Seven Psychopaths Review

If you watch the trailer below first like I did, you probably won't want to watch this movie. It just does not sell the movie that well at all. Hell, I downloaded it for us to do a podcast review of it and none of us cared enough to watch it. I should have just looked at the cast and trusted at the very least Christopher Walken to entertain me. At the moment I'm broke and don't have netflix any more and most shows I watch have ended their seasons for the summer time so now I'm left with my thumb up my ass, bored out of my mind. I thought about reviewing a video game because that's all I've done aside from watch youtube videos. So today comes, and it's my day to review something, and I had no idea what to do. Finally I remembered that I have a backlog of movies saved that I haven't watched that were all potential Knight's reviews that fell through.

Star Trek Into Darkness Podcast Review

We went to go see the latest Star Trek movie in theaters. Does it boldly go where they haven't before? No. No they do not. Anyway, hear what we have to say about it! Also, donate to our Kickstarter please! We are stuck as $855. If we don't get $3000, we don't get any of that.

Episode 17 - Star Trek Into Darkness

The Goodwin Games Premiere Review

I saw a trailer for this a while ago and thought it looked cute. Yep, cute. And then this came out with different actors in it. Right off the bat, seeing T.J. Miller in this now, I knew I had to support it. I love that guy. Denver, YEAAAAH! Listen to "Doug Loves Movies," you'll get it. As well as it comes from the creators of How I Met Your Mother, and with that show ending soon they had to start something new. But will it be any good?

The story so far is, a father passes away and reunited his three children. Henry, Chloe, and Jimmy. They have become estranged over the years and the father wanted to change his children to be better people. So before he kicked the bucket, he made a crazy as shit will. Full of tapes, games, and puzzles that the three siblings must do in order to earn the $23 million inheritance. He wants them to play a game of Trivial Pursuit, but with custom cards and questions about the family. This is where they introduce the 4th player, someone they don't know who could also win all of the money. For a premiere, I enjoyed it. It kept me engaged and entertained. Some jokes fell flat and others were spot on. I enjoyed all the performances. I will be tuning in for the next one.

but...

I do not see this lasting. Number one, it is on Fox, nothing lasts long there. Good or bad. It's like my last few jobs, high turnover rate and being run by people so far out of touch with society that they're confused by logic and things that are different. Number two, the story. I felt that the show could have been resolved in the first episode. I believe this should have been a movie. Just a one shot and done. I don't see much else they can do or add to keep it fresh for long. Number three is the amount of episodes ordered. Fox gave this a half season order, only 7 instead of the usual 13. That is a rocky start out of the gate. So my prediction is to get in while you can before this is crushed by the Fox Machine. Get your enjoyment while you can.

TV Spectacular Review Podcast

Hey guy! So we are doing something special for you guys, we are reviewing television and streaming shows. There are a bunch we talk about and we do it rapid fire and we manage to do it all in under an hour! It's like magic. So tune in and listen and enjoy.

Episode 16 - TV Spectacular

The Office Series Finale Review/Series Retrospective

Well, tonight was the final episode of The Office...ever! So not only am I going to talk about the series finale, I'm going to talk about the show in general. The show had already gone on for 4 seasons before I finally watched an episode. I was bored hanging out with a friend, who convinced me to watch the first episode of The Office. I was pretty much hooked at that point, although the first season is one that I tend to not go back and watch much of. I enjoyed it for what it was, but there are only a couple episodes I actually still enjoy. The show didn't really hit it's groove and find its place until the second season.

You've obviously got the love story of Jim and Pam, which leads to one of, if not the best season finale of the entire series. When Jim finally confesses his love for Pam, with the reaction she gives him, it's absolutely heart breaking. I love season two so much. It has plenty of great Michael Scott moments, plenty of build up for the Jim and Pam relationship, and quite a lot of great moments featuring the rest of the office in general. It's really one of the best seasons of the show in my opinion.

Season three is another one of my favorite seasons. Jim has now left, leading to the introduction of Karen and Andy. Karen is now Jim's new love interest after being shot down by Pam, and Andy is a more annoying/more realistic Dwight at first. When the branches merge and Jim and Pam are reunited, it leads to plenty of awkward moments. It also ends up making you just root for them to finally get together, which finally happens at the end of the season. (FINALLY!)

Season four for me was the last "great" season. I feel like this is where the show peaked. Jim and Pam were both still funny, Michael was great, Dwight and Andy are awesome, and you get plenty of awesome Kevin moments. Who doesn't love a good Kevin moment? He fucking rules. Seriously. Kevin is the best. His Kool-Aid man face is priceless. This is the season more so than any other that I'll put on when I'm going to sleep and watch. I just love it so much. This show has just been one of my favorite shows ever.

