The Walking Dead: Season 1 Review

When I first saw a poster for the series The Walking Dead, I was skeptical. A television series with zombies? It sounded weird to say it out loud. Movies like Dawn of the Dead (original and remake), 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead had already made zombies cool. People have been enjoying zombies in book and graphic novel form as well. Television just didn't feel like the right medium for zombies because the makers would never be able to have the same freedoms as the other mediums. Basically put, how can you make a good zombie series without some incredibly nice gore?

In comes AMC. The channel has gotten a lot of press in the last few years with series like Mad Men and Breaking Bad. Apparently they told the makers of this series that they could do whatever they needed to do to make this a hit and the result is pretty amazing. Now, the show is based on a graphic novel of the same name written by Robert Kirkman, that I have never read. After checking some of it out, it seems to me like the show was pretty much loyal to the original story but also taking some interesting liberties that make the transition from graphic novel to television show better.

The characters are pretty damn similar for the most part.

One of the interesting pieces in this series to me was creator and director of the pilot Frank Darabont. He took this graphic novel and turned it into a viable, tense and incredibly well done series . The pilot he directed is almost a movie in a of itself and it will hook anyone who watches it. The main characters Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Shane Walsh (John Bernthal) are established and they are likable everyday people. There are a couple of scenes that Darabont really makes shine and those are the first time Lincoln wakes up and is staring at the barricaded door where the zombie hand reaches out and the scene at the end of the pilot when Lincoln walks through the park and eventually finds and shoots a zombie torso that had tried to attack him earlier in the episode. There is something about the camera work that makes this series shine. What else can we expect from the director of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile? This guys knows drama and horror.

There are only 6 episodes on this season, but they are all pretty damn good. An episode like "Guts" is surprising to see on tv. The rest of the cast work well with each other. There are various interesting side stories, but the main story will always be finding a way to survive. You can tell when its a good zombie movie when you don't know if the title refers to the zombies or the surviving humans.

Zombies have always been metaphors for humanity at their basest most reptilian forms. This series does a great job not only with some top notch directing but with a good cast, a great script and some really good special effects. Really high recommendation. Watch this unless you are squeamish.

9 out of 10

ALpocalypse Review!

Alpocalypse by 'Weird' Al Yankovic

'Weird' Al Yankovic has made a career out of parodying pop culture and after almost 30 years, he still manages to be relevant. This is Weird Al's 13th studio album, the aptly named Alpocalypse in honor of all the end of the world predictions that have been going on these last few years and I have to say that I liked this album. I've always been a fan of Weird Al but the last few albums seemed to be missing something that the earlier albums had in spades.

The big thing about this album was supposed to be the parody of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" called "Perform This Way". After some drama during the process of getting Gaga's permission to do the parody. As has always been Yankovic's MO, he sought to get Gaga's OK to do the song and was turned away supposedly by her manager. After it became public, Gaga came out and said that she never said no. Whoever you may want to believe, the song is done, the video is done and the album is done and this song is pretty damned hilarious. The video is even more hilarious.



See? The whole song just works. The lyrics are funny and I have to admit that it feels weird to see that hot woman's body with Al's face. The first time you see it, you sort of have to do a double take.

There are some other really nice songs, like "Craigslist" which is a style parody of The Doors with former Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek making a nice appearance and making the song really seem like a Doors song. "Another Tattoo" is a parody of "Nothin' on You" by B.o.B. is also a pretty interesting parody and a nice song in and of itself.

There are some minor let downs for me, like "Ringtone". It's a style parody of Queen, but the song annoys me more than any song by Weird Al should. The same goes for the style parody of Weezer called "Skipper Dan". Both songs aren't bad, but they just don't seem up to par with the rest of the album. Maybe with a few more listens they will grow on me.

The real highlights of this album are the Whites Stripes inspired "CNR" and its video.



The song is basically using the idea of the Chuck Norris' facts and using it to describe deceased actor, director and game show host Charles Nelson Reilly. The song is catchy and really does well to apply that White Stripes style that so many people seem to enjoy. The video is freaking awesome. The animation and use of green screens by JibJab studios is really cool (check out their website and their end of year reviews). The song is incredibly catchy.

