Showing posts with label Sam Raimi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sam Raimi. Show all posts

Monday, January 14, 2013

I Hate Hospitals... People Die Here


The Possession on Blu-Ray

Whenever a horror movies claims to be “based on a true story” I have to laugh a little because they make an assumption that we will actually believe that ghosts, demons, and / or other things that go bump in the night when Occam’s Razor would suggest that chick just went cray-cray. But on the bright side, crazy people have a vivid imagination and can come up with some pretty entertaining stories even if they did not really happen. The fact they happen outside the realm of reality is what makes them entertaining.

Supposedly The Possession was based on a true story where a newly divorced Jeffery Dean Morgan (Watchmen) is patroning garage sales to pick up essentials for his new house with his daughter when one of them Natasha Calis (The Firm) picks up an antique wooden box for herself. Except when they take it home it does not open and is covered in Hebrew. Until it mysteriously opens and the young child finds dead moths, teeth and other weird and random artifacts. Oh yeah, and the box also held an unseen demon.

The Possession does not add anything to the genre and can really be considered the Jewish take on exorcisms, as performed by former Hasidic Jew Matisyahu (why do the Catholics get to have all the fun?) or does not turn the genre on its head. But there are plenty of good scares in the film for all the horror fans out there like the scene in the trailer when the kid looks down her throat in the trailer to see fingers trying to climb out of her esophagus. I will also be infinitely more freaked out by moths after seeing this film. And of course the inclusion of children makes any horror movie just a little creepier.

For skeptics like me when it comes to movies “Based on a true story” there is a bonus feature The Real History of the Dibbuk Box which starts off by saying that the Dibbuk box shown for the feature is just a replica for your safety. The real story turns out nothing like the movie except the original owner has a stroke when coming into contact with the box (which is depicted much more violently in the movie). But low and behold when they say they are going to show us the actual Dibbuk box, I seriously thought of just turning off my television just in case. I did not and am still alive and still have all my appendages. Other specials on the blu-ray (which are the same as the DVD) include two separate audio commentaries, one with director Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch) while other is with the writers Juliet Snowden and Stiles White (Knowing). It also comes with a code that can be redeemed for both a digital copy and an UltraViolet copy for those that like to watch their movies on their mobile devises. I wonder if scary movies are more or less frightening on a smaller screen.


Full Disclosure Notice: Lionsgate gave me this blu-ray for review.

Friday, January 04, 2013

The Thirteen Events That Will Make 2013 Awesome



Thirteen is supposed to be an unlucky number, but there are a few things worth looking forward to the thirteenth year of this decade.

13. Detox – Dr. Dre: It is becoming an annual tradition to start off this list by saying this may be the year Dr. Dre finally releases Detox, but considering he was not able to get it out before the Mayan apocalypse, I think it is a safe bet to take the over on the release of Detox compared to any other event, be it the Cubs winning the World Series, a Veronica Mars movie, or Hayden Panettiere winning an acting award. It does not help that last year 50 Cent said that Dr. Dre is no longer interested in Detox (much like the general public) and it may just be released as an EP at some point.

12. The Mayans Were Wrong (Probably): Sure we are in the unlucky thirteen year, but hey, we are still here. Unless of course you did not think the world was going to explode in mid-December and instead the world would die slowly and we were too busy looking for some big apocalypse we missed the small catalyst that will being on the end of the world as we know it. Since you are still alive, make sure you go out and enjoy life this year. I would say that you only live once, but I do not want to get sued by Drake. Plus Nancy Sinatra is significantly better than Drake and she said you only live twice.

11. Sequels That Won’t Suck (Hopefully): The Last Exorcism 2 (March 1), Kick-(Expletive Deleted) 2 (June 28), Grown Ups 2 (July 12), RED 2 (August 2), Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters (August 16), Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (October 4), and Thor: The Dark World (November 8) all had entertaining to great original films and statistically speaking a couple of the seven will probably have a good serial. Okay I do not have high hopes for the second The Last Exorcism because, well, it is an oxymoron but hopefully the other live up to the first movies or at the very least half of them do.

