Brothers- Good Trailer, Good Movie

There's a lot to be said for making a fantastic trailer (see Whopper trailer). I first saw the trailer for Brothers at the theater this summer. I was in awe. Tonight was the first time since the summer that I sat down and decided it would be nice to take in a movie. When I went to see what was out, I saw that Brothers was playing and there was no decision to be made. I was there.

Now there are good trailers and then there are good movies. Brothers had both. There are many things that came together to make this movie good. Here are some of them. It started off with the setting of a normal family, and for some reason (the personalities, the writing, etc.) I fell in love with Sam, Grace, Maggie and Isabelle. It does help when Grace, the wife and mother, is played by the fantastic Natalie Portman. The ability to get attached so quickly, especially to Sam, gives the audience a comfort that they will need to bring about certain other feelings later on in the film.

After Sam, played by Tobey Maguire, leaves to go back to the war in Afghanistan we start to see both stories simultaneously as they cut back and forth. It feels as if Sam's (quote un quote) death comes immediately after he leaves and that's when the next phase comes into play. Uncle Tommy, who has recently been released from prison, comes in to help the family in what seems as a way to make up for all the screwing up he has done over the years. It's either that or to prove that Sam wasn't the only one who could be counted on. Jake Gyllenhaal portrays utter coolness in the role of Tommy and builds an unbelievable rapport with the children, Maggie and Izabelle. As Tommy does more and more for Grace and the kids, I fell more and more in love with the idea of the being a family together. We saw Sam being good with the kids before he left for war, but not this good. To me, it was this conflict for the audience to decide who deserved the family more that got the juices flowing.

What was surprising to me was how much I also enjoyed the war scenes. Right after Sam's chopper goes down and Grace hears word on his death, we see that Sam is alive. He is captured and imprisoned. You have to sit on the edge of your seat to wonder how he is going to get out alive. You, well I guess I, was so intrigued by every move he made in that it was going to reveal more and more about his character. At first he was so calm and confident, but by the end of his stay in Afghanistan he did one particularly awful thing. It was to save his own life and get back to his family, but is that right? Would you have done something different in that situation? Would I? Probably not. It was this event that kept him alive long enough to get him saved, but it was also probably mainly this event that made him the way he was when he returned.

Back at the ranch we had a fantastic scene between Tommy and Grace. After the two make fun of who each other were in high school (Grace a cheerleader and Tommy getting drunk and into fights), they share a moment with some pot and then lock lips with a big smooch. It ended there and they both knew that it was wrong and left the scene immediately. Both vulnerable, and both knew that the mature thing was to not move forward even though they made a much better couple than Grace and Sam did.

What's this? Sam finally comes home after being rescued by his fellow Marines. The dude is messed up from the word go. Within the first half of a day back he comes up with "did you eff her?" to Tommy. I saw the way you guys were out there skating. Are you joking? How is that your first thought? I know you're messed up, but isn't that the last thing you suspect to have happened, not the first?

After Sam has major troubles throughout his time back, we get to the great scenes that we saw in the trailer way back when. Sure the dinner scenes in Talladega Nights and Step Brothers were fantastic, but this one may have taken the cake. Izabelle has had it with Maggie getting all of the good birthday presents, and she really can't stand how scary and boring her daddy has been acting. As she viciously takes her frustrations out on a balloon, by rubbing it to make a loud noise, Sam seems to get upset as well. Him snapping at her, and popping the balloon in her face, leads to these comments by the little girl...

"Why couldn't you stay dead?!?"
"You're just mad 'cause Mommy would rather sleep with Uncle Tommy than you!"
"Uncle Tommy and Mommy have sex all the time!"

Then upstairs she tells her mom...

"I don't like Dad. I'd rather have Uncle Tommy around."
Maggie chips in, "Me too."

