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Conagher_1880
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The Big Bang Theory (2007)
Please, cancel this show and put it out of our misery.
What can be said about a supposed comedy where one of the lead characters has to be explained as having a form of autism to explain why he's so offensively annoying?
That it should never have been green-lighted to begin with.
Big Bang Theory is possibly the least funny series to be passed off as a comedy since My Mother, the Car. The character of Leonard is actually tolerable, but Sheldon is repulsive! His sarcasm, rudeness and general nastiness is enough to make a viewer want to do him serious bodily harm. The cute blonde is eye candy to make the scenes with the dweebs tolerable, but other than that, this series is stultifyingly unfunny. The 2 AM test pattern on a Detroit public access channel has more entertainment value than The Big Bang Theory.
The Amazing Screw-On Head (2005)
What IS this garbage?
I was subjected to this at a party recently and honestly, I can say nothing good about it. The animation was awful, the storyline (such as it was) was incomprehensible. The voice acting was passable, but hardly makes up for how horrible the rest of this cartoon was. After a short time, maybe five or ten minutes, of having this trash inflicted on me, I managed to politely excuse myself and get some chips. How anyone above the age of ten can be so enamored with this remains a mystery to me. But, from what I can see, fans of this genre are rabid enough that poor animation and incomprehensibility make no difference to them, so one negative review equally will make no difference.
On the other hand, if you like GOOD animation, steer clear of this and watch some classic Bugs Bunny instead.
0/5 stars.
Broken Trail (2006)
A Tough and Tender Story. A Genre Classic, and That's a Fact!
One of the best westerns I've seen in YEARS! Thomas Haden Church FINALLY loses his goofy comedy persona and shows that he can be tough, and if necessary brutal, in how he deals with villains. (Hint, he is good both with a gun and a rope). I will state right here that Church is the FIRST actor in ANY western that I have seen (and I've seen a LOT, ranging from William S. Hart's silents, through "Tombstone," "Open Range" and other modern westerns) to actually "throw down" when he uses his pistol in Part 2's climactic gunfight. Watch how he holds his Peacemaker, and steadies it for aim....SOMEONE did some research, and it paid off!
Robert Duvall's character of Print Ritter ranks up there with Gus MacCrae and "Boss" Spearman. It's a pity he hasn't been in more westerns, because the role of frontier authority figure suits him to a "T". The kindness, as well as hardness, he displays (watch how he deals with a trader who sells smallpox infected blankets to Indians....excellently done!) is classic Duvall. His character is tough, but human and you can see the fatherly love he has for all those girls. The attraction Print has for Nola is also well played. Duvall is absolutely perfect at playing the hero who is human.
The story is a mix of truth and fiction, (based loosely on a horse drive to Nebraska's Haythorn Ranch) and is expertly directed by Walter Hill. The Canadian scenery is beautiful, but is a minor distraction from the overall excellence of this movie.
I've been to eastern Oregon, and much of it is high desert, as is southern Idaho and the other locales of this movie. It's country as beautiful as any, but it's a harsh....stark kind of a beauty, and would fit the tone of this story much better. However, the setting works, and the set representing Caribou, ID has a seedy, sleazy boomtown look to it that captures the look and feel of late 19th Century mining camps just right. Strangely enough, some of the towns in modern day northern Nevada have that same rough feel....but without the sleaze. The feeling of the frontier is alive in those towns, and the feel is captured quite well by the set designer for "Broken Trail."
One complaint I do have is why can't SOMEONE NOT have actors ride modern saddles in westerns?????? As much as I like Church's wood-post horned Wade saddle, and Duvall's swell forked rig, those are very obviously modern buckaroo saddles, not the Taylor and Homestead trees that would have been common in the 1890s.
Other than that point, I have no problems at all with "Broken Trail".
The actresses playing the Chinese girls are all appropriately pretty.....Greta Scaachi is attractive, even as disheveled as she looks in this movie. In short, this is a western that works!
Now if only Hollywood would grasp the fact that LOTS of us love westerns and want more of them.....
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1964)
The Military Was Never Really This Funny....
"Gomer Pyle, USMC" is the quintessential 1960's-era escapist service comedy. Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) was a naive Marine private (and later PFC) from North Carolina who joins the Marines to see the world. His DI is a tough, decorated (look at the rack of ribbons on his uniform to see just HOW decorated he is) Gunnery Sergeant named Vince Carter (Frank Sutton). Carter is Marine to the core (no pun), and Pyle is a, well....well meaning, shall we say.....but not too swift Marine. Oddly enough, although Pyle is a bumbler, he's apparently a good Marine. He follows orders to the best of his ability, looks out for his buddies, respects NCO's and officers, is a good shot (his marksmanship badge is that of Rifle Expert), and performs extra duties for the Corps. His sole drawback is that he's not exceptionally bright.
"Gomer Pyle, USMC" never makes mention of Vietnam, and indeed, the utilities worn by the Marines in the series have a very distinct WWII flair about them (they are the pre-McNamara era Marine Corps utilities, not the all-service OG-107s issued post-1962), and no one carries an M-14 or M-16...all rifles shown (except for the parade deck sequences where M-14s are visible) are M-1 Garands. None of the Marines in the series display Vietnam Service or Vietnam Campaign ribbons on either their khakis or their blues....and forest greens are nowhere to be seen. In a sense, it's as if the Vietnam War wasn't even taking place. (My own opinion is this: While I wouldn't mind having Pyle in my platoon if I were in someplace like Hue City or Quang Tri, I'm not so sure I'd want Gunny Carter in my platoon. If he couldn't get Pyle to be a bit more disciplined, I doubt he'd be much good under fire.)
As I said, this was escapist comedy, and the shame of it is that it ultimately did a disservice to the Armed Forces. A good service comedy should show the military as being capable of humor, but not as being near incompetent. I could see MSgt. Ernie Bilko fighting the Japanese during WWII, and probably the Chinese in Korea....his wise-ass attitude showed a sergeant who was tough on the inside. Colonel Hogan was believable as a bomber pilot....heck, even "Major Dad" was believable as a Marine....and I could almost see Maj. Nelson on "I Dream of Jeannie" in the cockpit of an operational aircraft! The Marines on "Gomer Pyle," however, struck me as being a Boy Scout troop with M-1s.
**SPOILER?** A couple years back, Jim Nabors was honored by the Marine Corps for his part in promoting a generally positive image of the Corps by having PFC Gomer Pyle promoted to Lance Corporal. Although Pyle was a buffoon, he at least tried to be a good Marine. And, he was a decent guy, so what's to complain about? Basically, my own military service wasn't as funny as Pyle's, but then....real life isn't a sitcom.