2015 Summer Preview

Summer is basically here. Network shows are done so it is time to look at the summer crop. Here are some shows that are returning and a couple new ones I’ll give a chance to. I also thought I would add the films I’m looking forward to. Weird how there is nothing interesting in August. Anyway here are the lists and such.

Returning Shows

Halt & Catch Fire:Season 2 AMC (May 31) 80s computer wars.

Hannibal:Season 3 NBC (June 4) Beautifully shot disturbing content.

True Detective:Season 2 HBO (July 12) Intense character drama

Masters of Sex:Season 3 SHO (July 12) Compelling chemistry

Orange is the New Black:Season 3 NETFLIX (July 12) More prison.

Last Comic Standing:Season 9 NBC (July 22) Funny stand-up.

Nathan For You:Season 3 COMEDY (July TBA) A marketing genius.

New Shows

Sense8 NETFLIX (June 5) 8 people can feel everything about each other.

Scream MTV (June 30) TV version of the popular horror franchise.

Fear the Walking Dead AMC (Aug TBA) The companion series.

Shows To Catch Up On

This summer I’ll be watching the four seasons of Suits on Netflix and watch the first season of The Flash.

If you are looking for some shows to watch this summer on Netflix, I suggest Bloodline and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Summer Films

Entourage (June 3) I watched the show, gotta watch the movie.

Spy (June 5) Melissa McCarthy in a spy flick? Sure.

Jurassic World (June 12) Love Chris Pratt and now with dinosaurs.

Inside Out (June 19) It’s Pixar and Amy Poehler. Perfection.

Terminator Genisys (July 1) More like T2 and not the other sequels.

Minions (July 10) So cute. My wife and I can’t wait for this.

Ant Man (July 17) I like Paul Rudd and Marvel. So why not?

Trainwreck (July 17) Amy Schumer is quite funny. Should be good.

Pixels (July 24) Pac-Man is evil. Hope Adam Sandler doesn’t ruin it.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (July 31) Love this franchise.

What’s on your list?

Film: Mad Max: Fury Road

GENRE: Action/Adventure

RATING: R for violence
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 0 minutes

STARRING: Tom Hardy (Inception; The Dark Knight Rises)

Charlize Theron (Monster), Nicholas Hoult (Xmen: First Class)

DIRECTOR: George Miller (Mad Max; Road Warior; Happy Feet)

WRITERS: George Miller (Beyond Thunderdome; Babe)

Brendan McCarthy & Nick Lathouris (newcomers)

PLOT: A high-speed car chase through the desert. Yup, that’s about it.    

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 The best way to describe this film is ‘relentless’. There are a couple quiet moments but everything else is an extended chase scene. Not much plot. So if you’re in the mood for that, this is for you. I don’t think it quite deserves the 98% on Rotten Tomatoes though.

2 I was impressed with the many ways the vehicles attacked each other. It was beautifully shot.   

3 At times, Miller changes the frames per seconds which takes away from the action. One of the opening scenes looked more like Keystone Cops than anything intimidating.    

4 I wish Hardy would have used his Inception voice for his ten lines of dialogue instead of his low Bane voice from Batman. It kind of took me out of the film.

5 Who needs a radio when you have a guitarist and drum section following you around?

RECOMMENDATION: See in theatres for the action
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Entourage

Film: Tomorrowland

GENRE: Action/Adventure

RATING: PG for violence
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 10 minutes

STARRING: George Clooney (Ocean’s Eleven, Up in the Air)

Britt Robertson (Under the Dome), Hugh Laurie (House)

DIRECTOR: Brad Bird (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol)

WRITERS: Damon Lindelof (Lost, Star Trek Into Darkness)

Brad Bird (Iron Giant, The Incredibles), Jeff Jensen (EW magazine)

PLOT: A smart optimistic teenager is chosen to change the world for the better but needs a former boy-genius to help her.    

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 I absolutely loved the themes of optimism, dreamers and imagination. They may hit you over the head with it, but it was refreshing and a tad inspiring.

2 The look of Tomorrowland (even with the Space Mountain prominence) and lots of the special effects were really cool. It was so much fun to watch.  

3 Most of the fun is getting to Tomorrowland; once they get there, the plot gets heavy handed and drags a bit.   

4 One issue right from the start is having a brother and sister sharing a bedroom. The house was big enough, it made no sense. Also the fact that the kids’ bedroom has a door that leads to the outside for easy late night access seems like bad parenting.

5 The end of the film is a little schmaltzy but effective until the last shot which ruined all the grace I gave it. Too bad. Terrible last image.  

RECOMMENDATION: Fun to see in the theatre
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Men Finale

So this is it for Mad Men. It’s been a compelling ride. Sure, the pace is pretty slow but the character development is so rich. Matthew Weiner’s meticulous detail in setting, character and plot has served him well. Here are some final thoughts before the finale. 

FIVE THINGS I’LL MISS ABOUT MAD MEN

1 Utter disregard for health These advertising guys could not stop smoking or drinking. It became comical how often they would light up. And darn it if it didn’t look totally cool.
2 Pete getting screwed over I never liked Vincent Kartheiser when he was on Angel, so when he constantly loses in Mad Men, it makes me grin. He always wanted the life like Don Draper but could never achieve it. Thankfully he came to his senses.
3 Don’s pitches Say what you will about Don Draper’s flaws, he was an awesome ad man. The way he controlled a room with a pitch was mesmerizing. The Kodak carousel pitch and the end of season one still makes me a little misty.
4 Main title sequence Love the music and simplicity. I rarely fast forwarded over it.
5 Closing songs Matthew Weiner almost always picked the perfect song to take us to the end credits. Talk about leaving a lasting impression. I wonder what he’ll do for the finale.

