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zwolanerd

“I guess I just like liking things”

January 23, 2013 The Last Stand

Arnold’s latest movie didn’t do so well this past weekend. $6.2 million puts it at #62 on the Worst Wide Openings list, and I don’t really understand why.  The first trailer I ever saw for the movie made me want to see it, and no following trailers changed my mind.  I knew exactly what I was going to get, and that’s exactly what I wanted.

Well, I sorta got what I expected.  It was an action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger that had Johnny Knoxville as a wacky sidekick, Luiz Guzmán as a slightly-less-wacky sidekick, Forest Whitaker as a sort-of-jerky FBI agent, and Jaimie Alexander (you know her better as Sif) as another local cop. Throw in Arnold’s reunion with Predator buddy Sonny Landham and you’ve really got something, I figure.

For the most part the movie was fairly standard action fare, but they threw in something I wasn’t expecting: a subdued version of Arnold. He was more John McClane than John Matrix, an everyman rather than a supercop. Arnold is 65 now, so it’s a good move, and I think it works really well.  Don’t get me a wrong, I love the Expendables movies and want to see more of them, but as his “official” return to movies, I think Arnold made a good choice playing a cop who used to work L.A. and moved to Arizona for quieter times, only to have to step up when a situation calls for it. I’m a big fan of actors I like finding more/different kind of work as they get older, and while this isn’t a huge departure for Arnold, it was enough of a change that I could see him carving out similar roles… if the movie had performed better, at least. Who knows what will happen now?

I’m fascinated by what makes a movie do well or not. This one looked like a no-brainer success to me, but I guess my perspective needs glasses. Perhaps people didn’t like Arnold’s politics or the personal fiascos he’s been involved in or something, I don’t know.  For the most part I can separate out the actor from the role, though I will admit that the more some actors go on about certain things, the less likely I am to want to see their movies.

Arnold is a big enough name that there will be several more attempts to get him going (including The Tomb with Sylvester Stallone, another movie I plan to see opening weekend), so I’m not too worried about him. I’ll even enjoy whatever part he has in Terminator 5, and I don’t even care if that makes you roll your eyes!

And while we’re on the subject, how about a movie with Arnold and The Rock together?  Maybe Arnold could play The Rock’s dad or something? I don’t know, I just want to see them in a movie together with more shared screen time than they had in The Rundown. Somebody make this happen.

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January 22, 2013 Tuesday 10: Favorite Sitcoms From The Last 20 Years

I had to narrow the range down on this or someone would give me grief because I Love Lucy or M*A*S*H isn’t on here, and nobody wants any grief.  I’ve also limited it to half-hour shows because I still don’t know where to categorize Freaks & Geeks and Wonderfalls.

10. The Office – I’m still watching it all these years later, but I don’t watch reruns and I don’t own any seasons on disc.  I’m the only person I know who still likes Jim & Pam together and am glad they’ve been together all this time.

9. Friends – Honestly, Chandler makes this for me. I bought the series on disc for my wife, but I will admit to enjoying the watchthrough. I won’t need to watch any more episodes for a long while, though.

8. Futurama – The scifi humor scratches me where I itch. The Star Trek crew episode is one of my favorite episodes of any show of all time. I own all of the seasons on disc, though I haven’t watched the latest one yet.  I’ll watch reruns of this any time I see one on.

7. The Simpsons – I’m still watching and I still love it. In fact, I think the two most recent seasons have been pretty strong overall, and I risk the Internet’s wrath just for suggesting it. I don’t own any seasons on disc, but that’s just because it’s so daunting a prospect to buy all 20+ seasons. Besides, it’s on TV all the time, and eventually we might get that All Simpsons All The Time channel people keep hinting at.

6. Community – Now I’ve risked even more Internet Wrath because I haven’t ranked this one higher.  Honestly, these next four rankings were tough to organize.  I love this show and am looking forward to (and am nervous about!) its return in a few weeks.

5. Better Off Ted – I hope you’ll see soon just why I enjoy this one so much. I’ve watched through it four times already, but am looking forward to starting #5 this week. I don’t own the first season on disc yet, and they haven’t released the second one at all… which is part of why I haven’t bought the first season. I want the whole thing!

4. Scrubs – No other show on this list does as good a job at mixing heart with humor as this one. There isn’t a character on this show that I dislike (well…except for one or two in the final season), and I can watch this one over and over. I love the characters, I love the stories, I love the music – I’ve bought at least three separate albums because of this show (Colin Hay, The Blanks, and the soundtrack). I have every disc on season and have watched through them at least three times.

3. 30 Rock – Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin are fantastic, and they are surrounded by other fantastic actors, and they somehow got some of the best guest stars ever to appear on a TV show. Somehow I only own the first two seasons on disc, but I will eventually get the whole set.

