February 2009
18 posts
Lost - The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham
What I liked: —The best John Locke episode since the first season’s “Walkabout, which had the famous reveal at the end that Locke was actually crippled pre-Island. All at once we see how earnest Locke is at trying to show that he has faith in what he believes in, even though he isn’t entirely sure. Lost has always worked better when the episodes where more character...
Round 4....FIGHT
When I was a kid, one of my favorite games was Final Fight for the SNES. I liked taking Haggar, or Cody, walking from left to right punching bad guys in the face, picking up pipes and bashing villains over the head, and eating slices of pizza to cure my various injuries. I could never get too far in the game. Inevitably, the pizza would run out and I would then get murdered by the nameless...
24 - 5-6
The episode opens with Dubaku confronting his girlfriend, Marika, in an alley about working for the FBI to take him down. She tries convince him that she’s not, then gives up ten secounds later, tries to run away. Dubaku catches her, and instead of killing her, this evil madman tries to convince her that all he wants to do is go away with her, that he is thought of as a hero in his...
Ricardo Montalban
I don’t know when he died, but I was shocked when I saw Ricardo Montalban during the memorial segment of last night’s Oscars. Actually, I had stopped paying attention at that point and only found out while reading a review of Queen Latifah’s performance during that segment, but it’s saddening to hear about his passing. I never met the man, I can’t name anything that...
2009 Oscar Predictions
Picture: Slumdog Millionaire Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire Actor: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, Doubt Adapted Screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire Original Screenplay: Milk Animated Film: WALL-E Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Cinematography: Slumdog...
LOST - 316
What I liked: —The explanations of how the Dharma Initiative found the island and how the Oceanic Six can return. It’s a goofy explanation, that they made this sort of magnetic device that could pinpoint where and when the island is located, and that all they had to do was take another plane over that area at precise moment. Even so, I always like when the mysteries of the show get...
The Lost and Damned
When I was a kid, I never wanted video games to end. After spending hours and days and weeks just plugging along, going level through level, there comes a point where you know it’s about to end. It might be a story sequence where the characters say that they’re going to get the final boss, or it might be as simple as a screen that says Final Boss, a sequence when you realize that...
24 - 4-5
In this week’s hour of 24, Mr. Taylor is still shot and still an idiot, but the paramedics are quickly on their way to take him to Arlington Medical Hospital. The President realizes that she can’t trust anyone on her detail, so she decides to trust Buchanan, a guy that she just met an hour ago. He brings in Aaron(!!!!!!) to secure the President’s estranged daughter. She is...
Top 10 of the Aughts - Baseball Steroid Scandal
“I’ve been tarnished in baseball for years and years, brother. There’s nothing you guys can write or people can say that will ever fix that. It doesn’t matter anymore. I go out there and enjoy the game.” —Barry Bonds It’s gotten to the point where we know what to expect when a baseball player is revealed to be a steroid user. There’s no such thing...
Lost - This Place is Death
What I liked —“This place is death” I’m not a big Charlotte fan, but she was the best part of this episode, from that awesome quote to her revelation that Faraday was the person who warned her not to come back to the island when she was a child. —Jack’s dad telling Locke that he has to die to save the island. Locke crying, but then accepting what he has to do...
24 - 3-4
The President still refuses to stand down troops, even though this time her husband is at risk. Taylor does trust Jack Bauer, to the point where she allows him into the Oval Office even though just hours before he was choking out FBI agents. Someone should point out to her anyone who has ever trusted him has ended up dead or faked being dead to work with mercenaries. Actually, that...
Achievement Unlocked
There are 25 Ninjas surrounding me. I feel trapped, but luckily I have my trusty sword handy and a feeling of righteousness flowing through my veins. As the first Ninja leaps in the air, I rise with him, and slash through his body with my blade. The second Ninja comes right after him, but I deftly sidestep his attack and slice off his arms before finishing him with a stab through his torso. His...
A-ROID
:On Saturday morning I had gotten up a little early, so I spent the time finishing up The Yankee Years, the “tell-all” book by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci that supposedly tore A-Rod a new one. I went online to check my email, and the first thing that popped out to me was the subject line “msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Report: Baseball’s A-Rod tested positive…” I...
Lost - The Little Prince
What I liked: -The return of Jin, one of the better characters on the show. Coupled with the revelation of YOUNG Rousseau, there’s another interesting subplot that they just threw in there. It’ll be fun, and potentially annoying, to see whether or not the upcoming episodes will be able to juggle this many plots going on at the same time -The Time Travel. I really dug the shootout on...
LeBron vs. Kobe
I’ve watched basketball for a long time, and the last two games at Madison Square Garden were probably the best back-to-back regular season games at the World’s Most Famous Arena ever. Of course, the Knicks lost both games and it featured two of the great performances of all time by an opposing player. That’s what it’s like to be a Knicks fan nowadays. Although they are...
Top Ten of the Aughts
It’s weird to think about, but we’re approaching the end of the decade. So to celebrate, I decided to make a series of Top 10 lists of anything and everything I can think of that has to do with the 00s. Also, it’s a way for me to bring up the most important decision of our time: what we are we going to call this decade. “Zero-Zeros” just won’t cut it. ...
24 - 2-3
This hour opens with Janice revealing that they found a residue that somehow tells them that the CIP device is targeting an insecticide plant in Ohio. If the Dubaku and the CIP device isn’t found within a half an hour, there will be an unimaginable number of Americans and ants dead. The President is notified of this during a speechwriting session where she lectures one of her writers that...
A Steel Buzzsaw
Last night’s Super Bowl was a fourth quarter for the ages, one of the great back and forth contests of all time. From the play of Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald, to the coming of age of Ben Roethlisberger as one of football’s great big game quarterbacks, to the stunning imagery of Santonio Holmes tip-toeing his way to a touchdown and James Harrison barreling 100 yards down the field...