Arrow: 1.08, “Vengeance”

I think Arrow has finally decided to just go ahead and embrace the “so bad it’s good” mentality. This is not a bad thing though. Sometimes “so bad, it’s good” actually ends up being the most enjoyable types of entertainment. However, minus the reveal of the “Well Dressed Man” as Tommy’s father and the return of Walter, last week was a bit lacking. Helena Bertinelli wasn’t all that riveting, Oliver was delusional in his “justice vs. vengeance” non-argument, and there wasn’t nearly enough John Diggle.

Thankfully Diggle returns this week in ‘Vengeance’, because Oliver needed his ass handed to him. What part of “secret lair” is hard to understand? Why not just have an open house at this point? Bake some cookies, put out a cheese ball, and invite the whole neighborhood why don’t you?

Arrow Vengeance
Oliver likes Ritz with his cheeseball

Best line of the entire episode though came from that chick that shouldn’t know his secret in the first place. I damn near aspirated my coffee when after Oliver tries to get Helena to learn how to be a proper vigilante from him she says “Thanks for the coffee… and the sex, but I’m not interested.” Someone call Hallmark, I think we’ve got a winner here! Actually this entire episode was one fabulously ridiculous line after another.

  • “You should be in the Olympics” John Diggle to Oliver who is working out… again
  • “Street cred” both Helena and Oliver utter this without a trace of irony
  • “I don’t speak Chinese so I’m going to assume you said goodbye.” Helena before she shoots a member of the Triad

Okay, the last one was fantastic. It was one of those things that you certainly didn’t expect in the middle of a fight scene which made it a thousand times funnier. I am a little peeved that like Boardwalk Empire (how many times this week have you seen a correlation made between Boardwalk Empire and Arrow?) they talk about this huge war and how it’s going to tear the city apart and it’s all over in one nice and neat scene. The Triad (with the kick-ass China White making another appearance) storms Bertinelli’s house and that’s it? That’s a war? Perhaps I’ve been watching too much Gangland but that seemed a little weak.

Arrow Vengeance
“You have failed this city”

Speaking of Chinese in the show, there is a tumblr user who watches the show and posts the translations of the Chinese spoken there. You can find her blog here. Shameless plug time: while you are on tumblr anyway, might as well go ahead and follow Grizzly Bomb as well.

Helena became Huntress even though they never called her that, unless I missed it. We got to see her girl out on the color of her outfit (purple of course) but we saw a bad girl quality when it came to the unintentional double date with her and Oliver and Tommy and Laurel. She was the one who suggested they have dinner with them and then she got all pissy when she found out who they were. Come on HelenaArrow Vengeance, don’t be like that, you are giving us girls a bad name. It was fun to see her and Oliver go hunt down Anthony Venza together though.

I’ll admit that I thought Oliver was going to win out over Helena and she was going to see the err of her ways and turn to the Force. I was wrong. So wrong that when we saw Helena standing over father, crossbow aimed at him, I was taken aback. Come on now, taking down his business is one thing but now you want to flat out kill him? I’m with Oliver on this one, put him in jail, no need to go off and revenge kill your dad.

Random, but I really hope I’m not the only person that thought immediately of Bryan Adam’s 1991 power ballad, “I Do It For You” from Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves when Mr. Bertinelli was begging his daughter not to shoot him. I fully expected Kevin Costner to come walking from the woods. Actually now that I think about it, that would have been awesome.

Subplots? No real big surprise, Walter doesn’t trust Moira. Well if he did, the trust was fleeting because Felicity comes and shows him an image that he knows he’s seen before and he ends up finding a book that looks exactly like Oliver’s book of names and it is filled with names as well! Ahhhhh! What does this mean? Will Walter confront Moira? Will she tell him about Merlyn/Well Dressed Man? Will he leave again? Will he and Felicity join up and become super sleuths together? Yes please. Felicity is easily the most entertaining person on this show. She needs more air time and I’m hoping this detective bit with Walter will do just that.

The whole Tommy and Laurel thing is just a means to an end (that end somehow being Tommy an antagonist and Laurel and Oliver together) so I refuse to get emotionally invested in that. That being said, Laurel needs to shut her mouth. It was absolutely none of her business if Tommy went to Oliver for a job or not. Then to bring it up at dinner? That’s dirty and results in one of the most awkward double dates I’ve watched in recent memory. Yikes.

Arrow Vengeance

As for Diggle? I think he’s going to end up with his sister-in-law. Not only did he give a telling look her way when he was talking to Oliver about the “right one” but she made a point of saying she was his “ex-sister in-law”. I’m interested in seeing how that plays out. If for no other reason than to hear them talk more about what a bad neighborhood this immaculate and relatively beautiful fast food restaurant is in. I don’t think he’s going to leave Ollie, no matter how much he says he is. At least he better not.