10. S.H.E.I.L.D. the TV Series: Joss Whedon back doing television would be awesome enough, but continuing his work in the Marvel universe makes this doubly awesome. The only way it could have been more awesome is if Lizzy Caplain, who starred in the Item 47 short film, would have continued her character on the new show (she is otherwise busy, but more on her later). No superheroes on the television show (unless you count the reanimated corpse of Phil Coulson) and a cast of unknowns but I have full faith in Whedon. Hopefully the show will be ready by the fall and does not flutter out like the Wonder Woman reboot that never ended up making it to air.

9. No National Elections: I am sure most of those that live in the United States do care either way, but for those of us living in swing states, no political ads or robocalls are very welcome in this off election year. Unfortunately it looks like 2016 will be worse than last year because Sheldon Adelson, who may have been the biggest loser after backing numerous losing candidates with what is believed to be over $100 million (almost a dollar for every vote cast), plans to double down in the future.

8. Man of Steel: I am still cautiously optimistic about the latest Superman reboot. Zack Snyder’s last movie was so poorly received that there was a groundswell to kick him off the movie. I love Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, but as executive producer of the movie I fear he may make Superman more serious than he should be. But on the flipside, it cannot possible be worse than the Krypton in the Atlantic Ocean plot from Superman Returns. Can it? We will find out June 28.

7. A New U2 Album: Ever since U2 released No Line on the Horizon in 2009, the group has been teasing that the session had enough songs for another new album which they even dubbed Songs of Accent. That album has yet to materialize but the group, but their record company announced that they would be releasing a new album this year. No word on if the album will be Songs of Ascent, work they have done with Danger Mouse, or a dance album they have also supposedly been working on.

6. Warm Bodies: After Zombieland I declared the 10’s (the tens? The teens? What exactly are we calling this decade?) the decade of zombies. Since then there has been numerous movies, even the kids in The Cabin In The Woods ended up summoning zombies, The Walking Dead is crushing cable ratings records, and thanks to the bath salt epidemic that created actual living zombies. Of course there would eventually be someone who would come along and bastardize zombies with a crappy Twilight with zombies type movie. At least that is what I thought Warm Bodies was going to be until I saw the trailer and, surprise, not only did it not look painfully bad, it actually looked like it will be good. Warm Bodies, coming February 1, is not the only major zombie movie making its way to theaters this year as the oft delayed Brad Pitt World War Z is set to premiere this summer.

5. The Evil Dead: Does the world need a reboot of The Evil Dead? No. Even if Sam Raimi is involved? Not really. Does it need one where Ash is a chick? Goodness no. Even if it is the chick from Suburgatory? Probably not. Will I get excited if this movie leads to Tessa Altman vs. The Army of Darkness? Frack yes!

4. More From The Black Keys: The duo just released El Camino thirteen months ago but it does not sound like we will have to wait very much longer for the next album as the band expects it to be done by the end of Spring. It seems like only Rihanna releases as much music (seven in eight years), but where a Rihanna album is lucky to have one to three catchy songs, The Black Keys always release great albums. No word yet if the album will again be produced by Danger Mouse, who did two of the band’s last three albums.

3. Gangster Squad: After watching Crazy, Stupid, Love, I decreed that every movie should star Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. Apparently someone was listening because the duo will be playing opposite each other in the period piece set to hit theaters next week. I am sure the duo could even make an Innerspace reboot awesome (McLovin of course would then play Martin Short, make this happen Hollywood).


2. Grand Theft Auto V: After all the massacres, people wondered if the upcoming Grand Theft Auto will be the last of its kind. It is doubtful as long as there is money to be made. And it is always cheap to blame entertainment for society’s ills when it is the parents that should be accountable for letting their kids to watch or play such violent games. I have played all four GTA games released on the two Playstation games and remain fiercely anti-gun. Plus the games are not all bad, you can also steal ambulances and cop cars and do good through the city. GTA V takes the game out west to San Andreas for the first time in modern times and the first modern game to take place outside of Liberty City. Little else is known about the game except it is supposed to be even bigger than the fourth installment and it is expected to be released sometime this spring.


1. Masters of Sex – Seriously, Lizzy Caplan is starring in something entitled Masters of Sex. The show cannot premiere soon enough (but will probably hit Showtime no sooner than April).

