I believe Alan Smithee is the director of the television series, V. Which in and of itself should be an indictment. The alien resistance is called the Fifth Column? Were they in Madrid? Or maybe they worked with Trotsky…

Either way, Smithee is a no talent hack. Just look at the list of garbage for which he is responsible:

• Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
• Stitches (1985)
• Let’s Get Harry (1986)
• Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home (1987)
• The Shrimp on the Barbie (1990)
• Solar Crisis (1990)
• The Nut House (1992)
• The Birds II: Land’s End (1994)
• National Lampoon’s Senior Trip (1995)
• Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)
• Exit (1996)
• Mighty Ducks the Movie: The First Face-Off (1997)
• Firehouse (1997)
• An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1998)
• River Made to Drown In (1999)
• Woman Wanted (2000)

And this is not the complete works of the hack. Now, I am willing to forgive The Mighty Ducks, because that was good. As is every movie about hockey. But c’mon! Shrimp on the Barbie! The Nut House?!?! Woman Wanted???????

CRAP!

So the point of this rant is this: STAY OFF MY BLOG SMITHEE!! Stop leaving your “cute” little comments. Spend your time making a good flick. Then, when you have, come back. And only then will I accept your little comments.

Love always, Eman.

Two Tier Care and MRI

They tell me there is this new technology called MRI where they can visualize soft tissue injuries.I’m not sure it’s real.

The first time I heard of it was when I was seeking diagnosis for a knee problem several years ago.  I got an appointment with a specialist, and was examined. He informed me of my options: pay for an MRI (I think it was $2000) or have an orthoscopic procedure. He recommended the MRI. Or, he said, I could do nothing.  There was no way I could afford to pay for the procedure. I said “Do the Orthoscopy!”  He asked me to reconsider, saying “The procedure was painful and not as useful as the MRI.”

I insisted. Do the orthoscopy.

The procedure was extemely painful, and there was no treatment offered after.

Last spring I had a very painful shoulder. My doctor told me to phone a clinic to book an MRI.  I did so and was given and appointment 6 months in the future.  I waited and when the time came for the procedure, realized that I was to present to the clinic at 7:30 AM on a Saturday morning. It takes me an hour to drive into the city and given 15 minutes for parking and 30 minutes for getting up, that meant getting up at 5:30.  I tried to meet the appointment, but I blew it.

Then I started thinking, “What do other people do in this circumstances?”  I looked for information, and one bit of info I found was that if I paid for the procedure, I could have had it in 2 or 3 days.

Clear evidence – Two Tier medicine. It’s here, people.

Save Medicare, Kiefer Sutherland, and the Canadian Health Care Coalition

The Tommy Douglas group on Facebook posted a Youtube message from his grandson Keifer. He is requesting that if you care about Medicare and the principles established as part of it, to sign a pledge and to let others know about the pledge.

A reminder of who Tommy was:  Tommy Douglas is known in Canadian folklore as the Father of Medicare.  In a contest held on CBC in 2004.    The website about the contest gives a very good biography

It ends with a statement of  programs he helped to establish.

Tommy Douglas’s legacy as a social policy innovator lives on. Social welfare, universal Medicare, old age pensions and mothers’ allowances — Douglas helped keep these ideas, and many more, watching as more established political parties eventually came to accept these once-radical ideas as their own.

Kiefer also mentions the Canadian Health Coalition, seen by some as the “Save Medicare” group.

They are the hosts of the Sign a Pledge which Kiefer talks about in the video. The pledge actually says:

Medicare Pledge

As a Canadian, I believe access to quality health care must be based on need, not ability to pay. Our public health care reflects those values of equality and fairness.We must improve our public health care for everyone, instead of expanding private for-profit services that benefit only a few.

 

I pledge my support for the protection and improvement of public health care in Canada.

Por Fernanda Cavassana

A série não está no ar no momento, não é a mais comentada no Twitter ou nos Blogs, mas merece um post meu. Sou fã, pronto.

Produzida pela FOX e conhecida no Brasil como 24 horas, a série do magnífico Jack Bauer (personagem de Kiefer Sutherland) me conquistou desde a primeira vez em que foi passada na Globo. Patriota, ele é agente da fictícia Unidade Contra-Terrorismo (CTU) da cidade de Los Angeles – agência responsável pelo combate ao terror nos EUA.

Após os ataques de 11 de setembro de 2001, a proposta de trazer o terrorismo para a TV foi bem aceita pela população americana e 24 horas garantiu sucesso lá.

A dinâmica de cada episódio é o suficiente para prender a atenção do espectador e exigir o acompanhamento da história. São 24 episódios por temporada, com duração de uma hora cada um e com todos os acontecimentos em tempo real.

Quem acha que só há violência e a série é extremamente policial, engana-se. Relações diplomáticas entre diversos países e os EUA, chantagem, e a forma como o governo americano lida com cada ameaça terrorista: são as bases para tudo que Jack Bauer tem que enfrentar. Matar seu amigo e colega de trabalho para garantir que uma bomba não mate outros milhares de americanos, é um dos exemplos da política retratada no seriado e a importância do personagem na defesa de seu país.

Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland)

Diferente da maior parte dos filmes e seriados que assistimos, nem sempre há um final feliz para cada temporada de 24h. Porém, é possível se emocionar com o sofrimento e a dor presentes nas histórias. Sete temporadas já foram produzidas, e a oitava será lançada no começo de 2010. Muitos dizem que será a última, já que sua produção tem um custo muito alto à Fox.

Já assistiu a 24 horas? Senão, eu recomendo. Vale a pena ver todas as temporadas enquanto a oitava ainda não sai do forno.

Well.

“24 Week” concludes a day late as we examine the Five Craziest Things Jack Bauer Has Ever Done.

This subject matter could have been an entire week in itself – but I’m going to attempt to condense it down to five glorious moments.

Enjoy, and as always, beware of spoilers.

Five: Jack goes all “Lost Boys” on some dude’s neck. (Season Six.)

As much as I hate to repeat myself, I must reiterate – Season Six sucked. It was just flat-out not very good, save for a few key moments.

This, was one of them.

Jack Bauer had gotten himself into another hairy situation, as only Jack Bauer can seem to do. Tied to a chair, with no weapons or even the use of his hands, Jack found himself at the mercy of some terrorist scum with no chance of getting the upper hand, leaving us all waiting breathlessly to see how he was going to weasel himself out of -

HE JUST BIT THE DUDE’S NECK.

There is nothing more satisfying than seeing Jack Bauer take a literal “bite out of crime” and then angrily spit out a bloody chunk of neck.

Jack Bauer is awesome.

