July 2010

Psych – Romeo and Juliet and Juliet

  • Title: Psych – Romeo and Juliet and Juliet
  • tv.com: link

Let’s take a moment to celebrate the return of Psych for a fifth season. The opener, entitled “Romeo and Juliet and Juliet” involves rival Chinese Triad families, kidnapping, and a pair of star-crossed lovers. Here’s a clip of Shawn and Gus stealthily tracking a ninja (and not so stealthily breaking into his lair). Great stuff! The new season continues tonight on USA.

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Birds of Prey #3

birds-of-prey-3-coverThings go from bad to worse for our plucky heroines. Gail Simone has a couple twists up her sleeve, one of which should stop the bitching over the deaths of two marginal characters last month.

By the final panel the villains will stand revealed, along with a much larger plot, and none of it looks good for our heroes. (I can’t be the only one hoping Hawk gets killed, right?)

There are a couple of really nice moments here including Oracle‘s stunned surprise, a tearful possible farewell between Black Canary and her mates, some lurid daydreams by the Penguin, and Zinda‘s distaste at Hawk’s attempts to shield her from danger.

Next month’s conclusion of this first story arc should be a doozy. Worth a look.

[DC $2.99]

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Inception

  • Title: Inception
  • IMDB: link

The latest from writer/director Christopher Nolan is complicated, reality bending, multi-layered look inside the world of unconscious imagination. In the near future the ability to enter into an individual’s dreams and extract information has become a profitable, but highly illegal, enterprise. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Dom Cobb the leader of a group of experts who are the best at this type of information extraction.

As Cobb’s past catches up with him, both in the real world and that of his dreams, he’s offered a single chance to reclaim the life which was taken from him if he can perform the impossible: Inception. The idea is not to steal information from the latest subject, the heir to a business empire (Cillian Murphy), but instead implant an idea in his mind which will grow naturally and change one choice in the real world which could mean billions for Cobb’s client.

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Cyrus

  • Title: Cyrus
  • IMDB: link

At a time when lo-fi music is getting a lot of attention from critics and listeners alike, it’s not surprising to find a similar movement emerging from film. Dubbed “Mumblecore,” these movies forsake high production value for handheld, affordable cameras and a production style that emphasizes improvisation – whether it be camera angles or dialogue. The posterboys for Mumblecore are Jay and Mark Duplass, two brothers that have gotten some attention for their movies including Baghead, and last year’s Humpday (both of which are availible of Netflix Streaming.) They’ve come far enough that, despite taking advantage of low-budget limitations to inform their films’ style, their newest film, Cyrus, was actually financed by a major studio.

Whereas you can easily imagine filmmakers doing totally different things with their budgets when they expand from five to seven digits, it turns out that Cyrus keeps the same aesthetic. The only difference here is that, instead of using themselves and their friends as actors, Cyrus has some pretty well-known talent in front of the camera.

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Covert Affairs – Pilot

  • Title: Covert Affairs – Pilot
  • tv.com: link

First days on the job can be hard, especially if you’re a spy. In Covert Affairs Piper Perabo stars as FBI Agent Karen Sympathy…wait, that was something else. Perabo stars as CIA trainee Annie Walker who gets thrown into the field for a special assignment. Christopher Gorham and Anne Dudek also star. Although the Pilot is a little rough in spots, I could do without the jealousy of Annie’s boss (Kari Matchett) to her husband (Peter Gallagher), and I’m still very much on the fence of the mysterious love angle, there’s definite promise. If you like the short clip take a gander at the rest.

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