Four Christmases

TJ Says...This is the new Vince Vaughn/Reese Witherspoon christmas joint. I was looking forward to this, as it fits my "Stuff blows up or makes me laugh" criteria to go see a movie. And anything with Vince Vaughn in it makes me laugh.

I thought this movie was good. I went with my wife and it ended up being a good date movie. I mean, as with any RoCo (romantic comedy) there are plenty of plot holes. Like their relationship is rock solid at the start of the day, and by visiting all 4 families for christmas, some how it all falls apart at the end. Really?

With that being said, I laughed plenty of times. There was plenty of new family humor in there, and there were several ladies laughing in the theather. As a matter of fact, Ms. John Madden was sitting next to us, giving a running commentary of what was happening on the screen. HIGHLY annoying.

TJ's review....Go see it. Lighthearted and funny. I enjoyed it. Just don't sit next to old ladies that like to talk to the screen.

Chad Says...Man I liked this movie A LOT more than TJ. This might be one of Vince Vaughn's best roles up there with Swingers. He was hilarious in this movie. I laughed out loud so many times to the point where Kiley started elbowing me. And Reese was great in this too. She's funny. Her reactions to some of the situations were wonderful.

I'm a fan of the uncomfortable situation comedy stuff ala Meet the Parents and this one fits snugly in that category. Robert Duval was awesome in this too. "I don't want to disrespect your mother on Christmas but that woman is nothing more than a common street whore." Genius.

This is a good all around movie. Not necessarily a date movie but the ladies will like it too.

Chad's Review...See this. Or rent it since it's taken me this long to write this review. My bad.

Transporter 3

TJ says...Transporter 3 is the most recent (I dare say final) of the Transporter series. Jason Statham driving cars and kicking people? I'm in.

I didn't anticipate too much going in, other than a good time and watching stuff and people get jacked up. This movie had plenty of that. However, there was a good 45-50 mins in the middle of the movie where there was just dialogue. WTF? Come on. It's Transporter, not Pride and Prejudice.

TJ's Review...WAY to much talkie, not enough blow S up. Go see it, because J.S. is a bad mofo, but be prepared for the talking. Boo.

Chad Says...Oy vey was this movie terrible. Jason Statham doesn't make great movies, he makes action movies that are great. This one is the exception to the rule. Annoyingly horrible acting that the action couldn't make up for.

Chad's Review...Don't get me wrong, I'll still go see Transporter 4.

Quantum of Solace

TJ Says...OK, not too excited about this movie. It looked good and based on Daniel Craig, I definately wanted to see it, just not too excited. I don't remember a lot of Casino Royale, but I do remember liking it (probably because it had a lot of poker)...so let's go see QoS.

Basically, James Bond cannot be hurt by mere mortal bad guys. The movie starts with a car chase, followed by a foot chase, then here comes a boat chase, then a nice air to air combat/dog fight and finally a fire fight (both literally and figuratively at the same time). At no time was Bond ever hurt more than the obilgatory cuts and scratches. He even opened his parachute about 100 ft above ground, did the tuck and roll, and was unharmed. Come on.

The story...eh...not too exciting. Fighting fake environmentalists to control "the most important resource in the world". Not too enticing. The fight/chase scenes were cool, I just didn't think the plot was all that great.

TJ's Review...Stuff blows up, a lot. And I was entertained for two hours...so I gotta say, go see it and it's worth the time. But I guess I'm not too pumped about giving it 2 thumbs up.

Chad Says...So apparently this movie has a story. A plot if you will. Which was weird to me b/c I don't remember one. What I do remember however was a LOT of action.

The story was confusing and lost me. I don't remember the movie before this but apparently if you do this one makes sense. I had actually watched the second half of the Casino Royale a bit before this came out and remember thinking - I don't recall any of this plot, just the action.

So at least they stuck with the theme on this one.

Chad's Review...Go see this if you like action but not if you like understanding what's happening in between all that glorious action.

My Own Worst Enemy

Chad Says...Very interesting. I haven't liked anything Christian Slater has done since Gleaming the Cube but just the concept of this had me. Action and spies pretty much does that every time. So the jist is, regular dude is also programed to be a super spy and people he works for can switch him back and forth. But he's switching back and forth on his own at random times unexpectedly. Delicious. I've been needing a good spy show since Alias went off the air. Correction, since the 3rd season of Alias when it should have gone off the air.

The show itself was very impressive. It must have been high budget b/c it looks great. The first episodes of shows are usually just setup the characters and start the story. You get to meet the spy side pretty well and a brief intro to the regular guy side but that was enough of a good start for me.

Christian Slater does seem to like himself a lot though. I bet there were times when they were filming this and he went, "Wait, hold on. I didn't get that eye squint just right. Let me do that again." As long as it isn't anywhere near as bad as Horatio on CSI Miami I can live with it. Seriously he turns to the side and poses in shots. Disgusting.

Chad's Review...I look forward to seeing more of this show. Added to my regular rotation.

Chad's Prediction...I think it'll get at least a season. NBC put so much production value into it they'll likely do whatever it takes to get a good audience. That didn't work for Studio 60 but we'll see what happens here.

TJ Says....This wasn't too intriquing for me. Christian Slater, I'm lukewarm about at best and I didn't know how they were going to pull off the story line. So my expectations we're very in the middle.

Throughout the episode I alternated between interested and bored. It was a little slow, but I think they were just setting up characters. But there was some interesting plot lines when Henry/Edward do or don't know about each other and how that all works out. I thought the acting was pretty good and I had not problems with that.

The guy from "Yes, Dear" that always wears a hat is in the show. Couple things, I've never seen him without a hat for more than 2 seconds on TV, and is this guy the best as the co-worker action star guy? Really?

TJ's review...I'm still in the middle. Not too excited, but I'll watch it again. It has some promise.

TJ's prediction...I think this show will make it an entire season, and then we'll go from there. Definately not a hit.

Kath and Kim

Chad Says...what a joke. Which is ironic since this show lacked any of those. I blame the awfulness of this show on one person. Selma Blair. Horrible. I chuckled a few times at Molly Shannon and her boyfriend - I love that guy, but I could not bear Selma. How she got cast in a comedy is beyond me.

The premise of the show is a daughter who got married is a selfish brat and leaves her new husband to move back in with her mom but she's turned the daughters room into a workout room. Meanwhile the mom is about to get engaged. So on a technicality this show is still labeled a "situational comedy" but it fails to produce laughs. The shots of the wedding video were funny and Molly Shannon's workout gear was amusing but after that I just stood there staring at the tv with my mouth open in shock that this show made it on the air.

Chad's Review...if they can go back in time and recast Selma Blair this show would be worth watching again. Unfortunately they'll have to figure out time travel on Fringe before this show can be saved. Oh well. Until that happens I'll just refer to this show as Kath and Krappy.

