Summah Sum-up (2 of 8): TV/DVR

By this category, I mean stuff I caught on cable, a mix of some serious classics and corny comedies. Seeing as how my DVR is almost always full (HD programs take up more space than standard-def), I am seriously considering canceling Netflix.

Films

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1932)

It Happened One Night (1934)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) Tales of Hoffmann (1951) Shock Corridor (1963) The World of Henry Orient (1964) The Blues Brothers (1980) (133 min. cut) Road Games (1981) The Goonies (1985) Teen Wolf (1985) The Siege of Firebase Gloria (1989) Disney's Beauty & the Beast (1991) Delirious (1991) Groundhog Day (1993)  Canadian Bacon (1995) Dirty Work (1998) Pieces of April (2003) Charlie Bartlett (2007)  Trail of the Screaming Forehead (2007) Valhalla Rising (2009) Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009) Zombieland (2009) Skyline (2010)

…

TV Series (+ Specials)

• Svetlana (HDNet) http://www.svetlanasworld.com/

• IFC completed the runs of 90's series Mr. Show, Undeclared, & The Larry Sanders Show (which I'm going to call my favorite sitcom ever, matched only by Seinfeld. And I think I'd rank Mr.Show alongside sketch classics like SCTV & Kids In the Hall)

• The Rocky Show (original version of Rocky & Bullwinkle, occasionally aired on KOFY-13)

• Louie Season 2 (on FX)

• The Sarah Silverman Program (now cancelled, was on Comedy Central)

• Breaking Bad Season 4 (AMC)

• NTSF:SD:SUV & Childrens Hospital (Adult Swim)

• The Emmys (host Jane Lynch was good)

• CC Roast of Charlie Sheen (comedians Anthony Jeselnik & Amy Schumer were stand-outs)

• Michael Ian Black: Very Famous (CC hour special)

• “Weird Al” Yankovic Live! – The Alpocalypse Tour (CC)

• Doctor Who Series 6 (2011) - starring Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor. My first time with "NuWho" - I liked it so much I went back to watch Series 5 On Demand

• Prohibition (latest documentary from Ken Burns, approx. 6 hours on PBS)

…

Fall '11 Premieres

I don't really watch much network TV. No cops, lawyers, soaps, late night or reality shows for me. And the few comedies I do like I haven't followed all that closely. But after watching the Emmy Awards I became acutely aware that the Fall season was starting and I might as well try to get on board with Modern Family, and after two episodes can say it's not really up my alley but I can see why it's popular.

New comedy series that I gave a shot but probably won't be watching despite liking some of the talent involved:

Up All NIght /  New Girl / 2 Broke Girls / Whitney. 

Free Agents I'm going to give another shot after some good words on The Paul Goebel Show

Going to give The League (FX) a look too.

So for now I'm sticking with my favorites, all of which started off strong this season:

Archer / It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX)

Community / Parks & Rec / The Office / SNL (NBC)

Cult of Personality

Busy couple of weeks for me as I spent a long weekend with family in Napa Valley for a wedding, got back to working full-time, and spent hours watching awards shows in addition to my regular diet of IFC 90's comedies. 


The happy couple…

Besides the actual ceremony and reception, the highlight was visiting Rubicon Estate, one of Coppola's wineries. 

Also me and my cousins watching Miley Cyrus host SNL. Yes, she's 18 now so it's OK to admit that she's sexy… and a surprisingly good singer.


The Kimble Bros. 2011

This is a particularly good sketch from Mr. Show, featuring Jack Black, doing a lengthy parody of Jesus Christ Superstar (a personal fave - specifically the Ian Gillan studio version - NOT the movie S.T.) 

A funny Ben Stiller sketch as exercise guru "Fredrick" featuring the lovely actress Kelly Mullis, and an elderly man. 

During the month of February, TCM programmed movies than had won Oscars. Not just best picture winners, but any acting, directing, or technical awards. So early one morning I turned on Federico Fellini's La Strada (The Road) (1954) which I have to admit I'd never seen before, despite loving and owning almost all of his films from the 60's and 70's. 

Being from his more neo-realist period and starring wife Giulietta Masina it always looked too dry or depressing to me. Well, I was gladly proven wrong: of course it was great, at times both sad and funny, involving Fellini's usual themes of marital fidelity, rustic Italian tradition, and the arts of clowning and the circus. The characters portrayed by Giulietta and Anthony Quinn are like magnetic opposites, constantly attracting and repelling each other, unable to escape their entwined fates.

Richard Basehart was a revelation as the charming high-wire artist "The Fool." (I only knew him as the object of the MST3K robot Gypsy's affection, I think more for his work in sci-fi/action shows. But after seeing his in La Strada, consider me a fan now too.) And of course there's a lovely score by Nino Rota. 

Another one of the things I caught up on was the PBS American Masters documentary on the great actor Jeff Bridges. He comes across as a lovable guy, committed to his his art. Would have appreciated some scenes of his bearded self in King Kong, the first film I saw his in as a child, but overall it was a good survey of his career. Never knew the Coen Brothers wrote the character of "The Dude" in the The Big Lebowski with him in mind for the role.