Overall, great episode. Like I said, I think they have decided to just own the cheesy dialogue and ridiculous story lines and I think it makes for a better show in the long run. There’s only one episode left until the hiatus and I’m sure it will be a good one. This week was lacking John Barrowman and Yao Fei, but made up for it with Felicity and Diggle so let’s stick with a four out of five rating.

Until next time Arrow fans!

Justified: Season 4 – Raylan, Boyd, and Patton Oswalt? Plus 3 New Trailers…

My love of Justified is no secret. Raylan Givens is a near perfect TV hero and Boyd Crowder make an excellent foil to our hero. The actors (Olyphant and Goggins) share some of the best on-screen chemistry in all of television. The first 3 years of the FX show have given us some of the best action/drama this side of Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad.

Continue reading Justified: Season 4 – Raylan, Boyd, and Patton Oswalt? Plus 3 New Trailers…

The 2012 Grammy Nominations Are Out, Apparently a Concert Also Happened?

The 55th Grammy Awards are being given out on February 10th, 2013 so that means we have to have some nominees, right? They definitely accomplished that as the Grammy Nominations concert aired last night and featured performances from Fun., Maroon 5, Hunter Hayes, The Who, Ne-Yo and a couple of country artists who escape me. We also got to see Taylor Swift awkwardly host with LL Cool J so that was fun.

Leading the nominees are Fun., Mumford & Sons, Frank Ocean, Jay-Z and Kanye West with six noms each. The Black Keys, Chick Corea and Miguel follow that with five nominations. Notably, Justin Bieber was not hit up for ANY nominations so single tear for that. But that didn’t stop him from making the news as his manager declared the Grammys a travesty because Bieber HAS to be the underdog according to EW.com. Dude, you’re a millionaire teenager that keeps tricking Selena Gomez to go out with you. You’re the opposite of underdog, you’re just a douche at this point if you need a chip on your shoulder. Just be happy you have tickets to the party. Regardless, some highlights have to be Frank Ocean and Fun. just dominated the nominations despite the fact that they were first time nominees. Frank Ocean is great people and you should listen to him.

Also Detroit’s own Jack White gets an Album of the Year nomination for Blunderbuss, which is richly deserved. Alabama Shakes probably cut Carly Rae Jepsen off the Best New Artist and I’m perfectly fine by that.

Mild entertainment at the expense of the Biebs.

There is a cool pattern that Hollywood Reporter noticed and that four out of the five nominees for Album of the Year are rock albums, with Frank Ocean being R&B. No pop nominations in there. Maybe it’s the sign of the times and that everyone is looking for something original out there in the world. No offense to the pop music world, myself being a defender of the pop persuasion despite the shame it brings me, but most of it is the same drivel and more producer based than actual artist based. In fact, pop music is full of entertainers, not musicians so it’s good to see the right people get their due. Speaking of pop music, man did they ever get shut out. Bieber got zero nominations, One Direction got the shaft, and Nicki Minaj got nothing (it’s not rap or hip hop anymore people, she’s gone pure pop). A lot of people are complaining because these artists (or entertainers I guess) sold the most albums out of anyone, they should be nominated right? People, this isn’t the people’s choice awards, or the Billboard Awards for that matter. If the Grammy Awards are trying to set a precedent about actual substance in the music, then bravo. Like I said, these artists/entertainers got nothing because it’s all production work. Yeah, its beautiful escapism but you couldn’t tell me that if they took a random member of One Direction, gave him Bieber’s team and production values, all his marketing and that I would tell the difference between the two? I sincerely doubt it. There were some other snubs like Coldplay, which I buy because as much as I like Mylo Xyloto, this was not as great as Viva La Vida. Lady Gaga was also snubbed as well but I think that also factored in that her last album sort of came off like a fart sound. Also yes, I consider Lady Gaga to be more artist than entertainer just because she does a lot of her own writing and production and has value as a musician, even if some of her songs don’t reflect that.