Four: Jack goes all “Matrix” on some other dude’s neck. (Season Two.)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with “24″ and the character of Jack Bauer, allow me to let you in on a little secret: Jack Bauer hates necks. Passionately. And, more often than not, violently. His weapon of choice seems to be his deadly thighs, which he uses to gleefully snap terrorist vertebrae on a daily basis. This time, though, he took it up a notch, allowing his destructive upper legs a bit of a breather, and opted for a more straight-forwardly awesome neck-crunching super move.

By the end of Day Two, Jack had had enough. He was a tired, broken man, who’s sanity was being slowly depleted, which was of course pushing his violent streak to the max – because that’s how this shit works. It’s science.

Faced with another in a long line of terrorist douchebags, Jack executed a stunning moment of “wtf just happened,” by launching himself at the dude’s neck, running “Matrix-style” up a wall, and breaking said neck in one fluid move of beauty, grace and bloodlust.

It. Was…..killer? *snicker.*

Three: “Get me a hacksaw.” (Season Two.)

Jack was a broken man at the beginning of Season Two as well. After the events of Season One – the murder of his wife, and all – he had kind of given up on, well, everything. The only thing that seemed to matter to him anymore was his job – which on paper was “to protect the country from international terrorists,” but in Jack’s head was something more along the lines of “let’s mess these dicks up hardcore.”

And with that thought in mind, the only realistic evolution from killing an unarmed drug dealer, was to than proceed to cut off that drug dealers head with a hacksaw, to use it as a message or a warning or something towards other drug dealers.

It wasn’t the last time we’d all start to worry about Jack, but it may have been the first.

Two: Jack Bauer almost crashes a plane with his bare hands. (Season Five.)

Not content with the usual collateral damage he’s capable of, Jack Bauer decided to step it up a bit by endangering the lives of an entire plane full of innocent people. Never mind what he was doing on the plane (I can’t remember) or why he decided it was imperative to take matters into his own ands and crash a damn plane (I don’t care) the fact remains – Jack Bauer almost crashed a plane. With his bare hands.

Had he been on the upper deck when the urge to terrify the shit out of 200+ strangers hit him, I’m sure he would have blasted his way into the cockpit and tortured orderd the pilots to bring that bitch down. But he wasn’t; instead, he was locked in the cargo area, and had to get creative with his destructive tendancies.

So he opened up some panels, grabbed a few handfuls of wires or something, and started crashing the plane from there – with his bare hands.

Whatever, though. It worked, and they eventually let him out of there, to continue terrorizing terrorists and civilians alike, because he’s Jack Bauer, and that’s what he does, and besides it’s a little late to get that Creative Writing degree now.

One: “I’m sorry we let you down, Ryan. God forgive me.” (Season Three.)

In Jack’s defense, the terrifying pain and death he doles out on a daily hourly basis, is usually reserved soley for terrorists, criminals and generally bad people. Then came Ryan Chappelle, and we didn’t know what the hell to think about Jack anymore.

Chappelle was alwasy kind of a douche, but he was s douche who meant well, so I guess that’s okay. He certainly didn’t deserve to be shot in the back of the head executioner style by some dude who worked for him on the side of good, is all I’m saying.

But that’s exactly what happened, at the behest of some terrorist mastermind who wanted Ryan dead for some reason. The president assigned Jack to the task, because Jack gets shit done, and off they went to the trainyards to engage in some light bonding and murder.

In all seriousness, it really is one of the show’s best scenes. We realize that Chappelle, despite being a tight-ass and constantly at odds with the other agents, is a good man who was just trying to do his job correctly. He had no friends; just a brother he barely spoke to. He had no one to talk to before the bullet entered his brain, and that somehow made it more difficult to watch. He didn’t deserve this ignoble death, and Jack didn’t deserve to be the one to administer it.

But that’s how it went down anyway.

Well.

That’s it for “24 Week.” Join us this week as we…I dunno. Do something different.

BEEP-BOOP-BEEP-BOOP.

Oh, and as an added bonus…here’s a sweet montage of Bauer related carnage for you.

Actor Kiefer Sutherland has denied reports that he has rekindled romance with his ex-wife Kelly Winn.

America’’s Star magazine earlier reported that the 24 star and the former model are back together, a year after their divorce was finalised (08).

The couple called it quits in 1999 but Sutherland only filed separation papers in 2004 and their marriage was legally declared over in May 2008, reports Contactmusic.

A source told the tabloid, “She really understands him and his quirks, and once the pressure was off to fix the marriage, he relaxed and became more open with her. He’’s finally realised he never should have left Kelly.”

However, Sutherland’’s representative told GossipCop.com the reports are “not true”.

Well.

Two more days to endure of “24″ week!

DEAL WITH IT.

Today we examine the individual seasons of “24,” ranked from of course worst to best. There have been seven seasons of the show so far, but as I already ranted about my displeasure at Season Six yesterday, I’ve decided to move on and leave it off today’s list.

Rest assured though, that if it was on here…it would be last.

Dead last.

Six: Season Four.

Despite the rampant awesomeness of having the mummy as the main villain, Season Four couldn’t really live up to any of it’s expectations. Ridiculous terrorist plot after ridiculous terrorist plot kept elevating the threat to mammothly outlandish proportions. By the end, I wasn’t really sure what the hell was going on. Marwan (the mummy) while a pretty badass villain had way to many contingency/escape plans. It was just poor writing. Everytime the authorities would close in on him, ready to foil whatever act of terror he was planning to unleash, he would conveniantly escape through a back exit/staircase/trick ladder, ready to start a new, bigger, better plan.

It just got to be a bit too much.

Oh…and, also…I may be wrong on this, but I think this may be the only season of the show where a major character isn’t killed off.

Highlights: Jack’s videogame-like assault on a terrorist headquarters; the surprise re-emergence of Tony; the mummy.

Five: Season Three.

Season Three started off pretty well. In an effort to infiltrate a drug cartel, Jack got himself addicted to heroin. He also got himself a new partner, in the form of hunky Chase Edmunds. It’s usually a bad sign when a series adds a young partner like that, but Chase was surprisingly solid. He was an adequate foil for Jack, and I genuinely would have liked to see more of him.

The villains this season were an interesting affair, beginning with the delightfully charming Salazar brothers and ending with the delightfully British Stephen Saunders – who had amazing potential but was, naturally, pretty much wasted.

The season revolved around some virus with the capacity to kill the whole world or something, and CTU’s efforts to stop it. It also featured the emergence of fan favorite Chloe O’Brien, an interesting (and first of many) twist on the tired mole cliche, and Jack, as always, confronting his personal demons.

