Archive for the ‘Hollywood’ Category

I was minding my own business after coming home from a doctors appointment, and my girlfriend is watching The Rendering. It is one of those crappy chick flik dramas and stars Shannen Doherty. I mostly ignored it by surfing the web for info on the new Champions Online game and the upcoming Star Trek Online, but I was able to pick up a few key plot points.

Shannen Doherty is a police sketch artist and she does a sketch of a serial rapist and it looks just like her husband.

Oh wait… there are more twists and turns in this epic.

It ends up that her husband was framed by some guy, I don’t know his name but we will call him Dick. Dick had attacked her in the past and had been sent to prison for whatever he did or tried to do to Shannen Doherty. I missed the beginning of the movie so I am not sure about exactly what happened in the past, but I do know Dick held a grudge against Shannen Doherty. Also, I was not paying close attention as to how Dick orchestrated the plot to frame her husband, and plant evidence in their house from prison, but I was able to learn that Dick found a look alike for her husband in prison and had that guy do the rapes.

Later I catch a detail where Dick convinces Shannen Doherty that he will promise to keep her husband safe in prison if she testifies at his parole hearing and he gets out. Naturally, she does this and Dick is released.

In shocking plot twist, it ends up that it was a mistake for her to trust the word of the guy who attacked her and framed her husband for crimes he didn’t commit, but she does and Dick turns on her.

Again, I missed how this criminal was able to arrange it, but he gets the guards to move a killer to Shannen Doherty’s husbands cell. The guard even gave an evil/maniacal laugh when putting the guy in the cell with her husband. But, miraculously when the rumble takes place, after lights out, her husband ended up killing the killer.

At this point I am watching the movie with my full attention, and because it is so bad, I must comment about it to the girlfriend. Apparently she missed some details while I was critiquing the film, so she rewinds it and that’s when I realize this isn’t live tv and she got sucked into a bad movie.

Noooo.

She recorded it on the DVR.

Now, before we continue the review, lets get something straight, my girlfriend has a knack for hogging all the space on our DVR with cooking shows and crime dramas. It is usually so full there is no space to record what I want, even though I am supposedly the one that can’t share, because I am an only child, but unlike me, my girlfriend, the eldest of five, has sharing mastered.

As you can tell, this is an “issue” between her and I. And I had to comment on how she defiled our DVR with this awful movie, and this is why we were unable to record the Daily Show and Colbert Report last night and the premiere of Ghost Hunters International last week when we were out of town, because “The Renderering” was taking up space.

OK, let me take a deep breath and continue my review of this so called “movie.”

So, almost immediately, the police realize she was right about the plot to frame her husband, they arrest Dick and let her husband out of prison immediately. This time I did not miss how this happened, they just realized the dead guy in the cell was a murderer and that was all the proof they needed to let her husband go. How they caught Dick, I’ll never know. But you see cops bringing him in as they let out Shannen Dohertys husband. Fortunately this gives Dick the chance to practice his acting and make a menacing face at Shannen Doherty and her husband.

So, you think the movie is over, as Shannen Doherty and her husband have sex, and he comments that the thought of this is what kept him alive in prison. They then decide they are going on vacation because, “they both deserve it after all that has happened.”

While the happy couple packs, we cut away to Dick in the back of a cop car, where he fakes a heart attack or something and one of the cops climbs in the back seat to help, without his gun drawn or his partner covering him. (The partner stays in the front passenger seat). Dick chokes the cop with hand cuffs and gets his gun. Now the partner gets on the radio and Dick shoots them both.

Cut to the phone ringing and the answering machine going off, and the cops leaving a message for Shannen Doherty that Dick has escaped, but she is drying her hair and misses it. When she comes out her husband is gone and Dick left her a note on where to find them.

She shows up, Dick tries to kill her. She fights with him and holds her own against a hardened criminal who was recently released from prison and only prevails when Dick accidentally hits his head on a nail sticking out of the wall and is killed.

Shannen unties her husband, and as they walk off, she says, “Lets go home.” Neither of them looks even remotely upset or distressed or even relieved that they just got out of a life and death situation. They just blandly walk off and the credits roll.

In short, I think the writers, the directors, actors and even editors just gave up at the end of this film.