Anyways, below is a list of the nominees with in some of the major categories and this link will bring you to the full list. Again, the awards are on February 10th, 2013 on CBS so we’ll see if anyone walks away as the new Adele with her gaggle of awards.

http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_cw&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fgrizbomb-20%2F8010%2F0edfd9b5-62d1-4314-91c2-c7fd707ec83b&Operation=GetDisplayTemplate

http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_cw&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fgrizbomb-20%2F8010%2F0edfd9b5-62d1-4314-91c2-c7fd707ec83b&Operation=NoScript”>Amazon.com WidgetsAlbum of the Year:
Black Keys, El Camino
Fun., Some Nights
Mumford & Sons, Babel
Frank Ocean, Channel Orange
Jack White, Blunderbuss

Song of the Year:
Ed Sheeran, “The A Team”
Carly Rae Jepsen, “Call Me Maybe”
Miguel, “Adorn”
Kelly Clarkson, “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”
Fun. feat. Janelle Monae, “We Are Young”

Record of the Year:
Black Keys, “Lonely Boy”
Kelly Clarkson, “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”
Fun. feat. Janelle Monae, “We Are Young”
Gotye feat. Kimbra, “Somebody That I Used to Know”
Frank Ocean, “Thinkin Bout You”
Taylor Swift, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”

Best New Artist:
Alabama Shakes
Fun.
Hunter Hayes
The Lumineers
Frank Ocean

Pop Vocal Album:
Kelly Clarkson, Stronger
Florence + the Machine, Ceremonials
Fun., Some Nights
Maroon 5, Overexposed
P!nk, The Truth About Love

Best Rock Album:
The Black Keys, El Camino
Coldplay, Mylo Xyloto
Muse, The 2nd Law
Bruce Springsteen, Wrecking Ball
Jack White, Blunderbuss

Best Alternative Music Album:
Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel…
Bjork, Biophilia
Gotye, Making Mirrors
M83, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
Tom Waits, Bad as Me

Best Rap Album:
Drake, Take Care
Lupe Fiasco, Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1
Nas, Life Is Good
The Roots, Undun
Rick Ross, God Forgives, I Don’t
2 Chainz, Based on a T.R.U. Story

Best Country Album:
Zac Brown Band, Uncaged
Hunter Hayes, Hunter Hayes
Jamey Johnson, Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran
Miranda Lambert, For the Record
The Time Jumpers, The Time Jumpers

Best Dance/Electronica Album:
Steve Aoki, Wonderland
The Chemical Brothers, Don’t Think
Deadmau5, > Album Title Goes Here Kaskade, Fire & Ice
Skrillex, Bangarang

Country Solo Performance:
Dierks Bentley, “Home”
Eric Church, “Springsteen”
Hunter Hayes, “Wanted”
Ronnie Dunn, “Cost of Livin’”
Blake Shelton, “Over”
Carrie Underwood, “Blown Away

Star Trek: Into Darkness – Teaser Trailers and Cumberbatch!

It’s looking to be an intriguing year for Trekkies when the newest Star Trek film is released. One thing I’ve always admired about Trekkies, and being one myself, is that there’s a resolute sense of solidarity between us. Unlike Star Wars, which prompts leagues of arguments between the different sects of fandom over which trilogy is better. (Original obviously, but there are those out there who beg to differ.) Comparatively, Trekkies have never had this problem. If you were a Trek fan, you could go out there, wear your communicator badge and everyone would get it, love it, and approve. There’s never been any real major sense of contention other than a friendly debate about which Captain is the best. Until recently it didn’t seem like there was much of a divide, up until the new JJ Abrams Star Trek films come into play.

Having recently attended a Trek convention, I got to see Walter Koenig himself speak on what it was like to see someone else play Chekov, and at the mere mention of the new Star Trek film there was a noticeable distaste for it amongst the crowd. Now this could be a case of fan loyalty to Koenig, but a similar thing happened when George Takei took the stage as well. While they both had nothing but great things to say about the new movie, it struck me as something new. This had never existed in the Trek fandom before, and I believe this new Star Trek movie is set to divide that fandom even further. Especially now that our first glimpse of the film is very…  Explosioney? I’m tempted to say it’s even Michael Bay-esque? Judge for yourself here quickly:

Now when I watched it, I think two things:

#1.) Holy crap that looks intense as all get out.
#2.) That barely even looks like Star Trek.

Then again, that’s what I thought when I saw the trailer for the first Abram’s Star Trek film, so I’ll hold my reservations until I actually see it. However I can definitely see how hardcore TOS Trekkies could be put off by such a flashy trailer.

As for what I can glean from the trailer about the story is very minimal. I can mostly base my speculation on the tidbits we’ve previously heard about the movie. In particular that Benedict Cumberbatch was playing a new version of Gary Mitchell, the psionically gifted Man-God from the original series. If he truly is going to be Gary Mitchell, I’m at odds towards guessing what his motivation is for seeking “vengeance” as he claims to want in the trailer. It’s possible that they could entirely establish him as a new character, with his motivation and character arc fully in this one film. I’m trying to think of an event that the crew could be guilty of, that could warrant such anger and desire for revenge from the first film, but I’m unable.

