Daily Archives: November 20, 2011

TV

The Walking Dead: Season 2, Episode 6 – “Secrets”

2 Comments

In the beginning of this episode, Carl and Lori are feeding the chickens on Hershel’s farm. The mother chicken is missing, and we see Patricia feed the live hen to the walkers being kept in Hershel’s hayloft. Oh yes… I have been anticipating this episode for what has been the longest week of waiting ever! Carl steals a gun and tells Shane that he wants to learn to shoot. It took a lot of convincing for Lori, but she and Rick allowed Carl to go learn to shoot guns with Shane. At shooting practice with the group, Andrea wows Rick and Shane with her target skills.

FYI: Never tell Glenn a secret. He told Dale about the walkers in the barn and that Lori is pregnant. Dale confronted Hershel about the walkers in his barn. He explained that the atrocities he saw were men killing sick men, whether they were walkers or not. Also, that Hershel has family members in the barn who are walkers. Dale confronts Lori about her pregnancy. He also brought up the Shane situation, which no one has really brought up since the first season. Lori says that she is living off of memories of joy. She also says that Carl probably has no memories of joy left, and that the baby would have none.

Glenn is very easily one of my favorite characters. He told Lori that if she needed anything at all he would help her, since she hasn’t told Rick. He is making a trip into town for her. He seems to be the only character who is not yet jaded by what is going on around them. While he and Maggie are in the drug store in town, Glenn has to brutally kill a walker who is after Maggie.When Glenn and Maggie get back to Hershel’s farm, Maggie screams at Lori. Lori apparently asked Glenn to get her morning after pills, or “abortion pills”. Maggie also tells Glenn that he is walker bait, and she can’t take him turning into one of them.

Continue reading The Walking Dead: Season 2, Episode 6 – “Secrets” →

POP CULTURE

Grizzly Album Review: “Mylo Xyloto” by Coldplay

Leave a comment

2011 has been a pretty good year for follow-up albums. Jay-Z and Kanye West dropped Watch The Throne to both critical and commercial success, as did Radiohead with their new LP King of Limbs. Now, later in the year, Coldplay is back with their follow-up to Viva La Vida. I’m not sure what the title means, but f*** it. It’s called Mylo Xyloto. Literally nobody knows what it means, not even the band knows. They said that naming this album was akin to “naming a child”, and that they thought it sounded cool. More power to them.

Alternate Cover…. Whammy.

All meaningless titles aside, Mylo Xyloto is a revelation in that this really is Coldplay’s best album. In fact, since the release of their 2005 dud X&Y, they’ve been doing nothing but rising to the top once again. Viva La Vida marked the beginning of their “edgy” rock band stage, and now Mylo Xyloto cements their status as one of the 2000s greatest bands.

A few years back, Coldplay was named as the number one band to make you fall asleep. Now they’re topping the “Party Hits” charts on Pandora and Music Choice. How did this transformation occur, you might ask? Well, it all started in 2008 when Coldplay discovered upbeat rock/pop hits. Now, you might be saying, “Wait a second there, Clocks is an upbeat rock/pop song!” My response? I call bullshit. You all know that there’s been one night in your life when you’ve fallen asleep to that song. Go ahead, admit, I’ll give you a second.

After a 43 second interlude entitled “Mylo Xyloto” the album begins with the track, “Hurts Like Heaven”. Instantly we’re propelled into radio friendly hits that remind us why we even started listening to Coldplay in the first place, another thing that Mylo Xyloto is frighteningly good at, putting the listener in a good mood. No matter what’s bothering you, Mylo Xyloto is guaranteed to make things feel at least a little better. As great as the fast songs on, Mylo Xyloto takes time to stop and smell the roses on tracks like “U.F.O” and “Up in Flames” only to once again shoot us back into the glorious joy dancing we were just doing.

If Mylo Xyloto does anything right, it’s a nice escape from a dark world. But it also takes a band that most critics thought were done being catchy, and makes them even catchier than ever before. Old fans will not be invited, and new fans are welcomed with open arms.

Best Track: Paradise

4/5 Bears

MOVIES

In Case You Missed It: Bombay Beach

Leave a comment

My film teacher once told me that when you film ordinary things like a morning commute or a trip to the store, it can really come off as pure art if done correctly. This is something I’ve debated for a long time, mostly with myself in my many hours alone. Can something as bland or normal as a car ride truly transcend into beauty simply by the addition of a lens? It seems illogical at first, in my opinion. What’s the difference between staring at a broken bottle, and then staring a photo of a broken bottle?

