Hot Tub Time Machine Review

Hey everybody.  As Mike said before, sorry we haven’t been posting up any reviews lately.  We’re quite busy with other things (like watching movies, getting laid and paid and feeding kids).  Okay, maybe not all of those things, but we have been quite busy.  However, all of the important times we have in our personal lives won’t keep us from posting our reviews and keeping you guys entertained by reading our awesome reviews.  So without further ado, PREPARE TO HAVE YOUR MIND BLOWN OUTTA YOUR ASS!!!!!! (Just kidding).

                What better way to start this review off at a random time, then to review a movie with a very random idea.  That movie of course being “Hot Tub Time Machine”.   Now when I first saw the trailer to this movie, I thought to myself “How the hell can a movie involving a hot tub and a time machine work?”  This idea for the movie seemed very, very spontaneous, but sometimes good things can happen when crazy unexpected shit is put together.

                In this film we’re brought to the attention of three friends.  Adam (John Cusack), Lou (Rob Corddy) and Nick (Craig Robinson).  As we watch the lives of these three characters, we see that their lives are quite miserable and sad.  Adam’s girlfriend walks out on him to leave him with nothing, Nick is working at a luxurious pet shop giving colon cleansing to dogs while suspecting his wife of cheating on him with another man, and Lou is so depressed with his life that he attempts to commit suicide.  With this action, they all decide that they need to take a break from their long and dreading life by visiting their old hangout place at a ski resort.  Tagging along with them is Adam’s technology-obsessed nephew, Jacob (Clark Duke) who dislikes Lou for his asshole remarks and foul-mouth attitude towards him.

When they arrive at their destination, they notice that the resort is nothing like it used be when they were younger.  The only cool thing that stands out among the resort is the hot tub outside of their room.  The hot tub looks so awesome to them that they all decide to skinny dip in the hot tub while getting shitfaced to alcohol and other illegal drugs they brought along with them.  After a crazy night of insanity within the hot tub, they notice that their surroundings are quite different.  So different, that they start to see people at the ski resort dressed in throwback 80’s clothes.  For a moment they assume that it’s an 80’s theme weekend at the resort, but slowly they find out that there in the actual year of 1986.  Freaking out and not having a clue of what to do, they run into an unexpected maintenance man (Chevy Chase) who tells them that their hot tub is broken and at the same time hinting that he could take them back to their present time.  However, he warns the four not to change anything in 1986.   In other words, he tells them that everything that happened before in the past, must happen again (due to the whole space-time continuum theory).  But knowing the four and what incidents that happened in their past before, we can assume that they take matters into their own hands.

This movie was surprisingly good.  There’s a good amount of sex jokes and poop humor, but the script makes the comedy so clever that it works.  I would describe the comedy of this film as “Fun Humor”.  To me, there would be times where the joke would be funny and times where it wouldn’t.  But for the jokes that wouldn’t be funny, seemed to have everyone else laughing their asses off.   What really drew my attention towards the story was the chemistry that the four actors had towards each other.  The communication amongst them reminded me of the four protagonists in “The Hangover”.  Every actor seemed to fit their role and element perfectly and each of them made us care about them all the way through the film, even when one of them did inappropriate crap towards each other and/or anyone else.  But with the good comes the bad, and the bad being just a couple of things I didn’t like.  (1) Whenever a random comedic scene happened in the film, I felt that some scenes were too random and not very explainable.  I know that the scene is supposed to reflect the title of the film but it still should’ve had more effort for explanation.  (2)  A similar situation happened around the end of the film.  When it comes to a movie involving time travel, I would expect it to do clever scenes that benefit the character(s), due to a certain change that occurred in the past.  I won’t say whether it does or doesn’t in this film, I’ll just say that the climax of the film went just a little too fast and it could've been better.  That kinda sucks, because I didn’t feel that “Back to the Future” reminiscing whenever I watch a movie or television show that involves time travel.

But despite all of my negative opinions, this is a really fun comedy.  If you enjoy “The Hangover”, “Back to the Future” and every other film that involves the 80’s, you oughta check this film out.  Hell if you grew up in the 80’s and still love it (even though the culture is 3 decades old) I highly recommend you to check out this movie.

My Rating:  SEE IT!!!!

Next Review:  Clash of the Titans? Kick-Ass, maybe?  See ya soon!!!!

Glee: Hell-o Review

Tuesday was the return of Glee.  It seems to take place a little bit after they won sectionals.

 

Finn is sorta dating Rachel and he is off his game and kinda depressed after what happened with Quinn. Schue has a talk with him and tells him that he may need to take some time out and rediscover himself.  After a doors Montage of Finn being awesome, the two other cheerleaders ask him out to separate him from Rachel.  In the library Rachel meets Jesse St. James, the star of vocal adrenaline.  While Finn is out on his date he realizes that he wants to be with Rachel but he finds out about Jesse and tells Schue.  Rachel is confronted by the glee club about her relationship and Sue also tells her that she can't give up on love.  Rachel talks to Jesse and decides to keep their relationship a secret, but Jesse might be out for more than just Rachel.  Finn has one final talk with Rachel and says that he won't give up on her

 

I can't wait to see how everything unfolds here.  With Finn trying to win back Rachel, Rachel with Jesse (even though we know he's no good for her), and the Glee club trying to keep it all together.