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Best of the Week - 10/27/12


Quote of the Week: I’ll tell you what doesn’t count: the Miami Heat’s most recent NBA championship. It was an injury-plagued, strike-shortened season. Therefore LeBron still needs six rings to even get into a conversation with Jordan. Also Chris Bosh looks like one of Omar’s boyfriends from The Wire. (Jane, Happy Endings)

Song of the Week: Dust In the Wind – Kansas (as sung by Ryan and Steven, Go On)

Scene of the Week:


Big News of the Week: Fish Slapped!: Forget bayonets, God sanctioned rapes or how John Sununu is racist simple and plain (mutherfrack him and John Wayne), the most important thing that happened this week were all the people that got slapped by a fish. On Tuesday The Black Keys and RZA released a music video to see who is The Baddest Man Alive, the Keys may have some mad lettuce tossing skills, but RZA clearly was after slapping Dan Auerbach in the head with a fish. And just when you thought you had your quota of fish slapping this week, the very next day it showed up on The Challenge where, after a couple rounds of truly bizarre events, TJ Lavin saved the best event for last when two people had to joust each other, but instead a padded lance, they had to knock each other using nothing but a fish. Awesome. Let’s face it, the last presidential debate would have been much more interesting is instead of fighting over bayonets, the two candidates fought with fish.


Preview Picture of the Week:


Free Download of the Week: Fall Sampler – Dr. Dog (Noise Trade)

Deal of the Week: Every Norah Jones Album for $5.00

New Album Release of the Week: Cee Lo's Magic Moment - Cee-Lo Green

New DVD Release of the Week: Chuck: The Complete Series - Collector Set

Video of the Week: I loved Army of Darkness and quickly also picked up the first two Evil Dead movies (sure it is a bit weird to watch the third movie first), but like every reboot, I really had no desire for a reimagining of the film. On the bright side, both Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell are signed on for the reboot. On the other side, Sam is not directing and Bruce is not acting in it (unless when he said he was going to show up as the milkman was not a joke). Now we have the first look at the movie and holy crap it is scary. It even gives plenty of throwbacks to the original: point of view evil running through the wood, the Necronomicon, self arm amputation, a chainsaw, tree rape. They even throw in a new tongue cutting scene for fun. I am still on the fence for an Evil Dead reboot, but I am kind of excited for the thought that this could lead to a potential Tessa Altman vs. the Army of Darkness movie.


Next Week Pick of the Week: The Voice, Monday and Tuesday at 8:00 on NBC: Big changes on The Voice this season as they expanded the teams from twelve to sixteen (twice as many as the first season) which meant adding another obstacle to the Lice Shows: The Knockout Round. Like moths rules on The Voice little was about the Knockout Rounds but from the look at the promo it looks eerily similar to the Battle Rounds except instead of the coach picking a song the two sing together, two contestants will sing songs of their own choosing (that can be cleared) with one being declared the winner with five from each moving on to the Live Shows. The Knockout Rounds will all air over two nights (Tuesday is being expanded to two hours), and with forty performances scheduled, I am expecting a lot of montage advances considering they only crammed three battles or five auditions per hour previously. I doubt they will cram in ten full performances per hour in the knockouts because they will still have to set aside some time to remind us that MacKenzie almost died and Adriana was part of a home invasion. If I were a betting man these are the people I would put money on advancing to the Live Shows (please note these are not the people I think should advance; you can wait until Monday’s Power Ranking to see who I think should):

Team Adam: Bryan Keith, Melanie Martinez, Nicole Nelson, Joselyn Rivera, Kayla Nevarez
Team Blake: Cassadee Pope, Terry McDermott, Suzanna Choffel, Gracia Harrison, and Liz Davis
Team Cee-Lo: Trevin Hunte, Avery Wilson, MacKenzie Bourge, Nicholas David, Caitlin Michelle
Team Chritina: Adriana Louis, Devyn Deloera, De’Borah, Aquile, Dez Duron

Thursday, July 26, 2012

The Ten Most Anticipated Movies of 2012-13


It is weird to talk about movies these days especially about Batman considering the massacre in Colorado. My heart goes out to anyone who was affected by the shooting. I actually planned to run this for a while and wanted it to coincide with The Dark Knight Rises hitting theaters because it had been on top of my most anticipated list since it was announced. So now that it is out, I need to figure out a new number one. So here are the movies I am looking forward to over the next year.

