Fall TV First Impressions

There were 2 new shows I watched this week, so i'll get to it.

Hellcats
Wednesdays, 9 p.m. The CW
First strike against this one: no HD on my local CW affiliate, and Standard definition makes my soul cry. Even so, I liked it. This is Glee for cheerleading. There's even a Rachel equivalent(Ashley Tisdale). Our hero is Marti(Aly Michalka), forced to try out for a cheerleading scholarship to stay in school. Why did I enjoy the show? could it be the fact that I couldn't tell if those were cheerleaders or employees of Déjà Vu minus the pole? That doesn't hurt, but no. I just really liked the main character and the tone of the show. Also There's a Cylon!
Verdict: I'll keep watching. ***

Terriers
Wednesdays, 10 p.m. FX
Donal Logue and the serial killer from True Blood season one(Michael Raymond-James) are private eyes. This is pretty awesome. It's nice to see the True Blood guy not playing a psycho, and Donal Logue is always good. The pilot does a nice job setting up the bad guy and showing how well the leads work together.
Verdict: Season Pass ****
Nikita
Thursdays, 9 p.m. The CW

Bucket List Item #32
Finally make Praline Bacon.

NFL Week 2

Well week one is behind us, and I for one couldn't be happier. Let us never speak of it again. I went 2-3 in my Fantasy Leagues, but the teams that won seem really good, and one of the losers could turn it around. This weeks picks.

Week 2
Season Record: 3-0
Game Picks
1. Green Bay over Buffalo
2. Dallas over Chicago
3. Indianapolis over New York Jets

Bucket List Item #217
Write a bawdy limerick

NFL Week 1

Yay! Real football is back tonight. I always concentrate too much on my fantasy team over watching the games. In a bid to keep that from happening this year, I have Five fantasy teams instead of one. My thinking is it will be impossible to follow real time scoring for five separate teams, therefore I will be forced to watch the games. I think Super Bowl XLV will see the Green Bay Packers take on the Baltimore Ravens, with the Packers winning.
Week 1
Game Picks
1. New Orleans over Minnesota
2. Miami over Buffalo
3. Arizona over St. Louis

Bucket List Item #16
Punch a Whale.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Review

 I love the Scott Pilgrim books by Bryan Lee O'Malley. I would even say the combined six volumes go ahead of Watchmen as my favorite comic book ever. I love Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz all directed by Edgar Wright, so Naturally I was rather excited when it was announced that Edgar Wright would be directing the Scott Pilgrim movie. My excitement was tempered for a long time because I didn't know what the movie would look like. When the first trailer came out in March I was thrilled, and August felt like it was years away.

When I finally got to see the movie I was a little nervous. About two minutes in I knew they had nailed it. The music was very well chosen, specifically Beck's songs for Sex Bob-omb and a Metric song for The Clash at Demonhead. Nigel Godrich's score was excellent. The stunt team deserves a ton of credit as the fight scenes were such an important part of the movie. Edgar Wright's direction, Bill Pope's cinematography and the editing and the Art Direction and the visual effects and... you get the point. I guess what I'm saying is, for me Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is almost a perfect movie.

A lot of people don't like Michael Cera. I'm not one of them. The common criticism is that he always plays the same character. I think that's bullshit. He always plays some form of young socially awkward person, but they are all different characters(except for Year One). Michael Cera is awesome as Scott Pilgrim. Admittedly, he isn't exactly the Scott I saw in my head reading the books, but I thought he was a great Scott nonetheless. Alison Pill, Mark Webber and Johnny Simmons were all fantastic as the rest of Sex Bob-omb, although I wish they could have included more of Kim's back story. Ellen Wong has an amazing debut movie performance, and I liked Mary Elizabeth Winstead a lot too, bringing the Ramona I saw in the books to life. Kieran Culkin as Wallace pretty much steals the movie, and Brandon Routh as Todd Ingram and Mae Whitman as Roxie Richter should also be praised as my favorite evil exes.

All things considered I couldn't be happier with Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and will be counting the days until I can own the Blu-Ray.

**** out of ****


Bucket List Item #29
1. While driving, put on Alan Silvestri's Back to the Future theme.
2. Accelerate to 88mph.
3. Make time travel noises. Also a flashing light would be a plus.
4. Pretend it's the future(or the past)
5. Repeat steps 1-3 to get back to the present.

Academy Awards Prediction

What I think will get nominated for Best Picture even though I haven't seen most of these movies yet.
Shutter Island
Toy Story 3
The Kids Are All Right
Inception
The Town
The Social Network
Black Swan
How Do You Know
Somewhere
True Grit

List-O-Rama Movies: Day 5

Movies
Before I get to my 2010 most anticipated list, I thought I would take a look back at my 2009 list.

10. I Love You, Man
****
9. Up
****
8. Jennifer's Body
****
7. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
**
6. Funny People
****
5. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
***
4. Terminator Salvation
***
3. Inglourious Basterds
****
2. Star Trek
****
1. Watchmen
****
My top 3 are the same for this and my top 10 of the year. At least 3 stars(out of 4) for all but 1. I'll hope for as good this year.

Most Anticipated Movies of 2010
10. Hot Tub Time Machine - March 19th
I have an irrational love for time travel movies.

9. The A-Team - June 11th
I've never seen the show, but if Taken tought us anything it's that Liam Neeson in an action movie is gold.

8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I - November 19th
This would be higher, but I expect Part 2 will be better.

7. Clash of the Titans - March 26th
I loved Louis Leterrier's last movie The Incredible Hulk, and it has Voldemort as Hades!

6. Shutter Island - February 19th
Martin Scorsese doing horror.

5. Toy Story 3 - June 18th
Pixar good. Um... fire bad?

4. Kick-Ass - April 16th
This movie has a little girl killing mobsters. With a Sword.

3. Inception - July 16th
Christopher Nolan.

2. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - Sometime in August
This fills the Watchmen mold, as in I just want to see how they do it.

1. Iron Man 2 - May 7th
The Downey! War Machine! Black Widow! Bad MotherF***er Nick Fury!


THE END.

List-O-Rama Movies: Day 4

Movies
Favorite Movies All-Time
My list is different this year. I really thought about it, and this is what I came up with.

10. The Shawshank Redemption
9. Spider-man 2
8. Jurassic Park
7. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
6. Raiders of the Lost Ark
5. Pulp Fiction
4. Back to the Future
3. The Empire Strikes Back
2. The Dark Knight
1. Fight Club