The Chicago Code “Cabrini-Green”

I’ve been cautiously entertained so far by the new Fox show “Chicago Code”. I say ‘cautiously’ entertained for two reasons: One; while it does portray some un-PC villains, I know how soon all that can change in Hollywood “land”, and two; I know Fox is not shy in pulling the plug on a show before it’s given a decent chance at success.(Nathan Fillion’s “Drive” for instance)

The main villain is a corrupt African American politician who makes himself feel better about filling his own coffers by occasionally ‘spreading the wealth’ to his poorest constituents, thereby securing his election wins time after time. (Oh and he’s in bed with the mob as well) Just the fact that the villain is African American is a leap forward for the ever PC Hollywood, who in their attempt to portray African Americans in nothing but positive light, have all but disqualified said actors from winning very many Emmy or Academy Awards.  It’s the ‘bad guy’ roles that get the over the top attention and critical acclaim, and actors themselves love playing ‘bad guys’, but Hollywood has deemed for their own good, that’s just not in their best interest.  I can’t even watch CSI anymore because it’s so easy to pick out the villains. (“..um let’s see, this week it’s the most white and most wealthy suspect….what do you know, right again!”)

This particular episode of “Chicago Code” focused on bombings that are happening across the city.  The culprits (spoilers ahead) end up being the son of, and former members of a radical hippie environmental anti-capitalist terror organization eerily similar to the Weather Underground!  Kudos to the writers for that choice!  Now in today’s PC, liberal run Hollywood world, THAT is an ‘edgy’ choice!  Not once was the tired overused cliche of the white neo-nazi used.  I do admit, I found it hard to enjoy the episode because I kept thinking, “..ok, when are they going to find out the the hippie terrorists are being ‘set up’ by the Tea Partiers..”, but it thankfully didn’t come.

Also unusual was a portrayal of their former leader using pretty much Bill Ayers resume as their character outline. Unlike Bill Ayers however, this villain supposedly left the group and came out saying he ‘regretted’ the bombings way back when.  Just when I was thinking they were going to use this Ayers type character as some sort of hero, I was pleasantly surprised with that outcome as well. (Here I’ll just have to say go watch the episode to find out what happens at the very end)

The only drawback to the episode I would say is the predictable dismissal of Muslim Terrorists being even suspects. Hollywood STILL can’t bring themselves to admit that Muslim terrorists might blow up people now and again. When going over the former members list trying to find suspects, one is mentioned to have moved to Britain and converted to Islam, to which the main detective says something about not caring about some guy listening to Cat Stevens records and says “give me something I can use.” Maybe I could give them the benefit of the doubt and surmise that he dismissed the suspect because he was now living across the ‘pond’. But seeing as I’m a glass half full (with a crack in it) kind of guy, I’m guessing it was just another subliminal reprogramming attempt to convince us that all Muslims are peace loving upstanding citizens.  I’m not saying there aren’t peace loving Muslim citizens, I’m just saying Hollywood wants us to think there are no Muslim terrorists at all.

So all in all a good episode.  I saw in the credits Shawn Ryan had something to do with this show, and if memory serves it seems he had something to do with another great show a few years ago, “The Unit”.  So for this series, I’m holing out hope that it continues it’s current course and also that Fox gives it a chance to succeed.

To watch this episode for free for a limited time on Hulu.com see below:

 

http://www.hulu.com/embed/KDQ22FOyXo-4QomryrJWgg

“The Cape” Incredibly Bad..

I’m a sucker for a super-hero movie or tv show.  Even if it’s cheesy I’ll put up with it sometimes. (like the 80’s Captain America movie. Low budget, cheesy, but I still watched it a couple of times just to see a portrayal of ol’ Cap)

Things have been busy here lately, so it’s been quite some time since I’ve published a post.  But every once in a while something is so incredibly BAD you just have to make time to address it.

Now it’s been a few weeks since I saw the 2 hour torture..uh premier, so I’ll not be offering a lot of details here. (I’ve tried to forget most of it on purpose)

Where to begin? The first hour of the premier was so horribly directed and acted I couldn’t believe this thing even made it to the air.  The direction was at best, choppy; the acting either strained or over the top.

