Puntabulous

Netflix #67 – Pee Wee’s Big Adventure

So every time (still two words, huh?) we get together, my brothers Adam and John undoubtedly bring up the movie Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and the pet shop scene where Pee Wee goes in and rescues all the animals, passing by the snakes each time until finally when there are no other animals left to save, he runs from the building holding two handfuls of snakes screaming. I, on the other hand, have never seen this movie, so I finally decided to check it out. Did you know that it was directed by Tim Burton? And co-written by the late great Phil Hartman? Bet you didn’t. Anyway, the strong pedigree elevated the movie from what could have been a lame move from the television screen to the big screen into a really funny movie that is fun for both kids and adults. In fact, I would imagine kids not enjoying this nearly as much as the adults watching it with them. The Large Marge scene was ridiculously frightening, which makes me glad I didn’t see this as a child because I would probably would have been scarred for life. And I loved James Brolin and Morgan Fairchild as Pee Wee and Dottie in the final movie, along with Pee Wee’s cameo and dubbed voice. But yes, the pet shop scene was probably the best part.

Netflix #68 – My Fair Lady

Pretty much ever since Glee featured I Could Have Danced All Night, I’ve had My Fair Lady sitting on my dresser waiting to be watched. It’s one of those classics like Gone with the Wind, Mary Poppins, and The Sound of Music, that I just haven’t gotten around to seeing. And it sat on my dresser for a long time since I really didn’t have that much interest in seeing it, and it was so damn long. But me and Mom finally sat down and watched it the other night and I have to say, I enjoyed it very much. I mean, it was still about an hour longer than it really needed to be. Did we really need so much of the father storyline? But it was fun. This was the first time I’d seen Audrey Hepburn in anything and she was amazing. Seeing her at the racetrack was worth the price of admission alone. “Come on, Dover, move yer bloomin’ arse!” The only thing I’m disappointed in was the ending. Spoiler! I’m just mad she ended up (I guess they kinda ended up together, it was vague) with the guy who treated her like dirt and not poor lovable Freddy.

John sent me some great music by Shawn Colvin, which reminded me of this clip from a Sesame Street special a few years ago of her singing I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon with Ernie that I absolutely loved. But then I saw that it was based on a classic clip from 1978, which I’ve never seen before until now and figured I’d share.

Even though seeing the full bodies of muppets always freaks me out, I think the clip is completely adorable. I love the sentiment of the song, and it’s a theme I connect very emotionally with and try to use in my own writing. Hope you enjoy.

So what did you guys think of the season premiere of Lost last night? I thought it was great! Huge spoilers ahead so stop reading immediately if you haven’t watched yet! I loved every single bit of the airplane and airport scenes. To me, that should have been the entire episode. I mean, I’m sure there’s a point to going back and forth between the two alternate timelines, but I enjoyed the real world stuff way more than the island stuff. But I guess it wouldn’t be Lost without the island. I’m just not crazy about The Others. Never have been, never will be. I’m just so sick of their vagueness and mean attitudes. Enough already! We get it! You’re bad, but good, but bad, but whatever! And the temple stuff never intrigued me either. I did enjoy the smoke monster bit though (and not just because he killed a shitload of annoying Others). I guess the smoke monster slash man in black is kinda like The First in Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Can he only appear as people who are dead? Guess we’ll find out more about him. But I’m thrilled we got a bit more information! Ugh, and poor Juliet! She was one of my favorite characters! And I hate how vague her injuries were. If you’re going to kill one of my beloved characters, at least have her impaled or cut in half or something! I’m sure she was crushed by tons of steel or whatever, but she looked fine to me (besides all the blood of course). Don’t give me false hope people! But I’m thinking she has to come back in the other real world timeline, right? Fingers crossed! So yeah, loved the episode last night, especially the airport stuff and the way people are coming together even if they didn’t get to the island. Kate in the real world is way more interesting than island Kate. And the Jack/Locke scene in the baggage claim area was incredible. Let’s hope the rest of the season knocks our collective socks off!

There are three shows in particular we need to discuss right now and in no particular order. First there was the Dollhouse finale. Why, oh why, must Dollhouse have gotten so amazing at the end? First season had a few more misses than hits, and the only thing really keeping me watching was the fact that is was Joss Whedon and the inevitability of cancellation. But something happened this season. Everything started to come together and the show became less and less about the weekly wacky adventures of Echo, and more about the overall story they were trying to tell. And dosh garn it, they were telling it really well! Back in the day, I didn’t even try and get my hands on Epitaph One, but after seeing the awesomness of the past few episodes, I went and watched it in preparation of the finale. And how was the finale? It was really, really good! And it makes me so sad that the show was canceled now, because it really could have been great through and through.

Next up is Legend of the Seeker. Why are you a fantasy lover and not watching this show?! It’s so ridiculously good and way better than it has any right being! The production values are way better than a lot of other primetime shows out there and the storytelling is incredible. They manage to keep things lively every week, while still moving the overall story for the season forward. And Cara, who is new this season, has quickly become my favorite character. She adds such a nice touch of spunk and sarcasm into the mix of Richard and Kahlan’s dogooderness (which is totally a word). And the show is so good I may or may not have teared up at one point during this past episode. Shut up, you would have too if you were watching!

And lastly there is Caprica. The show I really, really, really didn’t think needed to exist. I mean, how do you spin off from the awesomeness of Battlestar Galactica? I just didn’t think it could be done. Then the pilot movie was released on DVD and it was good, not great, but it quelled my fears a bit. But after seeing the first new episode of the series, I’m really digging it! And not just because of the awesome and super flashy opening credits, which I loved because shiny things distract me. But the show itself was really good and compelling! The adult characters of the two main families, the Graystones and the Adamas really didn’t do it for me in the pilot movie, but they were much better this time around, especially the character Amanda Graystone, who became much more interesting. And I love how they handled the Zoe/Cylon interchanging scenes. Very creepy, but also kinda sad at the same time. Oh, and I still love Serge the robot butler the best!