At some point Tony also got shot in the neck, but was on his feet glowering and barking orders a few hours later. He’s a trooper, that guy!

Highlights: Michelle gets tough in a hotel; Sherry dies (finally.); Chloe makes her first appearance; Jack plays a game of Russian Roulette; Jack kills Chappelle; Jack kills Nina; Jack doesn’t kill the main villain. (Actually, that was kind of lame.)

Four: Season One.

This is where it all began, seven or so odd years ago. (Which is like nineteen in the “24″ world.) We’re introduced to the greatest hero of all time, his annoying family, and the Counter Terrorist Unit – all tropes that would become, more or less, series staples until the Seventh Season.

It was at times meandering, at times inane (especially whilst covering whatever shenanigans Kim and Teri had gotten themselves into) and at times overstayed it’s welcome.

Still, it had it’s moments – including a scenery-chewing, bizarrely accented Dennis Hopper as the main villain, and the final scene.

Also, Lou Diamond Phillips showed up near the end for some reason – and that alone puts it higher on this list.

Highlights: We meet JACK BAUER; Nina was weirdly attractive; Dennis Hopper’s accent; Lou Diamond Phillips.

Three: Season Seven.

This should have been it. From the outset, Season Seven sounded like it might just be the be-all-end-all of “24″ seasons. And while it didn’t quite make it that far, it came damn close.

This is what we knew initially: for one thing, Season Seven would be the first season of “24″ to leave Los Angeles, the city that had endured terrorists wrath for six years. That was pretty big. Then, we found out that CTU was being done away with as well – in favour of the Effa Bee Eye, in Washington, D.C.

Then we got wind of the sexy new partner for Jack – the beautiful (but deadly!) Agent Renee Walker, played by the talented (but deadly!) Annie Wershing. Add to that a villain played by acadamy award winner Jon Voight, and another bad guy played by the always dependable B-movie star Tony Todd, and brotha, you got a stew going.

Then came the biggest news of all – Tony Almeida would be returning from the dead somehow as Jack’s newest adversary. Saint’s alive!

And, for good measure, it was coming off the heels of the worst season in the shows history. Not a tough act to follow.

While this all sounds epic to the max on paper, it faltered a bit in execution. It was still one of the strongest seasons of the show, with some great thrills, scenes, acting, characters and guest stars. Plus, it pretty much completely did away with the core “24″ cast (or what was left of it) and gave us dozens of new characters – the strongest of which may have been the new president in the “24″ universe, Allison Taylor played by Cherry Jones. (Jones would win an Emmy that year for her portrayal of the strong-willed Taylor.)

Good, maybe even great, but it could have been better…nitpicking, sure, but too many twists and some truly insipid character motivations didn’t help, either – like the amazing flip-flopping Almeida. Even by the end, I don’t really know if he was good, or evil, or what.

Janene Garafalo showed up this season for some reason as well. That didn’t help, either.

Highlights: Jon Voight; Jack’s fight with henchman Quinn; Senator Red Foreman; Bill’s sacrifice; Aaron Pierce and Ethan Kanin’s Hardy Boys Mysteries subplot; Renee Walker.

Two: Season Two.

Jack Bauer was a pretty broken man coming into the show’s second season. After the death of his wife, he kind of went off the rails a bit – which turned out to be entertaining as hell for the viewer.

Season Two revolved around an impending nuclear attack on Los Angeles, organized by a Middle Eastern terrorist cell – manipulated by wealthy American businessmen led by Peter Kingsley (the dude from “Saw.”)

It was one of the more intense seasons of the show, with very few useless subplots (though there may have been something with a cougar…dammit, Kim!) and some great action – including a bombing at CTU.

It also featured a heroic and dramatic sendoff for George Mason, Jack’s boss for the first few seasons. Although kind of a douche, George redeemed himself this season and became a fan favorite because of it.

Highlights: Kate Warner; Jack’s infamous running-wall-neck-snap; Michelle and Tony start getting it on; the  cougar dude from “Saw.”

One: Season Five.

Jack Bauer takes on the President of the United States of America.

Also RoboCop. And the dude from “Warlock.” And C. Thomas Howell.

It’s pretty damn awesome.

This season had it all – one of the best sets of villains I’ve ever seen on the show; some great acting from Gregory Itzin and Jean Smart as the President and his first lady; and super-human secret service agent Aaron Pierce blew up a dude wearing a flame-thrower.

SOLD.

Highlights: The shocking first episode deaths; that fat hobbit’s sacrifice; Aaron Pierce’s expanded role; Edgar’s death; Jack deploying another famous neck snap; Jack’s final shoot-out with Henderson; the Logans.

Well.

Tomorrow we close out “24 Week” with the five best moments in the show’s history.

And then I will return you to your regularly scheduled blog!

Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland is reportedly back with his ex-wife Kelly Winn.

The ‘24’ star split from the former model in 1999 after three years of marriage, but he filed for divorce in 2004.

However, according to Star magazine, despite legal separation their love for one another has not faded.

“She really understands him and his quirks, and once the pressure was off to fix the marriage, he relaxed and became more open with her. He’’s finally realised he never should have left Kelly,” the Daily Express quoted a source as saying.

Sutherland, 42, was last romantically linked to magazine editor Siobhan Bonnouvrier, but they allegedly called off their relationship over the summer (09).

House é o nono da lista

Segundo a Reuters, em Los Angeles, a Forbes soltou a lista dos homens mais bem pagos do horário nobre da TV americana, baseando-se nos lucros de 01 de junho de 2008 a 01 de junho de 2009:

1. Simon Cowell, US$ 75 milhões
2. Donald Trump, US$ 50 milhões
3. Ryan Seacrest, US$ 38 milhões
4. Charlie Sheen, US$ 21 milhões
5. Steve Carell, US$ 20 milhões
6. Howie Mandel, US$ 15 milhões
7. Kiefer Sutherland, US$ 13 milhões
8. Jeff Foxworthy, US$ 11 milhões
9. Hugh Laurie, US$ 10 milhões
10. David Caruso, US$ 9 milhões

Leia mais clicando aqui.

Sairam os nomes que vão concorrer ao People’s Choice Awards 2009. ‘Twilight’ e ‘True Blood’ estão entre os mais votados. Os fãs dedicaram mais de 18 milhões de votos para as duas atrações.

‘Twilight’ é o favorito a Melhor Filme, Franquia e Melhor Elenco (Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson e Taylor Lautner). Stewart e Pattinson também concorrem individualmente por Melhor Atriz e Melhor Ator, enquanto Lautner concorre a Melhor Revelação.

‘True Blood’ foi nomeado para o prêmio Maior obsessão e Melhor Série Sci-Fi/Fantasia, enquanto Anna Paquin concorre a melhor Atriz de Drama.

