Yearly Archives: 2012

TV

SNL: 38.6- Louis C.K./fun.

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I don’t know if everyone has heard, but there was a huge storm that hit the northeast last week. I know, I know, sometimes it’s hard to get news these days, but trust me, there was a storm.

The storm and its resulting destruction was (still is) so bad that there was a momentary thought that there wouldn’t even be an episode this week. Various shows including The Daily Show and 30 Rock had to shut down production for a couple of days. There were cast members stranded in airports across the country (you best believe as a Taran Killam fan, this caught my attention!)

[pullquote_left]…when the episode started, I’ll admit I was a little nervous as to how successful it was going to be. Thankfully, I need not to have worried.[/pullquote_left]Thankfully, the staff at 30 Rockefeller found a way and the episode went ahead as scheduled. The host was Louis C.K., who actually has a rather long history with SNL and sketch comedy. He auditioned for SNL 19 years ago and (obviously) did not make the cast. He did, however, contribute to the popular “TV Funhouse” bits as a writer. C.K. was also part of the writing team for Late Night with Conan O’Brien (another member of the SNL family) and was the head writer for the brief The Dana Carvey Show. With all that, it’s not really surprising that he was asked to be a host. It is surprising, however, that he agreed. It’s no secret that Louis C.K. is not comfortable unless he is being Louis C.K.- a trait that is somewhat common amongst stand up comedians (Jerry Seinfeld made quite the career for himself being “Jerry Seinfeld”). So when the episode started, I’ll admit I was a little nervous as to how successful it was going to be. Thankfully, I need not to have worried.

Usually it’s really easy to guess what might be the cold open if you watch the news throughout the week. I just happened to turn to the Weather Channel (well, their YouTube channel) last week when they cut to Mayor Bloomberg’s press conference and as I was watching the sign language interpreter, I thought to myself, “SNL is so going to use this.”

Called it! Seriously, that cold open was fantastic. There are some saying it was “too soon” and perhaps they shouldn’t mock the interpreter as the hearing impaired rely on facial expressions when communicating but come on, that lady was way too entertaining to not use it. I don’t feel as if they were disrespectful at all. Sometimes you just have to laugh at things. I do have to wonder if that’s the first time “Live from New York, It’s Saturday Night” has been translated into ASL on the show. It would be a crime to not mention Bobby Moynihan and his Chris Christie impression. I damn near stood up and cheered that was so good. Then add in the recently missing Nasim Pedrad (seriously where has she been?) as his translator and I was dying. So perfect.

Not surprisingly, Louis C.K. chose to do a short stand up routine as his monologue. It was very reminiscent of George Carlin on the premiere episode of Saturday Night Live way back in 1975.

http://www.nbc.com/assets/video/xnxx-92/widget/widget.html?vid=268364

The stand up monologue was obviously good as Louis C.K. is a very good stand up comedian. No surprise there.

I’m so glad that Taran Killam was able to make it back to NYC because I love when they do the Fox and Friends sketch. Louis C.K. was entertaining as the FEMA agent but as usual, it was the “corrections” that make that sketch. My favorite this week was “Women’s vaginas are below their waists”. You learn something new everyday.

[pullquote_right]Lincoln as Louie? Perfect.[/pullquote_right]The digital short this week was pure genius. I loved the “Sad Mouse” short on Bruno Mars’ episode but this one probably edged that out as my favorite for the year so far. If you haven’t seen Louie then it probably didn’t think it was all that entertaining but seriously, Lincoln as Louie? Perfect. You can only imagine Abraham Lincoln doing a set about his certifiably crazy wife (another Aidy Bryant sighting!)- I’d watch that.

The Australian Screen Legends was mildly entertaining. It certainly wasn’t bad but it’s not a sketch that I thought “wow this is a good sketch”. I did laugh at the response to, “any last words?” when Kate McKinnon says, “uh, Kangaroo, I guess”. I hope my last words come even close to being that eloquent.

fun. was not all that great. They did “Some Nights” first and it was rough. I really do not understand the use of auto-tune when you are capable of singing on your own, quite well even. Luckily they redeemed themselves a bit with “Carry On” but I’m sure there were quite a few people that had wished they’d busted out their big summer hit “We Are Young”.

