Yearly Archives: 2012

TV

The Walking Dead: Season 2, Episode 9 – “Triggerfinger”

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This episode began right where episode 8 left off. Rick, Glenn and Hershel are in the abandoned saloon. The three of them are waiting by the door to the bar because the friends of the men that Rick shot are looking for them. Rick yells to the men that their friends drew on them and they begin shooting into the bar…

Lori flipped her car into a ditch last episode, and is still there. A walker tries getting through the glass and as glass scrapes his skin off of his face, she grabs a sharp object from her car and stabs him in the eye. As she exits her crumpled up vehicle, she forgets that zombies are sneaky and doesn’t check her surroundings. Another walker attempts to attack her, and she hits him in the head with a rim. Fantastic.

As the rest of the group sits down to dinner, Shane realizes that it has been a long time since anyone has seen Lori. Shane takes the car and heads out to find her. He finds her walking down the road and tells her that Rick and the boys are already back and safe. She trusts him… because he has never lied to her before, right?

As the boys try to get to the car from the bar, the dead men’s friends are shooting at them. Hershel shoots one of their friends, and the rest of the guys decide to get out of there. One of the group jumps off of the roof and (surprise!) hurts himself. His leg was pierced all of the way through by the top of a gate. Rick and Hershel attempt to cut his leg off while Glenn watches out, but the place is crawling with walkers, so Rick rips his leg off of the gate and they head out. [It was AWESOME.]

F*ck! My Leg!

Continue reading The Walking Dead: Season 2, Episode 9 – “Triggerfinger” →

Movie News & Opinions

‘I Am Legend’ Prequel (Or Possibly Sequel) In The Works

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A new I Am Legend movie is currently in the works. Produced by Warner Brothers, and with a screenplay penned by Arash Amel, the reported follow up to the 2007 film has little else as of now. Writer Amel’s only other writing credits are two films that are currently in production, including a CIA thriller starring Aaron Eckhart called The Expatriate.

There’s little news as to what direction the film might go in, but since Will Smith’s character died at the end of I Am Legend, it’s unlikely that a sequel would be the right way to go if Warner Bros. wants to cast Smith in the lead, which they do. Then again, a prequel wouldn’t be much better, would it? It’d essentially be two hours of Will Smith watching everyone in New York die before his eyes while him and his dog just chill out and watch.

Thus far, the film, whose original is based off the novel of the same name by Richard Matheson, has neither a director nor a star. Warner Bros. are shooting to get the original film’s director, Francis Lawrence, back behind the camera. They’re also shooting to get Smith back in the lead, but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes.

To be perfectly frank, the 2007 I Am Legend was a great Will Smith action flick that worked extremely well as a standalone film. Making $585 million dollars worldwide on a $150 million dollar budget, as well as earning a positive 69% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film was both a critical and commercial success backed by a great performance by Will Smith.

Matheson’s novel has been adapted into films two times. The first being The Last Man on Earth in 1964, and a second time in 1971 with the name, The Omega Man. The fact that Hollywood execs are trying to squeeze out a sequel for a movie that was obviously meant to be stand-alone isn’t surprising, but it’s definitely disappointing. Personally, I hope that Will Smith denies it, but he’s got to put food on the table, right?

MOVIES

Grizzly Review: Journey 2 – The Mysterious Island

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What can I say about Journey 2: The Mysterious Island? It was a little better than I expected and had some great visuals. Also, even though it seems like the Rock is just put into movies to lure the mindless masses into the movie theater, he actually kind of made the movie better than it would have been. The plot seems to be loosely based off of the first movie which I only saw bits and pieces of, but Josh Hutcherson (Soon to be in The Hunger Games.) returns as Sean Anderson who is an adventurer/scientist on a mission to find his grandfather Alexander Anderson who has gone missing and has apparently been looking for Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island for about half of his life. Really, it seems like they just cobbled together the pretense for them to head out and find the grandfather and mysterious island in about thirty seconds…. Which they probably actually did. Anyways, the Rock, who plays Sean’s gigantic, ex-Navy, stepfather decides to help Sean break a code sent from his grandfather in an attempt to be closer to him family wise. What Mr. The Rock didn’t count on was Sean being right that there is indeed a Mysterious Island. A Mysterious Island they have no way of getting off of before impending disaster strikes.

Really, the movie was never meant to be an Academy Award winner and it definitely wasn’t. With the acting talents of Vanessa Hudgens and Luis Guzman (As the father-daughter helicopter team that brought them to the island) intermingled with those of Josh Hutcherson and The Rock, they don’t measure up anything near to Michael Caine. What Rock doesn’t have in acting ability he more than makes up for in hilarity. There is a scene in the movie where he “pops” his pectoral muscles for about three minutes as he urges Josh Hutcherson and Guzman to bounce berries off of them. This as you know, is a sure fire way to win over any woman. The scene had me laughing my ass off, the Rock urging Hutcherson to “Feed them. They’re not going to stop until you do.” As funny as I found the scene, I can only imagine that young kids and their parents were probably left puzzled as to what in the shit they brought their kids to. But oh well, it made me laugh.

