2.5 Razors

Smash – Season One

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Smash – The Complete First Season
  • tv.com: link

smash-season-one-dvdNBC’s attempt to cash-in on the success of Glee and American Idol produced an up-and-down first season of the soapy backstage goings on behind the scenes of a Broadway musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe.

Katharine McPhee stars as Broadway newbie Karen Cartwright, the most talented member of the cast eventually chosen by the show’s director (Jack Davenport) as the show’s lead, even if he is dating her main competition (Megan Hilty). Other storylines involve the various love lives of the musical’s writers (Christian Borle, Debra Messing), bedhopping, drug problems, and the struggles of the show’s producer (Anjelica Huston) in both her personal and professional life.

The addition of Uma Thurman late in the season as a Hollywood celebrity who lacks the singing and dancing chops necessary to pull off the lead of a musical offered the role of Marilyn to keep the flagging production afloat, is, like everything else about the First Season, only partially successful.

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Chicago Fire – God Has Spoken

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Chicago Fire – God Has Spoken
  • tv.com: link

chicago-fire-god-has-spoken

“God Has Spoken” opens with the aftermath of the freak car accident that leaves Gabriela (Monica Raymund) bloodied and Shay (Lauren German) rushed to the emergency room for far more serious injuries. Friends and coworkers arrive at the hospital to offer their support as one of their own fights to survive a nasty head injury.

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Masks #2

/ / Comics

masks-2-coverWith New York City now a police state controlled by corrupt new government of gangsters known as the Justice Party, The Shadow, The Green Hornet and Kato, and The Spider find themselves overwhelmed by the enhanced technology the criminals have gotten their hands on to keep control of their city.

Issue #2 also introduces the Green Lama and Black Bat who begin to fight back against the oppressive new government as well. The story of the young artist on the wrong side of the government’s new oppressive regime continues as well foreshadowing, I’m guessing, the eventual birth of a new Zorro.

I thought the first comic worked in trying to throw all these characters together in an unusual situation that required them to work together. Masks #2 isn’t quite as good, forced to rely more on fleshing out a story than just introducing the concept. There’s far more talking about doing something than actual action, and some “necessary” awkward introductions among the heroes take up way too many panels. Hit-and-Miss.

[Dynamite Entertainment, $3.99]

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Daredevil #21

/ / Comics

daredevil-21-coverDaredevil‘s fight with the Coyote concludes as our hero is able to get enough information to prove the innocence of Foggy‘s client and make it out of his lair alive. Although he doesn’t find out who hired the super-villain to create havoc with his life, Matt Murdock gets enough to confront his former partner and hash things out once and for all.

Although I liked the idea of the Coyote, I’m glad to see this increasingly creepy storyline put to rest. I’m also happy to see Matt finally get the opportunity to tell an ashamed Foggy off. It looks like although the city of New York is willing to discount Foggy and Kristen McDuffie‘s (pretty damn baseless) concerns, McDuffie isn’t quite so willing to let the matter rest. Sadly for our hero, she has called in help to deal with Daredevil.

I like the idea of Spider-Man guest-starring in the next issue, but with what writer Dan Slott is doing with the character I’m pretty sure it’s going to be far less enjoyable than the Spidey & Black Cat crossover from earlier this year. For fans.

[Marvel, $2.99]

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This is 40

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: This is 40
  • IMDb: link

this-is-40-posterThe latest from Judd Apatow is a very personal tale, and thinly-veiled comedic look at the writer/director’s own life (which casts his real-life family and is shot in their home). The film returns Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann (Apatow’s real-life wife) in this sort of, but not really, sequel to Knocked Up. Set in between the weeks where both intrinsically selfish characters turn 40 years-old, the humor of This is 40 often rings true but doesn’t necessarily always produce big laughs.

Much like Apatow’s last film, Funny People, This is 40 meanders its way through its more than two-hour running time (nearly always a bad sign for a comedy) by exploring the everyday lives of its characters with, at times, the barest structure of a plot.

What Apatow does deliver is a frank (and at times amusing) slice of life snapshot, with moments of hilarity, between a couple both going through their own mid-life crises while dealing with the demands of their children (Iris Apatow, Maude Apatow) and parents (Albert Brooks, John Lithgow).

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