Schue is comes to the principal where he finds out that Sue has come back after she blackmails Figgins.  Schue is with Emma and they are starting to date then Emma reveals that she has never "been intimate" with a guy.  Schue confronts the Vocal Adrenaline coach about Rachel's relationship but ends up making out with her.  She ends up giving him the same advice he gave Finn.  While Emma is setting up for a date she has a conversation with Terri.  Emma talks with Will and again gives him the advice that he needs to learn how to be alone and puts their relationship on hold. 

 

Throughout this episode, I must say I applauded Mr. Schue for how awesome of a pimp he is.  I mean, he got the Emma, Vocal Adrenaline's coach, what more could you want?  Too bad though it was all shot down when they both left him so that he could find himself.  I can't wait to see the journey they have set for Schuester in the season to come.

I have one question that did bug me, Why is there a band ready to play in that music store?  I guess those guys are just waiting for someone to come along who wants to play some music.  Also I found this hilarious one liner from Finn when he learns about Jesse, "is he bigger than me"  I did not expect that phrase to come from him.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed the random band there at the store.  It was a good "WTF?" moment.  The one thing I noticed in the episode is after Finn does his song he begins handing out high-5s, Artie raises he hand for a high-5 but Finn just passes him by.  Granted this is right before a cut, so it made sense that maybe they didn't plan for that to be noticed, but I'm weird like that.

See Ya & Till Next Time,

Mike & Razz

South Park: 200

Sorry I haven't done any posts for South Park but I think episode 5 is a good place to start with season 14.  This one was epic even though it ends with a cliff hanger.  We get to see a buttload of celebrities, the gingers, Muhammed... well sort of, and the return of the question "Who is Eric Cartman's father?"

This episode starts with Stan calling Tom Cruise a fudge packer after he sees him literally packing fudge in a fudge factory.  So he gets together with all the other burned celebrities to sue South Park but it turns out all they want is Muhammed so they can become invulnerable to ridicule.  This issues the return of Hennifer Lopez or Mitch Conner, turns out he didn't die after all.  Mitch wants to sell Muhammed's power and gets Cartman to help once he tells him that he can tell him who his real father is.  In the way of the celebrities are the ginger extremists who want Muhammed's power and threaten South Park and this triggers the Celebrities to release Barbra Streisand on the town

I can't wait to see how all this ends. I think all this throwing back was an appropriate way to celebrate the 200th episode.  Also I am gonna say the first two episodes didn't really "wow" me a whole lot but 'Medicinal Fried Chicken' had a hilarious moment with all the men of the town bouncing down the streets on their Scrotums and I liked 'You have 0 Friends' for the parody on Facebook and also for that Kip Drordy kid too.

See Ya
Razz

An "A" For Being Awesome

Hey guys sorry that we haven't been posting as much but with the return of South Park and the second half of Glee just around the corner we will be back.  So since we haven't posted in a while I thought I would give my thoughts on this little photo I found on the web.

This is a detention slip for a kid that made a "that's what she said" joke.  First of all props to this kid becuse "you need to push it in further" is one of the best opportunities to make that joke.  I gotta say I wish I could be that teacher because I would not have sent him to detention, I would have just said "why don't you call it a half day kid" as I was rolling on the floor laghing at it.  Also if I was this kid's parent this would be up on the fridge door.  There is one thing I am asking myself though, is it really innocent when a 12 year old girl has to yell out "you need to push it in further"?  Well I hope this brightened your day a little bit like it did mine.

See Ya,
Razz

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Review

This review train is just chugging along with the next review: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief.  WOO WOO!

In the midst of Hollywood going gaga over book to movie adaptations (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings) it seems like everyone is trying to copy off their success and this movie is both no different yet is different to all the other copycats out there.  The story follows Percy Jackson, your typical teenage kid until he finds out that his mom got it on with Posideon and he's actually a demigod similar to those in Greek Mythology.  Along with that we learned from the first 5mins that Zeus is missing his lightning bolt and blames Percy as the thief.  Zeus gives Percy 14 days to return the bolt, or else Zeus is going God Mode all over Olympus and Earth.

Percy isn't alone in his quest to find the bolt.  His best friend, protector, and Satyr - Grover and Demigod Annabeth join in him touring America to find clues as to who the lightning thief is while also saving Percy's mom from Hades.  Sound familar?  Like a certain boy wizard and friends?  Yeah...I didn't think so....

I think my biggest problem with the whole movie was how much Greek mythology is inside the U.S. according to the movie.  Medusa living in a garden shop in Maine?  Olympus' entrance is the top of the Empire State Building?  A secret demigod only training camp somewhere in the northeast?  The gateway to Hades is under the 'H' in Hollywood?  Really? 

Now blame me for not reading the books but I think the movie could have explained why most of Greece's mythology decided to pack their bags and come over to the U.S.  If you've read the books, please let me know.

Other than that I did enjoy the movie.  Most of the actors/actresses cast were good choices.  I do think that Hades could have been cast better, but only if they casted James Woods.  I loved his Hades in Hercules, and is still my favorite Hades (but not my favorite Devil, that's different).

