"The Master" (2012)

The Master

Rated R (for language, sexual content and graphic nudity)

2 Hours 17 Minutes

Starring:

Joaquin Phoenix, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams.

Storyline:

A striking portrait of drifters and seekers in post World War II America, Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master unfolds the journey of a Naval veteran (Joaquin Phoenix) who arrives home from war unsettled and uncertain of his future - until he is tantalized by The Cause and its charismatic leader (Philip Seymour Hoffman)

Rotten Tomatoes Score:

87%

(Smart, powerfully acted, beautifully filmed, and solidly engrossing, The Master extends writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson's winning streak of challenging films for serious audiences.)

My Grade:

C+

Well folks, we have our first major Oscar bait movie of 2012 in Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master". Hist first film since his masterful "There Will Be Blood". He also directed one of my all time favorite movies, "Magnolia" back in 1999 and is responsible for "Boogie Nights" and "Punch Drunk Love". With The Master, it's now become clear that he is become more strange and obscure with each new movie he churns out. The Master is not a direct retelling of the creation of the religion of Scientology, but it's pretty damn obvious that there are some parallels here. It's about a war veteran drunk drifter who stumbles upon a group of people who are part of The Cause. A new religion (as far as we know) led by the charismatic Lancaster Dodd. 

Like I said, there are clear cut similarities between The Cause and Scientology. However, it's never truly stated in this story as exactly what the Cause believes in. We get some of the practices they do and some of the smaller parts of their belief system. For instance, they believe invaders are after our souls, and our souls travel from one vessel to the next in various lives. It focuses a lot on past lives. But the film never really dives deep into the heart of what they truly believe, of what their focus is, what their goal is. The leader is just making it up as he goes (as is stated a few times in the movie) but what is his purpose? I would have loved if they spent some time prodding into the head of Dodd and showing us what his motives were and if he really believed that crap he was peddling or if he knew exactly what he was doing was BS and what his plan was. Was he in it for the riches the fame? Was he doing this so that he was able to focus and not drift like Joaquin Phoenix's character. This is one of the biggest aspects of the movie, and yet it felt empty and left completely open.

The primary story here was about the drifter. He was the prodigy of the Master. He is what would seem to be a lost cause suffering badly from post traumatic stress disorder and various other ailments. Not to mention he is a drunk who concocts drinks out of fuel from torpedoes and paint thinner.  The Master sees him as a potential version of himself. At least, that's what I got from it. And maybe if he can help him, and I genuinely believe he really truly wanted to help him, maybe it gives him hope for himself and his cause. But the drifter never really attaches himself to anything. There is never any actual hope for him. He is a loose cannon. In a way, the two main characters are very similar yet also completely different. It certainly created a beautiful dynamic between the two. But again, even the drifters tale didn't feel complete to me. This was a movie with a very large scope and had huge intentions, but it's as if Paul Thomas Anderson didn't really know where it was going. Perhaps he too was drifting with no clear destination. The Cause didn't seem to have an actual cause. Or they didn't let the audience fully in on the act. It would have helped establish the leader of the cause and his beliefs.

It concludes with not much being resolved or anything major truly happening. Was that the point? Was the drifter the masters first major failure? Yes, for sure...but what does that mean for the master? Is the drifter a total lost cause and is now lost in the world? I guess I would have liked more answers and a more cut and dry story. I'm well aware that not all movies need to spoon feed their answers to it's audience, and I usually love movies that are subtle. But if the answers and the message of the movie were there, I fear they were a little to hidden or a little to lost in the grand scope of the story. What was the point here?





The story may have been a little off kilter for me and definitely a bit disappointing, but where this movie truly succeeds is in it's performances. Granted, it was hard at times to understand what Joaquin Phoenix was saying with his weird lip thing, but when I could grasp on to what he was saying, he delivered arguably his finest performance. It was strong, powerful and moving. He really captured the essence of what it means to be lost, not only in your own mind, but in the world in general. He's a guy you aren't really sure if you are supposed to hate or root for and he does a masterful job conveying that. Remember when Phillip Seymour Hoffman played Rusty in the movie Twister?? Ha! He has come a long way. I never saw his Oscar Winning performance in Capote, but dear God can this man act the hell out of a movie. To me, he was the strongest performance in the film. It borderlines on haunting. He is brilliant at playing these eccentric characters and if I had to pick one Oscar contender for this movie, it would certainly be him. On a side note...can anyone else vaguely see Jim Gaffigan in him?? Hehe. Amy Adams rounds out the cast nicely. She always is good in every role, and I think this is probably the most fierce I've seen in any of her performances.

The Master is also shot magnificently. Easily one of the most beautiful films of the year. Stunning cinematography. Beautiful set pieces and locations. With that and the performances, it almost makes up for the weakness in the story. But not quite. The movie focuses so much on the tale of the drifter and the master so you expect things to have a purpose and reason, but they never truly do. And if they did...well I clearly missed it. Don't call me an idiot for not seeing it either, we aren't all Harvard graduates like you clearly are. I just wish the movie wasn't so subtle. Man, I miss when Paul Thomas Anderson created such huge character stories like Boogie Nights and Magnolia. He seems to be drifting away from that (pun intended). Don't get me wrong, he is still a great writer and director, but I just think for me he kind of missed it this time around. But what do I know, I'm just a silly little blogger.

"Resident Evil: Retribution" & "The Tall Man"

Resident Evil: Retribution

Rated R
1 Hour 57 Minutes

Starring: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez.

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 27%
My Grade: D+

I've only seen the first film and now the two most recent ones in the series. So I have missed a few. However, it doesn't matter, because this movie gives you a wonderful little "Previously on Resident Evil" montage right at the beginning to catch us all up. I liked the first movie, it was fun, it had a point and a decent story that blended with great action. Now we are up to number 5 and I think they have gone as far as they can with trying to develop more story so they just gave up on that aspect. Literally nothing major happens in this movie. The only thing it's about is our main character Alice trying to escape the Umbrella Corporations main hub. Any other significant plot points are a distant, faded memory. It's all about getting from point A to point B as loud and gory as you can. And that's all this movie is...just one very long action sequence with a lot of bullets and blood. And maybe that's all you want in this kind of movie, and that's great! Usually I don't mind action movies with no plot or real story as long as the action is makes up for it. There are a lot of cool action scenes in this movie, but after a while it just becomes so over used and tiresome. If this movie didn't have a single slow mo shot of a bullet traveling or someones face being punched, I think the movie would clock in at 25 minutes. But alas, 75% of this movie is in slow motion, or at least it seemed that way. Way to much of that going on. Nothing new surfaced here in terms of bad ass or action. It was just same old same old. And a lot of it was cool, like I said...just I got bored of it. And half of this cast I think were reading their lines from cue cards or something, they were terrible. But in the end, we get a cliffhanger that will inevitably lead to yet another chapter in the Resident Evil saga. And I'm sure I will be there to see it. Yay.

