Tag Archives: Johnny Depp

Review AMC’s Mad Men: Episode 509 “Dark Shadows”

Before we get to this weeks episode, that despite it’s name has no goofy vampires played by Johnny Depp, we must quickly go over the happenings in Episode 508 “Lady Lazarus” which missed it’s review last week. (sorry)

We start the week with Peggy playing her increasingly frequent new role of being a jealous bitch. She is upset that Megan has had such an easy time being a copywriter and doesn’t seem to be enjoying her success. After taking a verbal scalding Megan decides it’s not only that her father doesn’t believe in her capitalistic ventures, but also that Peggy is right that her heart isn’t in it which leads her to quit SCDP to return to what she believes she is destined for; acting. Don is not pleased but he hides it well, from Megan anyways. At this point if Megan curled up to him and said “Don, I think I’m going to drive across country in the nude murdering and pillaging as I roam because that’s the best thing for me!” you almost feel he would grudgingly agree with her.

The other big development of the week comes in the form of Pete Campbell’s continued emulation of the Don Draper of old. When he finally meets the wife of his train companion, a sexy turn by Gilmore Girls’ Alexis Bledel, Pete eventually caves to her advances and has a one-night fling. We quickly learn the difference between Don behaving badly and Pete behaving badly however. Campbell becomes a puppy and quickly becomes absolutely obsessed with Beth Dawes, following her around and even entering her home on the pretenses of buying life insurance from her husband. She insists it was a one time thing, but ends the episode by giving Pete a glimmer of hope in his schoolboy heart by drawing a heart in the fog of her windshield as he sheepishly looks on.

As the episode closed, we are given a brief moment where, in an attempt to get Don up to speed, Megan buys him the newest Beatles album – Revolver. This scene is present to help display just how out of touch Don is, and it wasn’t a cheap example either. According to the New York Time, the show’s producers had to drop $250,000 to play the track. Which is probably why it picks back up during the credits. Waste not…

In “Dark Shadows” we see a little bit more of what is becoming an increasingly disturbing fact; Don is getting old and losing his touch. As we’ve come to learn, Don has lost touch with modern music and “what kid’s like these days” and has been so head over heels with Megan that he hasn’t been putting in the office time either. At the beginning of the episode he look over the copy work and realizes for the first time what everyone else knows. His hand isn’t in any of it. Thus when it’s time for Don to make the pitch to the Sno Cone execs and the choice is between Ginsberg’s series, which people seemed to prefer over Don’s Sno Cone eating devil. Guess which ad piece got left in the cab. Don’s ad piece isn’t bad, in fact it’s good enough to make the sale but that’s not the point. It’s the first time we see Don’s cracks when it comes to advertising. He sounds lame as he tries to sell the devil’s creepy voice and has clearly become out of touch with not just the youth of the day, but the youth of his own office. This also opens up a new Mad Men rivalry between the young and the old where we find an ignoble and emboldened Michael Ginsberg flying in the face of the man he once so admired. It will be interesting to see how Don handles this new metamorphosis into the figurehead role that has already claimed Sterling and Cooper. As Don regresses it will also be interesting to see if the absence of Megan from his everyday office life will sully the sheen of new love and open the door for the Don of old’s philandering ways.

Speaking of old dogs learning new tricks, Roger has become a little fed up with being strictly a schmoozer and wants to take his rivalry with Campbell to a new level by actually bringing in client of his own, namely Manishewitz wine. As Roger is technically still married to a honest to goodness Jew he enlists Jane’s help to impress his client at his upcoming dinner meeting. He also enlists the other reigning Jew on the SCDP staff, wonderboy Ginsberg, to make him look smart with a winning advertising proposal. The meeting goes well but Roger still manages to make a mess of things when he rekindles the romance with Jane ruining her attempt to start a new life in the blackmail induced new apartment that she was hoping to keep free of memories of their marriage. Roger also manages to piss off an increasingly perturbed Peggy Olsen by using Ginsberg instead of returning to her for his back alley advertising needs.

We also see a little bit from Megan and one of her acting class friends reading scenes for an audition for the show…Dark Shadows. Which they railed. Kind of funny. This whole scene was simply to show Megan finally realizing how people see her, fair or not.

The other major storyline of the week ,or “Dark Shadow” if you will, involves the nest of jealously between Don, Megan, chubby Betty and Sally. Betty has joined the relatively new Weight Watchers in an attempt to regain her control over her appetite, and while the lessons from her meetings seem to help her attitude at home, she can’t help but be blinded by jealously when she sees Don’s immaculate New York apartment inhabited by his svelte and sexy new wife.