Os fãs podem votar em seus favoritos no site oficial da premiação.

Veja aqui a lista completa de indicados relacionados a TV:

Série de Drama

CSI
Grey’s Anatomy
House
Lost
NCIS

Série de Comédia

Desperate Housewives
How I Met Your Mother
The Big Bang Theory
The Office
Two And a Half Men

Ator de Drama

Hugh Laurie
Kiefer Sutherland
Mark Harmon
Matthew Fox
Patrick Dempsey

Atriz de Drama

Anna Paquin
Blake Lively
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Katherine Heigl
Mariska Hargitay

Ator de Comédia

Alec Baldwin
Charlie Sheen
Jim Parsons
Neil Patrick Harris
Steve Carell

Atriz de Comédia

Alyson Hannigan
America Ferrera
Amy Poehler
Eva Longoria Parker
Tina Fey

Maior Obsessão na TV

Dexter
Gossip Girl
The Hills
The Secret Life of The American Teenager
True Blood

Talk Show

Chelsea Lately
Live with Regis & Kelly
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Tyra Banks Show

Série de Sci-Fi/Fantasia

Heroes
Lost
Supernatural
The Vampire Diaries
True Blood

Show de Competição

American Idol
Dancing With the Stars
Project Runway
So You Think You Can Dance
Survivor: Samoa

Nova Série de TV

V
Eastwick
FlashForward
Melrose Place
Mercy
The Forgotten
The Good Wife
The Vampire Diaries
Three Rivers
NCIS: Los Angeles

Well.

Yesterday I tackled some of “24’s” most hackneyed cliches. Today, in a continuation of what I’m calling “24 Week” or “120,” I discuss five of the Worst Moments in 24 History.

This was actually surprisingly difficult; while “24″ often relies upon the same cliches and writer conventions when it inevitably paints itself into a corner (or just can’t figure out a way to fill up the middle of the season) it’s had very few truly cringe-worthy moments, scenes or subplots.

But it has had a few.

(Again, spoilers abound. You have been warned, dammit!)

Five: Bring your daughter to work day has probably never turned out worse than this.

In an unenviable effort to fill up twenty-four god damn hours of programming. the writers usually have to come up with a few inane subplots that have nothing to do with the overall arc of the series. This, then, is one of those times.

Erin Driscoll became the new Head of CTU in Season Four. She fired Jack. She didn’t seem to know what she was doing. She put too much faith in Ronnie Lobell. She was overall pretty annoying.

To complicate matters, she had a schizophrenic daughter named Maya who she ended up bringing into CTU for some dumb reason to babysit. Maya had a few “episodes” at CTU, distracted her mother from her job of, you know, saving the country and then killed herself and, thankfully, this useless subplot.

I mean, I can understand how difficult it might be to find a sitter when you’re saving the world, but come on!

At least that was the end of Driscoll.

It really came down between this and that bizarre Chloe/baby subplot from Season Three…but I like Chloe, and that subplot at least gave us some sitcom-esque situations between her and an increasingly more befuddled Chappelle, so I’ll let it slide.

Four: Ratings are low. We should kill a cast member. Wait! TWO cast members! WAIT! EVERY CAST MEMBER.

One of the things I both love and despise about “24″ is its tendency to unexpectedly do away with main characters seemingly on a whim, usually for shock value, though if we’re lucky, occasionally for “plot development.” While it can be somewhat annoying, I do understand that it serves a purpose beyond contract terminations shock value. “24″ is one of the few shows where I constantly feel dread and foreboding whenever an established character gets him or herself into some dangerous situation. They’ve used their past willingness to dispatch cast members to beat us over the head with the fact that anyone can die and probably will. And in Season Five, they proved that with a veritable bloodbath of popular characters, culminating in one of the lamest/unforgivable acts of cast murder I’ve ever seen.

After killing off the second most important character in “24″ history, President David Palmer, I was pissed but understandable. His death would set in motion the events of Season Five. Alright, cool. Then they killed off Michelle, another major character who was instrumental in the series formative seasons. Also, she was hot. Still, I could get behind it. This all happened within the first fifteen seconds of the season premiere, so it was pretty intense.

But then they took it too far.

Tony Almeida had been with the show since Season One. A fan favorite, he was like Jack, only more brooding and intense and didn’t really get a lot of shit done. But he was awesome regardless, and the only real holdover from that season. Then he got stabbed in the heart with a needle by a dude who was half dead while crying about his dead wife Michelle.

It. Was. LAME. Didn’t even get a silent clock.

Luckily, they made up for Tony’s pathetic end by retconning him back into the series, alive and well and kind of evil, in the Seventh Season. I’m sure if you asked the people behind the show they’d probably tell you that was the plan all along. But in reality, I think they got a little trigger happy, realized they had nothing to connect the show to Season One, realized the fans were pissed, and decided to awkwardly write him back into the fold, with a very vague and unbelievable explanation for how he survived being stabbed in the heart with a syringe, injected with some magical heart-stopping fluid, and then zipped up into a body bag after the commercial break with a crying Jack looking on.

Whatever, man. Tony’s BACK. I’m good.

Three: Teri has amnesia!

I’m not even sure this one needs comment. I’ve often heard “24″ compared to soap operas – a soap opera for dudes, I suppose, like dating wrestling – and, in the spirit of that, during the middle of Season One, Jack’s wife develops amnesia for some reason and spends a few episodes wandering around aimlessly trying to remember who the hell she is. You see, like her daughter, Teri added virtually nothing to the show. They were human plot devices. Luckily for us, Teri was put out of her misery far earlier than Kim was – in, ironically, one of the show’s best scenes ever.

Hey! She DID serve a purpose!

Two: Kim Bauer is pretty much useless, always.

About four episodes into the series, the “24″ writers came to the grim realization that Kim Bauer had NOTHING TO ADD TO THE SHOW. Even in the first season when her subplot was directly related to Jack, (she was lost, or kidnapped, or something, and he was going to get her back DAMMIT) she still added very little – and then when Jack finally did rescue her and her mother, she REALLY had nothing to do. But she remained, and it became – what I can only hope – an elaborate game of one-up to see what increasingly more ridiculous situation the writers could put her in. This finally came to a stupendously dumb climax when Kim found herself tangling with a freaking cougar out in the woods for some reason during the second season. That’s right – while her father was out saving the world from terrorists, Kim Bauer was staging her own retarded version of “Where The Red Fern Grows.”

She was subsequently written out of the show one season later, though still pops up from time to time. And, in her defense, a little bit of Kim goes along way. When the writers aren’t forced to shoehorn her into the plot every hour, and actually use her to advance the story, she can be very effective.