Rating:  RIFF IT

Till Next Time,
Mike

The Wolfman Review

Moving on to the film in line, we come across The Wolfman, a reboot of the 1941 classic.  Lets see how it holds up, shall we?

The movie follows Lawrence Talbot (Del Toro) as he comes home to native Britain following his brother's death.  After overlooking his brother's wounds the villagers believe it to be the bear owned by the local gypsies that are passing through town.  Lawrence goes to investigate only to be bitten, and cursed, by a werewolf.  From then on it's a battle between the bestial side that is the werewolf and remaining both alive and sane as a man.

Now I have to say, this movie does good on its own.  I think the best part from my perspective was seeing that most of the make up was actually prostetic make up and not all special effects.  Most of the special effects are done while the transformation takes place and here and there while Benicio is a werewolf.  In a day where 3D effects are the norm, I felt good seeing a guy covered in fake hair slashing people left and right.

Other than the throwback to prostetics, I'd have to say that Anthony Hopkins plays a great old man, though most of the time you'd think he was just like some kind of troll that lived in a mansion.  That and Benicio Del Toro's mouth breathing through the film helped give me something to laugh about.  I mean seriously, Del Toro's character seemed like an obessed stalker with asthma than a cursed man/wolf hybrid.

Rating:  RIFF IT

Till Next Time,

Mike

Edge of Darkness Review

I'm on a role or something tonight!  On to the second movie, Edge of Darkness.  It's the first movie that Mel Gibson has been in since the whole "Sugar tits" incident.  Let's see how he's done for himself.

After picking up his daughter from the train station, Detective Thomas Craven (Gibson) takes her home to catch up on how she's been.  While steping out his front door, Craven watches as a masked assailant guns down his daughter in front of his eyes.  At first this seems like someone from Craven's past as a homicide detective was looking for revenge, but as Craven digs deeper he soon finds out that she really was the target.  Now driven by self guilt and the loss his daughter, Craven begins his own investigation on what lead to his daughter's demise.

Now without giving too much away, I will say that this movie was well made.  Most of the scenes kept a natural sense about them by having little to no background music accompanying them.  You feel bad for Craven, but you also want to see him get revenge by any means possible.  It has a feeling of a noir detective film, but that's not exactly what it is.  The only real downside to it all is that at points it can drag and make the movie seem longer than it actually is.  I will say though that if you like honest detective films where you learn with the character the facts, go see it.

If that doesn't do it for you, go see it to see Mel play a cop on the edge.  Hell, he even has a line in the movie where he says, " I'm on the edge and have nothing to live for, so don't get in my way."  Come on, you know you want to see that.

Rating:  SEE IT

Til Next Time,

Mike

Book of Eli Review

Guess who's been putting off his reviews for the blog?  Yes, this guy, that's who.  But it's time for me to make amends, here's number one of many reviews:  Book of Eli.  WARNING: There will be some slight spoilers for those who have not seen it.

The movie follows a man by the name Eli (Denzel) as he goes on a sort of pilgrimage to the west through a post apocolyptic wasteland because he was "told to" while carrying something of great importance.  By who?  We don't know, Eli merely says that it was told to him by a voice to go west.  Along the way he has to face off against bloodthirsty raiders, cannibals, and the most evil of them all -- Gary Oldman.  Gary plays the mayor of a small town that Eli makes his way through.  When he finds out that Eli is the man with the rumored object of power, he goes out of his way to try and keep Eli in the city as long as possible while trying to nab the object.  Too bad for Gary Oldman though, as Solara (played by Mila Kunis) helps Eli get out of his room and ultimately joins up with him to get west or die trying.  Ultimately there's a huge stand off between Mayor Oldman and Eli, where we find out that the mystery object Eli has is a book that "can change the world", as Gary Oldman's character claims.

Now on to the ending.  Gary Oldman gets the book from Eli after a very explosion filled shoot out.  He leaves Eli and Solara for dead while he goes off to change the world, or so he thinks.  When he finally gets back you find out that the magically book of power is actually a bible.   Don't worry, this isn't about to become a huge religion heavy movie, so keep with me.  After the stunner that the book is a bible, we get what I like to remember as a great moment in movie trolling history.  Gary Oldman opens the book to find, get this, no words in it.  Now, you may be asking, "How could Eli read a book with no words?"  Well, the answer is great - Eli is blind and the book is in braile.  Now I know this may seem like a cop out on the writing staff's part but I think Shamaylan himself couldn't have thought of something as trollfaced as this.  Now the best part of this is that Eli, since gaining the bible, has memorized the entire thing.  He even speaks the whole bible so that it can be written down and reprinted.  Talk about an odd end, right?

Overall, the movie was good.  To me it was like if they took The Road and went with action instead of drama.  That and the twist ending that made say "wat." made it worth watching.  If you haven't seen it, it should be coming out on DVD soon.  If you can find it in a theater though, go enjoy yourself.

Rating:  RIFF IT

Till Next Time,
Mike

From Paris with Love Review

From Paris with Love, it is a really sappy title but it is a VIOLENT movie.  This movie stars Johnathan Rhys Meyers as a French Ambassador agent named Reece and John Travolta as Wax, a loose cannon rebel-type spy for the US.  When I first saw trailers for this movie I didn't even recognize Travolta, he is sporting a thick beard and no hair.  Very different from other characters I have seen from him in the past.