The Tall Man

Rated R
1 Hour 40 Minutes

Starring: Jessica Biel and Jodelle Ferland

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 45% (limited amount of reviews)
My Grade: B+

I didn't see a preview for this movie ahead of time, and I didn't know what it was about before I watched it. I just saw the poster, and watched it. Looking at the poster by the way, I got nervous chills that this was a sequel to the movie ATM. But thank our lucky stars it was not. I guess it was supposed to be a horror movie, but if that's what you are looking for, look again. It's about a small town in Washington state where kids are constantly going missing and never returning and the townspeople create the legend of The Tall Man who lurks in the woods and snatches their kids. Maybe this movie came out based off the recent popularity of the "Slender Man". But there really is no connection as the Slender Man was all made up. Anyway, I was very shocked by how much I enjoyed this film. About half way through it takes a turn that I honestly was not expecting to happen. Then you spend the rest of the movie trying to figure out what the hell is going on here. At one point I was nervous it was going to take the "High Tension" route which would have made this movie suck by the way...but it didn't. Phew! The movie was taught and tightly wound in a good way, ha. It kicked into high gear about 10 minutes in and never lets up. It's intense and full of little twists and turns. It actually had some depth to it, which is not something we expect from a thriller like this. It's a movie that will make you think. I picked up on a few similarities between this movie and the brilliant movie Gone Baby Gone. Now this film isn't on the same level, of course, but it still sends a jolt to our hearts and and makes us wonder. Yet I feel the clear right answer to the questions this film poses is more apparent than the one given to us in Gone Baby Gone. But it's there nonetheless. The movie is well written, and paced beautifully. It doesn't drag on to much and doesn't go to far in depth, because after all this is still a "horror" thriller. Jessica Biel gives probably her best work here, she was the biggest surprise of all. This is not an instant classic or a tour de force motion picture of the ages, but I thought it was a nice little surprise. I liked it a lot.

"The Amazing Spiderman" (2012)

The Amazing Spiderman

Rated PG-13 (For action sequences and violence)

2 Hours 17 Minutes

Starring

Andrew Garfield

Emma Stone

Rhys Ifans

Dennis Leary

Sally Field

Martin Sheen

Rotten Tomatoes Score:

72%

("A well-chosen cast and sure-handed direction allow The Amazing Spider-Man to thrill, despite revisiting many of the same plot points from 2002's Spider-Man.")

My Grade:

A-

I must admit, I was one of the many people who thought the idea of Hollywood rebooting the Spiderman series ALREADY was the last straw. I mean, Spiderman came to us in 2002 and Spiderman 3 was just back in 2007.  Yes, the third film in the trilogy was an absolute train wreck of a movie, but the first two were excellent films and the whole series made a TON of money world wide. I didn't see the justification for rebooting the series so damn quickly. But I finally got around to watching The Amazing Spiderman, and I think I have to eat my words.

This movie was probably my favorite summer super hero movie of 2012. I know, I will be berated and hated on for saying that given that this was the year of the almighty The Avengers (all hail AVENGERS!). Quite frankly, I thought that movie was incredibly overated. I enjoyed The Avengers, but I didn't go all ape shit over it like all the fan boys. It was a super fun popcorn action flick, but it was seriously nothing more than that to me. But, I still appreciate that millions of other people think that The Avengers is god's gift to earth in 2012.

 That being said, I got more out of The Amazing Spiderman. What I got from it was a well balanced action film, centered around a good, well written story and excellent performances from the whole cast. This was not a shot by shot remake of the first Spiderman, but yeah, I noticed a lot of similarities in the story lines. Yet they also changed a lot, gave us a different villain, a different damsel in distress, and thankfully...a new Peter Parker. No offense to Tobey MaGuire, and I know Peter is supposed to be this nerdy kid and all, but he was just a little to weak and silly to play the role. Andrew Garfield filled the shoes wonderfully, and hey...he was certainly easy on the eyes as well. I never read a comic book in my life, so I have no clue how accurate the characters are or the stories, and I don't care either. I'm watching a movie, and I know that movies usually need to take liberties with their original source material to translate well into a 2 hour flick.

This was a much darker version of the story than any of the previous films. I liked that a lot. I thank Christopher Nolan and his Dark Knight trilogy of kind of inspiring the darker tones to these comic book heroes. See now, with the Avengers, it was more light and fun, but with this film you get a more serious tone. More grounded to reality (even though obviously it's way out of reality). This is an origin story, so it's packed more of storytelling than it is with action sequences. It probably moves a little slower than most action films, but that's OK with me as long as it can grab my attention and it certainly did. When the action occurred, it was fantastic. It was fast paced and it was exciting. It never looked to overly cartoony either. Great visual effects and I also loved the score in this film, it added a lot to the movie than most other super hero films.

Honestly, this was my favorite Spiderman film of all the movies put together. After that horrid third movie, it was going to need some serious kick starting to get back into high gear, and they really succeeded at that. I give them an A+ for finding the perfect Peter Parker/Spiderman in Andrew Garfield who is one of the most talented younger actors surfacing today. Loved him in The Social Network and the guy was robbed of an Oscar Nomination. Emma Stone is one of my favorite actresses working today and while she didn't have a ton to do here, she was also a much needed improvement over Kirsten Dunst (even though she was playing a different character). It's nice to see Dennis Leary getting some good work on the big screen as well. I was very surprised by how well this movie turned out, and honestly I can't wait for the next one.

"The Cold Light of Day" & "Premium Rush"

The Cold Light of Day

Starring: Henry Cavill, Sigourney Weaver and Bruce Willis
Rated PG-13 - 1 Hour 33 Minutes

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 6%
My Grade: F

I'm not going to go on for to long about this gem of a movie. I will say that it is probably one of the top ten stupidest movies I think I've ever had the pleasure of watching. The plot is incredibly weak, even for an "action" movie. The action is poorly choreographed and not exciting at all. In fact, most of the action is pretty laughable, especially the climatic car chase scene in the end. Could I do it any better? No of course not, because I'm not a film maker who is paid shit loads of money to make a movie, so don't even go there with me. The acting, namely from star Henry Cavill is atrocious. He is one of the worst action movie characters/stars I've ever seen. He bumbles his lines like this was a half assed high school play or something. What is Sigourney Weaver and Bruce Willis thinking? They still have slight careers going for them, at least Bruce Willis knew to get out of the movie 25 minutes in, good for him! This was a train wreck of a movie for me, I just hated it. Sorry.