10. The Is 40 (December 21): I did not find the first trailer particularly funny, but Judd Apatow has yet to make a completely unwatchable movie so hopefully the promo monkeys are to blame and the movie will be as good as the rest of his resume.

9. Iron Man 3 (May 4): I was apparently one of the few people who enjoyed the second installment and am excited a Ben Kingsley enhanced third film even if I am more of a DC guy.

8. Man of Steel (June 14): Another teaser I am not much of a fan of. Couldn’t we at least get a glimpse of Amy Adams as Lois Lane? And I am not sure if I need a Superman movie the in the tone of Christopher Nolan’s Batman. Did they not learn from the moody Bryan Singer version that led to a quick reboot? But I am a DC guy, so I hope this succeeds so we can finally get a Justice League movie, even if that means a new Batman so soon.

7. Oz The Great and Powerful (March 8): Sure this may lead to a crappy The Wizard of Oz reboot, but I am really interested in what Sam Raimi can do with this world.

8. Django Unchained (December 25): Is it wrong that I kind of hope Quentin Tarantino worked in the line, “Where all the white women at?” somewhere into this movie?



5. The Hobbit (December 14): Peter Jackson and J. R. R. Tolkien. What could possibly go wrong.



4. The Evil Dead (April 12): This should be on my list of Movies You Cannot Pay Me to Watch because I hold the original trilogy in such high regard. And who could you possibly get to replace Bruce Campbell’s chin? The answer turned out to be the chick from Suburgatory. Since both Campbell and Sam Raimi are involved hopefully this will be the one remake that does not suck massively.

3. The Watch (July 27): Another movie with an unfortunate history. It was originally called Neighborhood Watch but quickly shortened it after the Travon Martin murder. But this movie is less about vigilante suburbanites and more about aliens. Sure I may be a bit optimistic considering the spotty track record of Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn of late, but at least the trailer looks extremely funny.



2. The Man with the Iron Fists (November 2): If there was one thing I have learned in my life is that you never, under any circumstance, trust a big butt and a smile. If there was a second thing I have learned, Wu-Tang Can ain’t nuthin’ to frack with. For those who do not know why, just check out RZA in this film.



1. Gangsta Squad (September 7): Another movie affected by the massacre in Colorado, the trailer, which was originally attached to The Dark Knight Rises, actually featured a theater being shot up. Now the trailer has been pulled and it looks like the scene will also hit the cutting room floor even though it was integral to the plot, so there are going to be reshoots and presumable the release date is no in questions. Scandals aside, after watching Crazy Stupid Love, I fully endorse any movie that features both Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.

Sunday, July 01, 2012

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility


Spider-Man

When they announced Marc Webb would direct the next Spider-Man I thought to myself, wait the dude from (500) Days of Summer? Yeah it was a good movie but I have no interest in seeing Spidy in a dance sequence to a Hall and Oates song. Seriously, why are we getting a reboot ten years after the last one when a fourth Sam Raimi would have been much better? What makes it worse is that a proposed fourth Raimi movie would have featured John Malkovich as Vulture in perfect type casting and Anne Hathaway as Felicia Handy, aka Black Cat (who ironically went on to playing a female cat person in another comic book movie). And since Webb cast Emma Stone in his movie I am going to have to begrudgingly rent it in a couple months.

Aside from a massive upgrade at love interest, I just cannot see the new version begging better than the Sam Rami version which is this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame. After the campiness of the later nineties Batman films almost killed off the superhero movies, they came back in a massive way in the early 00’s thanks to films like X-Men and Spider-Man who brought some seriousness back to the funny books and Sam Raimi’s love and respect for the story is shown throughout.

As cool as Spider-Man’s web slinging is, let’s face it, a superhero is only as good as his rouge’s gallery and Spidy’s is second only to Batman’s. And while some of my favorites were held back for future movies (Doc Ock, Sandman) , the Green Goblin was a worthy first opponent thanks to a stellar performance from Willem Defoe (even if he looked scarier with the mask off). And like any great nemesis, Green Goblin was a close relationship to Spider-Man as the father of Peter Packer’s best friend. J.K. Simmons also gave a great performance as Peter’s boss J. Jonah Jameson. And of course what Same Raimi film would be complete without a cameo from Bruce Campbell (who played three different roles in the three movies). Spider-Man is also notable for have one of the very few video game that not only did not suck massive but it was a really great game and even features Bruce Campbell as the Narrator all three game tie-ins.