This was filled with liberal talking points:  Thieves stealing from the evil corporations are actually “heroes” (and the main hero even helps them steal, even though he was supposed to be this above reproach police officer), the villain once again, an evil exec from an evil corporation, they hammered home their message of ‘government controls things better than the private sector’ by painting the evil corporation as privatizing the police force, and there were more, I just think I’ve purposely forgotten them…

Even the idea of his ‘super power’ is ridiculous. A magic “cape”? Really? I thought “..well at least this thing won’t last long and will die a quick death.”  Then I read that critics were liking it and that it did ok in it’s time slot.  I know why the critics liked it, they are 98% liberal and loved the talking points so they ignored the bad acting, implausible story-lines and bad directing.

Anyway, let’s hope this one goes away soon.  Very soon.

“Blue Bloods” The Litmus Test is October 22nd, Will It Go P.C.?

I’ve enjoyed “Blue Bloods” so far.  There have been a few things here and there that I didn’t much care for, but overall it’s shown respect to both sides of the issues without coming down hard against the conservative views like other shows in the same genre.   Last week’s episode did contain a reference by the “rookie” cop that “case law has upheld limiting free speech when it poses a threat to the public.”  Don’t get me started on “case law”!  The idea that one bad decision that doesn’t adhere to the Constitution can be cited as precedent for all future bad decisions is one of the reasons we’re in the mess we’re in today.  One constitutional lawyer told me the one thing they DIDN’T read in his Constitutional law class was…the CONSTITUTION!

But I digress.  The preview for the upcoming October 22nd episode preview stated there would be an attempted “terrorist” attack on NY.  They went to great pains NOT to show the “terrorists” in the preview.  This can go one of two ways:  The episode will either have “domestic”, “tea party” like terrorists, which will be the liberal Hollywood PC method in order to further try to slander and undermine the Tea Party movement just a couple of weeks before the election; or it will go the more realistic route and show middle eastern terrorists thereby saying basically they are going for realism over ideology.  I’m praying for the latter.  If it’s the former, then I will be through with the show.

I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts as well.  Which way do you think it will go?

Tom Selleck “Blue Bloods” (refreshing so far…)

Whenever I see a good show, I always have to temper that with the phrase “..so far..”  So while I was VERY impressed with the premiere of CBS’s “Blue Bloods”, I’ve been burned by the liberal Hollywood pool of writers so often, I seem to always says it’s “great….so far…”

A family (last name Reagan, gotta love that) made up of police and lawyers doing their best to uphold law and more importantly, make the bad guys pay without regard to their own “careers”.

It’s not often we see a show like this.  Usually what happens is the writers will put the “best” arguments in the mouths of the characters spouting the liberal party line, and the ones expressing the conservative view will get the lines which are the “failed” arguments or the weakest arguments in order to “guide” the audience into siding with the liberal viewpoint.  This show so far (there’s that phrase again!) shows respect to both sides of the coin.  Each side here makes valid and well thought out arguments, leaving it for the audience to decide which is the better argument.

The only downside I see is there is a sub plot in which the police department is being investigated secretly because of a “rogue” element called the “Blue Templar”.  Supposedly, this element is a group of vigilantes and one of the main characters is shown in the beginning to have in his possession the ring signifying his membership in this shadow organization.  Now this character is the Iraq war vet, openly conservative character.  So this could be a sucker punch waiting to happen as they pull a “bait and switch” on the conservatives later in the season in order to show this character as a criminal thereby nullifying the validity of his conservative views.  I’ll just have to wait and see.  But so far, so good.

Hawaii Five-0 “So Far, So Good”

The first thing I was very thankful for while watching the premiere of the new Hawaii Five-O remake was that I didn’t hear some techno or hip hop version of the theme song.  The theme song was played very close to the original which was a welcome surprise.

Also, there were no overt liberal talking points inserted into the show. (yet) But still, they can’t bring themselves to mention anything about Muslim terrorists.  So the big villain in this was an Irish terrorist who sold arms to terrorist cells.  Only in Hollywood films and TV are there NO Muslim terrorists.

The action was pretty good.  The plot was decent.  The characters played their parts pretty well.  Just a few minor complaints from me.  The actor portraying McGarrett (O’Laughlin) seems to be channeling Nicolas Cage’s speech patterns.  Close my eyes and I’d be hard pressed to tell the difference. But that’s only a minor distraction.