*Ending Spoiler Alert From Here On Out*

The scene that we all were waiting for. Sam loses it, pulls a gun out and points it at Tommy. After hearing police sirens (that Tommy called ahead of time) he walks out to the driveway where we see him screaming and yelling about "WHAT HE'S DONE!!!" This is what drove the entire trailer to that fantastic level. After firing the gun once in the air to get the cops to back off, he points it at his head. I literally held my breath for the next 15-20 seconds as I waited for him to pull the trigger. I thought he was gonna do it. I thought to myself, what a fantastic job by not putting the fact that he kills himself in the trailer. But then he lowers the gun and gets taken into custody.

I was then waiting for something big to happen. Some big revelation that would make the movie even better than what the trailer made it out to be. But it kind of quickly leveled off and ended. Sam's in treatment at some prison/hospital I'm assuming and he gets to see Grace. He finally tells her that he killed the other marine in Afghanistan. Are we supposed to assume that he's on the road to recovery now? That's he basically all better? What about Uncle Tommy and Grace? Are we just supposed to be okay with them never mentioning their feelings for each other again? He'll go on being just Uncle Tommy forever? I needed a little more on that end of things at the end.

All in all it lived up to the trailer, but didn't go above and beyond what I was expecting.

Glee- Three Aspects of Quality

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Quiet Pool favorite Chuck is a fantastic show because it is great at three things...Comedy, Drama, and Action. In that same vein, Glee has become a good show over the first half of its first season because it is good at three things...Comedy, Drama and Music. After I gave up on it during the pilot, I came back to it because of growing buzz and Glee slowly but surely got better and better as the season has gone along.

The drama aspect of the show has gotten better, and more realistic, as the show has progressed. It was strongly evident in this week's fall finale, as we witnessed Rachel out Quinn and Puck's secret to Finn, Finn and Quinn deal with that fall out, and Mr. Shue end his marriage and finally make a move on Emma. Finn's rampage in the choir room was enough for me to give him props on this ep, but he then stepped up again by bring the squad together and getting them through the sectionals show.

The comedy aspect of the show can be explained by two words. Sue Sylvester. Although Rachel is usually good for some comic relief in each episode, this week she was too focused on bringing down the house in her musical number to bring the funny. Sue obviously didn't fail to crack me up every time she was on the screen. Jane Lynch is great, but this character is way better. After watching all but two episodes of Party Down, I can say that her character on that doesn't come close to comparing to the level of Sue Sylvester. Not only is what she says hilarious, but her actions may be better. After her first confrontation in the hallway with Shue this week, she performed a fist pump for the ages. Sue followed that up with a shove of a student in the hallway after her second chat with Shue. Classic.

The music aspect is what really puts Glee over the edge. An underrated part of the singing scenes is when someone is belting out a tune in the choir room, like Mercedes did in this week's ep, and the rest of the Gleesters are reacting to her performance. Watching them loving it reminds me of myself watching American Idol every week of the late winter. As good as those moments are, they aren't nearly as good as the show performances themselves. This week's numbers were two of the best yet, as Rachel went solo on Barbara Streisand's "Don't Rain on My Parade" from the play Funny Girl to start sectionals off with a bang. The rest of the crew joined in for a number that will always get me excited, but this time gave me chills, in the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Great stuff.

Glee doesnt return until April, so I will have to get my tv music fix from Idol which starts in January.

Survivor Samoa- Weeks 12 and 13

Nice little double elimination episode this week. I like it because there is much more game play embedded in the show, and less fluff. After Jaison won the first immunity the group decided to get rid of Dave Bald to throw Shambo some love. As it went on and on, the editing made it seem as though there were going to go against Shambo's wishes and eject her from the game instead. The editing is very sneaky sometimes. So when Russell commented at the tribal council that the most important aspect at this point in the game is getting rid of people that are well liked, I got a bit confused. For as good as he is, how would he think that anyone in this game liked Shambo and would vote for her at the end? I was pleasantly surprised when Russ and the rest of the crew decided to keep the waste of space Shambo around, but I would've been happier if they had figured out to get rid of the ridiculously nice Brett instead.