One of the constants in Weird Al's albums has always been the Polka song. A compilation of different songs that have been played and played ad nauseam during the time period of the release of the album. This specific polka "Polka Face" seems to be mostly female pop songs. The polka includes artists like Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Lady Antebellum, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber etc etc. This one might not be on par with "Angry White Boy Polka", "The Alternative Polka" or "Polka Power!", but its still pretty good.

Another thing I was looking forward to that Weird Al has been doing since Running With Scissors, was what I call the epic song. "Albuquerque", "Genius in France" and "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" are long ass songs that are just really cool and this album was missing a song like those. I was just a bit disappointed.

In the end, this is a pretty cool album. Probably has two of my favorite Weird Al Yankovic videos and probably "CNR" is one of my new favorite songs. It has hit and miss stuff, but its mostly good. Check it out.

7 out of 10

Marvel meets Mad Men: A First Class Review

When I first heard that X-Men: First Class was being made I was more than a bit skeptical. After Origins: Wolverine and Last Stand to say I was a bit down on X-Men movies would be like saying Rebecca Black got a lukewarm reaction.

People started getting riled up about this when production pictures started hitting the net. But that's just stupid. Every superhero movie these days is going to look great in pictures, with the massive budgets thrown into these movies making them look pretty is the least they could do.

It wasn't until I saw the first trailer that I took notice to how unique the visual style of the movie was. Mainly set in 1962 the movie uses the 60's style to some extent, yet at the same time it ups the grittiness of it all by not playing up the era to an Austin Powers type level.

The movie's mood carries itself rather seriously. Kind of like the first X-Men movie, just not as dark. Ironically enough the best way to look at this movie is by comparing it to the AMC show Mad Men, which also stars January Jones (shwing) who plays Emma Frost.

I mostly agree with the cast selections, especially the adult roles. James McAvoy does a good job with Prof. X, but it's obvious that the show stealers are Michael Fassbender as Magneto and Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw. That's right, finally a good outing for X-Men villains. I'm not saying Ian McKellen didn't do a good job in the first three movies, I just think the Magneto character was misused in those movies. In FC, he shows why he is considered one of the most bad ass villains in comic book history.

-Insert MCR meme joke here-

Kevin Bacon does a great job as one of the great, yet underrated villains in the Marvel universe. I can honestly say that every time that Shaw is on screen he really does command a certain amount of fear/respect. The sharp contrast between mutants just learning to control their powers and Shaw, who constantly shocks them with his abilities is very well used to build him up as a villain.

Plus, he does it with style.

 The other characters seem to fall under these three, and with good reason. January Jones, while fun to look at, plays the exact same character as she does in Mad Men. She plays the hot bitchy blonde pretty well.

I also thought that Jennifer Laurence was slightly underutilized as Mystique. She seemed rather prominent at the beginning, just to slowly fade into the background bit by bit. I did like how they switched up her history to pair her up with Xavier. Most die hards might be angry at the switch up, but I believe that Mystique's history is ambiguous enough to make the change believable.

There are other slight changes to the comic book canon. But they are barely noticeable. Yeah, they switch up Havoc and Cyclops' ages, making Havoc older. But really, who cares? It's just a minor detail.

That leads me to one of my slight problems with it. Some of the cast looks way too young. And this is me nitpicking. But if I was in Charles Xavier's shoes, and I was told to assemble a team of mutants to fight a real bunch of badasses. I sure as hell wouldn't chose a bunch of kids like he did. Banshee and Havok looked like fifteen year olds, and they were going up against the likes of Azazel, who looked totally awesome and kicked all sorts of ass.

"I have to fight him?! But I'm only twelve!"

The movie also feels like Mad Men because it ties in directly into a historical event, something that Mad Men has done repeatedly during it's run. But unlike Mad Men, our characters aren't just innocent bystanders to history, they're there as it happens, turning the Cuban Missile Crisis into somewhat of a conspiracy mid movie.

The one thing that really pissed me off about the movie is a certain cameo which I will not spoil for those who haven't seen it yet. It was just unnecessary, which I guess is what makes it a cameo... But it just pissed me off nonetheless.

It is a very new direction for X-Men movies, a fun new direction. First Class is visually appealing and oddly enough, historically intriguing. As rumors for a sequel start to stir I can only say that it is a rare occasion when a movie franchise has two seemingly limitless pools of material from which to draw ideas from. In this case they have both, historical events from the sixties to the present, and the entire X-Men universe. The possibilities are endless, and from what we've seen already, they could be spectacular.

