Category Archives: Entertainment

June 2, 2014 · 12:23 pm

Oz Season 3

HBO’s acclaimed prison drama returned for its third season on July 14th, 1999 and there are a few changes afoot. For starters, the name of the prison is changed to Oswald State Correctional Facility Level 4. Glynn is still the warden, McManus is still the unit manager of Emerald City, and most of the other Correctional Officers, prison staff, and main prisoners are still around. There are a few new additions to the cast, most notably Seth Gilliam as Clayton Hughes, Kristin Rohde as Claire Howell, and Phillip Casnoff as Nikolai Stanislofsky. Hughes and Howell are new Correctional Officers. Hughes father was also a CO at Oz and he died in the line of duty. Hughes makes it his mission to find out who did it and why. Howell is feisty, manipulative, and develops a dangerous crush on McManus. Stanislofsky is a Russian contract killer who purposely got incarcerated to pull off a hit.

There are a few major storylines that unite the 8-episode season. The first involves a boxing tournament between the different factions in Emerald City. The tournament stretches throughout most of the season and sets up a lot of drama and tension amongst the prisoners. Tobias Beecher and Vernon Schillinger continue to hate each other and scheme to break the other. Beecher gets the advantage when Schillinger’s vulnerable son gets incarcerated in Oz. Muslim leader Kareem Saïd starts to lose his power and loses control of the Muslims, effectively isolating himself in a place where you don’t want to be alone. Adebisi seems to go crazy for a while, but then he goes back to being a badass after a few episodes. Miguel Alvarez remains an intriguing character.

There are simply too many characters and plot points to cover, so I’ll be lazy and not talk about them. I’ll just say that Oz is an awesome show and leave it at that. You should watch it. Especially since I’m watching it for the first time and I have nobody to talk about it with. That’s the worst part about watching a show that’s been out for so long. There’s nobody to geek out with. Nobody cares anymore, and it’s frustrating because they should.

Critically Rated at 14/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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May 30, 2014 · 11:59 am

The Mighty Ducks

The Mighty Ducks is a 1992 family/sports film about a ragtag PeeWee hockey team. It’s fairly formulaic. A reluctant coach takes over a team of losers, he teaches them how to play the game, they teach him about life, the team starts to bond and win games, leading up to the championship game against their rival team, where they inevitably win it in the most dramatic way possible. But The Mighty Ducks manages to rise about the formula with great characters and memorable quotes. It was popular enough to create the foundation for a trilogy of films, a real-life NHL team (owned by Disney, obviously) and a terrible cartoon that nobody remembers.

I caught The Mighty Ducks playing on TV the other night and it would have been a sin to change the channel, so I ended up watching the whole thing. It still holds up. It’s darker than I remembered. I’m not talking Batman Begins-dark; I just mean that it’s dark for a family film. Gordon Bombay is an asshole alcoholic in the beginning of the film. The kids have vicious insults that are still effective to use in an argument today. It’s not a great movie, but it’s not trying to be great and that’s how it succeeds. It’s simply enjoyable.

I like how Gordon slowly morphs into Coach Bombay. I like the core group of kids on the team: Charlie, Averman, and Goldberg. I like the scenes where they recruit Fulton, Adam Banks, and Timmy and Tammy (the two figure skating siblings that weren’t in the sequels). I like the hockey scenes. I like the juvenile humor and youthful shenanigans. I like the flashback scenes that show how much hockey meant to Gordon as a kid. I know that I like the movie because I still hate the Hawks.

The Mighty Ducks was successful at the box office and that lead to a slew of family-friendly sports comedies being produced. Little Giants, The Big Green, and several other films only exist because of The Mighty Ducks. Even The Sandlot came out after it. The Sandlot is a better movie, but the Ducks came first. You can’t deny its impact. Watch this movie. Quack, quack, quack.

Critically Rated at 12/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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May 30, 2014 · 11:57 am

“Hurt” Performed by Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash is a music and cultural icon, and one of his best songs came in the twilight of his career when he covered Trent Reznor’s “Hurt”. Trent Reznor wrote the song and recorded it with Nine Inch Nails in 1994, but Johnny Cash made it his own when he released his version in 2002. The accompanying 2003 music video can only be described as haunting. It’s a juxtaposition of an old and frail Cash mixed with clips of him in his prime. It shows how the passage of time affects us all, even legends like Johnny Cash. He was seventy-one years old when they made it and MTV still played it in heavy rotation. MTV’s target audience is teenagers and twenty-somethings, so that just shows how amazing the video is. It’s powerful. It’s universal. It’s impossible not to like it, even if you’re not a fan of country music or old people.

