Heroes: The Fifth Stage Review

A new Heroes was on tonight and we had a great action packed episode.  What I thought was a good episode worthy of the last one of the year.  We even got a Peter-Sylar fight, something every fan has been clam-mering for since the end of season one. 

Samuel makes Eli the multiplier his new right hand man, aka the new Edgar.  Claire follows the compass she stole from Noah all the way to the carnival.  Samuel meets Claire and continues trying to get her to join the carnival and she and Gretchen go around getting to see all the carnies work and use their abilities to run the day to day carnival operations.  She goes back behind the scenes and runs into (drumroll) Eric Doyle!  David H. Lawrence XVII probably my favorite guest star in Heroes.  She sees Samuel let an unsatisfied customer take shots at him, which Claire finds really noble so she decides to stay with the carnival.

I have to agree with Razz here.  Seeing Eric Doyle back (even if for a quick cameo) really made the episode up till point.  In season three he was one of my favorite new characters due to both his ability and his personality.  Back on the subject of the carnival, I almost liked that Samuel didn’t fight back with the angry customer, but I realize that he might have just been doing that to get Claire to join him (which worked).

Noah realizes Claire took the compass so he and Lauren, who came over for a date, work to try to find her.  Noah soon reveals that he and Lauren had feelings for each other before she had herself "Hatianed".  However there arguing soon stops when Eli bursts in and steals Noah's Primatech files.

I really liked seeing Eli work here.  I wasn’t sure if he power was more like a starfish or projection.  What I mean by that is the starfish copying would mean the clones come from his body but when they die they just got back into him (similar to Multiple Man) or projection which is what he has.

Now on to Peter, who had one of the greatest arcs in any single episode of the series.  Peter is with Angela at the hospital getting drugs to fight Sylar, reminding me of Batman stocking up his Utility belt.  Speaking of utility belts, he also takes the Hatian's ability so he and Sylar can fight on even terms.  Peter runs into Sylar sooner than he thought when Pete gets ambushed by an unusually strong nurse.  They go out fighting and Peter makes full use of his new ability.  Speaking of the Hatian’s ability, I always wondered how Peter would be using it and I think he used it really well.  We got to see the fight of the decade between Peter and Sylar.  Although it was just fist throwing with no abilities, I just can't stop geeking out over the Sylar-Peter fight.  Once Peter gets Sylar pinned down( with a nail gun) he hatianed Sylar out of the body until Nathan was left.  Nathan tells Peter that he is exhausted and can't fight Sylar anymore.  They have one last goodbye on top of the roof where Peter realized his abilities and Nathan jumps off just as Sylar regains control one last time.

This was by far the best thing to happen in the season yet.  The fight was amazing (even without powers) and watching Nathan and Peter have one final brother to brother moment was pulling at the heart strings before you see Sylar take his place in his body for good.

Wow I thought this was a great midseason finale for Heroes.  Take out everything but the Peter and Nathan stuff and we still have a great episode.  I am also a little saddened by the end of Nathan but overall a good end to a character that has been with Heroes since the beginning

I agree with Razz again.  What I can’t wait for is when they come back in January.  At the end we saw Hiro, Ando, and Mohinder running in what looks like a rain forest of some kind so I can’t wait to see what our favorite terminally ill Japanese hero has in store for us.  I do have one question though, why hasn’t Sylar just gone straight to the carnival?  You think that he might have retained some memories of what happened so he’d be on Samuel’s tail for most powerful person.  Once again I assume that before the season ends he’ll be back at the carnival being opted to join the family.  We’ll have to see what comes of it in January.

See Ya & Till the Next Time

Mike & Razz

Ninja Assassin Review

Alright everybody, this weekend I went to go see what I thought would be kind of a cool action movie, Ninja Assassin.  Instead what I got was a waste of my time.  To be fair I will tell you a little bit about the story, or lack there of.  The story centers around a ninja named Raizo who was orphaned at a young age and trained by a clan of ninjas that focus on political assassinations.  However he realizes the shortcomings of the clan and decides to leave them to focus on stopping them with the help of a german secret agent named Mika.

And before you say "well Razz that isn't much of a plot", I am really not leaving too much out without completely spoiling the entire movie for you.  I didn't even understand the plot while I was sitting in the theater.  In fact I didn't fully realize the whole plot until I watched the whole thing and was leaving the theater.

I saw the movie with a friend of mine and he had 5 things he believed would make the movie better:
5. Ninjas need to learn to shut the hell up. Ninja’s don’t have cool catch phrases, Ninja’s don’t say things in whisper like “traitor” or “ch ch ch ah ah ah”. They show up, they kill you, they raid your fridge, then they leave.

4. The Ask a Ninja guy. Seriously why the hell was this guy not in this movie? www.askaninja.com


3. Someone in this cast I actually had seen in a movie before other than a Godzilla movie


2. Chev Chellios from Crank. Seriously it had foul language, it had Japanese guys, it had gangs, it had guns…why the hell wasn’t he in this movie? Oh wait I know why…its because there were no…


1. Boobs. Boobs can make any movie better…unless they are crooked or are on something other than a woman.

So as you can see it comes out to be mainly just a disappointment.  I will give this a rating of FUCK IT. But I am going to give this movie one saving grace, its got gore.  If you are a fanatic of gore and blood it would almost be a shame for you to look the other way on this one.  So if you really, really, REALLY like blood and guts in your movies I would say RENT IT but otherwise don't even bother.

See ya
Razz

Glee: Hairography Review

Remember when I said how much I loved last week’s episode of Glee? Well color me wrong because “Hairography” took what I expected in the episode and made it better. It had multiple Glee clubs singing and dancing but more than that, they showed our Glee kids that they have some competition.



