Kimputer's Weblog

Since tomorrow, the fall schedule will officially start (Season 2 of Prison Break), I think it’s about time to do an all-round summer review, roughly sorted from good to bad:

The 4400: Grown from two season, it’s really REALLY heating up. Tension is tangible, while drama is developed on a personal level. With one episode left, you know a big cliff hanger is coming up, and season 4 will not be a winding down road.

Monk: Consistently hilarious, some jokes just don’t get old. But the stories put forward keep being surprising, meaning I see some more Emmies coming this neurotic’s way.

Psych: Outline might put you off, thinking it’s a Monk copy, but early on, it proves to be able to stand on its own quite well. Pretty funny by itself, and story-wise, it’s pretty okay. A keeper, for now.

The Dead Zone: As I feared, it’s back to episodic story telling, and supporting characters are pretty much paper weights now, instead of assets, like the previous seasons. Still good enough to be on my weekly schedule though.

Weeds: Season 2 just premiered, but it looks like another promising start, for this short (only 12 eps) short (did I mention it’s only a half hour show ?) dramedy.

Last Comic Standing: As per previous seasons, quite a laughing fest, with a solid line-up and a well deserved winner.

Chappelle’s Show: With less than a handful of episodes, you can’t even call it a season. Also, you wonder why his DVD’s broke sales records. Some skits are funny indeed, but mostly, it gets old pretty fast.

The Contender: Business as usual. Train, diss your opponent, and call him out, concluded by a punching game (and a loser featurette). Testosterone filled reality tv. An excellent time filler.

The Closer: Continuing with last season’s trick, nothing much has changed. It’s an able time filler, since you’ve only got the weekly murder to rely on. Seems like nothing will grow further, but at least you know what you’re dealing with. Mildly funny, and mildly dramatic.

Brotherhood: Pretty slow character developing show, which has strength in subtle drama. Might be a bit too slow for some, but I see potential here and there.

Eureka: Nice try at a light-hearted sci-fi series, focuses mainly on the gagdet of the week and a bit of story recycling (if you’ve watched a lot of sci-fi before). Character development is not high on the check list, so it’s a time filler at best, since it doesn’t reach hilarity levels yet. Maybe the writers still have to hone their skills to adept to this small town setting, but I’m not betting any real money on it.

Nightmares & Dreamscapes: 8 seperate short stories by Stephen King. I fell asleep during story 2. Didn’t even finish them all. He might be able to write books, but the translation of his short stories to the small screen 45 minute format just isn’t something to write home about. Period.

Who Wants to be a Superhero: If this is called a reality show, then Superman eats Kryptonite for breakfast. There’s more acting involved than many badly scripted dramas combined together. It might be fun for some to laugh at freaky contestants, but in the long run, it can’t hold any real interest.

Blade – The Series: As much as the movies were brainless but entertaining, the series just isn’t able to capture anything positive from it. Low budget causes a lot of the damage, while uninteresting story lines and characters does the rest. This small screen daywalker version isn’t appealing on any level.

Over the top action-thriller Snakes on a Plane got a mediocre take off, landing at the number one spot with $15.2 million. Runner up is Talladega Nights, losing it’s pole position, with $14.1 million and a total of $114.7 million. At three, World Trade Center dropped within expectation, earning $10.8 million in its second week.
A new release ends up at 4, college comedy Accepted brings in $10.1 millon. Rounding out the top 5 is Step Up, with $9.9 million

Glory Road: The usual sports, rise above the occasion, movie, with nothing really new to tell, but still does the trick it’s supposed to.7-.
Hoot: Nice attempt for a children morale story, but execution gone awry.4-.
Stay: Surreal MTV style psychological vertigo.6½.
Factotum: Not really a comedy, not really a drama, but a bit boring for sure.5-.

Bringing the TV series, which earned Michael Mann name recognition, to the big screen in the midst of a failed hype (*YaWN* Serenity *snore* Starsky & Hutch *head thud on table* Dukes of Hazzard), is certainly risky, but ultimately proves, if you have the front man executing the job, everything will turn out just fine.
Miami Vice probably takes it to another level, more gritty and dark than your average sunshine TV episode. While not Mann’s usual deeply psychologically rooted character pieces (Collateral, The Insider, Heat), he takes a more observational stance instead. But there’s still enough drama to go around with these simply defined characters, as the acting is top notch.
Believe it or not, but this all together meshes into a heap of fun. The plain bad ass attitude of an MDPD task force, which has the combined skills of the Navy SEALS, Delta Force, Green Berets and Rangers and is in total better organised than the FBI, CIA and the DEA put together is certainly something to chuckle at (and I didn’t even mention the phenomenal budget for cool and violent hardware).
With only one point to comment negatively on (too much use of lightweight HD camera’s during finale action scenes doesn’t really create a theatrical experience), I can confidently conclude this is the best serious TV to film conversion yet (at least, that’s until we see characters from Dallas on an armed mission to Iraque to claim oil wells, or KITT serves Michael Knight fresh coke and dope).8-.

It’s that time again. Fatal injury (since the finger in question operates both the “d” (strafe right) and “c” key (crouch) in Counter-Strike), or at least, heavily disabled (strategist will know to shoot me to my left, which is your right).
This is one of the disadvantages of having Belgian bought, Swiss made utensils. Even a thing as simple as slicing an orange in quarters can result in this weeklong disability (there’s literally a chunk of meat cut off my finger, and apparently, surgeons take weekends off. So much for that new health care system eh ?).

