Avert your eyes!

I saw something that almost made me cry today:

http://defamer.com/5142838/leaked-gi-joe-art-suggests-movie-actually-being-made-by-8+year+olds

To start, I loved "GI Joe" as a child. I loved the cartoon and got the toys (almost all, my mother refused to buy the bathtub sized aircraft carrier.)

The best part of "GI Joe" was the personalities. Each person had their own, unique, look and special part of the team.

For weeks we have seen the black supersuited "Joes," all dressed almost exactly the same in leather-type outfits. OK, that was bad enough. Scarlett in black? Wha?

http://defamer.com/5140501/gi-joe-posters-still-hiding-joseph-gordon+levitt-as-gawky-cobra-commander

So the reveal of the bad guys puts the final nail in the coffin for me. Especially since "The Doctor" is Cobra Commander.

LAME.

The characters themselves are iconic. Looking blindly, out of all of them, I could only recongize Snake Eyes (because of the visor and sword) and Scarlett (red hair kind of a giveaway). Without knowing who plays who I would never know that Zartan, Ripcord and Destro are in the movie.

I was willing to give director Stephen Sommers a chance. I kind of liked the "Mummy" movies and "Deep Rising" was OK. Plus, I met him once and he is a nice guy.

One less Summer movie to see now.

"Lost" and confused

After watching last night's episode of "Lost," I honestly don't know how much longer I can stay on the bandwagon. All this time travel is starting to make me dizzy.

At any one time the show takes place at three or four different points in time. You would think that with all that ground to cover they would have one interesting storyline.

Sorry, you would be wrong.

When the dust settled after all the various time jumps last night, the only thing I found remotely fascinating was the back story on Richard Alpert.

I want to see a whole episode explaining how he either never ages or jumps through time consequence free.

Other than that my interest in "Lost" is seriously waning.

New episode up... and an editor's note

Just got done watching tonight's "Lost."

Still confused.

And lost.

Less commercials=happier Tim

One thing I loathe is commercials. I hate sitting through them. I hate having them break up super interesting moments during the show.

I even started hating them playing now before movies at movie theaters.

One of my favorite new shows "Fringe" does something a little different. Most shows' commercials are around two minutes 20 seconds long (average). With "Fringe?" 60-90 seconds.

Plus at the start of the commercial break it tells you "Fringe will return in 60 seconds." Which tells me that I have exactly one minute to run into the kitchen to get my drink and make it back.

So for each hour there will only be about five minutes of commercials, which is more than half the normal time. Check a DVD of hour long shows, it states episodes as being 44 minutes each. That's 16 minutes of commercials.

Less time for commercials and more time for the show. More enjoyment for the audience. And, if you think about it, better for the advertisers. Wait, what? Yeah, think about it. With fewer commercials the audience is more likely to remember the ads that ran.

Tonight there was a trailer for "Friday the 13th" and a few phone companies (Verizon and Metro PCS). Yeah, normally I couldn't tell you that.

Fox is calling it "Remote-Free TV" as this quote from the Fox up fronts in May 2008 explains:

"It's a simple concept and potentially revolutionary," said Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori. "We're going to have less commercials, less promotional time, and less reason for viewers to use the remote. We're going to redefine the viewing experience."

Redefine the viewing experience and make me love Fox just a little more.

New episode up... and some random thoughts

First off, I am man enough to point out my mistakes and, in this episode I totally forgot the name of the actor that starred in the movie I talked about "Dedication." It is Billy Crudup, who also starred in other films like "Big Fish,""Almost Famous" and "Mission Impossible 3." And will be seen in "Watchmen."

Something else I forgot to do on the show is talk about some Tim-Oscar statistics. I did some research on the last 20 years of Academy Awards and came up with some interesting numbers:

• Out of the 100 nominees for Best Picture, I have seen 38 of them.
• Out of the 20 Best Picture winners, I have seen eight of them.
• Out of the 20 Best Picture winners, I have agreed with three of the choices ("Rain Man," "Dances with Wolves" and "Silence of the Lambs.")
• There has only been two years where I have seen all five nominated films (1989 and 1994).