Weekend Update was fantastic. No two ways about, just spot on from beginning to end. While Cecily Strong was good as the returning “girl you wish you hadn’t started a conversation with at a party”, Aidy Bryant was stellar as the social media expert. The timing between she and Seth Myers was perfect. I think my next tattoo is totally going to be “The Internet is REAL!”

As usual, it got weird after Weekend Update. The Zord/ram’s horn/crystal sketch was so bizarre. When Louis C.K. was on Jimmy Fallon this last week, he mentioned that there was a sketch that was so bad that he begged the writers to keep it in the show. I can only guess that it was this one. Seriously, the entire time I was watching with a look on my face that resembled the one my dog gets when I fake throw the tennis ball and he can’t find it in the yard. Best part of the sketch was Bobby Moynihan in hooves. Another “WTF” moment but one that was at least amusing.

“Hotel 55” was the bright spot in the “after Weekend Update” lineup. It was a simple premise, but one that relied heavily on timing between C.K. and Bobby Moynihan and they did a good job with it. They kept the audience’s interest because the “charges” listed weren’t at all what you’d think. Unless you are a person that often removes stuffed bobcats from hotel rooms, then you might have been expecting that one.

The last sketch? Both bad and good. It was well acted and I suppose well written but because of those two reasons, it was equally as creepy. I’ve been one of the last people in a bar as it closed a few times in my life so I’ve seen that exact situation go down. Thankfully it didn’t involve as much tongue in real life. Otherwise my reaction would have been very close to Keenan Thompson’s.

Overall? A very good episode. It does make me wonder if they had the chance to have everyone on deck and not dealing with natural disasters, how much better this show might have been. The first part of the show was so strong that I can only imagine what a little extra time, or at least a normal schedule, would have benefited the second half.

In the end though, they pulled off a great show despite the situation. Louis C.K. sent out an email to fans before the show in which he talked about doing a show like this in the midst of destruction and heartache. It really does put things in perspective and at the same time shows how true the old adage “laughter is the best medicine” really is.

Hopefully things will be better by next week when the show is hosted by Anne Hathaway with musical guest Rihanna!

Until next time!

Movie News & Opinions

Is Guillermo del Toro on for “Heaven Sent”?

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Don’t you hate it when someone says something about you and then another person says that you didn’t really say that and then you have to tell people that you did say the first thing and don’t know why anyone is saying you didn’t? Welcome to Guillermo del Toro’s weekend.

On Thursday, November 1st, the Latino Review posted that del Toro was talking with Warner Brothers about a project involving characters from the DC Universe. By Friday, November 2nd, various other outlets had picked up the story. Of course, people start seeing this and getting excited, but who wouldn’t be excited? Marvel has certainly found big success with their ensemble The Avengers, so DC fans are starting to feel it’s their turn.

But wait, it’s now November 3rd and with a new day comes new news. It seems that Pietro Filipponi over at The Daily Blam has talked to Mr. del Toro and says that there is “no truth” to the rumor that del Toro is interested in directing the superhero movie.

Talk about letting the air out of your sails. Before you can even fully feel the disappointment of this news, it’s 15 hours later and Guillermo del Toro himself is responding to the story in the forums of his own site saying that he never said that, and he would love to do the project!

So what is this project everyone has been talking about? An ensemble cast of DC superheroes? Could it be?  Maybe?

No. It’s not those characters. Even though Warner Brothers is saying that they are a go for The Justice League to start filming in 2013, it won’t be with Mr. del Toro at the helm. No, the DC characters that del Toro is interested in are more of the lesser known variety.

Referred to as “Heaven Sent”, the project would be centered around the “magical” characters in the DC Universe; Swamp Thing, The Spectre, Zatanna, Zatara, Phantom Stranger, John Constantine, Deadman, and more!

As awesome as Justice League will be (it will be awesome, it has to be, please angels in heaven above let it be awesome) this idea has potential to be amazing. Seriously, when was the last time The Spectre made news? When did you last actively think about Zatara? Not to mention, just imagine the casting discussions to be had! I’m kicking off the official campaign for Timothy Dalton as The Phantom Stranger.

Sound off in the comments below! Are you excited by this possible project? Who would you cast? Mr. del Toro is the man of 10,000 irons in the fire but we can always hope that this one will pan out.

