Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Halloweek: 7 Days, 7 Scary Movies


Halloween is upon us, and October 25rd to October 31st is the seven day period that makes up Halloweek. Every day of this week will have a scary movie. We have here the full list of scary movies for this occasion. The essential genres are there: the cult movie, classic zombie, slasher, modern zombie, vampire, ghost, and parody. These films can be arranged any way and are frequently shown on cable.

Evil Dead II
This cult classic stars Bruce Campbell as Ash, the cowardly vacationer who must fight off body possessing demons at a cabin in the woods.

Day of the Dead
This zombie film from the Romero era follows a military group, post-zombie apocalypse, as they attempt to survive in an underground bunker.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (original)
The original is still favored over the disappointing remake of this classic horror film about killer who stalks a group of teenagers in their dreams. 

28 Weeks Later
In this sequel to 28 Days Later, months after a rage virus ravaged Great Britain the US Army helps the survivors reorganize in London.

Near Dark
A modern day cowboy is taken in by a group of nomadic vampires when he is turned by a girl in the group.

The Shining
This classic horror film by Stanley Kubrick follows a family isolated in a hotel for the winter as the husband is driven mad by a spiritual presence.

Shaun of the Dead
This parody of zombie movies stars Simon Pegg as a man trying to survive a zombie apocalypse and reconcile with his girlfriend.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Workaholics Cast: Their Best Web Videos

Many people know Adam, Blake, and Anders as the cast of the comedy central series Workaholics. These three have been showcasing their own brand of stoner comedy over the span of three seasons of Workaholics. Before that, they got their start making YouTube comedy sketches on their channel/production company Mail Order Comedy, as well as making a few web series, one of which became the pitch for Workaholics. Here is a list of some of their best videos from the early days.

I Hate Zombies

This sketch, which is possibly the most offensive, stars Anders as a zombie game fanatic who causes some trouble when picking up his girlfriend from work.

Religious Dad

This is brief sketch with Adam DeVine that most likely parodies his memories of Sundays in a religious family.

I’m Kind of a Nasty Dude

A truly strange music video that explains their use of nipple jokes in Workaholics.

Cool Dads


Arm Wrestling Champ


This sketch has Adam playing a man with an unhealthy drive to defeat a frat house jerk in arm wrestling.


The Promotion


The guys fight over a promotion at their call center.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Last Resort Pilot Review: Just Crazy Enough


The crew of an American nuclear submarine are forced to occupy a tropical island and threaten nuclear retaliation when their country turns against them. At the start of the episode, Last Resort showed some strain with some shoddy dialogue, but picked up the pace with a condensed variety of crazy moves by the main characters, mainly Capt. Marcus Chaplin (Andre Braugher) and XO Sam Kendal (Scott Speedman). After questioning an order to nuke Pakistan, the captain is relieved of command, which is given to XO Kendal, who then questions the order himself, which leads to them being attacked by the American Navy. Without much deliberation, Capt. Chaplin took command of the ship again, without much protest, and decided to take over an island and threaten to nuke Washington D.C. to stop their government’s attempts to kill them. The crew is supposed to seem heroic under insane circumstances, but all evidence to the contrary suggests the captain is unhinged and the crew is surprisingly quick to follow. None of this makes any sense, there are plot holes everywhere, the characters’ actions are too quick and extreme to believe, but it is all entertaining.

Last Resort does not intend on making sense if it interferes with the pacing. The show is tailor made to move quickly and be fun. There was enough happening in the pilot episode to hold your attention, and the characters, although a bit stereotypical and without real world logic, are actually likable. The set up for the ongoing story is the mystery surrounding the apparent government conspiracy behind the misfortunes of the Colorado crew, and be something to look forward to in future episode. However, the pilot was so packed with great scenes that there may not be much left over for the future. Don’t be surprised if the second episode is less fun. That being said, Last Resort got off to a great start that makes us look forward to what is coming next in the series.  

Thursday, September 27, 2012

So Opie Got His Skull Bashed In | The Latest on The Sons of Anarchy


The Sons of Anarchy has been plugging along for the first two episodes of Season Five but the death of one of the show’s most liked characters was quite unexpected in the third episode, appropriately titled “Laying Pipe”. Sadly for fans of the show, this episode’s content was not as whimsical as the title might have led you to believe. As many long-time viewers of the FX series Sons of Anarchy would attest to, Opie as a character has always been a favorite. From his initial struggles in the first season about whether or not to return to his former criminal life, to the brutal death of his wife, Opie has always been this show’s emotional redshirt. The poor bastard had yet to get over his father’s murder before he met his untimely demise at the business end of a steel pipe.  Some people may have half expected a feet of strength.  Wherein Opie defied the odds and beat all of his death match opponents, ending his final foe with a swift neck snap and the fight being broken up with some CIA assistance.  