Her weapon of choice, as always, is the young Sally Draper who is more than willing to become catty and petulant when she feels shes been lied to by Megan. Betty’s scheming ultimately backfires however when Megan recognizes her meddling and keeps Don from flying off the hook which allows a more aware Sally to turn the whole ordeal into a hurtful jab towards her mother. If Mad Men lasts long enough for Sally Draper to televise her teen years then watch out! She’s only 10 or 11 on the show, but already has all the attitude and maliciousness of a teenager with the “bad boy” boyfriend to boot.

Mad Men seems to really be hitting it’s stride season and it seems there will be no end to frustrations and controversy in the SCDP office. Jared Harris will finally make his return next week as he has been noticeably absent from the series since his dust-up with Campbell. We should also expect a lot more of Pete and Beth in more that the fantastical version that aired this week as it seems that Pete’s obsession is coming to a head. With only four episodes left in the season you can feel the tension ramping up in the Mad Men world and we should be in for a great last few weeks.


Quote of the Week – Betty Draper:

“I’m thankful I have everything I want, and that no one else has anything better.”

Disney’s Lone Ranger and Depp’s Tonto Revealed!

After a few delays and moaning and groaning about an overinflated budget, Disney’s Lone Ranger movie is finally making headway. Sure, we knew that filming was underway but now we have our first glimpse into the movie by way of a photo of the Lone Ranger himself and his faithful companion Tonto. Tonto as you probably heard about a million times is being played by Johnny Depp, who has a penchant for the ridiculous ever since bringing the world Jack Sparrow, possibly one of the best on-screen characters in recent memory behind Heath Ledger’s Joker in the Dark Knight. So, without further adieu, here is the picture:

And yup, Johnny Depp is there in all of his ridiculous glory. Though I must say that this version of Tonto is way better than what could have been if they had stuck with the old TV show version of the sidekick. I’m actually hoping they change it up a little bit in the movie and make Tonto not so much a sidekick, but perhaps the Lone Ranger’s mentor or something more useful. Of course there is only this picture and no details on anything else, so everything including what I just typed is all speculation at this point. This official film synopsis is all we have to go on thus far:

“The Lone Ranger” is a thrilling adventure infused with action and humor, in which the famed masked hero is brought to life through new eyes. Native American spirit warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Armie Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice—taking the audience on a runaway train of epic surprises and humorous friction as the two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption.

I have to say I was never really thrilled with the Lone Ranger, it’s definitely a franchise that needs updating to make it more intriguing to modern audiences including myself, but look at what they’ve done with a literary classic like John Carter. The movie isn’t out yet but all of the clips shown thus far promise us at least an entertaining movie going experience. I’m also faithful that Pirates director Gore Verbinski will be helming the movie because aside from the story of the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie being utterly convoluted he still has a knack for giving us a very aesthetically pleasing movie. It was almost a given he could only give us two out of three good Pirates movies. Let’s hope the cycle doesn’t repeat with the Lone Ranger being a certified hit that spawns mediocre sequels.

Now comes the wait for the first trailer and more than likely a slew of production and set photos before that. I’m not overly excited for the Lone Ranger movie, but I am cautiously optimistic. Most of that is to see exactly what Depp has done with the Tonto character and to see if he outshines the main character as Depp normally tends to do when he’s not the leading man.

Movie Trailer Roundup: Wrath of the Titans, The Dictator, Lock-Out and MORE!

Wrath of the Titans

Perseus embarks on a treacherous quest into the underworld to rescue Zeus, who has been targeted for capture by his traitorous son, Ares, and his brother, Hades.

Stars: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Bill Nighy, Rosamund Pike, Edgar Ramirez, Danny Huston

Release Date: March 30th, 2012

Continue reading Movie Trailer Roundup: Wrath of the Titans, The Dictator, Lock-Out and MORE!

Grizzly Review: Jack and Jill

Oh dear lord, Adam Sandler. What the hell happened to you?

I’m going to skip the formalities here and get right down to it, Jack and Jill royally sucks ass. I’m not one to use these terms loosely, because to be honest, not a lot of movies necessarily suck ass. Let’s take a movie I reviewed earlier this month, Like Crazy. Was it a bad movie? Yes, it was. Did it suck ass? No, it did not. Allow me to further my point.