We start off with Mr. Schuester minding his own while on his break when Sue arrives demanding the new set list for glee club. Will denies her request, and also recalls several moments that make him suspicious that Sue might be selling his club’s secrets to the other schools. Sue plays coy to the accusations, so Mr. Schuester is off to find out from the other glee instructors just what’s going on. Cut to Mr. Schue going through heavy security just to talk with the Grace Hitchens (played by none other than famous female rapper Eve) about the possible scandal. She denies the claims, stating that she wouldn’t cheat because she’s trying to be a good role model for her female students. Embarrassed, Will asks her to visit him over at McKinley for a friendly skirmish. When the girls arrive, they perform a very sexually orientated “Bootylicious”. With everyone’s jaw hanging to the ground (mine included), we discover thanks to Rachel that they’re only good due to their “Hairography”, or use of large and stylish hair to confuse/confound the audience.

When Will visited Grace Hitchins he was kinda shown to be profiling, just because someone can cheat it doesn't mean that they will.  A good lesson for Mr. Schue well that is until the end of the episode.  I also thought those girls were pretty good, it was one of the better dance sequences that Glee has done.


Schuester, not being one to scare easy, is now wondering if there isn’t some magic to this “Hairography” and then creates a number based solely on using Hairography. The other story we get in this episode revolves around Mrs. Schuester and Quinn. After having some doubts, Quinn decides she wants the baby. This puts Mrs. Schue in a horrifying position – tell her husband she’s not having a baby or try and steal a baby around her due date. In my opinion, she should have come clean. I want Will to leave her already and the show isn’t helping at all. We also get to see Quinn try out Puck for daddy position with the baby by babysitting Kendra’s kids. After Quinn and Puck play “Papa Don’t Preach” to the hellions, she begins to warm up to Puck taking care of the baby.

Yea I am tired of Mrs. Schue's lying around, I am just hoping that Will finds out and hopefully she gets what's been coming to her all year long.  I also liked the chemistry that Puck and Quinn had together, no wonder they made that baby.  But there time together was kind of ruined at the end by Puck being...... well Puck.



For the final we get to see Haverbrook, the school for the deaf, go up against the Hairography of Glee. We see that they did a mash up of “Hair” and “Crazy in Love”, which leaves the deaf students unimpressed and even believing them to be insane. Haverbrook responds with a non Hairography rendition of “Imagine” that puts the Glee kids in their place. My biggest complaint to this part was this – why sing to a deaf group? I understand that it just made the scene more warm and fuzzy, but in reality if I was from Haverbrook doing the song, I would wonder why these other kids are now circling me mouthing words for no reason.


Well all I can say is that Haverbrook needed to be wow-ed by the awesome hairography!  I am glad that Mr. Schue wised up and decided to not do the hairography and instead go with a more traditional, and better in my opinion, song. I am just putting this out there, for a deaf school those kids are really musically talented.


Now I know I just got done complaining, but to be honest I really did enjoy the episode. We FINALLY got to see the other schools and what they bring to the table that is Sectionals. If anything, for me I felt that seeing the other guys do their things should put the glee club of McKinley wanting to do their best and putting the nose to the grindstone. Maybe that’s just me though.
 


See Ya & Till Next Time,
Mike & Razz

I Might Be a Bit of a Slowpoke....

But did anyone else know that Kevin McHale (Artie from Glee) was in a boy band?  I just learned about this and took a look into it.  Turns out he was in a group called NLT before hitting Glee fame.  Anyway, here's some links to NLT (because all the YouTube videos have the embedded disabled) where we get to see Artie do something you won't see on Glee -- dance on his own two feet (somewhere, I think I might be going to hell for that comment, even though I mean nothing by it).


The Band's History



NLT - That Girl



NLT - Karma



NLT - She Said, I Said

Heroes: Thanksgiving Review

This week's episode of Heroes was the first holiday themed episode, a Thanksgiving episode.  It involved three major families setting down to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, the Bennett's, Samuel's family, and the Petrelli's

 

With the Bennett's we see Noah in a grocery store inviting Claire to Thanksgiving dinner so he doesn't have to be alone with Sandra and her Boyfriend, Doug.  At the store he runs into his old partner, Lauren, who he invites to dinner to "reconnect".  This scene kinda did what I hoped in that Lauren came back and that whole storyline with her back in "Once Upon a Time in Texas" wasn't wasted.  At the dinner, which was kinda awkward really with all of these people together, Claire tells how she feels awkward with out any friends and she doesn't know where she belongs.  However Noah has a surprise for her, a visit from Gretchen, to cheer her up.  When Gretchen and Claire leave, they start to follow the compass to find out exactly where it goes.

 

I really enjoyed the night with the Bennett's.  Seeing everyone dance around Primatech's other business side was fun, especially in part due to Doug trying to comprehend the situation.  Speaking of Doug, is anyone else kind of weirded out by him?  He seems to interested in the dogs if you ask me.  But if that's what Sandra's looking for in a man, then she really doesn't know what she's missing.

At Samuel's Thanksgiving we see Hiro asking for Charlie to be returned to him, but as usual Samuel says no.  Hiro runs into Lydia and she wonders that if everything is fixed then why isn't Joseph alive again.  They both go back to discover what happened to Joseph and find out that Samuel was the one to kill him.  After they go back to the present Lydia tells Edgar about what she saw in the past and Samuel accuses Edgar of killing Joseph in front of the family, to protect himself.  Hiro saves Edgar from a surprise attack by Samuel and tells him that a Hero sometimes has to run in order to fight another day.  Later Samuel confronts Hiro about what he did but Hiro stands up to him, saying that Samuel needs him.  With this Samuel makes Dreadlock guy do something to him and we see Hiro go back through some scenes from earlier on this season.  After this Hiro spazes out and teleports somewhere.

 

To be honest, I really wasn't the surprised that Samuel killed Joseph.  After last week's episode where we see Samuel listening in on Joseph and Mohinder, I assumed his drunken rage would get the best of him if/when he confronted Joseph about the true contents of the film.  After seeing Edgar stand up to Samuel, I must say that I can't wait to see if the rest of the carni folk won't turn too if they were to find out the truth.  I guess we'll find out later in the season (or seasons).