Movie News & Opinions

Jamie Foxx as Electro for Amazing Spider-Man 2? Blame it on the Ah-a-a-Ah-Ah-Alcohol….

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According to various sources, such as EW.com and Hollywood Reporter, Jamie Foxx is in negotiations to join The Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie as the villain Electro. This comes as a surprise to some because Electro doesn’t exactly bring to mind Jamie Foxx. Maybe it’s because despite his Oscar-winning performance as Ray Charles in Ray, he will always be Sheneneh from In Living Color. It’s still not final but Foxx, ever the showman, decided to tease the masses on Twitter:

Of course, everyone wanted to consult with Marc Webb to see if he would address this new bit of info and he did. Sort of. According to Comingsoon.net, Webb dropped this quote when it was brought up:

“I think Jamie Foxx is electrifying! I think Jamie Foxx is one of the best actors around today. He’s such a great character actor and he’s a really brilliant guy. I would love to work with him and you’ll be hearing more on that shortly, I’m sure.”

Webb goes on to add that the dynamics of Norman Osborn are very important to him and will be a common theme through this franchise’s movies.

“I like Electro, I’m fascinated by Norman Osborn and the different inflections of him. And Harry. Mary Jane and Gwen are always interesting to me. What makes villains interesting to me is what they bring out in Peter. What challenges they provide for him. What’s great about Marvel and other comics is that often there’s a pre-existing relationship… It’s not just about the physical conflict he has, but the emotional ones as well.”

With the new origin story and reboot in the background of the last movie, Webb still feels an obligation to the Spider-Man canon but also feels he can take it to different places and explore different contexts not yet discussed with this iteration of Spidey, not unlike the Ultimate universe in the comic books.

“What’s exciting about moving forward is that, in the first movie, I had to still honor some of the important elements of the origin story. But I also wanted to redefine the context of it because I’m building a different universe than what we’ve seen before. A lot of the nuance is quite different. Now, as we’re approaching the sequel, it’s really exciting because I feel quite liberated. I have a universe that’s my own. I don’t have an obligation to the origin story. It’s pretty fun and exciting and I can dig deeper into the parents.”

Of course, the movie is starting to take shape with this possible casting, as well as the earlier Mary Jane/Shailene Woodley news. It’s interesting that Electro would go this route because obviously Webb wants to show a connection to Garfield’s Spidey, and I figured they would’ve cast someone more age appropriate to connect the generation gap better. I guess we’ll have to see exactly how this character shapes out, and for an official confirmation. There’s also the whole idea that Electro is Caucasian and not African-American, which I think is an absolute non-issue. Character is character and it shouldn’t change performance and how it is projected on the screen. I would like to think we are progressive enough to get past that but time will tell. He is a good actor so it would be interesting to see what he could bring to the table come May 2nd, 2014 when the movie arrives to blow your minds away. Hopefully it will arrive with this suit below.

TV

Even More ‘Arrow’ News: Deathstroke, The Huntress, and Manhunter!!!

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There has only been one show (Once Upon a Time) that I’ve really paid uber-close attention to casting announcements.  But lately, Arrow is making me want to sit at my computer and hit refresh on a google search all day long. Earlier today, Entertainment Weekly posted the first picture of Jessica De Gouw as The Huntress.

Because my brain likes to hang on to random information, the moment I saw this picture I remembered the cover of Huntress: Year One. It is refreshing to see a comic book character that knows how to properly wear a mask. Oliver I hope you are taking notes. While the outfit is certainly fun to see, it was this quote from executive producer Andrew Kreisburg that caught my attention.

[quote] It’s two episodes for now but we definitely hope we see more of her. We certainly set her up as an interesting foil for Oliver and we’re excited to see where else we can take her.[/quote]

Good news! So she won’t be a one and done which I’ll admit, I was a little afraid of.

Deathstroke isn’t new news but up until now we’ve only seen pictures of him. Thanks to the promo for the upcoming episode, we finally get to see a glimpse of Deathstroke’s premiere. Be warned, if you have not watched Arrow so far, especially this week, this promo contains spoilers.

VIDEO REMOVED BY YOUTUBE

Yay Deathstroke!!!! I’m so excited for this episode I can not even tell you. I’ll ignore the fact that it looks like Oliver is going to go back to the obvious Laurel. Come on Ollie, find a new chick.