Premium Rush

Starring: Joseph Gordon Levitt and Michael Shannon. 
Rated PG-13 - 1 Hour 30 Minutes

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%
My Grade: B+

I saw the previews for this movie and thought the idea of having an action thriller based around bike riding would be ridiculous. And in a way...it kind of is, but you know what...this movie pulled it off pretty well. This movie kicks into high gear from the second it starts and I swear...it never stops. It's bang bang in this movie, and that creates are really taught, exciting thriller. The story is a little cliched and a bit on the weak side, but that is OK, because it is executed almost brilliantly. There were a few cheese-ball aspects to the movie like the slow motion scenes of our main character going through different scenarios in to which to ride his bike without being smashed (which led to some of the more unintentionally funny special effect moments). But there wasn't much to not like in this movie, which surprised me a lot. Joseph Gordon Levitt is one of the hottest young actors working today (I don't mean look wise, I mean he's on a roll.......but he isn't bad looking...ya know...if I was a chick....) and he does a fantastic job once again with this role. Michael Shannon is the antagonist here, is SO damn good and playing a total creep (Revolutionary Road, TV's Boardwalk Empire) and he nails it once again. That guy is one good freaking actor and he has been robbed of several awards. Ultimately, Premium Rush was a total guilty pleasure movie. It's not a breath taking tour de force, but it was a lot of fun and packed full of entertainment. I like it!

"Lawless" (2012)

Lawless

Rated R (for strong bloody violence, language and some sexuality/nudity)

1 Hour 55 Minutes

Starring:

Shia LaBeouf

Tom Hardy

Guy Pearce

Jessica Chastain

Gary Oldman

Rotten Tomatoes Score:

65%

"Grim, bloody, and utterly flawed, Lawless doesn't quite achieve the epic status it strains for, but it's too beautifully filmed and powerfully acted to dismiss."

My Grade:

C-

I went into this movie without seeing a single advertisement for it, at least none that I could remember. While I love watching previews, sometimes I think it's fun to go into a movie with no preconceived thoughts on what to expect so that maybe you won't be all that disappointed. After seeing Lawless however, I kind of wished perhaps maybe I would have seen a preview or even a little TV spot for it, because I might have avoided it altogether.

Not to say this movie was horrible, but I've never been a huge fan of the western style of film. The only one I really love is the newest version of 3:10 to Yuma. You can maybe argue that Lawless isn't really a western, as it takes place in the 1920's prohibition era. But listen that all walk around like cowboys, spittin', and talking with that southern twang, so to me it all seemed to western. I apologize if you think different and I have bothered you for thinking this.

 

Lawless is based off a true story. Three brothers found themselves in the bootlegging business during prohibition and naturally all hell breaks loose for them. If you are going to make a historical moment in our time into a movie, at least chose an interesting story. To me, Lawless offered nothing that we haven't all seen before. Story wise, it didn't step up to the plate and deliver a home run. More like an infield single. While I'm on the baseball theme, this movie was like a 1-0 pitchers duel. It lacked of any true gritty excitement. The pacing was so dreadfully slow I almost thought nothing would ever actually happen in the movie. And almost nothing did if I'm being completely honest here.

The bootlegging aspect never seemed to fill up the story, it focused more on the family and the Shia LaBeouf character wanting to be "somebody" and that just didn't provide much heart. The characters were not all that fleshed out, they never really dug deep into this family. They made them a bit flat and one dimensional to the point where I really didn't care about any of them. This is no offense to the actual people the movie is based, I'm sure the film makers took a few liberties here.

 


And the performances did help any. I may be coming off a little to cynical here, and I'm sorry if I am. However, I cannot take LaBeouf seriously in these dramatic roles. He is by no means a horrible actor, but I just don't think he's cut out for anything more than being a sidekick to a bunch of robots, and I think he just needs to be running around a movie bumbling his words and screaming. Tom Hardy is a fine up and coming actor, but he honestly didn't have much to do here, even though he played the older brother, and leader of the pack. Between this and The Dark Knight Rises, I don't think I understood more than 15-20 words he spoke in either film. His accent was a little to thick, and I totally get he was playing a character here, but maybe ease up a bit. Guy Pearce was...a joke. I mean was the guy he was portraying really that theatrical and bizarre? Maybe, but dear God he was outlandish. And why did Gary Oldman even bother to agree to do this movie? They made it seem in the beginning that he was going to be a big part of the story...but he's in maybe 2 scenes in the entire film. That's it! Crazy!

The movie was shot very well however. It had some great set pieces, and beautiful cinematography. The action, while it was far and few between was done so quite entertainingly. There wasn't much of a musical score, but instead they pumped in a recorded song every 5 minutes or so. The movie seemed like a plug for a soundtrack or something.

For me, when I add up all the parts, I just did not dig Lawless. But hey, not every movie is going to be everyone's cup of tea. It just lacked in a lot of areas and didn't do anything new. If you want a better prohibition story, watch the HBO show "Boardwalk Empire", now that's awesome!

"ParaNorman" & "The Awakening"

 

ParaNorman

Voices of: Kodi Smit-McPhee. John Goodman, Casey Affleck, Jeff Garlin, Bernard Hill

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

My Grade: A-

What a treat of a movie! I wasn't expecting much from it going in, but it turned out to be quite a fun little ride. First off, the animation was superb, I loved the dark atmosphere and how it was created so beautifully. The voice over work was great as well. It has such a charming story to tell and it's one of those animated movies that works great for kids, and even better for adults. There is a lot of subtle adult humor thrown in here and it provides quite a few solid laughs. I think it could be a bit scary for some of the younger kids, but I don't think it's overly frightening. This is more of a oddball adventure story. It's definitely a very bizarre flick, but not in a bad way. It's weird in a very good, very cool way. I really did love this movie. It's short, it's simple. It's wonderful fun for the whole family, and I just got a kick out of it. One of my more favorite films so far in 2012. 

The Awakening

Starring: Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 60%

My Grade: B-

Judging by the previews and posters, you might be expecting a frightening ghost story here, and if that's what you thought, you might be slightly disappointing. Don't misunderstand me, this IS a ghost story, there IS a ghost involved. My point is, if you are in the younger crowd and are looking for something along the lines of Paranormal Activity...you might want to look elsewhere. The Awakening does a pitch perfect job at creating a very mellow, subtle and creepy atmosphere to ease you into the scares. It's not a movie that relies on jump outs and gore to freak out it's audience and I really do like that. The set designers did a remarkable job creating this world, and that school/mansion became a main character of the film. Rebecca Hall (The Town) delivers a fine performance. The rest of the cast are also good but takes a back seat to her, as she basically carries this film. The writing was good here, but ultimately it became a little to cliched and predictable. You can kind of foresee where this movie is going about 45 minutes into it. And that's not really a bad thing, but it can take away from the suspense. The pacing was also pretty slow and it took a while to get to the point and the "scares" were far and few between. But regardless, when looking at the overall picture, this was a well made movie with stunning art direction and cinematography. Very good performances, and it works out to be a pretty decent flick. 