Chad's Prediction...I'll be surprised if this show makes is a full season. Because of the cast it'll get longer than it deserves though.

TJ Says...New "comedy" on NBC with Molly Shannon and Selma Blair. This looked promising. NBC needs to take CBS' approach and LOWER expectations.

This show was awful. I made it 13:52 before I quit watching out of boredom. I didn't laugh once.

TJ's Review...If you need help going to sleep, TiVO this and watch it before going to bed. Otherwise, avoid like the plague.

TJ's Prediction...This show can't make it longer than "Do Not Disturb". But it will...6 shows, then off to where it belongs, trash.

Eagle Eye

Chad Says...I have a drink idea for Starbucks. It's called a venti go see Eagle Eye. It's got a triple shot of slap yo face! Geez louise people. This movie was action packed. And it made me think of my dream job.

I want to wear a bone mic in my ear and have someone tell me what to do. No thinking. Just listening and doing. All the while the person on the other end is making all the dominoes fall into place so you make it from A to B in stride. Cool huh? That was this movie. With explosions. Lots of them.

Recently my mother said to me that she doesn't like watching movies with buildings blowing up. Ever since the Oklahoma City bombing she's felt this way. It's become an prerequisite for me to earn an A+ rating.

This movie had a little Matrix feel to it for a bit then a little War Games flavoring with some Die Harder on top. It also had a little Flight of the Navigator to it...but don't pay attention to the "how all this is happening", just enjoy the explosions! It also had a lot more actors that you know of in it. Nice little cast. Shia Labeouf is charming. And he fantastic at running away from things. Whether it be Decepticons or the police, he does it well. And yelling while running. Down, pat. In short I liked this movie. A lot. Action packed, good story, fine cast. And explosions. Lots and lots of explosions.

Chads Rating...Awesome. I put this up there with Wanted as one of the most recent movies that made me sweat while watching it on account of the massive amounts of action my brain was processing.

TJ Says...I had high expectations for this movie. It looked really good in the previews and an interesting story line. Someone controlling people just by accessing all the computers around them. Cool.

The moview was very action packed. Very fast paced. I wasn't bored at all and only looked at my watch once. I thought the actors all did well in their roles.

All that being said, isn't this just Enemy of the State II? Things I've noticed that Hollywood isn't a big fan of: #1. The Right. #2. Aritificial Intelligence. #3. Big Government (doesn't that go against #1?). Anyways...this movie villanizes all three of those.

The first half the movie was great, up until you learn who's pulling the strings, and then it gets pretty unbelieveable for me and I check out. It was still fast paced, but the "twist" didn't do it for me.

TJ's Review... It was worth seeing, just from an action standpoint. The story is a let down. But it was enjoyable. I give this a thumbs sideways.

Gary UnMarried

Chad Says...Another funny comedy on CBS? I feel like we're in some sort of bizarro world where up is down and down is up. This show has got something. I laughed quite a few times at it and enjoy CBS's new way of advertising shows. Shows lots of commercials of their shows but not really making you want to watch them. Almost as if to say, "You might not like it but hey, give it a shot." Then you go in with little expectations and end up liking what you see. Nice work CBS.

The writing in this show is funny. We'll see what kind of storylines they can come up with before I'd say it's good but it's certainly funny. The kids were really good in this show too. A show about a divorced guy with two kids who is dating could be aweful if the kids can't hold their own. I laughed at most everything they said.

Jay Mohr. I like this guy. He hosted Last Comic Standing way back when you only knew who he was thru Jerry McGuire and he was really funny. He held his own actually doing standup and I was pretty impressed (can't say the same for Bill Belamy). And his timing and delivery in this show as really good. I have nothing negative to say about this show. Everything was really well done. I hope it makes it.

Chad's Review...I'm in. It's solid. Not crazy funny but neither was my favorite show 30 Rock in it's pilot and look how far it's come.

Chad's Prediction...much worse has lasted way too long on CBS. It's not edgy enough for the older CBS crowd to not watch. I think it'll make it a season.

TJ Says...This is a new Jay Mohr comedy on CBS. Going in I had VERY low expectations. Mainly because I heard an interview of him on The Ticket and he was just an ass. No other way to really say it. He wasn't funny and wanted big laughs and ended up big timing the hosts. But hey, it's a new sitcom, so I'll watch it.

Basically, it's a new spin on a family sitcom. I use the term "family" highly loosely. The basics are that Mohr is just divorced and is starting a new relationship, and has two tweenagers. His Ex wife ends up **SPOILER** being engaged to their marriage therapist (Ed Begley Jr., who I'm quite intrigued by due to his over the top greenness). That relationship causes comedy.

The show exceeded my low expectations. It's not Worst Week, but it's not bad. There were a bunch of one liners in the show that I laughed at. I'm not certain I'll make it must see, but I'll probably check it out again.

TJ's Review....Not Bad, Not Great. There's been worse on TV that's made it longer (See According to Jim).

TJ's Prediction...It won't last the season, but may be a fill in show down the line for other failed shows.

Worst Week

Chad Says...So I'm a funny guy, right? Well I tend to find myself in these situations where I too am convinced that I'm funny and just assume that everyone else will feel the same way when I unleash some golden comedy nuggets. So I'll say something funny and the recipient of my hilariousness isn't prepared for it and figures me for an idiot.

This show nails that among other things. Whoever this main guy is...I like him. He's so subtle with the comedy. Fantastically so. And the casting? Awesome. The dad, the mom - wonderful. I'm immediately in on this show. What's it about? It's the 22 minute version of Meet the Parents. That really uncomfortable situational funny...nailed it.

The only problem is that the stuff he gets himself into in this pilot episode may not be able to be topped. They were way over the top so my fear is that there may not be much further to take this show.

Chad's Review...I loved it. My expectations were so low for this show that I thought it was just an over-advertised bust. Wrong.

Chad's Prediction...it won't last a full season. Which will be a shame. Another great show stuck on CBS that no one will watch.

TJ Says...OK, this is a new CBS comedy on monday nights. The basic premise is a got it together dude, shacking up with his girlfriend for 2 years, has not yet earned the approval of her parents. In fact, they still refer to him as their daughter's "Friend". As he seeks to earn their approval, he keeps making horrendous mistakes, and hilarity ensues.

First of all, there is no laugh track, an instant bonus (although, "The Big Bang Theory" has a laugh track, and that show is gold). Secondly, TJ Can big time relate to trying to earn the inlaw stamp of approval. This is why I laughed at pretty much everything in the show. I really thought the lead dude was funny, and Red from "That 70's Show" is in this as the father in law, and he's got something too.

