Movies and TV

Recently, I've been watching more television series than I have movies. I think part of this is due to the higher quality of television series (especially on cable) as well as my preference for well-developed characters over well-developed plot.

That being said, I did manage to take in a few movies during the holidays. I'll briefly sum them up here:

-Charlie Wilson's War. Pretty decent movie. Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts are their usual charming selves. Once I found out that the screenplay was written by Aaron Sorkin, a lot of things started to make a lot of sense. Like the snappy, witty dialogue. And the hard-to-follow political conversations (a la West Wing). And the overly preachy, holier-than-thou tone to the movie. Back to the good stuff: Phillip Seymour Hoffman was really good in his supporting role.

-Juno. Didn't know what to expect here, but I left the theater thinking it was pretty good. Lots of funny moments, but ultimately the story isn't as important as the main character is. Juno is a funny character, and your two hours is pretty much spent exploring her personality and emotions.

-Superbad. Saw it on DVD. By myself. Funny, but not as funny as it would have been in a crowded theater with other rowdy folks.

-3:10 to Yuma. Man, for some reason, I really like Westerns. Especially the more modern ones like Unforgiven and Open Range. This one is really cool, though the ending was a little odd. The main reason to watch this is because Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are really really good in it.

-Inside Man. An excellent setup but the final third is horribly unsatisfying. I don't recommend it.

Up next on my list of movies to watch is No Country for Old Men. I've heard so many good things, but I'm not a big fan of the Coen brothers. And my understanding is that the ending is one of those "love it or hate it" type things.

As far as television series go, I've already handed out praise to both "Rome" and "Lost" in previous posts. But there were a few other things I saw recently that are worth mentioning.

-Battlestar Galactica: This show is really well-conceived. I watched season 1 back in the summertime, and now I'm a few episodes into season 2. While I grew up on the geekiness and utopianism of Star Trek:TNG, this is a nice change of pace: less techno-babble, more drama, and less neatly-wrapped solutions to moral dilemmas.

-Chuck: OK, not a GREAT show, but it's definitely fun if you like geeky humor, silly spy plots, and comic book references. Which I do.

-Dexter: Just started watching this last week. It's creepy, and the main character is really fascinating. I'll have a more well-formed opinion on this later, but right now I'm really liking it.

-Pushing Daisies: I've only seen a few episodes of this show (the Wacky Chinawife digs it), and I'm not sure if I'm really into it. But it deserves some credit for being delightfully weird with a touch of morose humor.

-Meerkat Manor: Only seen 3 episodes of this Animal Planet hit, but the behavior of these animals is pretty fascinating. I like that it's somewhat educational too.

My viewing habits are really random these days, and I should really pare it down a bit. Fortunately, the Writer's Guild strike will probably do that for me.