Nerdy post ahead!

I can’t believe Chuck is airing its last episode tonight. I’m going to miss watching it. Say what you will, but the show has had an incredible run for the past five years. Ever since season 3, I remember how there were always articles on how Chuck was facing cancellation due to low viewership. Which I found kind of odd cause ratings and viewership for the show was so strong in its debut and sophomore season, but for whatever reason has been declining with every passing season. As a fan of the show, I personally didn’t think that the quality of the show got worse over the years so I’m still kind of shocked to see just how much viewership for the show has declined. But yes, I remember how there was always the one question. “Will this be Chuck’s last season? Is it going to be renewed?” Luckily, NBC renewed the show for the past four years.

I remember around the time season 4 ended (or sometime later) that NBC announced that Chuck was renewed for a fifth season. But there was a catch. Season 5 would be the last for the series. At the time, I was totally bummed that the show in a sense had essentially been cancelled, but now I’m seeing the bright side to it. Even though it’s the last season, I think it’s pretty great how everyone going in, whether it was the cast, writers/producers/directors, or the fans, knew that this was the last season. I think this really gave the writers a chance to wrap up the series properly, rather than half-ass an ending for a show after you find out that the network has not renewed you. To be honest, I haven’t had the time yet to start season 5 of Chuck, but I plan to. Last season was so good, I’m sure this one was just as awesome, if not more.

I think that Chuck played a pretty big part in introducing the whole “nerd” culture a couple of years back. The show premiered in 2007, which was actually the same year that The Big Bang Theory began airing too. Granted, The Big Bang Theory took nerd culture to a whole new level on the small screen. But in my opinion, Chuck did its part too. When I first watched the show, I thought it was pretty damn cool. What wasn’t to like? A nerd gets government intelligence downloaded into his brain and gets to kick ass with spies. The show brought the perfect blend of comedy and drama to the spy world. I had never seen anything like Chuck before and it didn’t take long until I became a fan.

Like in any show, Chuck had an array of amazing actors and actresses. I always liked Zachary Levi in Chuck. The way he could integrate his nerdiness into the show or pull off a dramatic performance like no other, I always thought he was terrific to watch. Opposite to Levi was Yvonne Strahovski, who played Sarah Walker/Bartowski. She was equally as amazing. Obviously, she’s a very talented and beautiful actress who kicked so much ass in the show. And of course there was Joshua Gomez. The dynamic that Joshua had with Zach was always funny. His character, Morgan, was hilarious and always lightened the mood whenever he entered a scene. And from what I saw in the season 4 finale, this last season should be his biggest one yet. I loved watching the three of them. So good.

And of course, the list of actors goes on. I can’t even begin to touch on all of them. From Adam Baldwin’s grunts, Ryan McPartlin as Captain Awesome, and the amazing Jeffster covers (portrayed by Vik Sahay and Scott Krinsky), everyone in the cast was terrific. Oh, and the fact that Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap played Zachary Levi’s dad in the show probably made some of the nerdier fans pretty happy.

Yeah, that’s all I felt like sharing about Chuck. I love it, and I’m going to enjoy watching season 5 from start to finish. I am going to miss this show when it’s gone for good. Thanks to NBC and the cast and crew for making this show what it was.

Oops, I lied. I wasn’t done sharing apparently. I totally forgot to mention that Chuck features some of the best music. I’m not sure who chooses the music, whether it be Josh Shwartz or other people in their crew, but their choice of music has always been spectacular. More often than not, the show introduced me to some pretty rad indie music. What other shows would play Bon Iver songs so many times!

So I watched this movie yesterday night. I had previously read the book by Stieg Larsson, but had never seen the original 2009 film. Overall though, I thought it was a great film. I only discovered during the opening title credits that the film was directed by David Fincher, so I had a feeling that the thriller would be a good one. If I were to describe it it in one word, I think I would probably have to say it was “chilling”. Despite having read the book and knowing most of the scenes, the film was still very well done.

Plot-wise, I didn’t find too many faults with it. For the most part, most of the details in the book were followed, but with film adaptions I guess you can never really expect everything to be translated onto the silver screen. There was only one major difference that surprised me and it was how the ending played out. Without spoiling anything, the ending of the film stays true to the book but certain details were altered. I think anybody who read the book would notice it as well. In general though, I think all the key scenes were incorporated into the film well enough.