Speaking of new chicks, remember a few days ago when I did a little news write-up about the Royal Flush Gang and mentioned that Ashley Scott had read for the role of Kate Spencer? Well look what we have here.

See in-between Sebastian Dunn and Shaker Paleja? That woman named Chelah Horsdal? Playing a woman named Kate Spencer? Excuse me as I run around in circles at the possibility. If she does end up being Manhunter, kudos to the powers that be running the PR office because they have kept that one under wraps for quite some time. We’ve known for months about Deathstroke, and Deadshot and even John Barrowman’s mystery character but to quietly slip in the casting of Manhunter?

Well done folks, well done.

Now there’s even more reason to tune in on Wednesday night (November 7th) at 8/7 central for “Damaged”.

I’ll see you there!

POP CULTURE

Zombies Prepare You for Terrorists and Emergencies

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Welcome to November – it seems like just yesterday we were putting candles inside of pumpkins and dressing up in costumes. Oh, wait. Halloween was last Wednesday. But while we regular citizens were dealing with trick-or-treaters or eating too much candy we bought for ourselves, many of our armed forces decided to do some zombie apocalypse training.

During a counter-terrorism summit yesterday on an island off a San Diego bay, Marines, Navy special ops, police, firefighters, and more brave men and women were put through a training experience unlike any other. These forces were presented with an scenario where a VIP and personal detail are trapped in a village that is being attacked by zombies, and when a bomb goes off, the VIP is wounded and they have to fight their way out to medical treatment and safety. Some of the personal detail would get bitten by zombies, while others would stay zombie-infection free.

Why would a zombie apocalypse scenario be presented at a counter-terrorism summit? Simply put, to prepare military, armed forces, and medical workers for the worst. Brad Barker, CEO of the security firm which hosted the event, said, “”No one knows what the zombies will do in our scenario, but quite frankly no one knows what a terrorist will do” [Detroit News].

“The defining characteristics of zombies are that they’re unpredictable and resilient. That may be a good way to prepare for what the Pentagon calls asymmetric warfare,” defense analyst Loren Thompson said [Detroit News].  You can see some of the zombie participants on the story’s video here.

This training scenario is not the first time government agencies have enlisted the zombie phenomenon to help them prepare for dire situations. Over a year ago, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started a Zombie Preparedness page on their website, the goal of which was to bring awareness to the public about the necessity of being prepared for real-life emergencies. “If you are generally well equipped to deal with a zombie apocalypse you will be prepared for a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake, or terrorist attack,” says Dr. Ali Khan on the CDC’s Zombie Preparedness page.

The CDC’s zombie campaign was so popular in bringing attention to emergency preparedness that they kept it up, even bringing in a short novella in the comic book style about a couple preparing for zombies who are taking over their town. Apparently, by October 26 of 2011, “the novella had already been downloaded over 40,000 times, according to Khan, who called the initial success of the campaign somewhat surprising, with traffic temporarily ‘overwhelming’ the blog” [WNYC].

Given pop culture’s obsession with zombies the last few years, Khan and other CDC leaders probably should not have been surprised at their novella’s success. The novella also provided a checklist at the end so that families could make sure they had everything they needed in case of a real-life disaster. You can check out the zombie novella called “Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic” on the CDC’s website.

The fact of the matter is that biological warfare is still a serious threat in our world today, and though most people assume zombies could never happen, we could still very easily have to deal with a widespread virus at some point. After all, we may have held off the Cold War but we still haven’t cured cancer. The foreign or rapidly changing nature of many viruses is what terrifies us into believing in zombies could be real for the future. If viral zombies ever did come about, however, at least we would know the CDC, Marines, special forces, and other units would be ready to protect us.

Although if we get necromantic zombies, we’re going to have to find another way to deal with that.

THE INTERWEBS

Geeky ‘Pinterest’ Finds…

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In today’s world of ever-changing internet trends, it is easy to miss even “big” sites. Don’t believe me? Go ask all those people still hanging out on MySpace. One you might not have heard of is Pinterest– especially if you are male. As opposed to in the U.K. where the majority of Pinterest users are professional males, here in the U.S. it’s mainly women, women who are into house decorating and cooking and home tending and you get the picture.

