H2O: Season Two

H2O: Season Two.

I just finished watching Season Two with my daughter, Abby. I've still got to say it's one the better teen shows out there with good relationship building and good a good focus on family which seems to be lacking in a lot of teen shows. 

This show doesn't have the terrible acting and plot lines of those Disney tween shows. Don't get me wrong there's a lot of moments where I was shaking my head saying, "That doesn't make any sense, what just happened there." But all in all it wasn't a bad little show to watch with my girl and she was whole heartily entertained. I guess girls really have a thing for mermaids...and horses...and dolphins, at least mine does. 

This season does introduce a worthy and believable adversary to the three mermaid girls, which made for some interesting situations. They also build more on the mermaid mythology from Season One. Then from what Jess and I read about Season Three and have seen so far everything goes downhill after Season Two: ditching one of the main characters, adding a new mermaid (and having her be a rock singer[??]), ditching three of the main boys, adding a new boy, having the girls save the world from a meteor crashing into earth will tend to ruin everything previously established from the first two seasons. 

My opinion watch the first two seasons and pretend Season Three doesn't exist.

Doctor Who: Season Six

Doctor Who: Season Six or How he learned to stop worrying and just love time travel.

If this season should be known for anything it’s how Doctor Who finally embraced the fact that he’s a time traveler and the writers finally started incorporating time travel into the show and started treating the show like The Back to the Future movies. Let me tell you it’s all the better for it.

I’m not saying it perfect.  There were still things I didn't like.  I never could fully understand how the Rory's could just not go after their child.  That made no sense to me what-so-ever.  But it’s been super fun to watch as the head tripping and head scratching of time travel, in my opinion, has really opened up the show like it never has before. 

I also really feel Matt Smith came into his own this season as the Doctor.  Te just seemed a lot more comfortable this season than he had in the previous seasons. This series is all about fun and space rollicking adventure-time.  For those who are seeking more than that please don’t apply, but for those of you who like that sort of thing this is your series. Don’t expect super long story arcs, in depth character development, because it’s not here.  These are good old fashioned stories that are drenched in the classic sci-fi stories from 50’s, 60’, and 70’s and they make no bones about it that’s what they are.  They where it on their sleeve with pride. 

This is still some of the best sci-fi on TV hands down. The producers and writers have such a passion and love for this series and the Doctor character himself that it’s practically saturated with it in each episode. I’m happy the Doctor finally got some people behind that understand him and understand sci-fi, because this show is so much better than it was when I was kid and I look forward to watching it with my kids when they get older, like my dad and I used to watch it late into the night.  Now Jess and I are almost caught to the new season of the Doctor really looking forward to seeing Season Seven as soon as it's finished and the infamous 50th anniversary episode.

The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker directed by Kathryn Bigelow and staring Hawkeye from the Avengers (Jeremy Renner). 

First off I can't believe this movie won best picture and best director, that just shows me how low the Academy's standards have fallen since I stopped watched it years ago.  I can honestly say I don't think I've missed much if this movie is considered a pinnacle of excellence. I also have to admit I don't put much stock or faith in the words "From the Academy" anymore anyhow. 

I actually sort of liked this movie despite the many flaws that attempted me from liking it whenever they reared their ugly head. Kathryn Bigelow was the biggest flaw of all in this movie. Her directing was one of the things I thought really hurt this movie and kept it from being that much better.  Too many shaky camera shots, jump cut, quick cut, and zoom in to tell what the hell was going on most of the time. When a movie is this action/tense centered and centered on a main character who strives for details in his work,, so he can defuse bombs, everything in the movie must support this detail motif.  The audience needs to know what is going on, unless the story line is being ironic or satirical in some way and this movie is not in any sense of those words. I hate not knowing what's going on in a scene anyhow - it just drives me nuts - to be a good artist you must communicate with the audience and that communication must be understood. The Hunger Games is a prime example of a director ruining a perfectly good movie by his choice of not directing and instead just throwing the camera shots around any which way he choose. The Hurt Locker isn't always like this, but most of the time it is and the few times Bigelow chooses to direct or actually set up a memorable shot she succeeded beautifully leaving a lasting image in the mind.  But her over all lack of actual direction left me wanting to watch Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket to see an actual directed movie- about war - with characters I got to know and cared about. 