It definitely looks like the story is taking place more on Earth this time, as there are plenty of shots of what looks to be future San Francisco, and that glimpse of a submerged Enterprise slowly rising from the ocean is certainly ominous, and equally matched by the shot of it crashing into the ocean at the end. If it really is Gary Mitchell we’re supposed to be considering as the villain Cumberbatch is playing, then there’s no real way to accurately guess what his end game is, other than the vengeance as he claims. I’m hoping that this film will set up the idea of the eugenics wars, or mention it in some way, so we get Khan for the second sequel. I would be absolutely shocked if they pulled a bait and switch with the whole Gary Mitchell thing, and revealed Cumberbatch was Khan though. I don’t think that’ll be it, because they seem to be setting up vengeance as a theme in the movies.

Nero wanted revenge against Spock, this Cumberbatch character wants vengeance as he’s said in the trailer, and Khan famously wanted vengeance against Kirk. It certainly seems like they’ve tried to edit the trailer in such a fashion so as to suggest it is Khan, but this makes me think it’s Gary Mitchell even more. An older article from AICN says that Karl Urban was in fact joking about Cumberbatch playing Mitchell. If you ask me, knowing how much JJ Abrams likes to play the eternal game of secrets with every movie project of his, that it’s a double bluff. Karl Urban might have genuinely misspoke, so they went and did damage control by having people report this as a “joke” taken too seriously. Making the trailer seem like Khan adds to that double bluff, in order to keep the identity of Cumberbatch’s character secret until the film actually releases. As for Cumberbatch, he’s spoken very little about what his role entails, but what little he’s said could easily apply to both Gary Mitchell or Khan. He’s basically playing the “morally ambiguous” card, by saying his character isn’t quite good, or quite evil. Anyone who’s familiar with Khan or Mitchell knows that arguments could be made for both not necessarily being evil per se.

If they’re not going for any direct storyline continuation, and are introducing a new villain, and making the film series more of a thematic continuation, I think that’s all hunky dory. 3 movies, 3 villains, no direct connections between them makes sense. It’d be bold to see a trilogy of films come out that are all basically stand alone movies that feature the same cast, episodically facing threats in each film. In fact, that’d be very appropriate for Star Trek, since that’s what the original films did anyway. I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to tie them all together, or do some fancy retcon to connect all 3 ala Dark Knight Rises, but if they did it wouldn’t be that bad really.

Altogether though, this teaser has done exactly what it set out to do, which is to get me and other Trekkies all guessing at what the hell is going on, who it is that’s doing all the destruction visible, and what’s going to happen to our favorite crew. In that regard, it’s a total success. Unfortunately I can see it also steering away some fans, but the final verdict will come when the movie hits theaters. Hopefully, it’ll be as awesome, new and yet as familiar as the first film.

And if it didn’t smart enough after seeing that first teaser trailer, for some reason there’s an extended japanese version that’s 10 seconds longer.

In those 10 seconds you get one more line and shot at the end, showing Kirk, as Cumberbatch’s voice says one last line that adds a weight and gravitas that almost changes the tone of the teaser entirely.

“Is there anything you would not do… for your family?”

What? Family? What family? His crew? Whose hand is that? What does he mean by family? God that sounds like Khan doesn’t it? Is it Khan? I’m so conflicted now, CRAP NUGGETS WHY CAN’T THIS COME OUT TOMORROW???

Review of E4′s Misfits: Episode 4.06

Here we are back again with the brand new Misfits crew. In this episode Rudy is taking the group to a massive mash up at his friends flat. They eventually get there (after accidentally crashing a wake) and find out they all have numbers written on their heads. These numbers represent how many sexual partners they have had. Jess has 2 written on her head and really wants to know why Alex has 46 on his. Finn only has 1 but he really does not mind (or so he keeps saying). Rudy is well chuffed with his 99 and tries to find that lady to be his magical 100. While Jess and Alex flirt away, Rudy’s drugged up friend and host of the party turns up warning everyone of the white rabbit.