Reece is stuck doing softball missions undercover in the French Embassy when he gets the opportunity to uncover a terrorist plot with his new partner Wax.  They travel through the slums of Paris against coked up Chinese people leaving a trail of corpses, Wax's way of doing things, only to find that the real threat was under their nose the entire time.

This is your basic bang-bang shoot'em up flick but it does have a diferent feel with the setting of Paris.  I really liked the twist at the end, it was pretty unexpected and turned the whole plot around.  Although there were times at the begining when I felt confused, since they dropped you in the middle of Reece's life, the plot worked itself out through the course of the movie.  Also something I really liked was a nod to Pulp Fiction when Wax eats a 'Royale with cheese'.  Overall I would have to give this movie a RENT IT, it wasn't bad but not a cenematic masterpiece either.

See Ya,
Razz

Heroes: Brave New World Review

The Season finale of heroes aired this Monday.  Stupid Olympics causing Heroes to end early.  Any way we saw the last of the Carnival and Samuel story to be wrapped up.   We return at Matt's house where Eli confronts Matt and tells him that Peter, Sylar and Matt are needed to stay out of Samuel's way.  Sylar incopassitates Eli so they are free to go but Matt doesn't want to see Sylar go out to the world.  Matt tries to turn Peter thoughts of Sylar around but lets him leave after looking inside his head.  After the dynamic duo leaves Matt pushes a thought in Eli and sends him out.    I really thought that for a second Matt was going to try and pull the whole mental prison thing again but I'm glad to see he let Peter and Sylar go.  Also, poor Matt in that scene having his leg broken in by the Eli gang.  I'm just happy to see them not flay him like a pork loin. Claire and Noah are still trapped underground and Noah starts to think that this is the end for him.  After Noah passes out Tracy arrives and saves both of them by making a waterway escape.  Once they meet Lauren on the surface they all take a chopper to go stop Samuel in NYC.   Hiro wakes up from his surgery and finds an 90 year old Charlie in the same Hospital, convenient right?  After telling Hiro stories about her life he decides to go back in time to save her although Ando thinks it might mess things up more.  Hiro tells Charlie he is going back to rescue her but she insists on him leaving things alone because of what would happen to her family and the life she led.  Ando gets a call from Noah saying that they both must go to the Carnival to stop Samuel.   I'm glad I'm not the only one who found it convenient that Charlie happened to be in the SAME hospital.  Talk about your plot devices.  But yeah, I honestly expected Hiro to go back to get her till her grand-daughter came in.  Then I knew Hero Hiro wouldn't go back because Charlie was happy with the life she lived. Samuel tells Emma she is going to play the Chello and just as she begins to heed Peter's warnings her body is controllled by the evil Doyle.  Things start to come together when Emma starts to play and the Heroes arrive.  Sylar goes to stop Emma but hits a speedbump when he meets Doyle. While Doyle is distracted Emma and Sylar take him out.  Claire tries to convince the carnies that Samuel is evil but they don't believe her until HRG, Edgar and Eli tell the carnies about Samuel's attack on the carnival.  As the Carnies leave Samuel starts his reign of distruction to show his power but is taken out by Peter.  Samuel is then left power less once Hiro teleports them all out of the carnival.   I feel like for a final battle we were left disappointed yet again.  All we got to see was Peter and Samuel play push the dirt pile.  When are we gonna get to see a season finale battle that blows my mind?  The closest I think we've gotten is season 2 with Adam and Peter.  At the begining of Volume 6 we see all the Heroes reccouperating from Samuel's show.  Claire is asked about the show from a news crew and shows the her ability in front of the whole world.   This was a fairly good Season Finale but I think it would have been better if Hiro was left out of it.  The whole time the Hiro and Charlie stuff was going on I kept thining, what is Samuel or Claire or Peter doing?  This would have been better if all of that was cleared up in a previous episode and all Hiro did was Teleport the carnies.  I am glad we got to see what HRG is like drunk while he was in the trailer, and he is a happy one: called it!  I can't wait to see what is going to happen next season with the whole outing the specials thing, we have the possibility of mutant hunts or registration.  I think next season Heroes is going to start to look a lot like the X-men. I have to agree with Razz for the most part.  I said my piece on how the season could have ended.  I will say that I do expect some kind of X-men/Marvel registration thing for Heroes in the near future.  The other path they could go is to bring back the Company but have them more of a public government type thing.  If season 3 taught us anything, it's that just capturing them isn't going to work at all. See Ya & Till Next Time, Mike & Razz

