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Back to the Future Slots & Studio 60 TV Show

Posted in Back to the Future, slot machines, TV, TV shows with tags , , , , , on August 23, 2006 by Paxton

I’ve got two quick notes for everyone:

According to BTTF.com, Las Vegas has just started receiving the new Back to the Future Video Slots. Interesting that my last two articles involved the demise of Back to the Future The Ride and slot machines. It’s like two kids are walking down the street, one carrying the BTTF The Ride article and one carrying the slot machine article. Then, like the old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups commercials, the kids trip, fall into each other and BAM!, everything is all mixed up into something new, different…and DELICIOUS.

Also of note in the above article is that Christopher Lloyd reprised his role of Doc Emmette Brown for the live action segments which were also overseen by writer/director/producer Bob Gale. Click here to see pics of the prototype of the Back to the Future slot machine.

Quick Note #2:

I watched a preview of NBC’s new show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It’s by Aaron Sorkin who created Sports Night and West Wing. It doesn’t premier until Sept 18, but Netflix is shipping out early preview DVDs as a promotion.

I watched it last night and the show, in a word, is incredible. I didn’t really get into West Wing like I wanted to, but I did love Sorkin’s Sports Night which showed the behind the scenes drama of a sports talk show similar to ESPN SportsCenter. It starred Desperate Housewives’ Felicity Huffman and was fun to watch. Studio 60 is very similar to Sports Night in that it’s behind the scenes of a sketch comedy show similar to Saturday Night Live. Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford play a famous writing duo who are asked back to Studio 60 after being fired because the eccentric show’s creator melted down during a live broadcast. The writing is sharp and funny and the actors are brilliant. I can’t wait until this starts airing during the regular season. I will definitely start watching it.

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Summer TV Shows That Rock!

Posted in reviews, TV, TV shows with tags , on July 11, 2006 by Paxton

Summer is generally considered the “dead time” for new tv show episodes. For the most part you get re-runs of regular prime time shows or retread reality shows that would never last during the “Big Show”, the fall schedule. The last few years, though, have shown a trend in certain networks airing new episodes, or entire seasons of shows, during the summer months. With these shows having their seasons during the summer, it reduces the amount of competition for viewers. It also will give viewers new episodes of shows that they might have not seen otherwise during the crowded fall viewing schedule. I thought I would point out a few good shows that air new episodes during the summer and that Steph and I actually watch. Maybe you’ll discover a new favorite.

The Dead Zone – This was the first show I started watching during the summer. It premiered during the summer of 2001 on USA Network and its normal season runs from June/July through Sept/Oct. I’ve watched this show every season since that first season in 2001 and even got my wife hooked on it. The premise of the show is based on the general storyline of the Stephen King book, The Dead Zone. I read this book many years ago, and enjoyed it, so I was very interested in this series. It stars Anthony Michael Hall as Johnny Smith who, after a car accident, goes into a coma for 7 years. After waking up, his life has been turned upside down. His girlfriend has married another guy and has a kid (which turns out to actually be his kid), and he discovers that he has psychic abilities that are triggered when he touches personal items. This is roughly where the similarities between the book and the tv show end. Johnny starts to learn how to use his abilities to help people. The special effects and stories in the show are fascinating, and Anthony Michael Hall is wonderful as the lead. We love this show and definitely recommend it to everyone. It airs on Sundays at 10pm EST.

Psych – This show just premiered this summer on July 7, 2006, and like Dead Zone, it’s on USA Network. It’s a comedy about a guy, Shawn Spencer that was trained as a young kid by his detective father to observe and remember everything. He now has honed this skill into an almost photographic memory. The problem is, the guy is a slacker and never focuses on any one thing for any particular length of time. He does manage to call in tips to the police and solve crimes based on things he notices during the local news. Shawn does this so many times the cops think he has something to do with these crimes because they don’t know where he’s getting his information. So to get himself out of trouble when they interrogate him, he says he’s a psychic, and that’s how he’s been getting his information. It’s very funny as we see Shawn pretend to be a psychic detective while using his hyper-sensitive observational skills to solve police cases. He opens up a private detective agency and brings along his friend Gus. The pilot was very good and I will continue to check this show out. It’s on Fridays at 10pm EST.

Treasure Hunters – This is the first season for Treasure Hunters, and it airs on NBC. It had a large marketing campaign where it made you think it had something to do with the Da Vinci Code by showing pics of the Mona Lisa and making the A in ‘treasure’ look like the upside down V in Da Vinci Code. In actuality, it’s a reality show that is more like a combination of the movie National Treasure and the tv show The Amazing Race. I never really got into The Amazing Race, but this show has me and my wife hooked. Clues are hidden in specific historical places across the US and teams of 3 people must solve the clues to follow a path that leads to 7 artifacts which will then lead them to a treasure. Each of the 3 person teams is a specific group of people (Miss USA contestants, Geniuses, Grad School Students, ex-CIA, Air Force, etc.) with all the ensuing drama and alliances and back-stabbing you would expect. The mixing in of historical facts about our country into the tasks and clues makes it extremely interesting. Check this out on Monday nights at 9pm EST.