Bombay Beach explores many things, all quite successfully I might add. Following the lives of three separate people, a rambunctious child, being given copious amounts of behavioral drugs, named Benny, an aspiring NFL player nicknamed CeeJay, and a young-at-heart cigarette bootlegger nicknamed Red. The three, as different as they may be (Benny is a young child, CeeJay is a black teenager, and Red is a senior citizen), have very similar situations in life, and in a in a lot of ways, too. Twice CPS, due to neglect and unfit living conditions, has taken Benny away from his parents. CeeJay is in love with a girl that’s in a mentally abusive relationship with another boy, and Red is approaching senility, requiring medical care after having a mini-stroke.

The genius in Bombay Beach resides in the intriguing characters, expert directing, and an extremely bizarre genre. Bombay Beach may be the first film that I can label as a DocuDrama Musical. Directed by music video director, Alma Har’el, the film contains some well-choreographed dances, as well as some scenes that are basically music videos for Beirut and Bob Dylan, who composed most of the soundtrack. Now, you might be thinking, “This is a lot to do in a mere 80 minutes. Three plots, dance sequences, and music videos?!” Well, yes, it does seem like a lot, but somehow the filmmakers, and especially the editors, constructed a beautifully shot documentary that plays as if it were a scripted feature film.

The characters are neither protagonists nor antagonists. They’re people. They curse and drink and smoke just like almost everyone else does. I don’t think the director intended for the audience to think that these families were bad people, but a part of me also thinks that they weren’t necessarily intended to be what we define as “good” people either. They just are who they are, and we get to be the fly on the wall in their lives.

The plots are somewhat loose, and don’t necessarily make the film what it is, but they’re there, even if they’re extremely scarce. The images as I’ve mentioned are gorgeous, while others are very disturbing, including a brief shot of the rotting corpse of an abandoned dog. All of these components combined make Bombay Beach a must watch for any film-lover. Not only is it the most inventive documentary of the year, it’s also the most thought provoking. These families that live in the poorest town in Southern California have stories and lives and issues to deal with, too. We tend to forget about people like this. We write them off as white trash and low lives, but there’s always more to the story than we give credit. Bombay Beach isn’t a perfect film, but then again, neither are the people in it, which is what makes it so relatable, and at the same time so new.

4/5 Bears

 

Movie News & Opinions

‘Empire’ Covers Reveal More of Bane and the Bat

Leave a comment

Heyoooooooo! As if we all weren’t ready to eat our own faces in anticipation for The Dark Knight Rises footage playing before Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  Empire Magazine was nice enough to give us a little look at their upcoming covers feature Mr. Bane himself and Bale’s Batman. Not a real big deal on the Batman one, but the Bane cover gives us a pretty good look at ‘the man who broke the bat’. I suppose I’m still pretty indifferent at this point about his look. The mask isn’t terribly ridiculous but it isn’t effin’ awesome either. I’ll reserve all judgments until I see it on screen. Not to mention his voice, which in the spy video from Heinz Field sounded like a stoned impersonation of Don Corleone from The Godfather.

And a bad impersonation at that. Oh well, I’ll still be seeing the movie come Hell, high water or terrible voices. Yes Mr. Bale I’m looking at you.

TV

Clone Wars Review: The Umbaran Quadrilogy – Season 4 Episodes 7,8,9 and 10

Leave a comment

The last four episodes of The Clone Wars were great, especially if you like seeing the clones in action. I thought the season opening Mon Calamari arc would be hard to topple as the season’s best arc, but the fight for the dark and bleak planet of Umbara proved me wrong. After the typical mid-season lull, Clone Wars has begun to pick up again! *WARNING – HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD!*

So let’s set the story: You know about the galaxy spanning civil war that is sweeping over every planet, and you’ve seen this conflict on various worlds for the show’s tenure thus far, but I must say it’s never quite been like this. With hardly any battle droids to speak of (Seriously they were around for a few minutes in one episode.) we are introduced to the Separatist-aligned Umbaran people who fight to defend their planet from being conquered by the Republic. I can’t remember the planet’s strategic importance or if it was even mentioned, but really that’s beside the point. We finally get to see an organic army fighting the clones in the form of the Umbarans and their awesome technology. They have everything from aerial ships, tanks that shoot crazy looking lightning balls and walkers that rival even an AT-AT in bad-assery. And let me tell ya, these guys give the Republic quite a run for their money shouting in their bizarre chattering language the whole time.