8/10

Copa America Preview

The Copa America is the most important competition in South American International football after the World Cup. The top teams battle it out against each other to find out who will be the top team in South America. The teams are Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia and invitees Mexico and Costa Rica. The format is the usual group stage elimination phase followed by a tournament single elimination style.

Who Will Win?

It's hard to pick against Argentina in their home soil but that is exactly what I'm going to do. I think Brazil will be able to take this tournament in a tight final, as it always is when the top teams in South America meet. Why do I think Brazil will win? Basically, Brazil's defense is just way better than the rest. With Lúcio, Maicon, David Luiz, Thiago, and Dani Alves, Brazil are ready to defend against the high powered attacks of teams like Chile, Uruguay and Argentina. Also, up front, they have youngster wunderkind Neymar and experienced goal scorers Robinho and Pato to get them the goals they need to take this away.

Who Will Come Close?

I think Uruguay have a very good chance of winning this thing. I put this here because I wanted to give them props and after what they were able to do during the world cup doesn't really classify them as Dark Horses. With an attack that boasts three of the best forwards in the game, Uruguay definitely has a chance to shine here. Diego Forlán, Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez are a fearsome combination and Uruguay will need all of their creativity up front to be able to get around Brazil's defense. Be on the lookout for this team.

Who is the Dark Horse?

There are many interesting teams in this competition. Colombia and Paraguay are interesting teams to see. My dark horse is Chile. They have very very good players all around. From forwards Alexis Sanchez and Humberto Suazo to Bayer Leverkusen's Arturo Vidal in the midfield and defenders Gonzalo Jara and Pablo Contreras, this team has a chance to really shine in this competition.

Who Will Win the Golden Boot?

This one is hard to predict, but I believe that Luis Suarez will take the golden boot (given to the player who scores the most goals). He looked really good the second half for Liverpool and I think he will be able to use Cavani and Forlán to take away defenders and his natural creativity with the ball at his feet will shine through.

Disappointment?

I'm not saying that they will be eliminated in the group stage, but since I picked them to lose at some point, the disappointment has to be Argentina. They have had a nice long drought since they won the Copa America back in 1993 and the fans are expecting them to win. The pressure is all on them and on Lionel Messi who many consider to be the best player in the world but in the international stage hasn't won anything yet.

Who will be a train wreck?

I could have said a team like Costa Rica, but having joined last minute because Japan could not participate, an Under 23 team will be the one participating. After winning the Gold Cup and going through some drama with five players testing positive for an illegal substance, the Mexican Under 23 team that was sent to South America had another round of suspensions when the team gathered up some prostitutes and where found out. Giovanni Dos Santos, the best player they sent, appears to be one of those suspended. I just wonder what else could happen to this team.

Check the games out. It should be a good competition to whet our appetites for next years Euro 2012.

Netflix Reviews #2

Second edition of Netflix Reviews... I'm calling this one "The (Mostly) Jeff Bridges Edition".

Elephant White

If you have never seen Ong Bak, The Protector, or Chocolate and you are an action/martial arts movie fan, you are doing yourself a great disservice. Prachya Pinkaew is one of the best action/martial arts directors working right now. His love for the Thai boxing style that is not only intense but also works well on film plus his fantastic eye for talent like Tony Jaa and JeeJa Yanin make him a top director in this style of film. I was interested in his latest movie when I saw that it was his first English film, that is... until I saw the actors. I should have known then and there that this was going to be pretty bad. Djimon Hounsou (Gladiator, Blood Diamond) is terribly miscast here as the main character with one of the worst names I have ever seen in any movie... Curtie Church. He just seemed wrong all the way around. His acting was stiff and not very believable or it might have been the terrible script. Also, his partner in crime is none other than Kevin Bacon.

Six degrees of suckitude.

He has one of the worst British accents I have ever heard. It's almost as bad as Tom Cruise's German accent in Valkyrie. It's a story of child traficking and child prostitution but it feels like the filmmakers decided to tack that in just to have morality in the film. They never really take advantage of what is a sensitive and under used theme. It's too bad that the mistake basically sucked the life out of the film. The action scenes which was something I was looking forward to were just ok and there's not enough of it which is a disappointment. The plot with the character Mae was painfully obvious and newcomer Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul was pretty dreadful. Avoid this at all costs.

