Random Reviews

The OC is back

2004-11-06T19:21:00.000-05:00

The O.C. is back for another season. The first episode mostly focused on trying to fix what went wrong in the lives of the characters last season, and setting up the mood for this season. While I really didn't think this was a very good stand alone episode, it did whet my appetite for what is to come. I hope that this coming Thursday picks up a bit from the pace that was set this week.

Scrubs

2004-09-04T22:22:00.000-05:00

While the new season of most new shows has not started yet, Scrubs started this past week. I thought it was a great episode. In addition to the usual humour that Scrubs is famous for, they dealt with J.D.'s insecurity, and his relationship with his mentor, Dr. Cox. In addition, Eliot dealt with the fact that she feels that she is left out of the group now that her and J.D. have split up. She did make a new friend in Heather Graham's character, even though they did have a bit of a rough start.

Perhaps the biggest moment of Scrubs was when Dr. Cox called J.D. "doctor." Sure it was after he gave J.D. a hard time...but for him to call J.D. anything other than a girl's name is a step up.

I really look forward to the rest of the season, and will likely have several updates on the progress of Scrubs here.

Summer Olympics 2004

2004-08-17T20:02:00.000-05:00

So far the Summer Olympics have been going rather well. I think that NBC has done a great job with their coverage. They have been going back and forth between events so you get a good mixture of all the events without going overboard on one event. Of course there are the odd events that I would love to miss entirely (who in the world thought of synchronized diving), NBC focuses on the events that are most popular, such as swimming and gymnastics. It will be interesting to see how the televisions of basket ball works out later on in the Olympics. The subpar performance of the men's team is likely to drop interest in the sport...but it would be sad if basket ball coverage was cut back to much due to the lack of teamwork on the men's USA basketball team. Of course this might just lead to more women's coverage, since that team has been doing well.

I will post a few more updates as the Olympics goes on.

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

2004-08-08T23:11:00.000-05:00

If you like fantasy and Science fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is a must. Every month you get a magazine full of fantasy and science fiction stories. Some of them are from authors who are well known for writing novels, and others are from people who only write short stories. If you want to check out issues without subscribing you can go to fictionwise to buy a few back issues (in ebook form). A year's subscription costs $32.97 and is well worth it.

Star Gate Atlantis

2004-07-17T12:48:00.000-05:00

Well, the Scifi channel has a new stargate show. Thisis a spin off of
the stargate SG1 show. I saw the pilot last night, and it was not
bad...though it was not great either. It seems to be one of those shows
that will do ok over the summer, since there is not much else towatch,
but will have a tough time once the fall season starts.

The idea is that the stargate crew gets an address to Atlantis, the
home of the ancients that built the stargate. Unlike the legends
it is not on earth, but very very far away. Because Atlantis is
so far away it takes an enormous amount of power to send them
there...and they fully expect it to be a one way trip. The show
then follows the group that was sent on this mission and watches them
as they make new friends, and make new enimies in a galaxy far from
home.

Some of the actors seemed to have a bit of a hard time really getting a feel
for their roles, though this is somewhat common for a pilot episode of any
series. More problematic than that is the "bad aliens" that
they must fight in this show. These aliens just seem to be rather flat
and dull. They are supposedly an advanced species, with great technology
and such...but their personalities have not evolved passed the caveman
state. I kept expecting one of them to bust out in a Tarzan voice and say
"Me hungry...Me need food"

Overall, it is worth checking out for some summer watching if you are a huge
fan of scifi or the SG series...but don't expect it to blow you away.

Books for Soldiers

2004-07-01T23:45:00.000-05:00

While this does not fit the normal topic of the page, I felt it was important enough to mention. There is a website called Books for Soldiers that puts people in contact with soldiers who request books to read. You can look through the message board to see if people have requested any of your old books and then send them to the soldier's address, or you can post a note listed what books you are willing to donate so people can request what you have. This is a useful service as they don't have a books a million over in Iraq for soldiers to pick up reading material. Even if you don't have books to send, you can check out the addresses of soldiers overseas who don't have anyone to write to them. Your letters can be a source of moral support for them.

