Portlandia

I just started watching Portlandia about two weeks ago. Attempting to promote the new season, which plays on Friday nights on IFC, Netflix has the first season streaming and I bit – after all it has Carrie from Sleater Kinney and Fred Armisen. Portlandia has been around for about a year; unfortunately in Florida I didn’t have IFC and didn’t really search it out. Instead the show just came my way and I’m glad it did.

While not all the sketches succeed there are many that do. Below is my personal favorite and is the one which appears at the beginning of the pilot episode:

The Walking Dead Season 2 (so far)

The second season of AMC’s adaptation of The Walking Dead is taking a break until February 2011 (most likely coinciding with the return of Mad Men) and for the first time since the very first two episodes I’m excited. It only took seven or more episodes for The Walking Dead to actually get decent again, especially after the horribly embarrassing season one finale. I’m willing to suspend my belief and go along for a fantastic ride on most occasions (after all, we’re dealing with corpses rising and eating the living here) but believing the CDC is a time sensitive, thermonuclear device is ludicrous. Please, prove me wrong.

War Horse

There are some directors who make good films for their entire careers. Most of the time filmmakers drop off at a certain point, falling into mediocrity and living off their previous accomplishments until their inevitable demise. I’m beginning to think Steven Spielberg is one such man.

Billy Passed the Third Grade…

I really can’t stand Billy Madison anymore; it’s a stupid, stupid movie. However, for some reason this song jumped in my head while showering this morning, making me chuckle.

Over the Top

Stallone walked into a Warner Brothers office and said he wanted ten million dollars to make a montage of constipated faces with Sammy Hagar’s latest abortion playing behind it. They gave him 25 million and said to wrap a loose story around it. The result is Over the Top, a film about the high stakes world of competitive arm wrestling. Since the MPAA wouldn’t give a PG rating to a film about harrowing bowel movements Stallone used the “sport” as a vehicle for his ambitions – showing the most absurd action faces in film history. I’m honestly not sure whether it’s asinine or art, poking fun at the hyper-bravado inherent in the average American male.

Below is a selection of screen captures I did this afternoon while watching another Stallone movie: Rocky III, featuring Mr. T and Hulk Hogan as Thunderlips. It’s the first time I’ve had a free afternoon in quite a while and I’m sharing it with you, dear reader, in the hopes that these pictures from Over the Top become a desktop background somewhere.

Remember That Big Underground Complex From Day of the Dead?

Arriving home from a pretty terrible evening I watched George A. Romero’s 1985 Day of the Dead. I picked it up on Blu-Ray a while back for $5 and hadn’t watched it yet and last night seemed like an ample opportunity. It’s not my favorite of Romero’s zombie films (although it’s better than Survival of the Dead) but Day has a special quality I can’t quite put my finger on. After watching the documentaries on the Day disc I found out why the film isn’t as spectacular as the first two: they didn’t have the money and Romero’s aspirations exceeded his budget.

One of the bonus features which grabbing my attention is a short promotional film for Gateway Commerce Center. Located outside Pittsburgh, Gateway is an old mine turned into an underground storage facility where Romero shot the film. It’s a very sterile, creepy looking kind of place. Below is the video from the disc, which is both interesting and kitschy.

Also, I feel it’s important to comment on my lack of posts lately: I’m moving to New Jersey and have been busy getting that together while also working to save up extra funds.

Something that wouldn’t make it onto television today

ABC, now owned by Disney, wouldn’t let a child smoke on television let alone hold a lit cigarette on a prime-time sitcom. If The Wonder Years illustrates how much changed between the ’60s and the ’80s then the show also demonstrates how much has changed between then and now, the smoke free 21st century.