Film & TV

[rating=5.00] “Baghdad My Ass” The continued mediocrity of The Brink has really only been saved by Tim Robbin’s character Walter. However, there’s only so far Walter’s antics can get us. After last week’s run in with military boss Raja, Jack Black’s character Alex continues to rely on Black’s signature smirks and grimaces rather than attempt a […]

[rating=7.00] “Maybe Tomorrow” Well, well, well…if it isn’t my old friends, Bait and Switch. Good to see you, old chums, and I see you’ve brought some good news with you. As it turns out, Velcoro was not murdered at the end of “Night Finds You.” Rather, buckshot he was hit only with some anti-riot, rubber bullet […]

[rating=7.00] “eps1.1_ones-and-zer0es.mpeg” This week’s Mr. Robot kept the mystery going. After the action packed premiere, you’d think we would get a little break for story building right? Well, that’s the thing about this show, it doesn’t really conform to what you think should happen. For the most part anyway. Though there are a few easy tropes […]

[rating=5.00] I am of two entirely disparate, irreconcilable minds when it comes to Terminator Genisys. It’s pointless and it’s necessary. It’s dumb and it’s amazing. It’s contrived and it’s original. It’s spineless and it has balls of steel. I’m left only to conclude that the fate of Genisys lies strictly in the choices of its […]

[rating=5.00] “Half-Cocked” With an episode title indicative of a show struggling to find its footing, this week’s episode of The Brink was less disappointing, but still not quite there. Is it the acting? The writing? The timing? Generally, it seems to be the lack of a sense of humor skirting the edges of the series. “Half-Cocked” […]

[rating=4.00] “Raise Up” “It was luke warm, small, and covered with a few extras that were all pretty much a mush of stuff.” That line would serve an apt review of the Mark Wahlberg-produced Ballers, a show that struggles to find it’s way. It happens to be a Yelp review of the Mark Wahlberg-produced restaurant, Wahlburgers, […]

[rating=7.00] “Night Finds You” While it may be lacking the intrigue of the esoteric musings of season one, this season of True Detective has proven that, if nothing else, the stakes are a bit higher and the costs a bit heavier than they ever were for Rust and Marty. Nic Pizzolatto is still playing things a […]

[rating=7.00] I’ve never really been a big fan of the mumblecore movement. Granted, I’ve not necessarily been a detractor, per se, as occasionally mumblecore has achieved some interesting moments in modern movie making. But for the most part, I’ve found the entire movement to be cloying and chock full of hipster pseudo-intellectualism masquerading as highbrow […]

[rating=10.00] In the midst of the summer movie blockbuster extravaganza, it can be easy to forget what it is that makes movies so special. Between all the slow motion explosions, the epic hero shots, and the damsels in distress, no one would blame you if a sense of jaded ambivalence settled into your brain and […]

[rating=7.00] “Eps1.0hellofriend.mov” Mr. Robot, the latest from USA Network’s original programming, is an important piece of pop culture. Or rather, it thinks it is. The show is based around Elliot (Rami Malek), a hyper intelligent (slightly autistic?) programmer who works at the bottom level of a security software company. Like many before him, working with computers […]

[rating=5.00] “Pilot” Part of HBO’s summer programming, new series The Brink has a long road ahead of it. The premiere, though at times laugh inducing, was missing a certain satire that could carry the series out of the cancellation grey period and into an overpriced HBO box set four years from now. Loosely based on our […]

[rating=5.00] “Pilot” It’s a bold move for a comedy to open its pilot episode with a fatal car crash of two unestablished characters. It’s a bolder move to refer to Ballers as a comedy after watching it struggle to carry itself through those long, painful thirty minutes. Dwayne (do we still have to add “The Rock” […]

[rating=8.00] “The Western Book of the Dead” It’s difficult for me to fathom what, exactly, it is that people are expecting out of True Detective. The amount of hype and the level of expectation for this season has been through the roof, and while many seem disappointed in what they’ve been given with this season’s opener, […]

[rating=6.00] There’s a great movie somewhere in Dope—Rick Famuyiwa’s latest exploration of African-American life in the United States and critical darling of this year’s Sundance Film Festival—and as much as I want to judge it as the great film it nearly is, I’m forced to look only at what I’ve been given. Unfortunately, what I’ve […]

[rating=9.00] “Two Days of the Condor” I have to give it to Silicon Valley, the season two finale was a defining moment in comedic television history. One of the running themes has been the dudes’s total lack of self-respect and preservation, but in what would turn out to be the most stressful and amazing moments of […]

[rating=2.00] “Mother’s Mercy” There’s an SNL skit from a few years back featuring Andy Samberg as a hormone-riddled, prepubescent Game of Thrones consultant whose job it is to gleefully up the amount sex on the show. When it aired, its second season was widely criticized for its sex scenes that were over-the-top to the point […]

[rating=6.00] A question popped into my head just a few short episodes in to my epic binge of the third season of Orange is the New Black. It was a question that, perhaps, tainted my viewing of the entire season, one that I was unable to shake throughout its 13 episode run. Like a particularly […]

The world lost a true icon earlier today when Christopher Lee passed away at the age of 93. He was a living legend, occupying a place of reverence in the minds of film lovers for seven decades. In his 70 years in the business, he played some of the most beloved roles of all time, […]

[rating=7.00] Like so many franchises, the universe of Jurassic Park went from groundbreaking work of cinematic genius to pale imitation in just a few short movies. As stunning as that initial, Spielberg-helmed film was, its two sequels were a quick descent into the tar pits of mediocrity. The act of creating a movie worthy of […]

[rating=8.00] “Binding Arbitration” This week’s episode of Silicon Valley was one for the books. For a show with a very specific subject matter, the umbrella type comedy has the ability to transform even the smallest moment into a colossal hassle for all those involved. Comedy then ensues, because you know, dick jokes and subtler humor. Big […]