Critically Rated at 16/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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May 29, 2014 · 1:32 pm

Full House (TV show)

My childhood wouldn’t have been complete without a little show called Full House. I was 2 ½ years old when it premiered and 10 when it went off the air. I literally grew up watching it. It was one of the few shows that my whole family could sit down and watch together. Full House was an ABC sitcom about a father trying to raise his three daughters after his wife’s sudden passing. He decides that the best way to replace her is to invite his brother-in-law and his best friend to move in with him and help raise them. And thus we have the premise for a show for a 192 episodes over 8 seasons. Of course the cast was expanded. They got the obligatory family dog. The brother-in-law got a girlfriend, the girlfriend became his wife, they had two kids, and they moved into the attic instead of moving out. That’s not lazy writing, that’s an accurate depiction of how housing works in San Francisco.

Full House introduced us to Bob Saget, John Stamos, and the guy that pissed off Alanis Morissette. Full House is also as close we are going to get to a real life version of The Truman Show because we actually saw Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen grow up on camera. The show itself is super cheesy, almost Brady Bunch-like, and there’s no way that it would be a success if it premiered today. Yet I still find myself watching reruns whenever I stumble upon them while channel surfing. I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen every single episode, willingly or not. It’s not a great show, but I will always enjoy it.

Critically Rated at 12/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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May 29, 2014 · 1:29 pm

Mr. G and Jellybean (YouTube video)

The world is a pretty terrible place, but every once in a while you witness something amazing that tugs at your heartstrings. The friendship of Mr. G and Jellybean is one such example. It all started with a bunch of animals getting rescued from a hoarder. The various animals were all split up and sent to different sanctuaries. One sanctuary took in a goat named Mr. G and Mr. G refused to eat or go outside for several days. Nobody was sure why. Gradually the rescuers realized the problem. Mr. G was depressed because he missed his old pal Jellybean (who just so happens to be a donkey). The rescuers did the only thing that they could do… they found Jellybean and brought him to live on their sanctuary, reuniting the two friends and saving Mr. G’s life. I included the YouTube video below. You should check it out if you like donkeys, goats, or happy endings. It’s only three minutes long and is guaranteed to brighten up your day. It’s a reminder that friendships are one of the most important things in life. I hope everybody has a Jellybean of their own.

Critically Rated at 14/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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May 27, 2014 · 10:56 am

Bonfire

It’s not officially summer yet, but I went to a bonfire the other day so it might as well be. Bonfires are one of my favorite things in the world. I love sitting around a fire talking and laughing with good friends, a cold beer in my hand and a joint in my mouth, watching the flames crackle and the wood burn for hours and hours. It’s better than any TV show or movie ever could be. Time slows down, conversations are more real, and the only responsibility you have is throwing the occasional log on the fire to keep it going. It’s impossible not to be content. I’ve never experienced a bad bonfire. Bonfires stay with you. They linger. Literally. The smoke clings to your clothes and they smell like a campfire until you wash them. I went to grab a slice of pizza after I left the bonfire the other day and everyone in the shop knew that I went to a bonfire. And they were jealous. And hopefully they were inspired to have a bonfire of their own. It’s subliminal advertising at its finest.

Critically Rated at 16/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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May 25, 2014 · 2:17 pm

Hollywood Classroom Cliché

Have you ever noticed the Hollywood classroom cliché? The bell rings, the students enter the classroom, sit in their seats, the teacher comes in a second later, writes something on the board and starts their lecture (which is always relevant to the plot), one or two students make comments, the bell rings, and the teacher shouts out the homework assignment as the students scramble out the door. The class only lasted five minutes, and nobody seemed to notice or care. What kind of school are these kids going to? And how do I enroll? I would love to go to a school where the lesson is always important, classes are only a few minutes long, and the teacher knows all the students by name.

