Friday, May 27, 2011

TV Roundup: Season One of Archer, Battlestar Galctica, and Boardwalk Empire

Today I’m debuting what will hopefully become a fairly regular addition to this blog. I write movie reviews with some frequency and have mentioned television quite often, but I have yet to actually review tv shows. In accordance with this being the lair of the Film Czar, that changes today. And yes, I consider television to be film. After all, TV shows are filmed, no? (I plan on writing an essay comparing and contrasting the two media some day, but that’ll have to wait).


I don’t have the time or patience to individually review episodes of television—I recommend this blog for that—so instead I think I’ll step back and review whole seasons of shows after I finish them (or however far I get with a show with which I decide not to continue). I’m starting with three cable shows, for all of which I recently finished the first season. And why not do it alphabetically? So first up is FX’s Archer.


Archer, Season 1


What if there were an American James Bond, only instead of a suave gentleman he was a juvenile, petty, petulant man-child? This is essentially the premise of Archer, a consistently funny animated show that comes, somewhat surprisingly, from FX (it looks like, and has the sensibilities of, something from Adult Swim or Comedy Central).


Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Film Reviews: Babel, Source Code, The Machinist

Babel


It’s a good thing that I generally don’t fault a movie for being “award bait”. Sure it can be funny when they try and miss spectacularly (Australia), or were clearly mismarketed as such (The Men Who Stare at Goats), but unless it ludicrously obviously calibrated for an awards crowd (Crash), I’m usually not offended. Which was good for my enjoyment of Babel.


Paul's Cinema Chronology: 1985-1989



What I’ve Seen
1985
Back to the Future
Brazil
1986
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
The Great Mouse Detective
Hoosiers
An American Tail
Three Amigos!
Platoon
Little Shop of Horrors
Castle in the Sky
Aliens
1987
The Chipmunk Adventure
The Untouchables
Full Metal Jacket
Spaceballs
The Brave Little Toaster
The Princess Bride
Wall Street
1988
Bull Durham
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
A Fish Called Wanda
Die Hard
The Land Before Time
Rain Man
Cinema Paradiso
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Talk Radio
The Naked Gun: From the Files of the Police Squad!
1989
The Abyss
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
Back to the Future Part II
Glory
34 Total