Joe Schmo 2 Commercials

2004-06-24T23:45:00.000-05:00

I have been bothered by the commercials for the Joe Schmo show. As you know, I have a blog that describes and reviews the episodes of Joe Schmo 2 (Joe Schmo 2). The show is a parody of reality TV, just like the previous season of Joe Schmo. I have mentioned in previous entries that the show is not about poking fun of the real contestants (Matt from Joe Schmo 1 and Ingrid and Tim from Joe Schmo 2) it is about making fun of reality TV. The show is always careful to be respectful of the real contestants...and to make it clear that they are not stupid...or naive, the writers actually work hard to keep the secret for them.

unfortunately, whoever writes the commercials for the show does not get this. I am not sure if some executive from Spike TV who has never seen the show wrote the commercials, or if someone thought that they could draw more of a crowd by making insulting commercials. Whichever it is, the commercials misrepresent the show. They ridicule the real contestants focusing on the fact that they are being fooled. I have found this has made it hard for me to get people to start watching the show, because they think of it as cruel humor. Most people I know really enjoy the show once they see it...and find that the commercials were inaccurate, but why would spike TV want to start off on the wrong foot like that. Commercials should encourage viewers, not scare them away. If anyone from Spike TV reads this, please fix your commercials for Joe Schmo 2 so they more accurately describe the show.

To viewers out there, I encourage you to watch the show. It has a lot of very funny moments...and there is some great writing. Ingrid and Tim (the real contestants) are both very likeable, and Tim has a great sense of humor, which makes the show funny to watch. Besides, where else will you hear the phrase "dip your wick into her flame of love?" Give the show a chance, even if the commercial writers have never seen the show.

The serenity website is up

2004-06-24T21:54:00.000-05:00

For those of you who were fans of Joss Whedon's Firefly, the website for the Firefly movie (called serenity) is up. Here is the address of the site: Serenity: The Official Movie Website. The TV show was canceled by fox, though it was a great scifi show. The premis of the show was that Mal was a captain who fought for the "browncoats" a group of people who wanted to escape from the control of an alliance of planets. He lost, but now he captains a cargo ship that takes whatever job they can get (legal or illegal). He actually reminds me a lot of Han Solo from Star Wars. The site is very interactive with message boards, polls, and contests. People involved with the movie also have blogs posted on their webpage. The page is worth checking out, even if you never saw the Firefly TV show.

Netflix (movie rentals)

2004-06-24T14:21:00.000-05:00

Since I have seen many rumors going around about Netflix, I thought I would share my experiences with the service. First of all Netflix has made a lot of improvements over the last year. Last summer I got annoyed as many of the movies I wanted had a wait. The whole point of using a service such as Netflix is to be able to watch a lot of movies...if most of the movies you want are not available you might as well quit.

However, this is no longer a problem. In the last 30 days I have been shipped 13 DVDs (on the 3 out at a time program). Even with this high level of activity I have almost never had a movie with any kind of wait. A couple months ago I did have a movie that was listed as short wait, but by the time it got to the top of the rental queue it was shipped immediately. This shows that active renters are no longer punished (as people have claimed in the past).

Netflix is very easy to use. You simply make a list of the movies you want to see (in an online queue), and Netflix will send you your top 3 movies in the mail. After you watch a movie you simply put it in the postage paid envelope that Netflix provides when you are shipped the DVD, and put it in your mailbox. When Netflix gets the DVD back they immediately send the next one on your list. They almost always ship it back out the same day they receive your return disk. Since there are distribution centers all over the USA the turn around time is short. It generally takes around 3 days from the time I mailed a DVD back to Netflix to get my next DVD in the mail.

As for selection, they have every movie I have ever searched for. I have heard that they don't have all the independent films, but I mostly stick to mainstream so that is not a problem for me. I like the fact that as you rent and then rate movies, Netflix provides recommendations. I have found that many times the movies they recommend are things that I want to see (but had forgotten about). I also like the fact that when a movie is in the theater, they go ahead and load it into their database. That way you can set it to be automatically added to your queue as soon as it is released on DVD.