Life without TiVo

About a week ago I experienced some technical difficulties with my main television, a big screen in the living room that has all the bells and whistles. This is the TV that is hooked up to the HD cable box with DVR. That means I've been without a TiVo for a solid week.

To be honest with you I'm wondering how I lived the first half of my life without digital recording. Not only am I missing my recorded shows, I find myself constantly wanting to rewind a program so I can watch certain scenes again, and on regular cable that isn't possible.

I'm also stuck watching commercials, a practice I loathe. Plus, the other night I had to try and watch "Bones" and "Smallville" at the same time and trust me it didn't quite work. Luckily "Smallville" was a little boring this week.

My other problem is that many HD channels run on east coast time, which means I can watch several shows three hours early. Without the choice of an early viewing I had to choose between "Battlestar Galactica" and "Psych."

These issues have got me wondering what I did before DVR. I remember recording soap operas in the daytime, but how did I ever watch all of my primetime programming without a TiVo handy.

With February sweeps looming and award season in full swing be assured preparations have been made and a repair man will be in before week's end. However, I'm still left asking myself if I may be a little too dependent on my DVR?

Who am I kidding, I lost my battle with my television set a long time ago.

Happy Birthday MacGyver

In case you were wondering, today is Richard Dean Anderson's birthday. Anderson is of course better known as MacGyver, the investigator who knows everything and can do anything.

He would often get out of various jams by using only the items he could find laying around. For example, he disarmed several bombs using toothpicks, chewing gum, string and of course, his trusty Swiss army knife.

I know you're thinking that this could be the most unimportant information you've ever been given but if you're a person of a certain age, you learned all of your survival skills from MacGyver.

I just thought that when you consider all of the lives that have probably been saved because someone use to watch "MacGyver," we should stop and celebrate the man who brought him to life.

'Previously on...'

Most times those two words are annoying to hear when you start to watch a television show.

You rushed to make sure the popcorn was done and you were in front of the TV right at the top of the hour only to have a few extra minutes to waste while the show catches people up on what happened previously.

I am guilty. I get really annoyed sometimes.

That is until Jan. 20. The last new episode of "Fringe" to play previously was more than a month ago. That, plus it showing after "American Idol" meant a lot of new viewers were going to watch "Fringe" for the first time or a lot of us have forgotten what happened.

It starts... with no catchup, just right into the show. As the show progressed I kept asking myself "Who is that?" "What happened to him before?"

Now I have seen every episode and I was kind of lost, imagine new viewers.

Note to self: Stop complaining about stupid, simple things because it might come back to bite you in the butt.

DVD of the week: "Moonlight" The Complete Series

If you needed more proof that CBS dropped the ball when they canceled "Moonlight," look no further than your local Best Buy or Target.

When I woke up this morning I was still buzzing about yesterday's events, but more than that I knew today was the day that I would finally be purchasing the long awaited DVD collection of "Moonlight."

For the uninitiated "Moonlight" is the excellent show starring Alex O' Loughlin as tortured vampire Mick St. John. The show follows Mick as he uses his vampire abilities as a private investigator and teams up with a reporter who he shares a unique history with.

What makes the show great is the way it focused on developing the relationship between Mick and his love interest Beth. It also featured a fantastic supporting cast of vampires who came from all walks of life.

A fan favorite was the friendship between Mick and his best friend, Josef Kosten, an ancient playboy vampire played by Jason Dohring of "Veronica Mars" fame. Mick and Josef may be polar opposites but they would do anything to protect each other.

The show was unceremoniously canceled by CBS after a single season, however it features one of the most rabid fan bases, so I knew I would have to be quick to get my copy.

However, I thought that the Inauguration would provide me with a one day cushion. I was wrong, as several stores were already sold out.

I wonder if this run on the DVD is giving executives an incentive to resurrect the show, it's not like they're showing anything else besides "CSI" and "NCIS."

Odd observation

While we wait for Thursday to see if "The Dark Knight" gets an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, I had a thought about the history of the Batman films.

Apparently, villains in those movies all die in the same exact way. Yeah, I have noticed this before, but with all the hype and talk surrounding "The Dark Knight" and its awards chances it really stands out.

Let's take a quick look:

"Batman" (1989) - Joker falls off a REALLY tall building after Batman hooks his leg to a statue.

