Boardwalk Empire: “Resolution” Review

Fancy dancy Egyptian party on Boardwalk Empire

Boardwalk Empire, the HBO prohibition era mobster drama (or the drama that got me into good television), returned tonight with the Premiere “Resolution” and we will kick off this season of recap/reviews (with full spoilers) after Nucky gets to go full gangster…

“Put a bullet in his f***ing head”-Nucky Thompson

So we’re back in Atlantic City and a lot seems to have changed since poor Jimmy was shot at the end of last season. “Resolution” picks up about a year and a half after the second season on the eve of 1923. Nucky returns this time as a full on gangster, with a colder approach to friends and enemies alike and a cleaner, less politically complicated plan to move his booze. New enemies made and plots are formed in the solid premiere of a solid show.

Let’s start with the set up to what seems to be our new villain. Rosetti get’s introduced to us in the opening scene of the premiere by beating a poor man who attempts to help him with his car and then leaving him in the street to potentially send a message. Yes Rosetti is definitely a knock off of the Joe Pesci character from Goodfellas, a violent man who disguises himself as a joker, but the scene pops and sets us up for a good potential showdown opponent.

As the episode deepens, i.e. at the Margaret and Nucky Egyptian party, Rosetti’s role begins to take a little more shape (and becomes more and more like a Joe Pesci character) when Nucky turns him down he goes on a bit of a joking verbal rampage ending with the very creepy moment in which he gives Margaret the puppy that he stole from the man he shot in the opening scene of the show (yeah dramatic irony as Margaret had no idea where the puppy came from it’s just a strange man handing her a new puppy).  I wonder where we will be going with this…

Now that’s out of the way time to move to the episode as a whole. As mentioned earlier this was a solid premiere that helped put numerous plot pieces in motion. Nucky, again as mentioned earlier, is now in full on gangster mode and is not taking any crap.  The first Nucky scene involves him calmly calling for the murder of the thief he captured after allowing the thief to begin to get comfortable. Classic cool gangster fake out! Nucky seems to have no problem getting his hands dirty now after two seasons of wallowing in half politician position. Sure Nucky still has the big New Year’s party featuring high class politicians and big men of society but it seems like Nucky now seems more aware of who he is and what his role is.

In Chicago Al Capone get’s some brief scenes that really don’t amount to much but setting up a semi central conflict. Van Alden also ends up in Chicago as a now disgraced iron salesman. The Chicago stuff works in this premiere but I fear, as has happened to the series in the past, the supporting characters will get lost in a limbo of having arcs that have little connection to the Nucky situation. It’s great to have these guys and gals on the show, as their scenes on their own are fantastic but let’s hope the series doesn’t get too caught up on things that bog down the narrative like last year. Also no Eli and Chalky in the premiere as well leaving the thought that we won’t see everyone in all the episodes this year which could be a good or a bad thing.

Finally my new favorite character on the show, Jimmy’s former gunman and friend Richard, deals with the dynamic between Jimmy’s mother Gilligan and Jimmy’s son throughout the episode. Gilligan is still in denial of Jimmy’s death and tries to convince Jimmy’s poor son that she is his actual mother. He tries to tell the kid stories of Jimmy and his wife but ends up getting shut down. This leads to the great climax of the episodes in which Richard gun’s down one of Nucky’s main men at his own house as he himself is going to off someone (more irony). Whether it leads to much in the next few episodes or not, it was the standout character arc of the episode and made for a nice climax to the episode.

Overall Boardwalk Empire get’s off to its usual strong and slow start. The show still looks great, has an amazing atmosphere, and has solid individual characters. How well the individual moments arcs is still to be determined but for now what was here definitely made a fine hour of television.

Other Thoughts:

• Oh Margaret and her church. We find out that the large sum of land was indeed given in the church and that it was made into a seemingly poorly run hospital. This has also rendered Nucky and Margaret’s marriage practically null and void with Nucky hating her for the land movement and Margaret disliking his full gangster mode.

• The violence was around in full force this episode as the opening sequence featured the most brutal violence on the show in a while; the scene involved Rosetti pounding the pulp out of an innocent bystandered with a wrench with lots of brutal glorious detail. Also numerous people get shot in the head this episode (the ideal way to kill people this week apparently) in many dynamic fashions.

• Great Egyptian party sequence that involved good music and Nucky giving away lot’s of treasure. Man parties were cool back then. 

• Sorry about the jumpiness of the review this week but the show is a little jumpy and sometimes stories really don't connect to one another (at least at the beginnig of the season). So expect these reviews to be a little jumpy sometimes.

That’s just me. What did everyone else think?