Cons. Of course they hit you with the every possible thing that could go wrong, does. That gets a little old, but the uncomfortableness it creates is well worth it. The show made me uncomfortable while being funny. I liked it.

TJ's Review...I Thought it was funny, not 30 Rock funny, but worth watching a sit com on a monday night funny. Give it a try, it's uncomfortable fun.

TJ's Prediction...It's going against Heroes and Dancing with the stars....so it's in a tough time slot. But I think it gets picked up for a full season, and then we'll see where it goes from there.

Fringe

Chad Says...I never watched X Files but have a feeling this is basically that show except it's just going to take every side of science that's unproven and use it as fact.

The show was good but not great by any means. Every other first episode of JJ Abrams show had me from the first episode (Alias, Lost) but this one just left me thinking, "yeah that was pretty cool".

I have a feeling it's just going to be a story that builds to a big event and either will or will not pay off. I'll watch the entire first season.

Chads Reveiw...very lukewarm. Something's going to need to happen that reels me in.

Chad's prediction...it'll make it a full season and people will get frustrated with it at someone point in the second season.

TJ Says...So this looks interesting with JJ Abrams writing/producing it. This show stars Pacey from Dawson's Creek (yeah, you watched it too) and that's the only person I recognized.

The show is basically a new FBI X Files without everything weird being caused by "aliens". There's a dude that's really creepy heading up the "joint task force" (By the way, is it really this easy to get JTF's now?...i guess it's all due to 9/11). There's the obligatory way too hot for the FBI chick that's semi-rogue and will do anything to figure out what's ailing her boyfriend (she seems awfully commited to a dude she just said "I love you" too). Anyways. There's several holes in the plot and a lot of leaps of faith in the technology department.

All that being said, It was a little slow and I was out...until the twist at the end. It sucked me in.

TJ's Review...I'll watch it again. Hopefully it speeds up.

TJ's Prediction...This will make it a full season.

Do Not Disturb

Chad Says...Sorry, I only made it 7 minutes and 44 seconds into this show before I turned it off. I couldn't take it anymore. It felt so fake and worked harder at trying to be cool looking than trying to be a TV show. I like Jerry O'Connell so it was a shame when I saw him. More people should have given the show Carpoolers a shot last season. One of the funnier comedies from last year but it didn't get picked back up.

Chad's review...i hated it. Didn't even make it to the second commercial break.

Chad's prediction...no more than 6 episodes. I hadn't seen any ads for this show. I doubt it's on anyone's radar.

TJ Says...This is a new Fox comedy featuring Jerry O'Connell. When did this guy become a comedian? He was the worst part of "Carpoolers" and yet, now he has another show? Come on people. What has this guy ever done? Besides John Stamos' highly sloppy seconds?

It's set in a hotel and follow around 4 or 5 hotel staff members and get hilarity. Pros: The guy from "The Class" that is now gay in this show, he's got something. The Bell Boy is also funny too. Cons: Everything else. Jerry O'Connell. Not Funny black lady. Laugh Track.

TJ's Review...Skip it. Watch Carpoolers on DVD and cry laugh at Marmaduke every week.

TJ's Prediction...6 shows max.

Death Race

Chad Says...I always get incredible joy out of any movie that meets my required ratio of explosions to scenes 50:1.

Seriously. You like action? You like speed? Done and done. Jason Statham is my new hero. I bet in real life if he walked into a room everyone would gasp and get real quiet. Then you'd turn around and look at him and you'd see doves flying behind him in slow motion.

Gritty. Fast-paced. Hot. Me likey. This was just a fun movie to watch. I didn't walk away feeling smarter. But I did walk away wanting to punch stuff. Mission accomplished Death Race. I salute you, sir.

Chad's Review...put that much action in a trailer and you can call it, "Sisterhood of the Traveling Ya-ya" and it get's not only a viewing but a thumbs up.

TJ Says...I saw the preview for this at Wanted and was immediately in. If I could have bought a ticket then and there, I would have. Then I was told that this was a remake of Sly Stallone's "Death Race 2000", and that it's a 70's cult classic. That took a little shine off the rose, but I was still in.

First, let me say, you don't go see this movie for it's great acting. Good thing too, because the acting was definately sub par. Tyrese Gibson needs to stick to looking good and get out of movies. He's got nothin.

With that being said, you go see this movie because of the action potential. This movie fulfilled that expecation to the max. It was awesome. It was 2 hours of high speed action with stuff and people gettin blown up. I was highly entertained and not bored at all. The lady from Bourne was great as the evil Biotch/prison warden. I wanted her dead immediately. Jason Statham is one bad mofo in any movie he's been in, and does a great job in this movie too.

TJ's Review...If you want to see stuff blow up, go see this movie now. Well worth the $10 spent. Also, go ahead and get your tickets for "The Transporter 3", it was previewed before Death Race, and it looks good. Although, does "The Transporter" need to be a trilogy? I guess so, since I'll see all 3 of em.

Tropic Thunder

Chad Says...Man - the first 45 min of this movie I was laughing my butt off. I was getting ready to put this movie into my top 5 comedy list. I still might. The middle of the movie levels out then it picks right back up at the end.

This movie reminded me of Three Amigos. Actors that get thrown into a real situation that they think is fake. That's a prescription for pure gold if you ask me. When they first get thrown into the real jungle and something (I won't spoil it for you) happens to the director I spewed coke all over the seat in front of me.

I loved Ben Stiller. I LOVED Robert Downey Jr. The guy that plays the explosives expert needs to be in all comedies from now on. He's awesome. Jack Black was very mediocre. The other guys were so great in this that he just played backup to them the entire time. Stiller tried to throw Matthew McConaughey a bone to prove he's not the douche everyone thinks he is but only confirmed the fact. Tom Cruise showing up in the movie was out of no where but a WONDERFUL surprise. The characters in this movie were brilliant. I can't wait to see this movie again.

The ending - yes I saw it coming from a mile away but I loved it anyway. It was a nice recall.

Chad's review: Must see. See it and love it. Embrace the genius of this movie. Now go read TJ's review and see what an idiot he is.

TJ Says...I didn't really know what to expect going in. I had heard overall good reviews and RDJ (Bob Downy Jr.) looked hilarious in the previews. Unfortunately, 90% of the funny was in the previews...

The bad: It started out very slowly. 20 minutes in, I've already looked at my watch 4 times, not good. Matthew McconauGAY is in the movie, life force drain. It was pretty slow, with a few funny moments. A lot of funny parts were in the previews.

The Good: RDJ (as mentioned above). Tom cruise is pretty funny and VERY over the top, which suits him to a tee. I cry laughed one time, and continued laughing about it hours later, when Jack Black was tied to the tree. G-O-L-D. The guy from pineapple express that was the dealer that got into a fight with seth rogan is in this movie. That guy is FUNNY.