To start the second half of the episode, Brett found the perfectly opportune moment to win his first individual immunity. Russell came in third in this contest, but was pretty much out of the running about half way through. Has he won a competition yet? Can you imagine how could he could be if he could win a few things when he needed to?

Anywho...Monica, with her life on the line now, started to stir up the pot. It was fantastic as she started telling Russell all of the stuff about him that Jaison and Natalie were telling the old Galus. Russell obviously confronts Jaison and he in turn denies everything. He pull a Michelle of Big Brother and tells the camera he doesn't remember if he told them or not. Please. All of this then prompts Jaison and Mich to start to question whether or not to turn on Russell at this point. How long are you fellas going to wait? One of you two have to make a single move at some point in this game. In the end, all of Monica's moves may have been for not, because she went home with a 6-2 vote. Having said that, it may have stirred the pot enough to make things interesting gearing down towards the end here.

Fantasy Results

The Technotronics

W. Russell-W12 (67), W13 (79), Votes (-8)= 138
B. Russell-
Monica- W12 (67), Votes (-20)= 47
Liz-
Natalie- W12 (67), W13 (79)= 146
Weeks 12 and 13= 331
Total=1,196




Freecell Makes Me Wanna

Mick- W12 (67), W13 (79)= 146
Brett- W12 (67), W13 (79), Im (20)= 166
Marissa-
Laura-
Yasmin-
Weeks 12 and 13= 312
Total= 1,022

Canon Controversy

John-
Jaison- W12 (67), W13 (79), Im (20)= 166
Mike-
Dave- Votes (-28)= -28
Betsy-
Weeks 12 and 13= 138
Total= 869






Sweet Niblets


Erik-
Ben-
Ashley-
Kelly-
Shambo- W12 (67), W13 (79), Votes (-4)= 142
Weeks 12 and 13= 142
Total= 597

90210- Jasper's Safety Net

Although most people (myself included) have been pleased with the improvement of the second season of 90210, many have been disappointed with the recent story line of the Annie and Jasper relationship. The general view I've heard is that it's been boring and they've completely disregarded the fact that she ran over his uncle in last year's season finale. When they first met everyone thought that you were going to have to watch on the edge of your seat as you waited to see when Jasper was going to enact his revenge on her for what she did. But they went another route with the whole thing and I, unlike some, enjoyed it.

They put the story in the background and made you sort of forget about it for a bit, while the other plot lines grew. The Liam and Jen's saga, Teddy and Silver's budding non-romance, Adriana's second drug stint and Dixon's relationship with an older woman took center stage. As Navid and the others got closer and closer to outing Jasper as a drug dealer, Annie continued to not believe it (mainly because Jasper denied it to her multiple times). When Adriana finally comes forward and admits she has been buy drugs from Jasper for months, Annie believes her. In a crying fit, she gets Jasper to admit his short comings. He is surprisingly calm because he has, what he always knew he had, the safety net that is the truth about Annie's manslaughter drive.

The generic and obvious story line to draw out would have been to have this guy plotting his revenge on Annie. Have Jasper bring her into his life for the sole purpose of taking her down for what she did. Instead what I think they did was take a character that is clearly broken and has no friends, and figured out a new story that I haven't seen on tv before. Maybe he had a few moves that he could pull on Annie, but knew that at some point she was going to turn on him for his drug dealing habit. Therefore he used the dirt that he had on her, not to seek revenge, but to give himself a cushion that would land him this girl for a much longer time. Maybe she'll stay with him even after finding out the truth, because if she doesn't he will tell everyone that she killed his uncle. Very clever in my opinion. And very satisfying.

