DVDs
Gran Torino (1.5 Spuds)
Babylon AD (1.5 Spuds)
TV SHOWS
The Philanthropist (1 Spud)
Royal Pains (1.5 Spuds)
Hung (2 Spuds)
SPUDITORIAL
Sara Palin (My Favourite Politichick)
KNOW YOUR SPUDS
TWO XL SPUDS — Absolute Must See
TWO SPUDS — Definitely Worth Checking Out
1.5 SPUDS—Worth Checking Out, But Don’t Expect A Ton
ONE SPUD – Not Worth It, Except For The Hardcore Fan
NO SPUD 4U – Just Plain Sucks
The first heatwave of the summer is winding down. The night is cool and calm and for the first time in a few days, I’m sitting here without the fan blowing on me and the air conditioner humming down at the far end of Spud Central. I’m not a big fan of heat and humidity, a dislike I’m sure I share with millions. I don’t like the way it makes you feel like you always need a shower. I don’t like the way it drains your energy. I don’t like the way it makes a good night’s sleep so difficult to achieve. People are generally more grumpy when it’s hot and humid. In the areas of the world where it’s hot and humid all the time, people life a different kind of life. They know how to keep still and not waste energy. Here in the Centre of the Universe however, life’s overachieving breakneck pace continues regardless of the temperature or the humidex. The accounts for a lot of things like spikes in road rage, domestic violence and general idiotic behaviour on the part of those who think that half a dozen beers will actually cool you down in a heatwave.
But that’s all in the past for now as I just went and opened the window and sure enough, it’s finally cooler outside Spud central than it is inside. Time to crank up the old silent fan and suck some of that cool air in here, ‘cause it’s getting close to beddy-bye time for this Spud. Tomorrow is domestic chore day, with windows to clean and grass to cut and garbage of all kinds of manage.
DVDS
GRAN TORINO (1.5 SPUDS)
This is probably the lamest Clint Eastwood movie ever, except for that one where he drove around in a Cadillac with a chimpanzee. In it he plays this bigoted old fart who has just lost his wife, who becomes reluctantly involved with a family of Vietnamese people who live next door. Clint’s character is a Korean war vet and doesn’t take any crap form anyone, especially the gang that’s trying to recruit the teenage boy in the Vietnamese family.
I’m not gonna tell you much more, cause this movie is kinda lame. Clint’s character growls a lot, which I found pretty dopey. The setting is depressing, the acting overall is crap, the script is mediocre, and the ending, while not that dumb, is extremely manipulative. There are a couple of decent scenes in the film, but mostly it’s all kinda hammy. I guess we can allow Clint a brain fart every twenty years or so. And Gran Torino really does fit the description to a T. If you want to see a good Clint Eastwood movie, try Unforgiven, Changeling, Absolute Power, Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil, The Outlaw Josie Wales, Mystic River or Play Misty For Me.
BABYLON AD (1.5 SPUDS)
Vin Deisel has a type, and it’s very seldom that he plays against it. His type can best be defined as ‘Badass’. And in this semi good, but slightly confusing sci-fi thriller. He’s as badass as he has ever been.
Babylon AD is set in a post apocalyptic world, where Vin, a retired smuggler, is exiled to somewhere in Russia. He gets a request from another badass higher up the food chain to deliver a girl to The Big Apple, for which he will be paid enough money to retire to his parents old farm in upstate New York. Since anything is better than what’s going on in his life at the moment, Vin takes the assignment, smuggling the girl in to the US across the Bering Straits etc. What we see here is a lot of big post apocalyptic CGI sets and thousands of extras dressed in post apocalyptic rags, as they make their way out of Russia and into the USA. Vin has to kill quite a few people, but he’s really good at it, since his self-proclaimed motto is “These days, you can never really have enough firepower.”
After the movie moves to the New York CGI sets, things start to get a little confusing. It was like, hey this is a great road picture, but now we’ve gotta actually have some story line here and what are we gonna do about that? I admittedly lost track of things here. But Vin was still being pretty badass, so I was still watching.
I won’t tell you any more about this other than to say if you like raw post apocalyptic sci fi, this is pretty good stuff to watch. If, however, you like a story that actually makes some sort of sense, well you may be disappointed. Hence the less than two spud but more than one rating.
TV SHOWS
THE PHILANTHROPIST (1 SPUD) (Wednesdays @ 10:00)
IN A NUTSHELL: This really rich businessman, played by South African actor James Purefoy, decides he’s not doing enough, personally, to help the needy people of the world. So he decides to dedicate his life to doing just that. This is brought about as a result of getting caught in a cyclone in Nigeria and saving a young boy’s life. It’s all very touching and very dramatic. PEDIGREE: This series is created by Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana, whose company created among other things, Homicide-Life On The Street and Oz, which are both amazing shows, so that kinda made things more interesting, cause these guys are real heavy hitters. FEARLESS FORECAST: I found myself puzzled by the pilot episode. I wasn’t really sure if I should be taking this seriously or not. After all, the lead character is sitting in a bar telling this story to the bartender who keeps telling him he’s full of crap. He’s doing it all in a kind of tongue in cheek fashion, yet all the action that takes place is really quite serious looking and sounding. So what we have here is a show with two distinct personalities. That means that either the producers and writers really blew it, in which case everybody will think the show is a joke, or they just haven’t figured out how light or how serious to make the show and will hopefully decide in the next episode, which I will watch. But if it’s as wonky as this one was, that will be it for me. I hope not though, because I really like James Purefoy. He’s a real star quality leading man, and I also really like the idea because it’s positive and refreshing for network TV. FOLLOW UP: The same inconsistencies in tone haunt this episode as well. I feel as if these people are trying some sort of dramatic experiment and it’s just not working. Final verdict: 1 Spud.
