The Pros and Cons of Breaking Bad: Season 2

Pros:
Tucco: Everything was unpredictable when he was still around. His performances were amazing in a 70s New Hollywood type of way. The Emmys and Golden Globes sucked by not nominating him.
The writing was amazing. We had no idea how Walt was going to strike against him.
Jesse Pinkman really got to evolve: He was not a sidekick to Walt anymore. He was made more human than he was having a girlfriend, a family of his own he manages to destroy at the same time as Walt.
Saul and new business plans have been introduced: The new characters really shook up what seemed slow and uninteresting this season.
Season 2, Episode 10: This seemed to be a standout episode for the season. Everything seemed to be crumbling around the protagonists.
The finale got us wanting more. Walt got his money, missed his baby, and his family got separated.

Cons:
The bad economy: Wow, what a terrible thing to happen to a great series in the middle of its seasons. The 2008 writer's strike happened in the middle of Season 2, and as a result a lot of the following happened.
Predictability (What happened to the chemistry from the chemistry teacher?!): The only thing that was unpredictable about this season was how predictable it was going to be. The first season was an intricate chess game between Tucco and Walter White. This season all of that seemed to be shoved out of there for nothing particularly riveting done with the franchise.
Jesse and White trying to kill each other: This made no sense this season. Sure, Jesse took drugs, but there was no reason for Mr. White to believe that he was horribly incompetent, besides being all chemistry teacher-like. Later on, it makes sense that the distributor does not like Jesse, because he noticed that he was high in the middle of a public meeting, making him look like a fool to deal with them. He does anyway for whatever reason, but it was still one of the highlights of the season.

Matt Damon's Top 11 Performances

With Matt Damon's recent performance in Elysium, here come Matt Damon's Top 11 performances

1. Good Will Hunting
2. We Bought A Zoo
3. Margaret
4. Saving Private Ryan
5. The Talented Mr. Ripley
6. Dogma
7. The Good Sheperd
8. Invictus
9. Hereafter
10. True Grit
11. Syriana

Top actors who should play Spawn

1. Carl Weathers
2. Ving Rhames
3. Tom Lister, Jr. The President in Fifth Element should play Spawn. He intimidated a police officer in the Dark Knight to stop a ship from blowing up.
4. Idris Elba
5. Terrence Howard
6. Don Cheadle
7. Michael Jai White

Seriously, why not pick this guy? Sure, the script in the original Spawn film was flawed. But that was not his fault. He was great in the Dark Knight, great in Mortal Kombat: Legacy. He has not lost his fame. Pick him.

Skyler wins a Emmy, but not Walter

Anna Gunn, Aaron Paul and the producers won Emmys for Breaking Bad, but not Bryan Cranston who has had two previous wins before, but especially in this season.

I find it appalling especially because in the second season of the Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin shows signs of writing about events he does not know about anymore i.e. Occupy Wall Street, buying into the "facts" that Occupy Wall Street is "nothing but a directionless cause" that was not at all mistreated by media due to the influences of a dictator-like Michael Bloomberg. The same Bloomberg that let people outside of Manhattan die during the snow storms of 2012, the same Michael Bloomberg that does not care about rent price or the racial profiling permitted by the NYPD that the Supreme Court stated was unconstitutional and is unconstitutional and still wants to fight.

Once again, the Emmys are a joke.

Hey, I know I know...
At least Seth McFarlene didn't host...

2013 65th Emmys Overview

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Actress Comedy Veep
Merritt Wever Supporting Actress Comedy Nurse Jackie

Tony Hale Supporting Actor Veep

Jim Parsons Actor Comedy

Tina Fey and Tracy Wigfield 30 Rock "Last Lunch"

Neil Patrick Harris sang for a show he produced.
Why is Nathan Fillion not Nathan Drake?

Bobby Canavale Supporting Actor Boardwalk Empire

Homeland won for writing and Claire Danes
Modern Family got awards.

Laura Linney Big C

Carrie Preston

David Fincher, House of Cards, "Chapter 1"

Abi Morgan, Writer, The Hour, Miniseries

Michael Douglas, Behind the Candelabra

The show was way too long. Who cares what comedies win nowadays? Frasier, Roseanne and Seinfeld are gone. All we wanted was Breaking Bad to get key wins and you gave one only to Anna Gunn? F*** this show! Many complaints on my facebook. If you want an add, I will share.