Alice- Many Twists on the Same Old Story

If I'm anything, I'm a guy who likes familiarity. When I go to the deli down the street from my office, I order the same thing every time. When I've planned vacations it's been to Disney World, not only because it's the happiest place on earth, but because I've grown accustomed to the surroundings. When I start a new tv series, like I did on Monday with Men of a Certain Age, it's usually because I had a previous relationship with someone as I did with the likes of Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula. For this reason, I decided to watch the SyFy mini-series Alice. And for this reason, I enjoyed it more than I probably should have.

Alice took the Lewis Carroll children's stories of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and modernized it for the SyFy mini-series. My previous relationship with Wonderland is mainly with the 1991-95 tv series Adventures in Wonderland. As you could guess from the years of airing, it featured a roller-skating White Rabbit and MC Hammer-esque tweedle dee and tweedle dum. Missy Robinson from that one episode of Boy Meets World, or the lead from Point Pleasant, starred as Alice on the Disney Channel show. A couple of years ago, I watched the Disney animated classic Alice in Wonderland for the first time that I can remember.

SyFy's version started off with Alice, a 20-something girl in the real world, and her boyfriend having dinner with her mother. After her boyfriend, Robinson Crusoe, was captured and taken through the looking glass, Alice followed him to Wonderland. Wonderland was a dark, broken down world that sat mostly high up off the ground. As Alice tries to recover her boyfriend, who's actual name was Jack, she runs into many of the characters we have known in the past. White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, Caterpillar, Cheshire Cat and the weirdest version of the March Hare you could ever imagine. Every time there was another sighting, or mention of a character I knew, I got excited. Even when a fat man with a long mustache was just referred to as the Walrus, I loved it.

Sure there were plenty of flaws, but it did keep my interest throughout the three hours of run time. Caterina Scorsone who played Alice was fantastic even if she did have dark hair. Andrew-Lee Potts was even better as the Mad Hatter. He was funny at most points, but also had the ability to make me care about what happened him. The Hatter and the White Knight followed Alice on her adventure, which started out as a plan to save her boyfriend, then turned into trying to save her absentee father that was stuck in Wonderland, and finished with trying to take down the vicious Red Queen played by the fantastic Kathy Bates. All in all there were plenty of twists and turns and the ending was well worth it. Let's just say I had no idea that was where they were going to take the story when I began watching.

I plan on getting to watch SyFy's Tin Man, made a couple years ago, at some point in the near future. Another recreation of a famous children's story, obviously based on The Wizard of Oz.

Men of a Certain Age- Romano Gives Series Promise

Here's the thing...Why did I go into this series premier with such high hopes? It's a drama on TNT. Oh that's right, because it had Andre Baugher and Scott Bakula in it. I never was a big fan of Everybody Loves Raymond so the fact that Ray Romano was also a lead didn't get me too excited. After the episode ended, my first thought was that Romano was easily the best part about the show.

Men of a Certain Age is a drama about three guys that have been friends since college and are now getting through life in their later years. Romano plays Joe. He's in the recently divorced or in the middle of a divorce, owns a party store, and is addicted to gambling. Braugher plays Owen. He's married with kids, has some health issues and works for his father at a car dealership. Bakula plays Terry. The playboy type, somewhat of an aspiring actor that temps in the meantime.

Throughout the first episode we see the three guys go hiking and eat together, but we also see them dealing with the stresses of their daily lives on their own. While every moment Romano was on the screen it was enjoyable, every Andre Braugher scene was disappointing. I never really watched Homicide, but always heard great things, but I loved him in Passing Glory and his recent short stint on House. I know it was only one episode, but he only had one moment where I enjoyed his character. It was the hip check to the young salesman, knocking him into the water cooler. Hopefully that will be where the character heads in the future.

Although it was interesting and a bit funny at times, the drama was lacking and it was pretty slow moving. If it weren't the series premier I can imagine I would've been a bit more bored. Instead I was continually curious as to where it was going to go. I guess there are some positives to a pilot episode. Anyway I'm going to continue to check it out since we are getting into the holiday television break, but I was not seriously impressed.

