TUBE!
DEXTER.
Showtime
This show revolves around Miami Metro Police Department's Homicide Division. A couple of the folks that work there are the kid's of a late well respected veteran detective, Harry Morgan. Although in the beginning of the series, Deborah Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter) was working vice, she eventually gets into Homicide, and in fact, as the seasons go by, she makes Lieutenant. Her step-brother Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), is on the forensics team. He is a "blood splatter analyst." And he's very good at his job.
Dexter has a secret though. When he was 3 years old, he witnessed his mother being murdered with a chainsaw. That left a profound affect on him and twisted him is such a way that he became a sociopath with a psychotic need to kill. His father Harry (the cop that rescued and later adopted him), sensed this early on, and decided to intervene as best he could. He knew there was going to be no stopping Dexter, but he (and as it turns out in the last season, a Dr.) came up with a "Code" for Dexter to live by. Harry (James Remar) started instilling it in Dexter from a very early age. Essentially the code, outlines how Dexter is to never get caught, and is to kill only those who absolutely deserve it, when the law lets them slip through the cracks. In other words, Dexter is a serial killer who only kills other serial killers.
Dexter is a guy who doesn't have feelings. He wishes he did. He carries with him what he calls his "Dark Passenger." It's that dark place inside of him that feels this overwhelming urge to kill. Along the way though he meets a woman that was severely abused and doesn't want any real male contact, and Dexter is thrilled to start dating her, because she isn't interested in any real human contact. Made to order for Dexter! Rita (Julie Benz), is standoffish at first but as time goes on she warms up to Dexter, and so much so that they eventually actually get married. In all the wedding pictures, Dexter is confused. He doesn't know what feelings he's supposed to be faking. Rita brings with her two kids, Astor (Christina Robinson), and Cody (Preston Bailey). So now Dexter is a father. And later on.....voila! Rita's pregnant and gives birth to Dexter's son Harrison! This makes it complicated for a serial killer who likes to spend a lot of evenings "out."
I cannot begin to describe all of the events and characters that come into Dexter and Deb's life. So many psychos. But there is a pivotable moment at the end of season 6 when Deb gets let in on who Dexter is, and everything changes.
Beyond that, one of the psychos Dexter encounters murders Rita, and Dexter is left alone with Harrison (the two step kids go to Grandparents).
I know this is old news because Dexter has been over for a couple years. But I watched the first season many years ago and never pursued it, but decided to go back and see it all. And man am I glad I did. Frankly, I don't know what I'm going to do without Dexter in my life.
Ironically, Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter were actually married for seasons 4, 5, and 6, and then divorced. In seasons 7 and 8 you'd never know it. They were committed professionals all the way. And there are two many great side-players here to mention them all, but they are all worthy and all deserve respect.
This is a show I loved and I am going to miss. I watched an episode every day at the gym on the treadmill as I did my 3 or 3.25 miles on the treadmill. It's over now. What am I going to do? What is there to watch?
DEXTER is a masterful work of writers coming together with directors and acting talent and the magic happened. This was an interesting idea explored to the Nth degree and I thank all the people involved in it for that. Although, I know it was set in Miami, many scenes looked amazing like Long Beach, California where I used to live........yuk-yuk
I cannot, and I mean cannot recommend this show enough. I loved every moment of this. Even when Dexter was killing. Because by killing the animals he was killing he was saving lives. And that is how weird this show is. Let's root for a serial killer!!
DEXTER explores a lot of human nuances that maybe we are uncomfortable with. And that's the beauty of this show.
Grade: A+
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Friday, June 19, 2015
Jurassic World
Flix!
I put this review right after my review of "San Andreas," because they are so similar. Four separate writers had to be called in a various times to cobble together a script that was right in front of them had they watched the first "Jurassic Park." Kids, massive dinosaurs, tense situations....you get the idea.
One of the hardest things for me watching this movie was taking Chris Pitt seriously; he is such a supreme comic on "Parks and Recreation." But I guess he buffed up for "Guardians of the Galaxy" and for this movie and eventually sold me as an action hero. At one point I even thought "this guy could be an Indiana Jones type. Turns out, he will be in some up-coming Indiana Jones films.
It seems that Jurassic Park, after that terrible series of events that happened so long ago, has come back to life in the name of "Jurassic World." The management, always the bad guys in the movie world and the real world, push to get more creepy, crazy, dangerous Dinosaurs. So they finally come up the "Six Million Dollar Man" of Dinosaurs and the fun ensues.