The planet itself was presented to us as almost like Felucia… except someone turned the lights off. The place is cloudy, dark and dangerous and not just because of the indigenious Umbarans, referred to by one clone as the “Shadow People”.

The first attack on the planet is led by Anakin Skywalker and the 501st legion which includes our boy Rex and various other clones we know and love including Fives, Hardcase and Jesse. Another clone worth mentioning is future commander of the 501st, Appo, who plays quite the role in the Expanded Universe of Star Wars, leading the assault with Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader on the Jedi Temple all the way until his decapitation by Jedi Master Roan Shryne on Kashyyyk immediately following the birth of the Empire. It leaves one to wonder what will become of Rex since it is known in the movies and literature that Appo is the eventual leader of the 501st. I don’t see Rex being put in the middle of situations dealing with following or not following orders at this point, so that counts him being demoted out. In the world of Star Wars that may mean that Rex is eventually going to buy it on Clone Wars. I hope when that happens we get to see him go out as a hero in a blaze of glory.

After Anakin is “mysteriously” recalled to Coruscant by the Supreme Chancellor, his replacement as Jedi General arrives via LAAT in the form of Master Pong Krell. From my initial viewing of the trailer for this season of Clone Wars I was super excited to see this guy in action, which was awesome. The guy has two double bladed lightsabers that are collapsible! Brilliant! However, my hopes for him to be a brilliant and likeable Jedi general were dashed upon one realization – That he is a total asshole.

Pong Krell was a genuine enigma to me during the course of theses four episodes. Sure we’ve seen a couple Jedi who either distrust the clones or don’t see them as actual men. Master Rahm Kota was fortunate enough to survive Order 66 due to his mistrust of clones and using only his personally raised militia in battle. Quinlan Vos was also mistrustful of the clones but he still commanded them in battle and refrained from using their lives needlessly. Pong Krell however seems to have a knack for throwing the clone troopers at his disposal (literally) into unwinnable circumstances which all but guarantee their deaths. If not for Rex and his brothers creative thinking and their questioning of General Krell’s orders the battle for Umbara would have been lost at the very beginning. But as the story arc wears on you begin to see there is something more behind Pong Krell’s disdain and carelessness for the clones he commands. I’m sitting there thinking –“What a terrible Jedi this guy is.” And then by the end of the fourth and final episode the writers drop a bomb on you. Pong Krell is in fact a Jedi who is embracing the dark side and hoping to become Count Dooku’s new apprentice. Didn’t see that one coming….

Even when Krell was owning clone troopers left and right with his quadruple sabers I wasn’t under the impression that his motives ran so deep. The Dark Side, yes, but a plan to become Dooku’s apprentice no. It’s great that the show is giving us a view on how different Jedi are affected by the war and this is perhaps the most distressing. It was an even bigger surprise to me when Krell was finally executed, not by Rex but by newcomer Dogma who was on Krell’s side nearly until the end.

The last episode was most definitely a powerful one emotionally. I’m all about the clones and when Fives and Jesse were about to be executed I honestly wasn’t sure which direction things we gonna go. Another hard hitting portion of the episode was when the clones were killing one another in a firefight due to the information from General Krell that the Umbarans had stolen clone trooper weapons and armor. To see the reactions of the clones once they realize they are firing on one another was heart wrenching, then to see Waxer shed a tear before dying upon the realization of him killing his own brothers was almost enough to bring me to tears myself. Waxer was great in the epidsode from season one’s “Ryloth Trilogy“: Innocents of Ryloth”, where he made it his personal mission to save and protect the little Twi’lek girl Numa. When Rex removed his helmet we are reminded of his previous actions by the little Numa face picture painted on his helmet.

I have to give this arc a five out of five. It goes without saying that even had the story been crap, the visuals alone throughout the arc would have still carried it. Thankfully the story wasn’t crap as it brought us to a whole new perspective on how the Jedi are affected by  the war and how loyal the clones are; not only to their Jedi generals but to themselves and each other.

Pong Krell was a pleasant surprise because of the scum bag he turned out to be. I’m not sure there had been a twist quite like that to leave me shocked in this show. I was actually kind of hoping that he would survive the ordeal to actually ally himself with Dooku and be an opponent of the Jedi for a time before he was killed, but I suppose that is why we have Savage Opress and Darth Maul for later in the season. Props to the Clone Wars creative team for giving us an excellent arc without the support of series regulars Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka: it goes to show us that the series has many other avenues to explore and could still possibly go another couple seasons.