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby finishes another round at the top spot, with $23 million. A sizable drop of 51%, but it’s still able to cume $91 million since its release.
Also good business is dance flick Step Up, with $21 million, almost doubling what the previous dance movie earlier this year did (Take the Lead, starring Antonia Banderas with $12 million).
World Trade Center has to do with a third place, with $19 million. With terrosist tension heating up again (in London), this can still be called a mild success (total now standing at $26.8 million). Dropping two places is Barnyard with $10 million, while Pulse, a low budget horror flick rounds out the top 5 with $8.5 million.

With 1.5 drama actor (Kate Hudson and Matt Dillon) and 1.5 funny pants (Matt Dillon and Owen Wilson), possibilities look promising. Not this time though, it’s cliche all-round. The usual feel-good romantic comedy that has nothing real to offer, but the occasional laugh you already laughed before. Always predictable, mildly charming at times, but that’s about it. The core of zest that propelled Wedding Crashers to a box office hit, is clearly absent here, making this movie only suitable for partners having difficulty choosing a movie.6-.

At the US box office pole position is Will Ferrell setting a personal opening record with Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, a NASCAR comedy racing by with some $47 million.
Not as long a title, so they’ll have to settle with the runner up spot, is Barnyard: The Original Party Animals. CGI animation, written and directed by Steve Oedekerk, brings in $16 million.
Third place is Pirates of the Carribean, bringing in another $11 million worth of gold. It probably has enough wind behind the sails to slowly float by the $400 million mark this or next week (cume now at $379.8 million).
Rounding out the top 5 is sharp dropper Miami Vice with $9.7 million and low budget UK thriller The Descent with $8.8 million.

And return he does. And I won’t even mention the franchise possibilities. So, again, nothing but kudos for Bryan Singer, a true wizard when it comes to comic books translation to the silver screen. With almost full creative control, the story is as smooth as Superman flies through the sky, and then some. With a two and a half hour running time, you get your full worth of money, and Singer uses this time to paint the canvas with emotional colors, true comic book atmosphere and the appropiate amount of funny bits. Taking extra time to fill the emotional bagage is always a plus, and with his choice of casting, it works like a charm. I guess DC Comics will get through pretty nicely for the next few years (and hence, also WB), with a moody and dark, well, Dark Knight (as the title for the next Batman is for 2008), and a lighter but still dramatically sound Superman.8+.

Vitriolic. What it means ? You can find that out yourself (you might even have to do a follow-up look-up). All I can say is, use it in your apology letters. For instance, Mel Gibson’s one.

Quote from the NY Times:

Almost all commercial ice creams contain industrial ingredients that mimic the luxurious effects of butterfat and egg yolks: some are natural, like carrageenan, extracted from algae plentiful in the Irish Sea; others are synthetic, like mono- and diglycerides.

Well, that much I already knew. I hate the synthetic taste of it.

But using new technologies can be risky for manufacturers. The other new method for making supercreamy ice cream was caught up last month in the global debate over genetically modified foods. In June, Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate, applied to Britain’s Food Standards Agency for permission to use a new ingredient in its frozen desserts — a protein cloned from the blood of an eel-like Arctic Ocean fish, the ocean pout.

THIS though, is plain horrific. Everything fish, including eel, is just eew. I think I’ll be suing them soon.

The 80-ties throwback Miami Vice seems to be still popular, now with Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx as Crockett & Tubbs, ending up the Pirates’ winning spree. With $25.2 million it’s on par with expectations, but it’s got a lot more work to do if it wants to earn back the $125 million budget.
Pirates of the Cariebean: Dead Man’s Chest drops one spot, with $20.5 million it was a too tough competition for the other new releases. Teen girl revenge flick John Tucker Must Die opens at 3 with $14 million, while Monster House drops 2 spots with $11.5 million. Rounding out the top 5 is The Ant Bully with an all-star voice cast, but if fails to impress the family, or even just the kids, with a mere $8.1 million.

Rate 1 (sucks) to 5 (cool). Only rate the latest pictures, otherwise I can’t keep track of the average.

Total: 800 out of 246 votes > Average is: 3.252

With so few updates in this section, you might start to think I’m actually not working. How far from the truth can you get ?

Apparently, Smart“ bought himself a logo with a scarcely clothed lady silhouette (dare I even imagine it being an SM tool she’s holding in her hand ?).

12 years after their first collaboration (basically making them both shoot to stardom), Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves give it another go, albeit at quite a slower speed. This is clearly softy romantic drama, butchered with a contrived outline. This makes for dialogue crammed around 3 bended corners to fit the synopsis, but somehow, manages to keep a silky softness to it. If you take the one fantasy element for granted (like so many movies before in these recent years), and ignore the narrative anomalies (some might say innovation, I definitely disagree), it’s not that bad at all.7-.

Dave Chappelle’s Block Party: Mix of docu-comedy and music that surprisingly digests quite well, despite long jam sessions with too many rap artists.7.
Sarah Silverman’s Jesus is Magic: Funny-woman with her own style of comedy, in a weirdly mixed stand-up/sketch show.7+.
The Benchwarmers: The usual Happy Madison Productions (Adam Sandler) shockinly keeping it very middle-of-the-road.6-.