The cast of was great. I don’t want to go into every actor and their character, but I really loved Rooney Mara’s performance. Like her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander was so good I actually got super uncomfortable from watching her in her scenes (and not just the graphic one). I wish I had seen the 2009 film so I could maybe compare the performances of the actors. But either way, Rooney Mara did a spectacular job. I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets nominated or wins some awards, as well as get the chance to be featured in some even bigger films in the future.

I guess I would have to say though that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a pretty damn good film. I don’t think it’d be a good idea to bring younger audiences to watch it, cause there’s some pretty gnarly content in the film that I wouldn’t consider suitable for the faint of heart. It’s probably not for those who are looking for something with fast-paced action as well.

I haven’t been able to catch up on season three of Bored to Death yet, but I can’t believe that HBO cancelled the show today. I really loved the first couple of seasons, not only because of the quirky storyline but the dynamic between Jason Shwartzman, Zach Galifianakis, and Ted Danson was so enjoyable to watch. It was kind of a unique show, but brilliantly written nonetheless and the subtle humour was great. What a shame.

It sure has been a while since I have typed up one of these for the blog but I finally found some time to watch a movie tonight so here we go. Tonight’s movie was Horrible Bosses, and the gist of the movie is about a trio of friends who scheme to murder their bosses because their bosses have made their jobs miserable. As with all comedy movies, hilarity obviously ensues in their pursuit to try and rid their lives of their employers.

The cast of the movie was fantastic, with Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day playing the principal characters. They’re supported by the likes of Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, and Jennifer Aniston, who played their respective bosses. All of them had a great performance, I felt that the main guys played off each other really well and the actors who played the bosses are obviously some of the best so they were equally as amazing. On a somewhat random note, I’ve never really found Jennifer Aniston that attractive, but she looked great as a brunette. Anyways, my favourite character was probably Dean “Motherfucker” Jones, played by Jamie Foxx. He appears in a few select scenes of the movie because the guys end up hiring him as their “murder consultant” which I thought was one of the most ridiculously funny things I’ve ever heard. And his name was hilarious cause it sounded like the three guys were calling him a motherfucker all the time when they were really just saying saying his name.

Nick: How’d you get the nickname “Motherfucker”?
Motherfucker: When I was a kid, I snuck into my mother’s bedroom. She was laying there naked. She had been drinking all night. And I snuck up behind her, and I slipped my fingers… into her purse. And I took her money, the whole week’s pay, I really fucked her over and that’s how I got the name “Motherfucker” Jones.
Kurt: You know, they really should call you “Motherfuckerover” Jones to avoid confusion.
Motherfucker: What’s the confusion?

All in all, solid comedy. I thought that it was hilarious and easily one of the better comedies of this year. Definitely a movie to watch if you are just looking for something fun and not too serious or dramatic. I would give this 8 horrible bosses out of 10 and 0 out of 10 for my lack of creativity in coming up with a wittier name for the rating.

Paranormal Activity is probably one of the worst movies I have ever watched in my life. It was like watching a plant grow. Not even scary. I have no idea why people hyped it so much or found it so enjoyable because I thought it was the dumbest thing I have ever seen. I can get past the fact that it’s a horrible home movie but waiting like three quarters of the movie until something exciting happens was just too painfully boring.

It’s like when I first watched Napoleon Dynamite. A lot of people I knew kept saying “Oh my God, it’s so funny.” So one day I decide to rent the movie and it sucks as much as this movie did. It was unfunny and completely stupid.

Of course though, these are all just my opinions, but I rarely dislike movies, so that says a lot about Paranormal Activity. Ugh.

Recently watched Source Code starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan. It was pretty entertaining. I knew that there would be action in the movie, but I didn’t know that science-fiction also played a factor in the movie. If asked, I probably wouldn’t even know how to explain what the Source Code is. There was a lot of sci-fi and quantum physics jargon that was thrown around and in my opinion it seemed too intricate for me to follow. Luckily though, I’m one of those people who can pick up things quickly along the way so I caught the basic gist of everything that was happening.

