatar Rating 9 out of 10 - Amazing effects, gripping action scenes and a satisfying yet predictable ending.
Inglourious Basterds Rating 9 out of 10 - Much better than I expected, worth watching for Brad Pitt's accent alone!
Funny People Rating 6 out of 10 - Haven't quite made my mind up about this one yet. It was funny in places but the story was also depressing. It's not as good as you would expect given all the big names in it either.
District 9 Rating 7 out of 10 - Decent storyline but too slow moving, would probably have worked better as a TV series. It just started heating up at the end so I'm hoping there will be a sequel to finish off the story properly. The setting in South Africa and local actors made a refreshing change from the usual Hollywood movies too.
Tuesday 1 February 2011
Men Who Stare At Goats
I missed Men Who Stare At Goats when it was in the cinema so I was pleased when it turned up on TV recently. Unfortunately it also got sent out to us from our DVD rental list at the exact same time, doh!
It's about an experimental US military unit called the "New Earth Army" that trains recruits to be "Jedi warriors". They aim to develop skills such as invisibility, remote viewing (being able to see any place in the world in their mind), phasing (running through walls), and most importantly to be able to stop a goat's heart by staring at it. But as you might expect there isn't much evidence that anyone in the unit developed a single power, they mainly just grew their hair out and acted like a hippy cult until the unit eventually gets disbanded.
The training program initally got approval because the the Russians heard a rumour the Americans were training an army of psychics, then the Americans heard a rumour that the Russians had started their own psychic army in retaliation, so of course the Americans had to start one too. The movie starts with the disclaimer that "More of this is true than you would believe", but I'm not sure that's true because I could believe 100% of it. Just look at the other crazy stuff the US military got up to during The Cold War, and the similarities between the War On Terror and the book 1984.
Anyway the plot of the movie follows Ewan McGregor who plays a broken hearted reporter who goes off to cover the latest Iraq War to impress his wife who left him for his one-armed editor (there seems to be a lot of amputees in independent films lately!). He meets George Clooney's character, a former member of the unit who's been "reactivated", in Kuwait and they travel to Iraq together to start the mission. However they don't get very far before they crash their car and are held hostage by armed Iraqis.
Rating: 5 out of 10 - No where near as funny as it could have been, especially considering it also had Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges in it, the storyline and characters let the concept down despite George Clooney's best efforts.
It's about an experimental US military unit called the "New Earth Army" that trains recruits to be "Jedi warriors". They aim to develop skills such as invisibility, remote viewing (being able to see any place in the world in their mind), phasing (running through walls), and most importantly to be able to stop a goat's heart by staring at it. But as you might expect there isn't much evidence that anyone in the unit developed a single power, they mainly just grew their hair out and acted like a hippy cult until the unit eventually gets disbanded.
The training program initally got approval because the the Russians heard a rumour the Americans were training an army of psychics, then the Americans heard a rumour that the Russians had started their own psychic army in retaliation, so of course the Americans had to start one too. The movie starts with the disclaimer that "More of this is true than you would believe", but I'm not sure that's true because I could believe 100% of it. Just look at the other crazy stuff the US military got up to during The Cold War, and the similarities between the War On Terror and the book 1984.
Anyway the plot of the movie follows Ewan McGregor who plays a broken hearted reporter who goes off to cover the latest Iraq War to impress his wife who left him for his one-armed editor (there seems to be a lot of amputees in independent films lately!). He meets George Clooney's character, a former member of the unit who's been "reactivated", in Kuwait and they travel to Iraq together to start the mission. However they don't get very far before they crash their car and are held hostage by armed Iraqis.
Rating: 5 out of 10 - No where near as funny as it could have been, especially considering it also had Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges in it, the storyline and characters let the concept down despite George Clooney's best efforts.
Monday 31 January 2011
Sky Atlantic Starts Tomorrow!
Sky is doing a big shuffle of its entertainment line up from February 1st. One change is that they're switching the HD and SD equivalents for HD subscribers to make the HD channels easier to find. Another difference is that Living is being rebranded as Sky Living after Sky bought the channel from Virgin back in June, and some flagship shows such as Chuck and Bones have a new home there. They're also moving around a lot of the entertainment channels while they're at it to cluster the best Sky channels on the first page of the TV guide. But the change I'm most excited about is the new channel Sky Atlantic.