But by far what I like most about Netflix is the TV shows it has. Unlike my local Blockbuster, Netflix buys the DVDs of TV shows that are released on DVD. This is a huge bonus, as it can be expensive to buy those DVDs yourself. I have rented all of the Band of Brother's episodes, the early ER seasons, 24, Alias, and many others. In my opinion this selection makes it impossible for brick and mortar stores to compete. My local Blockbuster and my local Hollywood video have both started unlimited rental programs...but I will stay with Netflix because of their selection of TV shows, and their rental queue.

If you only rent a couple DVDs a month, Netflix is not worth it...but if you spend at least $20.00 on rentals, Netflix is a far better solution than your neighboring blockbuster.

The Count of Monte Cristo (movie)

2004-06-19T02:24:00.000-05:00

I just rented The Count of Monte Cristo movie, I think there may have been various versions over the years...this is the 2002 version (it is rated PG-13). I actually enjoyed the movie, I recently saw Guy Pearce play a good guy in The Time Machine, so it was interesting seeing him play someone without morals. His acting job was weaker than of Caviezel (who played Dantes), but it was still believable.

If you are a purist, you will be annoyed at some of the changes. For one, the movie is not as dark as the book, but seeing as it is rated PG-13, that is to be expected. However, some of the changes seemed to be rather strange. For example, they had Napoleon actually give a letter to Dantes. I was not sure why they did it that way, unless they were trying to make the other characters not seem quite as evil as they were in the book. Even with the changes, the movie was entertaining, as long as you are aware that it is not expected to match up with the book on the details of the plot. If you are at blockbuster, I would recommend picking this up.

Joe Schmoe 2

2004-06-15T23:32:00.000-05:00

The sequel to the Joe Schmoe show has now aired. The Joe Schmoe 2 show looks very promising, I think it has a chance to surpass the original. There were a few glitches in the first episode, but over all I thought it went very well. For a complete description and review of the episode, head on over to the Joe Schmoe 2 section of the page.

Medalon (by Jennifer Fallon)

2004-06-09T00:50:00.000-05:00

I just finished this book today, so I figured I would mention it. Medalon started out slowly, focusing quite a bit on a group of women called sisters of the blade scheming for power. As it progresses more focus is put on the main characters, the daughter and son of one of the ruthless schemers. The book picks up pace around halfway through, at which point it becomes very entertaining. Gods are introduced...and they all seem to have their quirks, which reminds me a lot of David Eddings' characters. While this book does start out slow, I would recommend picking it up...if the rest of the series keeps gaining on the momentum that the later half of the first book started it will be well worth the read.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (movie)

2004-06-06T15:39:00.000-05:00

First off, the movie while getting the main plot points of the book had to leave out a lot to fit it into a reasonable size. There were many good scenes that had to be cut. Over all I felt Cuarón did a good job with the movie, though you can tell that he was not a fan of the books prior to making the movie. He succeeded in making an excellent movie, though he was not completely faithful to the Harry Potter world, and missed some details. For one, the students rarely ever where their robes unless they are in class. They spend a lot of time in "muggle" clothes. That would be understandable of Harry and Hermione, but not characters from wizarding families. Secondly, I thought the patronus charm was done very poorly. Cuarón sees it more as a shield, and takes the focus away from the animal that the charm is supposed to take the shape up. Finally, I was disappointed in the appearance of the dementors.

While those are the things that were done wrong, there were many things that were done right. The child actors were much better this time around. Whether that was due to better direction, or simply improved skills is hard to tell, but regardless they were much more believable. Emma Watson is really fitting into her role very well. I always thought she was the best of the three, and she really showed off her developing skills in this movie. Of the new adults characters I thought that Gary Oldman (Sirus Black) was the best. I really thought he did an excellent job in fitting the role of Black.

Cuarón was also careful to throw in some comedy to break up the darker tone of the movie. This really helped capture the spirit of the books, as while the third book was dark, there were a lot of touching...and humorous parts. While a movie must cut out a lot of the character development that led to some of the great moments in the book, he made sure there were some funny one liners to get people to chuckle. The scenery was also great, the castle looked great from the outside, as did the grounds around Hogwarts.