"Batman Returns" - Penguin dies after falling through the top of the aquarium building. He eventually dies from those injuries. Also, Catwoman's first life is taking by being pushed out a window of a tall building.

"Batman Forever" - Two-Face, about to kill Batman, flips his coin, to which Batman throws a bunch of fake coins in the air, confusing Two-Face, who then falls to his death.

"Batman Begins" - Ra's Al Ghul, fighting with Batman on a rail train, is killed when the train falls off the high tracks and explodes. I do count this because he was in the train when it fell that long distance. Still counts.

"The Dark Knight" - Taking a page from "Batman Forever," Two-Face again is about to kill when he flips his coin and is distracted enough for Batman to knock him off the side of a building. The Joker almost dies from falling off a building before Batman saves him.

So, morale of the story? If you are a Batman enemy... don't fight him near any building or anyplace high up.

Fight him in the desert or something.

Goodbye Grissom

The last episode of "CSI" was also the last episode for William Peterson, who has played Gil Grissom on the show for nine years.

As someone who has watched the show since day one (when it was on Fridays at 9 p.m. after the remake of "The Fugitive") and never missed an episode, it is a big loss to the show. He was the glue that held the show together and it will take a while for the show to recover.

But, I am not going to jump ship and stop watching. Why? Because of the way they handled Grissom's exit. On most other shows they come up with some lame reason for a character to leave (or die) or just not explain it at all. The producers made sure to make the first part of this season all about Grissom and building toward his exit.

The producers might have planned the exit for a couple of months, but if you look at the entire run of the show the exit for the character has been building since episode one.

• Remember in the pilot, the brand new Crime Scene Investigator Holly Gribbs was murdered on her first case. Grissom had to deal with that.
• Nick Stokes was kidnapped and buried alive, while Grissom tried to save him.
• Sarah Sidle (Grissom's girlfriend) kidnapped and left for dead.
• Warrick Brown murdered, Grissom always looked out for Brown (even saving his job a couple of times.).
• Greg Sanders, who almost died twice. Once beaten by a gang of thugs and the other time blown up in the lab.
• A "relationship" of sorts with Lady Heather, a dominatrix, who Grissom had a connection with. For many episodes he had to help her through some really horrible things.
• Murders who became his arch-nemesises of sorts and proved to be on the same level or higher than Grissom. Good examples include "The Wet Paint Killer," Paul Millander (who fooled Grissom in the pilot episode and two more after that.) and, of course, the "Minature Killer" who was responsible for Sidel's kidnapping and lasted 10 episodes!!

Now if all that crap happened to you in your current job, you would have left too! Probably after the first couple. So it makes a lot of sense.

And... SPOILER SPACE!

Grissom got a happy ending with Sarah.

Perfect.

Battlestar Galactica fraks me up

Last night marked the triumphant return of "Battlestar Galactica." It has been quite some time since we last saw our friends from the Galactica.

SPOILER ALERT: First things first, this post features several huge spoilers from last night's episode, so if you haven't watched yet, STOP READING NOW.

The last time we saw them the Colonial fleet had finally made their way to Earth. However, their joy was soon tempered by the fact that Earth was completely destroyed. We were also left with the question of who is the final cylon?

Producers Ron Moore and David Eick wasted no time, they immediately brought us right into the character's despair and desperation as they discovered that Earth was a nuclear wasteland demolished by war. Then they dropped the bombshell that Earth was a planet of cylons, featuring both "toasters" and "skin jobs."

As if that wasn't enough they decided to give us the heart-breaking last day of one of the show's best supporting players, Lt. Anastasia "Dee" Dualla portrayed magnificently by Kandyse McClure.

When Dee and her ex-husband Apollo hinted at the possibility of reconciliation I knew her time left was limited, but I assumed she would die in battle or in some horrible accident. Her day was just going too well and in the BSG universe that means bad things are about to happen.

The twist came when after experiencing what she admitted were her happiest moments in years she put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger. It was so unexpected and earth shattering that I was left speechless throughout the commercial break.

It seemed so senseless but at the same time so logical. The morale of the fleet was so low that even the President was at a loss. The only thing keeping them together was the promise of Earth and now that was gone.