The Summer Movie Awards 2012

The Summer Movie Awards 2012

Ladies and Gentlemen fasten your seat belts and rev up your engines because it’s time for the third close to annual Summer Movie Awards! This was one of my first columns back in the day (please don’t read it it’s horrible!) and for those who don’t know how this works, this is the time where I give out random awards and overall have a general excuse to reflect on the films of the summer. So here we go for the third time in four years here is the summer movie awards for this year.

The Summer in General:

Let’s start general shall we… The summer of 2012 was definitely better than last year’s that’s for sure. For the people who have read the blog a lot you know that I didn’t write one of these last year due to the fact that A I didn’t have time to see many of the films of the summer and B I had no real motivation too. This year on the other hand we got some big ones like Marvel’s the Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises that were enticing enough (along with a few others of course) to go to the movies this summer. Sure it surely won’t be as good as the winter will be but at this point it’s difficult to expect it to be. The summer has begun the time for a few good films and the rest are just studios throwing anything at the screen to make a little cash. Despite this though there is still entertainment to be had (lot’s of it in fact) so it’s hard not to like at least a few summer ones right?

Most Disappointing

Brave

Pixar what’s going on? Two years in a row now Pixar has made a lackluster film that failed to reach up to their usual (although it’s hard to judge now) seal of quality. Please Pixar ignore the last two years and make something more along the lines of your usual greats!

Runner Up: Bourne Legacy

Most Pretty (Best Cinematography):

The Dark Knight Rises

Wally Phister sure knows how to shoot films doesn’t he. Inception won him an academy award two years ago and I expect the same to happen this year for his work here. Every shot is beautifully realized and constantly breathtaking. There is really no other film that came close to TDKR in this category so if that doesn’t say anything than I don’t know what does.

Runner Up: Moonrise Kingdom

Most Overrated:

The Avengers

Fanboys be angry! Let’s not have a misunderstanding I like the Avengers quite a bit, but is it an A+ like I gave it at the time… No not at all. No I’m not going to change the score in the review or re-review the film now but I will say upon 2^nd and 3^rd viewings the film doesn’t hold up quite as well. By no means is it significantly worse than initially but it’s not A+ material.

Runner Up: Amazing Spider Man

Most Underrated

The Dark Knight Rises

 

Ok let me explain this one. While people went to see the film in flocks some critical reception to this film was a little unfair. I won’t mention names or anything but some critics panned the film for some of its more minor problems. I mean the film at times is quite flawed, no doubt but it is still an amazing, ambitious achievement in the realm of big action pictures and is something to be reveled at not panned.  It’s not quite as good as the Dark Knight sure but that was a masterpiece and just because of that does it has to be bad?

Runner Up: insert your favorite that no one liked as much here

Most Overlooked

GI Joe Retaliation

Why was this so overlooked this year? Because it didn’t come out this year as planned (or as advertised)! Why? Because of stupid 3D! Wow….

Runner Up: (I know it was technically fall originally but…) Gangster Squad

Best Action Sequence

The whole last 45 minutes of The Dark Knight Rises

Big, dark, and breathtaking the last 45 minutes of The Dark Knight Rises was something special. The football field sequence, the big battle in the financial district (with real extras thousands of them, that’s how it’s done!), the breathtaking race to the climax all of it was super fantastic and was a fantastic way to end a fantastic trilogy!

Runner Up: All of the Avengers

Best Little film that Could

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Sure it was at Sundance in January and then at Cannes in the spring, but the truly fantastic Beasts of the Southern Wild came out nationally during the summer so it fits perfectly in this category. Beasts of the Southern Wild is a triumph of an indie film that was a success in every way possible. From the personal to the metaphysical Beasts of the Southern Wild is the achievement of the summer because of how much is done with so little.

Runner Up: Moonrise Kingdom

Best Big Blockbuster

The Dark Knight Rises

Big, dark, and ambitious The Dark Knight Rises is a special film in the realm of big summer movies. The film tries to say something and still manages to blow things up in the process. It allows for the brain to be active throughout and therefore it’s the one that deserves to be put in the highest spot amongst the biggest films of the summer.

Runner Up: The Avengers

Most Redundant Sequel/Remake

Men in Black 3

There were a lot of these this year and picking only one was no easy task. Would it go to the messy retread The Bourne Legacy, or perhaps to the dull Total Recall, a film with no personality? In the end though there is only one film that can fit here and that’s the awful Men in Black 3. The question we ask ourselves must be how is this franchise still relevant?

Runner Up: Most of the films this summer

Worst of the Summer:

Battleship

I was going to review this during a “catching up on DVD” segment, but Battleship was so bad it wasn’t worth the time and effort. It’s amazing how many man hours could have been saved not working on this disaster. Where to start it’s a cheap money grab, futures annoying actors, has even more annoying writing, and features redundant amounts of exploding things. The only redeeming quality was that it tanked at the box office. Victory is ours!

