Doug's Sounding Board

Superbad – It started off fairly slow but after the first 15 minutes I thought it was pretty funny and it just got funnier as it went on. I also liked the unusual response to alcohol consumption.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre – This movie is all over the place. At times it’s fantastic, at times the acting is horrible, the fight scene isn’t very good. But those good moments far outweigh the bad and every scene with Walter Huston was movie stealing awesome. While I was watching it I was thinking about how much it reminded me of Tresspass and looking up the Trespass trivia I found that Treasure is what it was loosely based on.

 The Great New Wonderful – An odd collection of post-911 stories. Some of them work and some you just wait for the more interesting ones to return. Stephen Colbert has the best line which I’m putting in here because it’s cool and you probably won’t see the movie: “No, actually he’s a selfish, incorrigible monster with a heart made of shit and splinters.”

Balls of Fury – I’m not sure I’d want to own a copy of this but it’s the kind of movie that I’d watch whenever I happened across it on cable. On second thought maybe I do want to own a copy; I certainly want to see it again.

I’ve watched some first episodes of  shows and here’s what we’ve found that we might pursue further:

•  Californication – The first thing that’s made me not think of David Duchovny in an X-Files kind of way. It’s entertaining so far.
• Chuck – An odd spy comedy with occasional good action. It has a Greatest American Hero feel to it and I can’t see it lasting long.
• Pushing Daisies – An Addams Family level of dark comedy that’s a lot of fun. I hope this manages to stay around.
• Lipstick Jungle – The stories of three driven career women and how they deal written by Candace Bushnell. I don’t think it’s quite found its rhythm yet. Nicole liked it but doesn’t think it’ll last long.
• The Big Bang Theory – The first sit-com I’ve watched in forever. It’s about two two ultra-nerdy physicists trying to make friends with the new (female) neighbor.  I don’t think this constant level of nerdiness has been shown before and while it was pretty funny, I don’t know how long it’ll continue to be on tv.

The only series we’re currently watching is Mad Men, about Maddison Avenue ad men in the early 1960s. I originally saw part of an episode at Jeanne’s house and decided to give it a shot. At first the misogynistic sentiments and level of cigarette smoke set the stage for the time well but are hard to get past. Once you accept that as the environment for the show you can start appreciating the story going on.

Finally, since we now have a region-free DVD player Nicole was able to bring me back the Spaced  definitive collectors’ edition box set from her UK visit complete with homage-o-meter for seeing all the references in a given scene.