Friday Night Lights (TV)

Where to start with this one? How about this: This show, criminally unappreciated by nearly everyone (me included!) when it aired, is in the running for greatest TV show ever. EVER. Yes, you read that right. I dismissed it as a high testosterone, over-the-top, take on the book of the same name. Apparently, lots of others did, too. Hooooo boy, was I wrong.

Friday Night Lights instead is a nuanced, deep look at life in small town Dillon, TX where, like just about everywhere in Texas, high school football is king. Kyle Chandler is the charismatic head coach, Eric Taylor. Connie Britton is his strong wife, Tami. Their relationship as presented here is one of the best in the history of TV. They are an incredibly REAL couple. Do they always get along? Of course not. But their love for each other, their devotion to each other and their family, never wavers. There's none of the usual TV cliches - the idiot dad who can do no right, the sassy mom always insulting dad, the fighting over nothing, no cheating on each other, no threats of divorce, no drunkenness or dysfunctional behavior, none of that stuff. No, their relationship is what you would expect from stable, mature, well-grounded people who get along, who love each other, and who are real.

Then you've got a whole cast of football players, led by Taylor Kitsch as Tim Riggins and Zach Gilford as Matt Saracen. Riggins is the prototypical star football player who gets all the girls and gets hammered on weekends (and weekdays). He's got a rough life, living with only his brother, and there's a deeper level to him than what is first seen. Saracen is the backup QB given a shot at stardom when the star gets injured. He isn't ready, he's terrified, he's in over his head and he's dealing with all kinds of stuff at home, too. Gilford here is incredible as Saracen, hitting all the right notes emotionally and really pulling you into his character and his struggles. Amazing stuff. It is absolutely a crime that Gilford didn't win any awards for his work here.

Lots of other great complementary characters, too. Brad Leland as Buddy Garrity is fantastic. Garrity is a tremendous character, one with tremendous growth throughout the course of the show. Not to good is Minka Kelly as Lyla Garrity, Buddy's daughter. Kelly is not a good actress and her character on the show does her no favors. She's strictly eye candy with all the (lack of) depth that that implies. Much better is Adrianne Palicki as Tyra, the tough-talking girlfriend of Riggins. Rounding out the mainstays is Jesse Plemons as Landry, in the role that got him onto Breaking Bad.

The cast overall is fantastic. The characters are INCREDIBLE. The writing is fabulous. The dialogue, the storylines*, the emotions, the environment, the whole thing just feels so authentic and true-to-life. All of these people are ones you can imagine actually meeting. And the first season of this show might just be the best season of television ever shown in the US. It really is THAT good.

Having said all that, this show is not perfect. Several of the actors look a little too old for their characters. There are timeline continuity and age-changing issues with the characters. But these are minor quibbles. Seriously. Folks, GO WATCH THIS SHOW IMMEDIATELY. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT. 10/10, my highest possible recommendation!

* - OK, you probably will hear some stuff about season 2 being terrible. It's not. It definitely feels like something of an alternate universe compared to seasons 1,3,4 & 5. The producers demanded more drama and "action" and that's what you get in season 2. Realism and authenticity are sacrificed and the show definitely loses its way a bit. But STICK WITH IT. For one thing, season 2 isn't bad at all outside of one horribly stupid storyline. For another, the last 3 seasons are GREAT.

Saving Mr. Banks

Very good movie. Nothing great but a good story told well. Tom Hanks does a good job as Walt Disney. Emma Thompson is fine as PL Travers. For those not familiar, the movie is the story of the making of Mary Poppins. It was a difficult process thanks to Travers' huge attachment to the characters she created. Thankfully, her difficult personality led to all the scripting sessions being tape recorded so a full record of them remains. Anyway, good movie. 8/10.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

From all the ads and hype, I had no desire to see this movie. Got roped into seeing it with the family and, holy cow, this was so much better than expected. It had some nice funny moments and was generally just a nice entertaining movie. 7/10.

Killing Season

Robert De Niro is an army colonel who has retired to a cabin in the woods. John Travolta is a Serbian army veteran who apparently was shot by De Niro during the Serbian wars of the 90s. Travolta seeks him out, they go hunting together and then De Niro becomes the target. This movie is all kinds of ridiculous with stupid movie stuff all over the place. Both guys turn down multiple chances to kill the other instead insisting on talking to them. Travolta's accent and dialogue have to be heard to be believed. Ditto for his hair and beard. And the ending is just ridiculous. I honestly can't fathom how they got two stars this big to be in this crap. The only saving grace is the smoking hot bartender and her cleavage for 10 seconds at the end. 2/10.

Assault on Wall Street

Dominic Something-or-other (I believe that's his actual legal name) is an armored car guard whose wife has cancer at the start of the economic meltdown a couple years ago. His insurance reaches its limit, his investments go south and the fat cats all get rich off of him. His wife commits suicide and he decides it's time to get some PAYBACK. Sure helps that he's a former Army sniper with a very expensive sniper rifle in the closet. Anyway, he starts taking out the people that did him wrong. He ends up making one final assault on the guys who did him wrong. He's at least a semi-sympathetic character right up to the end when he just mows down a whole bunch of people that had no connection to him whatsoever. This is an Uwe Boll film and it's actually pretty good. It's well-made and the story is decent enough. That said, Boll did this "dude gets pissed off and mows down a whole bunch of innocents" better with Rampage, though that movie didn't have nearly the budget or production this one did. Still, this was decent enough. 6/10.

Diminished Capacity

Matthew Broderick plays a guy recovering from a serious concussion still having memory and other issues. Alan Alda is his elderly uncle and has dementia. Both have "diminished capacity", get it? Anyway, Broderick goes to visit the uncle and learns he has a valuable baseball card and they head to Chicago to sell it. Virginia Madsen is a childhood friend who also needs to go to Chicago so she's along for the ride with her kid. This movie never really reaches the level of even "average" but the first 75 minutes aren't terrible. It's gentle, a little funny and there's a certain sad sweetness to it. Then the last 15 minutes goes all to hell as Alan Alda gets ripped off and we end up having a ridiculous brawl and a whole bunch of f-bombs out of nowhere. Completely out-of-place and waaaay innappropriate for this movie. Turns a not good movie into a bad one. 3/10.

Ender's Game

I have not read any of the books, so had no frame of reference going in. Co-worker had suggested it, had heard it was good, I had a free ticket, so....

Anyway, this was fun. The special effects were great. The acting was generally solid, if a bit much on the "this is serious" gravitas thing. It's not mindless but definitely not a movie you're wanting to spend too much time analyzing for deeper meanings or whatever. I was entertained and that's all I ask. 7/10.