So as a movie I give it one out of five stars.

As a movie that is MS3TK-able, I give it four and a quarter stars, and a full five for the last ten minutes.

I would say check it out, but really, I don’t know that it is a good idea.

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So, I have one of the coolest web hosts on the planet. Long-time readers may remember what happened last year when my site got nailed by Digg. She does a really great job making sure everyone can read my opinions on video games, military leadership, and vampire survival. Which is great because I feel that the whole world is entitled to my opinions, and you will all thank me when the vampires come for you. (Oh yes, you will.)

Well not only does Jen do a superb job in letting all of you read the babble that spills out of my brain, she also finds to time to work with charities. Not only is she working with a charity, but she picked the first recipient for her help in honor of me. This is great for two reasons. One, she’s helping to feed my ego. Which is pretty close to the most wonderful thing a person can do. (Sing my praises! SING, DAMN YOU!) Also, by honoring me in this way she pretty much obligates me to write about it, which should hopefully drive some attention to her cause. Which just goes to show that she is exactly the kind of smart and canny individual that you want helping your charity. Or being your web host for that matter.

Here’s another fun fact about Jen. Last August she and her son Jacob got to meet Stephen Colbert. And there is an interesting story there.

Jacob has a fairly serious problem with his heart. He has needed multiple surgeries and tons of other kinds of medical treatment. One of the few silver linings of cases like this is that he got to make use of the Make-A-Wish foundation. And through the two of them I got to learn a few things about how it works.

First of all, I learned that George Lucas will not meet with Make-A-Wish kids. He will let them go to Skywalker Ranch. But he won’t meet them. This puzzled me until I thought about it. If I had mangled a beloved science fiction franchise as badly as he had, I might be leery about letting a nerd with a life threatening illness near me. Some kid is going to show up with a dynamite vest screaming, "This is for Jar-Jar you bastard!"

So Jacob decided to meet with a classy celebrity. And thus he got to go visit the Colbert Report. He got to hang out backstage, meet Stephen. His mother even mentioned to my wife and me that they hung out with a journalist who was a guest on the show that day. I didn’t think much of that until I watched that episode later. It turns out the journalist was Tom Ricks. (And this was not long after that incident.)

And I mourned a lost opportunity. I could have gotten Jacob to give him grief. Jacob would make the perfect agent to antagonize Tom. No matter what he said, Mr. Ricks would have to take it. I mean, who’s going to be mean to a Make-A-Wish kid? It would have been awesome.

Of course, it has been pointed out that it would be really messed up to try to subvert some kids special Wish-Day into an attempt for petty revenge for a minor disagreement. "Now jacob, I know that this is your special day and all, but I need you to be mean to the reporter, can you do that for me buddy?" Yeah I’m a horrible person. But I’m funny, so it’s all okay.

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So a few years ago I saw Terminator 3.  To say that I thought it was a bad movie would be a mild understatement.  It was a train wreck with opening credits and a soundtrack.  It’s so bad that I actually enjoy the other movies less, ambulance knowing that part 3 exists.

But next month there’s going to be a TV show, anesthetist and I’m kind of excited about it.  I mean sure it’s on FOX which means that they’ll kill it at the first sign that it looks decent, but they lined up a good cast and the previews make it seem pretty interesting.

On a similar note, it appears that there will soon be a new Star Wars live action show.  And despite the fact that each of the three last Star Wars movies made T3 look like Shakespeare, I’m still looking forward to that too.

I am positive that I am not alone in this phenomenon.  Nerds have become the equivalent of those housewives you used to see on Jerry Springer.  The ones who, despite years of abuse, keep going back to the same violent men because, “This time he promises he won’t hit me any more.”

Movie Viewer : Oh my god! That movie was terrible! What the hell happened to it George?

Mr. Lucas: (Gives a vicious glare)Yeah.  What happened to it?

Nerd Audience: It fell.  Down the stairs.  Twice.

Mr. Lucas: That’s what I thought….now get back in the kitchen and fry me up a pork chop you geeks!

Now I have a mental picture of a trailer park filled with a collection of white-trash nerds…and which I have now passed on to you.  Your brain probably now feels about as clean as Lindsey Lohan’s bicycle seat.  Pleasant dreams.

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