Off Again

I'm rushing to pack and get to sleep with a 6:35AM train from Union Station tomorrow, but I should be able to blog a bit more from New York this week than I did before. Still reeling from the last two minutes of the Dexter season finale. Unbelievable. I'll get to the decade in review soon, but this has to have been the best decade ever for dramatic TV, right?

Worst of the Worst: #80, Big Momma's House 2

There's no goddamn way that this was only the 80th worst movie of the decade. Insipid, just fucking insipid. But I watched the whole thing. Happy? Sure, maybe I didn't get it because I didn't see the first one. Or maybe I'm happier than I've only had to sit through one of these.

Up In The Air

Went tonight to see Up In The Air, the new movie from Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking, Juno). It's won a couple of critics' awards so far for best picture of the year. I think it might be the second best movie I've seen so far (Inglourious Basterds is really, really good), but definitely no worse than second, and nothing else is a close third (we're talking Star Trek or The Hangover at that point). I can see why critics would love the film so much, it's what one might call a "movie lover's movie".

It's the kind of movie that's perfectly enjoyable at face value. George Clooney's performance is note perfect, the kind of role at which he excels and it's hard to imagine anyone else playing it. The other performances are very strong. The script is touching at times and very funny, flirting with movie cliches but never giving into them. It's poignant as a letter to the many people who have been laid off in this economy, using real people at times talking about what it felt like to be fired. The film is stylish, the music is that sort of acoustic guitar that pulls at the heartstrings, etc.

The "movie lover's movie" bit comes because of how subtle and nuanced the film is. There are very slight motions that add unlimited depth to the story, a nod of the head here, a small smile there. There are lines that are funny, but, when examined more closely, provide a deeper look into the character's soul. One such line, "I type with purpose," seems to be a total throwaway line that got a couple of laughs, but I can't stop thinking about what it said about the character that delivered it. The camera work even changes subtly at one point to show a change in theme. It's the kind of movie one could watch two or three times and discover something new with each viewing. Go see it at least once. It will surely get nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay -- it's based on a book -- and Clooney will most likely get nominated for Best Actor.

A side note on the previews before the movie. There was a trailer for a movie starring Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, and Tracy Jordan Morgan. They go to a funeral for Rock's father and weird things start to happen. Someone takes drugs, starts hallucinating, and gets naked up on the roof. Peter Dinklage appears, to insinuate that he had had a homosexual affair with the deceased. Chaos and hilarity ensue. This may sound familiar, as it is the plot of the great British movie Death at a Funeral, that came out two years ago. Shoot, Dinklage was even in that one. As the trailer progressed, I kept looking at the people with me and we couldn't quite believe this movie could be so similar. The name of the Chris Rock movie? Death at a Funeral. It's a remake of a movie that came out in 2007. Forget the fact that there's no chance that the new one will be as good as the original -- Netflix it if you haven't seen it, it's really funny. How do you remake a movie that's two years old?! And nobody's remade Death Wish or Dirty Harry yet, which are just begging for updates?!?!?!?!?!

Sweeter Than Honey

• Reading List:
• Friday's a great time to catch up on a couple of articles.
• Jason Whitlock has not just written the best columns about the Tiger Woods situation, nobody is a close second. Rather than dealing with the gory details, he's been focusing on the media's (hypocritical) reaction. In today's column, he attacked Rick Reilly and Herm Edwards and he brought up some interesting points about how race plays into the coverage. Whitlock is also really, really funny on Twitter (@WhitlockJason).
• You probably don't know that perhaps the foremost historian of 19th-century baseball is a guy named Pete Nash. If not, you may be surprised to find out that Pete Nash used to be known as Prime Minister Pete Nice from the rap group 3rd Bass. Here is the crazy tale of his life and why the FBI is investigating him.
• Random Pop Culture:
• Community creator Dan Harmon said on Twitter that tonight's episode was his favorite yet. Agreed. Too much good stuff to point out any one thing, but the highlight was the way it made fun of different religions. Both Community and 30 Rock tonight had great Jew-mocking jokes.
• I'm thrown for a loop with this season of Survivor at this point. It's all edge-of-your-seat and anything can happen at any tribal council. Hard to imagine that Russell, who is now clearly the most entertaining player in show history, can keep surviving now that the target is squarely on him, but I keep saying that. His move at the second tribal tonight was jaw-droppingly ballsy.
• I stopped doing football picks on here because, well, who really cares? But I seriously thought (and had I remembered to make my picks against the spread) that Cleveland had a chance to beat Pittsburgh tonight. Didn't have the guts to pick the Browns in my office pool. Not only are the Steelers out of the playoffs, but they're not guaranteed a .500 record. In fact, with their remaining games being Green Bay, Baltimore, and at Miami, they could actually lose ten games.
• Going to see Up In The Air tomorrow, I'll let you all know.
• Random Music Video:
• Thirty-two years ago today, Otis Redding died when his tour plane crashed. His most famous recording is probably "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", but I'd argue that the best song he ever wrote is this one, made famous by Aretha Franklin, but performed live here by Redding.

Joke In Your Town

• The Monologue:
• I can't top this with any other joke. The greatest newspaper correction of all time.
• Random Pop Culture:
• It's Wednesday night and that means the next two episodes of Steven Seagal, Lawman! Tonight we learned that Seagal enjoys training attack dogs and letting them go to work on defenseless targets (quote of the night: "Those dogs can smell any amount of drugs in the middle of a bag of doggie treats."). Also, he has a blues band in which he plays lead guitar and sings. He is an amazing person. If he were to come face-to-face with Gozer the Gozerian, he wouldn't have to lie to save his life because he is actually a god.
• Seriously, the show is great. I actually like how they focus on a different theme each episode. It makes for a nice flow between the ride-along footage and the parts about his life.
• The producers of 90210 made a very good decision when they dumped Ethan at the end of last season, made Liam a regular, and replaced Ethan with Teddy. Also, the end of this week's episode -- the cliffhanger for the winter hiatus -- was killer. Just when you thought they were going to annoyingly forget that Annie killed someone last year, they brought it back in a shocking way.
• Random Movie Scene:
• The movie in question missed being in this decade by six weeks or so, but today being the actor in question's fifty-sixth birthday, I think this is appropriate.

And They Are Indisputable

These are the facts:

• Tiger Woods jokes are getting difficult, mostly because they are too easy and too dirty. I found myself sitting at work today and opening my mouth to blurt something out before thankfully stopping myself.
• Peter Gammons leaves ESPN for MLB Network. As if I needed one more reason to watch MLB Tonight over Baseball Tonight. It's already the best sports studio show on TV, now it has an embarrassment of riches.
• I was looking at Yahoo's main page and caught this. Wow. They fixed it soon after.
• As The World Turns was cancelled after being on for 54 years. Shoot, Michael Jackson only made it 50 before he was cancelled.
• The finale of The Biggest Loser was on tonight. It's one of the more underrated unintentionally funny shows of any year. The live finale is always really, really disorganized.
• The best TV show of the '00s is obvious, but how big do I make the lists for both TV and movies? Five or ten seem too small. And do I lump it all together, TV-wise -- drama, comedy, reality? I think I may.

Don't Need To Discuss Much

I'm fairly disgusted with the way the Ravens crapped the bed so I have nothing I feel like saying. Heard this song today and, not only is it an all-time great, but I'm ready for my breakup with the 2009 season.