At the Petrelli's, Angela joins Nathan and Peter at Pete's apartment.  The boys confront their mother about what she did to Nathan but she says if they don't sit down and eat then she will never tell them.  During dinner she tells them a recap of what has happened to Nathan over the past couple of months and tells Nathan that he is still the person he always was.  At dessert Nathan tells both of them that they only see Sylar when they look at him, then suddenly Sylar manifests in the body and eats some pie!  Sylar pins Angela and Peter in their chairs and decides to TK Angela's brain but Nathan's spirit arises to keep Sylar away from his family.  Finally Nathan flies out the window to get away from his family.  Peter swears he will go and find Nathan and kill Sylar, to get his brother back.

 

I loved this story just due to Sylar coming back.  Though I must say Sylar, you could have shared some of the pie with Peter and Angela.  There was still a full meal that Angela brought with her you could have carved into.  Maybe I just feel like you kind of was a douche because if I couldn't get some pumpkin pie that was RIGHT in front of me, you couldn't have held me back.  I really love pie.

This was a fairly decent episode, for a holiday episode in a one hour drama it was done really well.  We got some answers about Sylar and that he is in Nathan and now both their spirits are in the body just like it was with Parkman.  It appears from the trailer for next week that we will be in for a good Sylar-Peter fight scene. 

 

To be honest, the fight should be interesting.  From what we know, Peter still has the "You've got the touch!  You've got a power!" ability.  I'm hoping that we'll find out next week that Peter really took Nathan/Sylar's empathy power, pretty much giving him his old ability back.  Maybe that's just the dream of a foolish dreamer, but that's what I do.

See Ya & Till the Next Time,

Razz & Mike

New Moon Review

As a movie viewer (and now reviewer), I try to watch a little bit of everything.  Good movies, bad movies, and all the movies imbetween.  Which leads me to the movie I've recently seen -- Twilight Saga: New Moon.  Instead of just saying "Fuck this movie and the sparkling vampires in it!", lets take a look at the movie because I just know you're dying to get the details.

This is the second installment of what will become a four movie saga.  Here we find Bella Swan(Kristen Stewart), your typical teenage girl except for the fact she can't show any emotion clearly throughout the whole film.  She is head over heels in love with Edward Cullen(Robert Pattinson), a vampire that sparkles in the daylight.  We also get to meet No Shirt Boy - I mean Jacob Black(Taylor Lautner) the local jean short model and werewolf.  The movie centers around these three going through some sort of love triangle that truly shows just how pan shallow a movie about relationships can be.  Bella acts like a complete idiot after Edward breaks up with her.  She becomes a total recluse and at night has night terrors that are so over the top and dramatic that even a seasoned soap opera star would call her, well, over the top.

Bella then starts falling for Jacob, who at this point has decided that the rest of the movie is better off with him being topless.  She and him do such fun things as riding and crashing dirt bikes, being chased through the woods by vampires, and her constantly telling him things like, "I really like you, but I still can't get over Edward cause he's SSSSSOOOOO HOT."  So basically the second act is watching teen wolf get friendzoned.

The final act has Bella racing to Edwards rescue because (thanks to Jacob really) Ed now thinks Bella is dead and can't go on living without her.  After a slow-mo save/tackle by Bella, Edward is told to meet with the high council of vampires due to Bella knowing about the vampire culture.  Edward is put to death for letting out the secret of vampire society, only to have Bella save him by telling the high council that she'll become a vampire herself to protect the vampire society.

To be honest, this movie was better than Twilight in my opinion.  That still doesn't save the movie from the fire.  To put it short, the characters are bland and emotionless all through the film.  We get to see a whole cast of characters show just how little you can put into a scene and get away with it.  If I wanted to watch soap opera acting on the big screen, I'd get a big screen and watch Days of Our Lives.  Add that with Bella being such a good example of what a "Mary Sue" is, and you've got the movie.  I can see why girls like it though.  With how blank and empty Bella seems, you can pretty much put yourself in the role and probably make it work out better than where the story's going.

Final verdict for the movie is a low RENT IT.  I almost wanted to say FUCK IT, but the only things that made me change was that I can see where women like this series.  Other than that, don't hold your hopes up high for this one.


Till Next Time,
Mike

South Park: Pee Review

Ok so this week's episode of South Park was about average for me.  As you can tell from the title it was all about pee.....and minorities.

This episode starts with the guys going to Pi Pi's water park for a day of splashing fun.  This gets ruined for Kyle when he makes the realization that almost everyone pees in the water.  Some scientist discover a dire situation concerning the pH levels of the water at the park, it is almost all "pee" and no "H".  The scientist tell the owner, Pi Pi, that if he doesn't do something soon the whole park could become overrun with pee.  Of course since this is South Park that exact thing happens and the guys are left stuck inside of the park with the pee, which is not very enthusing for Kyle. 

While the boys are stranded in the park the adults are trying to get them out, but they make the assumption that too much pee will make them all go crazy.  With the help of the scientist, the come up with a cure for the infected people, bannannas!  They show proof of this by peeing on monkeys and when the monkeys eat bannannas they seem less agitated about being peed on, who would've thunk! 

The other part of the episode shows a 2012 type situation in the waterpark for cartman.  However instead of being alone on the earth, he believes he is the only white person left and that minorities will take over the world.  Oh racist Cartman, classic.  He finds himself  relieved to be outside where he meets the other guys and they are all force fed bannannas to avoid being infected

Overall I say it is an ok episode, take it or leave it.  However this is the season finale for South Park which makes it kind of lackluster. 

See ya,
Razz

Glee: Ballad Review

Week after week Glee has always brought a level of enjoyment to me. From the musical choices to the individual stories, I'm not one to complain. This week's episode is no different. I think that this is my favorite episode by far, taken Throwdown off my number one spot. What makes this episode so good you ask? Let me tell you.