TJ's Review: Not as good as Step Brothers, better than Pineapple Express. It's worth seeing at the theater, maybe at matinee prices though.

The Pineapple Express

Chad Says...Yeah I don't smoke weed. Never have. I also typically don't think drug humor is funny. So guys getting high and acting high doesn't make me laugh. So I hated the first 45 minutes of this movie. I was looking at my watch and considering leaving actually. But I knew some action was coming so I waited.

The action was enjoyable. There were parts where I laughed and then the action got boring. This is a terrible movie.

Two things that were good about this movie were the dude in the movie poster on the left. He's hilarious. More of him please. The other thing was the black dude in the movie - the guy that works in the warehouse in The Office TV show. He's great too. I you could edit out James Franco completely that would make this movie even better. He's officially dead to me. Anyone that can almost ruin Spiderman 3 should be punched out.

And Seth Rogan. Man. He's annoying. His laugh is horrible. He only does movies that involve him as a loser that smokes weed. Is that all he's got? Really?

Chad's review...If you smoke weed and think high people are funny this movie is right up your alley. So let me know if you see it and like it. I want to punch you in person.


TJ Says...I wasn't to hyped about this movie. It's seth rogan in the character he's done before, with a lot of dope and cussing. I don't do either, so I can't relate. But it looked kinda funny, so what the hay, I'll go see it.


To quote Seth "Weed makes movies better." If that's true, smoke about a pound of it before you go see this movie. It was TERRIBLE. It was funny in a few parts, but only chuckle funny. For the first half of the movie, i was COMPLETELY bored. The second half of the movie picked up a little, but still, not enough to save the movie.

The funniest character in the movie was the black guy from the office. And his funniest part was gettin his foot blown off.

TJ's Rating...Don't go see this movie. I can't even recommend a rental, and I will rent some REALLY REALLY BAD movies. Save your money.

Step Brothers

TJ Says...This is the new "no holds barred" Will Ferrell comedy. They went for the R rating and they succeeded. Before I went in, I had heard from another movie goer that this is nothing more than a "rental". After the first 5 minutes, I was thinking, this is already worth seeing it in the theaters, what was that guy talking about?

This movie was really really funny. Several scenes were re-lived on the way home with the guys I went with. That is the sign of a good comedy. I thought Will and John Reilly did a great job of acting like kids in 40 year old bodies. And the best part was that all the funny was not in the previews, there were several funny parts not seen yet.

A few knocks: it was a little drawn out, which is tough to do in 93 minutes, but they did it. Also, Judd Apatow must live in some world where people say the F Bomb every other word, because this movie was littered with a LOT of over cussing for no particular reason. And you can tell that Mrs. Ted Danson didn't believe it, as she was trying to supress laughter as she was dropping non-sensical MF, F, F, F. I'm sure Pineapple Express will have more of the same.

TJ's Review....This is a good comedy, I really enjoyed it and it's definately worth seeing in the movies. Just watch out for the overcusser.

Chad's Review...TJ is a jerk. He heard this movie was a rental thru me. I was standing in line and this redneck in front of me turns around and says, "Don't see Step-Brothers, ma-yun. It's a rental at beh-yest." Then I told TJ about it. Then after the credits were rolling I turned to TJ and said, "I'm going to find that redneck and punch him in the nuts."

Now that we have that settled. I laughed uncontrolably at times during this movie. In two particular scenes I couldn't quit laughing and when I'd think about what they just did I'd just cover my mouth to not start laughing again. They did such a great job of playing two idiots in this movie. And what a great team. Both guys were equally hilarious.

Usually when two people fight it's not that funny unless you think uncomfortable is funny (looking in TJ's direction) but they where so good at being mean it was great. Then when they started getting along it was awesome so it just got better.

But jeez. Anything Apatow is attached to is so stinking filthy-mouthed. I sound like my grandmother when I say that but seriously. F bombs and the use of the P-word for female genitalia blow up left and right. That makes me cringe. But that couldn't ruin this movie for me. It survived him trying to ruin it.

Chad's review...if you don't go see this we can't be friends anymore. See if you can pick out the two things I laughed so hard at I cried.

The Dark Knight

TJ Says...There was a lot of buildup for this movie. I'm pretty sure that any movie released between January and June 2008 had the exact same trailer for Batman showing. It got to be a huge whip. So I wasn't too excited. Then I starting hearing the reviews and the Heath Ledger greatness and, so my expectations we're raised...

To prep, I took in some of the old school batmans on TNT this week...the ones with Val and George. Those two movies were TERRIBLE. This new batman was not terrible. In fact it was really really good. The opening hiest scene was great, the villians were all good, and Christian Bale is a good Batman.

I thought the story was captivating, and Ledger did a great job as the Joker. There was plenty of unrealistic action and I really liked all the villans.

Things I didn't like...it seemed to drag on a little...but even more annoying, Christian Bale's voice as batman...BOO. I sounded like he had smoked 3 packs a day for 25 years. I mean...just cough to clear your throat dude.

TJ's Review. This is just a great overall movie. Not as good as Wanted, but definately worth seeing. And I may pay $11 more to see it on IMAX.

Chad Says...Batman's voice...that's funny. I thought the same thing but wouldn't have said anything b/c i forgot about it so when TJ brings it up it makes me laugh.

This was a really fantastic movie. Yes it was too long but normally when I see movies that are too long there are things I can point directly to that should be taken out. I think if you took anything out of this movie you're just dumb. So get past the fact that you'll be in the theater for a long time but rejoice in the fact that you're not seeing Gorillas in the Mist during that time. Oh also, Katie Holmes is replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal (hey Maggie and Jake - think about a new spelling for your last name) which was a blarringly annoying thing to me. Make her a different character. Seriously. That was dumb.

Now that's all the negatives about this movie. It was really, really good. The best movie I've seen all summer by far. Heath Ledger...wow. The Joker was so creepy and dark and brilliant. I look forward to seeing Ledger's future work...oh. But seriously. The last Batman movie, my favorite thing was Christian Bale as Batman. He's so overshadowed in this movie by Ledger it's not even funny. He'll win an Oscar for this role. Mark it down then come back here and be all, Chad was so right. Thanks.

Chad's Review...Yeah I'm definitely spending more money to see this in IMAX.

Factory

TJ Says...This is a new comedy on Spike. I saw a preview for the show and it was ok, until one guy was using a band saw, and not paying attention, cut something and blood flew everywhere. It made me laugh hard. So then I see it on TV late one friday, I'm in.