McClure's restrained portrayal of Dee's transition from hopelessness to acceptance was nothing short of spectacular. When Dee had to will herself to keep it together while flying away from Earth that should have been a sign of things to come. Dee took what she thought was the rational way out of a unsolvable problem.

The other major story of the night was the reveal of the final cylon. After years of clues and guesswork, the winner is: Ellen Tigh. Really? Ellen Tigh. I don't think anyone had her on their list and frankly there are so many new unanswered questions that I'm not convinced she is the magical fifth cylon.

Other revelations that came up last night:

Starbuck crashed landed on Earth at some point and it was her beacon that led them back. In a very biblical scene, she had to burn her own corpse.

Apparently we are the descendants of cylons, because the war that destroyed Earth happened 2000 years ago.

"Battlestar Galactica" is the rare show that features all the bells and whistles of any great geeky sci-fi show, while at the same time providing stories so richly developed that it can take you on a complete roller coaster ride of emotions.

Judging by last night, these final episodes will keep fans riveted and guessing as the show takes its final bow.

A few moments with The Office

In last night's episode of "The Office" Andy finally found out about Dwight and Angela's affair. The revelation resulted in a hilarious confrontation that culminated in a ridiculous duel.

The genius of this show is the way the ensemble works together. We all know that Michael, Dwight, Jim and Pam are the stars, but, at the same time there would be a huge hole if there were suddenly no Creed, Meredith or Stanley.

Last night's best quote came when Meredith said, "I've had two guys fight over me before, but usually it's over who holds the camcorder."

I fell off the bed laughing.

In other great news coming out of the show, Tim's favorite Amy Ryan is returning as HR rep Holly. The producers have her signed for the finale, but, they really want to keep her around on a more permanent basis.

Also joining the cast in a short arc is Idris Elba. He will be playing a serious Dunder-Mifflin rep who is evaluating Michael and the Scranton gang. Elba is best known for his work in the HBO series "The Wire" and stars in the upcoming film "Obsessed" with Ali Larter and Beyonce. He is an extremely accomplished actor who hasn't shown his comedic skills yet, so I'm excited to see what he brings to the show.

"The Office" is the funniest show on television right now and these additions along with the anticipation of the post Super Bowl episode are just enhancing its already legendary status.

New episode up... and an editor's note

OK, in this episode I talk of my "Slumdog Millionaire" frustration. I didn't have a lot of time to go into a lot of specific detail on why I didn't like it. So, to be open and honest, here is the e-mail I sent to Stephanie about why I didn't like the movie:

*Editor's note: We usually hold off on telling each other specific details or opinions as to get a genuine reaction out of each other. In this case Tim couldn't contain his feeling or wait until a new episode was filmed. So, to show the true story, Stephanie's reaction will be posted as well. SPOILERS to follow*

I didn't like it at all. It was waaay too predictable. The most annoying part? The answer to every single question he was asked on the game show was directly related to some super important part of his life. My eyes hurt from rolling so much. Then when the finale question came I let out a sound of disappointment so loud that people turned around in the theater to look at me.

Throughout the movie he kept talking about the "Three Musketeers" and how him, his brother and the girl were the three musketeers, but they never knew the name of the third one. Well, guess what the freaking last question was? It had a scene that was worse than the one in "Zack and Miri," the little kid had to escape a portapotti by jumping in a vat of crap then was running around covered in crap for a while. Yeah, that moment led to an answer to a question too.

It really wasn't a love story at all, it was more a story of two brothers and their relationship. The girl just so happened to keep getting between them. So, false advertisement.

I read a great quote that someone said. This movie is a Hipster version of "Forrest Gump." Exactly right. Don't believe the hype.

Stephanie's e-mail response:

So you didn't like it then?

Sad day to be a nerd

Jan. 14, 2009 will go down in history as the day nerds and geeks everywhere had a reason to be sad.

Early in the morning the news was reported that Patrick McGoohan, who most nerds would know from the 60s sci-fi television show "The Prisoner," died the day before. He also starred in "Braveheart." Most newer nerds might remember that episode of "The Simpsons" where Homer started his rumor Web site and was sent to a weird island. Yeah, that's "The Prisoner." McGoohan even reprised his role for that episode.