Continue reading Grizzly Review: Journey 2 – The Mysterious Island →

TV

Spartacus Season 2: Vengeance – Episode 4 “Empty Hands”

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It seemed like the rescue of Naevia was going very well in the last episode. They infiltrated the mines after killing the guards and disguising themselves as Romans. They even seemed to have Glaber’s troops fooled when they came searching for the rebel slaves, until Ashur had to go and ruin things for them. Now they are on the run with Naevia in hand, but absent most of the men they went in with, including Crixus who is now captive of the Romans! Along the way of escaping Spartacus will lose even more of his followers and one begs the question of whether or not Naevia was really worth the cost of so many lives. The fight scenes mingled in between all of the political machinations this episode were awesome and entertaining even though they didn’t progress the story so much. I would imagine those not interested in political maneuvering at all were probably pretty bored with the episode as a whole. I definitely enjoyed it even though it didn’t live up to the other episodes of the season.

It was pretty obvious that Agron and reinforcements were going to show up at the end when Spartacus and Mira were making their last stand, but it was a nice touch when it turned out that the approaching “Roman” soldiers were really Agron and his men. I’m hoping Nasir survives the wound he took protecting Mira in the episode because I’m really enjoying his character and how far he has come in regards to his loyalty. I have a little notion in the back of my head that he is only doing many of these things to gain Spartacus’ trust so he can get close and ultimately kill him, but his loyalty to their cause seems genuine. Especially with him wanting to be called by his Syrian name and taking a sword in the stomach for Mira, but only time will tell.

Ashur was in rare form once again in helping the Romans track the rebels. He even actually showed a little fighting prowess…. By stabbing an ex-gladiator in the back, but at least he is still willing to get his hands dirty. His decision to kill the Roman commander and retreat from Spartacus instead is probably going to be deemed as cowardly by a lot of us viewers but I think it was smarter. If Ashur was a viewer of the show he’d know like us that Spartacus was pretty much unstoppable against a squad of Roman soldiers, but as a character Ashur was able to see every victory Spartacus had in the arena up close and in person. I applaud him for knowing it was futile to fight the ex-champion of Capua. I wonder what Glaber will do to Ashur when he returns still alive but with many troops lost. He sure as hell won’t be happy.

As I said above, the political battle between Glaber and Verinius continues into this episode with Glaber being forced into hosting a party in the honor of Verinius since he kind of embarrassed him last week by having his troops pull a no-show. Very surprising to me is Illythia’s willingness to simply abandon Glaber by having her marriage dissolved and get together with Verinius. It seemed like she was always right by the side of her man but after seeing him receiving aid from Lucretia and listening to her dad talk of how great Verinius is the last couple episodes it would seem she’s more than ready to move on to greener pastures. After receiving a pretty solid yes from Verinius (you know what I’m talking about) on the stipulation that her marriage be dissolved things couldn’t be going better for Illythia. That is, until she finds Lucretia banging her dad! Lucretia claims that she did it for Illythia to convince her father to dissolve the marriage between Glaber and her, but Illythia has doubts about it.

Lucretia is back to her scheming and plotting self fully now and one wonders what she convinced Illythia’s father of while doing the nasty. It would seem after Seppia’s failed seduction of Verinius that her and Seppius’ part in the show would be over, but I think it might still linger. Glaber already planted a seed of discontent in the mind of Seppius with that comment about Verinius banging his sister and he probably won’t see past her being cast aside for Illythia. It could be that an alliance is brewing between Glaber and Seppius that will culminate against Verinius and Illythia. One must wonder where Lucretia intends to land during all of this. Honestly, I don’t think we’ve seen Glaber’s dark side at this point, even though he has done much. I would fully expect there to some major retribution coming Illythia’s way once he finds out that she plans to betray him. Who knows, once she is out of the picture (potentially.) Glaber may gain the allegiance of Seppius by taking his sister as a wife.

Overall I can’t wait to see Crixus, Oenomaus and Rashko fight in the arena once more. The scene that Lucretia had alone with Crixus for a moment was about as tension filled as it gets and I can’t help but think that he shouldn’t have told her about Naevia being alive. It would be revenge enough seeing Crixus in the arena as a hated enemy of the state but if Naevia were to be recaptured and a slave again that would be the ultimate torment to the Gaul. I give the episode 3 out of 5 grizzlies. Good but not the greatest, but it definitely had stiff competition to go up against with the brilliance of the last episode.

I’m more than ready for the coming episode as we were treated to a preview at the end of this one featuring none other than ex-champion Gannicus! There will be arena fighting and more to come so stay tuned!

Movie Trailers

Why We’re Hungry for ‘The Hunger Games’: New Trailer and Maps of Panem!