Season five had it's moments for me. The stress relief episode was great, as was the weight loss episode. But it just felt like there were too many "meh" episodes, and not enough good ones. That's where the show continues to go down hill for me. I'll pretty much wrap it up by saying that seasons 6-8 for me felt really lack luster. Robert California was awful, Nelly sucked for quite a while, Will Ferrell being absolutely unlikable and unfunny, Jim and Pam becoming the most boring couple ever, Andy and Erin trying to be the replacement for those two and failing....I could go on and on. I felt like this show should have ended after season 6, but they obviously had plans to continue on, so we were left dealing with a few lack luster seasons.

Season 9 for me ended up being a pretty good, not great season. For me, a major flaw has been the later seasons going 20+ episodes. It ends up giving you way too many filler episodes, and not enough good episodes that left an impact. However, the last couple of episodes were so damn great. They left you pretty much wanting to cry. I've been saying for the past few years how this show has over stayed its welcome, and how I wanted it to end. But now that it actually is over, I really don't want it to be.

The last episode takes place a year after the documentary was done filming. It's time for Dwight and Angela's wedding, so the episode focuses on Jim giving Dwight surprise bachelor presents. You end up seeing Dwight using a bazooka...seriously. So fucking awesome. This episode gives you quite a few heart warming moments, that if you weren't such a man you would be crying like a God damn baby. But I'm a man, so I didn't cry...I held back the tears. It was really great seeing former cast members come back for this episode. Kelly, Ryan, Carol, and...

MICHAEL FUCKING GOD DAMN SHIT ASS FUCKING DAMN SHIT SCOTT CAME BACK! I mean, you knew he had to. It really just wouldn't have made much sense or had nearly the impact without him. Jim and Dwight's reactions to seeing him were so priceless. A person who feels actual human emotions would have been crying so hard at this point. Michael doesn't say too much in this episode, but it was so great to see him back. The show basically wraps up with Jim and Pam making plans for their new life, and everyone recalling their time on the documentary. It was such a beautiful way to end such a great show.

I feel like they couldn't have done any more to wrap this show up. This finale made up for this show going on entirely too long, at least for me. I'm truly going to miss not being able to see new episodes of this show anymore, but damn did it leave with a bang. This will be one that I'll keep on the DVR and watch quite a few times over the next few years. Thanks a bunch to The Office for all of the great memories!

Movie of the Week: Superman Unbound

It's a fact that I like cartoons. Animated features are always cool to check out, and Netflix has a bunch so you can always go there. But over the past few years, DC Comics and Warner Brothers have been putting out some great straight to dvd movies. They offer more than the live action market which is just Batman, Green Lantern, and soon the new Superman movie. Most of these animated movies are retellings of popular trades released some time ago. Like the Batman: Year One series or several other Superman stories.

What I like about these is that you can just jump right in. No bullshit explaining who Superman is or what he can do. They expect you to know that by now, and no, not every straight to dvd movie is a sequel to the last. So you don't have to have seen that one. They are much like an animated tv show, only in a 90 minute chunk.

Superman Unbound is based on the Superman: Brainiac story. It brings in Supergirl, the city of Kandor, and of course the villain Brainiac. While the trailer below is a bit silly, what with the "Welcome to Erf" line, it is an over all enjoyable experience. So if you enjoy DC Comics, or their movies, or even watched their cartoons as a kid, you'll like Superman Unbound! Go rent it, or wait for it to eventually come on Netflix.

Monday Review: How I Met Your Mother Season 8 Finale

So, I'm gonna do something a little different here than I've done before.  This is a review for a single episode of TV. Specifically, I'm doing the episode "Something New" which is this years season finale of How I Met Your Mother. Ordinarily I discuss a movie or an entire series, but I have my reasons for doing this one so bear with me.  I'll also be partially discussing this season as a whole, but mostly the focus shouldn't stray too far away...or maybe it will.  I'm not a very good writer.  (Blow me)  I'm warning you now, this review will be full of spoilers so if you haven't seen this episode, I wouldn't read any further...I mean why would you?  Maybe you're that guy that wants to ruin things for other people.  I don't know.  Well, I'm not typically that guy so, there ya go.  Consider yourself warned.

This episode was originally supposed to be the series finale. However I guess half way through this season, a couple of the actors renewed their contracts, so now we have to drag this shit out over one more season.  Now don't get me wrong.  I love this show.  It's easily my favorite sit-com, and for good reason.  It's well cast, well written, entertaining, and for the most part really consistent.  But they've been at this for 8 seasons now and everybody just wants to find out who the mother is so we can move on with our lives for fuck's sake!  Even a lot of this entire season felt like they were just wasting time, so I'm really worried that this next season is going to blow...but I'm getting ahead of myself here.

