Saturday, July 16
Movie - "Red, White & Blue" (2010) - Endlessly humid, hungover and pretty much awful. This Texas psychological thriller offers 70s exploitation aesthetics to spare, but gradually devolves into a deeply ugly and pointless game of leapfrog as three characters trump each other with their capacity to be totally fucked in the head. This is one of those movies in which you see extras in the background and think: They never, ever could've guessed what kind of film they were signing on for when they signed on for it. Who the hell is this movie for, anyway? Other than people who thought "Bug" was just a little too sunny and slapstick.
Movie - "Thick as Thieves" (1999) - Straight-to-cable comic-crime thriller that could easily be mistaken for one of countless too-clever entries in the post-Tarantino glut. But it's actually riffing off Elmore Leonard. Uneven in tone and consisting of scenes that are essentially a series of mismatched parts. Not as clever as it wants to be, and muddled in its geography -- as it bounces around from Miami to Chicago to Detroit ... I often got lost trying to figure out where one of its many characters was in relation to another. Even so ... it's made somewhat worthwhile by its consistently dry humor and a great, eclectic ensemble -- Bruce Greenwood, Andre Braugher, Michael Jai White, Richard Edson, Khandi Alexander, Alec Baldwin in one of his final leading man roles and especially Robert Miano as a quietly practical mobster.
A note: I remember catching this on HBO when it first aired and having the same reaction on my initial viewing, but seeing it again made me curious what else the director had made. I was completely surprised to discover the only other movie he's made he co-wrote with White -- the incredibly awesome "Black Dynamite."
Also: It's a shame the production couldn't afford real music. Baldwin's master thief is supposed to be a connoisseur of vinyl jazz ... but the music he listens to is canned lounge and the album covers he lovingly peruses are obviously cheap mock-ups of Blue Note sides.
Podcast - "The Nerdist" - Episode 106 - "Neil Gaiman"
Friday, July 15
Movie - "Kiss Me Deadly" (1955)
Movie - "Alex Cox on Kiss Me Deadly" - Bluray supplement.
Podcast - "Professor Blastoff" - Episode 11 - "Altered States"
Podcast - "The Sound of Young America" - "Simon Pegg"
Podcast - "How Did This Get Made?" - "Green Lantern" - This is one of the most consistently hilarious podcasts I've listened to. And they seem to me to be equally funny, whether you've actually seen the movie they're talking about or not.
Thursday, July 14
TV - "Louie" - Season 2, Episode 4 - "Joan"
Podcast - "Doug Loves Movies" - Tig Notaro, Kyle Dunnigan, David Huntsberger - I tend to like the studio episodes better than the live joints because they sound better and they're more laid back ... but this one ... kind of a snooze.
TV - "Sherlock" - Season 1, Episode 3 - "The Great Game" - Easily the best of the batch, even if the puzzles that comprise most of the story are waaay too complicated to be taken seriously as any kind of reality. You simply can't Encyclopedia Brown the problems Holmes is forced to solve, but that's OK. At least he's not kick-boxing.
Even on a second viewing, the final scene of the finale remains fantastic. A Holmes staple that is finally given a face somehow walks the perfect line between ridiculous and fairly chilling. Bodes extremely well for next season, even if that only turns out to be the resolution of a perfectly good cliffhanger.
Wednesday, July 13
TV - "Parks and Recreation" - Season 2, Episode 2 - "Stakeout"
14 hours in court. Burnt.
Tuesday, July 12
Podcast - "This American Life" - "No. 218 - Act V"
Monday, July 11
Movie - "Just Go With It" (2011) - I am not a knee-jerk Sandler-hater. But this is pretty shitty. So shrill and crass and obsessively madcap that, admittedly, I could not finish it.
Sunday, July 10
Movie - "Beginners" (2010)
TV - "Curb Your Enthusiasm" - Season 8, Episode 1 - "The Divorce"
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