I thought the way the movie was quite captivating and held my attention early on. In a way it felt like it took a few pages out of Déja Vu or Vantage Point because there would be scenes that kept playing and “rewinding” over and over. The movie basically has Gyllenhaal’s character aboard a train trying to prevent two terrorist bombings. He is in the Source Code (although he doesn’t really remember how he came into the project) and has taken the identity of one of the passengers on the train. It’s there that he meets the girl (there always is a girl), played by Michelle Monaghan. As he goes in and out of the Source Code, he basically keeps discovering more information as to who the terrorist is and what happened to him in reality. It’s really quite interesting.

Go check it out if I have any way spiked your interest. I apologize if this post is short cause I can’t find the right words to express myself today. Perhaps watching the trailer for the movie would be more beneficial to you guys.

Oh, and this sick movie poster was designed by Olly Moss. It’s not the official one but in my opinion looks awesome!

The Flaming C - Movie Trailer

My God, this looks kickass haha. What’s not to like? Conan O’Brien as his alter ego, The Flaming C. Judging by the trailer, the animation style for the movie is quite nice. I love the 3D animation and the fact that it doesn’t look too anime-ish as many animated shows/movies seem to be nowadays.

It’s quite awesome how far this has come because what originally seemed like a sketch on his late night show has become such a big hit. It’s actually being made into an animated movie by WB Animation. Wow. The character was designed by Bruce Timm, with Coco’s suggestions. And from what I can gather, it actually sounds like they got Kevin Conroy to voice The Flaming C as well (he’s known for voicing Batman in the animated shows).

Needless to say, I am STOKED for this. I’m not too certain how serious they are about producing this, but I believe Conan showed up at SD Comic Con today and debuted this with Bruce Timm so it might actually be released in the near future.

Friday Night Lights. I still can’t believe that the show has ended. This is undoubtedly the best television drama series I have ever watched and my favourite show. Hands down. I’ve held myself back from watching the fifth and final season for a while because I didn’t like knowing that after I finish watching it, that will be the end of the series. Eventually though, the last couple of weeks I began to watch the last thirteen episodes of the show and it was just so good. I can probably praise this show to no end, I love it so much. I watched the series finale yesterday and it was amazing. What a great conclusion for such a great show. I really can’t believe it’s over.

I think I may have talked about the show before, but after watching the last episode I just felt compelled to go more in depth. The show itself is based on the book by H. G. Bissinger, and fuses the sport of football with drama. I’m not going to lie, but the show is incredibly heavy with drama, but all in an entertaining way. It’s actually one of the reasons why I think the show is so awesome and why I love it. The show has always been more than just about football.

The way that the characters deal with problems in their lives, whether it be about family, friends, lovers, football, or other issues in their Texas community, is just so brilliant. Honestly, I’ve never watched a more heartfelt show than this one. Throughout the whole series, I’ve never really felt that the show had ever “jumped the shark” or done anything unrealistic. It’s always felt so real, especially with the cinematography. I remember reading how some people complained that the “cameras were so damn shaky” and stuff, but I never minded it one bit. Something about the way they filmed the show was very down to earth and helped capture emotions quite well in pivotal scenes. I’m not going to lie, but there are some episodes in the series that even I found to be really touching. Frankly I was surprised because I’ve never really been struck so emotionally just by watching a television show but they got me. One in particular that sticks out is an episode where one of the original characters (played by Zach Gilford) learns of his father’s passing while on duty in Afghanistan. Gilford’s performance in that episode was just unbelievable and deserves a lot of praise. I believe the episode itself was nominated for an Emmy for “Outstanding Writing”.

Of course though, the series finale was also quite a load to watch. Every character’s story was pretty much wrapped up by the episode’s end, and it was just so emotional to watch. I loved how the series had kind of come full circle, with the East Dillon Lions competing to win in the State Championships. One of the most beautiful moments of the episode would have to be this sequence when the Lions are playing the Hawks in the State game. My God those five or so minutes left me breathless. They replaced most of the sound from the football game with this amazing post-rock score, perhaps something out of Explosions in the Sky (a band that the show has been frequently associated with). There were faint noises from the crowds but mostly the sequence was completely silent with the exception of the music. I felt that it was such a powerful scene because in addition to the musical score, everything was played in slower motion and the audience could see all the emotion coming from just the characters’ facial expressions. Words were simply not needed for that sequence at all. It was so damn good.

Some might say that the ending of that sequence ended rather abruptly because it transitioned so suddenly to eight months later, leaving the audience to decipher the clues to see if the Lions had won State Championships. I personally thought the way that they decided to do the transition in was smart. It wasn’t cheesy or anything and well done. I liked how in the epilogue it showed how everyone had started to move on with their own lives, whether it meant beginning a new one elsewhere or mending relationships with their family.