Heroes: The Wall Review

This week we have the second to last episode of Heroes for this season.  We see what happens after Peter goes into Sylar's head and the aftermath of Samuel's Carnival hunt.   We return with Peter and Sylar both inside Sylar's head, which looks a lot like LA, who knew.  They are both working to try to get out to go save Emma at the Carnival but for some reason Peter's ability won't work.  After a month or so trapped they find the "wall" in Sylar's mind that is trapping them in there.  They both work for days to try to destroy the wall and finally have a heart to heart talk about their pent up anger about Nathan. Peter tells Sylar he needs the anger to keep Nathan alive.  Peter finally forgives Sylar and they are able to break out.  On their way out to the carnival they run into Eli who is ordered by Samuel to stop them.    I liked these parts of the episode.  We got sarcastic Sylar and no nonsense Peter going back in forth with banter followed by a heart felt moment that leads to a resolution to a problem that started at the beginning of the episode.  Wait, I just explained a sitcom's episode....oh well.  I think Peter and Sylar should get an apartment after this and have wacky hijinks.  Or that could just be me.... Samuel takes Claire to her father after he tries to sway her devotion to Noah.  Claire is shown Noah's memories of his past 25 years from his first wife who was killed by a TK to his first kill to him meeting Thompson and joining the company.  And Claire also sees HRG threatening Gretchen to bring Claire back from the carnival.  Samuel catches Lauren in the carnival and he talks to her about his plan to take the world with the power of the carnival.  After an argument with Samuel Claire goes to free her father from a trailer but before they can escape Samuel buries them in the ground.  Samuel then pulls up stake and goes to central park where he will reveal the carnival.   I feel like this was some good back story for Noah.  Who would have thought that he would have been previously engaged and pregnant?  It really shows the beginning of what is the transformation of Noah to HRG. This episode did a lot of setting things up for next weeks finally which looks to be one of the better season finales.  The Sylar and Peter stuff was kind of Corny but it is always a little bit awkward when those two have a scene together and they aren't trying to kill each other.  Samuel is really getting more and more desperate which causes him to get more evil.  So watch next week's episode and see what happens with the carnival.   See Ya & Til the Next Time Mike & Razz

Community: Interpretive Dance Review

This week our two stories center around Jeff, Brita, and Troy. At the beginning of the episode after a little bit of banter from the group Britta notices that Jeff has several long, brunette hairs on his coat. Jeff then tells the group that it's the same woman he intends to meet up with later, and that causes the group to almost worry that Jeff might have himself a relationship. Soon after the Annie mentions moving the study groups time from 5pm to 4:30 so that they can get in through the side door that locks at 5. Both Troy and Britta refuse, and give very vague (and poorly thought out) excuses as to why they have to have the time open.


I also like that when Pierce is late they all go to the possibility that he might be dead.  We also have classic Annie being ignored when she tries to change the meeting time.



With Jeff's story we soon find out that he is in fact with someone, and that someone is Ms. Slater, his old statistics professor. After a quick (but interrupted) make out session the dean talks to them about how dangerous a student/faculty relationship is and that they need to watch out because they're on the "Hot Student/Faculty" list the dean made up. Later Ms. Slater and Jeff try to make out in the library but Jeff just knows that if they start then the rest of the gang will see them and rat them out. Ms. Slater tells him the odds are next to none, and doing what all good students go by listening to his professor, they kiss for a few seconds before Jeff looks to see --You guessed it! The rest of the gang is watching from outside. So now that the gang knows, Jeff swears them not tell. Soon after, the dean arrives and gets Ms. Slater and Jeff to go to his office after finding out about their relationship from a certain grey haired group member.


I was surprised by Ms. Slater's return to the show because I figured we were through with her after the first part of the season.  But I guess when student 2 and professor 7 get together, passion ignites!  It was also hilarious that the group came from the other side to catch them making out instead of watching them through the window.  Jeff also has it right when he says sleeping with someone every night makes them your best friend ever.  Pierce using twitter, HA!


With Brita and Troy, we soon find out that both of them are in dance classes that the rest of the group doesn't know about. When they find out about the other, they decide to tell the group by inviting them to a dance recital on Friday. Unlucky for Brita, when she tells everyone about her tap dancing, Troy leaves her to hang as soon as everyone talks about how ironic it is for Brita to be doing something so feminine.


This was hilarious and Troy was a great dancer, really funny.  I agree with Troy girls have parts that jiggle so that they were meant to dance.


For the climax, we see everyone at the dance recital hoping to see Brita dance. Instead, we see Brita freeze when she notices that Jeff and Mrs. Slater holding hands and generally being boyfriend and girlfriend (which is odd to both Brita and Jeff). As Brita freezes on stage, Troy realizes that only he can help her. So doing the right thing, Troy rips off his clothes (for what is like, the third time) and saves Brita before getting alienated by the gang. Then we get a moment with Jeff and Brita where it becomes obvious that Brita does have feelings for Jeff. Poor Brita, if only she were honest to herself instead of being so up tight, but what can you do?

Jeff has a girlfriend awww...  I do agree with pierce on one thing, man that was one wierd tap dance show, until Troy showed up then it actually got entertaining.  Brita and Troy are great BSers to come up with that dance off the cuff.  Brita gets jealous at Jeff who would have thought that?  I guess we'll see where this leads down the road.