Breaking Bad will win a ton of awards this 2013 Emmys

It is official.
Anna Gunn won her award for Best Actress in a Drama. That means:
Bryan Cranston will win for Walter White
Aaron Paul will win for Jesse Pinkman
Breaking Bad will win for Best Drama.
Can they beat David Fincher for best director though?
Not to mention, Homeland's writing award?

Early 2013 Academy Award predictions (September 14th, 2013)

SAG Cast award
Twelve Years a Slave

Stoker

The Grandmaster(s)

Spring Breakers

The Butler

Actor

Michael B. Jordan

Chiwetel Ejiofor

Oscar Isaac

Robert Redford

Christian Bale

Supporting Actor

Michael Fassbender

Paul Dano

Joel Edgerton

James Franco

Javier Bardem

Possibly Dwight Henry as well

Actress

Vanessa Hudgens

Mia Wasikowska

Adele Exarchopoulos

Lea Seydoux

Ashley Benson

Supporting Actress

Rachel Korine

Selena Gomez

Nicole Kidman

Quvenzhane Wallis

Animated
Despicable Me 2
Monsters University
The Wind Rises
Epic

Film

12 Years A Slave

Spring Breakers

The Butler
Inside Llewyn Davis
The Wind Rises Hayao Miyazaki
Stoker Park Chan-wook
The Grandmaster/s Blue is the Warmest Color will probably actually take this film's place as it won the Palme D'or and people have heard about it.
Spring Breakers Harmony Korine
The Great Gatsby Baz Luhrman; I enjoyed it quite well although the film's reviews were not that favorable, compared to "Like a Virgin" Moulin Rouge.
The Counselor Ridley Scott Cormac McCarthy

Director

Harmony Korine

Steve McQueen

The Coen Brothers

Ridley Scott

All of which are taking risks, doing something new, and/or being in your face with their material.

The 5th is quite a question mark. I like Stoker and The Grandmasters, but have not analyzed them enough to predict them as best film of the year nomination. Hayao Miyazaki might get it just because it is his last film and it may be his deepest. We will see.

Dark Horse: Harmony Korine, but not totally unlikely. The performance in that film were great and the Academy loves acting, not the the direction, writing or directing were bad either.

Favorite: Steve McQueen has the great character interactions, but The Coen Bros can never go wrong with direction.

My choices for the 2013 Emmys

Outstanding Comedy: Louis
Outstanding Drama: Breaking Bad

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy: Jason Bateman (Arrested Development)
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy: Amy Poehler (Parks & Recreation)

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama: Bryan Cranston as Walter White (Breaking Bad)
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama: Robin Wright as Claire Underwood (House of Cards)

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries: Tough: Al Pacino (Phil Spector) over Toby Jones as Alfred Hitchcock in the Girl
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries: Jessica Lange in American Horror Story

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy: Modern Family friggin rigs this category every time, despite not being funny. Jane Lynch from Glee should probably win.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama: Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama: Anna Gunn as Skyler White from Breaking Bad

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a miniseries/movie: Zachary Quinto (American Horror Story)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a miniseries/movie: Imelda Staunton (Alma Hitchcock in the Girl)

Outstanding Directing in a Drama: David Fincher, House of Cards: "Chapter 1"
Outstanding Directing in a Miniseries: Jane Campion, Top of the Lake

Outstanding Writing in a Drama: "Say My Name," Breaking Bad
Outstanding Writing in a Variety Show: The Colbert Report
Outstanding Writing in a Miniseries: Jane Campion, Top of the Lake

Despicable Me sequel beats Monsters University sequel 2013

On the surface, it seems to be a story of a man trying to keep his family together and more, while saving the world. However, if I were to re-view it, there were probably messages like that of Rob Ager's interpretation of E.T., where E.T. was Elliot's imaginary friend; in this film's case, it may be the lost mother on Mother's Day and supervillains ruining their tight knit family that are the imaginary invaders to a young Agnes built from her imagination or one of her sisters.' I do not have enough evidence for it yet, but it is definitely worth exploring.
Despicable Me 2 had the 60s themes straight on, from
the bright 2010 CGed 60s bright colors,
to the contemporarily connected family like that of Happy Days,
the Russians and their secret laboratories in James Bond,
the lucha films of the New Hollywood era,
the 60s gangsters.

Shouldn't the third film be finished off directed by Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez?
It is a film covered in homage and cinephilia.