It's about 4 factory workers that are generically quirky. There's no laugh track (which is a bonus), and basically we just follow the hi-jinks of the 4 workers. The first episode I saw made me laugh hard about 5 times. I almost cry laughed 2-3 times. There's the odd outsider factory worker, that wants to be part of the group, but the group doesn't like him. That makes for comic genius.

TJ's Review...The show was a little slow at times, but made up for it in funny. I've added this to my DVR and will be watching all the new episodes as they come out. I recommend it.

Chad Says...Excuse me while I geek out for a second. But one of the dudes in the show - Dave Pasquesi is a Chicago improvisor. I once saw him do a 2 man fully improvised show with TJ Jagedowski (who is the passenger in the Sonic commercials that are a hoot) and it was completely amazing. [pushes up glasses, snorts then goes back to typing on keyboard]

This show is really funny. 4 deadbeat dudes all with great characters and each of them shine from episode to episode. Complete sophmoric humor done really really well. It's basically them playing grab-ass each week on the job at a precision tool factory - the absolute worst place to act that way. It all adds up to some very funny stuff.

Chad's Review...Granted I may be overrating this show b/c I love one dude in it but I REFUSE to miss this show each week.

Flashpoint

TJ Says...This is a new CBS Summer show about a sniper police team. 2 reasons why I wanted to watch this show. The first, it's about snipers. Cool. The second, it's got the dad from Veronica Mars on it, and I like that dude.

So the first 15-20 mins of the show sucked me in with police action, sniper action, some Russian dude taking a hostage. I'm interested. Then the obvious sniper kill. Then for the rest of the show it was man dealing with sniper death. BOOOOOOORING. First, shouldn't he be prepared for this already? I mean, he's not playing patty cake. What'd he think was going to happen?

Seriously, this show sounds a lot cooler than the first episode actually was.

TJ's Review...I'm going to watch it one more time, just based on the premis, but it better not be as boring as it was, or I AM OUT!

Chad says: Yeah seriously, how do you screw up a show about snipers? Well CBS figured it out - have them investigate a sniper after he follows orders and shoots someone. Yeesh. You open with that episode? Come on dudes.

I watched the second episode and it was better. Turns out the show isn't about snipers, it's about a hostage negotiation team that happens to have LOTS of snipers on the team. The second episode was just talking down some dude that was holding people hostage in a hospital.

So as it turns out it's less Tom Beringer Sniper and more Kevin Spacey, The Negotiator minus Spacey or Samuel L. Jackson (which with SLJ is a good thing these days). At any rate I'm watching it in a case-by-case basis right now.

Chad's Review: it hasn't lost me yet but only b/c Wipeout isn't on the same night.

Hancock

TJ Says...I didn't really know what to expect with this movie. On the one hand, it's a superhero movie, which I AM IN for. Also, I'm in for Will Smith, Jason Bateman and Charlize. On the other hand, NONE of the trailers really piqued my interest (other than the jailhouse scene with the shoving the head up the rear of another inmate...should I be concerned that that piqued my interest?).

All that being said, it was just kind of blah. There were funny moments, and I think Jason Bateman is GREAT, and funny, but that's all it was, moments (I do like the Arrested Development reunion of Charlize and JB...always pro anything related to AD). The action was very herky-jerky (not to get too technical), it just didn't seem to flow well. The dialogue...eh, pretty bad.

I think JB was the highlight of the movie...very funny one liners, but the rest was just OK.

TJ's Review: It's good enough to rent, but not before several other movies that may be available.

Chad says: What a shame - I really liked this movie. We've seen so many stinking superhero movies that it's nice when one comes along and breaks the comic book mold (also see: My Super-Ex Girlfriend, which while funny, wasn't this good).

One thing is for sure - they sure didn't take their time with this movie. They set something up quick and didn't spend a lot of energy with exposition. It only hurt when they needed a big payoff - like the huge twist in this movie.

I had a hard time not liking Will Smith in this movie like it seemed they wanted me to at first. He did a good job trying to make me but his past movies just lead you to like him in everything he does. Jason Bateman is just fun to watch. He plays basically the same guy every time but I love that guy. And yeah, if you haven't seen the TV show Arrested Development - rent every season on DVD. It's hilarious.

I thought this was a cool movie. I liked the fact that it wasn't Ironman or The Hulk or anything else with Marvel's name on it. It gave them the freedom to do whatever the heck they wanted and have the freedom to tell a fun story without you already knowing the basic premise and they did a good job of it in my eyes.

Chad's Review - definitely see it just to inspire you to rent Arrested Development to see some more Jason Bateman action.

Wanted

Chad Says...While I really liked this movie there were a lot of factors that caused it to not meet the expectations I had which were, "Based on the movie trailer, this is the greatest movie ever made."

Now first off, the movie trailer. Whoever made it (them) should be shot b/c way too many cool things in this movie were in the trailers and that was completely unnecessary. All they had to show in the trailer was a dude curving a bullet around a pig carcass then the words, "Go see this MF'in movie". That would have done it for me.

Now I realize that what I'm about to say is ridiculous but bear with me here...there wasn't enough action in this movie. That's like being in a pie factory eating pie and saying, "this isn't pie-y enough." I say that b/c the ratio of action from the trailers to the movie were too low. Introducing the main dude...slow, kind of boring. Explaining how they get the names of people to assassinate...snooze. Basically the action in this movie was so awesome that when there wasn't action I was bored.

Now the actual action. Sweet fancy Moses was it good. Very matrix-like the way they pulled this stuff off. Except it was more of a superpower than 1's and 0's. I would have never thought of the stuff they did in this movie. It was so over-the-top and impossible but I bought every second of it. In fact you can't convince me I couldn't do any of that stuff. If you try I'll curve a bullet around a pig and kill you.

Chad's review: with one hand I'm applauding but with the other I'm giving the bird to the guys that made the trailers. Jerks.

TJ Says...Someone asked me in April "If you could see only one movie this summer, which one would it be?" My answer was WANTED. I was very much looking forward to this movie. So much so that I went to see the 12:01 first show.

My expectations were sky high. The previews looked great. For me, this movie somehow exceeded my expectations. I was very impressed. It was just awesome

The movie started out with a bang, and ended with a bang too. The middle of the movie lacked a little. They showed the cool parts in previews, so it was nothing new. They could have done more to show the development of Wesley into an assassain. That's the only critique that I can think of that would be applicable to this movie.

Stuff blows up. People get killed. It's all done in unique and awesome ways not seen before. Good enough for me.

TJ's review: If you're a fan of awesomeness, go see this movie. Today. If you like suck, don't go.

Get Smart

Chad says...Man ole man. I've been waiting for this movie to come out since I was in grade school. I used to watch this show every day during the summer. It would come on right after the Frugal Gourmet. I bid you peace.