It just took them three years to realize that.

One: Season Six just wasn’t very good, was it?

Remember up above when I said that the show had surprisingly very few truly cringe-worthy moments? That’s entirely true, by the way. It’s just unfortunate that one of those cringe-worthy “moments” was, in fact, an entire damn season.

Season Six was, without a doubt, the lowest point in the show’s entire history – for twenty-four straight hours.

There’s a lot you can attribute this to. Season Five was one of the shows strongest, and a tough act to follow – which leads me to believe that maybe the writers decided to just say “screw it” and not even try to top the previous season, and instead write such an incoherent mess that they’d have nowhere to go but up afterward.

Well, mission accomplished, I guess.

The season gets off to a pretty rocky start right off the bat – and by “rocky start” I mean “amazing start” that right away signalled to the audience that “welp, there’s nowhere to go from here but down.” And down they went.

The season began with terrorists detonating a nuclear bomb in a Los Angeles suburb. The shot of Jack looking helplessly as a huge mushroom blooms over Valencia was awesome, and really kickstarted thing with gusto. But – hey, wait a sec…where the hell do you go from there?

Do you know how hard it is to top a nuclear explosion? How on earth did they expect to keep the momentum going by blasting out their money shot in the first four episodes? I honestly don’t remember what the terrorist plot was in Season Six because, who cares? A damn nuke just exploded.

And it just gets worse from there. Jack killing Curtis. Forgettable villains with ill-defined motives. The pointless and embarrassing return of the Logan’s. Ricky freaking Schroeder.

It just didn’t end.

Now, admittedly, it had its moments. The big fight scene between Jack and villain Abu Fayed was one of the best choreographed and brutal fights I’ve ever seen on the show. Unfortunately, Fayed was not nearly as menacing or memorable a villain as past baddies, so it all seemed kind of wasted. But at least it looked badass.

The lowest moment of the entire, dismal season though came near the beginning, when the writers finally revealed the identity of the mysterious blue-toothed baddie who had (apparently) been pulling Logan’s strings in Season Five. We’d seen his face in Season Five. We even got his name – Graem. But what was his last name? How did he fit into everything? We were about to find out in glorious Season Six. This was a game-changer. This was key. A recurring villain! One with shady connections, who practically owned the president, one who could…

Jack’s never-before-spoken-about brother? Jack Bauer’s brother? The terrorist mastermind from Season Five is JACK’S FREAKING BROTHER?!?

Jack’s brother is a terrorist mastermind? This has never come up before? Talk about “soap opera for dudes.” What’s next – will Tony return from the dead to save the -

Oh, no wait. There’s Jack’s dad, and he just killed Graem. Guess he was behind it all along. Looks like Jack’ll be chasing his father around for the next twenty-one hours.

God dammit, Season Six sucked.

(And, of course, shortly after Tony did return from the dead bent on revenge or something.)

Soap opera for dudes!

Tomorrow, tune in for more “24″ related madness!

[Digg]

Mischa At The Bar None: Gin in a Wine Glass (Ok, not really)

Oct 12: Drunk Man Arrested: Flirts With Nurse Delivering His Baby, Misses Birth of 1st Child. i love this kind of story because i can honestly say i’ve never gone this far. People like this guy make me feel normal.

Adam Manning, 30 years old, showed up at the hospital with his pregnant wife/girlfriend (the web has both) and started eying the nurse wheeling the mother of his child. Apparently he liked what he saw because he told the nurse how attractive she was, started tickling her neck and then grabbed her breast with his significant other right there in the wheelchair. His first child, a son, was born without Adam, who had been arrested by the Ogden (Utah) police. A drink to Adam for being able to get drunk in Utah to begin with.

Adam Manning's Mug Shot

Coming Up: Mischa Barton Bar Fight

Nov 3: Drunk Jockeys Ruin Mayan Horse Race Guatemalans gathered in handfuls in Todos Santos Cuchumatan (sounds like something you say when barfing, doesn’t it? “CCUUUUUUUUUchum-um-umaTTTAAAANNNN”) to witness a traditional Mayan horse race, where riders go back and forth along a 330-foot stretch of road for seven hours. Unfortunately, things turned ugly because many of the jockeys were wasted on the moonshine they’d started pounding days before the contest. Apparently no one told them the ancient Mayans didn’t intend the race to be a drinking game (“What? This isn’t called ‘Quarters Horses’?”). At least two riders fell off their mounts; one was trampled and carried out of the mud by the crowd, another was seen stumbling off the track all bloodied. But hey, wouldn’t you get as drunk as possible whenever possible if your ancestors told you the world was going to end in two years?

Nov 4: Underage Man in Breathalyzer Suit Busted for DUI. On Halloween evening in Oxford, Ohio, 20-year-old James P Miller decided to drive the wrong way down a one-way street with his headlights off. An even worse idea was doing this while wearing a Breathalyzer costume. And holding an open beer. With more in the trunk. He was busted for:

1. Operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated
2. Underage possession of alcohol
3. Having an open container of alcohol
4. Possessing a fake i.d.
5. Driving the wrong way on a one-way street
6. Being a rocket scientist (yeah, not really)

He blew a 0.158, nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08. (Click here to see the BAC scale.) My question is, did the police make him blow himself?

Is It Just Me Or Is His Straw Bent?

Nov. 6: Drunk Driver Calls 911 For Stolen Weed Remember the woman who called 911 to report herself as a drunk driver? Calvin Hoover (21-years-old) did her one better. He called 9-1-1 in Salem, Oregon to report that, while he was in a bar, someone broke into his pickup and stole $400, a jacket and $180 worth of marijuana. Police tried to track him down but couldn’t. Fortunately, he called back and asked what the F was up, complaining that the deputies had not arrived. Apparently it was difficult to understand him because he was driving and puking simultaneously. (i bet he was just saying ”Cuchumatan”.) The cops finally tracked him down and arrested him for DWI. The good news was, because he didn’t have his weed, he couldn’t be busted for possession.

Calvin Hoover Mug Shot

You think that’s funny? Take a look at this comment posted on the newspaper site i linked in the headline:

“i just dont know what to say here, this is too funny! ex-oregon, been around the stuff with those who smoke, here, around with those who smoke. i must be weird, its the only explaination they give me for hanging around me. . . ok? used to it. i dont smoke the stuff, never have, not my thing to find my area? love my beer though! in this heat, ya gotta find a mellow balance, an pass a pis# test, shucks! this guy is a insult to the true beer culture, dont let this goof stop ya from a cold one every once in awhile. good beer, with freinds, after a rough day, can cure all. cold beer after a rough day for you, an spouse, can give folks ability to vent, an after, get along an have a good time! a choice of drug depends on person, think about it? coffee, vitamins, food types, its all about us! this guy only needs his ##s kicked till tomorrow. abuse comes in substance, human, an thought. i love my doctor, but she still wont give ma a brain transplant, i just want to change my mind, thats all!”