Watch the full episode. See more American Masters.

Brief notes on awards season:

I liked so many movies from 2010 I couldn't be too angry or disappointed by who won or lost. Despite many claims by critics throughout the year, I felt it was a good crop. But between actual awards shows, IFC's 2 hour plus Film Independent Spirit Awards telecast was superior to the bloated nearly 4 hour Oscars. The snarky Joel McHale was funnier than the strange pairing of Franco/Hathaway. Many of the same films were up for the same awards, but Indie Spirit gets the nod for the fact that Banksy's Exit Through The Gift Shop was awarded Best Documentary, with Mr. Brainwash accepting onstage.



Just a heads-up for next year, film-nerds: watch this awards show - it will piss you off the least. List of winners.

Biggest Oscar disappointments:

• No nominations for editing or visual effects for Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim, which he addressed with his typical English politeness in this Doug Loves Movies podcast episode.

• Burton's ugly-looking Alice winning anything at all.

• No Daft Punk Tron: Legacy score nod.

• My personal favorite film Animal Kingdom won nothing, but hopefully the supporting performance of Jacki Weaver will encourage more folks to check it out.

• And as Capone reminded me, no Best Director nom/win for Inception, a technically brilliant film that left some viewers cold.

In the non-award worthy category:

Drive Angry 3D which was trashy fun but relentlessly stupid. I was mostly dumbfounded that they chose the primary villains to be a white trash satanic cult. So very 70's of them, hearkening back to B-movies like Race With The Devil and The Devil's Rain. The recent House of the Devil (which I loved) used the same plot twist. 2011 looks to be a big year for insidious religious groups what with Red State, Martha Marcy May Marlene, etc. coming out of Sundance this year. 

That same weekend I watched Elvira host Hammer's The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) , Christopher Lee's last entry in their Dracula series which at this point they were trying (too hard/not hard enough) to update the mythology to modern times. Always heard it was awful, and it was, but not as bad as I'd feared. But there is a reason it is public domain and unlikely to ever be properly restored for pristine HD home video release. Peter Cushing is his usual solid Van Helsing vampire hunter but here he is pitted against a (…wait for it…) satanic cult in contemporary England made up of brainwashed industrialists/miltary leaders. Not nearly as good a take on the concept as Hammer showed in the earlier The Devil Rides Out (with some of the same cast).

Catch-up (57 Varieties)

A number of factors have converged, allowing me to enjoy my cable/DVR/HDTV set-up at home.

• Work has been slow, allowing me more free time to indulge in my favorite animal passion of staying up nights and sleeping during the day. I developed this (unfortunate) habit in junior high when I had an early morning newspaper route that I found was more easily done if I stayed awake until 5 AM, did the work, then slept it off afterwards, much to my parents' chagrin. Turns out these post-midnight hours are also prime time for web-surfing and passive TV-watching.

• SF Sketchfest is over: I haven't gone out that often in many years. While I enjoyed the forced socialization, it has been a relief to return to my monastic man-cave.

• Oddly simultaneous with being out of the house so much, my brand new TV finally died. I'd had problems with it out of the box (HINT: don't ever have a high-end electronic device shipped to you from out-of-state) but it did work OK for while. Then it finally crapped out, but being under warranty for a new purchase, Samsung sent an repairman to fix it (Ovi from www.tekniton.com). Nearly didn't happen, as the part they replaced didn't fix the problem, but miraculously they had a new "power board" (intended for another customer) in the van and were able to get my TV operational again, better than ever. He assured me that all HDTV brands have their issues, so I left the experience cursing no-one (but myself, for not just picking one up at my local Best Buy and paying the sales tax – would have saved me weeks of annoyance).

• No new movies. Having kept up pretty well with 2010 and Oscar contenders, there has been a lack of anything new I really wanted to see in theaters. (This is only half true, as SFIndiefest started right after the comedy orgy, but I couldn't bring myself to travel across town to see the films We Are What We Are, Machete Maidens Unleashed, and The Last Circus). Will likely have to wait for them on video…

But I have managed to catch up on a bunch of stuff on my DVR and cable. In addition to quadrupling my collection of the music of one Les Baxter.

Kind of half-watched a bunch of movies on Showtime, as I'm planning to cancel my subscription this month. I have perhaps TOO many viewing options these days so I want to cut back on unnecessary distractions/expenses, but I liked what I saw…

Half-watched:

Permanent Record (feat. Keanu Reeves, Michelle Meyrink - teen suicide drama, better than expected) A review here http://chucksconnection.com/permanent.html

Student Bodies (feat. Kristen Riter - horror comedy, dumb fun) http://houseofselfindulgence.blogspot.com/2008/11/student-bodies-mickey-rose-1981.html

George Washington (pretty great)

Hello Again (awful comedy, D.O.A.)

Louie Bluie (brilliant doco) Review from my new favorite site DVD Beaver. They recently gave a strong recommendation for the Japanese anime Summer Wars which I also loved, with some nice screen captures.

