Salad Is Slaughter

We rented about 5 movies last weekend, but only got around to watching three of them:

Lucky Number Slevin B+ This movie is a dark comedy with lots of twists and turns. About three quarters of the way in I figured out who Sleven was, but I didn’t know why he hadn’t been killed, but once you realize who his partner is, it all makes sense. Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman are great as warring mob bosses holed up in apartments across the street from each other.

Over the Hedge F Did Dreamworks fire every one of their good writers? Over The Hedge would have to be twice as good just to be awful. It’s thinly veiled preaching against junk food, suburban sprawl, and pro animal rights. You could overlook the preachiness if the plot wasn’t so stupid. The cast includes every B-list actor in Hollywood in need of job.

The Breakup C+ Chick flick about a couple’s breakup. Jennifer Aniston is the psycho bitch from hell and Vince Vaughn is just an ordinary working guy. After a disastrous dinner party (I still want to know the punch line to the joke told at the dinner table), Aniston says, enough. They spend the next hour selling the condo, and Aniston scheming to get Vaughn back. The + in the ranking comes because atypical of a chick flick, this story doesn’t have a sappy storybook ending.

Technorati Tags: movies

Today’s sermon as delivered by Reverend Black:

Showtime has given us several great programs – the now cancelled but still lamented Dead Like Me, Penn & Teller’s Bullshit! and Weeds are all shows that I like a lot. Add Dexter to the list. I think we missed show number one, but we got caught up pretty quickly. Dexter is a blood splatter expert who works for the Miami police. Think of CSI: Miami, but with more realistic characters who have the ethnic diversity you’d expect in Florida.

I was a little surprised how good Dexter is. Some of the characters are decent people, others are assholes, some are incompetent or just not qualified, there’s conflict between some of the good guys, some of the detectives don’t like lab guys, and so on. Dexter’s sister is a cop who used to work vice, but recently moved in to homicide.

What makes Dexter different from the plethora of cop shows on the tube is that Dexter is a serial killer. Because Dexter works for the police, he knows how to clean up a crime scene. He also picks his victims carefully, and only chooses those who “need killin’” such as the drunk driver who keeps getting away with ruining people’s lives. He kills for a reason.

When Dexter was growing up, his father (who was also with the police) knew his son was different and we see him through a series of flashbacks teaching young Dexter how to blend in with normal people. Dexter fakes emotional attachments and doesn’t understand what’s missing from his life.

The show has a lot of Dexter’s internal dialog as a voice over so you get a look inside his head. Dexter’s hunt for another serial killer who is sending clues only Dexter understands is fascinating viewing. It’s a psychological thriller and worth watching.

Technorati Tags: television

The writing on the whole CSI series has really gone down hill. CSI Miami absolutely sucked last Monday, and the little casket appearing under the woman’s beach chair as the final act of sheer stupidity. CSI New York has everybody doing lame puns. All three have characters explaining stuff to each other that they already know.

“I’m adding a catalyst this sample.”
“Yes, a catalyst will cause the sample to change without changing itself.”

Sweet zombie Jesus, do you have to dumb down everything?

Yesterday at lunch they had polo on TV. I’d never seen polo before, but it was pretty good. It reminded me of hockey, but on horseback. I could see myself going to watch it live.

Heroes continues to be one of the best shows on the tube.

So is How I Met Your Mother. Neil Patrick Harris is a comic genius. His timing and delivery is perfect.

We finally saw Adam Sandler’s Click the other day. Sandler’s movies can range from brilliant (50 First Dates) to unwatchable (The Waterboy.) Click was predictable but pretty good. I’d give it a B or B+.

I sometimes listen to CNN Headline news on the radio while I’m on my way to work. I remember when they reported the news. Now it’s about 5% news and 95% infotainment. To make matters worse, the airheads on camera have to be some of the most stupid bimbos on the planet.

So far, this season’s South Park has been pretty good.

Every once in a while I’ll watch Deal or No Deal. Several times they’ve had contestants whose mannerisms remind me of Nathan Lane in The Bird Cage. Which is fine with me; whatever melts your butter is okay. But out of fairness, shouldn’t they replace a percentage (maybe 20%?) of the suitcase girls with tux-wearing male body builders?

Technorati Tags: movies, television