"Brave" and "The Bourne Legacy"

Brave

Voices of Kelly McDonald and Emma Thompson

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%

My Grade: B+

I'll be honest, I was not looking forward to this new effort from Pixar. They had an INCREDIBLE run of movies but tanked badly for the first time with Cars 2. This movie looked like it had taken a totally different turn from all the movies in Pixars past. It looked to Disney Princess-y. Well I finally managed to watch the movie, and to be honest...I was pretty surprised. This is the first Pixar film with a female protagonist and that could have been a risky move. I liked the lead character, but she didn't completely grab be in to the movie. I didn't love her like I have loved Woody and Buzz or Nemo or Mike and Sully. There was that element of lovability and fun missing from her which to me knocked the movie down a few pegs. But it's not always about characters with Pixar, they know how to tell a good story, and they did not disappoint here. Brave has a very charming, magical story that is wonderful for the entire family. It took a turn I was not expecting involving bears and witches. But it was a good surprise, I loved the adventure. However, there was still something missing for me. I can't exactly pin point either. All the other Pixar movies were extremely memorable and are timeless. Movies like Toy Story and Finding Nemo will stand the test of time, but I didn't feel that with Brave. I will forget about this movie, even though it was a pretty good flick. It didn't have that oomph. Good, but not memorable.

The Bourne Legacy

Starring Jeremy Renner, Edward Norton and Rachel Weisz. 

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 54%

My Grade: C-

I had never seen any Bourne movies up until about 3 weeks ago. I watched all three back to back to back. They are very exciting films, especially the third movie, The Bourne Ultimatum. All three had brilliant blends of story, intrigue and incredible action. There was a car chase scene in the third movie that absolutely blew me away. These movies you have to suspend belief or you won't have fun. Now we have the Bourne Legacy, without Matt Damon. Now we have Jeremy Renner as a new super soldier thing who is now on the run after it was decided to destroy the program after Jason Bourne caused a whole lot of chaos. Well they screwed up again and now they have another agent on the run, this time with a trusty female sidekick played by Rachel Weisz. This movie was a serious drop in excitement from the previous trilogy. Renner was great, but the character was no Jason Bourne. Pretty much the whole movie was him not only escaping the people trying to kill him, but it was about him trying to get his pills. Now these super soldiers need pills to make them what they are and he is desperate to get them. Weisz plays a scientist who is also a target to be killed but also knows where to get the meds. There was a LOT of talking in this movie, and the action took a major back seat this go around. The first half of the movie was all set up and a lot of quick and poorly edited tie in's to the third movie (this new installment is happening at the same time as Ultimatum). It was jumping all over the place and the pacing was dreadfully slow. We finally get some action in the second half but it's pretty much all jumbled in in the climax of the movie. There is a big motorcycle chase that lasts about 20 minutes and ends rather abruptly and in a very silly way. Then the movie just ends. I was not expecting it to end when and how it did. I was left feeling totally unsatisfied. As if nothing actually happened in the movie. I didn't really see any major progression in the story. It was kind of an empty experience. Much like the recent film "Prometheus"...if there isn't a sequel...then this was a big waste of time. It was pointless.

"Ted" and "The Dark Knight Rises"

Ted

Starring Mark Whalberg, Mila Kunis and Seth McFarlane

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%

My Grade: A

A big warm welcome to the big screen for Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane. Ted is without question the funniest movie of 2012, just barely beating out 21 Jump Street (at least for me personally). McFarland does not give up what he does best...and that is being downright ridiculous. This is a buddy, bromance comedy, but as if it were pumped full of cocaine and awesomeness. The premise, is obviously insane, but McFarlane works best in that realm, it's his comfort zone and he does it so perfectly. Just because it has a cute little teddy bear folks, does not make this is family friendly movie. It's rated R for a reason. McFarlane let's loose here, and his writing has probably never been better. He is a funny son of a bitch, and there are numerous topical jokes thrown all around this movie. It is a laugh a minute riot. Mark Whalberg is PERFECT for this movie. He gets to be weird and goofy, and have a lot of fun with this role. McFarlane voices Ted and he does sound a LOT like Peter Griffin, but holy crap was he hilarious! Listen people, this movie won't win any Oscars, but that doesn't it stop it from being a darn fun movie! I really really loved it! Funny mother effing movie!

The Dark Knight Rises

Starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon Levitt, etc...

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

My Grade: B+

**SPOILER ALERT**

I have been looking forward to this movie for a few years now, and I think I over hyped it for myself. On another note, and I won't really talk much about this, but I saw this movie the Friday night directly after the shootings in Aurora, CO that left 12 dead while viewing of a screening of this movie. Say what you want, but I don't think there was a person in any theater in the days that followed who wasn't a little bit nervous or scared. I don't think there was a person in a theater in the days that followed that wasn't profiling everyone they saw come in. Personally? I was terrified to be in a theater, especially the night after in a sold out theater. My heart goes out to all the victims and their families. What a horrible tragedy. One of my reasons for bringing this up though, is the events that happened, and the fear it provoked, seriously clouded my view of The Dark Knight Rises. Every five minutes I would be looking around the theater, every time a gun shot went off in the movie, I cringed. It completely took me out of the movie experience. I've only seen it the one time, so I can only review it based on that.

This was nothing compared to the Dark Knight. Not even close in my opinion. I think a lot of people were so pumped up to see this movie and were always going to love it no matter what. I thought I would also be that person, but turns out that was not the case. My biggest issue with this one was that there was WAY to much going on. Way to many characters, including a slew of new ones. Several different stories going on at the same time, and honestly it became a convoluted mess that it was almost distracting. The Dark Knight was complex within it's simplicity. A flawless story that was so tightly put together and there were no loose ends. This movie just jumps all over the place and I got lost at times. Another big miss for me? Barely any Batman. He shows up briefly towards the beginning and in the big climax in the end, but for a good two thirds of this movie, there is no Batman. It's Bruce Wayne locked away in an underground prison trying to find the strength and  courage to escape and save his precious city. That's all fine and dandy, I would have very much loved this aspect to the story had it not taken up SO MUCH TIME! Honestly...it was boring.