Of course there are two kids in the mix. Did you not see the first movie? And of course they are stupid and make bad choices. That's the things movies are made of.
I have to say one thing. Even if all of these rides would have gone off flawlessly, to me, this is still the most boring park ever. Hey, please, can we go back to Knott's Berry Farm? This crap would not keep a kid entertained for more than 15 minutes. Reality check.
The park obviously creates a mega-dinosaur and then has to deal with the consequences when it gets out. Naturally. And this one doesn't kill for food, it kills for fun.
Of course it gets out, blah-blah-blah. Predictable and boring. I have to be honest. I thought 2 minutes into this film that the final scene would be the super-dino fighting the normal T-Rex. 2 minutes. I was not disappointed.
Jurassic World was a boring and predictable piece of mish-mash that will make millions and millions of dollars. But this is not good on any level.
Like my wife says, whose seen it twice says, "It's not thought provoking. You won't have deep thoughts. It's not inspiring. But darn it, I like it." I guess I get that. There is a definite market out there for the mindless. In fact, it's most of us.
I am ashamed of the fact that I have seen this and as of yet have not seen "The Theory of Everything." But I live in a small town and our theater only shows sure-fire hits.
Grade: C-
I put this review right after my review of "San Andreas," because they are so similar. Four separate writers had to be called in a various times to cobble together a script that was right in front of them had they watched the first "Jurassic Park." Kids, massive dinosaurs, tense situations....you get the idea.
One of the hardest things for me watching this movie was taking Chris Pitt seriously; he is such a supreme comic on "Parks and Recreation." But I guess he buffed up for "Guardians of the Galaxy" and for this movie and eventually sold me as an action hero. At one point I even thought "this guy could be an Indiana Jones type. Turns out, he will be in some up-coming Indiana Jones films.
It seems that Jurassic Park, after that terrible series of events that happened so long ago, has come back to life in the name of "Jurassic World." The management, always the bad guys in the movie world and the real world, push to get more creepy, crazy, dangerous Dinosaurs. So they finally come up the "Six Million Dollar Man" of Dinosaurs and the fun ensues.
Of course there are two kids in the mix. Did you not see the first movie? And of course they are stupid and make bad choices. That's the things movies are made of.
I have to say one thing. Even if all of these rides would have gone off flawlessly, to me, this is still the most boring park ever. Hey, please, can we go back to Knott's Berry Farm? This crap would not keep a kid entertained for more than 15 minutes. Reality check.
The park obviously creates a mega-dinosaur and then has to deal with the consequences when it gets out. Naturally. And this one doesn't kill for food, it kills for fun.
Of course it gets out, blah-blah-blah. Predictable and boring. I have to be honest. I thought 2 minutes into this film that the final scene would be the super-dino fighting the normal T-Rex. 2 minutes. I was not disappointed.
Jurassic World was a boring and predictable piece of mish-mash that will make millions and millions of dollars. But this is not good on any level.
Like my wife says, whose seen it twice says, "It's not thought provoking. You won't have deep thoughts. It's not inspiring. But darn it, I like it." I guess I get that. There is a definite market out there for the mindless. In fact, it's most of us.
I am ashamed of the fact that I have seen this and as of yet have not seen "The Theory of Everything." But I live in a small town and our theater only shows sure-fire hits.
Grade: C-
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
San Andreas
Flix!
San Andreas is not a film that will make you think deep thoughts. It does not have clever intellectual plot twists. In fact it's plot is tragically predictable. But the film does exactly what it's designed to do: Give you 114 minutes of simple escapism by way of some pretty impressive special effects.
Dwyane Johnson plays Ray, a guy who is a trained Rescue Firefighter, who was being sent to assist in a situation and then the big one hit. A giant earthquake the whole length of the San Andreas fault. From Los Angeles to San Francisco the earth has opened up. This in reality is not what would happen in this situation, but it's Hollywood. So just go with it. His estranged wife Emma (Carla Gugino) is now engaged to a wealthy building developer, but Ray is sort of ok with that. Their daughter Blake (Alexandria Daddario) is in San Francisco, and is working for mom's new finance. On this particular day, a young man Daniel (Ioan Gruffudd) is interviewing for a job at the mom's boyfriend's company and he has been forced to bring along his younger brother Ollie (Art Parkinson). This happens about the time the big one makes it's way up to San Francisco.
