Remember, Remember the Fifth of November

Vic Mackey, Books, and Movies

Published on March 26, 2006 By mittens In Just Hanging Out

For whatever reason, tonight just wasn't an Oblivion night for me. I got back from a fairly funtabulous dinner at Chili's (it's the new golf course -- Small Businessman Magazine) where I got charged eight bucks for a Heinekin. I'm not normally one to complain about prices, but something just seemsâ€¦ off in this particular instance. Oh well, still a damn good meal with a bunch of friends.

Anyone who watches The Shield -- and by that I mean anyone currently in possession of a soul -- should be treated extra special this week. Special with a capital S. It's been a rough few days for the consistent viewers of this most excellent of television shows, so if you know anyone who watches it and has been acting "out of sorts" at all, just know it's for good reason. The finale episode of season five (I believe season six will be the final one) was, without any doubt in my mind, the most shocking, well-done episodes that I've personally ever seen on television. And I watch a fair amount of shows. The writers for this show are just bad, evil people. Though I'll have to make an addendum to that saying that the viewers of the show are simply masochistic.

I read Vanilla Sky without the batshit crazy women. It is a really easy-to-read book (and a fairly quick read, at that), but the first few pages may overwhelm people a bit with all sorts of fancy futuristic jargon. Once you get past the introductory pages, though, the book becomes far more readable. This week's book is The Left Hand of Darkness and, try as I may, it's just not an easy book to get into. So far (within the initial twenty pages) it's just dry, dull, and fairly generic feeling despite the fact that it's actual content is "fresh" and "innovative." Hopefully it gets better, but I'm not holding out hope in this particular case.

Here's some cute for your day. Love it. Worship it. Break into tears at the sight of it's oh-so-adorable little mug. Whatever.

And one-sentence movie review time for the movies I've seen in the last couple weeks. The Thing was a really cool paranoid horror flick with a fairly nifty subdued ending scene; seems it's regarded as a "classic" of sorts, and I can see why. Undead was simply hilarious gore-horror (gorror?) movie in ways that I can't even accurately describe with words. V for Vendetta was a surprisingly good movie that was really quite worth the trip. My favorite movie of this batch, though, was Slither; a movie I'm anticipating with all the patience of a strung-out teenage girl the hour before her Winter Formal.

And with that image I think I'll call it a night.

chickenmobile with your rooster tail

Comments

kingbee

on Mar 26, 2006

The finale episode of season five (I believe season six will be the final one) was, without any doubt in my mind, the most shocking, well-done episodes that I've personally ever seen on television.

as much as i like 'shield'--and the season 5 finale was very powerful--'the wire' is not only best of the genre, also the best made for small screen production ever broadcast.

one area in which the shield comes up short is production values (it reminds me of those bbc shows where they make the most of minimal sets).

as the promo tag notes: vic mackey may not be perfect, but he's perfect for spike.

Zoomba

on Mar 26, 2006

I saw V for Vendetta the other day and was VERY impressed. I wasn't expecting something that good from a comic book film. I'd recommend it to my non-comic friends. Unfortunately it was a movie I can't provide a real review for aside from "oooh.... good movie". I just haven't been able to put my reaction into words, it was more emotional than rational.

It's got a good 1984 spin to it, so if you're into movies like Equilibrium, this is a must-see.

mittens

on Mar 26, 2006

I'm really not all that sure you can say that The Shield has low production values. I believe the look of the show is actually a desired effect and one I'm honestly quite fond of. It's a more gritty, dramatic show which focuses on quick sieges, shaky camera, and minimalist special effects. One of the things I enjoy is the rarity with which big, flashy explosions are used in the show. Helps to make it a bit more realistic, I suppose. Haven't seen The Wire, though.

And, yeah, V for Vendetta reminded me a lot of Equilibrium. Though V seemed far more heavy-handed than Equilbrium ever did; V seemed to have its political goals very much in mind at all moments. Overall, though, like I said it was a very surprisingly good movie. I'm looking forward to seeing it again when it comes out on DVD.

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