Get Hard

Overall Rating: LMFAO

Full Disclosure: I am a total Will Ferrell fan. He is one of my absolute favs all the way back from the SNL days.

Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed and literally laughed out loud at his newest project. I was slightly unsure about how the chemistry would turn out between him and Kevin Hart – whose style I worried might clash was an absolute complement. Yes, there were some very Ferrelly moments in the movie, those awkward and outlandish moments that only WF can create, but a lot of the movie really it kept it 100 in comparison to the rest of his films.

One of the best things about this movie was how it smoothly it dealt with class and race. Most movies have an awkward embellishment of stereotypes, especially for marginalized communities of people, regardless of genre. Get Hard employed stereotypes about as little as you possibly could with stereotyping itself being one of the plot points. Yes, there were black people in a gang, but I’d have to say their characters were much more authentic than the elitist whites.
I think that’s why Hart and Ferrell made such a magical duo. One could not have made this movie without the other.
Time to go look for my ass now, since I just laughed it off.

The 100

As far as post-apocalyptic shows go, this one is pretty fun. Not funny, it’s not a comedy. But it has a way of sticking in my head. It drives my imagination. It’s also great timing. This winter has been so awful and so long, I too feel like I’m finally feeling the sun and nature in what’s seemed like a lifetime.

And, if you’re going to have an unrealistic show about hormonal teens, you have to make it totally unrealistic to be any good, which I think they do here. I take it with a grain of salt because it is on the WB or CW whatever, and it’s going to be a show full of teens making dumb decisions in contrived circumstances. For what it is, I like it.

I do have a major issue though, there’s too much dying. Killing Wells was awful, he didn’t seem like an expendable character. I thought there was a lot more that could be explored with him alive than dead, least of which would be a love triangle. Not to mention all the others on the ark or on the earth, that you just get to know and like… then already they’re dead.

Do they really expect me to put in the emotional effort for all 100, only to have them die? They oughta calm down and do some real writing before I lose interest. Killing off one character after another makes for a good, mindless action movie… not a tv show.

Resurrection

Overall Rating: Meh.

I am not one to shy away from fantasy based tv shows. So when Resurrection came out, I obliged and watched. It’s ok. I will say that the sci-fi principal that it’s based on still has me puzzled. I’m curious; I really have no idea where all the dead people are coming from, but I don’t really care enough to look up the plot from the original novel… although it may be fun to do just to put some spoilers out there…

But there’s no way this show is going to last. Maybe it’s got one season, but it might even get canceled early, it’s just not that entertaining.

I think Omar Epps really loves the role of the “level-headed black man” this was the role he played (wonderfully) for years on House, and here it is again.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

I have yet to express on this blog just how much I LOVE Will Ferrell. Like many other of his movies, there’s a plethora of one-liners that I still laugh at, no matter how many times I watch it. The physical comedy, the way Ferrell never passes up an opportunity to strip down to his tighty-whities, and of course a well-stacked cast of other comedians all make for an excellent time. Cohen’s French accent is just as terrible as Van Dyke’s British one, Molly Shannon is the quirky frosting on the cake, and oddly enough, this is the most normal character I’ve ever seen played by Jane Lynch.

  •  Dear Eight Pound, Six Ounce, Newborn Baby Jesus, in your golden, fleece diapers, with your curled-up, fat, balled-up little fists pawin’ at the air…
  • This sticker is dangerous and inconvenient, but I do love Fig Newtons.
  • Help me Jesus! Help me Jewish God! Help me Allah! AAAAAHHH! Help me Tom Cruise! Tom Cruise, use your witchcraft on me to get the fire off me!
  • Where are you, Pepé Le Bitch?
  • There is something I want to get off my chest. It’s about that summer, when you went away to community college. I got an offer to do Playgirl Magazine, and I did it. I did a full spread for Playgirl Magazine. I mean spread man, I pulled my butt apart and stuff. I was totally nude. it was weird, I… I mean you probably didn’t hear about it because I went under the name of Mike Honcho. But I just wanted you to know that. If you can hear me, if it got into your brain somehow. That I spread my buttcheeks as Mike Honcho.
  • Let’s use this knife to pry it out!… You gotta cut around the meat…
  •  Even Diane Sawyer needed Katie Couric. Will you be my…Katie Couric?
  • America is all about speed. Hot, nasty, badass speed. -Eleanor Roosevelt, 1936
  • Chip, I’m gonna come at you like a spider monkey!
  • ] If we wanted us some wussies, we would have named them ‘Dr. Quinn’ and ‘Medicine Woman’, okay?
  •  Ten years? Man! I gotta lay off the peyote.

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland – And they lived…

I wasn’t paying much attention, and it appears that one of my preferred shows went and got canceled. Up until the last few minutes of the episode, I was anticipating a sudden twist and a cliffhanger. Turns out, it was just a happily ever after.

At least the writers were given a decent amount of notice in order to wrap up the story well. I just hate it when series is ended on a cliffhanger, without a hope of resurrection. The producers also had the decency and foresight to not screw up and stretch out the story arcs just to eke out a few more episodes.

All said, definitely a re-watchable series to binge on if you’re stuck inside for a weekend.

PS- I will not be missing Jafar’s Jerry curl

jafar

Believe

Overall Review: Intriguing

This is one of a few new shows that premiered in March. I think it’s got a lot of potential, and I find myself even more eager for Sunday nights, which has another of my favorite supernatural  shows, Once Upon A Time.

Anyway, Believe seems like a cross between The Pretender and Heroes. The premise largely built on a cat v. mouse chase gives the show potential to last awhile without stretching the plot out too thin. The superhero/ability universe so far seems very similar to Heroes, although it doesn’t have the same strength as an ensemble. It’s okay though, because I love the Father-Daughter dynamic, they’re such a quirky pair.

 

I am looking forward to at least 3 seasons of this show.

 

Instructions Not Included ~ No se aceptan devoluciones

This is a beautiful film from 2013. There’s plenty of cheesy,  slapstick, physical comedy, along with cross-cultural humor. It’s really marketed toward bilinguals, but I think anybody can enjoy it because it has the most endearing father-daughter love story.

Plus, it has a twist that actually caught me by surprise, which doesn’t happen much.

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland

Overall Rating: Promising

I was very skeptical of how enjoyable this show would be. I think both the book and Disney movie of Alice in Wonderland are terrible, and it’s a spin-off (haven’t been any worthwhile spin-offs since Buffy/Angel). But, because I am a fan of Once Upon a Time I thought I’d give it a shot.

Pros:

  • The cinematography is mesmerizing.
  • Much like OUaT, it takes the most interesting parts of fantasy worlds/characters and blends them together seamlessly. I can always admire writers that put in the work to create a world with its own “laws of science” per se. By comparison, those that create a story in the “real world” seem lazy.
  • John Lithgow
  • The characters are intriguing. Alice’s daddy issues alone could fill two volumes, and if its predecessor is any indication of things to come, there will be plenty of long, twisty back stories and surprisingly human villains. I just love a good flash back.