Because that is the majority of users and their pins, does not mean that Pinterest does not have something to offer for those not the least bit interested in the Martha Stewart arts. Au contraire! A little run down of how Pinterest works. It is basically “visual bookmarks”- instead of saving sites to your browser, you can “pin” them to your Pinterest board instead. When you pin something, you pin it to a certain board. For example, when you look at either the Grizzly Bomb Pinterest  page, or my own personal Pinterest page (first you can tell that I’ve been on Pinterest much longer than Grizzly Bomb!), you can see that there are separate boards for various categories. Everyone can make their own boards, you aren’t forced into having a “home” board if you don’t want one. But what if you want to see what other people are pinning to their boards? Well you have two options: First you can choose to follow people (I think following Grizzly Bomb would be a great board to follow, just saying) and then whatever they pin will show up on the Pinterest equivalent of your Facebook wall. The second option is what brings us together here today, categories.There are various categories ranging in topics from fashion and humor to art and photography. The best category however, and the category that even people who could not give a rat’s ass about home decor or the latest in fall fashion could find something for them, is the Geek category.

Because I know that not everyone has the disposable free time that I do, and because I would hate for anyone to miss any geeky goodness, and frankly, because I’m such a wonderful and giving person, I have taken it upon myself to compile a weekly “Best finds in the Pinterest Geek Category this Week!!!!!!!” for your perusal. There is no need to send gifts, or money, or songs you have written in my honor (although they certainly won’t be turned away)- no, your gratitude is enough to keep me going.

So with all that out-of-the-way… I bring you this week’s “Best Finds in the Pinterest Geek Category this Week!!!!!!!”

Because I’m the one running this particular show, we are going to start with a pin that combines two of my favorite things in this world, LEGO and Batman. Those men right there are holding perhaps one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen- a Batcave built out of LEGOs. Let me repeat that. This is a Batcave built entirely out of LEGO bricks. When I scrolled past this the other day I did a double take and then one of my dogs had to revive me when I passed out from too much awesome.

Ask pretty much any woman who seriously plays video games to name some pet peeves and more than likely the sentiment behind this pin will be listed. It drives me nuts when people (oddly enough, not always just men) assume that if you are a girl who games you are one of these three types:

  • a.) a supermodel who doesn’t know her a,x,y, and b from her x, square, triangle and circle
  • b.) a girl who uses her husband/boyfriend’s XBox to play bejeweled on the big screen
  • c.) an idiot who thinks the Playstation is just a really fancy dvd player

Believe it or not, there are quite of a few of us who look forward to the release of Halo 4 just as much as any guy.

As I say all that, I must caveat, I love playing video games and am rather good at campaigns and questing. When it comes to multi-player however? I am just awful. Unless I have a war hammer. Given a war hammer, I am unstoppable. Okay, maybe not unstoppable, but I do actually kill other people so that’s a plus.

Another big thing on Pinterest is outfits. I am so not an outfit kind of gal, my everyday attire is either jeans or pajama pants and whatever t-shirt I happen to grab, so when I came across this one I was sort of surprised that I’d finally seen an outfit I would wear. There’s no chance I’d carry that purse, but the rest of it? Love it.

Random quirk about Pinterest- when you go to “re-pin” something, most of the time people do not change the description. Whoever pinned this at one point described it as “ridiculous”. I think we can all agree that what they meant to type was “awesome”. There is absolutely no way that this could ever be described as ridiculous. It has all the components of epic-ness.

  • Office products used in a new and exciting way… check
  • Beloved video game character… check
  • Old school version of beloved video game character… check
  • Incredible representation of the above… check
  • Just awesome in general… check, check, check

Yea sorry original pinner, I’m going to have to wholeheartedly disagree with your “ridiculous” description.

The sad part about Pinterest, just like the internet, is the lack of a built-in fact checker. I think we can all agree the creator of this meme pin had a good idea but just failed, horribly, in its execution.  However, I happen to adore Cobie Smulders and love How I Met Your Mother so I’m able to look past the error.

Now that Halloween has arrived, we are fully into the “holiday season” so it’s about time everyone start thinking about their gingerbread houses. I would like to put forth the argument that this particular gingerbread creation would kick every other gingerbread creation’s ass.

There we have it, the inaugural run of “Best Finds in the Pinterest Geek Category this Week!!!!!”.

Until next week! For now, I’m off to think of a better name.