Another negative is that Grace Park needs to lay off the Jenny Craig.  She’s fallen victim to the Hollywood “I’ve got to be as skinny as possible and yet still be alive” mentality.  She’s supposed to be the “sexy” one so they portray her in a bikini and then in underwear, but both times it comes across looking kind of creepy to me because she’s so think she looks like she hasn’t hit puberty yet!

But those are small complaints.  I liked the show.  (so far)  I’ll keep giving it a chance as long as they don’t use the bait and switch strategy to get you hooked then start preaching from the left with their characters and story lines.  The first time they mention positively Hawaii’s current favorite “son” or make reference to him, It’ll be hard for me to continue watching.

The Expendables

Finally I was able to see “The Expendables”.  I’d say it was worth the wait.  There’s more manliness in this one movie than there has probably been in the last 5 years of all the other Hollywood movies.  No “metrosexual” shoegazing here.  Of course there’s a few emotions here and there just to show the characters as “human”, and yes, even a tear from one character as he recounts a troubling incident from years past, but he’s not the kind of guy who you’d laugh at for doing so.

It seems to me that Statham gets the most screen time and story time, which is fine with me.  I think if he’d made a little more cunning decisions in which movies to take and which not to take, he’d be box office “bank” in the action genre; but as it is now, his films are either great, or they’re just downright ridiculous.

Probably my favorite character here is the Lundgren character.  Don’t know why, and can’t really articulate it at the moment, but even though he’s not in the film as much as the others, he gets quality screen time.  Overall, worth the price of admission.  Action fans will be pleased.

Ok, SPOILERS BELOW, so be warned:

Overall, I give this film an 85 out of 100.  I’ll break that down a little later, but here’s the pros and cons as I see them:

Pro- Badass, badass, badass.  Definitely a throwback to 80’s action films in almost all ways.  Do you remember a time when even an action film took a little time to set up a story?  This one does.  After an initial action sequence involving Somali pirates, the film slows for about 15 minutes to set up the story and a little background on the characters.

Pro– A few good 80’s style “one liners” like the old days.

Con– Only a “few”one liners, could’ve been more.

Pro– Great action sequences that make you feel you’re in the scenes with the characters.

Con– “shaky cam” is still with us.  Use a tripod please so we can tell what the heck is going on!  I think one reason they use the shaky cam so much nowadays is that it’s easier to “cheat” in the action sequences.  They don’t have to be as close to each other to make the punches look like they’re landing because it’s so hard to keep up with what’s going on anyway.

Pr0– A South American “Chavez” like dictator is one of the villains.

Con– Cliched Hollywood American Ex CIA agent is the REAL villain pulling the strings of the dictator. Feeding Hollywood (and the WORLD’S) impression that Americans are bad guys.  Why would the rest of the world think differently when Americans make movies portraying THEMSELVES as villains all the time?  In an effort to appeal overseas, they are perpetuating the overseas anti-american sentiment that already exists and enforcing that belief. Not sure why Stallone did that with the story line.  Perhaps he was afraid of backlash if he was only killing foreign bad guys, or perhaps he’s had that Hollywood mind-set rub off on him over the years and he believes it himself, I just don’t know. (the Dictator even has a sort of “change of heart” at the end to imply maybe he’s not all THAT bad, but the ex CIA guy is rotten to the core of course!)

Pro– A good amount of humor.

Con– The dialog audio track is a little muddled at times so lots of things that were said which were humorous I missed because I couldn’t understand what they were saying.

BIG SPOILER!!!!

Pro– Dolf doesn’t die!  Also a nice redemptive theme is played out with his character.

Ok, so I said I’d give it an 85 out of 100.

I deducted 5 points for the use of the “shaky cam”.  And I took 10 points away for the tired liberal Hollywood cliche of the evil EX CIA agent being the villain….AGAIN!

But overall I recommend this one highly.  It’s a breath of fresh air.  And these guys you actually BELIEVE can kick butt, unlike that “..what’s his name against the world..” crap. (I can’t even remember the name of it, I just know it looked like it would suck big time)

“Skyline” Teaser ..Thanks for Saving Me The Money…

The new Sci-Fi movie coming in November, “Skyline”, released it’s teaser trailer.  (See below)  In less than ninety seconds, they submit us to two liberal “news” anchors and remind us how evil we were to colonize America.  Thanks but no thanks.