Thursday, August 26, 2010

Breaking Down the 100 Greatest Movies of the 00’s


I have never claimed to be some sort of film connoisseur as I only cared enough to make it inside a movie theater twice last decade, but when the holy grail of movie awards handed out a Best Picture award to crap like Crash, who can really trust? But anyway. Here is how my list of The 100 Greatest Movies of the 00’s broke down by the numbers.

Movies by Year
2000 – 8
2001 – 8
2002 – 8
2003 – 4
2004 – 12
2005 – 8
2006 – 11
2007 – 14
2008 – 14
2009 – 13

Movies by Genre
Comedy – 31
Drama – 24
Action – 18
Romantic Comedy – 7
War – 5
Animation – 3
Documentary – 3
Horror – 3
Sports – 3
Suspense - 3

Foreign Language Films - 4 (5 if you count Inglorious Bastards which was German heavy)

Actors Who Appeared in Multiple Movies
Jason Bateman – 6
Justin Long – 6
Seth Rogan - 6
Bill Hader – 5
Jay Baruchel – 5
Natalie Portman – 5
Samuel L. Jackson - 5
Adam Sandler – 4
Ben Stiller – 4
Christine Taylor - 4
Craig Robinson - 4
Danny McBride – 4
Jack Black - 4
Jonah Hill - 4
Keira Knightly – 4
Kristen Bell - 4
Mandy Moore – 4
Orlando Bloom – 4
Vince Vaughn – 4

Directors with Multiple Films
Clint Eastwood – 3
Ridley Scott - 3
Ben Stiller – 2
Cameron Crowe – 2
Edgar Wright – 2
Guillermo del Toro – 2
Jason Reitman – 2
Judd Apatow – 2
Kevin Smith – 2
Martin Scorsese – 2
Paul Thomas Anderson – 2
Peter Berg – 2
Quentin Tarantino – 2
Robert Rodriguez – 2
Sam Raimi – 2
Steven Spielberg – 2
Zach Snyder - 2

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

You'd Be Surprised What You'll Do When the Lamia Comes for You


Drag Me to Hell on iTunes

During the Halloween season, there is one movie I go back to for a good scare, and a few laughs thrown in for good measure, and that is the Evil Dead Trilogy (okay that is three, but who’s counting). Unfortunate the creative mind behind those movies Sam Raimi has been too busy playing with boys in tights the last decade to do anything in the horror genre this decade until he squeaked one in at the end with Drag Me to Hell.

First off, Bruce Campbell who was the lead in the Evil Dead movies and cameos in all three Spider-Man movies as three different characters, is absent from the film. But other than that, Drag Me to Hell is pure Sam Raimi. The unexpected laughs throughout the movie jump up as much as the unsuspecting scary parts that horror movies are known for, although Raimi may have gone with one too many false endings.

The movie centers around Alison Lohman (Big Fish), a sweet loan officer who decides to get a backbone at the wrong time. Promotion time is right around the corner and after her boss says to get it, she will start to have to make the tough decisions which leads to Lohman to decline a frail old lady (perfectly portrayed by Lorna Raver with an assist to the great makeup artist who turned her that way) a third extension on her mortgage tossing her on the street. Wrong decision.

In retaliation, Raver puts a curse on Lohman where a demon named the Lamia would harass her for three days before, well, dragging her to hell, naturally. And as dramatized in the prologue, this is definitely not something you want to partake in. Along for the rise I the surprisingly straight man Justin Long (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) as Lohman loyal boyfriend who stays by her despite actually believing that she is being cursed and an eventful dinner with his parents who meet Lohman for the first time.

Drag Me to Hell might not be the scariest horror movie you will see (it is only PG-13) but for Raimi that is not the point as a full entertainment experience is what he wants to give you and that is what you get with this movie. And now that he has dipped his toe back in the genre, hopefully more adventures of Ash are not far behind.

Drag Me to Hell gets a Terror Alert Level: High [ORANGE] on my Terror Alert Scale.