With Sectionals ever approaching, Mr. Schuester pairs off everyone in Glee so that they can perform a ballad to the other person. Everyone seems to pair off ok, until Finn gets paired with Kirk. For Kirk this is a dream come true, but for Finn he doesn't think he can "Sing a ballad to another dude." Rachel is the last to go, and due to Michael being in the hospital, puts her without a partner. Mr. Schuester says that he'll be her partner for the ballad, because what could go wrong? Rachel starts things off by singing "Endless Love" with Mr. Schue and that's where we get our first story arc in the episode. After the touching duet it seems as though Rachel has formed a crush on Mr. Schuester, much to his dismay.

With this new found love for Mr. Shoe we get one of my favorite scenes with him singing "Don't Stand So Close to Me" to Rachel, with Emma.  This song was picked by Will to help let Rachel down easy and to shed light on the situation for her.  At the end of the song both girls are stunned and Rachel's crush grows even stronger.  Epic Fail Mr. Shoe!


The second story arc involved Quinn, Finn, and Kirk. Kirk is trying to win over Finn by helping him out with meeting Quinn's parents later that week. Finn being the ingnorant football jock type he is, just assumes that Kirk wants to help him and not try to worm his way into his jock strap. This story has quite a few touching moments to it including seeing Finn sing "I'll Stand By You" to the sonagram he has of what he thinks is his baby.


Near the end of the episode things got a little heavy. After Finn reveals to Quinn's parents that she's pregnant - through the song "(You're) Having My Baby" - things take a dark turn for the worst. In what was the darkest moment in Glee yet, we see Quinn's father saying some very hurtful things towards Quinn to the point where she's in tears. We also get to meet Suzie Peppers, the first girl to get a crush on Mr. Schue. She shows up here and there throughout the episode following Rachel around but not in a "he's my man don't you step my way" manner. Suzie actually serves as a grim future for Rachel should she keep trying to win Schuester over. This helps Rachel realize she's just gaga over Schue, and quickly goes to make up with him about her behavior.

One thing I really want to ask is, "Why did you sing that song Finn?"  He couldn't sing a more obscure song that got the same point across.  I mean the Fabray's are an uber-religious family, of course singing "You're Having My Baby" is gonna end up badly.  However this move makes me agree with one thing Mr. Fabray said, "He does wear a helmet on the field doesn't he?"


Overall and as I've said, this is one of my favorite episodes yet. It had a total of five songs throughout it, which I think is the most yet. The only real problem I had was a scene of Mercedes and Puck talking about Quinn and Finn. Puck reveals to her that he is actually the baby's father. Mercedes than tells him that that's tough luck because Quinn has chosen Finn to father the child, and that he should just face the facts. To be honest, I expected her to act more shocked about such a twist. I could even see her telling the other Glee clubbers by "accident" so that more people would know. I'm not sure what the writers were thinking in that scene, but it didn't really work with the Mercedes I've come to know.

I agree on the whole Mercedes' thing because she acts way to calm for something this shocking.  I was really expecting her to say, "for real?" and run outside and tell everyone that it's Puck's baby, but instead we got her telling Puck pull it together and sing.  This might get good with her being the only one who knows but for now it was kind of dissapointing. 



See Ya & Till Next Time,

Mike & Razz

Pirate Radio Review

Okay guys, the review for today is "Pirate Radio" (or as it's called elsewhere "The Boat That Rocked').  First things first, this movie is inspired by true events in the U.K. where at that time (the mid-1960's) Rock & Roll was banned on the radio stations by the British government.  Pretty much the only music that was allowed to be played was classical/instrumental music.  However, an American DJ called "The Count" (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and a band of other English DJ breaks these rules and broadcast their radio station 24/7 from a big ass boat in the middle of the ocean.  Of course with this being the only station that plays the popular songs of the 60's, people all over the U.K. notice this event and becomes attached to the radio station and their famous DJ's.  But I'm not here to talk about the people listening to this station, I'm here to talk the DJ's and the crew who are on this ship together and becoming more close towards each other day by day with the power of Rock & Roll.  The thing that makes this movie click is the fact that all of the characters are brought into this film in a very proper and detailed way.  Everyone one of them has their own story and all of them has a reason on why they're on this boat and why they're risking being arrested for their actions.  Even though this film seems like a rebellious approach, truth is, it's both a rebellious film and a romantic comedy.  And these two elements are what make this film a lot of fun to watch.

This movie comes from famous British director Richard Curtis (Notting Hill, Four Weddings & a Funeral and Love Actually) and I have to say that this movie was very cool to me.  I'm not really a fan of the 1960's but with the style, humor and music that was brought into this film, I have to admit that I kinda taken a different approach on how the 60’s were (especially in music).  This movie will immediately appeal to people who're either a fan of music, a fan of the 60's, or just a fan of comedies where a group of people (one day) decides to take a stand in order for them to fight what they believe in (kinda like Revenge of the Nerds).  There’s a tad bit of flaws in the movie (maybe 1 or 2), but with this movie being so fun and hilarious it kinda goes unnoticed and if it is noticed it's willing to be forgiven with whatever approach it took.  I highly recommend anyone to see this movie and to be prepared on what wild ride you'll be going on by watching it.  This movie truly shows that the power of music can bring everyone into unity.

More People?

Hey everyone!  Mike here with a quick update.  Starting today we have a new reviewer on board with us here at the blog.  He's a good friend of mine so let's give Leon our fullest attention and an open ear.  Good?  Good.

Our Canonverse: Episode 1

Here at Mike and Razz’s blog, are slogan is “We tell you what’s good, what’s bad, and what we think should happen.” Well, we’ve gone good on reviews, but we haven’t really told you what we think should happen other than that occasional comments throughout the reviews. Well tonight after chatting for a bit, I’m happy to tell you about new segment called, Our Canonverse. This is basically what me and razz think should happen in our favorite shows regardless of the plausibility of what comes next. What better to do now than to dive right into the Canonverse.