He now will not see the upcoming remake of "The Prisoner" being put together by AMC starring Jim "Hey, I played Jesus" Caviezel and Ian "Magneto" McKellen. Well, that might not be a bad thing...

Another classic geek icon died today, Ricardo Montalban, who played KHAAAAAAAAAAN! in both the classic "Star Trek" series and the movie sequel "The Wrath of Khan." Every geek who loves "Star Trek" loves "The Wrath of Khan." It is such a great film in the franchise and Montalban is a big part of that. He played a great villain and foe for Kirk. Other nerds might love him from "Fantasy Island." The original, not the crappy remake.

And then we had the biggest, Earth shattering, bring out the Kleenex, sad news of the day...

Wait...

Spoiler alert!

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Today, Batman died. Bruce Wayne, the dark knight himself, died heroically stopping uber Superman foe Darksied. This all went down in "Final Crisis" No. 6. Darksied had enslaved the Earth and most of mankind.

Darksied was almost unstoppable.

But, as every "Batman vs. whoever" debate goes, Batman always wins. Just as Darksied unleashed his "Omega Sanction" (super powerful eye beam blasts), Batman fires a gun carrying a God killing bullet. Darksied falls first, Batman has the last laugh then gets fried by the "Omega Sanction."

Superman finds the body and, boy, is he pissed.

As with most comic deaths, Wayne will be back eventually. But, for now the world will need a new Batman. Of course DC Comics is ready with its storyline "Battle for the Cowl" with many Batman supporting characters aiming to be the next Batman.

Time for a nerdy moment of silence.

Stargate Atlantis: The Final Mission

Friday night I watched with great sadness as one of my favorite shows ended a spectacular five year run.

"Stargate Atlantis" aired its final new episode on the Sci-fi channel, bringing an end to the adventures of the crew operating the ancient city of Atlantis.

For five years I have traveled with Col. John Sheppard and his team as they have explored the Pegasus galaxy.

The episode was centered around protecting Earth from a powerful and evil alien race know as the Wraith. The show featured the series' best ever special effects as the entire city of Atlantis was flown back to the Milky Way to engage the Wraith in an awesome space battle.

There was never any doubt that our heroes would defeat the Wraith, however, there were several questions about how the characters would fair.

In a very anti-climatic finish no one died and there was no big cliffhanger. This may be because the producers are planning to continue the story in a series of TV movies.

The show also felt rushed since producers were not given very much time to plan for cancellation. I imagine they had a more complex finale in mind.

The "Stargate" franchise has been a part of the Sci-fi channel for almost 15 years so I think they could have given the fans a real send off.

For five years these characters have excited us with action, broken our hearts in tragedy and kept us laughing through it all with a wicked sense of humor.

To the cast and crew of "Stargate: Atlantis" I say thank you for all the thrills and can't wait to see what comes next.

Globes pre-shows

For more on my thoughts on the actual awards show itself, watch the next episode of Viewpoints On...

But, I wanted to take a second to talk about the Golden Globes pre-shows on E! and NBC.

The one on E! was two hours long so I caught a little of it before the real pre-show started. I don't expect much out of Ryan Seacrest, especially in the journalistic integrity department, and he didn't disappoint. E! is really good at kissing famous butt. How about you just interview the people? Or Giuliana Rancic proclaiming "Slumdog Millionaire" the greatest movie of the year in the presence of the film's stars.

And of course "Viewpoints On... D-bag of the year" Ben Lyons had to show up and annoy me.

The best, and sad, part was Seacrest doing his best stalker impersonation trying to "score" an interview with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. They ignored him so much that he was standing there on camera just calling their names (a foot or two away from them) until he just walked away. NICE. Then after that debacle, Rancic, announced on camera that "Brad and Angelina" were right behind her and she had to go try to get them to come over.

Try and guess what they did?

As the "official" NBC pre-show started I kept repeating "Please no Billy Bush, please no Billy Bush." Of course Nancy O'Dell had to host it. Brooke Burke was also a host, I know she has a little bit of experience interviewing people so that was alright. And then she went to Tiki Barber, "great, a football player" I thought.

