Pass the Popcorn: Getting Back Up to Speed : Crimson Monkey

Pass the Popcorn: Getting Back Up to Speed

Monday, November 07 2011 - Pass the Popcorn - by: jared_cm

It’s been a little while since I’ve written anything here. How about that? I actually was out of the country there for a little bit on a short tour with my band (shameless plug...check us out!) out in Europe. It was a blast, but also totally exhausting. I’ve found myself the past week trying to get my bearings again now that I’m back and playing catch-up on a lot of things I missed. It’s kind of fun, but also very time consuming, and my job keeps sending me away again over weekends so things are piling up even more. I know I tend to stick to movies with these blogs, but I figured I’d branch out a bit and talk about what all it is I’m catching up on in various media. It might be of interest to at least a couple of you, right?

TV:

Sunday night has taken over my life, between Dexter, The Walking Dead, and now the new Showtime show Homeland. I haven’t seen this week’s episodes of any of them, so no spoilers. As a whole though, I’m loving all of them. Dexter seems to have kind of hit the reset button on last season and is really focused on Dexter and how things are changing in his life. I actually enjoyed last season more than most I think, but I didn’t like how it disregarded a lot of very important events of seasons past and missed a huge opportunity picking up where the HUGE season 4 finale left off, and just sort of let it go. In any case, the guest stars this season have, as usual, been fantastic (especially Mos...just give the guy the Emmy) and I love how the religious angle is interesting without completely beating you over the head with it.

The Walking Dead is also great so far in its sophomore season. I’m a massive fanboy of the book, and I think thus far Robert Kirkman is accomplishing exactly what he wanted to, in making the show and the book stand on their own while still keeping the big main events intact and just changing how the characters get there. Shane is a monumentally bigger douche in the show than he ever was in the books, which I can assume is good for what’s (possibly) coming for him. I will say that I’m hoping now that everybody’s found the farm that we can move on from the ‘Sophia’s missing’ portion of the show that’s been dominating the first 3 episodes of the season. Everything else is great, but I’m just ready for them to move on from that part of the highway (which they may have done this week..I’ll be watching tonight). Also, keep an eye out in episode 6 because yours truly might make a cameo :) (I was lucky enough to be a dead extra in season 1, and I actually got to be an alive extra this season, so here’s hoping I get some screen time).

If you haven’t been watching Homeland, and you get Showtime, you need to rectify that. It’s a show that’s following a rescued POW who’s now back home in America but may have changed sides, and the state department operative who may very well be onto him. It’s kind of like 24 but less in your face about stuff, and there’s actually swearing (which given the intense situations, adds to the realism) and nudity, so there’s that. Claire Danes is off the charts awesome in this show, possibly the best I’ve seen her in anything. And who doesn’t love a grizzled, bearded Mandy Patinkin? Seriously though, if you’re into political action thrillers, you need to watch this show.

Video Games:

For a gamer, I picked the worst time to be out of town for a while. I missed the Batman: Arkham City launch along with the Battlefield 3 launch. As soon as I got back I opted in to take up Batman first, and I’m glad I did. I’m making progress, slowly but surely, and I’m loving the game so much. I loved Arkham Asylum, and this one seems to be hitting all the notes that the first one got right, and just improving the minor things that needed improving. No needless changes. The story is intriguing, the graphics are stunning, and characters are very well written. The gameplay is like butter, too. I find myself trying to make excuses to leave work early just so I can go play some more. It’s funny too because my wife has been enjoying watching me play it too. She doesn’t game too much, but she loves her some Batman. I’ll be jumping on the Battlefield 3 train here pretty soon too, and I’m sure I’ll be light-years behind my friends who have been playing it for the past month, but I stand behind my decision.

I keep hearing great things about Uncharted 3 as well, and I may delve into that at some point, but somehow I avoided (unintentionally) the first 2 so I don’t want to just dive into #3 without having played the first 2. It does look beautiful though, and I’m a sucker for shiny visuals. I’m also picking up another game I missed out on the first time around somehow: Borderlands. A friend of mine also missed the boat on that one so we’re going to take it up and see what all the fuss was about, so I’m looking forward to that too.