Runner Up: Men in Black 3

Best of the Summer:

Beasts of the Southern Wild

When it came down to it this was almost a no brainer. Sure there were some amazing films this summer (Moonrise Kingdom and The Dark Knight Rises) but Beasts of the Southern Wild was, in the end, the mightiest of them all. It was an adventure that is so personal, so emotional, and so powerful that it resonates a long time after the film ends. The acting was unforgettable, the message unforgettable, the look unforgettable, and furthermore the film was unforgettable.

Runner Up: Moonrise Kingdom

Breaking Bad “Gliding Over All” Review

 

Wait you said this was how much money?

Full spoilers below!!

Well that was amazing.

“Gliding Over All” was a great ending to the sometimes uneven eight episode arc of television’s best current show; it proved to be not only a fantastic ending to this summer’s set of episodes, but as well managed to be the perfect bridge to the final eight episodes. We have spent the entirety of the first half of this season watching Walt build up the empire he has wanted since the first episode of the show and with this episode we take the first large step to it all come crashing down upon him.

Let’s start with the ending of this one and gradually move backwards. Since the beginning of the show viewers of Breaking Bad have always wondered when and how Walt’s DEA brother in law Hank was going to find out that Walt has been the meth lord that he has been hunting all this time. Well that was all broken open this week as Hank looked through Walt’s Walter Whitman poetry book while on the toilet only to find a note from Gale Beneke that said how much he loved working with Walt. Cue Flashback to the awkward “you got me” joke from last season and all of a sudden Walt’s empire he has built and then safely gotten out of (more on that in a sec) is about to get him in the worst possible way. Great scene that was a fantastic cliff hanger to keep fans on their toes.

This scene comes after a fantastic episode that, if it weren’t for that final scene, could have almost been a series finale. Walt has rid of Mike and is now in control of his own destiny, that means it’s empire building time. We begin the episode with clean up time; first we get Walt getting the names of Mike’s men from Lidia (who for the first time this season seems to hold her own) who also manages to give Walt contacts in the Check Republic to sell his meth too. Empire building folks! Cue an amazing Godfather esque montage of Walt’s shady prison guys shanking (with lots and lots of stabs) all of the prior contacts to the music of Nat King Cole (“Pick Yourself Up” was the song) and Walt’s pretty much in the clear. Then finally we get the three months worth of meth making montage (which by the way is the single greatest montage the show has ever done by far. Oh and the song was “Crystal Blue Persuasion”) featuring things actually going right for Walt and Todd. Big piles of money are amassed and Walt’s finally able to say “I’m out”.

The other reason it felt so much like a series finale is because it had so many great call backs to the series past. The fly distracting Walt early on in the episode reminiscent of the entire bottle episode of season three “Fly”, Lidia saying that “We’re going to make a lot of money together” almost in the way Tuco said at the end of season one, the painting in the motel that was identical to the one Walt saw in the hospital, and the infamous paper towel dispenser that Walt punched the crap out of near the end of season two (which after all this time they still haven’t fixed).  It even brought back the great pool conversations of old between Walt, Skyler, Hank, Marie, and the kids that could have been an ironic series ender if the show would let Walt have his way.

Then Hank had to go to the bathroom and ruin everything.

Some extended other thoughts:

• This episode saw the return of director Michelle Maclaren who directed, up until this episode, the most strikingly beautiful episode of the show ever “4 Days Out”. She also directed the greatest single episode of the show ever season three’s “One Minute” which had the amazingly shot final “Hank vs the Cousins” scene. Visually “Gliding Over All” has both of them topped as this episode was an absolute stunner; from the pool shot at the end to the montages (more on those in a second) this episode was an absolute joy to look at from beginning to finish.

• Aaron Paul hasn’t had much to do throughout the last eight episodes, but what he had here was fantastic. The great opening when he feals betrayed and lost when Walt tells him he has no say in the business anymore to the great scene near the end when he thinks Walt’s there to kill him when he’s really there to pay him off.

• My goodness the montages! I was ready to triumphantly declare the brutal “Pick Yourself Up” montage the greatest the show has ever done (can’t go wrong with brutal violence to a happy song) but then there was the absolute triumph that was the “Crystal Blue Persuasion” montage. Shots bleeding into each other, great wide shots, bright wide open vibe, and the final shot of the different houses covered and used for meth making was fantastic.

• That last scene at the pool was so tense. Too much happy to be Breaking Bad that’s for sure! I think everyone watching the show knew something was going to go horribly wrong. Although it would have been funny had Gilligan had paid homage to the Sopranos by just fading to black at the end.

• Dean Norris and Brian Cranston shared that amazing scene mid episode in which Hank reminisces of simpler days. It’s always tense to watch two characters who both somewhere in the back of their heads know who they’re dealing with just talk about each other.

• Why hasn’t AMC had a guess the money in the storage department contest yet? Seriously people would be all over that! Also that would be a great auction item….