I really hate story lines that go for realism and then have that realism broke down with the main character or secondary characters doing things that are totally unrealistic or just plain stupid for the sake of the Hollywoodized or sensationalized story line. The Hurt Locker for the most part adheres to this realism, but it's those few times where the story lines goes totally stupid, it took me away from the realism trying to be achieved. It also took the movie about an hour to start the first act.  And that hour time was wasted with no character building.  Meaning, I had absolutely no knowledge about any of the characters.  Just a bunch of action/tense scenes to build upon.  It made it really hard to care about any of the characters so far introduced and what tense, argumentative scenes there were between the characters felt forced because I didn't know these characters. 

But other than all of this I had a good time watching this movie despite all the things that jarred me out of the story line. Bigelow does set up some really nice action/tense sequences, when she chooses too - the sniper scene is a good example, which also sets up some good character development between the three main characters, the movie needed more scenes like this.  It's the moments after the action where the movie needs to expand on the characters and let the audience care about them so that when a tense/action scene arrives the audience needs to be invested in those characters, so they care about them when they enter the life or death situations. There is a really good movie here wanting to be directed.

Doctor Who: Season Five

Doctor Who: Season Five. 

Well the Matt Smith era of Doctor Who got off to the best start of all the other Doctor's, so far. I don’t think any of these episodes had any down time and seemed a lot more focused than the other standalone episodes and seasons of the previous Doctors. As my wife Jess said the hardest thing about this season of the Doctor was adjusting to Matt Smith because he was following up the best actor to ever play Doctor Who (David Tennant). And it was hard adjusting to him.  He brings a totally different approach to the Doctor than David Tennant brought, but knowing that before you go into watching a season where a new Doctor takes over helps with the adjusting to the acting and mannerisms. 

Matt Smith is a good Doctor. He brings his own unique spin on being the Doctor and, in my opinion, it serves well for creating a different Doctor, which is what it’s supposed to do. The best thing this season does is fully take advantage of the whole Tardis being a time travel ship and as the season goes on the mold of the show has a Back to Future kind of feel to it, as the time travel concepts start to really kick in. 

They even bring back the wonderful Professor Riversong who further enhances the time travel concepts that no other season of Doctor Who has ever done like this season has. Let me tell you the show is better for it. Really looking forward to seeing more of Professor Riversong in later episodes as it’s clearly hinted she’s the Doctor’s wife or at least someone who is really close to the Doctor.  This brings up all kinds of interesting things from a storyline perspective and character development of the Doctor that I’m really looking forward to seeing played out over the next season or seasons. 

Another thing, this season has brought, is the full time writing and producing of Steven Moffat who wrote some of the best episodes in the previous seasons and his influence from characters to dialogue can clearly be seen. There’s a lot more banter and great talking scenes that just add to the show as a whole. I’m not saying it wasn’t there before, but Moffat’s presence sure has brought a lot these elements to the forefront. 

The one thing, fully brought back from the previous seasons of Doctor Who, is the overall arch for the story line that continues in each episode, further adding to the menace of the final two episodes of the seasons, which bring some mind bending, twisting time travel excellence. I must say adding Karren Gillian as Amy Pond was a stroke of genius as she bring a sexiness to the role of the companion, that as far as I know has never been there.  Her red hair and Scottish accent only enhance everything about her and basically are another character unto themselves and all the better for it.  Also there's just a pluckiness and fire by adding a red head - I should know I'm married to one. But I also like how the writers used her story as basically the template for the entire season and they let her be married and bring her husband along for the time travel. That was brave of the writers to do and I really like them for doing that because it makes for a more interesting dynamic as they deal with character, situations, and dialogue than they before. There's just that much more to work with now than there was before by adding a husband and wife as the traveling companions. Plus it also plants little seeds for the Doctor about marrying.

Hitchcock

Hitchcok directed by Sacha Gervasi starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Danny Huston, Scarlett Johansson, Toni Collette, and Jessica Biel.