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We’ve seen quite a few franchises rip through social media these days, and they all have the same things in common.  One, they come from popular books series. IE: Harry Potter and Twilight.  The Hunger Games is no different.  Two, they all have gigantic budgets with big studios backing them.  They can boast the latest in CGI, costume design, even scores by some of the top composers.  And three, they can take many liberties and let the foot off the gas creatively (and they often do) because they all have multitudes of preteen fans ready to spend their lunch money on a movie ticket, even before the film is released.  The result is generally poor writing and even worse acting.

Continue reading Why We’re Hungry for ‘The Hunger Games’: New Trailer and Maps of Panem! →

MOVIES

Grizzly Review: Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie

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It’s always an exciting and equally worrisome affair when your favorite TV show or internet sensation gets their own movie. On the bright side, that gem of a show that you love and cherish oh so much is finally getting the feature film treatment that they deserve. But, on the downside, if big budget investors step in and ruin what made the source material so great, well, then you as the viewer have to deal with the heartbreak. There’s also the rare occasion when the program still airs after the movie has come out and it just flat-out sucks. A victim of this horrible occurrence? The one and only Spongebob Squarepants Movie. Great movie, everything after 2005 on the show was just complete and total s***.

Adult Swim comic geniuses Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, known for their extremely odd television program, “Tim and Eric, Awesome Show! Great Job!” have finally been honored with a feature film entitled, Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie. Known for their random sketch comedy and short but hilarious ideas, many fans of the show were worried that when stretched to feature-length, the dynamic duo would lose their edge and the entire movie would just be one big, bad joke.

The plot involves Tim and Eric wasting a billion dollars on a movie funded by Schlaaang, a fictitious production company led by the diabolical Tommy Schlaaang (Robert Loggia), who, after screening the movie and complaining, “I spent a billion dollars on this piece of s***?!”, demands that Tim and Eric get him his money back or he’ll kill them both. After getting Hollywood makeovers, they realize that they can no longer manage to afford the life of glitz and glamour that they love dearly. After being forced to fire their spiritual guide Jim Joe Kelly (Zach Galifianakis), they go to their favorite night club to deal with their remorse, making a plan to drink themselves into oblivion and do countless stupid things.

While in the bathroom, Eric sees an advertisement at his urinal that claims to have the answers to all the problems. The S’Wallow Valley Mall, located in the “historic S’Wallow Valley” needs a new owner. Damien Weebs (Will Ferrell), the current operator of the S’Wallow Valley Mall promises anyone who comes to “run my mall” a billion dollar paycheck. Desperately, Tim and Eric decide to make the trip out and see if they can get their billion dollars.

Arriving at the entrance, the two men suddenly realize how decrepit and possibly diseased this place is. Hobos are scattered all over the floor, the place looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in days, but low and behold, there are still a few shops up and running. After an awkward meeting with Weebs which includes two back-to-back viewings of Top Gun, Tim and Eric decide to take over the mall under the name Dobin PR.

Tim and Eric are Gods in the world of cult classics, with Hall of Fame photos right next to Tommy Wiseau and Jared and Jerusha Hess. They had an extremely successful show on Adult Swim until 2010, when the pair decided that they had stretched themselves to their comedic limits as far as the show was concerned. They then started working on Billion Dollar Movie, abbreviated as B$M, and the final product is this masterpiece of comedic cinema that I’m reviewing right now.

The only possible comparison that I can give this movie is Napoleon Dynamite meets A Serbian Film. The humor is equal parts bizarre and disgusting, and you know that the thing that most comedy films have, it’s called a heart? Yeah, well this movie doesn’t have that. When your movie involves a small child being blown to smithereens mid-air, you know you’ve got a hit on your hands. The performances are surprisingly committed from the supporting cast, but John C. Reilly steals the show as Taquito, a sickly homeless man who was abandoned at the mall when he was a child. Literally everything that came out of that man’s mouth during this movie had me busting out in laughter, no matter how sickening it could have been.

Will Forte plays Allen Bishopman, a vengeful sword salesman who plans to rat out the whereabouts of Tim and Eric to the Schlaaang corporation. Forte plays the role extremely well, offering up quite a bit of gut busting laughter whenever he’s on screen. In fact, most of the cast members of B$M have had recurring roles on “Awesome Show, Great Job!” so they’re extremely familiar with the often irreverent material of Tim and Eric.

Many fans have complained of the film’s rather linear storytelling, but I find it to be a blessing in disguise. At the end of the day, there’s a reason why episodes of “Awesome Show, Great Job!” are only 10 minutes long. Because, unlike Jackass, 95 minutes of oddball skits can get very old, very quickly, and B$M quickly finds a wonderful balance between what worked on the TV show, and what works in a feature film. In fact, I applaud Tim and Eric’s ability to create a feature film out of a premise that seems impossibly short-winded.

Fans and newbies alike will find something to love in Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie. Produced by Funny or Die pioneers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, the film is an inviting introduction to the most lovable idiots since Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, but is also a faithful jump to the big screen for longtime fans. Granted, this movie isn’t for everybody, but if it is for you, you’ll be getting a nice dose of shrim in your life.

4.5/5 Grizzly’s