165. Glee Season 1
166. Hard Ride to Hell
167. When in Rome
168. Cold Storage
Glee Season 1 that follows the New Directions glee club at William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio.
Spanish teacher Will Schuester takes over the glee club after a scandal involving the former director of the club. In his high school days, he was a member of the club so he vows to bring the club back to its former levels of success. Glee club is not the popular extracurricular activity that it used to be however, so he finds it tough to get members. Ultimately, he winds up with a ragtag group of athletes, cheerleaders and outcasts.
I'd heard friends talking about this show since it began but I'd been reluctant to watch it. While I'm a big music fan, the entire premise of the show didn't appeal to me all that much. It also didn't seem like the type of material that they could actually make work. On a whim, I purchased the dvd release of the first half of the season back when it was released at the end of December. In the time since, word of mouth around the show has reached almost deafening proportions. 5 cds of music from the show have been released. There have been magazine cover stories and there has just been a serious buzz around the whole thing.
One night, a few weeks ago, I decided that I would pop in the first disc and finally check this show out. It took a little while for it to get going but once it did, it hooked me. I blew through these 13 episodes and ended up obtaining the 9 episodes from the second half of the season through alternative means. Those 5 cds that have been released? I own them now. Where I didn't think there was enough material to make a show work, I was proven completely wrong.
Story-wise, the show goes much deeper than I'd ever imagined it could. We've had teen pregnancies, homophobia and marital troubles. The cast is excellent. Everybody works really well in their roles. The cast has good chemistry together. They are all also very talented singing and dancing. My personal favorites are Matthew Morrison, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Jenna Ushkowitz. You really can't go wrong with any of the cast though.
Overall, Glee is an excellent watch. Throw away any preconceived notions surrounding the show away and just check it out. It's well worth the time invested. As I write this, I'm actually going through the season a second time so that my wife can watch.
Hard Ride to Hell tells the story of 5 twenty-somethings on a mission for Habitat for Humanity. They stop off to camp for the night and stumble upon a group of bikers making a human sacrifice. The bikers catch them watching and set off in pursuit of them.
I wanted to like this one. I really did. The story sounded like it had potential but ultimately, it just didn't live up to it. For a movie that's 94 minutes long, it actually felt a lot longer. It moved along at a snail's pace. When the action scenes finally started to arrive, it picked up some but then would die right back out. Ultimately, there was too much talk and not nearly enough action. It literally took me 3 different attempts to make it through this movie. I dozed off the first time and missed about 75% of it. The second time, I kept dozing off and backtracking to the last scene I'd remember. That must have happened 5 or 6 times before I ultimately just gave up for the night. The third time was the charm, in spite of the fact that the movie clearly wasn't going to be worth the effort at that point.
In terms of casting, we've got cult favorite Miguel Ferrer as the leader of the bikers. He's desperately looking to impregnate a woman who will bring his heir. This isn't the best performance of his career, but he's decent. Katherine Isabelle, of Ginger Snaps fame, is the other "big" name here. Aside from those two, you probably won't recognize any of the cast by name. Their faces might be slightly familiar to you but that will be about all.
Overall, Hard Ride to Hell, isn't worth watching. Skip it.
When in Rome stars Kristen Bell as a woman who flies to Rome to attend the wedding of her younger sister. She meets cute with Josh Duhamel at the wedding. Upon deciding to take a chance on him, she sees him making out with someone near the Fountain of Love. A little drunk at this point, she climbs into the fountain and removes a few coins from it. Little does she know that according to legend, if you take coins from the fountain, you are casting a love spell on the owner of the coins.
This movie surprised me a little bit. I wasn't overly familiar with the premise behind it so I wasn't expecting much more than your typical romantic comedy. I was surprised to find that it was actually pretty damn funny. The story was interesting. The cast was solid. Bell and Duhamel, as the leads, were both good. Support came from Alexis Dziena, Anjelica Huston, Will Arnett, Danny Devito, Jon Heder and Dax Shepard. Everybody is good here and there's an amusing cameo related to Heder that took me by surprise.
Overall, When in Rome is worth checking out. I recommend it.
Cold Storage is a 2006 horror/thriller. It wasn't finally released until May 4th of this year, having had a tough time finding distribution.
Clive is a lonely guy who lives in a small cabin in the woods. One night while driving home, he happens upon a car accident. When going to check on the victim, he discovers that it's the girl of his dreams who has crashed. So, he pulls her from the wreckage and brings her home with him. It doesn't make much of a difference to him that she's already dead.
I'm not going to lie to anyone. This is a strange flick. It involves themes that a lot of horror flicks wouldn't touch on. I don't typically get squeamish during movies but there are a few scenes here that definitely got my stomach churning. Strangeness aside, this was actually quite a pleasant surprise. The title, box art and synopsis are all a bit misleading however so it's not what I thought it would be. It was actually much better.
The story was interesting, as it shows something that could actually happen out in the backwoods or a small rural town. The cast was pretty solid with Nick Searcy just excelling as Clive. He's got the look down and he actually manages to earn sympathy in spite of his monstrosity. Matt Keeslar, Joelle Carter and Jeffrey Pillars are all solid in support.
Don't be misled by the box art or title, this is a better than average DTV flick. I recommend checking it out.
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