It's now been established that Ted meets the titular mother at Barney and Robin's wedding, or rather, at a train station afterwards.  This entire season has been building up to that moment.  Hell, Barney and Robin's wedding is to take place on May 25th of 2013...Everything was set for that to be the season finale...cause it's May and shit right now!  Buuuut no.  They have pretty much left this story as close to a cliffhanger that a sit-com can really even have, and it's frustrating.  This entire episode was a big cock tease with a bunch of set ups with no pay off.  Now this would be absolutely fine if next week we get the season finale...but dammit, this was the season finale!  So basically they are going to take what could have been accomplished in one more episode next week, and instead, stretch it out over an entire season.  What is this next season even gonna be?!  I guarantee you that the season 9 premiere will be what the season 8 finale should have been...he meets the mother.  But what are they gonna do with the rest of the year?  Is he gonna be trying to get her to fall in love with him?  Is it going to be an echo of season 1, but instead of trying to bang Robin, it's this new girl?  It's a good thought I suppose, but it is not the show I signed up for, neither is it even in keeping with the title of the show!  Okay, I'm gonna take a breath here real quick.  This shit's affecting my blood pressure...Anyway, on to what the episode actually was instead of what it wasn't, or should have been, or whatever.

So, this episode was set up to be the second part of last week's episode, except it wasn't.  As I mentioned earlier, this episode is called "Something New."  Last week's was called "Something Old."  Get it?  'Cause wedding stuff?  This is also a nod to the season 2 finale two-parter which was "Something Borrowed" and "Something Blue."  Those episodes were about Lily and Marshall's wedding...makes sense.  But these episodes weren't really about a wedding.  Should have been...wasn't. (sigh)  In the previous episode Robin goes digging in Central Park for a locket she buried there when she was a teenager;  a locket that she had always planned to have as her "something old" at her wedding...even though Robin has said time and time again in earlier seasons that she never really planned on getting married.  Nice backtracking guys!  So, after digging all day, she finally finds the box.  Meanwhile, Ted has shown up cause Ted always shows up to help Robin with ...whatever, cause that's kind of his thing.  They open the box and it's empty.  Robin starts talking about how the universe is telling her not to get married.  She's having second thoughts, and it starts raining, and she and Ted hold hands.  Essentially they are bringing up that there is still feelings between these two that have not been fully been dealt with.  They've done this too many times now and it's becoming irritating, but that's where that episode ends. The finale then opens up with Barney and Robin together and everything is fine.  I guess that freakout of her's was only there to make us feel bad for Ted, cause we then learn that Ted is moving to Chicago because he still loves Robin and he doesn't think he can handle living around her anymore cause she'll be married to Barney.  Ted reveals this plan to Lily after telling her all about what happened in Central Park.  This is when Lily sheds some light on the whole locket thing.  Apparently right around season 4, just before Ted was gonna marry Stella (I seriously hope you guys have watched the whole series cause I don't feel like explaining myself), Robin gets drunk, cries, talks about how Ted should be marrying her instead of Stella (facepalm) and goes out in Central Park and digs up the locket.  Lily puts it in a pencil box and it gets left at the apartment.  Sooo, it turns out that the locket has been in Ted's possession the entire time. (fanfare)  It sounds like they are setting up for another huge Ted and Robin gesture/relationship trope, even though we all know by now that's impossible...we've known since the first episode.  So what are you doing!?  (UGH!!) But then Ted says he's going to give it to her as a wedding present...ok? But even Lily is like, "be careful Ted (you fucking idiot!)" ...that last part was subtextual.  

Meanwhile, Marshall has forgotten to tell his mother that he's moving to Italy for a year, so he has to go to Minnesota.  It was more filler kind of crap that didn't have much to do with the important Ted stuff of the episode.  He just kept getting tricked by his brother and making excuses for his crazy mom over the phone with Lily.  Something that did bother me though was that they kept switching back and forth between saying they were moving to Rome, and moving to Italy.  Now I know Rome is in Italy so technically both are true. (yeah ya ass!)  It's just they way they did it.  For instance, Lily let's it slip to Marshall's mom that they are moving the "Italy."  Marshall then gets on the phone and his mom is immediately like, "You're moving to Rome?!?!"...and then they keep saying Rome for a while, and then they switch back.  It's like during a redraft of the script they changed a few lines, but forgot to change the rest.  I dunno, it just really stood out to me.  Also, Marshall gets a phone call saying that there is an opening for him to be a judge in New York, so now he's gotta make a choice between his career and Lily's...more shit that doesn't get resolved til, you guessed it, next season. (foghorn)

Anyway the rest of the episode is peppered with Barney and Robin at a restaurant messing with another douchey couple and basically just being perfect for each other and stuff...so again, what was with all that, "I'm not sure if Barney is ready for this!" shit from the last episode?  Meh!

Finally at the very end of the episode we see the "girl with the yellow umbrella" which we all know to be who Ted ends up with.  Like always, we see her boots and the umbrella and stuff, but then something different happens.  The camera pans up and we actually see her face.  The mother has been cast, and we got to see her!  Yaaaay!... It's still bullshit that should have been resolved next week and not next season.  I say again...cock tease.  If you cut out all the peripheral crap that this season has been full of, and just focused on the main story, then we could have had this stuff wrapped up.  Oh well, I've come this far I guess.  I'm not gonna bail on the show now that we're so close...