Boy was I wrong. He was the best interviewer of the night! He kept eye contact with each person he was interviewing, didn't keep looking at his note cards (coughhahanancyo'dellcough) and had a great personality to interact with each star. He really made O'Dell look bad.

And in turn, made me happy.

Golden Globes pre-thoughts

I won't bother with predictions. The Golden Globes and I are never on the same page and I hate being wrong. I think Stephanie made some brave choices and also some safe bets.

Rather than predict, I will just name some that I THINK deserve to win:

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama:
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
Angelina Jolie – Changeling

Best Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy
In Bruges

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy
Colin Farrell – In Bruges

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler

Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight

Best Television Series - Drama
House (FOX)

Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy
The Office (NBC)

So, I look forward to being completely wrong when the show is over tonight, except for Heath Ledger winning of course.

The People's Choice Awards Part 2

I also watched the People's Choice Awards and it occurred to me that it was a very star-studded event for a show so low on the award show totem pole.

I can't say with absolute certainty that the winners are notified in advance, however, it seemed a little suspicious that every big name star showed up to accept their award.

I too wondered about all the awards for "The Secret Life of Bees" since Queen Latifah was hosting. I also wondered how "the people" were voting on movies that have literally just come out.

I know it's just the People's Choice Awards, but come on, they could at least try to look legitimate.

The "People's" Choice Awards?

So the other night I attempted to watch the People's Choice Awards on CBS. I usually don't bother because most times the things nominated are stupid and the winners are even worse.

Well, this year's show didn't disappoint!

I was really jazzed that "The Dark Knight" won a bunch of awards, it deserves every single one. But, a movie that made $500+ million dollars domestically is pretty popular. Hence, the people's choice. No surprise there.

That line of thinking went right out the window for "Favorite Leading Lady" which, by the way, I don't know the difference between "Favorite Leading Lady" and "Favorite Female Movie Star." Sounds like the same thing to me. Other than the fact that there were different people nominated in the two categories. "Ah ha! Instead of getting three famous people to show up to our awards, we can get six!"

So "Favorite Female Movie Star" had Angelina Jolie, Reese Witherspoon and Cate Blanchett.

The "Favorite Leading Lady" category had Anne Hathaway for "Rachel Getting Married," Kate Hudson for "My Best Friend's Girl" and Queen Latifah for "The Secret Life of Bees."

Really?

REALLY?

Never mind that Latifah was hosting the awards show, which made the nomination a little dubious, but only one of those movies was a"hit" in the general sense.

"Rachel Getting Married" has made a little more than $10 million, "My Best Friend's Girl" made $19 million and "The Secret Life of Bees" made $37+ million (budget was $11).

I can KIND OF see Hathaway, but maybe for "Get Smart" which made $130+ million!

Hudson won, shocking considering the Rotten Tomatoes rating for "My Best Friend's Girl" was 16% (ouch.)

So either no one really voted or the people would have voted for Hudson even if she starred in "Crap: The Musical!"

Yay! and Nay!

Just a bit ago Heath Ledger won Best Supporting Actor at the Critics Choice Awards! Woot!

But, then "Slumdog Millionaire" won Best Picture. Boo!

New episode, kinda, up!

Golden Globes predictions

With the Golden Globes fast approaching I thought it was time for a few predictions. Keep in mind that I am predicting who I think will win, not who I am necessarily rooting for, (cough"30Rock"cough.)

Remember predictions are based on a complicated system that includes hours of endless TV watching, hundreds of dollars spent on delicious movie theater popcorn and of course, guessing.

Best Picture Drama: "Slumdog Millionaire"

Best Actor Drama: Mickey Rourke-"The Wrestler"

Best Actress Drama: Angelina Jolie-"Changeling"

Best Picture Musical/Comedy: "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

Best Actor Musical/Comedy: Dustin Hoffman-"Last Chance Harvey"

Best Actress Musical/Comedy: Emma Thompson-"Last Chance Harvey"

Best Director: Ron Howard-"Frost/Nixon"

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger-"The Dark Knight"

Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis-"Doubt"

Best TV Drama: "Dexter"

Best Actor TV Drama: Hugh Laurie-"House"

Best Actress TV Drama: Kyra Sedgwick-"The Closer"

Best TV Comedy: "30 Rock"