See Ya & Till Next Time,
Mike & Razz

Heroes: Art of Deception Review

Ok this episode of Heroes started out really slow and was becoming one of my least favorite of the season until the twist at the Carnival.  After that I could not believe what Samuel did but it made a great story.   Peter starts dreaming of Emma at the Carnival and discovers that Sylar might be the one to save her.  after a failed confrontation with Angela he goes to California to find Sylar.   Parkman comes home to discover Sylar there with Janice and they start "catching up".  Sylar tells Matt that he wants all his abilities gone to rediscover his humanity.  After a failed attempt Sylar threatens Janice so Matt will do it.  Matt finally traps Sylar in his own unconcious body and begins to brick him in the basement.  Peter comes to find Sylar and goes inside his head to bring back Sylar.   This was a great moment for Parkman in my opinion.  It was dark and it looked like Parkman is taking a lesson from his old man.  Too bad Peter has to play hero and is now trying to get Sylar back.  Douche.... Claire is debating telling Noah about Sylar and when she gets to the apartment she discovers HRG's plan to take down Samuel.  Noah jumps to take action before Claire has a chance to stop his plan and sets up outside the Carnival.   Samuel talks to Lydia about his outburst at the town and Samuel tells her that he WILL win back the respect of the carnival.  Claire finds Samuel and tells him that he needs to surrender himself in order to keep the rest of the carnival safe and so that she can be sure that Noah won't overreact and kill innocent people.  As Samuel is about to leave shots come from Noah's hill and a lot of people get hurt including Samuel, Claire, Lauren, and Lydia who dies.  Noah finds out it is an Eli clone and gets framed for the shooting after being knocked out by the real Eli.  Samuel then manipulates the carnies saying he needs to remain to protect the Carnival from "villains".  When Lauren cannot stop Eli she calls the emergency number to tell Tracy about the incident.    I really enjoyed this.  Finding out that Samuel took a bullet just to get people on his side.  It proves how much of a villain he really is in the series.  I can't wait to see what he meant by "showing the world"what they really are.  I assume it'll be similar to Magneto and the Brotherhood.  I just hope that our "X-Men" aren't just Peter and Sylar trying to save the world. So this was one kickass episode because of one literary device, Plot twists. Thank you sooo much!  I did not see this coming, at first I thought Noah snapped but once Claire got shot I knew it was not him and it made it all the better that it was all Samuel's plan.  I really liked Matt's Edgar Allen Poe-like way of dealing with Sylar by bricking his body inside a room. Also we get the return of Tracy, some one we haven't seen in a long time.  By the way if you are not reading the Heroes Graphic Novel on nbc.com you should start with this week because you find out what Tracy has been up to and how she can help Noah and Claire.   I agree here.  The twist with Samuel blew me away watching the Cask of Matt Parkman was enjoyable.  Only a few more left, so I don't know about anyone else, but I'm excited. See Ya & Til the Next Time Mike & Razz

Heroes: Pass/Fail Review

Hey guys sorry this is going up later than usual but I have been swamped this week.  I know I liked this episode so lets just talk about Pass/Fail.

 

Mohinder recreates the compass so Noah can be able to find the carnival and then leaves to go back to India.  I am also glad we get a definitive answer about how the compass can only work in the hands of someone with abilities.  Hiro collapses from his Tumor an wakes up in a Trial for his life with many past characters such as Adam and Kaito.  Adam plays the prosecuting attorney and brings up instances in Hiro's life to prove he used his powers selfishly.   Hiro is proved to be guilty after Sylar is brought as a witness as proof that Hiro let him go free for Charlie's life and also Samuel's deal that lost Charlie in time.  On his way to death he changes his plea to guilty realizing he was irresponsible.  In the midst of death Hiro fights for his life and wins, which leads him to be healed by his mother.

 

I really enjoyed seeing all these dead characters come back, at least for the episode.  I really enjoyed Adam as the prosecuting attorney, it just kinds of make sense for him to be in that role.  I was surprised he didn't put himself as a witness to how Hiro abused his powers, but I'm ok with what I got.

We see Claire with Gretchen looking pretty down, I can see why after every thing that happened.  Claire goes to study only to find Sylar there to figure out why he needs her.  Surprisingly Claire is not really gung ho about helping Sylar, however he says he kidnapped Gretchen so her hand is forced.  After getting nowhere with her he decides to take what he wants through using Lydia's ability, weirdest Heroes kiss anyone!  Claire then stabs Sylar in the eye to finally get away from him.  She finds Gretchen and the two hide from Sylar (who is closing in), they have a conversation and Claire takes what she learned from Sylar to try to repair that relationship with Gretchen.  They talk about abilities and how they are excuses for your humanity and that maybe Sylar needs to purge his abilities to regain his humanity/ability to kill.  Gretchen turns into Sylar and Claire leaves to find the real Gretchen and takes what she learned to heart. 

 

I thought this was a good dynamic that Claire and Sylar had throughout their storyline.  Granted, when most of their "bonding" time was done Sylar was disguised as Gretchen, they both learned something about the other.  Like Sylar learned that Claire likes to follow up making out with stabbing you in the eye and Sylar likes to be a teenage girl at times.

Vanessa wakes up at the Carnival and is still kinda p/oed about being held at the carnival.  We see Samuel trying to woo her again and win her over.  It seems to be working for a little bit and Samuel takes her to their dream house which they dreamed about when they were younger.  However she rejects Samuel saying that it is just a dream and it is his dream.  This makes him heartbroken and angry/crazy, he goes out and destroys a town with a sinkhole.