I don't understand the people who say Bane is the best villain of the series. In what possible way does he outshine The Joker? To me, Bane was a character in this film that slipped out of the realistic tone of the first two movies. He became to comic booky, to cartoony. I understand it's based off a comic book, but Christopher Nolan has recreated the world of Gotham in such a breathtaking, realistic, and frightening way. The Joker was not invincible. He was flawed and it could be taken down by a bullet. But he was the definition of chaos and sinister. To me, he was terrifyingly realistic character. Bane however came off as a typical comic book villain. He had the strength of 20 men, and I didn't find him to be on the same intelligent level as the Joke or even Scarecrow from Batman Begins. He was my least favorite villain of the three movies. He was silly and yeah...it was hard to understand him half of the time. And then he just dies in the end without any problem, because it was essential for the story.

I loved Anne Hathaway as Catwoman and Joseph Gordon Levitt shined. Michael Caine was a scene stealer as well. The whole cast, acting wise, were fantastic as usual. The visual effects and set design were amazing, the musical score was heart stopping. The action scenes were really well done and intense. I just could not get into the story this time. It was just to big, to much going on and there was not a clear cut story arch going here. Point A to Point B took so many unnecessary wrong turns and detours. I love Christopher Nolan, he is my favorite film maker, but I think for me, he kind of missed the mark this time, which really pains me to say. As a whole, this was not a bad movie. In fact, it was an above average movie experience, but I did not get any of that epic feel from it. It did not come off like the perfect conclusion to an otherwise brilliant film trilogy.  With SO much going on in the movie, it still seemed to lack a lot of heart and emotion. I felt like I was watching just another comic book movie.

"Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" & "Snow White and the Huntsman"

Seeking A Friend For the End of the World

Starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightly

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 52%

My Grade: B-

Seeking A Friend for the End of the World is basically two films in one. Both don't work so well separately but when meshed together, I actually found it to be a sweet, somber, entertaining piece of movie. The first half of this movie plays out like a buddy road trip comedy. Two unlikely people set across the country to find the things they have been missing and the things they want to spend the rest of their lives with (which just so happens to be about two weeks as the world is literally going to end). It's funny, and we get a slew of great cameos. Carell and Knightly are wacky pairing to be in a film together, but it worked well. The initial story was very charming and quirky at times. Then the second half of the film takes a pretty sudden turn. It goes from happy go lucky to downright dark and depressing. But I applaud this movie for doing this. Because while it's fun at first, this is a movie about the end of the world, and there has to be elements of fear and sadness. The second half becomes real, and the two leads bond and find that maybe what they were looking for is each other. If the world wasn't ending, this coupling would probably never happen in a million years, but they are there for each other when no one else would be. It becomes an odd little love story. And if you are looking for a happy ending...look elsewhere. It is happy for the characters, so to speak, but...well...this is a movie about the world ending. Put two and two together there folks. Overall, the movie was fun. The drastic tonal shift however jolts the movie out of sync and might leave an audience a bit overwhelmed. Personally the change in pacing could have been a little smoother, because it took me a bit out of the "moment". But once you get used to it, when the dust settles, Seeking a Friend is a very sweet film. Flawed, yes. I wish they would have kept even a LITTLE bit of comedy in the second half, but they don't. It's downright serious, and that was a bit bothersome. But Carell and Knightly turn in some really solid performances, and all the cameos are fantastic and are in the film for the exact amount of time they should be. I'd say this is a great one time viewing.

Snow White & The Huntsman

Starring Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 49%

My Grade: C

I was never really truly excited to see this film, and maybe that ruined my overall perception of it as I watching the movie. Here's what I liked: I was a fan of the very dark tone of a story that is usually very vibrant and chipper and colorful. We have kind of been bombarded with Snow White over the years, especially as of late. There are only so many versions of the story that can be told before it gets to be incredibly redundant and boring. I definitely appreciate the creepy atmosphere, and the overall epic grandeur of the set pieces. I enjoyed the few battle scenes (which is new to the story, at least in the versions I've seen), and the visual effects were top notch. Everything about the look and feel of this movie was absolutely stunning. My problem lies in the fact that the story itself doesn't take that much of a leap. I know you can't really take liberties with a classic story, but I just kind of got bored with it. I also, like a lot of people, have a general bad taste in my mouth for a one Kristen Stewart. Look, I know the movie was intended to be dark, but Snow White has always been a vibrant character with charm and some form of appeal. Dear God, Stewart has a complete inability to show emotion. She is statue in all of her roles, a brick wall. Can she even smile? I think if she tried, she might perish, I don't know. Her performance really brought the movie down for me. I wish they had someone with more charisma play this role. The best performance I thought was Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen. She was superb and stole the show from everyone. I would love to see a movie about her character...a prequel or something, I don't know. So for me, this movie wasn't a dreadful piece of garbage, but it was entirely forgettable. I think it's a decent one time viewing in a theater, but this is not a movie I could ever be excited to watch again.

My Absence

Wow...it has been a long time since I posted any kind of article or review. Yikes. I don't really have much of a reason for that, I guess we can chalk it up to pure laziness or forgetfulness. I've only seen seven movies since my last review, but I really need to get on the ball with reviewing them wouldn't ya say? So I will hopefully be posting reviews over the next few days to get all caught up. They will not be long reviews, in fact they will be very short, and I might even do a combo review, and bunch a few together just so I can catch up quicker. So be on the lookout for that! Thanks for reading!

Mike

"Prometheus" (2012)

Prometheus

Rated R

2 Hours 4 Minutes

Story

A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

Starring

Noomi Rapace
Michael Fassbender
Charlize Theron
Idris Elba
Logan Marshall Green
Guy Pearce

Rotten Tomatoes Grade
74%

My Grade
B-

The big hooplah: is this or is this not a prequel to "Alien"? Well director Ridley Scott has come out and said Prometheus is not a direct prequel to the Alien saga, but it does take place in the same fictional world and does occur "some time" before Alien. Other then the Weyland Coorporation, and maybe one or two other very minor things, I didn't really get the big connection to the sci-fi film from 1979 starring Sigourney Weaver. Call me dumb, call me ignorant, call me whatever you want, but I just didn't see it.

So to me, Prometheus is it's own separate film, and by the way it ends, it sets up a sequel (that would not be Alien). This film had a ton of hype going into it's release. A lot of viral videos surfaced, and there was just an abundance of advertisements. So this is the perfect example of a movie that will automatically not be as good as you want it to because you pumped yourself up so much for it. This obviously won't be the case for everyone, but I feel the movie opened up to such polarizing reviews that it has to be the case for a lot of people.

I really was looking forward to Prometheus and I so badly wanted to love it, but ultimately it left me feeling a little let down. This is not a bad movie, don't think that's what I'm saying. Prometheus is a stunning sci-fi film that falls a little short of being epic. It also doesn't live up to the films it's supposed to preceed. Here's the thing for me, the movie looks incredible. Stunning visuals, breathtaking special effects. I mean that big final scene of the "engineers" ship crashing was phenomenal to watch. You will get no complaints from me about how the film is presented to us visually. It's one of the better looking movies this year.