Mom and Dad found this picture of themselves the other day and I feel compelled to share it with you:

Look how young and stylish they were! Who knew?!

So me, Meg, Rachel, and Lance went to see Legion last night. All indications pointed to it being awful and we knew that going in. The trailers were awful, the reviews were awful, and my aunt said it was atrocious. But we went anyway because we’re cool like that and man was it awful! But seriously, I don’t think I’ve had that much fun in a movie in a long time. At one point, I was laughing so hard I could barely catch my breath. And it was sad because you just knew the makers thought they were making this awesome, badass movie.

So what was so bad about it? Well, there will be loads of spoilers in this review, so stop reading if you’re avoiding them. First off, everyone kept talking so dramatically and taking… all these… dramatic… pauses… that it took them forever to say anything! That was the main indication that these people thought they were making a masterpiece. And it’s not even like the action was good either. You could hardly see anything that was going on. At times, the camera would just focus on the guns firing for about 1 minute straight with no indication of where they were shooting or who was getting shot. Oh! And at one point Paul Bettany pulled out a bazooka out of nowhere! It was seriously something out of Airplane! So so so ridiculous.

And the story made absolutely no sense. God gives up on humanity and decides to wipe it out. But instead of sending a flood like last time, he sends the angels to take over human bodies and essentially turn them into zombies to kill a baby who will save humanity. Okay first off, didn’t the flood work out really well last time? Like, really well. So why doesn’t God just stick with that? Secondly, they tried to do this whole Terminator, the baby saves mankind kinda thing. But then God calls off the apocalypse at the end because Paul Bettany showed him the error of his ways or something, so the baby did absolutely nothing. Way to be completely useless, baby!

Oh, and Gabriel (played by Kevin Durand who was not shirtless once and had a seriously funky accent) comes at the end to be the bad guy and kick Paul Bettany’s ass, which begs the question: Why didn’t all the other angels do that? Why did they have to take over human bodies where they were able to get shot and die? Like, Gabriel was super strong and nearly invincible (His wings were bulletproof! He came back from the dead about twenty times!). Why didn’t all the other angels just come as they were? Like, my brains hurts just thinking about it.

And they couldn’t even give me the one scene I wanted with all the angels flying like the hawkmen in Flash Gordon! All day I was singing “dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun!” in anticipation! Oh, and Addison was there which made me sad because not only was she banished to a terrible spinoff show, but now she’s appearing in awful movies. And there was a character named Jeep. Jeep! The only good thing about the movie was the old lady scene, which was a lot longer than what you see in the trailer and was actually pretty amusing. But that was it. Otherwise, it was a hysterical piece of crap.

I realize making fun of Peanuts cartoons is like punching kittens in the face, but something needs to be said about Sunday’s strip. Well, is it really Sunday’s? Aren’t they just reprinting old ones? I don’t know. But anyway, I’m not really gonna make fun of it. I’m just gonna give it a big WTF?!

That is seriously depressing! It’s hard to make fun of because it’s not even like he was telling a joke, and it fell flat. I’m pretty sure the comic represents exactly what he was trying to say, and he does a superb job at it! But really? This comic makes me want to shoot myself in the face. And not just because I’ve had those same dreadful school lunch hours.

So me and Michelle went and saw Daybreakers over the weekend. For those of you who don’t know, Daybreakers takes place in the year 2019 where almost all humans have been turned into vampires. Ethan Hawke plays a vampire scientist who is trying to find a blood substitute since humans are on the verge of extinction, and Sam Neill plays his evil vampire boss. Anyway, it was really good. I thought the story was excellent and the action was all really well done. Ethan Hawke made a likable main character, and Sam Neill is amazing as usual and makes an excellent villain. I liked the fact that the vampires stayed true to vampire lore (burning up in the sun, stakes in the heart, not being visible in mirrors) rather than the toned down vampires we seem to be getting so much of lately.

What I liked most about it was how well planned out the world was. I love the Underworld movies, but they never give you a sense of what the vampires’ lives are like. In Daybreakers, you see how they live and the restrictions they face since the sunlight kills them. For example, when Ethan Hawke gets a flat tire at one point (during the day, the cars have a cool daytime driving feature) the tire re-inflates itself. Under normal circumstances that would just be a throwaway “future” thing. But here, it’s a necessity since vampires would be stranded if they had to wait for the sun to go down so they could get out and change their tire.

If I had any complaints it would be that there was a bit too much gore. I can almost understand the appeal of gore in cheesy horror movies, if that’s the only thing it has going for it. But the story in Daybreakers was so good, it didn’t need the gore, and it just felt gratuitous. Another complaint would be that it took itself a tad too seriously. Everyone was very glum, and didn’t seem to find the fact that the world was overrun by vampires as amusing as I did. I hate the idea of a comic relief character, but some joke cracking wouldn’t have hurt. Anyway, it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re curious!

In a Puntabulous exclusive, I was able to get my hands on the first three pages of the script to Monday’s all new episode of Heroes! Take a look! (Click to Enlarge!)

Sounds like a great episode! Can’t wait!

1. Watching someone enjoy something you also enjoy.

2. Daydreaming about characters you made up.

3. Waking up before the alarm.

4. Doing what you want to do.

5. Sitting in grass you’re not sure is wet, and it’s not.

6. Solving problems.

7. A really great season finale.

8. French onion soup topped with onion rings.

9. Sharing with appreciative people.

10. Picking up exactly where you left off with old friends.