2. Arrested Development – What can I say about this show that hasn’t been said a hundred times before and in better ways?  Sure, it’s funny, but the storytelling is just fantastic – the tightly-woven arcs are amazing and satisfying. I’m excited about the upcoming new “season” on Netflix, while worried at the same time, since it’s “not going to be how it was.”  I’m sure it’ll still be great, but I like my great things to stay the way they were great, you know?  Of course I have all these on disc.

1. Seinfeld – I am constantly surprised by the number of friends I have that don’t like this show.  It literally makes no sense to me. I can watch almost any episode of this show at any time and still laugh out loud several times throughout.  I have all nine seasons on disc and have watched them through at least 3 times, but when you count how many times I’ve seen episodes on repeats on TV I’m sure that number is higher.  Honestly, I’ve thought about doing a top ten of my favorite episodes of this show, but I don’t think I could do it. It would just be too difficult. I love this show, and I want to hug Jerry Seinfeld for making it. Somebody arrange that for me.

It’s funny to me how these lists shake out some times. Most of the time going into them I have a pretty good idea where things will end up, but getting down into the specifics between a 3 and a 4 or an 8 and a 9 can take a while. Good thing it doesn’t matter much, I guess!

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January 21, 2013 Better Off Ted Pre-Game Warm-Up

I literally cannot imagine a better cast for this show.

I literally cannot imagine a better cast for this show.

 

In case you missed it in all of the hubbub of Batman Week, we’re going to watch Better Off Ted together, with the first episode due this Friday. Have you watched it yet? I haven’t yet myself.  Well, not specifically for this, at least. I have seen it 4 times already, but will see it again here before Friday.

In case you haven’t seen it before, I want to give you some idea of what it’s like beforehand.  Here’s the Wikipedia description, which does as good a job describing it as anything:

Better Off Ted focuses on the titular protagonist, Ted Crisp, a single father and the well-respected and beloved head of a research and development department at the fictional, soulless conglomerate of Veridian Dynamics. Ted narrates the series’ events by regularly breaking the fourth wall and directly addressing the audience as the show’s on-camera narrator. Supporting characters include Ted’s supervisor Veronica Palmer, co-worker and love interest Linda Zwordling, his daughter Rose, and laboratory scientists Phillip Myman and Lem Hewitt.

Unassuming enough, yes? It’s a simple enough premise, but I promise you it’s fantastic. Portia de Rossi’s presence alone should ease any misgivings you might have – unless you also have not seen Arrested Development, which I’d guess you have.  Frankly, BOT occupies the same space on the sitcom spectrum as AD, at least in my mind.  On one end you’ve got your AD and BOT (I always picture it being the righthand end?), and on the other end you’ve got your Two and a Half Men and your 2 Broke Girls and your (most likely, at least, I’ve never actually seen it) My Mother the Car. I won’t presume to put adjectives on those spectrum ends, but I will admit that I have some in mind.

Things I would bet money that you’ll like:

  • All of the main characters. Seriously. Every single one of them.
  • The Veridian Dynamics commercials
  • The inventions
  • The catchy theme song

Things you won’t like:

  • That it ended too soon
  • And maybe that one storyline

Honestly, I am open to the fact that not everyone will like the show because I understand that people have different tastes. If everybody all liked the same stuff, we wouldn’t need new shows because we’d already have Star Trek and Seinfeld and we’d be set. So what I’m saying is, don’t be afraid to come here on Friday with a differing opinion. I’m just as curious to hear about why someone doesn’t like something I like as I am to hear about why other people think it’s good.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

 

(Some zwolanerd trivia for you: Andrea Anders’ character in this show inspired my Shepard’s name in Mass Effect. So if you’re running from the Reapers somewhere out there and you run into a “Zwordling Shepard,” you’ll know why.)

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January 19, 2013 Batman Movie Marathon Liveblog

Let’s see how this liveblogging plugin works.  It won’t be perfect, I’m sure, but it should be interesting, at the very least.

The plugin, I mean. The liveblog could go either way.

Last night we watched Batman and Batman Returns. Today we’re watching Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, and the Christopher Nolan trilogy. Good times.

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January 18, 2013 Let’s Watch Something Together

Taking a brief intermission from Batman Week to announce what we’re going to watch together: Better Off Ted!

Now, Scrubs technically got one more vote, but I’m choosing BOT for a couple of reasons. a) The season is shorter. Since this is an experiment, I figure locking ourselves into a smaller commitment might make more sense. b) I think more people have seen more Scrubs than they have BOT, and this is a good way for someone to get introduced to a great show. If it goes well, we’ll do Scrubs next!

Better Off Ted is available on Netflix and Amazon streaming, and the episodes are available for sale in the iTunes store as well. I don’t know if they’re available for or non-U.S. friends, though.  You could also buy the DVDs for the first season (only $22.83 right now at Amazon).

So the plan is this: by next Friday, watch the first episode (entitled “Pilot”). I’ll have a write-up of the episode and we can talk about the show in the comments.

I’m really excited about this, and I hope you can join in, even if it wasn’t your first choice for the show. I really don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

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