An interesting connection between the death of Opie and his first wife Donna is how Trager (Tig) played such a pivotal role in both their deaths. Think about it, if it weren’t for Tig killing the head honcho’s daughter of the One-Niner’s there would be no need for a blood tribute of one of the MC’s members. There is a more obvious connection between Donna’s death and Tig, but those pesky MAC-10’s can get away from the best of us.  Tig’s character has in a very real way orphaned an entire family within the SOA, so any hope that his character is going to be living past this season of The Sons of Anarchy is not very likely.  The death of Opie will no doubt be the emotional motivation for Jax throughout the rest of Season Five, and that can only mean that the rest of this season will have a lot of blood and very little mercy, which sounds pretty good to me. 

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Revolution Episode 2 Review: Sword Fights Just Got Boring


After a mediocre first episode, Revolution comes back swinging with an even more mediocre second episode. Revolution had some promise but much criticism in its debut episode. Critics pleaded with the creators to correct the short comings prevalent in the pilot, and the creators responded by doing nothing of the sort. The second episode “Chained Heat” followed our group of post-apocalyptic heroes as they searched out help from another person (Norah, a women and freedom fighter from Miles’ past) to save Charlie’s kidnapped brother Danny. Danny, meanwhile, spent more time with his captor (actor Giancarlo Esposito) as he kills random resistance members (patriots trying to bring back America) and euthanizes one of his comrades when he gets shot in the process.

The episode was filled with long walks through the forest, long sits at a camp site, and long, oddly boring, sword fights. The series showed signs of attention deficit disorder by getting side tracked yet again and losing sight of whatever direction it was headed to. The focus was mainly on Charlie’s flashbacks of childhood, most likely to give the character some actual character, which has been seldom seen so far. The pace only picked up in the last ten minutes of the episode with a rescue operation to save prisoners from the militia and from lugging around a helicopter. What followed was an extend battle between the evil militia and our group of heroes. What should have been the saving grace of the episode turned out to be a moment of sad realization that the one thing the series had going for it was already tedious, the sword fights. Revolution is filled with elaborate sword fights, which, understandably, would seem like a good thing, but have already become old. They are not intense and make the show feel more like Xena: Warrior Princess. The creators should seriously thinking about turning this series around in the next episode or risk losing its audience.  

Monday, September 10, 2012

Revolution Pilot Review | If You Like Machetes and Plots Holes


Revolution is the post-apocalyptic series created by Eric Kripke and produced by J.J. Abrams (just produced, no input what so ever). It follows a daughter, Charlie Matheson, who must seek the help of her estranged uncle after her father is killed and her brother is taken by militia 15 years after a mysterious worldwide catastrophe that left the world without power or technology.  At first glance, the series has a decent introduction of a city deprived of power while multiple planes fall from the night sky. The concept of a world stripped of technology when the laws of physics go topsy-turvy is definitely interest worthy.  The characters play the part of disaster survivors well enough. It had a great final fight scene, epic in fact. A dozen bad guys were killed, muskets were shot, and machetes were used in elaborate machete fights, machetes being the swords of the future of course.

The down side is that a series like this seems unsustainable. Money was spent on the pilot, but Revolution, and all other post-apocalyptic shows, involve disaster set pieces that are too expensive to maintain. This always leads to forest settings and shanty towns that always look peculiarly the same. Expect a much less polished look in the next episodes. Also expect to become annoyed by the asthmatic character. He sounds like the perfect person for saving, but when you think about asthma attack he will likely have every episode it makes you cringe. One thing that does stick out is the oddly stylized outfits worn in Revolution. It’s nice that the top leather makers survived the disaster so our protagonists work in style, but the tailored look in this particular setting boggles the mind.


Something sure to become an annoyance if not fixed would be the believability of the characters. Character development was scarce even for a pilot episode. Their actions seemed to develop the over the top end fight scene more than anything else, but their motivations are nonsense. The battle hardened uncle decides to fight a dozen soldiers instead of simply leaving and then decides to leave because a battle royale is only silly the second time around. As a pilot episode, Revolution failed to deliver the promise pilots are supposed to have. There is a mystery about the sudden loss of power, but the protagonists do not seem interested in solving it. Their main purpose is to save an asthmatic from captors he already escaped from once, which really lessens the gravity of the situation when you think about it. Revolution had some flaws in the execution of the pilot. Since this is an Eric Kripke production, and it looked like studio hands were all over this thing, we’ll hold out hope for some retooling from the upcoming episodes.  Who knows, maybe weekly machete fights are just what the TV gods demand or maybe Revolution will be the blood sacrifice that will usher in another Fall TV season.