Turns out he was hit by the storm and when he drops acid, his hallucinations become very real. In this case it is a murderer with a rabbit’s head who swings a mean golf club. Finn and Rudy try to pull at the wake to make Finn feel better when Jess goes off with Alex. Finn manages to hit the big number 2, while Rudy meets the love of his life, who then runs off. Jess legs it from Alex after once again being shot down. She is kidnapped by the rabbit and taken into the basement. Abbey, a woman Finn and Rudy found passed out in the corridor and helped out, finds the rabbit and the crew go to the basement and take care of business. Alex finally tells Jess what is wrong. He has had his willy stolen by a transgender and replaced with a vajajay. Obviously the thief had a power and wanted it for her/his operation. This actually brings him closer to Jess.

misfits 4 ep 6 review rave

So he did have his penis stolen after all! What a guess. Finally Misfits is back on form. After numerous so-so episodes including some quite bad ones, and one really good episode this one blows everything out of the water. Everything in this episode works. The numbers on the heads is a great plot device as it shows Finn’s and Jess’s insecurities to do with sex which they have to confront in this episode. I am still not sure what caused the numbers just to appear on their heads though, unless I missed something it seemed to be caused by a power of some kind [Ed. Note – It was the guy they passed in the hall on the way to the party]. It’s not really important though, and does not stop the flow of the episode.

Also the rave setting makes the whole thing slightly uncomfortable, taking them out of their comfort zone in the community center. It works to create some great tension, when you go from the noisy and emotionally charged atmosphere of the rave, to the very mundane and restrained wake, to The Shining-esque hallways where the rabbit strikes. It all balances perfectly well and makes this quite a tense, but funny episode.

For once I actually felt the emotion of the characters, with Finn’s sadness about being ditched coming across really well. makes you actually start to feel for his character. You do feel sorry for the poor lad, like you just want to give him a big hug and tell him it is all good! Alex and Jess finally start bouncing off each other, and their nervous sexual energy ramps up the episodes tension. Rudy is Rudy (awesome) but even he gets a chance to play a more varied character with his possible new love interest.

New girl Abbey comes off surprisingly well in this episode. She can down her booze and seems to have a very laid back attitude towards life. Even killing a killer rabbit does not shock her, a woman that has obviously seen everything. I kind of liked her and I am looking forward to seeing more of her in the future. She has a great presence and I think she would bounce off Rudy quite well. Now we move to the killer rabbit.

When you talk about it, it does not sound scary at all, in fact it sounds stupid. But the episode does a superb job of showing this creature as a force to be reckoned with. It is slightly unnerving to see the weird mix of golf club, hitman/psycho, and rabbit. He is not used too much so he still has that power when he hits the screen. It was a good idea to just reign him back, because as fun as he is this is an episode all about uncomfortable meetings between the characters and it all comes together nicely. It could just be me but I have never felt comfortable at raves and night clubs so I shared Finn’s uncomfortable feelings and his loneliness.

Very well written and acted by all involved and such a great mix of everything. Next week is another Rudy only episode so I think it is onwards and upwards with the series now. Fingers crossed that Rudy 2 makes a come back in next weeks episode, because it seems like a long time since he has been in an episode and for me personally he is one of my favorite characters. Come back Rudy 2, there is a Curly Wurly in it for you if you do! All in all, this was a great episode and gets 4.5 Grizzlies.

misfits s6 ep 4 rabbit
“You got a problem with that?”

 

Amazing Spider-Man 2 Casts Harry Osborn!

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Dane DeHaan. According to multiple sources, such as Hollywood Reporter and EW.com, he’s your new Harry Osborn for this iteration of the Amazing Spider-Man series. He takes over the role that was originated by James Franco in the original Spider-Man Trilogy. He also will probably not sabotage the Academy Awards and star on a soap opera but I’m only venturing a guess at this point.

Back to DeHaan, you might remember him from that unrated Josh Trank pic Chronicle. He played Andrew Detmer, the social outcast turned super emo kid with powers. He turned in a terrific performance in showing his issues and his calm, if not frightening nature as he developed a superiority over others with his powers. He also was in Lawless with Tom Hardy and Shia LeBeouf, which he also did a great job in. Looking even further, you might recognize him from In Treatment and True Blood. He apparently was also ‘Second White Soldier’ in Lincoln so this is definitely the next step up from that.

He appears to be the last of the major castings for the new Spider-Man sequel, with Jamie Foxx slotted in as Electro, Shailene Woodley as Mary Jane and Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone returning from the previous movie. Obviously we all should know that Harry Osborn becomes the heir apparent to his father’s villain alter ego, The Green Goblin, but we have yet to see Norman Osborn so perhaps we might see him sooner than we might think. I think DeHaan will be a good addition to the cast as he definitely comes off as a terrific actor in his previous roles and it will be interesting to see how they tackle the Harry Osborn character. This seems to be running along the same lines as the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book series so maybe we’ll see…Hobgoblin? I don’t know but I’m excited with this casting news. More so than the Jamie Foxx casting because Booty Call was just on television the other day and…just wow.