Critically Rated at 14/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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May 24, 2014 · 8:36 am

Pacific Rim (film)

Pacific Rim is a 2013 sci-fi monster flick directed by Guillermo del Toro. It’s about a bunch of gigantic alien monsters called Kaijus attacking Earth. Earth’s only chance for survival is to build a bunch of giant robots called Jaegers to fight the Kaijus. Each Jaeger is piloted by two soldiers because reasons. Charlie Hunnam stars at Raleigh Becket, a former Jaeger pilot who comes out of retirement to fight more Kaijus. Idris Elba plays Stacker Pentecost, a former Jaeger pilot who now runs the program. The other main character is a hot Japanese chick named Mako Mori (played by Rinko Kikuchi) who can’t speak much English, but she sure is fun to look at. Her family was killed in a Kaiju attack, and she was rescued by Pentecost when he was still a Jaeger pilot. Raleigh and Mako team up to pilot a Jaeger against the wishes of Pentecost, but they are drift compatible so he has no choice but to let them work together.

I only mentioned the plot because there actually is one. It’s not just a bunch of chaotic fight scenes involving giant robots battling giant monsters and toppling buildings. It’s not Transformers. It’s what you wanted Transformers to be. The fight scenes are epic and awesome. You really get a sense of scale and you feel like there is something at stake. Guillermo del Toro knows how to frame shots so you actually know what is going on and you can follow the action. My biggest beef with the film is that the climax takes place in the ocean instead of in a city. I wanted to see more buildings toppling and citizens screaming and running for their lives. But the ending is still awesome. It’s one of the best monster movies of all time. It’s not a great film, it’s a great blockbuster.

Critically Rated at 14/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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May 18, 2014 · 5:22 am

Sweet or Sour (game)

When I was a kid I would play a game in the car called Sweet or Sour. It was a pretty simple game. You wave at a stranger in another car. If they wave back, they are sweet. If they don’t wave back, they are sour. You don’t get any points if you get somebody to wave back, and you don’t lose any points if they don’t wave back. We didn’t keep score. Nobody would win and nobody would lose. In retrospect it wasn’t much of a game. I was still good at it though. It’s probably not a game that I will teach my kids. It just conditions kids to be overly friendly and unsuspicious of strangers. It’s like telling them that strangers have the best candy.

Critically Rated at 7/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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May 15, 2014 · 10:10 am

Oz Season 2

Oz Season 2 is the second season of HBO’s acclaimed dramatic series about life behind bars of the fictional Oswald State Penitentiary. It’s only 8 episodes, each one about an hour long, so you can watch the whole season in a few days. The first season introduced you to the rising tensions of the prison staff member and inmates that culminated in a deadly riot. Season 2 is about the aftermath of the riot, about the lessons learned or ignored by the main characters. You catch up with old characters and you meet new ones that change the dynamic of the prison.

Tim McManus (Terry Kinney) reopens Emerald City, determined to make it succeed. He does this by separating the inmates into different groups (The Mafia, the Aryan Brotherhood, the Muslims, the Homeboys, the Latinos, the rejects, the homosexuals, etc.) with only four members each. Amongst this new backdrop new issues and problems arise.

There are way too many story arcs to cover, so I won’t even try. I’ll just mention a few that I enjoyed. The warden’s daughter gets raped and one of the inmates knows who is responsible. The talented Poet (who happens to be a poet) gets his poetry published and becomes a celebrity who gets his freedom, even though he’s not ready for it. Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen) and Schillinger (J.K. Simmons) wage psychological warfare on each other. And Ryan O’Reily (Dean Winters) falls in love with the prison nurse, gets his mentally challenged brother to kill her husband, and deal with the guilt when his brother gets sent to Oz for the murder. There’s another subplot involving two old inmates trying to dig their way out.

There isn’t as much as stake as in Season 1. Season 2 seems to be more of a character study. And there are a lot of interesting characters so there is a lot to explore. It’s not a tame season by any means. Remember that Oz is an HBO show about prison. You’re gonna see a lot of shocking and fucked up shit. If you liked the first season, you’ll love the second season.