Prometheus promised us good storytelling. It was supposed to offer us a big unveiling of how mankind began. From what I saw, it only sort of did this. Yes, I know, the engineers created us through their DNA. But does it say if they did this intentionally or by accident? Then for some reason they are hell bent on destroying human kind. Something else that is not really answered. The engineers also created these other beings (alien like creatures). There is also some kind of black ooze (reminds me a LOT of The X-Files) that is alien in nature and apparently grows into a physical form. It impregnated our leading lady and gave us one of the more disturbing birthing scenes in recent memory.

My problem is that there was a lot of story going on here but every path seemed to not have an end in sight. This movie reminds me of a season of Lost. Really entertaining, fun to watch, great acting, but ultimately leaves us with more questions than we had going into it. If Prometheus has a sequel than it's an awesome set up film. It ends with a cliffhanger, or more so a "To Be Continued" moment and gives us very little satisfaction about the story being wrapped up. I don't need answers spoonfed to me, but I don't think they even gave vague answers to the film's biggest questions. So if there is NOT a sequel, than ultimately I feel that Prometheus was a huge let down while remaining to be an entertaining movie.

So I'm seriously torn with the movie. I loved it but I also didn't love it. It didn't provide enough for me to care as much as I wanted to. But it's just so well made that it's hard to really call this one. I'd suggest that everyone go see it...if you are into this kind of movie at least. Again, maybe my brain wasn't working when I watched it, who knows. I'm admitting that perhaps I was a little ignorant to the storytelling here so don't give me shit. But I also know I'm not the only one who wanted so much more from this film. I just really, really hope there is a sequel.

"Men In Black III" (2012)

Men In Black III

Rated PG-131 Hour 46 Minutes

My GradeBI would have been the first one to tell you that there should have never been a third Men in Black movie after the fiasco that was Men in Black 2. What a terrible sequel that was to a great, unique and funny first film. So I was none to pleased when the third one was announced and I thought it even more ridiculous when it was in 3D. Well I didn't see the movie in 3D, but I did overcome my distaste in the idea of threequel and sat through this new chapter.

Boy was I ever so wrong! I was very pleasantly surprised with this new addition to the trilogy. I wish Men in Black II could be brain neuralized from our heads so that this was the true sequel and that was it. It had a really solid time travel story that never became overly complicated or silly. What it actually turns out to be is not only a fun alien movie, but also a story of friendship and loyalty. It ends up having a very sweet story at the end between agent J and K.

Agent K of course, is Tommy Lee Jones, who is actually only in about 2 or 3 scenes in this movie. Due to the time travel aspect of the movie, Agent K is primarily played by Josh Brolin. Brolin does a fantastic job at doing the likeness of Tommy Lee Jones, it's almost spot on. He is easily the best part of the film. But not to be outdone, welcome the return of Will Smith. He has been absent from the silver screen for a few years since he did the gloomy and not so good film Seven Pounds. Smith has always been a very charismatic and charming actor no matter what role he is in, there is a reason why he has two Oscar nominations (Pursuit of Happyness and Ali). But where he has always shined is in his comedic efforts. He brings it back here in full force and he was a blast to watch in his element again.

Visually, the movie was awesome, as to be expected. Fantastic alien effects, and some really awesome looking motorcycle devices that was featured in one of the better action scenes. I think Men in Black swung and missed badly with it's second film, but has regained all of it's wonderful momentum with this film. If there were to make a fourth film, I would be more inclined to give it a shot. But at the same time, if they left it at this film, it would be a solid ending to the trilogy. Maybe don't fix what is not broke...right? At any rate, this was a very worthy summer film, not the best of the summer, but probably one of the more surprisingly good ones so far. Perfect performances, fantastic visuals, exciting action scenes, and a good creepy villain...Men in Black 3 works. It works well.

Django Unchained - TRAILER!!!

"Prometheus" in Theaters This Friday!!

Anyone else TOTALLY excited to see this movie when it comes out this weekend?!?

"The Chernobyl Diaries" (2012)

The Chernobyl Diaries
Rated R1 Hour 26 Minutes
My GradeC

The Chernobyl Diaries offers nothing new in the realm of horror. I mean, it's the same generic, formulaic stuff we see time and time again in these movies. A group of friends explore an abandoned area, in this case, a real location where an actual tragedy took place in real life. Something bad happens and they get stuck there and then all hell breaks loose. You know exactly where the story will take you, you know who is going to die, you know it all. The characters are all fairly cliched. It sounds like I really hate this movie doesn't it?

Truth is, I didn't hate it. Yes, it is all of those things above. But I like what it attempted to do with the premise. I like that it took us to where the Chernobyl nuclear disaster took place because it offers us a different kind of setting. It added a certain level of "realism" to the tale, and yes, I use that word lightly. The first two thirds of this movie does a pretty solid job at hiding the "monsters" from the audience and honestly it makes it a bit creepier than most spoof fests that have been thrown our way the past few years. When they finally show us the creatures and the reason for their deformities, I can't help but relate this to "Wrong Turn" and "The Hills Have Eyes". Very similar concepts. At any rate, before all that, the movie is foreboding and eerie and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little tense during some scenes. They didn't bombard us with loud music and I love when horror movies go quiet and use only ambient noise. It's scary.

The rest of the movie is pretty generic though, as I stated earlier. There is nothing wrong with any of the performances, none of them are cheesy or awful. They all do an equally normal job at showing us their acting skills. The jump scenes are there, and most of them are quite predictable. Lack of any valid explanations is also prominent in this film, especially in the end. I'm the type though, who doesn't need to be spoonfed answers, especially in a silly horror movie like this. However, it does give us glimpses into what's going on, but not until the last 4 or 5 minutes, and it basically sets up a potential sequel...even though I'm sure we won't get one.

So all in all, The Chernobyl Diaries suffers a bad case of the "same old, same old". While it plays out on a better than average pace it still does kind of fall flat. I certainly appreciate the location and the premise, but I just found it to be incredibly average. Horror movie junkies will probably get a kick out of it on a one time viewing though. It's entertaining enough.