I didn't think this was a great film, but it was a highly entertaining film, with some very good pacing, acting, direction, and music. The movie was never dull, or at least I didn't think so.  I also wonder what someone who doesn't know who Alfred Hitchcock is or has never seen Psycho would think about this movie.  I come to this movie knowing a lot about Hitchcock and having seen (and own) a great number of his films.  It was hard putting aside that knowledge as I watched this film because I knew a lot about what was going on in certain scenes.  I don't know if this helped or hinged me as I watched this movie.  Over all I liked the movie and found it a pleasant way to spend an hour and half of time.  By then end of the movie I didn't feel that time had been wasted.

The biggest reason to see this movie is the two actors in the lead roles.  Anthony Hopkins plays Alfred Hitchcock and Helen Mirren plays his wife, Alma Hitchcock.  These two were a delight to see on screen together and did a remarkable job of portraying an artistic married couple as they battled their up and down relationship.  Hopkins embodied Hitchcock - not just physically mind you - but also in mannerisms and even his speech was enunciated with Hitchcock's embellishment on words.  There was also a little Hannibal Lector in his speech and mannerisms, which is I guess OK as some of the story line relied heavily on Hitchcock using his films as a cathartic experience to exorcise his demons.  His many conversations with the late Ed Gein only help to enforce Hopkins either accidental or on purpose use of parts of Lector.  Mirren was a delight as she played the tortured artist ever standing behind the - large - shadow of Hitchcock.  She played the quiet wife to the public, with a precise perception, as she battled her own creative expression to the over large persona of her husband that the media had pushed her into and him into the lime light as a lone genius.  This story is as much about her as it about Hitchcock.  He wasn't just a driving force behind his movies, but her presence could be felt throughout everything as well, as this movie makes quite clear.  I really liked how this movie turned into a love story, of sorts, as it crossed into the third act.  It wasn't a sudden shift because there had been many moments leading up this point and when it crossed over it made for a really interesting love story.  Unlike any love story I've ever seen before.  But a good love story none-the-less.  Mirren played her part extremely well. 

Other things I noticed.  The consumption of food and drink played a huge part in this movie as Hitchcock is seeing eating or drinking many times.  It reminded me a lot of Tony Soprano from the Sopranos.  Even the sound of the food or drink being consumed reminded me of that show, as the sound tract did its best to emphasize Hitchcock and his intake of food or drink.  I think this has something to do, not just with his weight, but his appetite for things and his willingness to devour everything, and all people around him with reckless abandon, when his artistic urges arose.  His relationship with this wife and Vera Miles testifies to this throughout the movie.  

Danny Elman's score for this film simply worked on so many levels, as it heralded back to the collaboration of Bernard Herrmann and Hitchcock with ease, and in my opinion wasn't a hindrance to the movie.  It made the movie have a good feel for a Hitchcock thriller, without being overburdening, considering it wasn't a standard thriller, but had thrilleristic tendencies.  The music infused the scenes with an added suspense, when it needed it to, and flowed with the movie, when it called for it.  I personally think it was one of his best scores.

I've never heard of this director, but Sacha Gervasi did an interesting and competent job of handling this movie.  He was served with a decent screenplay and some great actors and actresses to help him turn an unlikely story into a entertaining movie.

Doctor Who: Season Four

Doctor Who: Season Four staring David Tennant and Katherine Tate. 

Well this is the last season for the best actor to ever play Doctor Who and what a last season he has. It’s both extremely memorable and as full of emotion, as anything I’ve seen from Doctor Who. One thing became very clear during this season, the Doctor needs a traveling companion because the few episodes, that didn’t have a set traveling  companion, I could tell there was something missing.  Then when Katherine Tate showed up the dialogue, banter, and sarcasm really started to fly, allowing the missing humor to inject the episodes with life, energy, and an intimacy that was clearly missing without a traveling companion. 

One of the things I’ve really come to like about this show is how the writers have made the Doctor and his traveling companions more real and relate-able.  They've done this a few ways.  One of those ways is by making their responses to things seem real and consistent.  By doing that they give the viewer an honest connection with the character because we know they will respond in a certain situation and that makes it funny, and like I said before, it makes relate-able.  Whereas if they were to respond out of character it takes the viewer out of the situation because the response is against the nature of the character. The writers seem to realize this and keep the consistency of the characters true to their character. 