The first idea we have to add to the Canonverse is one we discovered while talking Heroes and Glee. There seems to almost be a formula to both shows that needs to be known. The formula is as follows:


Your character gets written out of Heroes  ---> Chance of being a cast member on Glee


Examples of this include Stephen Tobolowsky (Bob on Heroes; Sandy Ryerson on Glee), Jessalyn Gilsig (Meredith on Heroes; Mrs. Schuester on Glee), Jayma Mays (Charlie on Heroes; Emma on Glee), Kenneth Choi (Sam Douglas on Heroes; Dr. Wu on Glee),and Dianna Agron (Debbie Marshal on Heroes; Quinn Fabray on Glee). Now I know you might be asking who some of the characters from Heroes are, and that’s ok. We had to do a bit or research ourselves to find some of these people.


Back on topic, it’s been discussed that Adrian Pasdar might be leaving Heroes. This now makes sense because Sylar has his body back as of the last episode. What Razz and I thought is that since the theory of Heroes to Glee is in effect, he would end up on Glee. Now the question is who will he play? At first we thought a judge at Regional’s, just as a kind of cameo to please the fans. That idea was soon shot down when we came to realize something about the show that is cause for this inspiration. The rival glee group, Vocal Adrenaline, doesn’t have a group leader. This is where Adrian can shine. Allow me to set up the scene.
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After winning Regional’s, Adrian Pasdar’s character meets up with Will to talk about Nationals or whatever comes up next in Glee club. His character is similar to first season Nathan, stone cold and barely showing emotion. He begins to brag to Mr. Shoe about how superior his group of kids is because they get the best training and choreography. Think of a male version of Sue. After bragging enough to make the most ego-centric person blush, Will leaves not wanting to hear what he’s saying. We now go to Adrian on stage with a guitar. He says something similar to “Start from the top!” and starts playing the beginning to Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now. As he plays and sings the song, we see that the rest of the band is actually people from Band From TV are accompanying him. That’s right. Matt Parkman on drums, House playing on piano, and everyone else from the band partaking in the scene. Scene ends and tears are shed around the world for pure awesome factor. With Sue and Adrian being so alike we also can set him up to be a long term character as Sue’s love interest. Imagine those two stone cold people, arguing and fighting and then suddenly making out. A great story line for down the road.

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And that’s what is now canon in the Glee universe, and the Canonverse, according to Razz and I. Agree with us? Disagree? Let us know in the comments.


See Ya & Till Next Time,


Mike & Razz

Heroes: Brother's Keeper Review

Ok this weeks episode of Heroes was a huge episode, so lets just get right to it.  Peter and Nathan are discussing his "missing carnival weekend" and discover that Angela has covered for him by saying he was on vacation.  The Haitian, and I'm not calling him by his name, shows up and explains to Peter that Angela wants her mind wiped but tells him that he needs to make that decision after he sees a certain storage shed.  When Nathan and Peter arrive they discover Nathans "real" body.  Nathan touches it which causes the remembrance ability to act up in Nathan and he discovers Parkman might be hiding something.  The Brothers Petrelli go to the Hospital where Matt is being held where, after Peter does his healing, Matt reveals that Nathan is actually in Sylars body. Sylar takes over Matt and tries to convince Nathan to touch him.  After a scuffle Sylar leaves Matt's body and Peter and Nathan leave.  Peter takes Nathan/Sylar's ability so he can keep up with him and follow him.  Nathan discusses with Peter about how he doesn't exist, it is only Sylar with a compilation of memories under a layer of skin.  My big question is where is Sylar?  I mean did he go into his body or is he somewhere else.  Plus what ability does Peter have now, just flying or is he an Empath again?  Just a few questions I thought of.

 

I do have to say, I'm happy to see the Petrelli brothers working together again.  Most times throughout the series they're at ends with each other.  Seeing them team up is something i willing welcome.  Now I also with what happened to Sylar?  For someone who wanted his body back SO badly, he's not really showing it.  After being in Parkman for God knows how long, I would definitely want to take my body out for a good fly and kill.

Next we saw the events of Mohinder that unfolded nine weeks ago.  As he was going through his father's old Coyote Sands footage, he discovered that a boy named Samuel that was born in Coyote Sands increases his ability a thousand-fold when he is gathered around many people with abilities.  This explains why Samuel is after an ever growing Family!  Mohinder creates a makeshift compass, as we have seen before in this season, which leads him to the carnival.  He meets Joseph who explains his brothers situation and tells him to leave and destroy the evidence of Samuel at Coyote Sands.  Before he can do this, Hiro steps in to save the footage and puts a bullet-proof vest on him to keep Mohinder alive.  After Samuel's attack, Hiro explains that he must use the footage to save Charlie.  Mohinder disagrees which makes Hiro put him in an asylum so he can stay quiet until the present day.

 

When I first watched the episode and based off the tapes, I thought that anyone with an ability could multiple his/her power.  Knowing that it was just Samuel definitely made me realize at least some of his evil plan.  More family.  More Power.  Simple concept for a villain if you think about it. The only part that had me confused on the whole Hiro story was with him and Mohinder.  If Hiro replaced Mohinder for a patient in an asylum, what did he do with the patient?  I just imagine some mentally unstable person being sent free to run the streets he's been taken off of.

Now we got through the big part of the episode, we might as well cover Tracy and Claire.  Tracy comes to Claire(or well really HRG) with a problem of her ability.  After Tracy accidentally freezes Claire( which she quickly recuperates from), they have a talk and realize that Tracy's problems are psychological.   The girls discuss the problems about their life and Tracy decides to join the Carnival after all.