The Closer – My wife just got me watching this. It airs on TNT and stars Kyra Sedgewick as Deputy Police Chief Brenda Johnson. Mrs. Johnson, despite being an extremely capable detective, has as many quirks and obsessions as Monk on USA Network. Now, I’ve seen Monk, and it’s okay, but it just doesn’t grab me. This show, however, has kept me interested. I don’t know if the shows we’ve been watching are repeats or new, but they are good. We could be watching re-runs and I would have no idea. It would be cool if this were a summer show because fall is getting extremely crowded. If you get a chance, check this show out Monday nights at 9pm EST.

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NBC Cancels Heist

Posted in reviews, TV, TV shows with tags , on April 24, 2006 by Paxton

Heist

NBC decides to cancel the struggling show after 5 episodes. I wrote a review of Heist’s pilot here. While I was initially put off by the ‘trying to hard to be clever’ dialogue, I gave the show a chance because it showed potential. In the last few episodes I had started warming up to the characters and wanted to see them succeed. You learn why Mickey wants to rob the jewelry stores, James’ troubles at home and you want to see Lola naked…wait, was that out loud?

Anyway, NBC apparently had no confidence in the show because they moved it opposite Lost and American Idol, pretty much killing any chance it had for survival. I am sad to see it go. I did TiVo the show and watched it on Sundays. The show was no Bones or 24, but it kept me coming back. I hope they dump the whole series to DVD and release it because it doesn’t sound like NBC will air anymore episodes at all. Very sad.

In memorium, let’s have one more longing look at Marika Dominczyk who played smokin’ hot Lola on the show:

Lola

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Movie Review: Inside Man; Heist TV Show & Ocean’s 13

Posted in movies, reviews, TV, TV shows with tags , , , on March 28, 2006 by Paxton

For the wife’s birthday, went to see Inside Man with Clive Owen, Denzel Washington and Jodi Foster. As you can tell from my earlier post about heist movies, I LOVE this sub-genre. Heist movies, for the most part are so much fun. I love seeing new entries. I was underwhelmed recently by the movie Firewall with Harrison Ford. A limp, home/invasion, bank heist movie that really went nowhere for me. Paul Bettany as the robber was the only thing to save the movie. Harrison Ford continues on his rapid decent into mediocrity. But I digress. Inside Man is everything I ever wanted. Cool, smart mastermind, clever plan and interesting backstory. There is a lot going on, but it’s unbelievable how Clive Owen’s character is one step ahead of the police. The backstory and the ending are very cool and interesting also.

The performances also add to the wonderful script. Clive Owen is perfect as Dalton, the mastermind behind the bank robbery. He continues to impress me with his roles. Jodie Foster is great as usual with the hauty, smugness of her character Madeline, someone used to getting things done…discreetly. Denzel disappoints a little bit, but I fully confess to not really being a fan of him anyway. His character complements Owens’ Dalton nicely.

I was very suprised this is a Spke Lee movie. There’s lots of smart humor and really good action in this script. The ads and trailers I’ve seen do not play up the fact that he directed it, nor does it seem like his usual fair (of which I am also not really a fan). If this is how Spike can perform when not preaching about the ghetto, then consider me interested from now on. This movie had me entertained and out-guessed from the beginning and I applaud Spike and the other actors for finally putting a good movie out in a so far slow movie season.

Speaking of the heist sub-genre of movies, Steph and I watched the TV show Heist on NBC Sunday night (I had TiVo’d it. It actually aired last Wednesday).


It wasn’t bad. It had elements of Ocean’s 11 mixed with Out of Sight. Some of the dialogue I thought was trying too hard. The two main characters, Mickey and James, are having a discussion and they talk about topics no one on Earth would have regular conversations about like Mother Teresa and famous historical dates. For me, it was trying a tad too hard to be smart. You can have witty banter without having the characters off-handedly discuss the content of Mother Teresa’s letters and the date of the last Mongol invasion. Unnecessary.

Other than that, the show was very slick and executed itself very well. The heist in this episode was just the initial job to raise some money for the big heist to be executed later. After this first heist, I am definately interested in how they pull off the next heist.

Reading reviews of this show, I saw some online criticism that the heist depicted in the episode would have had to have too many things go right to realistically pull off. I say, if you watch and enjoy heist movies, you have to realize going in that timing and execution is everything. Of course everything has to happen with an insane, supernatural sense of execution and timing, otherwise it would be boring. But that’s just me.

I was not a fan of the lead, Dougray Scott, going into this (he was originally cast to play Wolverine in X-men but had to decline when filming on Mission Impossible II ran long), but he performs admirably here. As does the rest of his team. Check out pics from this series here.
The female member of the heist team, Lola, is HOOOOOOOOOT. I’ll definately tune in (with my TiVo at least) next Wednesday to see where this goes.

I’m in a heist state of mind, so, here is some news about Ocean’s 13. Filming starts by the end of the year and all the boys are back. The girls, however, will not be returning. I say yeah! for no Julia Roberts, but NO! for Catherine Zeta-Jones. Oh well. This is one of my favorite franchises so I’ll be there regardless.

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