 

It's good to see Samuel show a little more of a human side around Vanessa.  I liked seeing him happy, even though it was a false happiness.  I almost have to wonder if he knew that she wasn't going to go for all of what Samuel was preaching.  Though seeing the new, almost heartless Samuel destroy that poor little city almost drew a tear to my eye.

I gotta say I enjoyed this episode, I can feel it gearing up for the finale.  I really liked the Sylar and Claire stuff even though I am not usually a big Claire fan.  Their conversation is what they both needed to hear to get themselves back on track.  We see at the end the really bad, jaded Samuel, I think from now on he is going to be pure evil because it appears that any good intention he had went out the door with Vanessa.  I also liked seeing the old characters in Heroes trial, we even get allusions to everyone in season 1 that Sylar killed.  But I liked the fight between Adam and Hiro which ended with the same way that Hiro stabbed Sylar in Season 1.  Ok here is my theory about how Sylar gets to Matt, I believe that he owns a magical teleportation device that automatically lets him travel to California any time (remember the beginning of season 3?)

I'm going to agree with Razz, at least about it feeling like the finale is upon us.  With Samuel ready to bury the world under his feet for happiness and Sylar now on a quest to find his humanity through Matt, it all looks like it's going to build up to something that I hope is great.

Later & Til Next Time,

Mike & Razz

Heroes: Close To You Review

Last night we got a new episode of Heroes and it seemed to fall flat but we did get a few plot points that needed to happen with Hiro, Matt, and HRG.  so let's go then shall we?

 

The Hiro Story line is finally played out after 3 episodes of flash forwards with the rescuing of Suresh.  Ando admits Hiro who is able to find out where and who Suresh is so they can break him out.  They all three escape from the mental hospital with a drugged up Ando.  Knowing they can't keep running from the Stormtroopers and their Ewoks forever, Ando decides to shock Hiros mind back to normal. And that works?!?

 

At this point I'm just happy that for the most part, Hiro is fixed.  I would also like to comment that I enjoyed Mohinder in this episode.  I usually am anti Mohinder mostly due to the fact I feel his character has over stayed his welcome in the series, but to see him be the voice of reason and man up some made me kind of happy.

We begin with Bennett and see him becoming obsessed with locating Samuel and the carnival.  When he finds Samuels love, Vanessa he goes to California to get answers from her.  This brings him to seek help from Matt who has become a stay at home dad guy/ recluse after his ordeal with Sylar.  Vanessa explains how she knows Samuel and tells Bennett she can Bring Samuel to her.  However Bennetts plans go awry when Samuel takes(kidnaps) Vanessa back to the carnival.  Matt eventually just tells him that he has to go back and patch things up because his methods aren't working.  Bennett also gets to Matt too and makes him realize that he needs to do more with his life than stay at home and make Ratatatoille.  Bennett goes back to Claire and tries to patch things up which is kinda something we have already seen in past seasons.  He also starts to build up his relationship with Lauren but is interuppted by the Three Muskateers teleporting in from Florida.

 

I don't know about you guys, but having Matt back was great.  As you know from last time, I was mad at the fact we had a 2hr premier that didn't have him involved in any way.  So as happy as I was to see Matt back, I was more excited to see HRG get it on with Lauren right before the Three Stooges came teleporting in.  The one time that he gets some action in God knows how long, and those three come barging in.

We get several scenes with Peter begining with Lydia saying that he could become the next Joseph.  I feel like this was so out in the open that something might happen with Peter and the carnival between now and the finale.  He briefly meets with Emma, who is improving, her Siren Song, and starts putting together that Samuel might be involved in some bad stuff.  Angela walks in on their Conversation and tells Peter that Emma was responsible for killing a lot of people.  I really like Peters lecture to Angela telling her that she has to quit lying because they are the only two left.  Peter takes her power and has a dream of Emma going crazy with her Chello.  Which of course makes him go Buckwild on the Chello, like any sane person would do.  After that I think we are pretty much done with their possible relationship.

 

I have to agree with Razz here on most parts.  I don't think that Emma will want much to do with Peter after going rock star on her Chello like he did.

This was kind of an eh episode for me but it was saved because we got a lot of stuff accomlished with Bennett changing his strategy, mohinder being freed, peter starting to get wise to the whole situation and finally Hiro getting his mind back.  So all of these things made it fairly entertaining.  It was nice to see the return of Matt since he has been lost in Cali after Sylar breaks free.  By the way does any one believe Ando, with no medical experience could shock Hiro's brain back to the way it was?   Also since I always have to find something to nit pick, Peter says to Emma, "I'll call you later" once she leaves his apartment.  Just something to think about.

 

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that heard him say that!  I thought the first time I heard it, "No way did he say that."  So I replayed it and yep, he did.  He really told the deaf chick he would CALL HER.