That’s me for you, always going the extra mile to bring you the behind the scenes story.

No, i haven’t forgotten about the Mischa Barton Bar Fight!

Mischa Barton In (and a little 'out of') Dior

Celebrity Dregs

Nov 3: i Wanna Party With Kiefer Sutherland (And TMZ Says So Too) Keifer Sutherland took fellow cast members of 24 out for a drink, at 7 in the morning. Generous soul that he is, he paid the $500 tab himself and left a $200 tip. The party wrapped up at 1pm. The thing that gets me is that he was drinking with 30 people and the tab only comes to $17 per person after drinking for 6 hours. Either The Spot is a super cheap bar or the other members of 24 don’t know how to drink like Kiefer. Anyway, the next time Kiefer’s in The Bar None, i’ll give him the runs for his money.

Plus He Came With A Designated Driver! What A Guy!

Oct 31: A Drunk Hugh Grant Gets Shot Down Things didn’t work out so well for Hugh Grant Halloween weekend. He was photographed at the Standard Hotel in New York, drunk off his barstool. He was hitting on this cute Israeli model, Matar Cohen, who dropped him like a cheap drink because he was too old (he’s 49, she’s 23). Has he forgotten that the best way to get a sure connection is to pay for it? [Thanks to Miss Demeanor for bringing this to my attention. MWAH]

"You're So Sexy When You're Plastred."

We Wanna Party Like the HOFF Parties

Two, count ‘m TWO stories about the Bar None’s Patron Deity this past week. (He must be slowing down in his old age.)

Nov 4: Pissed-Hoff A Loser If you’re gonna drink and gamble, it’s best to do it in Canada. At least that’s what Play-Hoffs decided. Seems he went to the Cascade Casino in British Columbia and got in a fight with an old person (there’s one fight he knows he can win). Security was called and three guards escorted him off the premises. He was seen drinking again seven hours later.

Nov 5: Ich Ben Ein Boozer The above bender apparently continued, because the very next day and on a completely different continent, the Hoff was visibly buzzed while making a speech to Germans at The European Music Awards.

Click On Image To See For Yourself

Nov 3: Mischa Barton’s Bar Brawl

What Mischa Looks Out Of The Bar None

[The mugshot is from a December 2007 DUI bust in West Hollywood.]

Mischa was at this NYC bar called the Park Bar (and the Park Bar people are bumming that i already got the name The Bar None) looking hot because that’s what she does best. Then this guy comes up and throws his drink on her, and doesn’t even lick it off her afterwards! Apparently it was payback because Mischa had stepped on his toes while coming back from the bar. So she throws her drink at him! Auuggghhh! Alcohol abuse at its worst! And then one of Mischa’s friends whips out his cocktail weenie and waggles it at the guy. Yeah, that would scare me, too. So the guys go outside to fight and apparently the guy who started it all lost. If you ask me, though, the real losers are these people who go around casually dumping their alcohol when there are people sober in India. The only throwing you should do with alcohol is up.

Here’s what i mean about Mischa looking good because she has to:

Well.

“24″ is great television. It’s ridiculous, contrived, right-leaning torture porn, but it is GREAT TELEVISION. I stand behind that.

But it can sometimes falter a bit. Often by utilizing the same hilarious cliches year after year, and occasionally by just completely missing the mark with a plotline, character, or totally weird “guh?” moment.

Today, I give you the Top Five 24 Cliches.

Tomorrow, tune in for the Five Worst 24 Moments.

It’s 48 hours of 24 madness. Better pack a lunch.

Also, some kind of anti-torture belt. Cuz Jack Bauer likes to torture.

A lot.

(Also, quick spoiler warning. This goes into quite a bit of detail if you haven’t seen the last seven seasons!)

Five: The traffic report for Los Angeles today is: CONVENIENT.

This is one of those things that I can kind of understand for pacing purposes, but it’s still ridiculous. I have never been to Los Angeles, and probably will never visit. Having said that, I do live in a city and understand that in large metropolitan areas traffic can be…well…

HORRENDOUS.

Not so in the “24″ universe…at least, not if the script dictates that it shouldn’t be. Like I said, I can totally understand the idea behind Jack driving across L.A. in a sixty-second commercial break. The show is in real-time, after all, and it would suck the excitement right out of the show if we had to watch Jack stuck in traffic, sipping his coffee and listening to talk radio for half an hour. It’s the inconsistency that bothers me. You want to cut out all the city driving to keep the pace moving at “24’s” regular break neck speed? Fine. But then don’t use L.A. traffic as an excuse when you need to fill time later on in the season.

Case in point:

Five minutes left in the episode, and Jack has to get across the city as fast as possible because he’s RUNNING OUT OF TIME. No problem. Traffic’s great. We’ll see you about thirty seconds before the end credits roll.

Half an hour left in the episode, and Jack needs to get across the city as fast as possible to ask some terrorist scum WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR but uh oh! Traffic is crazy Jack! Luckily CTU teams are all ready in position so we can hold him while you make your way to the airport to steal a helicopter but there might be some complications so I don’t know if you’ll make it there by episodes end, but at least that gives us something to do in the first half of next week’s episode, ok? SEE YOU NEXT WEEK.

I guess after a while, it gets a bit difficult to fill “24″ hours of television.

Four: The Counter Terrorist Unit enjoys countering terrorists by hiring them.

What the EFF, CTU? Is the job market so good in the “24″ universe that you can just hire ANYBODY to work in a highly secretive government agency whose sole purpose is national freaking defense?!? Is your benefits plan THAT BAD?!? Are all of the trustworthy, non-double agent government employees out getting jobs in marketing or teaching night classes? Do you have ANY sort of screening process in place at all? This isn’t McDonald’s or Barnes and Noble…it’s the COUNTER TERRORIST UNIT.

SO STOP HIRING TERRORISTS. It’s in your name, for god’s sake!

I mean, when Nina Meyers was revealed to be the mole inside CTU at the end of Season One – leaking out important information, killing Jack’s loved ones, etc – we were cool with it. Sure, she had a high position within the organization and was one of Jack’s best lovers friends, and sure she wasn’t the only mole working within CTU that season so we kind of thought we’d already gotten that nonsense out-of-the-way, and hey, sure, if you go back and rewatch Season One with the foreknowledge that Nina is in fact the mole from the very beginning, the entire season doesn’t make any  sense and her motivations throughout are patently ridiculous…but whatever. It was a nice little surprise, and we honestly didn’t see it coming.