Critically Rated at 15/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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May 9, 2014 · 8:57 am

A Good Day to Die Hard

Bruce Willis is back as John McClane in A Good Day to Die Hard, the fifth (and most unnecessary) entry of the Die Hard series. This time McClane is in Moscow to save his son who has been incarcerated in a Russian prison. It turns out that his son is an undercover CIA agent and McClane’s arrival has blown the mission. Needless to say, hijinks ensue. I won’t even discus the plot because the whole story is stupid. It starts stupid, it ends stupid, and everything that happens in between is stupid. The characters are stupid. The action scenes are stupid. The dialog is stupid. There is nothing good about this movie. It’s terrible and I hated every minute of it.

Die Hard is a great movie. A Good Day to Die Hard is a travesty. John McClane is boring in this film. It seems like Bruce Willis only did it for the paycheck. You can tell within the first ten minutes that it sucks, but you slog through it hoping that Bruce Willis will do something badass. He doesn’t. Jai Courtney is horribly miscast as Jack McClane. Sebastian Koch plays the villain and he pales in comparison to previous villains Alan Rickman and Jeremy Irons. Villains shouldn’t be forgettable and Koch definitely is. I’d rather stick my dick in a blender than watch this movie again.

Critically Rated at 4/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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May 8, 2014 · 10:08 am

Oz Season 1

Oz is an HBO series created by Tom Fontana about life behind bars at the fictional Oswald State Penitentiary. It ran for six seasons from 1997 to 2003. It was a milestone in television history. It was the first hour-long HBO drama series, and opened the doors for The Sopranos, Deadwood, Game of Thrones, etc. Season 1 introduces you to the major players in Emerald City, a special unit of the prison, which was created to rehabilitate and not simply punish prisoners.

Emerald City is run by Unit Manager Tim McManus (Terry Kinney) under the supervision of Warden Leo Glynn (Ernie Hudson). You meet a few other staff members such as correctional officer Diane Whittlesey (Edie Falco), prison counselor Sister Peter Marie Reimondo (Rita Moreno), prison doctor Gloria Nathan (Lauren Vélez) and prison chaplain Father Ray Mukada (B.D. Wong). The staff struggles to suppress the rising tensions of the inmates to avoid an imminent riot.

Emerald City is controlled by the staff of Oz, but the inmates run the show. Each episode is narrated by paralyzed inmate Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau). He talks about the themes and issues of each episode, and he is often neutral and the voice of reason in a chaotic place. The stability of Emerald City is rocked by the arrival of Kareem Saïd, a devout Muslim and political activist who immediately assumes a position of power amongst the inmates. He becomes the unofficial leader of the inmates, and that causes some rival inmates to forge an unsteady alliance. There is an awful lot of politicking and shady deals between the Mafia, the Aryan Brotherhood, the Homeboys, the Irish, the Bikers, the outcasts, and the Muslims as each group attempts to gain more power and control.

New inmate Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen) is perhaps the most relatable character on the show. He was a successful lawyer that was convicted of a DUI and sent to a maximum security prison. He has no street skills and doesn’t know how to handle life in prison. Consequently he ends up being the property of Vernon Schillinger (J.K. Simmons), leader of the Aryan Brotherhood. Beecher becomes a bitch. And you don’t want to be a bitch in Oz. Beecher must adapt or die, and he slowly grows a pair of balls and transforms himself into a badass.

Season 1 is all about struggle. The inmates struggle for power and respect. The staff struggles to keep control. Everyone struggles for survival. Oz is a realistic show. It almost feels like you are watching a documentary. It makes you grateful that you aren’t behind bars. It makes you relieved that you don’t work at a prison. But it’s relatable. There are a few characters that you see yourself in. It scares you a little bit, but it compels you to keep watching more. Oz is a few years old now, but it’s still relevant. Good storytelling never goes out of style.

Critically Rated at 14/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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May 7, 2014 · 11:52 am

Movie Tickets Should Cost Five Bucks

I used to love going to the movie theater as a kid. I probably saw about twenty to twenty-five movies at the cinema a year. Now I probably go about four or five times a year. It’s not worth going anymore. Going to the movies is an experience that illegal streaming can’t compete with, but Hollywood has gotten too damn lazy and everything else is too damn expensive. I live in a city where movie tickets cost fifteen to twenty bucks and popcorn and a soda costs another ten bucks. You end up paying thirty bucks to watch a shitty movie that you could have watched for free online. That’s the problem, but I have a solution. Make all the tickets five bucks. I’d be a lot more willing to see a movie, any movie, if it only cost five bucks. And I would go to the movies a lot more often. These days fewer and fewer people are going to the movies, so Hollywood keeps raising ticket prices to maintain a profit. They will keep raising prices, causing even fewer people to go. That’s a business plan that can’t succeed. Five-dollar tickets seems like an easy fix.

