Weekend In Reviews

Remember that To Do List I posted on Friday? Well I managed to get some of it accomplished.

Smith - Finished watching all 7 episodes. Boy was the bromance chemistry between Simon Baker and Johnny Lee Miller fantastic. I do believe that I could have watched a show based entirely on the two of them and their exploits. The other characters' stuff wasn't quite as fun but overall it was still an entertaining show. Pity it didn't survive.

The Vampire Diaries - I didn't get all caught up, but I watched several episodes and only have 3 left to watch before the new episodes start up next week. One thing you can say for this show, it is not afraid of killing people. First Damon snaps Uncle Nephew's neck like a twig (RIP Uncle Nephew!), then he vamps Vicki who tries to kill Elena so Stefan stakes her, and then Damon sets up Stefan's awesome best friend, Lexi, to take the blame for his murder spree so the Sheriff shoots her several times with wooden bullets before Damon stakes her himself. I was sad to see all three go, I already said I liked Vicki quite a lot and though Lexi was only in the one episode she was great, thanks in large part to being played by Arielle Kebbel who is just adorable. Unfortunately, as is often the case with schmoopy CW stuff, the romantic leads are the least interesting thing about the show. This show is turning me back around on Ian Sommerhalder though, he was seriously hot in some of the episodes I watched and the more he wants to dance around in an open shirt flashing his abs, the better for us all. Plus his line delivery when he tells Elena to get gone because she's bleeding is really good.

Jennifer's Body - Well I can see why it flopped so spectacularly at the box office - the marketing for this movie was a tragic disaster. Apparently the inclusion of Megan Fox in the cast made the marketing team think that they needed to advertise this as a sex romp instead of the slightly off-kilter, horror-adjacent, Scream-esque movie it actually is. Megan Fox isn't even the main character. It's a decent movie with some genuinely good parts but Megan Fox can't really act and Diablo Cody tries way too hard with her dialogue writing. Not every thing out of every character's mouth has to be a hipper-than-thou catch phrase, Diablo.

Amanda Seyfried was great in the lead and I give MVP awards to Adam Brody and Johnny Simmons who were both hilarious. It's a movie worth watching as long as you go into it knowing that everything the advertising told you about the movie is taken out of context and therefore completely false.

Inglorious Basterds - Oy! This movie was too long by almost an hour and consequently I was bored out of my mind for most of it. I very nearly turned it off mid-way through because I wasn't feeling well and simply could not continue reading inane conversations in subtitle that went on pointlessly for hours at a time with no payoff. That scene in the bar went on for EVER and was so unnecessary. If I had to hear one more time how Wilhelm had just become a father I was going to kill them all myself.

The good parts of the movie were the scenes with the Basterds themselves. I thought Brad Pitt was outstanding in the role as Aldo Raine. The line near the end in the woods with Colonel Landa (Christoph Waltz) when Aldo shoots the other Nazi soldier that they're supposed to be bringing back to the US and Landa says "they'll shoot you for that" and Raine replies "nah, more likely they'll chew me out, I been chewed out before." HIGH-larious. I watched his delivery of that line 4 times. It didn't make the rest of the movie worth it, but all of his scenes were a pleasure to watch.

Overall though, it's not a movie I'd recommend. Not enough action for action lovers, not enough drama for those interested in that aspect and too much story for so simple a plot.

I didn't get to the theater to see anything else but I did watch several more episodes of Felicity - I'd forgotten how cute Owen was, and how mad it made me when everyone ganged up on Ben as if he were the one in the wrong when Felicity fucking slept with Noel, and how much I really do enjoy the last season despite some decent-sized flaws. I couldn't stay awake long enough to watch the Chuck season premiere but I'll catch up on that tonight. I have a feeling that the mid-season schedule shake-up is going to wreak some havoc on my ability to stay caught up with my TV.