If you have watched every single episode of this TV show as I have, you will love this movie even more. They brought back characters from the TV show just as a special nod to those of us that loved the show. I mean Hymie? Come on!

Having Max start off as an analyst trying to become an agent was a little off putting since in the show he was a veteran agent and that was the reason he knew-it-all instead of being a boring analyst that studied every piece of chatter he heard. But I got over that quickly.

I thought Steve Carell was perfect as Max. Anne Hathaway as 99 was terrific. I liked the Chief but he never got mad enough at Max. 13 - the agent that was always hiding in an awkward place and was really lonely and just wanted Max to stick around and talk to him was funny. I just wish they would have used that more. It seemed like a waste of Bill Murray's time doing it just once. My only problem with the casting was having Zod from Superman (wink at TJ) play Ziegfried. He wasn't crazy or German enough. Deliverying the line, "Schtaker! This is Kaos. We don't 'ka-frickin-boom" here wasn't nearly as funny with this dry dude delivering it. Other than that I loved the movie. Maybe it's b/c I worshipped the TV show but still. Terrific.

Chad's review - If you think you like this movie more than me then I'll challenge you to a duel.

TJ Says...I had REALLY low expectations for this movie. I Thought it would be The Office meats James Bond. And it wasn't. IT was so much better and funnier than that. It was WAY better than the Love Guru.

I thought Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway were great together. I enjoyed their shenannigans and my wife got most of the jokes, so even better. But the star of this movie, by far, was Agent 23, or "The Rock". Basically, I think he's the star of any movie he's ever been in. The Rock can bring it.

TJ's review...My wife and I both REALLY liked it, so go see it. I'm not saying you'll get any after, but laughing together is almost as fun. Right?

The Love Guru

Chad says...Okay let me preface this by saying, I laughed way too much during this movie.

Basically, Mike Meyers loves taking names and making them sound dirty or funny. He does this the entire movie. Every person that has a name in this movie references something gross. Hilarious right?

Also, midgets are a hoot! Verne Troyer has a great sense of humor and Mike Meyers takes FULL advantage of that. Funny stuff. Stephen Colbert puts up a very sub-par performance which was very disappointing for me since I think he's great. Also the graphics they showed before each hockey game of each teams logo attacking each other was really funny.

But Meyers will take a joke and drive it into the ground then stomp on it. Some of the bits go so tired you wanted to say, "Mike. Baby...MOVE ON!"

Chad's review - go see this movie with someone that will giggle like a school boy at it. You'll think it's funnier listening to them laugh.

TJ says...OK...i saw Get Smart first and so I had to compare the funny to that. There are a LOT of one liners that the entire row of teenage boys sitting in front of me thought were hilarious (and as brian can atest, TJ was laughing at them too). But there were no great gags or building jokes. Just A LOT of phallic related jokes (which, hey....they're funny) and people with funny names (Juaques "La Cock" Grande).

I thought J. Timberlake did a really good job of acting. I mean...keep it in perspective...but for a singer/dancer...job well done.

TJ's Review...Funny in an adolesecent way (and I don't mean that as a bad thing)...just lower expectations to that leve.

Kung Fu Panda

Chad says...Skidoosh! This was the best animated movie since The Incredibles. I put it right up there with that one. It was stinking hilarious and the story was fantastic. Jack Black was basically born to voice Po. He was perfect in this.

The fight scenes in this movie were either awesome, hysterical or both. Great use of the action, action, action, slow down camera to enhance the action or make you laugh, more action. I saw this movie with my kids and we cracked up the entire time.

Chad's review - you know it's a fantasitic movie when halfway thru you think to yourself, 'I can't wait for this to come out on DVD so I can buy it."

TJ says...Tap the breaks grasshopper. It wasn't as good as the Incredibles, but it was pretty good. I enjoyed the entire movie, and it does have a lot of really funny lines in it, but it's still a cartoon. I looked at my watch a time or two.

The fight scenes were intense, but with the panda in them, not too bad. Jack black did do a good job and the Panda made it not too scary for little kids.

TJ's Review...not as high on it as Chad, but definately worth viewing. I won't buy the DVD.

Incredible Hulk

Chad says...Chad smash! Are you unfamiliar with the Hulk backstory? Don't worry about it, during the 2 minute credits they fill you in. There's even a nice reference to Iron Man in there if you catch it. Then the movie actually starts. I really like this movie. I didn't think I would. And I liked it despite the fact that Edward Norton was just okay. He had this look on his face the whole time like he was trying to hold in a fart b/c it would squirt out into his pants a little bit. But how else COULD you play that part...I mean right?

I LOVED William Hurt in this movie. He's great. The action is really really good. Hulk did some serious smashing. Chad likes. I also liked how they explained how Bruce Banner was learning to control the outbreaks. Tim Roth was kind of weird in the movie and I usually really like him but it was a cool addition to see him develop into a bad guy in the movie. And the part that REALLY made me love the fact that they made this movie happened in the last scene. I won't spoil it, just go see it.

Chad's review - he rips a cop car in half dude...what more could you ask for?

TJ says...IN. First, Ed Norton Jr. (and do you have to be a Jr. to be in a super hero movie?), is great. That dude can act. I thought he did great. Liv Tyler's back among the living and does an adequate job, although she has horse mouth. The movie though, was very intense. Lots of action, stuff gets blown up.

Unlike George Lucas, the CGI was great and not over the top. I was really into all the action scenes with the Hulk and thought they were really well done. Also, the last scene was great and gets me excited for the next movie(s).

TJ's review...Go see it. Hulk's a bad green mofo.

You Don't Mess with the Zohan

Chad says...This was one of Adam Sandlers funniest movies. Put it in a category with Happy Gilmore and some of those other funny ones he did. No not Little Nicky, come on, keep up. It was funny. I laughed a lot. It's still an Adam Sandler movie though so it's just a silly comedy movie. He thinks it's funny to show his bare butt on screen then catch stuff in it. He giggles at huge cod pieces. Farts are funny. I'm not saying I'm better than any of those things b/c they all made me laugh. But that's what you get.

I did crack up at his accent too. There were several times when I thought, "wait, that was a french accent" but I had no problem with that. I bet Sandler stopped stuff a few times and went, "what happened to my accent in that scene...ah screw it, let's not do it again." I agree...good enough for me! Also, the hummus bits were a VERY nice addition.

Chad's review - You'll laugh at the movie. Then you won't tell anyone you saw it. Good stuff!

TJ Says...This move exceeds expectations. It wasn't that bad. It wasn't the typical Adam Sandler "Hey I'm stupid and I do stupid things." It was "Hey I'm super jew and I do stupid things." Good enough change up for me! The biggest negative to this movie was seeing WAAAAY too much naked sandler rear end.

