Daily Archives: August 28, 2011

TV

Review: HBO’s ‘True Blood’ Season 4, Episode 10 – “Burning Down the House”

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True Blood, I have missed you!  For the first time in weeks, I feel like we’re getting back to our roots.  Drama, intrigue, HUMOR (where did THAT go?)…this episode had almost anything we could hope for in a decent HBO show, without feeling like a supernatural episode of Jerry Springer.

Tonight’s episode of True Blood picks up where last week’s left off – at the Festival of Tolerance.  Brainwashed Eric has been commissioned to kill King Bill; and during their scuffle, something miraculous happens.  Sookie is able to use her fairy light to break Antonia’s spell.  This means, of course, Eric has his memories back and Pam has a normal face once again!

This whole thing feels like a cop-out to me.  What is the limit to these fairy powers?  She can hear your thoughts, make vampires daywalk, and she can break the spells of learned witches.  If there’s a problem, yo – she’ll solve it.  Like Vanilla Ice.  And if the writers write themselves into a corner, it’s okay.  The solution is simple: just have Sookie use her flash-hands and attribute it to another unknown fairy power.  Brilliant!

Sookie also lets Eric know that she’s jonesing for both him and Bill.  Shockingly, she’s not wearing lingerie and they don’t want to have an impromptu threesome with her.  I was surprised, too.

No threesome?!!?

The Festival of Tolerance also brings some dimension to the character of Antonia and her relationship with Marnie.  Finally.  She’s been a broken record in each episode, playing her vampire hatred on repeat, it’s about time she felt something else.  Like remorse for harming innocent people.  And we hear from Marnie for the first time in ages, and discover that she is thrilled to have the spirit of a dead necromancer living in her body.  And who wouldn’t?  It was always on my Christmas list, and I always got socks.

We also learn that Antonia can create force fields that can turn Jesus into a member of Insane Clown Posse.  I’m no fashion expert, but I think I prefer this look to his jean jacket and overly spiked hair.  I half expected him to break out in a chorus of “Hangin’ Tough.”

The rest of the witches speak Latin and a wind machine appears.

The Festival also brings out my favorite side of Nan – the bitchy side.  Of course she’s going to turn a bloodbath into some political statement.  Bill has other ideas, and FINALLY stands up to her!  I love Nan as a character, but it’s time someone questioned her motives and practices.  It’s time to take action instead of turning everything into a vampire PSA.  Nan is like the angry vampire mom, who threatens true death to anyone who mouths off to her like it’s a time out, and is realizing that her kids have outgrown her guidance.

This episode also made me appreciate how funny Terry Bellefleur is, and his dysfunctional relationship with Andy was one of the most comical things that have happened this season.  Andy’s V addiction has been a yawn this season, but Terry’s attempt to “scare him straight” at Fort Bellefleur made the episode SO much better.  These are the kinds of side stories that I wish would be incorporated more into the episodes.  We need something light and funny to take the edge off.  The show is dark and heavy enough on its own without giving so much material to minor characters.

Speaking of minor characters, TOMMY IS GONE!!!!!!!!!  I wanted to feel bad about it, but I just couldn’t!  Talk about a waste of space.  I hated this kid so much, I started calling my fast forward button the “Tommy button.”  Now, his death means that Sam (and Alcide, by the look of it) will have some confrontations with the werewolves.  I can’t say this story holds much investment for me, and I can’t say I have a dog in this fight, but mindless violence is always a good idea on True Blood.  It’s on like Donkey Kong.

This was a much better episode than those prior.  I felt like a lot of this season has been filler, and not even good filler.  I’m digging the Bellefleurs.  I’m digging the relationship between Jason and Jessica (and I love that Jason has a cooler of beer next to his armchair, that’s never a bad idea).  I’m even digging the Eric/Sookie/Bill love triangle.  Eric is so much more interesting with his memories; and it’ll be interesting to see Sookie come to terms with her feelings for both. And we’ll have to wait and see where Sookie and her Scooby Gang got transported to.

You really just have to like this episode for the Bad Boys ending.  Vampires wielding weapons, walking in slow motion to music – complete with the early ’90s freeze frame before the credits.

“Now everyone remember, if there is an explosion – do NOT look back.”

Classic.

I give this episode 4/5 bears.

MOVIES

Grizzly Review: Fright Night (2011)

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Being such an uber fan of the 80’s classic that was the original Fright Night, I went into this one with excitement and apprehension. Were they going to do something completely different than the original or stick to the same thing? Luckily they did a little bit of both. They changed a few things, but gave plenty of nods to the original and what they did change was actually pretty cool.

So we start off with pretty much the same premise as the original Fright Night. There’s a young kid named Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin) who lives with his mom (Toni Collette), has a girlfriend and all of the normal teenage problems you would expect. Luckily that’s where the remake changes things up a bit. The relationship between Charlie and Ed was different, as they were nerds-in-arms in the past, but now Charlie is one of the “cool guys” who won’t talk to Ed to maintain his status. I was pretty surprised at how fast they jumped into the “he’s a vampire” mode, but it didn’t kill the movie for me. It’s not long before Charlie is suspecting that there’s something more going on with his new neighbor Jerry than meets the eye.

I never thought that Chris Sarandon could be replaced as the smooth talking, hooker slaying vampire from the original, but Colin Farrell really took that role and ran with it. He was excellent as the vampire lord, looking like he had a ball playing the part the whole movie. Chris Sarandon had a great cameo in the movie that made me grin ear to ear and it’ll be easy enough for you fans of the original to catch, trust me.

Anton Yelchin and Imogen Poots did fine as Charlie and Amy respectively in the movie. They may not have been the most interesting characters in the flick, but I didn’t hate them either. Yelchin is great in pretty much everything up to this point, such as Kyle Reese in the most recent Terminator and Chekov in Star Trek which we’ll see more of in the next year or so. Christopher Mintz-Plasse played “Evil” Ed perfect, compared to his annoying counterpart from the 80’s Stephen Geoffreys. Honestly I’m not sure if Mintz-Plasse can play anything except the dorky outcast kid that he is notoriously famous for since the creation of the Hawaiian organ donor Mc’Lovin in Superbad. Is that a bad thing?

The biggest role that it seemed like the movie kept under wraps until the release of the movie was that of Peter Vincent. We knew that Doctor Who veteran David Tenant would be playing the Las Vegas Illusionist, but other than a couple of publicity pictures there wasn’t much in the way of footage of him. I was skeptical because of how much I adored the Roddy McDowell ‘Peter Vincent’, because there is no way that anyone could replicate that character. Thankfully Tenant took the character and made it his own. At first it seemed like he was channeling Russell Brand, but after about five minutes I began to see he wasn’t as annoying as his fellow countryman. Peter Vincent was definitely a drunken mess to start out, but they pulled out a twist in there that made him have a far more integral part to the story that surpassed the original.

I can’t help but give the movie a 5 out of 5 grizzlies based on what it was, plus I’m a little biased with my love for the original. It was a horror movie that gave me everything I wanted from it and then some, with a bit of humor injected here and there.

It honored the original that it was derived from while still maintaining its own separate identity. I’m definitely disappointed that the movie didn’t fare so well in the box office, limiting its chances for a sequel. Though perhaps based on its modest budget we may still see the continuing adventures of Charlie Brewster and Peter Vincent. And now, check out the awesomeness that is the musical version of the original Fright Night below!