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April 23, 2005
Cancelled TV Shows as of 4/22/05
Thought this list might be of interest to y'all.
Enjoy!
American Dreams (NBC)
Andromeda (SciFi) final season
The Benefactor (ABC)
Center of the Universe (CBS) 5 eps unaired
Clubhouse (CBS) 7 eps unaired
Committed (NBC)
Complete Savages (ABC) 4 eps unaired
The Complex: Malibu (FOX)
Dead Like Me (Showtime)
Doc (PAX)
Dr. Vegas (CBS) 5 eps unaired
Drew Carey's Green Screen (WB) 8 eps unaired
Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS) final season
Father of the Pride (NBC) 2 eps unaired
Grounded for Life (WB) 2 eps unaired
Hawaii (NBC) 1 ep unaired
JAG (CBS) 2 eps unaired
Jake in Progress (ABC)
Jonny Zero (FOX) 5 eps unaired
LAX (NBC)
Last Comic Standing (NBC)
Life As We Know It (ABC) 2 eps unaired
Love Is in the Heir (E!)
Medical Investigation (NBC)
Method & Red (FOX) 4 eps unaired
The Mountain (WB)
My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss (FOX) 5 eps unaired
North Shore (FOX)
Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica (MTV)
NYPD Blue (ABC)
The Osbournes (MTV)
Point Pleasant (FOX)
Rodney (ABC)
Second Time Around (UPN)
Star Trek: Enterprise (UPN) final season
Third Watch (NBC) final season
Tru Calling (FOX) 1 ep unaired
Wanda Does It (Comedy Central)
Wild Card (Lifetime)
The Will (CBS)
Posted by bonnie at 08:32 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
April 18, 2005
Uber Goober
Joe and I went to see this today. It was by a Dallas native, and I'm not sure it's available everywhere (it's not on Netflix, but it is mentioned at imdb.com). Anyway, it was an interesting look into gaming. It wasn't the greatest documentary ever--it needed a bit of narrating, more facts and information and statistics about gaming--but it did allow different types of gamers to talk about their passion and I tried to understand.
According to the movie, there are different types of gamers. As I recall they were categorized as those into miniatures (who would meticulously paint and prepare miniature figures and sets and have them act out wars according to strategy and many-sided dice); role players (D&Ders, and others of that variety--there are other such games with a "dungeon master" and basic rules and your roll dies and such); and LARPers, Live Action Role Players (who dress up and play the game live, including those who use padded swords and have live battles, or those who act out D&D-type games--they still roll dice or play rock/paper/scissors to determine what happens to their character--that is, it's not just plain make believe).
I still don't get it, but there were some insights. One of the LARPers said he likes it because he gets to use his imagination to play games, just like when he was a kid. Which made me think of how we used to play Star Wars, how fun it was to be Princess Leia and fight with Luke and Han and C-3PO against the Dark Side in our backyards. So I could sort of make a connection there, but not quite the full leap. And I can sort of see the interest in miniatures, because you could sort of see how battles would work out, get a grasp of military strategy and stuff. And D&D, though to me it seems so foreign and weird, I could see how it is sort of like an interactive storytelling, and storytelling is something of course I admire. And finally, gaming seemed to be a healthy social outlet for people who otherwise felt outcast or alone, and there can't be anything wrong with that. Except . . . it just seems so weird and gross and so far I still don't get it. But I'll continue to try to open my mind.
Posted by courtney at 12:14 AM | TrackBack
Animal Factory
Wow. I love Steve Buscemi. He directed Animal Factory. It's a story of prison life. Earl Copen (Willem DeFoe) pretty much reigns at prison, where he's been for twenty years. He knows how to work the system, has connections everywhere. Ron Decker (Edward Furlong, kid from Terminator movies) is a young kid in prison for selling marijuana (a lot of it), and Copen sort of takes him under his wing, helps him out. The acting is great, and so is the story. Beautiful to look at too, dark as the subject matter is. And it's an authentic look inside prison, as the screenplay authors and the book author spent decades "inside" themselves.
One caveat. When Joe and I first sat down to watch it, I had trouble following what was going on, who was who, the lingo. I started over and had no trouble. If you remember Earl Copen is the older bald guy (DeFoe) and Ron Decker is the kid, that will help, and the rest you can follow the action, even if you don't know the vernacular.
Best cameo: Mickey Rourke as Jan the Actress, a transvestite convict. Rourke went all the way for this role: according his interview on the DVD's special features, he even had his dentist remove his dental bridge, so his front teeth are out. He said that transvestites in the system take a beating especially, and he wanted to reflect that.
I really enjoyed this movie. Gave it five stars on Netflix, and I don't do that often.
Posted by courtney at 12:03 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 17, 2005
I Heart Huckabees
Alex and I watched I Heart Huckabees last weekend. The best way to sum up our feelings about it is that about 3/4 of the way through the movie I accidentally pressed the stop button on the DVD remote. We decided it would be too much trouble to find our place again and turned out the lights and went to bed.
To be fair, I did watch the end of it the next day. The ending didn't change my feelings about it very much though. Essentially, it seemed to me like a film that was trying WAY too hard to be deep and meaningful. It could be that I just didn't understand it because I am shallow and uncaring. I did find it worth watching, however, because I liked all of the actors (Jude Law, YUM!) and I'm always up for watching movies that don't fall into one of the three or four Hollywood formulas.
3 stars for being slightly boring and pretentious. If you're tired of the same old blockbuster, watch this for a change.
Posted by stephanie at 11:59 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 16, 2005
Chrystal
Joe and I went to see Chrystal this afternoon at a wonderful theater devoted to independent movies. Heaven! I think we'll go back tomorrow to see Uber Goober, evidently about gaming, like D&D I expect. Anyway, we heard about Chrystal because it is by the same folks who made the short film (and Oscar winner) The Accountant, which is brilliant, like a Chekhov or O Henry short story, but country-fried.
Chrystal is funny, sad, moving, lovely. It was shot in a lush green part of Arkansas, Eureka Springs. The story is essentially of a car wreck and the aftermath, how physical pain and pain of loss wrecks those involved. There are some amusing characters and actions too. Joe enjoyed "the Snake" saying "don't grow no dopey without the Snake's okey dokey." And I enjoyed the stoned redneck who is shot in the butt and keeps yelling "I got shot in the butt" over and over as he turns in circles trying to get a better look at his back. It has its dark moments too. I read it described as Southern Gothic, and that sounds like a fit. It stars Billy Bob Thornton, Lisa Blount (the blonde in An Officer and a Gentleman), and Ray McKinnon (Blount's husband, star of The Accountant, and the boxing bona fide suitor in O Brother, Where Art Thou?). Walter Goggins also stars and helped produce (with Blount and McKinnon), and I believe he also is on the TV show The Shield, so maybe Bonnie's Keith has met him or will star with him soon. I'd recommend it, especially if you like films that are of higher caliber than most of the blockbusters.
Posted by courtney at 06:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 02, 2005
Trees Lounge
I am head over heels for Steve Buscemi. Trees Lounge is an amazing movie, and Buscemi wrote, directed, and starred in it. It's so real. That's the best description--real. The main character, Tommy, is an alcoholic, and he makes terrible life decisions as a result of this, including stealing from his boss and making out with his ex-girlfriend's seventeen-year-old niece, but at the same time he can be deeply unselfishly kind, helping a late-stage alcoholic that frequents the same bar get home and to bed. Buscemi has always managed to portray this paradoxical simplicity in complexity in his acting, but here it permeates the entire movie. Truly brilliant.