Superheroes, the movie

Another spoof film from the folks who did Scary movie and hot shots and all those others. I'm not suggesting you rush out and get it, but it did have a few really funny scenes. I particularly enjoyed the extended farting scene with Marion Ross from Happy Days. I spit ice tea through my nose.

Ok, so part of me is still 12, it was till really funny.

Does McCain need to drop out of the race!!!???

I think he does....

Our main right wing man was not born in the US!
perezhilton.com

Rescue Me Season Four

Rescue Me Season Four
Sony

Anyone who has seen this show knows that it is full of bittersweet moments. Leary’s character Tommy Gavin is a man troubled by many things and in turns tends to make many bad decisions. The people around him are similar, if not to the same extremes. But what makes this such a great show and so utterly watchable is the fact that everyone on this show is so believable. There is definitely some extreme behavior, but I’ve know people who have acted like this for real. Every episode I watch has me rooting for these folks to succeed, yet leaving me not the least surprised if they don’t.
Season Four sees a different Tommy Gavin than the one we met in season one, he’s sober, he quit smoking, and he seems more mature. He’s struggling with his problems and trying to find answers. He still battles the urge to drink, he has questions about his faith and his job and his family. The season opens with Tommy facing arson charges. There is also a new baby boy in the house and there is a question about whether it is Tommy’s or his dead brother’s. Members of his firehouse are all struggling with relationship issues and there is a tragedy early on that changes the dynamic at work.

I think what this season is about is not so much redemption, but acceptance. Accepting that you can’t control life, only make the best of it. There is a wonderful little speech at the end in the last episode by Lou at a baseball game that compares life to baseball that really wraps it up nicely. This is immediately followed by one of the best acted scenes I’ve ever seen Leary do. He and his Father played by Charles Durning are having a real bonding experience at a ball game. This is the front of a montage showing various characters with the Cars “let the good times roll” playing in the background. As the camera comes to rest on Leary and Durning and then pulls back and fades into the credits I got choked up. Sadness, understanding and satisfaction filled.
Bittersweet to the very last, and some of the best TV I’ve ever watched.

Jon

Hawaii Five 0 Season 4

Season four of this show, shown originally in fall of 1971-spring of 1972, is another masterpiece. The writing is top notch and you can see that the writers understood the need to mix things up. We have episodes with international intrigue like the two part The 90 Second War, cases with simple theft turned sour like as in the episode with Vic Morrow and John Ritter called Two Doves and Mr. Morrow. There is a wonderful episode with Buddy Epson as the leader of a scam to use stolen travelers checks. Hume Cronyn is back as the villain with a million faces in Odd Man In. Such issues as serial killing and blackmail are common as are episodes with McGarrett trying to keep the mob out of Hawaii. The plots hold up well and in a lot of cases the police work they show is ahead of its time. Forensics play a big part and so does the knowledge of needing cases to hold up in court.


Once again the driving force of the show is McGarrett and his drive to see justice done. While he is obviously a swinging single, nothing interferes with work, not even the government. McGarrett also has a relationship with his fellow detectives and treats them with respect. All members of the Five-O team are important and no one man makes it work solo. He assumes each officer can do any job assigned to them and they seem to always come through. I think television writers of today’s shows could learn a few things from watching these episodes.



I should also add this this is one show that I always let the opeing run all the way through, I love the theme song and the intro montage.


The Islands of Hawaii made it easy to entice guest stars on to Hawaii Five-O and anyone familiar with television from the seventies and eighties is sure to recognize people throughout this season. 24 episodes strong this set doesn’t have any special features, but who cares! The show is great, and again I recommend it highly.

Jon Jordan

Batman Gotham Knight

We were fortunate enough to see a preview of this while we were at Wizard World Chicago.
The animated shorts here are meant to bridge the gap between Batman Begins and Dark Knight. They took the right right approach and brought in some top notch writers to work on this.

The first vignette is by Josh Olson (who also worked on History of Violence) and it's called Have I Got a Story For You. It tells the same story from the perspective of four different kids, each having a different experience with seeing Batman.

Number 2 is by Greg Rucka who has a place in the hearts of all Batman fans. His tale is rather like his comic Gotham Central though there was a slight character change which for some reason we can't know about yet... Two warring mob factions shooting it out and Gotham cops stuck in the middle.

Jordan Goldberg did a story called Field Test and shows Batman setting limits for himself while testing new devices to use in his war on crime.

David D Goyer who was on Batman Begins wrote the fourth piece and it features a battel with Killer Croc and has Batman dealing with some strange emotions while drugged. It's called Where Darkness Dwells.

Brian Azzarello weighs in with working through pain and shows Bruce Wayne training to deal with pain and some hard lessons that go with it.

Alan Burnett brings it home with Deadshot. A great look at one of the wonderful villains Batman has crossed paths with over the years.

A different director did each part:

Yasuhiro Aoki		(segment "In Darkness Dwells")
Futoshi Higashide		(segment "Crossfire")
Toshiyuki Kubooka		(segment "Working Through Pain")
Hiroshi Morioka		(segment "Field Test")
Shoujirou Nishimi		(segment "Have I Got a Story For You")

The whole thing was great though I really liked Working Through Pain a bit more. The music works, the animation was really nice and not what I expected.

If you are a fan of the DC animated movies, in particular New Frontier and Superman Doomsday you will love this. Family friendly and ready to rock. I'm going for the two disc set.
July 8 it hits the stores