Best Actor TV Comedy: Alec Baldwin-"30 Rock"

Best Actress TV Comedy: Tina Fey-"30 Rock"

Writer's Guild nominations surprise

Just a few minutes ago the Writer's Guild of America unveiled the nominations for its Writer's Guild Awards and there are some surprises, both good and bad, in the list of nominees:

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• "Burn After Reading," Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• "Milk," Written by Dustin Lance Black
• "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," Written by Woody Allen
• "The Visitor," Written by Tom McCarthy
• "The Wrestler," Written by Robert Siegel

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Screenplay by Eric Roth; Screen Story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord; Based on the Short Story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
• "The Dark Knight," Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan; Story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer; Based on Characters Appearing in Comic Books Published by DC Comics.
• "Doubt," Screenplay by John Patrick Shanley, Based on his Stage Play.
• "Frost/Nixon," Screenplay by Peter Morgan, Based on his Stage Play.
• "Slumdog Millionaire," Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy, Based on the Novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup.

So, that sure is a wide variety of films there. The best one, of course, being "The Dark Knight" which really needed a WGA nod to help it's chances of getting an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. It missed out on the Screen Actor's Guild equivilant of Best Picture, but scored a Producer's Guild nomination for Best Picture. The clincher will be the Director's Guild nominations, announced tomorrow. If Christopher Nolan is nominated then "The Dark Knight" has a really great chance of getting a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards. Just think about that for a second, a comic book movie nominated for Best Picture.

Bad surprises; I fully expected to see "In Bruges" get an Original Screenplay nod. The script was the best part of the film. Maybe the Guild didn't like the "One F-word every 1.18 minutes" ratio. Well, f-that.

I was happy with the nominations for "The Wrestler" and "The Visitor," which I saw last night and it was good.

In Adapted Screenplay, "Doubt" scored a nomination and maybe shouldn't have. That was my main problem with the movie was the script. Well, that and the funky camera angles. "Slumdog Millionaire" is riding a wave of hype all the way to the bank and that doesn't make me happy. Watch the next episode of Viewpoints On... for my feelings on the film. Just a hint, it's not in my top ten (or 15) of 2008.

So, I have seen five out of the 10 nominees. That is pretty good for me. That number will go up by one, hopefully, if "Frost/Nixon" ever gets released around here.

Visual Effects finalists

So, the Oscars just announced the seven finalists for the "Best Visual Effects" award. Yeah it's a little odd the way they do it, but it's good to see their way of thinking.

“Australia”
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Dark Knight”
“Hellboy II: The Golden Army”
“Iron Man”
“Journey to the Center of the Earth”
“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”

This list will be narrowed down to the final three official nominations when the entire list is announced on Jan. 22.

A few thoughts:

I have seen four films on that list; “The Dark Knight,” “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” “Iron Man” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth.”

“The Dark Knight” should be on there, I bet it will make it to the final three.

“Hellboy II: The Golden Army” has really great costume and creature designs, but when it comes to the CGI-fight scenes they look CGI. That is a bad thing in my book.

“Iron Man” is a strong candidate. I watched some behind the scenes footage from the film and there were parts of the movie, like Robert Downey Jr. just standing around in parts of the armor which I thought were not CGI, but a really good costume design person, but turned out to be total CGI. I was really impressed. The only downside is the scene where he really uses the armor for the first time against the terrorists. That scene didn't have the greatest CGI, the filmmakers probably didn't send in that scene to be judged. Smart move.

“Journey to the Center of the Earth” is the weakest of the four, in my opinion. There were some clever moments, but mostly everything was overly colorful and bright. My eight-year-old niece loved the movie, I was just somewhat impressed.

One major omission is "Cloverfield" which I thought had the best CGI this year. My whole arguement is that normally is has to be hard to make good special effects on normal movie cameras. How harder is it to make great effects on handheld cameras?

Other films taken off the original 15 movie shortlist; “Quantum of Solace” (Which had good CGI),
“The Spiderwick Chronicles,” “The Incredible Hulk,”
“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (The CG gophers killed it I bet), “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” “Hancock” and “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.”