ROYAL PAINS (1.5 SPUDS) (Sundays @ 9:00)
IN A NUTSHELL: This doctor (named Hank) from Manhattan gets blacklisted in the Big Apple and through the kind of dumb luck that only happens in TV shows, ends up with his brother in a big mansion in the Hamptons, where da rich folk lives. He and his brother decide to open what they call a concierge medical practice for da rich folks who, for one reason or another, don’t want other rich folks or any folks at all to know they are ailing. Somewhere in the first act the Doctor played ably by Mark Feurstein acquires an assistant in the form of a drop dead gorgeous east Indian doctor (Reshma Shetty), and away they go. PEDIGREE: Created by Andrew Lenchewski, who comes pretty much right out of nowhere. FEARLESS FORECAST: This is light entertainment like Northern Exposure, but by no means in the same league. It was kind of enjoyable, but I somehow got the feeling that everything about the rollout of this concept is going to be extremely clichéd. I’ll give it another look, cause hey it’s summertime and the pickin’ are slim. According to TV.com, it did pretty good in its premiere so who knows. I sure as hell don’t.
HUNG (2 SPUDS)
IN A NUTSHELL: This teacher in Detroit whose name is Ray has watched his life, along with the life of his city, go to hell in a handbasket. Everything in his life that could go wrong has and Ray is actually living in a tent in the back yard of his parent’s house, which has burned partially down. In an attempt to turn things around Ray decides to capitalize on his main asset, which is the fact that he is a well-hung individual and very good in bed. Hence the title. PEDIGREE: This series was created and is run by Dimitry Lipkin, whose main claim to fame is the creation of The Riches, a series which ran only two season but is incredibly worth seeing especially for the performances of Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard. FEARLESS FORECAST: The first episode of this series is a bit of a downer, mainly because Mr Lipkin is establishing the circumstances which bring about the real story. Thomas Jane is cast perfectly as Ray. He’s good looking but not devastatingly so. He’s smart but not too smart, and he’s very personable, which is kinda necessary if your gonna carry a really good show. I can see where this show is headed and I like it. I hope it’s a monster hit for Mr Lipkin and he gets to do a bunch of other series. Because so far he’s been nothing but real entertaining.
SPUDITORIAL – SARAH PALIN FOR PRESIDENT…OH BOY
Just when we all needed some much deserved relief from all the chatter about the economy, gun totin’, home state scandal ridden, ex-beauty queen, just plain folks Sarah Palin has decided to step up and do her patriotic duty and distract everybody for a while with her Machiavellian plan to usurp Barack Obama in 2012.
I for one couldn’t be happier. I found this woman strangely alluring in spite of the fact that she is completely full of shit, has little or no political acumen, and probably not a snowball’s chance in hell of even getting close to the Republican nomination (I mean that can’t be that stupid again), let alone the presidential race. Sarah is plucky as all get out, I’ll give her that. And pretty hot looking for a 45 year old. But-the-sad-but-true fact is that every comedy writer from New York to LA is following her like a hawk, because this is the stuff that great prime time, late night and HBO Comedy special jokes are made of, especially in this day and age where top notch political bullshit is so hard to come by. And while the straight press will do their level best to flush her down the crapper, it’s not those people she has to worry about, because nobody trusts or gives a shit about the press these days, except for the people who are manipulating them. No what Sara has to worry about is Jay Leno, Dave Letterman, Conan Obrien, John Stewart, Lewis Black, Stephen Colbert, Saturday Night Live and Mad TV, and everybody else with their own TV Bully Pulpit plus a about a zillion bloggers who are going to very quickly become Sara’s worst nightmare.
A long time ago Elizabeth Taylor said that any publicity was good publicity, but that was back in the dark ages when everyone believed just about everything they saw or read in the press. But we all know that the times have changed, in fact you could strongly argue the converse of Liz’s statement these days, especially when you consider the viciousness with which that publicity is going to be gained. I’m not an American or anything close, but if I were, I’d be rolling my eyes right about now and singing softly to myself the immortal words of The Who….We Won’t Get Fooled Again! No. No. No. No. No. No.
MY TWITTER LINKS
My regular twitter location
http://twitter.com/jimbobmur
I’m starting to post mini reviews and new show heads-ups there, so if you’re twittering, it’s a useful follow.
I also have a new twitter for ourgreendirectory.com
http://twitter.com/OurGreenDirctry
The site is actually on line now at http://www.ourgreendirectory.com. But we’re not making a big deal out of it until a) we have all the kinks ironed out, and there are a few. And b) we are through with our holidays. I’m actually taking one this year. We’ll probably start getting serious about it in late August, early Sept.
DVDs

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