Reviews and More

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): One night in Washington, D.C., one person is injured and another killed in two seemingly unrelated attacks. The next morning, congressional aide Sonia Baker (played by Maria Thayer) is killed by a Metro train in what at first glance appears to be a suicide. But veteran Washington Globe reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) thinks that there might be a connection — especially after he learns from staff blogger Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) that Baker was actually the mistress of Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck).

The timing of these events is suspect for one big reason: Rep. Collins is currently heading a commission investigating the doings of a private security firm called Pointcorp, which is vying for some $40 billion in government contracts. It was widely believed that Collins was set to expose a bunch of wrongdoings on the part of Pointcorp, but now that he has to deal with the death of Baker and the public outing of his affair, as wife Anne (Robin Wright Penn) looks on, there’s speculation that Collins might remove himself from the committee.

Cal has a personal connection with Collins: the two were college roommates and remain friends even now. So he starts investigating the story as a personal favor to Collins, against the better judgment of his editor Cameron Lynne (Helen Mirren). But the more Cal — and Della, who refuses to be left out of the action — uncover, the more they realize that the plot is deeper and more twisted than it appears to be on the surface.

My Reaction: I thought State of Play was a decent thriller, better than some of the movies in this genre that I’ve seen recently. I have to admit that I couldn’t figure out the twist by the end, and though I started to believe that Collins knew more than he was letting on, I didn’t realize he was hiding knowledge of Sonia’s connection to PointCorp all along.

Also, at the end, the newspapers were printing headlines about Collins being implicated in several murders. But just how exposed was Collins regarding those events? No one really had any hard evidence that Collins ordered his old Army buddy to take anyone out, and since that guy was killed by the cops, it wouldn’t be too hard for Collins to assemble a team of lawyers that could get him off the hook. Sure, his political career might be over, but I doubt that he would go to prison based on the flimsy evidence.

I thought the acting in this film was pretty good, but I had trouble accepting that Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck were supposed to have been roommates in college. I’m not sure about actual ages, but Crowe looks easily 10 years older than Affleck, so this point was hard to swallow. Robin Wright Penn was also obviously older than Affleck, and while the younger man/older woman marriage dynamic didn’t bother me in itself, I was bothered by the fact that Penn was also supposed to have been in college at the same time as Crowe and Affleck.

Overall, I liked State of Play well enough while I was watching it. The film moved along pretty quickly, and was intriguing enough to keep my interest throughout. After coming home and thinking about it, however, I’m noticing a few flaws that I wish would have been addressed by the writers. Still, I think this movie is worth watching, and I give it 6.5 stars out of 10.

Monday night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother was called “The Three Days Rule”, and while initial fan reaction on some message boards seems to indicate that people liked it, I thought it was pretty lame. Many of the jokes simply fell flat and didn’t work, and I barely even chuckled during the ep. Of course, this probably goes back to the fact that I’m just waiting to see what the writers will do about Barney and Robin and that I’m not really interested in much else at this point.

– I thought Barney’s opening joke about Jesus inventing the three-day rule had the potential to be good, but then he just kind of went on too long with it and there wasn’t a big enough payoff at the end. A missed opportunity there.

– The plot of this ep reminded me of that one from Season 5 of Friends about the gang finding out about Monica and Chandler’s relationship. “But they don’t know that we know that they know that we know….”

– I thought Ted’s Beavis and Butthead laugh at seeing naked women was kinda dumb. That whole thing just came out of left field and seems way too immature and out of character for someone with Ted’s personality.

– Ugh, I hated that Robin went out on a date with Stan. Why are these two (Robin and Barney) still dating/sleeping with other people all the time??!!! Yeah, I know Robin doesn’t realize Barney is in love with her, but come on! Lily tells everyone everything within 5 seconds of hearing a secret. Can’t she drop a hint or two in Robin’s direction?

– Marshall and Barney arguing about who would be the likely object of Ted’s dreams was probably the highlight of the episode. It should be Barney, hands down!

