September 2013

Oh What a Rush

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Rush
  • IMDB: link

RushEven more than winners and losers, championship runs and crushing defeats, sports are defined by rivalries. In Rush, director Ron Howard and screenwriter Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon, Hereafter, The Queen) turn their attention to Formula One and the mid-1970s rivalry between two upstarts whose competition eventually would make them both world champions.

The stark contrast in the two characters and the drama of the season screams Hollywood sports film, and I’m a little surprised it has taken this long for their story to find its way to the big screen. Without the backing of his family Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) bought his way into Formula One with a prickly personality and an unparalleled knowledge of getting the best out of his car. Lauda’s main competition came from the charming but flighty James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) who despite lacking Lauda’s single-mindedness made up for it in his own self-absorbed recklessness and resolve to prove he could beat anyone on a race track.

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Don Jon

/ / Uncategorized
  • Title: Don Jon
  • IMDB: link

Don JonWritten and directed by star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Don Jon is a romantic comedy presented from the male perspective that’s likely to appeal more to men than women. A film about how a man loves porn more than the woman he’s with is certainly a tricky topic for a date movie (while making certain aspersions to the emotional porn of romcoms and Catholicism along the way), but Gordon-Levitt manages to pull off the intriguing premise even if it looses steam when the film takes its inevitable dramatic turn.

Jon (Gordon-Levitt) really only cares about a handful of things in his life: his friends, his car, his apartment, his religion, and, even more than the bevy of beauties the man takes home every night, his porn. And he really takes his porn seriously. You might even go so far as to call Jon a porn connoisseur. Even when he begins dating the stunning Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), Jon is incapable at letting go of his true love which is always presented in a series of quick-cuts featuring the sound his Mac powering and various porn clips before the inevitable shot of a wad of Kleenex hitting the trash can.

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Nashville – I Fall to Pieces

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Nashville – I Fall to Peices
  • wiki: link

Nashville - I Fall to Pieces

In the aftermath of the car crash Rayna (Connie Britton) languishes in a coma, Deacon (Charles Esten) is in jail facing drunken driving charges, and Juliette (Hayden Panettiere) worries the timing may tank her new album’s release. Peggy (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) lies to Teddy (Eric Close) about loosing the baby to try and keep him, Scarlett (Clare Bowen) and Gunnar (Sam Palladio) each deal with their recent break-up in different ways as she throws herself into trying to get her uncle released on bail (despite his complete disinterest at leaving prison) and Gunnar lets himself get roped into a party thrown by his still closeted roommate (Chris Carmack) that gets a little out of hand.

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Uncanny X-Men #12

/ / Comics

Uncanny X-Men #12Seeking refuge from current and future X-Men who would forcibly return them to their own time, the younger versions of Scott Summers and Jean Grey seek out Cyclops and his team in hopes of refuge. Cyclops answer is not surprising, although Emma is less than pleased.

Uncanny X-Men #12 is a solid issue, and on the plus side I’m able to follow the events of the Battle of the Atom crossover (which sadly doesn’t involve Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi) without having read the other issues. As much as I liked the issue, however, it didn’t sell me on buying an extra three issues before the storyline returns to this comic.

The dilemma Cyclops is presented with here, try to help the past version of himself and the love of his life (and continue to screw with the timeline) or abandon them is a tough one that the issue handles well. When the future version of the group shows up to forcibly take back the original X-Men, Emma Frost is surprised to find an older Jean Grey among them which should lead to a rather un-ladylike battle between the pair of Cyclops’ exes. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]

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Person of Interest – Liberty

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Person of Interest – Liberty
  • wiki: link

Person of Interest - Liberty

Person of Interest‘s Third Season opens up with Reese (Jim Caviezel) and Finch (Michael Emerson) calling on the help of Shaw, Fusco (Kevin Chapman), and the recently demoted Officer Carter (Taraji P. Henson) to help save a stand-up Naval petty officer (Rey Valentin) and his less scrupulous best friend (Alano Miller) whose sticky fingers while helping a group of Marine smugglers has put them both in danger.

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