Worst movie of the year explanation

In our most recent episode of "Viewpoints On..." (coughlookbelowcoughcough) we ran down our best and worst things of 2008.

To refresh some memories, or for you lazy folk, Stephanie and I stated that "Indiana Jones" and "The X-Files 2" were the worst movies of the year. We both had many, many reasons for those claims and I am sure many moviegoers would agree with us.

But, what about "The Hottie and the Nottie?" Or "Disaster Film?" Those movies HAD to have been worse than both of those picks. I will give you that. And I am sure there were dozens more that stunk up the box office in 2008. There is only one problem... we didn't see those movies.

I can't speak for Stephanie, but I can most times see a bad movie coming from a mile away. Did anyone really think that "Over Her Dead Body" was going to be an instant classic? Or that "The Love Guru" was going to make $400 million dollars?

I know I didn't.

So when I say this is the worst movie of whatever year, what I am really saying is "This is the worst movie I SAW this year."

And no I didn't see "Saw" this year...

New episode... year end edition!

In this episode Stephanie and I discuss the good and the bad of Pop Culture in 2008. We had a lot to talk about and there was some good stuff that we just couldn't fit into the show (You can see by the show being four parts is one example.)

So, over the next week or so we'll be blogging about some of our other best and worst of 2008 thoughts. But, for now, and as promised in the episode, a few more of Dan's 2008 thoughts.

Worst movie of 2008: "Hellboy 2"

I took my girlfriend to see it, building it up: "I sear, the first one was really cool! It was fun! There was this ninja made of sand, and Ron Perlman was really funny, and it was just awesome! You'll like it, I promise!" Well, lo and behold, Guillermo Del Toro must've dropped acid with Tim Burton and Frank Miller, because this movie was a hefty, never-ending pile of crap. As they trudged through reintroducing EVERY CHARACTER, my girlfriend stared at me. "No, no, it'll get better, they have to do this for people who didn't see the first one." Then they hammed up the dialouge, threw in some random characters like a German doctor made of smoke (ripping himself off??) and a legless demon and... well, it was just a never-ending onslaught of useless garbage. By the time Hellboy killed the giant monster that turned into flowers, covering the street in greenery like a Nissan commercial, I was standing, yelling at the screen "Why would you do this to me??!!" So, all in all, Hellboy II makes you wonder why an original that was good but only got mediocre fanfare would inspire Del Toro to make another, but so... so so so much worse.

Best TV of 2008:

"LOST"- Of course. This was my first season watching it on TV since I was shown the light through a week-long intensive of the first three seasons. And I wasn't disappointed! This show still has the best writing on TV, and some of the best acting. Michael Emerson (who plays Ben) came in on Season 2 and has really stolen the spotlight as the enigmatic and always crafty Benjamin Linus.

"HOUSE"- Another show I recently picked up the adddiction to. It's consistantly interesting, educational, and hillarious. At times, it can get formulaic, but with the addition of a new staff last season, including Kal Penn, the show knows how to keep it fresh. Hugh Laurie is most likely to win a Golden Globe for being the most consistantly amazing actor on TV.

"HEROES"- It only gets number three for coming back from a horrible season 2. I'm not saying it's by any means fantastic, it's still running on "E" and the car's shaking, but it just might get to the gas station in time. I don't know where Tim Kring is getting his actors, but if I had to hear Papa Petrelli READ another line, I would've put one between his eyes to. Once again, Sylar saves the day. :-) ** Tim and Stephanie note: The island sun must have fried Dan's brain a bit. "Heroes" not only was running on empty, but also ran someone over, went off a cliff and exploded. **

"FRINGE"- Thank God there's at least one new show with potential! I've been watching at a slow pace, btu I've come to the conclusion that if a stronger storyline is formed, Fringe could be the next X-files. By the way, did anyone else notice that the kid from the Mighty Ducks is in it, and his dad sounds like Hans? ** Tim note: I agree. **

"THE OFFICE"- For a show that's NEVER really been bland, The Office is kind of juggling the ball. It still gets about one roaring laugh from me every now and then, but with Pam going away for a while, Angela getting married, etc, too many changes start to take th elife out of the show. Very nice bombshell in last week's episode, though! ** Tim note: Referring to the outing of Angela/Dwight having sex **