 

I feel like if there was a clip of the week to show, it'd be when Noah finally gets home while the girls are talking and it shows Claire's frozen (or thawing) foot.  I just thought to myself Noah's probably thinking something like, "Get the thawing foot off the table!  I didn't raise you in a barn Claire!"

So all I can say is that we got a good episode here.  There were a lot of answers in these scenes which made this great, besides the Claire/Tracy storyline.  One complaint I have is the trailer from last week was a little too thorough which lessened the impact of the episode.  Otherwise we have a top notch Heroes episode, a must watch indeed.

 

I agree.  The clips from the trailer left us with too much and that can be bad sometimes.  Luckily, they still left the big explosions in the story hidden till the episode aired.  I just can't wait for next week when we see who's really in control - Nathan or Sylar.

See Ya & Til Next Time,

Razz & Mike

Community: Debate 109 Review

Here we go.


This week on Community we get to see yet another problem that the forces of plot feel that only Jeff can fix. After Annie is left partnerless for the debate team, Jeff is asked to join on due to his previous "lawyer" days. He accepts, but only to get a free parking space. The debate itself was fun to watch as Jeff at first bumbled his way through the debate, only to later come back on top and win it for Greendale. The various cuts and background music make a simple debate seem more pumped up than it is, which I thought was in good taste to the show.

Something of a surprise to me was the relationship between Jeff and Annie that happened here. The formula usually calls for Britta and Jeff or Troy and Annie to take the relationship front stage, so this was new and in my opinion, good. Jeff isn't getting anywhere with Britta, and Troy doesn't even notice Annie half the time, so it's time to see a relationship that might go through.

Jeff's first try was pretty funny since he thought his charm was gonna get him through the debate, just like when he was a lawyer.  We saw another E! channel refrence when Jeff was being recruited for the debate.  This is a throw to Joel McCale's other show, The Soup, on E!  I am liking the relationship of Jeff and Annie, it would be nice to see if the writers will take it further or if this is a one time thing.



The other main story throughout the episode involves Shirley and Abed. After watching his films entitled "Community College Chronicles" the group (and audience) realize that Abed is just redoing the past episodes with a different cast. What comes to their attention is that Abed seems to predict what's going to happen next through his videos. This worried Shirley that Abed was some sort of evil wizard, but he reassures her that he just knows how to read everyone better than they may have expected. Abed proves this point by perfectly mimicing several of the study groups members when they talk. Shirley starts crying witch again, especially when things from his most recent video begin to come true in real life. This gag throughout the episode really helped out and I always found it funny when Shirley would go to Abed for info on the future.


Abed's videos were funny and his predicting everyone's actions shows how close the study group has grown since the beginning.  Shirleys reactions to Abed's videos were priceless, from the kiss to the werewolf.



What bothered me about the episode was the third, and very minor, plot. It centers around Britta getting Pierce to help her quit smoking by way of hypnotherapy. Instead of what I assumed would be Pierce messing up and getting something funny out of the hypnotism, we get Britta laying there with her eyes closed wondering when Pierce will finish up with the session. Granted, she does stop smoking due to Pierce's comments to himself while she was "hypnotized", but ultimately it was let down in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I understand the show has seven characters as a main cast, but they should take a note from a show like Heroes or The Office when it comes to storylines. Either have one to two stories going switching back and forth (Heroes) or have them tie closer together so that you see more of everyone and it just goes better together (Office). I don't worry that this will get out of hand, but hopefully it won't be done in every episode, otherwise it might seem like one storyline is being stretched too thin when it can be milk for some comedy gold.

I agree, with a big cast some storylines can get lost.  Plus it really doesn't help that Joel McCale seems to be carrying the show sometimes.  I like how some shows like this leave out a few characters in order to give a bigger and stronger focus on the main storylines.  Even with this Community is still a great show and can't wait to see more episodes.

Til Next Time & See Ya,


Mike & Razz

Glee: Wheels Review

This week's installment of Glee changed gears and focused the story on the kids more than Mr. Schuester and his baby drama. I for one welcomed this. We get to know more about each of the students lives and stories. Well, lets start off, shall we?

 The show begins with Mr. Schuester speaking with Principal Figgins about getting a special bus for Glee club due to Artie needing a wheelchair accessible bus. Figgins, being the penny pinching principal we've come to know, won't give it to them and suggests they raise money for one. Mr. Schuester acts on that by getting everyone in Glee club to help out in a bake sale. While discussing the need for the bus the rest of Glee club seems to react negatively to the fact they have to work just to get Artie to come with them. This makes Mr. Schuester realize the students aren't taking Artie's feelings into consideration, so what does he do? He gets a wheelchair for each Glee club student so that they can walk a mile in his shoes (so to speak). Mr. Shoe also lets them know that for Regionals they'll be doing a whole routine with all of them in wheelchairs. On top of that, they'll be doing "Defying Gravity", a popular number from the broadway musical Wicked. Kurt wants nothing more than to do the solo for it, but Mr. Shoe gives it to Rachel. Kurt being the diva he is, calls both Rachel and Mr. Schuester out for the solo. So begins the the Diva Off!

While Artie was doing his "Dancing with Myself" routine, I realized he was rocking that wheelchair.  And yes, I realize most of that was probably a stunt double, but still kudos on the choreography.  I was also glad when Mr. Shoe grew a pair and told them to get in the wheelchairs, because I think that time was good for all of them.

We also get to see more of Sue and Mr. Shoe going at it. After Quinn got kicked off Cherio's, there's now an opening. Principal Figgins suggests that Sue holds open try outs to let someone take the spot, with Mr. Schuester being the other judge. Sue chooses a girl with downs syndrome out of all the potentials, and Will immediately assumes she's up to something. Sue starts training the girl in the way of the Cherio, which means Sue constantly yells at her for not being good at anything. The girl just smiles and replies with "Thanks coach!" Schuester thinks something is still up, but Sue's playing coy to the whole thing. Near the end of the episode, we find out that Sue's sister is at a mental hospital and also has downs syndrome. For me, seeing Sue being caring and seeing an emotion that wasn't rage of some variation was stunning. I highly enjoyed it.