SKYLINE TRAILER ON YOUTUBE

DVD Review “Funny People”

After seeing and liking “Grown Ups” I decided to go back and see some of the Adam Sandler films I’d passed over in the past and give them a shot.  I’m usually a Sandler fan, but there have been a few of his films that for whatever reason I just had a gut feeling I should miss.  This one had all the signs of being a good film from just who was involved.  It was produced by Judd Apatow, the producer of one of my favorite all time tv shows “Freaks And Geeks”.  He also was behind “The 40 Year Old Virgin”.

I could probably sum the whole film up by saying “..people..yes it had them…funny it had not..”

There was not ONE single likable character in this whole film.  Not one.  Not a single character with any honor or scruples.  Plus, the dvd version is an ungodly LONG film.  At one point I think it’s almost over so I check the display to see how much time is left and it’s still got 55 minutes to go!  Hopefully Sandler didn’t pattern the main character to be anything remotely like his real life because if he did, he’s a guy I never want to meet!

There is no redemption of the main character.  What they try to portray as redemption comes up falling far too short in scope and length of screen time.  It’s relegated to the last 2 minutes of the film.

And the vulgarity is just over the top.  Only 5th grade boys laughing at the writing on the school’s bathroom walls would find this funny.  And I’m not someone who can’t laugh at a film with vulgarity either.  In the “40 Year Old Virgin” there was plenty of foul language and situations, but they were played well and were really funny.  As for politics, at least there wasn’t much of anything like that in this film.  There was a brief reference to him getting his experimental drug that he needed from Canada, but since they couldn’t possibly be saying Canada had a better system than the U.S., I’m assuming this was a slam against the over-regulation of drugs in the U.S. (after all, if someone is DYING, why aren’t they allowed to use a drug that’s not ‘approved’ by the FDA? They DIE either way!)

I expected more from Apatow and Sandler.  My original gut feeling to skip this one was definitely correct.  Lesson learned.  Listen to the gut.

The Expendables (..waiting with some concern..)

It’s with caution that I sit and anticipate this film.  It looks great, but a few little “clues” in the trailers have me a bit worried.  For one, I saw one trailer where they are getting on a sea plane or something to that effect (it was a quick cut) that has some sort of ecological organizations logo on it. (are the bad guys ruining the environment?)  And the other thing, in the clip above, Eric Roberts character seems as though he’s going to be another cliched CIA bad guy or something, as he’s shown waterboarding the female lead. (is this so they can rub it in as to how evil we have been to use waterboarding?)

I don’t know Stallone’s politics, but I’ve heard over the years that he may be conservative in some political areas.  I hope so, and I hope my concerns with the flashes I’ve seen in the trailers are unfounded.  But until I find out for sure, I remain skeptical.

Captain America Movie Director “..It’s not about America”

I do admit that I love superhero films.  But I’ve come to expect with just a few exceptions, once Hollywood grabs onto a character they will instill said character with their liberal beliefs.  The exceptions I believe would be Spiderman, Superman, Batman and for the most part Iron Man.

So when I read that Hollywood was producing a Captain America film I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy.  Even in the comic books, which have also been overrun with liberal story lines, Captain America recently was portrayed saying terrible things about protesters designed to look like Tea Party folks.  So when it came to a movie about Cap, I sat quietly and waited for the inevitable let down…and boy was I let down!

In comes director Joe Johnston, who’s biggest credit is Jurassic Park III. (seriously, this is the best they could find?) Johnston was quoted as saying Cap will not be a ‘Jingoistic flag waver” but will instead be “re-interpret[ed]” as a “good person” in the World War II-set film.  So I guess a ‘flag waver’ is not a ‘good person’?

He also goes on to state how the movie will go on to not just focus on America being great but the ‘world’ as it will have an international cast.

Some say that this is so Hollywood can sell a Captain America movie overseas where the middle eastern and also many of the Europeans hate us.  So let’s get this straight.  The way to make the people over there like us is to deliver movies that reinforce their bad opinions of America?  For instance, “Green Zone” and too many other anti- American movies like that to mention.  How on earth will they ever get any other perspective on America if ALL THEY SEE coming FROM America is how BAD America is?

Captain America, and certainly the Captain America of WWII times, was a patriotic flag waver.   He wanted to serve his country so badly that he submitted to a risky experimental formula to be able to do just that.

If the attitude and mood of this movie is not changed into something that Americans can be PROUD of, then this will be a big flop, and I will help get the word out to make it become a flop.

Thanks to Newsbusters and Big Hollywood for tipping me off to this story.