Some extra thoughts on the eight episodes as a whole:

• Let’s start at the first episode’s opening scene; I didn’t really comment on the scene in my review of the first episode because I wanted to save it until the end of this season. We still have a long way to go time wise (even with the three month jump) until Walt will have a fake ID and a machine gun and the big question for me is where does Vince Gilligan and the writing staff going to start the second half. Save for the montage at the end of the midseason finale we never get anywhere quickly time wise on this show so it shall be interesting to see how the jump is made.

• Speaking of the opening scene, people have complained that the scene gave way too much away way too early. We all know that scene is almost guaranteed to not be what we think it is right?

• I love this show and still think it’s the best show currently on television (but only a scratch ahead of Mad Men) but I do have some minor quibbles with this eight episode arc. At times (most notably the jumpy Buyout) the show seemed like it needed some more time to develop the arcs across more time/episodes. Also there were some plot logic issues here and there but overall as an eight episode arc of my favorite current show it worked really well.

• The season also managed to have some brilliant episodes as usual including this episode, “Dead Freight”, and “Fifty one” which were three of my favorite episodes of the series all for many different reasons.

Time to ask the biggest question of all: WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT??!!!

Well we have one more year to debate before the final eight

 Can Vince Gilligan and staff stick the landing?

That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?

The Newsroom: “The Greater Fool” Review

Will walks out for the season on The Newsroom

A season finale of a show usually serves to not only wrap up the season and its themes, but also to represent what the season has been, the ways it has waxed and waned and where the series will be going. For example the season finale of this year’s season of Mad Men was frustrating because it represented the biggest problems that the season had throughout its run (being too obvious with the themes it tried to convey mostly) while not representing all the amazing things that the season, and the series in general does. In other words it didn’t do an adequate job of showing us what the show does well at the end of the season leaving many people with a more negative view of the season.

In many ways the finale of the Aaron Sorkin drama “The Newsroom” is a perfect representation of the first season. Why? Because it’s an absolute mess from beginning to end, and the same thing is true for the rest of this season. It fumbles into the same traps that the rest of the season managed to stumble into, whether it be poor romantic comedy, terrible female characters, and ultimate Will McAvoy worship. It worked in some ways, namely the dialogue and reporting of the news, but ultimately it fell into frustrating mess territory, the same territory that unfortunately the series has been wallowing in all season.

Anyways on with “The Greater Fool” which, as previously mentioned, was a mess of an episode that wrapped up a mess of a season. On the positive side though the episode kept up the Sorkin tradition of great dialogue (something that I need to pay respect to despite all of the horrible problems the series has) and while it’s frustrating it manages to be good fun throughout. It also, again despite the many problems manages to have some satisfying moments (the great reaction from Charlie when he finds out about Hancok’s suicide and the execution of many scenes, despite their issues) that keep me semi invested in the series and its characters.

Now onto the problems, first off why would the girl that got verbally beet down by Will in the “Mad as Hell” rant at the beginning of the season all of a sudden want to be the new intern of News Night? Because Will is the greatest man on earth and his cause is the most noble and amazing thing ever, that’s why! Wow was that ever stupid, seriously! Well the series has had a knack of making Will the greatest man in the world according to his peers this just takes the cake. While Sorkin tries to redeem the scene with a cool speech by Will it just ends up falling flat on its face because of the sheer stupidity of it all. The scene is also frustrating in the way that again a male character is amazing and all females should follow his lead and hope that they can learn valuable lessons from him. So frustrating!

Then there is Maggie, poor, stupid, infuriating Maggie who this week got the wonderful job of parodying a Sex in the City character for no reason at all. I mean common! While we know Sex and the City isn’t by any means an accurate representation of the average working woman, we also don’t need the Newsroom, an equally inaccurate and naïve show, to tell us this. On top of this we have to sit through the excruciating romantic comedy that continues to be very painful. Speaking of that, all of a sudden Sloan has a crush on Don. What?!!!! Why?!!! Sloan is a character that I have liked and now they are going to put her into the terrible romantic comedy plot… Goodness…

We then move on to the TMI subplot that, worked at times, but at others it was a complete mess. Will, Mac and Charlie did do a great bluff to get our wonderful executive to admit to phone hacking to his mother and owner of the station (again Joan Rivers is great here). The sequence was well executed save for the fact that the characters are continuously naïve in regards to gossip columnists in general. So, mixed bag indeed.

“The Greater Fool” was a mess, plain and simple. It was frustrating, at times awful, and constantly naïve to a point of complete annoyance. Despite that the Newsroom still has great dialogue and some fine moments that, despite my many frustrations, will keep me watching when it comes back next summer. Because even if it still has very frustrating moments they’re like a train wreck, it’s hard not to watch it.

That’s just me. What did everyone else think?