So I just finished the first season of The West Wing (DAMN YOU CLIFFHANGERS!! I'm just about to run down to the library and grab the second season right now.) and I have a couple things...

1) SOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!! So damn good.
2) Elizabeth Moss and Jorja Fox were so much with the good looking back then. Not to say they aren't now, but yaaaawooowza. Also... Janel Moloney, Marlee Matlin, Allison Smith...Bradley Whitford...the list goes on. Generally a very attractive cast, must be said.
4)Bradley Whitford is all sorts of awesome.
5) SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.
6) So... the cult of Aaron Sorkin eh? Watching those behind the scenes features got a little unnerving after a couple minutes.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, for about the first 10 or so minutes of the behind the scenes features on season 1, the cast and crew are all talking about the season and making it and all that jazz. But there's this thread of...like...DEVOTION to the almighty genius of Sorkin permeating the entire thing. Like at one point Martin Sheen literally says "Once I stopped trying to do my own thing and just said EXACTLY what Aaron had written on the page, that's when everything started working. And once I learned that discipline, everything worked perfectly, and I became Bartlet." (Or something in that sentiment at least) and everyone has something to that effect.

@Anyone who knows, is that just a Sorkin thing that follows him around, or was that kind of amped up by the editors of the BTS thing? Cause it got a little cultish by the end there.

/Why yes, I have done multiple 23+ hour days this week.... and just got home from work...and am very tired. Thank you.

Fantastic special effects!

Last edited by Xtroid (2012-11-21 20:43:07)

Or you're more forgiving of the older shows. At the time, I thought the revival was fun and worth watching, the effects being on a par with what we were used to everywhere else. JMS of Babylon 5 fame worked on one of the new versions, although that might have been the syndicated episodes after the network canceled it.

There was a brief window where they tried to make anthology shows work on TV again. You had the new Twilight Zone, Amazing Stories, Tales from the Dark Side, Tales from the Crypt, Friday the 13th, Freddy's Nightmares, and a couple others most likely.

JMS also wrote episodes of He-Man and The Real Ghostbusters

Some episodes of He-Man still hold up. Not as much as Dungeons and Dragons (damn that show was great) but there is still some good stuff in there.

And The Real Ghostbusters had some scary moments and I still love it

I dunno but I want some

Ahhh, one of my favourite movies.

I just re-watched The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. Did the Academy really think it deserved 13 nominations? It's a relatively decent melodrama, but... 13 nominations? Really? Fight Club (a far superior movie IMO) got one lousy nomination for Sound Editing. The Academy once again fell for the old trick (Spielberg-like sentimentality) 14 years after it was spoofed in The Naked Gun 33 1/3. It's gotten extremely repetititve, we need to find new ways of baiting an Oscar

When I saw Benjamin Button for the first time, it immediately felt like a rehash of Forrest Gump. And, sure enough, I soon learned that the same guy wrote both movies. Benjamin Button is the more forgettable of the two. Will anyone remember it five years from now?

I think I'm in the minority in really liking Benjamin Button. Didn't DiF do a commentary that was lost to the ages? The Forrest Gump comparison is fair, but the original short story came out long before the book Forrest Gump. I also think that Benjamin Button is a far more introspective, thematically resonant film, even if that framing narrative feels tacked on.

I just watched Page Eight, an absolutely terrific little potboiler from last year featuring Bill Nighey as a British domestic intelligence officer and Rachel Weisz as the neighbor who may or may not be playing him.

Michael Gambon is Nighey's boss and best friend, who kicks off a tempest in a teapot with a report that accuses the Prime Minister of the UK of some sinister intelligence dealing.

It's a BBC TV movie, but looks fantastic with lots of great character work. And the tight script tells a story that walks a fine line between cold war thriller and light caper flick. I just loved every minute of it.

Streaming for free on Amazon Instant.

Excuse me while I put my pedant's hat on.....there we go......Hong Kong Phooey is not Looney Tunes, it's Hanna-Barbera.

And thank fuck that ain't getting made, it looks awful. And the cat is supposed to be striped, he is called Spot, that's the gag......

Last edited by Jimmy B (2012-12-28 22:25:56)