Overall, Harry Potter 3 turned out to be an excellent movie, and I thought it did a great job fitting the spirit of the books, even if it did not have all of the details right.

Buffy Season 6 DVD

2004-06-03T14:33:00.000-05:00

I recently purchased the Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 6 DVD. Overall, I have been happy with the DVD so far. While some complained that the season was far darker and more disturbing than previous seasons, it did have its high points. The musical episode is a prime example of this. Creating a musical episode when you are used to writing for normal TV cannot be easy. This episode did a great job of bringing many of the issues of the season to the forefront. Willows magic problems, Dawn's stealing, Xander and Anya's relationship problems, and of course Buffy's problems due to her resurrection. I also thought it was interesting how most people remembered the songs that they sang...but Buffy generally acted as she did not. Perhaps it is her difficulty in dealing with the truth. The DVD extras did not disappoint on this episode. The commentaries were great, as was the extensive behind the scenes video. The karaoke was rather funny, while I would not personally sing Buffy karaoke in my living room, I am sure there are many people who would.

Many people have complained that the DVD is full screen rather than widescreen. However Joss says when he shoots the show he does it with full screen in mind...so a widescreen version would be more likely to include things like a stray boom. In addition, closeups would not work, and the framing would be off from his vision. This is true of all episodes except for the musical which he designed as widescreen (and put into the DVD as widescreen). Because of this, I would argue that Fullscreen is the correct way to watch Buffy, just as I would argue that widescreen is the correct way to watch any movie.

As for the picture quality of the DVD, there are still a few problems, though it looks much better than the DVDs' of the early seasons. The picture looked a bit off on a few episodes, but overall it looked good. The sound was better than the picture, though I don't have the highest quality surround sound system so I can't say if it was perfect.

Overall, this is DVD is a must have for Buffy fans. The extras, particularly the extras for the musical episode make it an excellent buy.

Line of Fire

2004-06-02T23:25:00.000-05:00

This series was canceled this season, so the review may be a moot point by now, but I just saw the two unaired episodes so I had to make a few comments. Unlike most reviews on the main page, this will contain a lot of spoilers...however since the show is canceled and is unlikely to be shown again that does not really "spoil" anything for people.

First off, I enjoyed the series on a whole and was disappointed when it was canceled. I thought Leslie Bibb did a great job, I also thought the writing was interesting as well. I liked the fact that they showed both sides of the law. Both the FBI and organized crime stared in this show. There were some shady things that bothered me in the last episode though. First off with the Mob Boss Mr. Malloy, the writers jerk you around. When his wife is raped first he acts in a good way, and seems sympathetic. Of course instead of getting the cops involved he has the guilty man executed, but that is to be expected...he is a criminal after all. When his wife is upset they she ruined his vacation, he reassures her that she did no such thing, and tells her that the man that did this will never bother her or any other woman again. However he then goes on to assign blame to her, saying she encouraged it by her flirting, dressing, etc. While I do understand some men have this insane viewpoint, it bothered me that first they try to make him a sympathetic character by supporting her...and talking about the importance of family, then they go on to make him blame the victim of a rape. If you want to have a character that has these types of views, don't try to turn him into a good guy in other scenes. All it does is to make the view seem acceptable.

Secondly, the way the FBI dealt with the shooting of an agents daughter was not realistic. Yes the FBI would be angry, but they would not let the godfather of the child participate in the interrogation. They sure would not let him rough up a female witness to get her to tell where the shooter is. Even if they would look the other way, to have the Agent in charge of the division stand by and watch takes credibility a bit to far.

I was sad to see what I felt was a good series end in such a way. They will never have a chance to redeem themselves. Prior to these two episodes I would have bought the season DVD if it ever comes out, now I will not.

The Joe Schmoe Show

2004-06-02T19:04:00.000-05:00

Last season Spike TV decided to poke fun at reality TV. They created a "reality" show where all but one of the contestants were actors. The real contestant (Matt) went through the show thinking that all the contestants were, like him, trying to win the contest. They scripted as much as they could, but as Matt was not in on the game, the actors had to add-lib some. It made for a very funny show, and a great mockery of reality TV. I just heard that this summer (starting June 16) they will be showing the second season of the Joe Schmoe show. This show will have two real contestants (one man and one woman). It will be set up in a dating show type format. As the first season was great, I strongly recommend you check out the second season.