Comics:

My comics stack is just ridiculous at this point. I’ve got my Walking Dead and Invincible as my staples every month, but I also actually took advantage of the DC reboot/relaunch/whatever-that-was to actually take the plunge into some DC stuff. I’m still figuring out which titles I’m going to stick with for the long haul, but right now I’m really enjoying most of the stuff out of the Bat-camp: Batman, Detective Comics, Batman & Robin, etc. Dark Knight isn’t really doing a lot for me thus far, but I’ll see where it goes at least for this first arc. Catwoman is interesting enough thus far, and I love the art. Batgirl is surprisingly great so far. I never thought I’d care about Batgirl. And I’m actually really digging Batwoman too, as I really like the sort of occult paranormal angle it seems to be taking. Outside of the Bat-verse I’m loving Animal Man. I never even heard of Animal Man before but I picked up #1 because the art looked interesting and it was getting high praise. Glad I did, because it’s so delightfully weird and just out there, but in a good way. I’ve also been reading Red Lanterns just because I think it’s so hilarious that they got their own book. I likely won’t stick with it much longer though cause it’s just not doing much for me. I am intrigued by Action Comics though. I was never much of a Superman fan, but again I figured this was a good a time as any to get in, and it’s pretty fun so far. Justice League is also awesome so far. Jim Lee is obviously brilliant on the art side, and Geoff Johns is writing the characters very well and it’s cool seeing them come together.

I mentioned TWD and Invincible as they’re pretty much my favorite ongoings and have been for quite some time now (as I’ve mentioned, I’m an unabashed Kirkman fanboy), but another book coming out of Image has risen to the top of my pile of late too: Witch Doctor. This book is just awesome. It’s like House, M.D. meets Hellboy. The writing is brilliant, as the main character Dr. Morrow is a smart-ass otherworldy doctor takes on things like vampires and demonic possession in ways that you’ve never seen. The way they straddle the line with science and fantasy is just brilliant. Read this book.

Movies:

I haven’t had a chance really to catch up on any new releases since I got back, which is kind of a bummer because I missed last week that saw the release of The Rum Diary and In Time, which were both things I was looking forward to. The Rum Diary because I’m interested to see Johnny Depp return to working with that Hunter S. Thompson wit, and In Time just because it looks like an interesting premise and I’m curious as to Justin Timberlake can actually hold down a leading role. Another one I’ve been looking forward to, Tower Heist, just came out this weekend and from what I’ve been hearing, it’s a return to form for Eddie Murphy, and I can’t be more happy about that. So I’ll get around to these, sure, but it’s gonna take some work. I’ll get back on track in a couple weeks when The Muppets comes out, cause no WAY am I missing that!

In my travels I was able to catch a couple movies I hadn’t gotten around to seeing yet (thanks, Delta, for the in-flight entertainment): Bridesmaids and Midnight in Paris. I was interested in Bridesmaids just for the sheer amount of hype it got this summer, and while it was good, it didn’t live nearly up to the hype that it got. I think a lot of the hype was just people surprised that it was possible for women to be funny. I love Kristen Wiig, and she was easily the bright spot of the movie, but a lot of the laughs just seemed so forced and trying to hard. Especially everything dealing with Melissa McCarthy, who everybody said ‘stole the show.’ I’m sorry, but every scene with her just seemed so forced, and the jokes so obvious, her character was just pointless to me. It was a solid enough movie, and sure, it had some laughs, but if we’re talking best comedies of the year, Horrible Bosses wins hands down. Midnight in Paris was something else entirely. For the unaware, it’s about a writer (Owen Wilson) who is in love with 1920’s Paris, and wishes he’d been around back then, and then he stumbles upon a magic corner in Paris that allows him to be transported back to that era and actually hang out with the likes of Picasso and Hemmingway, and the Fitzgeralds. He later realizes that even those guys thought that there was a golden age before them, so he realizes that one can’t idealize the past too much. It sounds like such a lame premise, but it’s handled so brilliantly and lightly that you just go with it. It’s pretentious as all hell, with artist name dropping every few seconds, but it’s handled so playfully that it never comes off condescending. Well, maybe sometimes. I really enjoyed it. A very light-hearted, fun, artistic movie. Owen Wilson does a great Woody Allen impression too.

So yeah, that’s what I’m up to these days. It’s hard to complain that there’s so much awesome stuff out there to see (and it seems like even more now that I’ve written it down), but man is it hard to find the time!