Friday, June 20 through Thursday, June 26, 2008

Friday, June 20, 2008
Jumper - 2008

Man, the trailer for this movie was *SO* cool, I couldn't wait. I sure wish I had paid more attention to the cast. I would have tempered by anticipation if I realized it was going to be ruined by one of the worst actors on the face of the planet, Hayden Christensen. He is amazing in his ability to NOT act. I think he must be the lovechild of Nicolas Cage.

Predictable and simple, I am SO disappointed. The only bright spot is that his mom is played by Diane Lane, who we just saw in Untraceable. Samuel L. Jackson doesn't even curse!

Commentary features Director Doug Liman, writer/producer Simon Kinberg, and producer Lucas Foster. Here we learn that this movie has NOTHING to do with the novel, except the main character's name and ability. Then why the hell would you option the book. If you're just gonna write your own thing, write your own thing. Don't ruin Steven Gould's chance to get his novel made. Cripes, now I hate everybody associated with this movie. And then they side with the Paladins? Are you kidding me? Religious nuts who think that just because they have special abilities, they must be destroyed because they're an abomination? Give me a break! I hate them, their terrible movie and this commentary too. No tech, no antidotes, all "We wrote this blahblahblah". Awful, just like the movie.

Saturday, June 20 thru Thursday June 26, 2008
Earth2 - TV Series from 1994

This is an amazingly well done Sci-Fi series for the 90's. I had very pleasant memories of watching this show on TV, but was unsure if I had seen them all, and couldn't remember how it ended. The special affects are decent, acting is great, and there's good story telling about characters you care about. Is it as good as Babylon 5? Hell no! Still, it's quite watchable, and I enjoy'd the hell out of it.

My enjoyment was tempered slightly when while researching why so few of these people went on to do good things, when I discovered that J. Madison Wright, who played True (and did an amazing job for a 10 year old) did when she was 21 of a rare blood disease. That's rotten.

Still, Debrah Farentino and Clancy Brown do a great job carrying it, and special guest stars of Terry O'Quinn and Tim Curry really spice it up. Tim Curry sure can play a creepy crazy guy.

Episode 5 has Julius Carry, who played Lord Bowler in Brisco County Jr!

But now I've got to talk about the discs and episodes. Evidently, there were some problems, and episodes were not shown in their proper order. And for some unknown reason, they duplicate this problem with the episode numbering and order on the discs. Episode 19 is OBVIOUSLY the season finale, a cliff hanger that is never resolved (but you know is, since we see the mom in the future), and then come episode 20 & 21, which take place earlier. I mean, in episode 20, Alanzo's leg is back broken, and that's healed before episode 7. I think episode 20 should be episode 3 or 4. And episode 21 is back in Mary's Garden, so it ought to be about episode 10 or 11. Even if the network screwed this up when broadcasting the shows, why would you not fix their order on the DVD's. Criminally stupid, in my opinion.

Final disc has just a couple extras, included deleted scenes and outtakes. Sure wish there were some commentaries with some of the surviving actors. I mean, I know that most are still alive and working. What a missed opportunity.