"Battleship" (2012)

  My Grade

B-

 **SPOILER ALERT for the whole review**
I'm hearing a lot of griping about this movie. People are saying that it's essentially Transformers in the water. It's a solid argument I won't lie. It could have easily been called AquaFormers or something along those lines. But alas, this is NOT a Transformers movie. Thank God. Yes there are certainly similarities. Alien life forms come down our way and want to murder us all. Or do they? Battleship never actually addresses the reasoning for this alien invasion. In fact, in the movie, the humans technically fire first, creating an all out war. The aliens never speak in the film therefore we never find out their motives. What we do know though, is that they have landed several of their ships in the Hawaiian waters where there is a big Naval competition going on. Great timing huh? We know they are attempting to communicate with their home turf up in space using satellites and beacons that the human's created to attempt to contact the aliens to begin with. And now the remaining few Naval officers have to stop this from happening. Which is tough, because the aliens have thrown a giant force field up blocking in 3 of the Navy's ships, boats, whatever you want to call them and have blocked out the rest of the fleet. Two of three ships are destroyed so it's left to just the one led by pretty boy Taylor Kitcsh (TV's Friday Night Lights, John Carter) who basically JUST joined the Navy. Go figure.

So what we have here is the same setup we pretty much always get in these big budget end of the world alien invasion movies. The most unlikely of heroes will rise from the ashes where everyone expects them to fail but end of saving the day. Listen folks, if you didn't expect the lead character to save everyone and be rewarded for it in the end, then you are crazy...or you don't see a lot of movies. You know the formula of the film, you know exactly what's going to happen. With movies like this, it completely takes away any tension. Battleship also offers little story, but in my opinion that's a good thing. Transformers 2 and 3 tried to pack in to big of a story and it fell flat on it's face. Battleship at least knows it's a mindless action movie so every ounce of plot is given to us in the first (and awful) first 20 minutes of the movie. The final 2 hours is what you are here for. The action. The shit blowing up. The aliens getting wiped out. The human debris, you know...the works.

And with that, Battleship truly delivers. When you take away the need to think in a movie it becomes fun. This movie requires you to remove that thinking cap and just enjoy what's happening. The action in this movie was done surprisingly well. A movie like this always runs the serious risk of over doing it, and going way over the top. Battleship never falls victim to this, at least I didn't think so. All the action scenes were necessary to further the movie along. There was no excess of crap. The movie pulled itself back and toned down when it needed to. It continually set us up for the next big explosion. And when the action happened, it was bad ass. I was so completely entertained. The aliens didn't talk (like the Transformers do) so there was no stupid exchanges between them and the humans. It was just shoot and kill and that's it. The visual effects in all the battle scenes were awesome! When we saw the aliens faces and hands though, I thought they looked a little to video gamey (they looked like something out of Halo or Mass Effect or something). But eh, we barely saw them that much so it wasn't a big deal.

The movie had it's fare share of totally cheesy moments, mainly anything involving Brooklyn Decker and her band of misfits on the mainland trying to stop the aliens from sending their signal. The movie could have done without most of those scenes if I'm being honest. But overall, it has likeable characters even if they are a bit hammy from time to time. You kind of root for them. While we are on the character subject, if you are looking for a movie with Liam Neeson (Taken, The Grey), the new proverbial bad ass or hunky vampire Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood) then you might want to look elsewhere. Neeson has virtually no role in the action of this movie. He is merely an extended cameo here to give certain story elements to our main character. He does nothing bad ass here. Skarsgard dies about 40 minutes in. I was surprised they didn't give Liam Neeson anything to do though. His character sits outside this force field with a huge fleet at his command but they attempt nothing. Yes, I know the force field kills on impact...but they didn't even fire a shit load of missles and bullets at the thing...could have made for a fun scene and would have given Neeson SOMETHING cool to do. Guess not.

Anyway, Battleship is not a good movie, quality wise. You can't expect it to be. It won't be winning any awards, nor is that the intention of a movie like this. But this movie is a seriously fun, entertaining thrill ride. It's chock full of excitement and plenty of solid action to go around. It has an engaging lead actor in Kitsch who does really well in carrying the film. It has a lot of great elements and is a worthy film to lose some brain cells to for a little over 2 hours. You won't be made fun of for seeing it...I don't think. I'm going to be crucified by the comic book nerds for saying this...but I kind of found this movie to be more fun than "The Avengers". Uh oh...I'm a dead man.

Oh and are you wondering if this has ANYTHING to do with the board game it's based off of? Um..no not really. There is one cool scene though where the pay homage to the game. Where they are shooting blind because their radar is down so they are using a grid system and firing almost blindly into the ocean to hit their target. Kind of like then game huh?

2012 Review #29: The Dictator

 It's been a while since I posted anything on here. I've been on vacation from work you see and I just got distracted way to easily way to many times and have not had the energy to post new movie reviews. I'm still on my vacation and I'm still lacking the enthusiasm to post anything but I don't want to fall behind. So these next two movie reviews will be short and will not be formatted the same as usual. Call me lazy, call me whatever you want. I don't care. Just be warned, the next couple reviews will not be my best.  So without further ado.

The Dictator stars Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Sweeney Todd) who I'm sure most of you remember as Borat a few years back. Now when Borat first came out it was unlike any comedy most of us had experienced before. It was partially scripted, partially unscripted and ad-libed. A lot of the people he encountered in the movie were not aware exactly what was going on, so the reactions were genuine. The movie was raunchy, foul mouthed, and just plain insane but it was fresh and damn hilarious. There has been talks of a Borat 2...but only time will tell if that is actually true.

The Dictator is one of Cohen's many characters he has portrayed in the past, but now he's one of the few who get's his own movie. The story follows his dictator character who travels to America but is then kidnapped and has his signature beard shaven and then thrown back into New York city trying to convince people he is the real dictator. Oscar winner Ben Kinglsey (Gandhi, Hugo) plays his right hand man who betrays him and swaps in a fake dictator to take the place of Cohen. OK it's not big on story, but obviously that's not what you want from a movie like this. You want funny.

You know what though? I didn't think it was all that funny either. I mean yes, it certainly had it's moments, but they seemed sporadic and inconsistent. Since Borat debuted we have seen a handful of raunchy, out there comedies and The Dictator gives us nothing new. And it's completely scripted too, it doesn't have any of that off the cusp, unplanned moments like Borat had. The writing here was not good, just a lot of poor joke telling. I mean, we have seen plenty of dick jokes, plenty of lesbian and gay jokes, plenty of crude humor about having sex with many women, blah blah blah. It just wasn't funny. It wasn't awkward either. One of the best parts of Borat was that it was incredibly uncomfortable to sit through, but in a good way.

I don't know folks, if you are looking for a good comedy to see right now, I could not honestly suggest The Dictator, but you are your own people and you have your own thoughts. Everyone's sense of humor is different.

"Dark Shadows"

Dark Shadows

Rated PG-13

1 Hour 43 Minutes

Starring

Johnny Depp

Michelle Pfeiffer

Helena Bonham Carter

Eva Green

Belle Heathcote

Chloe Grace Moretz

Jackie Earle Haley

Storyline

An imprisoned vampire, Barnabas Collins, is set free and returns to his ancestral home, where his dysfunctional descendants are in need of his protection. Remake of a cult classic TV soap.