Tuesday, March 24, 2009

You Don't Know Fear Kid, You've Never Worked with Sam Raimi


My Name Is Bruce

Bruce Campbell is a national treasure even if most of the nation doesn’t know who he is despite appearing in all three Spider-Man movies (granted he played three different characters). But he was part of my formative years thanks to Army of Darkness and The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. Really, if the MTV Movie Awards were still hip and relevant, they would have giving him, or at the very least Ash, the Lifetime Achievement Award.

It is the cult like following that is the basis of My Name Is Bruce where Campbell plays the title character, himself. His exaggerated version of himself is a callow, egomaniacal hack who is hated by his co-workers, his ex-wife, and his agent (Ted Raimi in one of his three roles). The only people that don’t hate him are his legions of fans, but he’s working on alienating them too. But it is one zealous fan who just so happened to unleash the Chinese war deity Guan Di that figures the one person that could help him would be the star of Evil Dead and Maniac Cop 2.

But when the fan kidnaps Campbell, he goes along with it thinking it is an acting gig set up by his manager. And then the hilarity ensues. One drawback of My Name Is Bruce is the fake real life Bruce doesn’t exactly live up to the humor or wit of his onscreen version like Ash. And you wish for more catchphrases that you come to expect from Bruce characters. But this movie makes up for it in the terms of musical numbers and has plenty of in-jokes for the hard core Bruce fans and a few cameos from Evil Dead alums.

The big draw to the My Name Is Bruce DVD are the extra like the behind the scenes documentary that is almost as long as the movie itself. There is also a behind the scenes look at the movie within a movie that Bruce is filming, as well as a trailer for the fake flick included.

My Name Is Bruce gets a Terror Alert Level: High [ORANGE] on my Terror Alert Scale.




Sunday, March 16, 2008

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. XXIV


Quote of the Week: Find yourself another peon to pee on. (Maggie, Eli Stone)

Song of the Week: Margaritaville - Jimmy Buffet (South Park)

Big News of the Week: Sitcoms Fight for Worst Actress: Recently My Name Is Earl announced the it nabbed Paris Hilton to guest as herself for its post strike return only to be trumped by How I Met Your Mother who is bringing in Britney Spears (whose sister will be popping up on new ABC sitcom Miss Guided). It is a toss up which is the worse decision, I don’t think anyone let Spears act after the Crossroads debacle (fun fact: the movie was written by the “mastermind” behind Grey’s Anatomy) until now and Earl is smartly not making Hilton stretch her acting chops to wide by having her play herself. In other bad decision news, The CW is resurrecting Beverly Hills, 90210 with Rob Thomas at the helm. How do you go from the smartest teen drama ever to the most vapid? And doesn’t The CW already have a failed modern day 90210 in Gossip Girl?

And just when I thought that 90210 Redux would be the final death nail in The CW coffin, the very next day it was announced that they gave an eight episode order to a Sam Raimi produced show. Then I went back to not caring about the channel when I found out that the show, 13 is a reality competition. Lame. How about Raimi scripted show, preferably staring Bruce Campbell instead? Think about how much better Reaper would have been if Raimi had done it, not a bunch of guys ripping off Sam Raimi.

Coalition Links of the Week:
Buzz chatted with Parker Posey about Project Runway and The Return of Jezebel James. (BuzzSugar)

Sandie talked about why she loves HBO's new show In Treatment. (Daemon's TV)

Marcia said farewell to yet another season of Project Runway. (Pop Vultures)

Rae couldn't stand it anymore and finally made (time) to talk about America's Best Dance Crew. (RTVW)

Vance celebrates that the Sun is finally shinning! At least on Lost. Toronto is still pretty snowy and grey (blech). (Tapeworthy)

This week, Jace was disappointed by the latest obnoxious "twist" on Beauty and the Geek, depressed about the pilot for the US adaptation of Spaced moving forward, and was surprised by how much he actually still enjoys CBS's multi-camera sitcom Old Christine. (Televisionary)

Dan loves Rashida Jones from her days on The Office, but he simply can't endorse her new sitcom Unhitched. (TiFaux)

Jennifer weighs in on Britney Spears guest starring on How I Met Your Mother, and it isn't pretty. (Tube Talk)

After watching the premiere of Canterbury's Law, the TV Addict uncovers the secret method to FOX's Madness! (the TV Addict)

Raoul interviewed Joel from "Survivor." (TV Filter)


Everybody Hates Chris: Couldn’t that have gotten Flavor Flav to play himself as it was obvious that Slaver Slav was a stand in for him. You can’t tell me Flav wouldn’t have done that.