The film has simpler ideas than Monsters University, but was able to execute it more properly. Sure, the dynamics of family and relationships are explored in more terms of Sweet Valley High rather than from Ingmar Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage. However, everybody gave their best effort. The action and pacing were fast (I felt I was watching a season of Mission Impossible mixed with the Brady Bunch), but it shows the possibility of the show as a franchise. There are parallels from when Gru gets Lily to date him and dump him when Margot is dated and dumped. At times, I was unsure where the film was going, albeit some times were unpredictable with the Mother's Day speech, the X-ray googles, and of course the supposed spy save the world plot, which is really a MacGuffin subplot (a 60s Hitchcock reference?) for the themes of contemporary 60s families, such as motherless children and parent-teenager relationship dramas. The entrance for the supervillain is a pure homage to the beginning of Return of the Jedi/The Wizard of Oz, as is the beginning of the film's homage to the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back.

The con about this simplicity however is simple minded most common denominator appeal: pop culture (Mexican and Asian) racism, awkwardness, lack of depth for the characters. (Some claimed that Star Trek had cartoon characters; I claim that this film has cartoon characters and Star Trek has no characters)
I also did not find the jokes funny. It did not pander to the Saban II Power Rangers crowd, but it did appeal to the 90s Nickelodeon kid, who watched Weinerville because it has the word weiner in it. (Seriously... FART GUNS that seem to be stolen right after the Muppets got FART FLOPS.)

P.S. that is a terrible Al Pacino impersonation and no wonder he did not want to be connected to the character.

The film had two directors and two writers and I give credit for the writers for developing such a great script, while at least one of the directors probably screwed up the seriousness of the script.

C'mon Miyazaki! Why settle when you can blow away?

Meanwhile, congrats to Universal for being #2.

Hate me. I like World War Z (film)

I am not a fan of gore.
I am a fan of action.
World War Z is almost a G rated type film, but it is very entertaining. It's sort of comical how the zombies combine into a tower in that commercial to the point where it knocks off a helicopter. At least it is not a sequel or prequel or reboot or panders to the lowest common denominator.
They could probably get another actress to play the daughter who yells "mai blank-ut!" so many times in the beginning.
It does not build characters, but Brad Pitt does what he can with the material, including his own stunts.
It sort of reminds me of an anime Contagion.
Sure, it would be nice to curse or do a crazy attack, but that is not what this film is about.
Sure, it sucks, but it is not like the commercial lied.

Men In Black I> III> II

Really the only saving grace of Men In Black III is Josh Brolin's performance as Young Agent K (he's a 50 year old man playing a 29 year old man!) and Jemaine Clemente playing Boris "don't call him the Animal."
The film for the most part misses with its "jokes." Why bring up the race issues of the 60s unless you plan on making it a dark film? Instead of being in touch with society, it comes off as being out of touch and into stereotypes. It's barely mentioned after the dark time of the 60s and after Agent J stole a car to try and find Boris. The Chinese restaurant being a location where a Men In Black fight just does not seem to go anywhere. Agent J goes to drink chocolate milk for time displacement headaches. Ha. Ha.
The ending of the film just seems to be a parody of the first one rather than a bad knock on it like the second film was.
Why does Will Smith have a job when he is obviously not funny? Maybe he has never been funny and caters to the Bad Boys Michael Bay vision of film audiences. Especially when the film revolves around him and Tommy Lee Jones is not in the film!
There could have been a moment where J feels bad K is gone. However, instead they insert this random scene about J's watch that was never mentioned before.
Why did everything revert back to normal after
Also, there is a certain aspect of Agent morality when it comes to killing Boris instead of capturing him that is never explored.
Also, time devices seem to be under explored. Why doesn't everybody go to this guy to go back in time?

There are two main elements that make Men In Black work.
1) The interactions between Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Will Smith sucks in this film.
2) The witty comical observations of culture. Even the Andy Warhol joke makes it seem that Men In Black is just out of touch with art, because it is trying to be entertainment.
Oh well. As I said before. I hate summer blockbusters, especially in 2013. I wish neuralizers were real so I could forget this franchise. Oh well. Hopefully, they can bring back that darker toned cartoon.

Monster University's lack of cohesion, disappoints when there are good ideas present

I really hate the Academy for not giving Toy Story 3 the Academy Award for Best Picture. WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3 were sort of like this epic trilogy of Disney-Pixar films distributed in consecutive years that made them pretty much undisputed winners of the Pixar award, (outside of Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox.) Toy Story 3 was a good end to both trilogies. The end or a decade.

First, the good ideas:
The film immerses us in the world of Monsters University: In Monsters Inc, we were immersed into a small town idealized perception of the Corporation. Sure, their boss whose name is unpronounciable is a bit of a stereotypical Lex Luthorish corporate boss who just becomes evil for no reason
There is a universe of monster scaring explored better than in a Harry Potter film
(Possibly because of Disneyfication of animation science)

• The fang sizes.
• The types of scares that Sully did not coach in Monsters Inc.