Another thing I like that the writers do is actually have an idea where the story line is going and not just throwing things on the wall to see what sticks.  They also continue to plant seeds throughout the Season that was foreshadowed the last few episodes of this Season. I really like seeing shows that don’t treat the viewer as stupid but wants the viewer to pay attention to what is going on and encourages the viewer to pay attention to what is going on. I think the only thing I would have against this Season, but seems to be something that happens a lot in the Doctor Who Seasons, is that they start really slow and take about six episodes or so to get going.  This is a small complaint because when the episodes do get going they really take off  with full nuclear force. With so much force that I forgot about the slowness of it starting because it ends with such a double bang. 

This Season especially ended with a huge double bang: the actual Season ends with a huge two part episode that brings literally everyone back in David Tennant’s run that it’s sort of a family reunion and then there are four specials the last one being another huge two parter that is epic in scope and ideas. There are movies that don’t come anywhere near touching the hugeness of what they did in these episodes on an emotional scale or an idea scale. It made for some great television and a great ending to the David Tennant run. The writers even give David Tennant some great acting scenes that make his departure truly heartbreaking and his final line very emotional, “I don’t want to go.” He brought such a passion and energy to the Doctor role that I haven’t ever seen. I’m just extremely grateful he got to play the Doctor for more than one season. David Tennant, I don’t want you to go.

Snow White and the Huntsman

Snow White and the Huntsman directed by Rupert Sanders starring that whiny girl from the Twilight series and Chris Hemsworth.

How bad is this movie? 

It's really bad and the screenplay writers should hold their heads in shame. All of the fantasy cliches are here: destruction of village-Check; a lot of tracking shots of people traveling-Check; the infamous, "I'll swing my sword for you, bend my bow for you," speech-Check; villain wanting to take over the world-Check; a chosen one destined to save the world-Check; and a training scene/sequence-Check. This is one big long cliche ridden movie with little or thought actually given to anything but trying to real in the Twilight fans.

The continuity in this film is really bad and hinders most of the plot and pacing. Snow White stays locked up in that tower for like 14-15 years since she was a little girl, just think about that for a second, living in small room for that long. How would you look? What kind of knowledge would you have? How able would you be able to associate with people or for that matter even converse with people? Then all of sudden she escapes and is thrust forcibly into the world and responds with no real amazement, in fact it all just seems like another day for a girl who had been imprisoned for the last 14-15 years. I mean Of course why wouldn't it be. 

Then The Queen needs to find someone to lead them through the Dark Forest so they get the Huntsman to help them, then he joins with Snow White. So what does the Queen do?  She sends more people into the Dark Forest to find them. Wait a minute, didn't she just say she needed someone to guide her men through the Dark Forest and now all of a sudden they can just enter it without any guidance? That makes no sense. I could go on and on. The acting. What acting? There are hardly any scenes between two people where acting is involved it's all just an excuse to get what resembles the plot moving forward there is no character development no motivations other than standard cliched ones. What character development there is hinted at: the Queen's being cursed/blessed by her mother for revenge is intriguing but goes no where, it's just words spoken because they sound interesting.  The Huntsman mourning his wife is just the standard token "Let's give him something dark from his past" and goes no where.  The scene where the Queen's brother admits to raping the Huntsman's wife was pathetic and stretching.  It was just included to make him all the more evil and to give the Huntsman some sort of motivation.  Both of these attempts as character development go no where. They are merely just passing attempts to give the movie some form of substance.  They piqued my interests but then went no where. 

I'm not a big fan of Kirsten Stewart.  She seems to have the same whiny expression in about every movie she does and every scene she's in, no matter what kind of emotional state the scene requires.  Her face is always one of pouting, confusion, and bewilderment.  But even I'll admit they didn't give her much to work with in this movie.  She was just required to stand around looking perplexed, flustered, confused, or somewhat angry but then again maybe that's why she was hired. Then that speech she has to use near the end of the movie to rouse the troops was terrible and completely unmoving. Chris Hemsworth was the real star and characteristic person in this movie as the Huntsman. The really sad thing is there's a good movie here wanting to be made.