Poolies Watch- Phoebe Buffay Award

The Pheobe Buffay Award is given each year to the best female character in a comedy series. Last year's winner was Liz Lemon and she should be in the running again in 2010. She's no where near the level of Alex Russo and Miley Stewart, who top my current list, but Lemon has more followers so she remains the heavy favorite heading into this year's vote.

Definites
Alex Russo- Wizards of Waverly Place
Jenna Maroney- 30 Rock
Liz Lemon- 30 Rock
Miley Stewart- Hannah Montana

The only two that I currently have as being nominated that I have no confidence in are the only two that were in the running a year ago. Kelly Kapoor and Angela Martin have really brought nothing to the table this year in Scranton, PA. Sleeper alert on Annie Edison of Community. She's been picking up speed during the past three or four episodes, and what I used to find as annoying with her is turning into funny.

In for Now
Angela Martin- The Office
Annie Edison- Community
Gloria Delgado-Pritchett- Modern Family
Kelly Kapoor- The Office
Lilly Truscott- Hannah Montana
Macy Misa- Jonas

Here's where it gets tricky. Well only on one account. I am almost finished with the first season of Party Down, which had one season on Starz last spring. I am torn once again on whether to place it in comedy or drama. Sure it is actually a comedy, but it doesn't seem to be built around the funny to me. The emotions of Adam Scott's lead character Henry Pollard seem to be the main focus. His relationship with Lizzy Caplan's Casey Klein seems to be priority number two. Sure there is comic relief in the surroundings, but it doesn't seem to be what drives the show. Having said that, I'm gonna throw Casey Klein in here for now.

Outside Looking In
Allison Brooks- Gary Unmarried
April Ludgate- Parks & Recreation
(Casey Klein- Party Down)
Claire Dunphy- Modern Family
Sonny Monroe- Sonny With a Chance
Stella Malone- Jonas

Friday Night Lights- Saracen Slams the Door

In what should have been a let down of an ep, due to the fact that it almost solely focused around the death of a character we hardly knew, it most certainly did not let me down. I don't think Friday Night Lights has bad eps. The way that the writing, direction and acting builds drama on FNL is ridiculously good. On 90210 they had the passing of a character that the audience (or some of the audience) has known for 20 years, in Jackie Taylor, and couldn't really get me to care less. In this week's Dillon saga, they got me to feel for everyone involved with the death of Matt Saracen's absentee father. We saw him what one, two episodes over the three and a half seasons? Why should I care? Because they made me care. Fantastic job.

Several other great moments...

After Vince and Luke decide to run the Wildcat and score a touchdown off of it.
Coach- "Who called the play?!?"
Vince- "I blacked out Coach."

When Coach brings up the passing of Matt's dad in the locker room after the game, he let's Landry say the prayer. Only he doesn't call him Landry, he brings it back to when he didn't know his actual name and calls him Lance.
--I completely disagree with Sepinwall's analysis of the sequence...

I'd like there to be more consistency with the Landry/Lance thing. Either Eric knows his real name by now, or he doesn't. In theory, they could turn the joke into something a bit deeper by having Eric call him Lance when he's annoyed with him in practice, or just in a light moment, and shift to Landry when things are more serious. But to call him Lance while asking him to say a prayer for his best friend's dead father was a distraction.

--You see he used Lance because it was a serious moment. As we know, FNL as with most shows, tends to skip by some moments. What we need to infer is that Coach figured out Landry's real name at some point. He calls him Lance in this moment, and I'm sure he'll do it again down the road, because it was heartfelt. It is something that had together and was something that really only the two of them in the locker room might have understood.

As Saracen's anger builds and builds at his father's wake, JD and Joe McCoy show up at his doorstep offering condolences and gifts. Saracen slams the door right in their faces. Gets no reaction from any of the guests. Awesome.

Unbelievable move to have Coach watching Smash Williams on tv. I thought he was just watching some random football game, but then the announcer starts talking about Smash. Sweet.

A Lyla Garrity sighting! Welcome back for seven seconds.