2 out of 10

Sanctum

It's hard to make a movie like this one both entertaining and challenging. In order for movies like this to work, you have to work hard to make the cave system into a character. Build it up so much that you feel like it is an integral part of the story. Neil Marshall's The Descent was able to make this happen and also add the 'monster' idea to spice things up. It made the movie incredibly scary and claustrophobic. This movie sort of fails to make it as tense. The cast is pretty weak, which probably helps to not make this such a great movie. Richard Ruxburgh plays Frank McGuire who is apparently the best cave diver in the world. He is rough around the edges but soft inside. His son Josh is played by Rhys Wakefield. Rounding up the team (at least the important ones) are Ioan Gruffudd as the multi millionare thrill seeker Carl that is funding the expedition and his girlfriend Victoria played by Alice Parkinson. The twists and turns are pretty obvious and not very surprising (if they tell you to put on the suit, you put it on, darn it!). The cave they are exploring is flooded by a cyclone... which is surprising that after all that money spent on the best equipment, they have no idea when the storm is going to strike. But alas, they basically seek a way to escape through the ocean. It's just generic all around. Not even the "Produced by James Cameron" could help this movie be more than just average.

4 out of 10

True Grit

Finally! Something good. This movie is a remake of the 1969 version that won John Wayne his only Academy Award for Best Actor. This time though, two of my favorite directors tackle on this movie. The Coen Brothers (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men) have directed a bunch of fantastic and critically acclaimed movies and for good reason. They always have fantastic writing, great characters and simply beautiful shots that make the movies something to behold. If there is one thing that their movies have is that they are gritty, so its fitting that they are the directors for this remake. They team up with Jeff Bridges once more as he plays the old and tough U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn. Bridges was the perfect choice for this role. He has recently become the guy to go to for roles like this one and there is a reason for it. He is great. At the behest of 14 year old Mattie Ross, Cogburn teams up with Texas Ranger LaBeouf in search of the Tim Chaney who killed Mattie's father and escaped with criminal "Lucky" Ned Pepper. The most important role in this movie though is Mattie Ross. Hailee Steinfeld is a newcomer to the big screen but she takes this role and breathes life and defiance into it. There is something to be said about her determination. Most of the times when a young actor is placed in a role like this, they barely get through it, but Steinfeld did so well that it was believable. Matt Damon as Labeouf wasn't as interesting but Josh Brolin as Tom Chaney was. When we see him it is obvious by the look on his face throughout that he is battling within himself. We are never told why, but you can see it on his face, like he knows he screwed up in some way. The fact is that this is a really good movie. The ending was perfect for me. It would have probably sucked if the ending was just run-of-the-mill. Highly recommended for the performances, the music, the acting, the directing and just everything in between. Also... fear the bear man!

We need a bear man movie... NOW!

9 out of 10

Crazy Heart

Jeff Bridges is the shit. He had become a top actor today and he finally won the Oscar for Best Actor that he definitely deserved. He won it with his performance in this movie as Bad Blake. Bad is a run down old country singer that has been doing small bars and bowling alleys to get by. A mostly functional alcoholic, it is not until he meets Jean Craddock and her son Buddy that he starts to live the life he always wanted and raising the son that he never cared for back in the day. It takes a startling event for him to really wake up and realize the danger that he has put himself into with the alcohol. The story is not complex, then again, it doesn't need to be. The characters are complex enough that they don't need an overtly complex story. You really get a sense of who Bad at the beginning of the movie when he drinks himself to sleep but ends up going to the show anyways and saying how he has never missed a show in his life. That takes incredible character on his part and a deep desire not to disappoint his fans. The way he treats Jean's son is fantastic to see most of the time. He is a caring but lost soul for most of the film. The soundtrack is really amazing. I'm not a big fan of country as a genre, but the music here is really good. Even more knowing that Jeff Bridges and a couple of the other actors (Colin Farrell especially) sing their songs as well. To think that this is Scott Coopers directorial debut is also a real wonder as it seemed to me that this was a veteran behind the lens. I really look forward to what he has to offer next.

8.5 out of 10



So, in conclusion. If the movie has Jeff Bridges, check it out!