Jack and Jill, as you may have heard, is about two identical twins that go at it during Thanksgiving, Hanukah, their respective birthdays, and New Year’s. Literally the entire movie is fighting and a creepy Al Pacino, which I’ll get into a little bit later. The premise, which revolves partially around getting Jack’s sister Jill out of the house, and the rest of the plot, involves getting her to stay. Now, call me crazy, but I think that’s considered a conflict of interests on the part of the borderline schizophrenic lead, Jack.


He truly is an ass. A royal ass one could say. He treats his sister like she’s dirt. He sets her up on dates with weird men, he bullies her every chance he gets, and he ultimately uses her to get Al Pacino to do him a favor. He brings the term “dick move” to a whole new level.

The writing really is absolutely atrocious, with some of the most unnecessarily drawn out and cringe-worthy conversations I’ve seen in recent years. The banter between Jack and Jill isn’t cute, it isn’t funny, it isn’t even amusing. No, their seemingly endless conversations are just annoying, like the rest of this movie. Annoying, annoying, annoying.

Adam Sandler pretty much does the same thing in a lot of his movies. I know damn well he’s a capable actor and that he really does know how to pull out a good performance (e.g., Funny People and Punch-Drunk Love).

Here, on the other hand, he does the usual Adam Sandler performance. Angry, oppressed, needy, and whiny. Except he does it in a way that gives off the feeling that he was quite bored during shooting. He exaggerates everything to the max, and it seems that he’s been playing the asswipe father in quite a few of his recent movies, and I’m starting to think that that’s just how he is in real life.

As Jill, on the other hand, he’s ferociously aggravating. Everything that Jill does, I want to just punch her in the nose for. It’s the 2nd most inspired thing in the entire movie though, behind the one and only, Al Pacino. I laughed twice in this movie. Two times. The first time involved Al Pacino in a disguise. The second time involved Adam Sandler as Jill farting aggressively in a bathroom. Farts are funny people, get over it.

Anyway, Al Pacino. What can I say about Mr. Pacino’s performance? Well, it was…inspired. He really did give it his all and I commend him for his bravery. I really do. Any self-respecting actor who can really put his heart into a project like this is truly brave, or completely insane. Most of the times it’s both, though.

But, back to the bashing of this flick, I have a message to Adam Sandler. WE UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE JEWISH. WE UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE PROUD OF THIS, AND WE APPRECIATE IT. WITH THAT BEING SAID, WHY IS THE FACT THAT YOU’RE JEWISH HAVE TO BE UP TO 33% OF THE TOTAL JOKES TOLD IN YOUR FILMS? It really is a simple question. Every three or four jokes there was something about being Jewish. In each and every film Mr. Sandler makes it becomes more and more prevalent and more and more irritating.

Also, I felt that the portrayal of Mexicans in this movie was over-the-top, racist, and unnecessary. I’m all for a good dose of healthy racism with a point like in the Harold & Kumar films, but the things that some of the Hispanic characters said in this film are just downright embarrassing.

Product placement is also something I noticed in this film a lot. The person I went to go see Jack and Jill with had a bet with me. We were supposed to count the amount of farts and the amount of times we saw product placement. In short, we lost count. You know you’re in a bad movie when there’s a scene that takes place in a cinema, only to see a bunch of Coca-Cola stickers popping out from all the concessions.

As for being the worst film of the year, that honor goes to Cars 2, which truly is a horrible, horrible film. Where does Jack and Jill fare, you ask? Pretty damn close. I really can’t recommend this movie to many people, unless you want to see Al Pacino act like a fool. There are a lot of great cameos that keep things relatively exciting, but when Johnny Depp isn’t popping up on screen, either Jack or Jill are, and you really don’t want to see that.

1 Grizzly out of 5

 P.S. Why in the hell is this movie rated PG?

Grizzly Review: The Rum Diary

Drinking, drugs, sex, fun and writing; these were the five words that Hunter S. Thompson lived by. For years he traveled the world, ingesting copious amounts of illegal narcotics, drinking until he blacked out, and then wrote about it the next day with a hangover and a Bloody Mary. He was a man’s man, with a very straightforward love for guns, and an even more straightforward hate for Richard Nixon. Thompson was never afraid to voice his not-so-humble opinions. He wrote many novels and memoirs, most notably Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Hell’s Angels, but early in his career, while residing in Puerto Rico, he wrote the novel, The Rum Diary.

Following a journalist named Paul Kemp, the semi-autobiographical novel wasn’t published until much later in his career. Many claimed the novel has no plot and is reflective of a pre-Gonzo Thompson; in other words, a less interesting one. I’ve not read the novel, but after viewing the film, I can make a prediction and say that I’d have to disagree.

Continue reading Grizzly Review: The Rum Diary