Rotten Tomatoes Grade

41%

"The visuals are top notch but Tim Burton never finds a consistent rhythm, mixing campy jokes and gothic spookiness with less success than other Johnny Depp collaborations."

My Grade

C-

**spoiler alert**

I've never seen the original show, as it was a tad bit before my time. I know it's a cult classic and I know a lot of people had issues with Tim Burton remaking it into a feature length film. I think they had a good reason to feel this way. The movie shows that there was a lot of source material in the show and they attempted to pack a lot in to the film. It's a very busy movie yet at the same time not much really goes on, and it never really takes off into anything special. This is the eighth collaboration between Burton and Oscar nominee Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd, Sleepy Hollow) and I think I have to finally cave in and say...enough is enough. They obviously work well together, that goes without saying, but it's growing very tiresome now.

The movie is all over the place with story and characters. It has to much to incoporate into a less then 2 hour movie. I feel like they didn't do the original characters any justice and made them all a little to campy and silly. This was kind of like the Brady Bunch movie mixed with maybe the Adams Family movie. They tried to make a funny story out of it but it came off as almost uncomfortable. Some of the characters were clearly meant to be major parts of the story but were just left on the sidelines most of the time. Take the Vicki character. Supposed to be the love interest for Barnabus but with the excpetion of the beginning of the film, she only pops up for a minute or two. Then they decide to give her a back story almost at the end of the film and I was like "Um, what?!"Same with Chloe Moretz character. There's no sign for the whole movie that she's a werewolf, but at the very end...she turns into one. And has the cheesiest line in the movie, "Woof". I'm sure this is what her character was in the show, but come on, that was ages ago, a lot of today's youth won't know this.

None of the performances were all that engaging. Usually Burton has a knack for crafting unique, twisted, quirky performances from his actors, but not this time. His wife, Oscar nominee Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech, Harry Potter series) is somwhere between "normal" and "strange" and that doesn't work well with her. She plays creepy very well, but she wasn't put to good use here. Depp is a very reliable actor, but even he could not save this film. He does character work better than most people, but this particular character was a lame blend of Jack Sparrow and maybe Sweeney Todd. This version of Barnabus was not fun, cool or entertaining.

The whole movie was a few notches below the line of being just mediocre for me. I know this isn't a well written review, that could be do in part to the fact that I'm in a bad mood today. But this movie was just so generic and boring. It didn't have the energy I was hoping it would have in it's story and characters. Now the movie looked incredible. Beautifully dark and haunting set pieces. Perfect costuming. Realistic looking visual effects. It nailed the techinal side of the film. But the pieces of the puzzle did not come together neatly because of it's weak story and un charasmatic performances. It was dull. Maybe that means I'm dull...you be the judge. Be a hater, I don't care. :-)

The River Cancelled by ABC

Well bad news for fans of the Oren Peli/Steven Spielberg TV horror series "The River". Yesterday ABC took the axe to the show that ran for 8 episodes at the end of this TV season. This does not come to much of a surprise though. The show continuously had very weak numbers in the ratings department (averaging around 3 million people a week) and that's not a good sign if you want a second season. It also received mixed reviews and didn't get that cult following it might have needed for ABC to possibly think of giving it another go. But let's face it...they never intended to keep it around. The network is kind of famous for going through shows like clock work.

No word yet however if Netflix will be picking up the show. It was reported a few months back that they were in "talks" to give The River some life with a second season, but that news has been dead ever since it was announced. Who knows, this could be a good sign that they will. ABC would have to cancel it for it to happen so...I guess time will tell.

On other ABC news, they have also cancelled the Ashley Judd thriller "Missing". On a positive note though, they have renewed the TV guilty pleasure of the year "Revenge" for a second season, which I am really excited for!!

"Community" Renewed for Season 4!!

It is official ladies and germs! NBC has graciously renewed the struggling comedy "Community" for a fourth season. It will get 13 episodes in the 2012-2013 TV season. Even better news is that it was not announced that this will be the final season of the show. Not like "30 Rock" who did get a confirmed final season. So there is still a chance for the "six seasons and a movie" Abed has spoken out before.

You don't need me to rant about Community, I've done that enough on my blog. One of my more read articles is about the show, and you can find the link for that on the right side of my blog under the "most popular articles" section.

This is just very exciting news! After all the rumors floating around, which now that I think of it, were never confirmed by anyone from NBC...it's nice to know we will still get more of Greendale Community College next season. I'm also very hopeful that we may get more seasons from them as NBC has not said it's the last. So fingers crossed folks! This is very good news! No word yet though if Chevy Chase or Dan Harmon will be coming back for next season. Given their recent "feud" who knows what will happen with that.

"Community" will end it's 3rd season next Thursday May 17th with a 90 minute finale! 3 new episodes back to to back!

"Cougar Town" Moving to TBS!

So good news on the TV front! Shows like "Community" and "Parks & Recreation" are still technically on the cusp as no official word has been said about them. However, the word is that both shows will more than likely be renewed next season, but only with half season orders. And unless a miracle arises both shows will have their final seasons next year as well. It has already been confirmed that NBC comedy champ "30 Rock" has been renewed for it's 7th and final season at a 13 episode order. I personally stopped watching 30 Rock a few months ago as it had completely lost it's way for me. The ratings for the show have slipped to an all time low averaging around 3 million viewers.

But back to the good news, assuming you are a fan of ABC's "Cougar Town" of course. It was hinted at earlier this week that the cable network TBS would pick up the show for it's fourth season should ABC cancel it. Well, this was made official today. ABC has not actually cancelled the show yet, but they won't get a chance. TBS will make Cougar Town part of their original programming next year and we will see new episodes in 2013. No matter what way you look at it, for me, this is awesome news! I have been a fan of the show since day one back when it was in it's early stages of being about cougars dating their fresh meat men and tossing them to the side. But then it developed into something completely new and different almost out of nowhere. It completely threw that story to the side and molded itself into a witty, charming, and just hilarious sitcom about a group of friends. It's like "Friends" if they were drunk on wine all the time. It has such a wonderful cast led by Courtney Cox, Christa Miller, Busy Phillips, Ian Gomez, etc. etc.

The show currently airs on ABC until it's finale on May 29th which will be one hour long and will feature guest star and show producer David Arquette. Apparently Courtney and David (who were married for quite some time if you did not know) are able to continue working together with their production company as well as acting together on this show as well as Scream 4 last year. Next week we will also get an hour's worth of new episodes. It will be off the air on the 22nd because of Dancing with the Stars.

I bet Abed will be very pleased to hear this news....