FIVE FAVOURITE EPISODES (chronological)

1 Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (Season 1 Episode 1)

Don is nervous about making a pitch to Lucky Strike cigarettes; Peggy is hired and Pete has a bachelor party.
2 The Benefactor (Season 2 Episode 3)

Don has clean up Jimmy Barrett’s mess after he makes some rude comments about a client; Harry Crane tries to go for a promotion
3 Shut the Door, Have a Seat (Season 3 Episode 13)

Instead of getting absorbed by another company, Don, Roger, Bert and Lane create their own ad agency and need to poach as many clients and staff as they can.
4 A Little Kiss (Season 5 Episode 1&2)

Megan embarrasses Don at his surprise birthday party with a seductive song; Pete tries to get a better office and Joan returns to work.
5 The Other Woman (Season 5 Episode 11)

There is an indecent proposal when the firm asks Joan to sleep with a client to secure Jaguar business; Peggy decides to move on.

FIVE FAVOURITE SCENES
1 Picnic Scene [from The Gold Violin] The Drapers go on a picnic and instead of putting their trash in the garbage can, Don simply shakes the blanket full of litter onto the park grass and drives away. Makes me laugh just thinking about it.

2 The John Deere Incident  [from Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency] The new CEO gets his foot run over by a riding mower. Blood everywhere. Didn’t see that coming.
3 Don’s Staircase Revenge [from Red in the Face] Don gets back at Roger for hitting on Betty, by getting him to eat a lot of oysters and then fixes it so they have to run up many flights of stairs for a meeting. The new clients did not appreciate the resulting puke.
4 Peggy and Don yell [from The Suitcase] One of my favourite exchanges from the series.
Don: That’s the way it works, there are no credits on commercials.
Peggy: But you got the Cleo!
Don: It’s your job! I give you money. You give me ideas.
Peggy: But you never say thank you.
Don: That’s what the money is for!
5 Jimmy confronts Don [from The Gold Violin] Another one of my favourite lines as Jimmy Barrett puts Don in his place: “You don’t screw another man’s wife. You’re garbage. And you know it.”

WHAT I WON’T MISS
Those “tell us nothing” episode previews. Just a lot of looks and one word responses taken completely out of context. Why bother?

Enjoy the finale this Sunday. 

Film: Avengers:Age of Ultron

GENRE: Action/Adventure

RATING: PG-13 for violence
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 21 minutes

STARRING: Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes, The Judge)

Chris Evans (Captain America), James Spader (The Blacklist)

DIRECTOR: Joss Whedon (Avengers, Serenity)

WRITER: Joss Whedon (Avengers, Buffy, Firefly, Toy Story)

PLOT: Tony Stark inadvertently creates an all-powerful robot bent on destroying the world instead of saving it. Action ensues.   

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 Another Joss Whedon slamdunk. Not as fun as the first one but highly entertaining with its action/humour/pathos mix. It’s a pretty close second.

2 I was worried with the CG-ness of the first sequence but was mesmerized with the choreography of one of the last group fight sequences. Amazing.

3 I like how Whedon again gives every character times to shine and deliver the funny line. He is a truly gifted writer when it comes to character.  

4 I wasn’t a huge fan of the AI plot. It slowed the film down considerably in the third quarter. Luckily it ended strong.

5 There were some shocking surprises throughout. I won’t spoil them here. But just so you know, while there is something after the initial credits, there is nothing after the final credits; it just says that they will return  

RECOMMENDATION: See it in theatres now.
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Tomorrowland

Film: Insurgent

Sorry I have not written in a while. I honestly haven’t been to the movie theatre in a long time. There hasn’t been any good films to watch. I did watch this a couple of weeks ago and forgot to post it. Don't worry, the reviews will be coming a lot faster now.

GENRE: Action/Adventure

RATING: PG-13 for violence and brief language
RUNTIME: 1 hours and 59 minutes

STARRING: Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars, Descendants)

Theo James (Underworld: Awakening), Miles Teller (Whiplash)

DIRECTOR: Robert Schwentke (Red, Flightplan)

WRITERS: Akiva Goldsman (I Am Legend), Brian Duffield (newcomer)

Mark Bomback (Live Free or Die Hard)

PLOT: Tris and Four are on the run as she deals with the guilt of what happened during the events from the first movie.   

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 I read the book a couple weeks before seeing the movie. There were a lot of characters and plot elements missing from the film. I know the film can’t have everything but it looked like some key stuff was ignored.

2 The acting is pretty good. Woodley spends a lot of movie dealing with her personal demons, so it’s all angsty and stuff. There’s also some good action sequences.

3 Speaking of angst, the soundtrack makes the movie sound more like a teen show on the CW.  

4 I wanted to see more of Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) as Jack Kang. He’s cool.  

5 The ending of the book is dumb. The film’s ending is not much better. Wondering if I will bother with the last book/pair of films.

RECOMMENDATION: Fine for rental
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Avengers: Age of Ultron