Meanwhile, somewhere else a top meteorologist, Prof. Lawrence (Paul Giamatti) has just discovered, along with a colleague, a way to accurately predict earthquakes before they happen. Unfortunately the colleague is inside the Hoover Dam when the biggie hit, and it was strong enough to take the Dam down.
Later, after Ray and his ex have teamed up to go find their daughter (we know about 5 minutes into the movie that they are going to end up reuniting, like I say predictable), Prof. Lawrence is being interviewed by a newswoman Serena (played by the incredibly hot Archie Punjab) and later they team up to save not only themselves but potentially many other lives.
Of course, Ray and Emma get back together. Of course Blake drowns, but a couple of chest pumps brings her back to life. Of course Daniel saves Blake at one point so they'll fall in love. Of course the cowardly fiance gets his. Of course the little brother Ollie is the comic relief. So predictable. But exactly what you signed up for when you bought a ticket.
So, can I fault this movie? Not really.
It didn't promise something it didn't deliver. It was a disaster movie, and it showed us disaster. So I cannot fault that.
Perhaps the ones that are at fault for low-level cinema are us. We that buy so many tickets that these things and they make a lot of money and foster more. Perhaps it started with "A Night To Remember", and then there was "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno", and "Airport!" and the biggie "Titanic". So, we have no one to blame but ourselves. But, who's the victim? We paid for escapism, and we got it. So I guess it's all good.
I was given 114 minutes of what I paid to get. But the fact we didn't get a better movie with better actors than WWE cast outs, is our fault. But having said that, the special effects were phenomenal.
Grade: C
San Andreas is not a film that will make you think deep thoughts. It does not have clever intellectual plot twists. In fact it's plot is tragically predictable. But the film does exactly what it's designed to do: Give you 114 minutes of simple escapism by way of some pretty impressive special effects.
Dwyane Johnson plays Ray, a guy who is a trained Rescue Firefighter, who was being sent to assist in a situation and then the big one hit. A giant earthquake the whole length of the San Andreas fault. From Los Angeles to San Francisco the earth has opened up. This in reality is not what would happen in this situation, but it's Hollywood. So just go with it. His estranged wife Emma (Carla Gugino) is now engaged to a wealthy building developer, but Ray is sort of ok with that. Their daughter Blake (Alexandria Daddario) is in San Francisco, and is working for mom's new finance. On this particular day, a young man Daniel (Ioan Gruffudd) is interviewing for a job at the mom's boyfriend's company and he has been forced to bring along his younger brother Ollie (Art Parkinson). This happens about the time the big one makes it's way up to San Francisco.
Meanwhile, somewhere else a top meteorologist, Prof. Lawrence (Paul Giamatti) has just discovered, along with a colleague, a way to accurately predict earthquakes before they happen. Unfortunately the colleague is inside the Hoover Dam when the biggie hit, and it was strong enough to take the Dam down.
Later, after Ray and his ex have teamed up to go find their daughter (we know about 5 minutes into the movie that they are going to end up reuniting, like I say predictable), Prof. Lawrence is being interviewed by a newswoman Serena (played by the incredibly hot Archie Punjab) and later they team up to save not only themselves but potentially many other lives.
Of course, Ray and Emma get back together. Of course Blake drowns, but a couple of chest pumps brings her back to life. Of course Daniel saves Blake at one point so they'll fall in love. Of course the cowardly fiance gets his. Of course the little brother Ollie is the comic relief. So predictable. But exactly what you signed up for when you bought a ticket.
So, can I fault this movie? Not really.
It didn't promise something it didn't deliver. It was a disaster movie, and it showed us disaster. So I cannot fault that.
Perhaps the ones that are at fault for low-level cinema are us. We that buy so many tickets that these things and they make a lot of money and foster more. Perhaps it started with "A Night To Remember", and then there was "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno", and "Airport!" and the biggie "Titanic". So, we have no one to blame but ourselves. But, who's the victim? We paid for escapism, and we got it. So I guess it's all good.
I was given 114 minutes of what I paid to get. But the fact we didn't get a better movie with better actors than WWE cast outs, is our fault. But having said that, the special effects were phenomenal.
Grade: C
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