Oh, and does Rob Schnieder have dirt on sandler? I mean this guy has NOTHING, yet keeps appearing in sandler movies. He's got something on the guy. Also, welcome back to movies Kevin Neeland. You had nothing on SNL, and oddly enough, you still got nothin.

TJ's review...I laughed at this movie. It definately worth the rental.

Indiana Jones

Chad says...Man I was really looking forward to this movie coming out. After hearing the gay title I thought to myself...it's cool dude. Spielberg's got this. He'll make it legit. The first 30 minutes of the movie I was all, "Sweeeeeeeeet". I started forming question marks over my head when the FBI pulled Indy in and started questioning him. They were talking about his former military records and whatnot. Military? Indy's a treasure hunter, not a former special ops army dude. Then Indy finds the crystal skull. When they first showed this on screen I went, "WHAT?" It looked so dumb I nearly punched the guy next to me and when that guy goes, "What was that for?" I would have said, "That was from George Lucas, he hates you."

Whatever. This movie was horrible. Not, okay. Bad. The stuff I liked (like all of the action sequences) were far out weighed by the aweful story. I even hated Cate Blanchett in this movie and I think she hung the moon.

Chad's review - rent it. But only b/c it's Indiana frickin' Jones. If it were called anything else it would be a joke.

TJ Says...I ,like everyone else, was highly anticipating this movie. It's Indy. But watching it, you realize that Harrison Ford is stinkin old, and his love interest is REALLY old. I mean Harry had to be thinking, "I'm dating someone 30 years my junior, and I get stuck with this in Indiana Jones?!?! I'm firing my agent."

I Thought the first 2/3 of the movie was pretty good. Traditional Indy, beatin peeps up, getting out of tough situations, surviving nuclear blasts in a lead lined fridge, etc. To this point in the movie, it reminded me of Indy one, National Treasure and Indy 3. Then as soon as a russion got eaten by ants, it severly jumped the shark. From that point on, George Lucas put ILM to way overuse and ruined the movie.

TJ's rating...The ending is TERRIBLE and completely ruins the rest of the film. Watch it on ABC in 4 years.

Iron Man

Chad says...Okay this was a really cool movie. Now this is coming from a guy that never read a comic book in his life but it way into all these comic book movies they've been throwing out there (except Dare Devil - up yours Affleck!). I could go on and on about how awesome the action and what-not was. I will say that as soon as I saw Jeff Bridges I thought - oh yeah he's going to be the bad guy. I mean look at him, he looks just like Lex Luthor. I think I don't like him as an actor anymore. His manorisms annoy me blah blah blah...so I didn't really like him. And the movie was too long. There were points in the film where i was thinking, Man they could have cut this whole scene out.

But I digress. Despite my annoyance of Bridges and thinking it was too long, the movie was pretty awesome. I thought Downey Jr. was really good and the story was great too. In conclusion, I wish I were Tony Stark.

Chad's rating - this blog entry is way outdated and you and the rest of the country has already seen this movie so don't worry about it.

TJ Says...I was expecting a lot from this movie. I really looked forward to it and I Thought it delivered. I thought RDJ (that 's Robert Downey Jr. to you) did great. I don't know if he's really cocky or if he was acting, either way, I thought he did a great job as Tony Stark. I was thoroughly entertained the enire flic.

Now reading Chad's review you would have thought he liked the movie...which I went to see with him. He came out not as high on it as his review. Queer.

TJ's rating...Awesome. Best superhero movie in a long time. A lot better than anything Spidey has been rolling out there. Only Batman Begins parallels this one.

Drillbit Taylor

Chad says...

Hey remember when I thought Owen Wilson was funny?

This movie was terrible. Basically it was these three kids - yeah I said three...I know the trailer only showed two but that's because the other kid was so annoying that they left him out of the trailer to trick you into seeing this movie. So three kids, one really skinny kid - we'll call him 'over actor', one fat kid who acted like Steven Segal with the squinty eyes and throaty voice and Brooklyn accent. Then there was a third kid that had me so fed up with this movie halfway thru that I couldn't even enjoy the one funny part. I'll get to that later.

Quick observation - way too many people had thick NY accents in this movie for it to be set somewhere in California.

Now - Owen Wilson. Let's just say that after making this movie he didn't think to himself, "life isn't that bad, I mean you just made Drillbit Taylor which will be a huge hit so stop thinking about killing yourself!" He's supposed to be homeless in this movie, yet he dresses really cool and has awesome hair. I imagine he was too distracted by that really annoying kid to step up his game and save this movie.

The one funny part was the kids taking turns punching each other. I'm not sure if it was the punching in the back, kicking in the nuts, etc that made me chuckle or just the fact that I was sitting next to TJ and he was crying at this part. So I might have been more entertained at him laughing at the movie rather than the movie itself.

Chad's rating - I did waste $7 on this movie but the only saving grace was that I didn't spend an extra $4 on popcorn.

TJ says...
I expected this movie to be funnier...that being said, it had it's moments and overall I enjoyed it. There were some funny parts. Of course, Hollywood way oversold the fact that there's an out of control bully in High School. They did a good job of making the bully over the top, because I hated that guy.

The kids were funny. I liked all 3 of them. Sure the smallest one was annoying, but he was SUPPOSED to be annoying. At one point, the fat kid from Brooklyn had a rap off with the bully. This was funny on a few levels. First, the "over actor" suggested the fat kid had to do it, because it was like 8-Mile (of Eminem fame). Second, the fat kid dropped some good rhymes with cutting humor. Good enough for me.

As per Owen Wilson...at one point I wondered...is this Rush Hour 4? EXACT same character. Let's branch out a little. This is probably why Kate Hudson broke up with you and forced the afore mentioned Suicide attempt (quite dark chad).

Could the movie have been funnier? Yes. But it did make me cry laugh (crotch shots will do that), and the previews were funny (Mike Myers' new movie..let me just say...go see it...even if it does look like all the Austin Powers movies rolled into a Middle Easter Guru movie).

Rating: "Don't go see it as a guys movie at 10:30 on a Sunday night, but it's worth checking out. You can decide if it's a rental or matinee though."

Miss Guided

TJ Says...

I'm going to go ahead and say, watch this show. IT IS FUNNY. It's so funny my wife likes it, and she never likes funny stuff. Sure there are a lot of sterotypical jokes, but hey, that's what's funny about high school.

Chris Parnell is perfect as the vice principal. Of course they're ripping off the "I'm gay but I don't know it" from Arrested Development (isn't this where all funny ideas had their genesis?), but it works for me.

I guess the bottom line is that I laugh several times at every episode, with a few good cry laughs mixed in. Give this a chance and hopefully it gets a full season in the fall.