But yeah, cheers to the end of an amazing show. I think it’s a shame that the show never received the recognition that it deserved from the viewers while it was on air. Not a lot people know about or have even heard of the show. That sucks. Nevertheless, the show had an impressive run and will go down as my all-time favourite.

“Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose.”

Lately it feels like I’ve been watching a lot of horror movies. And it’s true, and I’ve no clue why. I don’t like watching people getting killed in grotesque ways and I’m not afraid to admit that the majority of the time I can get mad scared. I don’t know what it is, I think it’s for the thrills. I would never watch these by my lonesome, but when you’re watching with a group of friends, it kind of makes things more interesting.

Anyways, the latest one that I watched was Devil, a movie written by M. Night Shymamamalalan (or to copy and paste for a correct spelling, Shyamalan). I don’t know what to think of his movies. No clue whatsoever. And I really don’t know what genre to categorize Devil under. I want to call it a horror, since it was pretty much marketed as such, but I’m not sure that I can. If it’s a “horror”, it was a pretty weak horror. I think ultimately the movie is a thriller, albeit one that deals with the supernatural. One of the main reasons why I was disappointed with the movie was probably because I thought it was going to be more scary, rather than just another thriller with a some spooky stuff slotted in. (Also because of the reason below.)

The plot of the movie is pretty simple. It’s basically just about a bunch of people stuck in the elevator and the devil is among them, killing off the passengers one by one. To be honest, I felt like this movie, at least up until the ending, was a gigantic rip off of Agatha Christie’s, “And Then There Were None”. (That book is one of my favourite mystery books. It’s ridiculously awesome. Go read it.) The plot of Devil is eerily similar to that of the book, with the exception of the location, the number of characters, the supernatural element, and some other minor details. I don’t want to spoil anything but in both the movie and the book, the killer even dies the same way and trolls everybody. That part bothered me quite a bit.

The movie itself had quite a bit of religious stuff being a supernatural movie and all but I don’t want to go into too much about that. It talked about how the devil was among the people and punished them for their sins, but there was also talk about confession and forgiveness as well. Interestingly enough, there is no God character in the movie, although he is referenced in a quote. “Don’t worry … If the Devil is real, then God must be real, too.” Something about that line kind of stuck with me.

At this point of my post I feel like I’m just rushing to try and remember what I had typed earlier before I accidentally erased the first draft of my post. It’s feeling quite rambly and I think my view is very opinionated on the fact that I felt like the movie was too much like a book I read a couple of years ago. I think basically if you haven’t read the book (although if you enjoy reading and mysteries, I suggest you go find it and read it) and are not looking for anything too scary you’ll actually enjoy this Shyamalan movie. Maybe. No guarantees.

Watched this freaky ass movie yesterday night. I still kind of get chills just thinking and typing about it. (This is going to be a short post, I find that I don’t like to type a lot about movies I really want other people to watch.) Prior to this I’ve never really seen a horror movie quite like this one. It’s really crazy cause they managed to make this insanely scary movie even with the lack of traditional horror elements like blood, gore, and murder. I sort of expected it to have some of those things cause it comes from the minds behind Saw and Paranormal Activity but nope. There was barely any of that stuff.

If you don’t know what the movie is about, that’s good cause if you watch it without really knowing anything then you’re going to have an even greater experience. But if you really must know what it’s about, I guess the only thing that I’ll say is that there’s a little boy and evil spirits. Sounds intriguing, yes? The only two people that I knew in the movie were the parents, who were played by Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne. Wilson in my opinion was slightly dull in his role, but I thought that Byrne was great. Granted, Byrne had more of the horror scenes but still. Maybe I’m just biased since I like her in her other movies.

Overall, this was hands down one of the scariest movies I’ve ever watched. There were actually scenes which made me jump and yell like a girly man but only because they were genuinely freaky as hell. Crazy giggling boy anyone? Oh my goodness there were so many scenes that made me want to piss myself but I don’t want to spoil any of it. There were also parts which made me laugh aloud because they seemed silly and illogical but that’s just me being a critic I guess. But seriously, if you’re looking for a good movie with thrills and horror, definitely check this one out.