See ya & Till the next time

Mike & Razz

Heroes: Upon This Rock & Let it Bleed Review

Ok so this week we had 2 episodes of heroes, what a way to come back!  Since there was so much story I am going to skip the usual way of recapping and just give a quick synopsis of each character and our thoughts on the episodes. So we find that Hiro teleported to Japan after his fallout at the carnival.  And it turns out his brain was just sort of scrambled but he still knows what he is talking about as seen when he tries to tell Ando where to go find Mohinder.  It was really fun to listen to all of Hiro's Sci-fi refrences including everything from Star Wars to Sherlock Holmes.  Althogh one thing is confusing, why couldn't he just grab Ando and go to Mohinder?  It just seems like that would've been easier.   I have a theory as to why Hiro was messed up when he talked and could only make sci-fi and comic references.  As we all know by now, Hiro has a brain tumor that's messing up his ability.  I think that when the other Hatian character at the carnival messed with his memories, the tumor just further messed with Hiro's mind.  Other than that, I really enjoyed watching Hiro try to tell Ando about getting Mohinder out of the hospital.  It took me all of 3 seconds to get the references (what can I say, the nerd is strong in me) and I enjoyed watching Ando come to terms with some of his inner nerd to decrypt Hiro's message.  I agree though that the easier thing to do would just have Hiro teleport himself and Ando to Mohinder, but I guess that's too logical. We see the return of Emma where she finally runs into Samuel.  He gets her to use her ability to find a guy, Ian, who can make things grow and help build the carnie's new home. I liked getting more understanding about her ability.  It seems now it is more like a hypnosis type thing along with being controlled by her emotions.   After seeing and learning more about Emma's ability, I must say it's rather cool.  When she's happy, and the blues, greens, and purples show up it's almost like a type of hypnosis like Razz said.  When she's angry and the red appears, it's like a sound laser or something.  Which is awesome in my opinion. Now to Claire who seemed to be the main character in both of these episodes.  She finds her dads files in Samuels trailer and becomes suspicious of him, which makes everyone in the carnival out to get her.  This also includes the return of the evil Doyle, the best one in my opinion.  In Claire's search for answers she confronts Samuel who tells her that he was the one who killed Joseph. Claire just accepts this which makes me kind of wierded out at her that she is gullible enough to just believe the dribble that Samuel makes up, I mean seriously Claire!  But when she leaves the Carnival she learned that Angela and Noah covered up Nathan's death so I can kind of see why she has trust issues.   There are times when I watched these episodes thinking, "when did I start watching "Everyone loves Claire"?  I understand that we don't need to see each hero in every episode, but we just had two episodes without Matt Parkman.  If it weren't for Doyle being in the episodes I would have been more mad at this Claire centered welcome back.  I mean what is this, Season 2? Sylar returns to the carnival and we get to see a showdown between Sylar and Samuel.  This ended badly for Sylar which surprised me but I did like Samuels dust storm.  He starts to be seduced by Lydia which I think was a ploy to get Zachary Quinto to take his shirt off for half the episode.  Sylar takes Lydia's power(the peter way) and leaves her after he sees through the agenda.  He makes Samuel ink him to show his true desire which turns out to be Claire.   I feel bad for Sylar in this episode.  He's lost his touch because he just couldn't kill Samuel.  I've never seen him stop to kill anyone, not even Elle and they were kind of a couple for a bit.  Overall it was nice to see old Sylar back, but I don't like he didn't kill at least one person this episode.  I mean he's INSIDE OF A CARNIVAL FULL OF SUPERS! Noah returns to his Company man routes when he catches Darth Maul himself Edgar breaking into his house. All I have to say is Noah is a quick draw with that Tazer!  Lauren calms Noah down and tells him to show Kindness when dealing with Edgar instead of torture.  He gets a lot of answers from Edgar about the Carnival and Samuel but in the end Edgar wasn't able to betray the Carnival to take down Samuel.  Lauren really complements Noah with his interigation style and I like those two together.   All I can say here is that it's good to see my good and faithful HRG back.  Also, for a speedster, Edgar must not be that fast if HRG can turn and tazer him before he can reach him. Peter starts becoming mopey again which as we've seen in the past usually doesn't end well.  Peter leaves Nathan's visitation to go stop a gunman, one way to greive I guess.  Claire gives him her ability and a shoulder to lean on which sort of brings Peter back down.  I was a little bit mad that Peter got rid of the Hatian's ability because if he wants to take down Sylar that was  the best ability to have.  We also got a West reference(flashback from season 2) who Peter ends up getting flight from.   I think that Peter needs a new thing to do in the show.  He's either the solution to the season's problems or mopey cause of some kind of angst.  Why can't we just get a Peter that's chill or relaxed about things?  On another note, was I the only one mad that we didn't get to see West?  I mean I don't have a crush on the guy, but just a quick scene of him wouldn't have been too bad seeing as you can't even put in Nathan's ex-wife and kids you can at least put West in for a few minutes right? These were good episodes to be seen together because Claire and Nathan's funeral really connects both of these episodes.  I think I would not have liked them as much if they were separated like normal.  One last comment, where were Nathan's boys and his ex-wife?  I know that they were separated but you would think we would get some little cameo.  Also farewell to Adrain Pasdar you were a good cast member over the past four seasons and you will be missed, now perhaps time for Glee?   I have to agree with Razz here.  Granted I know I just ragged up there on how much Claire there was, but without her everything would be a little disconnected in my opinion.  I also agree that they should have shown Nathan's family other than Peter and Angela.  I mean, what kind of example is the mom setting if she won't let her sons go to their own father's funeral?  That's just plain fucked up. See Ya & Till the Next Time Mike & Razz

Mike and Razz Podcast Ep. 1

It's finally here!  Our very first podcast!



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