2.5 Razors

Political Animals – Second Time Around

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Political Animals – Second Time Around
  • tv.com: link

political-animals-second-time-around

Following up last week’s Pilot, Elaine (Sigourney Weaver) sends the former President of the United States, and her ex-husband (Ciarán Hinds), to negotiate the hostage crisis in Iran, a move the current President (Adrian Pasdar) isn’t all too thrilled with being bullied into making. Elaine allows Susan Berg (Carla Gugino) to make the trip as a member of the press as part of her exclusive on the First Lady, and although she doesn’t change her opinion of Bud, spending some time with him on the plane does make her continue to soften her stance on Elaine.

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Futurama – The Butterjunk Effect

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Futurama – The Butterjunk Effect
  • tv.com: link

futurama-the-butterjunk-effect

After returning moon rocks to the moon, Fry (Billy West), Amy (Lauren Tom), and Leela (Katey Sagal) decide to check out the local Butterfly Derby. Despite being disgusted with the sport, her friendly rivalry with Amy gets both women to sign up to be a new Butterfly Derby team but in order to compete they’re forced to take a performance-enhancing drug called Nectar.

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Nightwing #11

/ / Comics

nightwing-new-52-coverAfter surviving an attack from Paragon and his acolytes in the Republic of Tomorrow‘s secret lair Nightwing continues to piece together who is framing him for murder, and why. At first he’s sure Detective Nie is responsible, but a little more investigating leads him to a new conclusion.

The issue also continues the tenuous relationship between Dick and Tony Zucco‘s daughter Sonia. The pair have their first fight when she breaks the news that his loan was denied by flashapply.com because of what happened when Haly Circus returned to Gotham. I’m really, really hoping writer Kyle Higgins isn’t going to try to link these two romantically.

Paragon cleans house of the disloyal soldiers before looking for a new ally to take down one of Gotham’s self-appointed saviors. The story continues, but doesn’t really advance that much (even Nightwing’s eureka moment is kept from readers) so aside from the developments in the subplot with Sonia you could probably skip this one and not miss a beat. Hit-and-Miss.

[DC, $2.99]

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Batman and Robin #11

/ / Comics

batman-and-robin-new-52-11-coverWhile Damian pays Jason Todd an unexpected visit to teach him a lesson about who the best Robin really is, Terminus has his sidekicks (the unfortunately named Scallop and Bootface) branding citizens of Gotham with the bat-symbol to get Batman‘s attention.

Whether intentional or not the branding the city definitely makes you think Christopher Nolan’s second Bat-film (especially when buildings of Gotham start having burning bat-symbols in them – just like the posters for The Dark Knight). I doubt it’s a coincidence this comic hit the stands one week before The Dark Knight Rises opens in theaters.

As to Damian, who appears to be back in full on spoiled little-shit mode despite the tease that he might grow up a bit after the failure with Nobody, it’s an interesting choice for him to view Todd (the Robin he’s most like) with such contempt. I’ll be interested to see what action the Red Hood might take in retaliation. Although the crowbar sequence is in bad taste, it certainly fits this version of the character. Hit-and-Miss.

[DC, $2.99]

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Guilty Pleasure – The Pirate Movie

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Pirate Movie
  • IMDb: link

pirate-movie-dvd

Loosely based on Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, 1982’s The Pirate Movie starred Kristy McNichol as mousey young Mabel lost in a dream of swashbuckling, and singing, pirates. After an accident leaves her thrown overboard and washed up on a beach, Mabel’s imagination creates a fantasy world casting herself as the youngest daughter of a Major-General (Bill Kerr) who falls for a young pirate named Frederic (Christopher Atkins) adamant on leaving his service of the Pirate King (Ted Hamilton) to start a new life.

The plot, which involves Fredric’s attempt to leave his old life behind while trying to stay true to his word and duty, is secondary to how insanely everything is played including some memorable music numbers such as “Pumpin’ and Blowin'” (you can find the video below). I’ll be honest, the film doesn’t work as well for me as it did when I was seven years-old, but it still provides enough enjoyment for me to classify it as a guilty pleasure.

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