Scaring being a competition. Scaring being a sport, even more so than an employee of the month record.

It got us into being a child looking for a dream job through education and college, being in between.
Instead of Boo, being Mike and Sully's Andy, Mike is the Andy, the child of the film growing up, especially inI really hate the Academy for not giving Toy Story 3 the Academy Award for Best Picture. WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3 were sort of like this epic trilogy of Disney-Pixar films distributed in consecutive years that made them pretty much undisputed winners of the Pixar award, (outside of Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox.) Toy Story 3 was a good end to both trilogies. The end or a decade.

First, the good ideas:
The film immerses us in the world of Monsters University: In Monsters Inc, we were immersed into a small town idealized perception of the Corporation. Sure, their boss whose name is unpronounciable is a bit of a stereotypical Lex Luthorish corporate boss who just becomes evil for no reason
There is a universe of monster scarying explored better than in a Harry Potter film
(Possibly because of Disneyfication of animation science)

• The fang sizes.
• The types of scares that Sully did not coach in Monsters Inc.

Scarying being a competition. Scarying being a sport, even more so than an employee of the month record.

It got us into being a child looking for a dream job through education and college, being in between.
Instead of Boo, being Mike and Sully's Andy, Mike is the Andy, the child of the film growing up, especially in Toy Story 3.
Randall is given a very interesting background, not always being an antagonist.
Mike not being scary is a bit of a dark reality that could have been explored better.
That was a great ending, when Mike showed how he is able to scare adults opposed to children. Way better than the Oren Peli crap that we've been seeing forever.

The bad:
Some of the world is just outdated and not fun and still comes off as appeasing to bullies. Disney is not supposed to be a controversial type of film company. It lacked originality. It lacked intelligence. It lacked the dreams of the Disney world. Although it was not as terrible as my brother and I thought it was going to be, (my brother and I thought the film was about how Sully and Mike were going to get laid,) It seemed to be more like a Cars film than a Monsters Inc film at those points.
I understand you want to make it a little darker, but this is not a Disney film, where you can deal with political and religious misunderstandings. Maybe Sully does not want to listen in lectures, because the professors are underpaid and do not want to teach well or are teachers assistants doing it for free tuition.
What is wrong with being a salesperson? Some may a ton of money. Not everybody wants to or can be a sports star, but salesmanship is good old blue collar work.
Mike can obviously become a professors of Monsters University with his talent in book learning. He is obvious ph.D material.
The face-heel turn: Why did Sullivan turn good? Was it because he saw life through Mike's eyes? Why did Randall turn bad?
In other words, although this film does recognize that college is not everything for the coming of age child-adult, this film fails both as a Disney film and as a Palm'e D'orish film about the human condition.

Overall, this film explores very interesting ideas, but due to bad execution can only be recommended for a one time rental for hardcore Monsters Inc/Pixar fans.
Randall is given a very interesting background, not always being an antagonist.
Mike not being scary is a bit of a dark reality that could have been explored better.
That was a great ending, when Mike showed how he is able to scare adults opposed to children. Way better than the Oren Peli crap that we've been seeing forever.

The bad execution:
Some of the world is just outdated and not fun and still comes off as appeasing to bullies. Disney is not supposed to be a controversial type of film company. It lacked originality. It lacked intelligence. It lacked the dreams of the Disney world. Although it was not as terrible as my brother and I thought it was going to be, (my brother and I thought the film was about how Sully and Mike were going to get laid,) It seemed to be more like a Cars film than a Monsters Inc film at those points.
I understand you want to make it a little darker, but this is not a Disney film, where you can deal with political and religious misunderstandings. Maybe Sully does not want to listen in lectures, because the professors are underpaid and do not want to teach well or are teachers assistants doing it for free tuition.
What is wrong with being a salesperson? Some may a ton of money. Not everybody wants to or can be a sports star, but salesmanship is good old blue collar work.
Mike can obviously become a professor of Monsters University with his talent in book learning. He is obvious ph.D material.
The face-heel turn: Why did Sullivan turn good? Was it because he saw life through Mike's eyes? Why did Randall turn bad?
In other words, although this film does recognize that college is not everything for the coming of age child-adult, this film fails both as a Disney film and as a Palm'e D'orish film about the human condition.

Overall, this film explores very interesting ideas, but due to bad execution can only be recommended for a one time rental for hardcore Monsters Inc/Pixar fans.