Although I don’t really purchase as many DVDs as you’d think, I have managed to build up a sizable collection over the years. This is mostly due to the fact that I like to buy boxed sets from favorite television series, so I end up with four to six DVDs per purchase, rather than the usual single disc I’d get from buying a movie.

I’m very diligent about backing up my entire collection, especially when it comes to the larger, more expensive box sets. For example, a few months ago I purchased the complete X-Files series, all nine seasons, which cost more than $200. There’s no way I’m just going to trust to chance and hope that nothing happens to the discs — especially with a curious six-year-old and two dogs in the house!

Of course, backing up my collection sometimes becomes an expensive endeavor in itself. After all, the X-Files set alone consists of a whopping 63 DVDs! So I’m always on the lookout for a good sale on blank DVDs — and I think I’ve found the best one yet over at Buy.com!

Right now, they’re offering two spindles of writable Memorex 16x DVD+R discs for the VERY low price of $19.95! There are 50 discs per spindle, which means I’ll be getting 100 total, and there’s free shipping as well. Each disc can store 4.7GB of data or up to two hours of video, making them perfect for my backup needs. Considering that the usual retail price for this brand is far higher, there’s no way I can pass this up!

Usually I’m stuck buying lower-quality blank DVDs to make my backup efforts cost-effective, so I’m excited about getting some quality Memorex products for a change. I bet the difference will be immediately noticeable!

Last night’s episode of Desperate Housewives was called “Rose’s Turn”, and was actually very good! It was the perfect blend of comedy and drama, and felt like a Season 1 or 2 episode — you know, back when the show was interesting and all! Even though it was kind of a filler ep in which not much happened as far as the season-long story arcs were concerned, I still enjoyed it very much. I laughed out loud in several places, and was caught up in the show instead of watching the clock. Nice!

– One of the funniest scenes of the night had to be the Solis-Scavo dinner party. So many wonderful lines there that came practically one after the other! Just as soon as I was done laughing about Lynette and Tom trading barbs, Gaby and Carlos started in on each other. Hilarious!

– Another highlight for me was the scene where Susan got stopped by the police officer, who discovered the basket of weapons she stole from Dave’s house (which was also a funny scene, BTW). Susan’s general cluelessness is amusing to begin with, but when coupled with a cop who thinks he has a serious threat on his hands? It was practically sidesplitting!

– So I take it from the very last shot that creepy Dave is going to be targeting MJ next, huh? I don’t get it. You’d think that even a crazy fool like him would have given up on his revenge plot long ago — either that, or not care about making it so complicated any more. His personal death toll stands at, what, eight or something, taking into account Edie, the shrink, and the fire victims? Time to either kill the right person or just give up altogether!

– Oh, well, it looks like they’re getting ready to write Orson off the show, aren’t they? Or else there’s going to be some major plot twist where he holds something over Bree’s head and essentially blackmails her to stay married to him. Sigh. Remember when Orson and Bree were actually a fun couple and seemed perfect for each other, what with his attention to detail and tolerance for her wacky ways? Way to ruin a good character!

– And yet another “little old lady” who’s being treated like she suffers from senility and dementia. What’s with the doctors automatically believing Orson when he said the woman had no family to take care of her? She had five kids, right? So the hospital didn’t even bother checking for next of kin, just believed some random patient who happens to live down the street from the woman? Yeah, remind me not to get old in Fairview.

There were several new releases this week, and one of them, the drama/thriller Obsessed, managed to take the top spot at the box office. Starring Idris Elba and Beyonce Knowles, Obsessed, about a successful corporate type who starts being stalked by a temp, earned a solid $28.5 million to knock off last week’s champion, 17 Again, which generated just $11.7 million in revenue.

Third place went to Fighting, an action film about the New York City underground bare-knuckle fighting scene. Despite generally negative reviews, Fighting managed to take in $11.4 million in its debut.

One other new release was able to crack the top 10. It was The Soloist, featuring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jamie Foxx, grossed a disappointing $9.71 million, putting it in fourth place for the weekend.