Critically Rated at 12/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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May 4, 2014 · 1:14 pm

Star Wars Day

May 4th is Star Wars Day, a day to celebrate Star Wars. Why May 4th? Because May the Fourth is vaguely reminiscent of “May the Force be with you.” It’s a bit of a stretch, but it works. There’s no set way to celebrate this holiday. Most people repost a Star Wars related meme on Facebook, but there are lots of other ways to celebrate. You can watch the original trilogy and pretend that there is no prequel trilogy. You can speak backwards all day like Yoda. You can style your hair like Princess Leia. You can try to communicate by only speaking in Star Wars quotes. It’s just a day to release your inner nerd and not be judged for it. Star Wars Day has become so popular that it even has a sequel holiday on May 5th, known as Revenge of the Fifth. Nerds love bad puns.

Critically Rated at 14/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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April 28, 2014 · 1:16 pm

Dodgeball (game)

Dodgeball is one of the best games you played in gym class. Rules vary from schoolyard to schoolyard, but the rules are generally the same. Two teams hurl balls at each other, trying to peg the opposing players while trying to avoid getting pegged in return. If you get pegged, you’re out. If you catch a ball without it hitting the ground, the person who threw it is out and one of your teammates can come back in. The game is over when all of the players on a team are out. Then you switch sides and play again. Dodgeball victories are decided by winning the majority of games in a series, usually best of five or best of seven. Hitting someone in the face or head is called headhunting. It’s pretty satisfying to smack someone directly in face with a rubber ball, but it doesn’t count and you’ll be called out as punishment. You either love dodgeball or you hate it. There is no in-between.

Critically Rated at 14/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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April 28, 2014 · 1:12 pm

Now You See Me (film)

Now You See Me is a 2013 heist flick, but with magicians instead of bank robbers. Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, and Dave Franco star as The Four Horsemen, street magicians who were brought together by a mysterious benefactor. They have a hugely successful show in Las Vegas, but they really hit the big time when they seemingly rob a bank in Paris during one of their shows. This gets the attention the FBI and Interpol, and then it becomes a cat and mouse game as The Four Horsemen attempt a few more magical robberies while the authorities try to figure how to stop them.

There’s lots of plot twists and shocking character revelations, but it’s a pretty by the numbers caper film. It’s kind of like Ocean’s Eleven meets The Prestige. There are multiple heists, people on both sides trying to outwit each other, and there’s an over the top action sequence that seems totally out of place. It’s an entertaining flick, but it’s pretty hollow. They use to many computer-generated special effects. They should have stuck to practical effects like how real stage magicians perform their tricks. At one point Isla Fisher floats around the stage in a CG bubble. That’s not a trick and that’s not impressive.

And there are way too many characters to keep track of or care about. Mark Ruffalo and Mélanie Laurent play the cops tracking down The Four Horsemen. Morgan Freeman plays a rival magician who exposes tricks and who helps the authorities. Michael Caine plays an Insurance magnate and the sponsor of The Four Horsemen with a shady past. Common has a supporting role as an FBI supervisor.

Now You See Me is just another Hollywood blockbuster that pretends to be smarter than it is. And it’s getting a sequel. It’s a franchise now. Bank robbing magician flicks are suddenly a genre. What is the world coming to?

Critically Rated at 11/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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April 26, 2014 · 9:26 pm

A Pug Watching the End of Homeward Bound

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey is a classic family film about two dogs and a cat traversing the wilderness and finding their way home. It’s a sappy flick that requires a suspension of disbelief to be able to enjoy it. You have no heart if you don’t sympathize with the dramatic climax where all the pets come home. It’s emotional. It’s universal. And you need no further proof than by seeing a pug watching the end of Homeward Bound. This pug know all the emotional moments. He knows exactly what is going on. He’s able to sympathize with Shadow, Chance, and Sassy. Lots of people claim that their dog actually watches TV. This proves that dogs not only watch TV, but they are aware of what happens on TV. I don’t know if that is significant, but it’s got to mean something.

Critically Rated at 14/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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