TJ's Rating "This is a must watch. Even if you can't record American Idol, watch this show."

Chad's reponse:

Seriously. Watch this show. This show is hilarious. Chris Parnel is genius and the main chick, Judy Greer who played the Blueth secretary in Arrested Development is really good. The humor actually reminds me of AD a little bit.

It's basically unpopular girl from high school is now a guidance counselor at her old high school and she's fighting the same popularity issues she did in high school after they hire the most popular girl from her class as a teacher there. There's a good looking male teacher who was the Auto Shop teacher but got himself promoted to Spanish teacher but he doesn't know any Spanish. One of my favorite lines so far:

New Teacher: Donde esta la biblioteca? (Where is the library)
Spanish Teacher: La biblioteca es en la playa. (The library is at the beach)
New Teacher: Such a beautiful language.

Good times.

I've watched 3 episodes so far and I've already got it up there with 30 Rock as my favorite comedies on TV. I REALLY hope the get some good ratings and it sticks around for a while b/c so far they've got gold.

Chad's rating - This show makes me laugh so hard I got in trouble for waking up the baby while watching this show.

Semi Pro

Chad says...

Oh Will Ferrell, you make me laugh. I was up in the air on what to think about this movie. I knew I wanted to see it b/c Ferrell was playing that character that he plays that does outlandish stuff that amuses me. You know the one. The guy that's been in all his movies except Stranger Than Fiction and Bewitched.

There was an unusual amount of cursing in this movie which kind of bothered me. Cussing just to get a laugh is really only good for one or two go's. They re-baited that hook about 30 times in this flick.

There's not a ton of moments that stick in my memory banks except the poker game where Will Arnett's character pulls a gun on Tim Meadows character. The character names are unimportant, just know that when you see that scene it will be a good time.

Also, while I laughed a lot during this movie there was one line that made me cry for like 5 min. Then I'd repeat it in my head and laugh some more. Ferrell had gotten knocked out at one point in the movie during a game and the other players on the team picked him up to carry him off of the court. It was something like, "Jackie Moon's teammates doing just an aweful job at supporting his neck and spine." as his head and neck flopped all over the place. Hilarious.

Chad's rating, "Will Ferrell is this generation's skinnier Chris Farley and he makes me laugh. This movie is no exception!"

TJ Replies...
I didn't have high hopes for this movie. Let's face it, Blades of Glory was a big time bust. Boring. But, Semi-Pro exceeded my expectations, and I was happily entertained for 90 minutes (it's best that these type of movies run under the 100 minute mark).

Like Chad, there's not too much that just sticks out in my mind, other than the "Jive Turkey" scene Chad references. It was the best of being uncomfortable, yet hilarious.

I think the movie will get better and better with each viewing, as stuff remains in your brain. That's what I call movie shelf life, and this has it in spades.

For now, that's all I got. TJ's Rating "This ain't no Jive Turkey. It's good for a laugh with the guys, but don't expect too much."

Cavemen

TJ says...

This show is VERY underrated. Every time I watched it, I wanted to find a reason to not watch the next episode, and I couldn't. I laughed multiple times at each show. I love the Piousness of Nick, the naivety of Andy and the glue that Joel is. The apartment manager lady is just icing on the cake. What is NOT to like about this show? I dare you to find a reason.

This gets a TJ rating of "Make time and watch this show with an OPEN comedic mind (Chad)"

Chad's disgusted reply...

First of all, up yours TJ for liking this show. I hate this show so much that I could actually feel my blood pressure rising as I watched it. The commercials by Geico are what spawned this show and the poor guy that wrote that first commercial probably committed suicide just so he could roll over in his grave. Those are at least smart and funny.

I only watched the first episode of this show. It was like they were trying to steal characters from Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. And then they made every racial joke they could think of but instead of it being a minority it was as caveman so it was a-okay.

The only thing I remember about the show was at the end of it when one of the cavemen somehow ended up in a firepit holding a log and had ripped his shirt so he looked like an actual caveman. Funny? No.

Chad's rating? "This show is so effing stupid and I hate TJ for disgracing this page with it's review. F U Caveman."

Welcome to the Captain

Welcome to the Captain is a tv show on CBS Mondays at 7:30. (We're Central time, get used to it!)



TJ Says...

I’ve seen 4 shows(I'm the only one who doesn't have a THAR degree that can say this). The only reason I’ve seen the last three, is because there is NOTHING else on Monday nights at 7:30. This show should be funny. You’ve got Jesus, a dude from Arrested Development and guy/girl angst. The problem is that I chuckle at the show about 2-3 times. I’ve never actually laughed at this show.

Random Musings:
•Josh and Hope, does the man have to hit us in the face with “Hey, we’re trying to be Ross and Rachael here”?
•Dude from American pie…2 things. Get a friggin hair cut and take acting lessons. My 4 year old does a better job when she’s trying to get out of chores.
•Working for “TCo” is genius. But JTam’s character just makes me want to kick him in the nuts.
•Raquel Welch is hot, but we GET IT ALREADY, you’re a cougar. A really, really old cougar.

So, under the TJ rating system, this gets a “TiVO it if you’re bored, otherwise don’t bother.”

Chad responds...

Usually if Jeffrey Tambor is in a show, I'll watch it. Plus this was a comedy and nothing else was on TV so I recorded it. The first thing that I noticed about the show was Marty's (Chris Klein) hair changed from scene to scene. One scene it would be long in the back and sides and the next it would be clipped short on the back and sides. Really? Don't they have people that check this stuff. Sadly that's all I remember about the first episode.

But I hung in there. I've seen 4 episodes thus far and thanks the the last episode, I'll hang in for a few more.

Yes, JTam's (Jeffrey Tambor) character used to be a writer on Three's Company. Funny in and of itself. His remembering back to those days and referencing people from this show is pretty funny. The Three's Company satin jacket he wore in the last episode was awesome.

There's the whole love connection thing between Josh and Hope that we're just going to have to fight thru so I'll play along.

What I do like is all of the strong characters. Jesus, the bellhop started off rough but keeps getting funnier. In the last episode he was pure gold. Raquel Welch adds a little something that's good-ish. Tambor is great - calling Three's Company "TCo" is terrific. The main character, Josh is likeable, nervous - very John Rittery (yeah i adjectived him). Hope is cute and likeable - you do kind of like the connection even if you roll your eyes at it at first. But Chris Klein is seriously horrible. Yeesh. Some of the situations he's been in have worked b/c they make fun of his character but they're going to have to keep saving him.

So I'm glad I fought thru the first 3 episodes and hopefully it will keep getting better. The situational stuff is formulaic and contrived but it takes you back a bit to the 80's sitcoms and I kind of like that.

So I give it a "Please keep getting better so I don't have to watch Back to You instead"