Everybody Hates Chris on iTunes


South Park: I think there is anything or anyone that is so successfully of making you laugh at things you know you shouldn’t laugh at than South Park.

South Park on iTunes



Survivor: I must have been spoiled with a month straight of blind sides but I was all giddy during tribal council fully expecting for Ozzie to get the boot when Chet ruined everything and ended up actually getting everyone to vote for him instead of deciding to last another night to get rid of Ozzie. Ugg. Check out the latest episode over at Innertube.

Survivor on iTunes



Smallville: Product placement is a necessary evil, something I have grown content with, but couldn’t the writers of Smallville come up with a better way to include a gum, that will not be named here (unless of course they want to pay me), than to have a random band play in a gum factory? Yet another example that these writers didn’t deserve a raise that they went on strike for. I know that all product placements can be as good as Wayne's World 2, but certainly they could have done better than this. Now if you excuss me, I need to go to my local Appleby’s, order some Gatorade while sporting my new Under Armour gear.


Lost: I don’t know what was worse, the way I thought the episode actually ended with Jin being alive while Sun and Hurley didn’t know he was, or after when some uber-nerd informed that Jin was actually a flash-back while Sun was experiencing as flash-forward. Seriously, how is anyone who isn’t a complete lose supposed to know that 2004 was the year of the dragon that the toy store clerk mentioned? Either way this episode sucked massively. Then there was the most un-anticlimactic scene in Lost history, which is saying a lot, when we finally learn, about five episodes too late, that Michael is on the freighter. I really hate Lost as well as myself for still watching. Check out the latest episode over at ABC.com.

Lost iTunes



Eli Stone: Back when I gave my First Impressions of Eli Stone I was so high on the casting that I said, “Seriously, if Andrew from Buffy the Vampire Slayer shows up I may have to check to see if I also have an aneurysm.” Then this past week I was checking out the guest star list (which I do with every show even though it can act as a spoiler) when I saw “Tom Lenk” who was the infamous Tucker’s Brother on Buffy. Then an hour later no Andrew. So I’m thinking I may have just had an aneurism and seeing random actors’ names. Granted after a Blingo search (which is like Google except you win stuff, and if you sign up I win stuff too) it turned out he was there in a blink and you’ll miss it roll. Hopefully he will begin to play a bigger role later and is signed on in a recurring role.

Missing Andrew aside, a really enjoyable episode now that Eli isn’t the defendant. After some bad scenes in the ealier episodes, the writing problems seemed to be ironed out and there was a great set up for a love triangle with Jordan and Maggie playing against each other. I know who I will be rooting for. This show is definitely going on me with each passing week. I did noticed that Lost will be soon moving into its timeslot with no mention of Eli Stone showing up elsewhere on the schedule. Is it too soon for a Save Eli Stone campaign? Should we sending George Michael mp3’s to ABC? Check out the latest episode over at ABC.com. You can also download Eli Stone on iTunes.


Last week I sent out a call to find out who the Best Characters on Television are and some of the voters were brave enough to reveal their ballots as well as explanations. I did give my list on the Best Characters list but didn’t explain why, not because I am lazy but because didn’t see the need because you should all accept my superior knowledge. Well that and because I’m lazy. Here are the people that revealed their ballots to give you an idea on how top 25 ended up like it did.

Ducky Does TV
Pass the Remote
Tapeworthy
TiFaux
TV on the Brain


Promo of the Week: As promised on Friday, here is a Battlestar Galatica promo for the show’s return on April 4:



I also mentioned on Friday that I had some behind the scene videos of The Riches, who second season premieres this Tuesday over at my sister site, so you can check those out by clinking the link.


Next Week’s Pick: The Big Bang Theory, Monday at 8:00 on CBS: It is not a coincidence that Sheldon came in at number two on my favorite characters on television list as he put the smart in smart-alic and overshadowed the other Monday show How I Met Your Mother of whom they switch time slots over the hiatus.