The stuff with Sue kinda threw me off, I was stunned to find out she willingly took that girl on the squad and also gave money for new ramps at the school.  I was starting to agree with Shuester that she was up to something but I was relieved at the end when it was revealed she had a sister with the same condition, I think it makes Sue a more grounded and more believable character.


 Back to the Diva Off! Kurt and his dad have several talks about the solo and the fact that Kurt is an outed homosexual in high school. It's fun to see Kurt try work things with his dad. His dad obviously has no idea what to do, but still offers his support. We then see Rachel and Kurt face off in Glee club for the solo, where Kurt ends up breaking on the high F note that would make or break him. He then tells his dad about losing the solo on purpose, all so that his father can keep his cool when people make negative remarks against his son's sexuality. It was heartwarming.


I liked this part of the episode, we got more about Kurt and his dad going through dealing with the homosexuality thing, which they kind of just left off at the end of one of the previous episode.  It was good to see how Kurt felt responsible for his father and broke the F on purpose so things would be easier on his dad.  Especially after his dad gets a call saying Kurt is a fag, didn't know he was that into bikes!  Plus I am liking Glee's style of putting appropriate styles of songs in the show.  You could almost start watching the episode at the Diva off and understand the story just by the lyrics and the way it was edited with Rachel and Kurt.
 Lastly (I'm sure you're tired of reading) we get to know more about Artie, who the episode somewhat revolves around. We come to the realization that he has a thing for Tina (the girl with the stuttering problem). He also opens up about how he got into the wheelchair, and how it's affected his life. We also get to see a great musical number of Artie singing Billy Idol's "Dancing By Myself". After the bake sale gets more than enough money for the bus (due to Puck making Hash cupcakes), Artie decides to use the money to get a wheelchair ramp for the auditorium. Scene goes to Tina and Artie sharing a date by racing around in their wheelchairs. Tina then gives Artie a kiss and comes clean -- she doesn't have a stutter. She started doing the stutter in sixth grade to stop from having to do reports in front of the class. Artie tells her "Well, that's good. You can be a regular person now but I'm still stuck in the wheelchair." and leaves her standing there. Way to BRO up man! DON'T LET NO HOE PUSH YOU AROUND! (and now I can have her all to MY self....yes...)


I am really getting into Puck's story line, you start to see how he still cares about Quinn and didn't just knock her up.  I think they should really be together because no offense Finn is a bad baby's daddy.  Plus that would leave Rachel and Finn to get together, which even in this episode you can see sexual tension between them.  We see Artie takin' charge in this episode along with my favorite quote by him, "Let me be perfectly clear I still have the use of my penis."


Anyway, it was a good episode. We FINALLY got to see something other than Mr. Schuester get played by his lying wife. Once again I digress, but I enjoyed seeing more of the students being the focus of the episode.

Til Next Time & See Ya,
Mike & Razz

Dances with Smurfs

Hey guys, first of all I would like to say I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with South Park the past few weeks, I'll try to keep doing it more often. This episode starts off with Cartman being picked to replace the announcement reader after the old one was brutally murdered by a guy who assumed he was a truck driver who slept with his wife. Since Cartman is the one now reading the announcements you know it won't end well. He uses the time to read the announcements to bash the school president, Wendy. Cartman even ends up getting TV's so he can have his own show, like Glenn Beck, Bill Oreilly, or any other Fox News Commentary show. He even calls Wendy out saying she wants to KILL Smurfs! OH NO! Cartman makes a special, called Dances With Smurfs, in which he goes and lives with the Smurfs and falls in love with Smurfette. He then destroys the Smurf village(as Wendy, good job on the cross-dressing by the way).



Wendy Is fed up by this and goes on The Morning Announcements to defend herself, and to keep Butters from peeing on her house. She turns the show around saying the smurfs had to be destroyed to get the Smurfberries to save the school. And it is Cartman's fault for turning against the school and siding with the Smurfs. She steals Cartman's Smurf idea by writing her own book and selling the movie rights to create James Cameron's Avatar.


I think this is a fairly good episode. I am a fan of any episode that takes Cartman from being on top to looking like an a-hole at the end. This is definitely worth the watch. By the way I discovered you can go to southparkstudios.com and buy shirts with different SP catchphrases like Awesom-o, a few from this episode, bike-curious?, towlie, they took our jobs, and many more. These would be great if you are a huge fan of the show.


See ya,
Razz

Heroes: Shadowboxing Review

Since Razz pretty much wrote up the review for the episode, I'll just add my two cents after each paragraph.

This episode of Heroes was pretty good overall especially my favorite story arc, Matt/Sylar. So lets start with that part, this was the first episode where Sylar was in control of Matt's body.  However Matt still retained his ability which set some road blocks up for Sylar.   Even though Sylar tries to prove he is the bad guy but Matt proves he can play just as dirty by using his ability to trap Sylar and have him gunned down by the police.

Watching Matt constantly fuck with Sylar made this a great episode for me.  The shoe was FINALLY on the other foot in the best way.  I can only imagine Sylar getting the full body search from the security guard with the biggest hand, if you catch my drift.  The whole time Matt laughing and possibly enjoying some popcorn.

Peter's story sort of fell flat but he was just playing a support for Emma to be in the spotlight and prove her heroism by saving those people in the hospital.  Plus there isn't too much Peter can do with his healing especially since the ability is draining him. 

If nothing else it was good to see Peter slowing down, whether or not it's due to the power's drawback.  He's so caught up with this Superman complex he got that he needed to realize he can slow down and still help.