Troy

2004-06-01T01:22:00.000-05:00

First of all, if you are a historian, or a fan of the Iliad and expect the movie Troy to follow the same story you will be disappointed. Just as The Gladiator took liberties with its source material, Troy took liberties with its original story.

That being said, Troy was an entertaining movie. Yes they changed the personality of Achilles, sure his fighting style was not practical (even though it looked cool), and while the Gods were mentioned, they were impotent. If those things bother you, you will be upset with the movie.

If you want to go into a movie and watch some cool battles, with a bit of a romance story thrown in (to appease the girlfriend) you will enjoy Troy. You will not see great literature, but you will be entertained.

Zelda Windwaker

2004-05-31T17:06:00.000-05:00

I put off buying the gamecube for a while, since it seemed to be aimed mostly at a younger audience. A few weeks ago I finally broke down and bought it, as I love both the Mario kart and the Zelda franchises. I was worried about Zelda, as I thought the cell shading looked a bit cartoonish. After playing Windwaker off and on for a while I feel that there are both good and bad aspects of the game. Once you get used to it the cell shading looks really good. I particularly like how smoke and explosions look. As for the game play, for the most part I have enjoyed it. One weapon that they did improve was the boomerang. They improved its targeting ability, and it is a ton of fun to use. There are also various other weapons/tools that they added that are handy as well. In addition, I had a lot of fun in the dungeons of Windwaker. In fact, I preferred many of them to the dungeons of Zelda 64.

I was not fond of the first main quest (after all of the intro stuff), since it required a lot of sneaking around...and did not let you fight at all. If you were seen you had to start over. That being said the game picks up as you go along. The puzzles are not very difficult, though a few are enough to make you think. There are a few places where instead of puzzles they make things difficult by having you make difficult jumps. In one case you have to swing from hanging light to hanging light in a limited amount of time, in another you have to jump from block to block while the blocks are floating in water in a limited amount of time. On that task to make things more annoying they force you to hold a flaming torch...so if you miss by a little bit your torch hits the water and goes out. Another negative is the hookshot, they dumbed it down from the one you use in Zelda 64. While it looks cool, it is not very useful in hitting enemies (like the Zelda 64 one was) and there are less things that it can stick to. There are other minor annoyances as well. The windwaker itself is tiresome, as is using the boat to get from place to place. It starts out as a novel idea, but it quickly gets old as you feel you are wasting time sailing from one end of the earth to the other.

Overall, if you have a gamecube and you got any enjoyment out of the previous Zelda games, you should pick up Windwaker. It does have its anoying features, but I felt the gameplay was enough to make the game as a whole rise above its anoyances. It may not live up to Zelda 64, but it is a fun game in its own right.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

2004-05-30T23:49:00.000-05:00

While some (such as the bitter blogger) don't understand Buffy, it really is a great show. While it is set in a world of vampires and monsters (and yes an occasional angry Indian) that is not what the show is about. It is about people, and about being different. The show watches a group of adolescents as they move through school and go through some normal things that teens live through. Sure, some not so normal things happen as well...but that just separates them from their peers even more. The show also stresses that everyone has problems. Popular kids, geeks, outcasts, they are all the same on one level. Everyone feels alone at some point in their lives...and everyone has to learn to get through it.

Terry Goodkind

2004-05-30T23:39:00.000-05:00

This is a fantasy author everyone should check out. He writes stories set in a fantasy world, yet he does not focus on magic or world building like many authors. His focus is on characters and their relationships. Later on in his series he also gets deeper into philosophy and the importance of the individual.

Here is his list of books
Wizard's First Rule
Stone of Tears
Blood of the Fold
Temple of the Winds
Soul of the Fire
Faith of the Fallen
Pillars of Creation
Naked Empire

He also wrote the short story: Debt of Bones

For more information check out terrygoodkind.com