Sky have signed an exclusive deal with the pay channel HBO from the US so that all the top shows will be on Sky Atlantic and available to all Sky subscribers without any extra fees as part of the variety mix. This starts with new shows Boardwalk Empire and Blue Bloods on the opening night as well as the new series of Entourage on Thursday. They are also going to repeat several classic shows from the start during the daytime line up such as ER, The X-Files, and Six Feet Under. Now I just need to find time to watch everything while still leaving enough time to blog about it!
The only drawback I can see to this new line up is that Channel One (formerly Virgin 1) has disappeared and I was watching Supernatural from the start on it. However that and Chuck were the only things I ever watched on it, and they did at least stop at the end of a series so I'm sure can pick it up again from the start of season 3 on another channel in future. This downside is more than made up for by the fact they also cancelled Bravo so I no longer have to sit through UFC matches with my husband.
Sky have signed an exclusive deal with the pay channel HBO from the US so that all the top shows will be on Sky Atlantic and available to all Sky subscribers without any extra fees as part of the variety mix. This starts with new shows Boardwalk Empire and Blue Bloods on the opening night as well as the new series of Entourage on Thursday. They are also going to repeat several classic shows from the start during the daytime line up such as ER, The X-Files, and Six Feet Under. Now I just need to find time to watch everything while still leaving enough time to blog about it!
The only drawback I can see to this new line up is that Channel One (formerly Virgin 1) has disappeared and I was watching Supernatural from the start on it. However that and Chuck were the only things I ever watched on it, and they did at least stop at the end of a series so I'm sure can pick it up again from the start of season 3 on another channel in future. This downside is more than made up for by the fact they also cancelled Bravo so I no longer have to sit through UFC matches with my husband.
Sunday 30 January 2011
Extract
After we got back from seeing TRON:Legacy we decided to watch the rental movie Extract. I didn't hear about this movie at all when it came out, but I added it to my rental list without really knowing anything about it because it's a Mike Judge movie and Office Space is one of my all time favourites.
It turns out Extract is about a group of workers at a factory that makes food extracts. The setting really isn't that important to the story though, it would work equally well with any mundane job, it's just observations about normal people which is what Mike Judge is known for
The story mainly follows the owner of the factory who has built up the company from nothing. He's unhappy in his marriage and an attractive new employee tempts him into having an affair but he doesn't want to risk the financial loss of a divorce. That's until his bartender friend (a hilarious return to form for Ben Affleck) dopes him up on ketamine and convinces him that he should pay a gigalo to seduce his wife first so she wouldn't have a case. However this backfires when the gigalo falls in love with the wife and won't stop seeing her.
Meanwhile the owner of the plant is trying to sell it but that's put at risk when there's an accident in the factory (one of the idiot employees loses a testicle), and there's the risk of a major lawsuit bankrupting the company. There's also a number of petty thefts from the employees which causes further unrest. All this comes to a head in comic fashion at the end of the film when the owner realises one person is causing all his problems.
Rating: 7 out of 10: Original and amusing movie with some laugh out loud moments and interesting characters, it's no Office Space but it's a major improvement over TRON:Legacy (yes I really hated that movie and here's why if you missed my earlier review).
It turns out Extract is about a group of workers at a factory that makes food extracts. The setting really isn't that important to the story though, it would work equally well with any mundane job, it's just observations about normal people which is what Mike Judge is known for
The story mainly follows the owner of the factory who has built up the company from nothing. He's unhappy in his marriage and an attractive new employee tempts him into having an affair but he doesn't want to risk the financial loss of a divorce. That's until his bartender friend (a hilarious return to form for Ben Affleck) dopes him up on ketamine and convinces him that he should pay a gigalo to seduce his wife first so she wouldn't have a case. However this backfires when the gigalo falls in love with the wife and won't stop seeing her.
Meanwhile the owner of the plant is trying to sell it but that's put at risk when there's an accident in the factory (one of the idiot employees loses a testicle), and there's the risk of a major lawsuit bankrupting the company. There's also a number of petty thefts from the employees which causes further unrest. All this comes to a head in comic fashion at the end of the film when the owner realises one person is causing all his problems.
Rating: 7 out of 10: Original and amusing movie with some laugh out loud moments and interesting characters, it's no Office Space but it's a major improvement over TRON:Legacy (yes I really hated that movie and here's why if you missed my earlier review).
Saturday 29 January 2011
Back by popular demand!
Well OK one demand, but that's enough for me! I've had a request for more diagrams so I thought I'd try to link the show No Ordinary Family to itself in as few steps as possible (avoiding one off appearances). Please post a comment if you've got any other requests for diagrams or if you can do this one in less steps!
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| No Ordinary Family to No Ordinary Family in 5 steps, can you do better? |
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