unsigned podcast » Movies & TV

End of Football Season

podcaster — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:43:23 +0000

My home team was eliminated from the NFL playoffs last week. It doesn’t really seem like watching any games today will give me much satisfaction. I am not a fan of any of the remaining teams. I think I’ll just close the book on football for this year. With the exception of the Super Bowl. And we all know that most people only watch the Super Bowl so they can see the very best of TV’s commercials. The half time entertainment is going to be Madonna, so I really do not care about the Super Bowl other than the commercials. Isn’t that sad? To think that what should be a tournament of champions and have the whole country united during a game, that the only thing of interest is the commercials that will air?

Eat Pray Love Barf

podcaster — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:32:31 +0000

The Julia Roberts movie, Eat Pray Love was on the cable movie channel. So I started watching it. Maybe a good chick flick would be relaxing and maybe even romantic. After all, the title refers to Love. But it was really about some whack job looking to find herself and the men she ditched for no good reason other than she felt restless.

It was one of the most awful, pitiful movies I have ever watched. I was so disgusted with the main character that I wanted to slap the whine right out of her. I couldn’t finish the movie – it was too stupid. Awful movie – and even Julia Roberts couldn’t save that piece of claptrap.

Toys and Movies

podcaster — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:22:22 +0000

Are there any new movies coming out that DON’T have a complete line of toys associated with them? I mean, the Transformers, the G. I Joe, and even the G-Force gerbils have toys filling shelves at the WalMarts, KMarts and Targets of the world. And let’s not forget the “happy meals” at all the fast food joints that come with the movie promoting toys and PR tie-ins.

Channel Surfing

podcaster — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 06:53:47 +0000

Can’t sleep. The past couple of days have been really hard on everyone in the family. I got back to the hotel tonight around 10:00, took a shower and just fell across the bed with the TV’s remote. Watched as much of the local channel news and reruns of sci-fi that I could stand and then I started flipping through the other cable channels. The hotel doesn’t have all that many channels, but there must be something on TV at 2:00 am besides infomercials with Susan Lucci’s skin care and the next great kitchen gadget.

As I was sufing the channels I came across a headshot of someone that I recognized immediately – Steve Cropper. Now I have been a big fan of Steve Cropper for many many years and I was intrigued – what is this show about? Turns out I struck gold and had come upon a special documentary show about Staxx records in Memphis back in the 1960′s. It had info on Booker T and the MGs, Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Sam & Dave, and all the greats of the Memphis sound, narrated by Samuel Jackson.

Great show – what a lucky break that I found it this morning.

The Pledge

podcaster — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:09:53 +0000

Haven’t heard a peep out of the TV or any ads or buzz anywhere about this movie called, “The Pledge.” It stars the kids from Beverly Hills 90210, Luke Perry, all grown up and weathered-looking, as a cowboy and sheriff out for revenge. The bad guys killed his wife and son and he tracks him down. There are some turns of events and he ends up in a small town helping a beautiful woman and her son against the land grabbing town’s bigshot, who hires – surprise! – the same bad guy that the sheriff conveniently happens to be hunting.

It was a small budget film that felt like it might have been made for TV. The acting was good although everyone but Luke Perry was small time, and Luke isn’t a big attraction anymore – it was hard to get past the Beverly Hills association. But there was no sex, limited violence, and a fresh take on western cowboy shoot em ups that today’s kids just might embrace.

Good Bye Bernie Mac

podcaster — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 18:28:00 +0000

Last week I saw a blip on the news that comedian Bernie Mac was hospitalized with pneumonia. They didn’t go into any detail and a couple days ago in the scrolling headline news I read that Bernie Mac was improving and expected to recover. So I don’t know what the heck happened over the last couple of days but I was shocked and saddened to read the headline on Yahoo this morning that announced his death due to complications from pneumonia.

I loved Bernie Mac and his stand up routines. He was able to be funny about racial issues, poverty, and contemporary life without being a smart aleck and without being completely nasty like some of the other popular black comics. Sure, he cussed and talked about politically incorrect topics, but his take on those subjects was what made him funny.

The Bernie Mac show was really funny and although I never watched the show’s original airings, I caught many reruns on late night TV. From reading his biography, the Bernie Mac show ran 5 years and was Fox’s biggest hit comedy of the time. Plus, Bernie had a long string of movie titles, including Oceans Eleven, Oceans Twelve and Oceans Thirteen.

Bernie Mac was born Bernard McCullough on October 5, 1957 – just a few days before my baby sister was born. He died this morning in Chicago at age 50. Bernie – you will be missed.

Criminal Minds Fan

podcaster — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:36:03 +0000

Found a cool website today for fans of the TV series called, “Criminal Minds.” Well, it’s actually a blog – so that’s even better: Criminal Minds Fanatic.

I really like this show for the insights on criminal psychology and the way a team of experts from diverse backgrounds can come together and find a way to work as a team under tremendous pressure to solve the crimes.

The show is a little gory and gruesome, but if you can get past that it is a great psychological thriller reduced down to an hour show. Take out all the time for commercials and I think you have about 44 minutes of actual show.

The fan site has a lot of behind the scenes info and communicates fairly regularly with the actors, writers and production staff.

Criminal Minds

podcaster — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:49:32 +0000

Watched the rerun of Criminal Minds tonight that was about the Russian Mafia and bringing Kate Jackson from the original Charlies Angels show back to TV as a U. S. Senator.

The show had a lot of twists and turns, but honestly, I thought the storyline was pretty lame and unnecessarily gory. This season has not been as interesting as the first season, although the writers have tried to develop the ensemble of main characters more than the first season. It seems that the writers – or perhaps the network in directing the writers – has wanted to push the envelope on how macabre and gory they can get on network TV in today’s world. I don’t really like that approach and don’t think it is necessary for this series. If they continue in this direction next season I don’t think I’ll be watching it any more. I’m not a slasher movie fan and this is getting close to that.

Bye Bye Jay Leno

podcaster — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:31:23 +0000

Wow – the news has been all abuzz about people leaving their TV shows in the dust. The latest casualty is Jay Leno leaving NBC, with his official last day now planned for May 29, 2009 as announced yesterday by NBC officials. Of course, we’ve known for a while that this year is Jay’s last per his original contract when he replaced Johnny Carson.

In their announcement, NBC says that Conan O’Brien will take the helm of the Tonight Show immediately following Jay Leno’s last show. And with the dominoes falling for late night hosts, the vacancy left by Conan O’Brien will be filled by Jimmy Fallon.

Even with all this movement at NBC, I have to say that I’m staying loyal to David Letterman and Craig Ferguson on CBS.

Bye Bye Ebert

podcaster — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:43:10 +0000

So there won’t be any more “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down” for TV reviews on the now changing “At the Movies With Ebert and Roeper.”

Evidently, both Ebert and Roeper have not come to agreement with Disney on their new contract terms and they have both decided to leave the show. Since Ebert and the wife of his former partner, Siskel, own the rights to the “Thumbs Up” and “Thumbs Down” trademarked catchphrase, that won’t be on whatever show Disney tries to salvage from the wreckage.

Ebert has hinted at developing a new show at a different network. “Stay tuned” for further developments!