Here’s the complete top 10 at the box office for the weekend ending 4/26/09:

1. Obsessed, $28.5 million
2. 17 Again, $11.7 million
3. Fighting, $11.4 million
4. The Soloist, $9.71 million
5. Earth, $8.55 million
6. Monsters vs. Aliens, $8.52 million
7. State of Play, $6.89 million
8. Hannah Montana: The Movie, $6.37 million
9. Fast & Furious, $6.06 million
10. Crank: High Voltage, $2.4 million

Ok, I watch almost all of my TV shows on TiVo or DVDs, so I very rarely see promos or previews for upcoming episodes. This is good because I hate to be spoiled about what’s going to happen in the next ep, but it’s also a problem because I sometimes don’t hear about scheduling changes or special two-hour episodes until it’s too late. And in the case of Boston Legal, which I’ve been watching exclusively on DVD, I didn’t even realize the show had ended until this morning when I was checking the episode listing on Wikipedia!

Well, I’m actually kind of bummed now because I liked Boston Legal a lot. I’m still watching the fourth season on DVD, and though it’s not as good as previous ones, it’s still pretty entertaining. I absolutely love James Spader and Candice Bergen, and I grew to tolerate William Shatner pretty well. I didn’t know anything about Shatner’s acting prior to Boston Legal, as I am definitely NOT a Trekkie. I just knew Shatner from those Priceline commercials he used to do, and at first thought he was totally cheesy on BL. But Denny Crane grew on me after a couple of seasons.

Well, what am I going to do for my legal fix now? Damages isn’t quite cutting it just yet, and I don’t know of any other good legal dramas out there. Bummer!!!

Grey’s Anatomy 5×20 — “Sweet Surrender”: After a three-week hiatus, Grey’s Anatomy was finally back with an all-new episode last night. But while it was pretty decent overall, it wasn’t the kind of worth-the-wait good that I was hoping for. I liked the Izzie parts since she’s still my favorite character, and Meredith was good in this one as well. But I didn’t like much else about the ep.

For instance, what is up with Bailey? How can she possibly work in peds when she gets overly attached to every single patient like this? Wasn’t she the one always lecturing Izzie about the exact same thing? So what gives? And I thought that asking why she would rather spend the day holding someone else’s child than her own was a legitimate question, one that I kept wondering about every time they showed her.

Am I the only one who thinks Owen is really boring now? I’ll never forget his first ep on the show, where he was all kick-ass and did a tracheotomy with a ballpoint pen. But since then, he’s been kind of one-note and dull. Yeah, he has PTSD issues. We know. We’ve known for ages. Do something about it!

Bones 4×22-4×23 — “Double Death of the Dearly Departed” and “The Girl in the Mask”: Viewers were treated to two episodes of Bones this week — on different nights no less — due to scheduling conflicts with American Idol or Obama’s speeches or whatever. At any rate, I feel that we got one good episode and one mediocre one, so I guess I can be happy about that.

The first ep, “Double Death of the Dearly Departed”, was the good one. It was lighthearted to the point of being downright goofy, but in a fun way. Episodes like this are nice to have every once in a while, so I enjoyed it. It was nice to see the characters break out of their molds for a change, and the interactions between Booth and Brennan here were awesome. I really liked it!

Unfortunately, “The Girl in the Mask” wasn’t as good. The mystery was so boring that I lost interest within the first 15 minutes of the show, and nothing that happened in the remaining time did anything to change my mind. The writing for Bones is soooo uneven recently. I wish I could decide whether or not to give this show up for good!

Several people have recommended the FX series Damages, starring Glen Close, Rose Byrne, Ted Danson, and Zeljko Ivanek, so I finally decided to check out the first season on DVD. I’ve watched three episodes thus far, but I have to say that I’m not all that impressed. Sure, there’s some terrific acting from Close and Ivanek in particular, but the show hasn’t grabbed me yet.

I usually love legal dramas, so I had high hopes for this one. Part of the problem, though, might be the fact that it looks like Damages will follow a single case throughout the entire season. That seems pretty boring to me. I figured the show would be like most other legal series out there and have different cases, if not every episode, then every third or fourth one for sure. For example, one case might be a high-profile bankruptcy, another case might focus on a class-action mesothelioma lawsuit, and a third might take on the tobacco industry.