We got more backstory about Samuel which I am up for always.  We found out that it was Danko that killed Samuel's brother.  I keep wondering what is his endgame too, he seems evil yet looking deeper into him and his past we can sort of see a more layered person.  We saw this how he was concerned for the safety of everyone when he tazed  Becca.  But then again he talks to Becca and tells her she will have her revenge.  It is going to be good to uncover more about Samuel and what he really wants.

I agree with Razz here on all accounts.  After seeing the preview with Samuel and Mohinder, I'm even more pumped for next week.  We'll get to see some more old footage (I'm assuming from the old camp a la Season 3) and maybe some more about the previous generation of people with abilities.  Also, we get to see Mohinder die.  That alone I'm happy to wait for.

We saw more about HRG too, yet not too surprising.  I mean really he killed somebody we've never seemed that before, big whoop.  I think that is exactly what Claire thought too, at least she seemed like that.  Claire also seemed sort of heart broken over Gretchen deciding to leave because she was scared for her life.  I guess that is the end of that wierd relationship, oh well no more lesbian Claire.  And the Hatian has a name now??? I really don't see the use of this, I mean really it is the fourth season.  We didn't even get his name when we were in Hati last season, I'm just saying I really don't see the reason for this.

Once again I completely agree.  I was sad there was no goodbye kiss between Claire and Gretchen, but hey, that's just something that'll go in my fanfic.  I think one thing that needs more importance put on it is that the Hatian's name is Renee?  REALLY NBC???  Let's not give the most bad ass secondary character a cool name, let's give him a woman's name.   Sometimes I hate you TV.

We saw the return of Nathan in this episode too, which I was surprised about.  I pretty much thought he was dead but I guess Sylar wasn't as clean of a Slate as he was thought to be.  And from the looks of next weeks episode I think Nathan will be back in a big way.

I have to agree again.  I like that we only have one Sylar now (kinda).  Seeing Nathan back makes me wonder how things will work out if Sylar sees him wondering around in the next couple of episodes.  Oh well, I guess we'll have to find out then.

See ya & til next time,

Razz & Mike

Goodnight, Sweet Childhood Memories. May You Rest Well

Nov. 8th, 2009.  


At 7PM Central Standard Time, we as a generation of children grown up on television lost something dear to us in what I believe was the best way possible.  For those of you that watched Cartoon Network in the late 90s and early 2000s, you may remember a block of cartoons show mostly on Friday known as Cartoon Cartoons.  Some of these included Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow & Chicken, Ed Edd n Eddy, and several more.  Overall there were about 15 shows considered "Cartoon Cartoons."  Many people who watched said shows remember them for various reasons including in show jokes and character impressions.  I would say that to be growing up and watching this show, it seemed like a golden age for Cartoon Network.

Now for why the date is important.  On Nov 8th, Cartoon Network (now going simply as CN), held a two day marathon of Ed Edd n Eddy leading up to the full length movie known as "Ed Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show".  The movie revolves around the memorable cast of the cul-de sac chasing down the Eds after one of their many scams goes horribly awry.  Without giving too much away the movie does good on bringing back everything you loved about Ed Edd n Eddy all in about 90mins.  The one thing about the movie is that it references so many past episodes that you can't help but say to your friends while you're watching, "Is that Ed dressed as Lothgar from the Boo Haw Haw episode?"  It's truly worth the watch, so if you can find a download of it online, I suggest getting together several Ed fans and enjoying.


Back to the main point, the movie pretty much ended the series that is Ed Edd n Eddy.  With the Eds finally being put to rest, the realization that Cartoon Cartoons are over with hit me shortly after.  Between the various shows getting cancelled or ending with a final season and/or movie, the final nail had been hammered in.  To me the movie was like that of watching the last cast of Toonami.  Seeing Tom shutting everything down and giving one final speech before jetting off to bigger and brighter things.  



Knowing that something in my childhood that had lasted this long had finally ended was relieving in a way.  I was a bit sad that years from now kids might ask, "What's Dexter's Lab?"  or "Courage the Cowardly Dog is dumb."  But with one chapter closing another opens.  Cartoon Network does have some good shows on air now and if they can keep these going maybe I won't have to wince when someone mentions Total Drama Island anymore.


What I'm trying to say is, well, here's to you Cartoon Cartoons.  I'll never forget you.  Here's to all the good times.  Stay Gold.


Til next time,
                 Michael

The Men Who Stare at Goats

The first thing I want to say is that I'm sorry about the recent gap in the articles.  We're ironing out a schedule now to get the reviews to you, the viewers.  Also, I'm gonna start using a rating system on the movie reviews.  The best is See It, next is Riff It, followed by Rent It, and lastly Fuck It.  Now on to the review.


The Men Who Stare at Goats begins in 2003 with journalist BobWilton (Ewan McGregor) narrating about how life has seeming turned its back on him.  He lost his wife to his editor, and feels as though he is now adrift at sea.  Bob decides that as a journalist during war, he should head over to Iraq to help expose what's going on.  There he meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) who after a brief chase tells Bob that he worked for the U.S. Army's First Earth Battalion.  Lyn explains that this was an army battalion that used psychic powers in the missions they were given.  Bob, not wanting to miss out on a story like this, decides to follow Lyn as he goes on a mission into Iraq.


I have to say that I really enjoyed the movie.  Watching George Clooney refer to the First Earth Battalion as "Jedis" and even making jokes with Ewan's character as "I can see you have a bit of Jedi in you.  Trust me, us Jedi can see our own."  Jeff Bridges also is a great job playing Bill Jango, the sargent of the First Earth Battalion.  While in this role he seems to get back to his Big Lebowski roots as a laid back guy, and it works for him.  Kevin Spacey, playing the villian of sorts, does just that.  In every scene he's in, Spacey's character is an asshole to someone or everyone else in it.  There are a few scenes that Spacey reminds me of him from his role in Superman Returns as Lex Luthor. 


Overall I'd give this film a rating of:  See It.  Go if you have chance, you'll enjoy it.