Then they did it again. And again. And again. Almost every season there is at least one person working at CTU, leaking important information and creating general havoc with gleeful abandon and shifty glances around the office, while the heads of CTU bumble around unknowingly, content there couldn’t POSSIBLY be another mole within the agency, because the first question on the CTU job application totally asks whether or not the potential employee has been compromised, and besides, it’s not like this has ever happened before.

Or, you know, CONSTANTLY.

They even semi-sent it up in the fifth season with a CTU mole employee leaking information left, right and center but OH HO! to the White House this time! See, he thought he was doing good! He wasn’t a double agent for evil…he was a double agent for his COUNTRY! SEE WHAT THEY DID THERE?

Except by then the White House had been compromised, so he kind of was an agent for evil, albeit unknowingly.

Shortly after, the mole-riddled CTU was finally disbanded in favor of the F.B.I. in Season Seven

There was a mole there, too.

Three: You started off as kind of a dick, but now that you finally see things my way, I hope we can be friends and….OH SHIT YOU’RE DEAD NOW.

To be fair, this cliche isn’t entirely “24’s.” Honestly, you see this one a lot – though usually just in thriller/action shows/movies of this ilk/type. But “24″ seems to have claimed a monopoly on it, especially lately. So it TOTALLY COUNTS.

First things first. Jack Bauer is not what we would call a “people” person. He was married once, sure, but we all remember how that turned out. It’s not that Jack’s a bad guy per se (minus the killing and the yelling and the rampant torturing) it’s just that people who get close to him tend to end up…well, dead.

A disturbing trend, to be sure, but what’s more disturbing is the number of people who have seemingly figured this out, yet still fall victim to the Curse of Bauer.

These are the characters who hate Jack on sight – or, in some cases, after having worked with/been investigating his methods for quite some time. These usually aren’t “bad” people. Perhaps “bad” in Jack’s universe of RIGHT and WRONG and THAT GRAY AREA BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG that you sometimes have to cross into to get to RIGHT and WRONG.

No, they’re not evil men. They just have different morales and methods than Jack that usually put them at odds with him. Whether they’re to “professional” or to “by the book” or to “unwilling to endanger innocent lives all the time” they usually end up clashing with Jack at some point or another, yelling at him, firing him, or in one case, putting him on trial for torture or treason or breaking amendments or something. Jerks!

And, regardless of how many rules he’s broken or how many lives he’s endangered or how many partners he’s shot in the neck, we, the audience, always end up on Jack’s side. Sure, he may be breaking international laws – as well as the laws of common sense – by raiding an embassy, but he’s Jack Bauer, dammit! HE KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING. And no shady bureaucrat is going to stand in his way! Boo to you, guy who’s just doing his job within the confines of the constitution! JACK BAUER’S ALWAYS RIGHT.

And, usually he is. As unorthodox as he may be, Jack always gets the job done, and he (and we) truly believe he’s on the side of right. He doesn’t do what he does because he’s a violent madman (though I’m sure that helps); he does what he does because no one else has the balls to do it, and sometimes you gotta get your hands a little dirty to stop a nuclear apocalypse.

Inevitably, those that doubted Jack in the beginning at some point come around to his side when they realize that he’s the only chance they’ve got, and he’s making progress where their red tape and legal methods were not. George Mason, Ryan Chapelle, Larry Moss, even that senator played by Red Foreman from “That 70’s Show” all eventually stood behind Jack and even began to trust him.

Not long after that happens, they usually get gunned down in some horrific and shocking way, and we the audience feel sympathy and sadness for these characters who we initially hated and thought of as Jack Bauer hating douchebags. Way to manufacture emotions, writers of “24.”

And, in a REALLY  shocking twist that proves that a) you shouldn’t learn to like Jack Bauer and b) he really WILL do whatever it takes and maybe you should have tried to stick to your guns on that one a bit more, Bauer ended up killing Chappelle himself, execution style.

But a terrorist who was holding a bunch of people hostage with some plot device nerve gas told him to, so it was totally okay.

WHATEVER IT TAKES.

Two: “WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR?!?”

Once again I think I could probably chalk this one up to the writers having to fill twenty-four hours of programming, coupled with the difficulty of constantly trying to one-up each season over a period of SEVEN YEARS. Combine that with a seemingly last-minute and transparent attempt at some continuity in a series that wasn’t really big on season-to-season continuity, and you get the Russian Doll Bad Guy Syndrome, which is something I totally just made up now but think sounds really sweet.

Every season has Jack tracking down the main villain (or so he thinks!) only to dispatch him and find another antagonist waiting behind that one, the dude who’s really pulling the strings. It’s usually at least half a season’s worth of tearing apart a Russian Doll full of villains until he finally gets through all of the lackeys to the final “Big Bad.”

Season Five was a good example of that. The bad guys had just murdered ex-president David Palmer, and it was up to Jack to bring them to justice! He found the sniper, who was working for a dude in the white house, who was in cahoots with a Russian dude who was outsourced by a guy who secretly answered only to another guy, who was also the current President, who was only calling the shots as they were given to him by some other dude who was on a board of directors with some other guys, who all communicated with Bluetooth headsets and believed in chaos, or something.

Of course we find out in Season Seven that IT DIDN’T END THERE! There was another even SHADIER board of directors who communicated with computers and voice modulators, and who believed in patriotism, or something, and they had Jon Voight and, uh…

But that’s not where it ends! It CAN’T be where it ends! This conspiracy needs to go higher and higher, and deeper and deeper, until EVERYBODY is implicated in this grand conspiracy, the details of which have grown fuzzy and probably weren’t that important!

Everyone except Jack, of course.

We’ll need him to kill them.

One: Target: Los Angeles: AGAIN.

Again, I’ve never been to Los Angeles. But apparently, it’s the international hot spot for terrorism. Just ask Jack Bauer, and six seasons of impending doom.

It just seems awfully convenient that apparently all of the terror activity occurring in the USA just happens to occur in the city where the Counter Terrorism Unit is located.

I mean, it’s bad enough that half the “big bads” seem to know Jack personally from the past (you’d think that just knowing Jack personally, and knowing he resides in L.A., would be enough to keep you the hell out) but even the ones he didn’t at one time trust, are showing up on the Western coast.

Every year some dude shows up in California with a nuke, or a virus, or a nuke and a virus, and tries his luck at wiping Los Angeles off the face of the planet. And every time he fails MISERABLY.