But no. It’s all been about Arthur Frobisher (Danson) and the Enron-like financial mismanagement of his employees’ retirement fund. Sorry, but zzzzzzz.

I’m not going to give up on Damages just yet, because it has generated so many positive reviews from viewers and critics alike. I’m just hoping it gets better!

I watch a lot of movies and television shows, and often end up doing so while commuting since that makes better use of my time. But honestly, I’m getting a bit fed up trying to make out details on my tiny iPod screen, and want something a bit bigger. But as I refuse to lug my big, heavy laptop around with me everywhere I go, I’m actually thinking of buying one of those netbooks that I see people using all the time now.

A netbook would certainly provide me with the bigger screen that I long for, and is rather affordable from the prices I’ve seen listed. But I’m just wondering how good these products are at playing media files. Does a netbook even have a DVD drive? Does it have enough memory to run a media player?

I was thinking of getting a portable DVD player for my desk at home, but if a netbook can do the job, then obviously I’ll just get one device. I guess I have to do a bit more research before I tbuy either one!

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): After leaving the U.S. to avoid going to prison, Dominic Toretto (played by Vin Diesel) is now living in the Dominican Republic, where he leads a crew of skilled drivers in hijacking any fuel tankers that come their way. Since “fuel is gold” in the Dominican Republic, Dom’s gang has been doing pretty well — until their latest heist attempt goes terribly wrong and the cops start moving in on them. Not wanting to get longtime girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) in trouble, Dom decides to run again, this time to Panama City. A short time later, however, he learns that Letty has been killed in L.A., so he goes back to try to find out what happened.

Dom’s first stop is at his sister Mia’s (Jordana Brewster) house. He asks Mia to take him to the site of Letty’s accident, where he finds nitromethane on the pavement. There’s only one person in the area who sells nitromethane, so Dom visits the guy to get information about the car and driver he’s looking for. He gets a name — David Park (Ron Yuan) — and goes off in search of revenge.

David Park also happens to be the name of a guy Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker), now an FBI agent, is looking for in connection with a huge drug smuggling operation. Park is an underling, but could possibly lead the FBI to the leader, a man named Braga. Brian runs into Dom at Park’s place, but Dom escapes before Brian can take him in. It turns out that the only way they can both get what they want — revenge for Letty’s death and capturing the drug kingpin — is to earn a spot as a driver on Braga’s team. They both make it.

The rest of the movie then shows how Brian and Dom grudgingly work together to achieve their ends. Along the way, they hash out their differences, patch things up, and emerge as real friends.

My Reaction: I knew going into Fast & Furious that I wouldn’t be seeing a tightly plotted action film with great dialogue, and in that respect, I certainly got what I bargained for. I at least hoped the movie would be fun — and it was, so I consider my money well spent.

First, it was great to see both Paul Walker and Vin Diesel involved with the project. Tokyo Drift was an absolute disaster, and most of that was due to the fact that the utterly horrible Lucas Black was cast in the lead. Sure, neither Diesel nor Walker are great shakes as actors either, but at least they look the part of felon-on-the-run and FBI agent, respectively, whereas the balding Lucas Black had no business being cast as a high school senior. But I digress.

Back to Fast & Furious. I wish the plot made at least a little bit of sense, but it didn’t. You mean to tell me that a powerful drug kingpin like Braga would rather go about killing off all these highly skilled drivers instead of paying them for their services? Really? When he routinely deals with $60 million shipments of heroin? I don’t think so. And how is it that no one ever heard of Braga’s drivers getting killed before? Wouldn’t the relatively small society of street racers notice something was up when five of their people turn up dead every once in a while? Especially after Braga made such a huge spectacle out of getting drivers to try out for his team. Or are we the audience supposed to believe that Letty’s team was the first one to get gunned down and then Dom/Brian’s crew was the second? Again, I call b.s. right there.

Overall, however, I thought Fast & Furious was good enough for the genre. It moved quickly, had some cool cars and action, and was more enjoyable than I anticipated. I give it 6.5 stars out of 10.