There are good reasons why Affleck is Ben-atman

Recently, it has been announced that Academy Award winner Argo director Ben Affleck will be playing Batman in the Batman vs Superman: Man of Steel sequel. There has been such an uproar over this decision that we have like five articles per day on the subject as to what the fans think about this casting decision. I will be here to give you reasons why Ben Affleck as Batman is a good choice.

• Ben Affleck is a big movie star.

His films always get buzz, good or bad publicity outside of films named Gigli.

His relationships are always high profile. Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Garner. He has won Academy Awards for screenplay and producing. He has worked with Terrence Malick, Kevin Smith, Gus Van Sant in critically acclaimed films. In To The Wonder, he showed he can be a lover in an arthouse medium. In Jersey Girl, he showed, he can be a father. He has a Tom Hanks-ish everyman quality to him. He may not be seen as the best actor in the world, but he is definitely not the worst, and can attract good attention to the role.

• Ben Affleck has played a superhero before: 

As mentioned before, he can play an everyman, before playing a Batman. He has played the so-so dark and campy side with DareDevil and the dark side with Hollywoodland. He showed he can play the characters of Frank Miller (who has spoken with Man of Steel director Zack Snyder) Frank Miller's antiheroes with traumatic pasts.

He has fought Colin Farrell as Bullseye, Michael Clarke Duncan as the Kingpin, Jennifer Garner as Electra (in addition to dating her.) He knows stunts. From bank to airplane scenes, he has directed stunts, perfect for an airborne Batman and Superman combination during an air scene.

Not to mention his real life humanitarian efforts.

• I did not like Argo

There were certain aspects of the cinematography I enjoyed, such as the diorama scenes of the movie displayed on screen. I do not believe it should win the Academy Award as acting was not so interesting. It did not even generate the most box office that year, which for a blockbuster-like film being chosen for the Academy Award should have been chosen. (Seriously: every little hesitation trick, the keys not starting, the military shooting at the planes' wheels, etc..)

However, in a superhero film, all of that over-the-topness would be embraced as seen in the box offices of Man of Steel and the Avengers.

Finally, who cares who plays Batman? Are people actually expecting Robert De Niro, Al Pacino or Daniel Day-Lewis to portray Bruce Wayne? No. They probably do not even know who they are or even thought up them as a choice.

Since the Tim Burton era, everybody has been caring about who should play the villains in Batman films:

• The widespread never confirmed rumor of Johnny Depp as the Riddler during the pre-production of the Dark Knight Rises.
• Michelle Pfieffer as Catwoman
• Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face
• Jack Nicholson, Mark Hamill, John Dimaggio and of course, Heath Ledger as the Joker.

Seriously, who actually knows outside of the staff when Ben Affleck will actually be wearing the suit compared to his stunt doubles? This is coming from a guy who enjoys Batman actors, but realizes the fickleness of crowds, such as Christian Bale voice "critics."

Hayao Miyazaki is retiring after his next film, The Wind Rises

Hayao Miyazaki, a major force in modern anime is retiring following his new film, the Wind Rises.
I am honestly not the biggest fan of his work, but am a fan of what he inspired. Although his works are kid friendly, they also sure the dark side of human nature a la a Terrence Malick film:

• War: like in Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke and a Thin Red Line
• Nature, depicting war, and acts of violence as well as thing such as consuming things. This is especially important in post modern times, when media is constantly telling us to eat, buy and drink, with reckless effects on nature. Japanese artists are so great at this type of storytelling, as seen in the similar more quiet black and white bleakness depicted in Kaneto Shindo's Naked Island.

My favorite Hayao Miyazaki film is Nausicaa Valley of the Wind. It inspired the favorite that most people have of Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, has great characters, brave, female and powerful, living in a dark society. It almost reminds me of a Kenji Mizoguchi film, except not as dark. This year is approximately the 25th anniversary of the film.

The Wind Rises can be seen at the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center.

Top 20 films having to do with computers

In homage to the international success of Pacific Rim and the release of Steve jobs Apple founder biography jobs you're the top 20 films dealing with computers

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey 
2. Blade Runner
3. World on a Wire
4. The Matrix
5. eXistenZ
6. Ghost in the Shell 
7. Robocop
8. AI
9. The Terminator
10. The Social Network
11. Dr. Strangelove
12. The Animatrix
13. Tron
14. Ironman
15. Apollo 13
16. You've Got Mail
17. Superman III 
18. Transformers the Movie: 1986
19. Star Trek First Contact
20. The 13th Floor