Note to “24″ villains: You wanna succeed? I mean, you really, really wanna succeed? TRY BLOWING UP SOMETHING SOMEWHERE WHERE JACK BAUER ISN’T.

But even then, we all know he’d somehow stop you anyways.

Riflessi di paura (Mirrors) è un film horror del 2008 diretto da Alexandre Aja, remake del film sudcoreano Into the Mirror (Geoul sokeuro) del 2003. Il film è stato distribuito nelle sale italiane il 3 ottobre 2008.

Leggi altre notizie su: | Horror | Thriller | Alexandre Aja | Kiefer Sutherland | Paula Patton | Cameron Boyce

Blast from the past - 24/Day 6 - Former President Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin) and Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). Photo copyright of Fox

THE anticipation for Season Eight of 24 continues to surge with Gregory Itzin reprising his acclaimed role as Charles Logan. The Emmy award-winning drama starring Kiefer Sutherland returns for its next astonishing day with a two-night, four-hour premiere event Sunday, January 17th, 2010 (9 p.m. – 11 p.m. EST/PST) and Monday, January 18th, 2010 (8 p.m. - 10 p.m. EST/PST).

The disgraced former President Logan was last seen after being shockingly stabbed by First Lady Martha Logan (Jean Smart) in Season Six. Itzin’s return to 24 will bring together the series’ two Emmy-nominated “presidents” for the first time when sitting President Allison Taylor (Emmy award-winner Cherry Jones) reluctantly enlists Logan to assist with an escalating international diplomatic crisis.

When asked about this onscreen pairing, 24 executive producer Howard Gordan said, “The opportunity for these two remarkable actors to share the stage was simply too compelling to pass up.”

Season Eight resets in New York City where a retired Jack Bauer (Sutherland) is unwillingly drawn back into the intense action after learning of a plot to assassinate Middle Eastern peace-keeping leader Omar Hassan (Anil Kapoor). Meanwhile, Renee Walker (Annie Wersching) and Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) return alongside CTU newcomer Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff), Brian Hastings (Mykelti Williamson) and Cole Ortiz (Freddie Prinze Jr.).

As noted above, photo is copyright of Fox Television, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

A solo una semana de presentar los primeros adelantos oficiales, los productores de 24 sorprendieron a todos los fanáticos al confirmar que el ex-presidente Charles Logan será parte de la octava temporada de la serie.

Según lo informado, Gregory Itzin, que recibió una nominación al Premio Emmy por interpretar a uno de los villanos favoritos de la serie, ha llegado a un acuerdo para aparecer en una cantidad no revelada de episodios.

Como todos los fanáticos deben recordar, el ex-presidente Logan fue visto por ultima vez en la sexta temporada, cuando se encontraba en viaje al hospital luego de ser apuñalado por su ex-esposa Martha Logan (Jean Smart).

Aunque no esperábamos el regreso, tenemos que recordar que en el inicio de la temporada pasada, Renee Walker (Annie Wersching) le dijo a Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) que Logan estaba vivo y en arresto domiciliario, pero no se volvió a tocar el tema.

Al confirmar este regreso, el productor ejecutivo Howard Gordon dijo que la posibilidad de unir a Itzin y Cherry Jones era demasiado buena, por lo que la Presidenta Taylor se verá obligada a pedir ayuda a Logan para resolver una crisis diplomática.

Como todos saben, la octava temporada 24 comienza con especial de dos noches y cuatro episodios, en los que encontraremos a Jack en Nueva York regresando a la acción luego de descubrir una conspiración para asesinar al líder Omar Hassan (Anil Kapoor).

La temporada 8 de 24 comienza el 17 de enero.

yer gonna need a bigger church...

PG

Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson

Susan: Did you see how strong I was!?  There’s probably not a jar in this world I can’t open!

On her wedding day, Susan (Witherspoon) is hit by a meteorite which causes her to grow into a giant.  She is captured by the government and imprisoned along with 4 other monsters that have been caught.  When a humongous alien robot shows up looking for the very substance that turned Susan into a giant, she and the other monsters are called upon to help destroy it.

While this movie may not be as witty or enthralling as most of the Pixar movies, I still enjoyed it for its visuals and original idea.  In fact, the idea is so good, I think that any disappointment I felt was because I think an even better movie could have been made.  It probably could have been a little more imaginative, especially when it comes to the Aliens.  The alien leader is kind of dull, and the giant robot he sends initially doesn’t have much personality either.

The monsters are pretty good, though.  Seth Rogen was particularly funny as B.O.B., the amorphous blob of goo who constantly demonstrates that he has no brain.  I think his voice was much more suited for this character than it was for his character in Kung Fu Panda.

What was with the human faces, though?  I thought the proportions and expressions were borderline creepy at times.  Actually, I’m quite certain they were.  Especially early on, at the wedding.

As I mentioned, it might be funny at times, but it’s not a hilarious movie.  This adds to it feeling a little overlong (even though it’s only 94 minutes in length), especially in the second half.  But at least their are those nice visuals to take in.  I especially enjoyed the view as the military helicopters approached the giant alien robot.  Cool stuff.

Overall, this won’t be topping my list of favorite computer animated movies, or even cracking the top 5, but it’s an enjoyable ride while it lasts.  Just don’t count on it being one you’ll want to get back in line for after it’s over.

Brains are overrated.

10 – 1.2 for lacking some in the funny department – 1 for dragging a bit in the second half – .4 for the aliens being kinda dull = 7.4

Monsters vs Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space

Resolvi fazer algo diferente: baixei e assisti com a minha filha de 8 anos um desenho animado de 21 minutos para coremorar o dia das bruxas.

O título já entrega o que acontece: “abóboras mutantes do espaço sideral” – genial, não? Um disco voador transforma toda uma plantação de abóboras em perigosos mutantes. O time de monstros é enviado para combatê-los.

Trata-se de uma curta continuação do genial “Monstros vs Alienígenas“, da Dreamworks. Aliás, se bobear, estará nos extras do dvd, quando este sair.

Assim como acontece no longa, o curta é cheio de piadas referenciais. Rolam citações a outros filmes, como. “E.T.”, “Família Monstro” e, claro, “Halloween”. E a animação também é ótima. Tá, o outro vi em 3D, numa enorme tela de cinema, este aqui vi na tela da tv de casa, então fica difícil de comparar. Mesmo assim, a animação não decepciona.

Tive que ver com o áudio original em inglês (e sem legendas!). Pelo menos pude ouvir as vozes dos atores que dublam os personagens. Afinal, temos Kiefer Sutherland, Seth Rogen, Reese Witherspoon e Hugh Laurie no elenco!

Ah, sim, feliz dia das bruxas!

Nuff said.

Get hyped!