Fully seen:

Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) (fun) 

Inception (w/ Rifftrax commentary) (excellent takedown of this enjoyable but bombastic movie) 

I've been catching up on the IFC repeats of comedy shows from the 1990's. Mr. Show  and The Larry Sanders Show have been a delight. College dorm-based Undeclared is all new to me (good, but not as profound as it's predecessor Freaks and Geeks), but The Ben Stiller Show continues to be a disappointment. Am continually reminded of why I don't like him, and find his success a bit baffling. But between Stiller and Sanders reruns, I'm getting lots of vintage Janeane Garofalo cuteness; pre-weight loss, tattoos, glasses, politics. 

And Sanders/Shandling consistently had good looking women as his co-stars and guests. 

Am also enjoying IFC's new comedy series Onion News Network and Portlandia, which are both very polished and look great in HD.

I realize now the irony of my previous poo-pooing the price of subscribing to HBO, as both Mr. Show & Larry Sanders were originally aired on that channel. It was mostly me being financially destitute during the 1990's that kept me from seeing those series during their initial runs. The Sopranos & Deadwood are also favorites of mine, but I only caught up with them via Netflix years later.

Also, the CDR features on IFC have not been all that amazing so far. No slight on host Scott Aukerman, but I expected more, for no real reason. Still, it gives me an excuse to tune in to some quality comedy programming. Sarah Silverman ripped him good during her Larry Sanders intro…

Sarah: HA! It's amazing that you work in comedy… you make a living doing something you're terrible at.

Hot Fuzz (2007) Netflix Blu-Ray rental

Feelin' fuzzy… I didn't love this. Does that make me a bad film geek? Even watched it again with the commentary a few days later, and was still unconvinced. I felt the same way after starting the British series Spaced, which Edgar Wright also directed - took me a few episodes to fully get into it. I enjoyed his recent Scott Pilgrim movie a great deal, but find his ADD film-making style a bit off-putting. Not being a die-hard action movie fan, the reliance on references and homages are un-engaging. I'm either too smart or too dumb for this. Still, Scott Pilgrim should have been an Oscar nominee for either Editing or Visual Effects. I fully acknowledge the man's talent, I just didn't love Hot Fuzz.

Also very much enjoying the often abstract animated gifs of iconic cinema moments found at these two sites:

http://iwdrm.tumblr.com (from where the image at the top of this post came)

http://threeframes.net (where I found this gem…)

Sad Songs Are Nature's Onions

Saturday night I spent online posting passionate (but drunken) opinions on various message boards while listening to a bunch of new music acquisitions, inspired by the double whammy of Somewhere (a song by Amerie) and The Onion A.V. Club's Best Music of 2010 podcast. Got me to finally listen to Janelle Monáe, Kanye West, & Robyn. All good, funky, and fresh. Funny that I've lost my taste for indie rock, which is most of what fills their lists. Podcast & print. 

Hungover Sunday morning, I caught a bunch of the Mr. Show Marathon on IFC. Basically the back half of Season 4, plus the two Best of Specials (that cover Seasons 1 & 3).* Very impressed. Not sure why it took me so long catch up with this show. Maybe their personas put me off. I'm sometimes slow to adapt to new things, especially if they seem "arch," "ironic," or "post-modern." But I've loved some of their later projects like Tom Goes To the Mayor/Tim & Eric Awesome Show (produced by Bob Odenkirk), and Arrested Development (which I was also late the party to) that featured David Cross. His current Todd Margret show didn't impress me upon a single viewing, but I predict I'll be wrong about that one too. 

Anyway, looking forward to taking in the rest of Mr. Show. It just keeps coming up, the deeper I get into the current "alternative comedy" scene. Added the sets to my Netflix Queue to hear the commentaries (there's one for every episode?). Just heard Paul F. Tompkins speak about his experiences on the show in a 2006 interview from the now defunct AST Radio podcast. Only recently became a fan of PFT, so I didn't know he'd even been a cast member. And as he points out, he was a pudgy MF back then.

The appearance of these 90's shows (Mr. Show, Sanders, Ben Stiller, etc.) on IFC comes at a good time for me, as I was on the verge of canceling my "Preferred" Channel package from Comcast. For Christmas I got a new Samsung HD TV and upgraded my cable to HD service. Was looking to save a few bucks but love having TCM & IFC available. If I could order channels à la carte, I would have only those and skip all the other stuff. 

My Showtime reduced price one-year offer runs out soon and I have considered paying for HBO for it's original programming, but my DVR's still full-up and with my Netflix Queue at over 300 titles, I think I'll pass. Besides, everything good on HBO gets released on DVD eventually doesn't it? The only reason to have it is to "keep up with the conversation," a weird cultural elite thing amongst TV fans. 

So between these new (old) comedy shows running on IFC with Comedy Death Ray features, and seeing some great Turner Classic Movies in Hi-Def (like A Matter of Life & Death and The Great Dictator), I feel I made the right choice. 

Geez, I have to get cracking on my Catalog of 2010 before any more time passes. In less than two weeks, SF Sketchfest starts and my weekends will be full.

*For the record I caught 405, 402, 408, 409, 410, Fantastic Newness, & The Incredible, Fantastical News Report.