The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret

This looks really good, especially to Arrested Development fans like myself. It starts Sunday night on More4 at 10:40pm, check it out!

Mr. Show - Channel Six "On the Spot News"

This is what I'm watching at the moment on DVD. Mr. Show is a sketch show from the mid to late 90's written by and starring David Cross (Arrested Development) & Bob Odenkirk.

Its a HBO comedy so has plenty of controversial subjects and lots of swearing. I like to think this is what inspired the excellent Tim & Eric Awesome Show which Bob & David have also appeared in over the series.

Mr. Show has also featured some great cameo's from now famous comedy actors such as Ben Stiller, Jack Black & Sarah Silverman.

50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time

Empire's online magazine has published the results from the '50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time' readers poll.

I'm not sure if would I agree with all the entries but its great to see Curb Your Enthusiasm & Arrested Development getting the recognition they both deserve (although 'Curb' in my opinion should be in the top 5).

Theres no real surprise for the No.1 show, its been in the same place for several years. For those that don't want to know what it is, look away now....

...

To everyone else its 'The Simpsons'.

Film Update

Here's some quick reviews of some of the films I've recently watched at the cinema (in viewing order).


Rambo ; Rambo had some terrible reviews by the press stating it was too violent and gory, totally missing the point that the film is set in bloody war-torn Burma within all the genocide thats currently happening - OK, and its a Rambo sequel and you'd have to be retarded not to expect action.
Rambo doesn't initiate any of the violence without good cause, but when the reason's there the payback is awesome in every sense of the word. To many this sees the return of the violent action films made in the eighties, I honestly don't remember them being quite like this though. With the aid of digital effects and absolutely amazing sound (it really needs to be watched in a cinema with a decent sound system), the action looks and sounds incredibly real. Stallone does a fantastic job resurrecting John Rambo and at 61 still manages to run about and kick ass like he could in the glory days.

Rambo is currently my favourite Film of the Year.



The Bank Job ; This film is 'based' on a true robbery in London during the seventies. It stars Jason Statham and several other recognizable British faces. The film plays out like an ITV or BBC drama special, not truly outstanding for a feature length movie. The dialogue was absolutely awful together with some crappy Dick Van Dyke cockney accents, it became a bit of a comedy. Statham desperate to use his martial arts skills eventually gets to kick ass in one of the final scenes which seemed totally out of character.


Semi-Pro ; Here we have yet another Will Farrell sports comedy! Slated by the reviewers I entered the cinema with extremely low expectations but was pleasantly surprised. To be honest I think most of Will Farrell's movies get awful write ups but I usually enjoy them. While Semi-Pro won't stand out as one of Farrell's better comedies it certainly is packed with funny/crazy moments. Arrested Development's Will Arnett had some great scenes as one of the sports commentators, smoking/drinking/swearing all the time!


Vantage Point ; Vantage Point tells the story of an attempted assassination on the American presidents life whilst in Spain. The points of view from seven (I think!) different characters show angles of the moments leading up to and after the assassination, gaining various pieces of evidence together as the story unfolds towards the ultimate conclusion. Packed with several famous faces such as Sigourney Weaver, Matthew Fox, Forrest Whitaker and Dennis Quaid this gives a different approach to story telling. Each persons point of view gets its own mini film built around the same time period which can get a bit repetitive since some of the characters stories cross (after a few view points the audience started to groan, that made me laugh!). All in all its a pretty good film, if this site had the star rating system I originally intended it to have it would score a 7 out of 10.

Kilmer 'will voice' Knight Rider

Val Kilmer is to provide the voice of talking car Kitt in the TV movie remake of the 1980s series Knight Rider, trade magazine Variety says.

He replaces Will Arnett, star of comedy Arrested Development, who pulled out after a row over motor company Ford's sponsorship of the film, Variety adds.

It said Ford's rival, General Motors, asked him to step down because he had voiced adverts for the firm.

The film is due to air on the NBC network in the US on 17 February.

Arnett told Variety he had been "very excited" about voicing the part of Kitt, which he had already recorded.

"However, because of a long relationship with General Motors as the voice of GMC Trucks, I had to respectfully withdraw from the project," he added.

Bourne Identity director Doug Liman is executive producer of the pilot, which will lead to a TV series if successful.

Soap actor Justin Bruening, 28, stars as the son of David Hasselhoff's original character, Michael Knight.

Hasselhoff will also make a guest appearance, reprising his career-making role.

* Pinched from BBC Entertainment News, 08/02/2008

Curb Your Enthusiasm : Season 6

This is now officially my most favourite comedy, just overtaking the excellent Arrested Development. I'm so pleased Larry David's created a new season and I can't wait to see it. From the picture above its already clear it's going to be as controversial as ever! Great stuff.

By the way, if you're interested in watching some old 'Curb' episodes check out Stage 6.

Larry David is a comedy genius!

Films out on the 14th of September (UK)

Well, last weeks cinema releases were nothing to talk about but by the end of this coming week things should hopefully change with a couple of new movies.

The first is 'Superbad'. Yeah, it sounds awful but the trailer looks really good. This is a comedy about a group of friends in the final few weeks of school getting into all sorts of trouble before leaving for college. It's co-written by Seth Rogen, the lead guy from Knocked Up who's really making a name for himself now (he also plays one of the cop's in the trailer). The film also features Michael Cera a.k.a George Michael Bluth from the excellent 'Arrested Development' series so I'll spouting out loads of A.D quotes throughout (to the annoyance of anyone sitting around me, ha ha!).



The second is 'Shoot Em Up'. Yeah yeah yeah!!! Gunfights, car chases, Monica Bellucci still looking hot... that'll do me! I don't really know much about this film but I've heard there's not much of a real story although it is great fun to watch full with over the top action. The excellent Clive Owen's has the lead with Paul Giamatti taking the strange role of 'BAD GUY'. Giamatti usually plays good guys or minor supporting roles so I'll be interested to see how he handles it. The film itself looks like a cross between a John Woo film and some random 80's action movie. Neither is a bad thing in my book!

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' is hilarious, not quite as good as 'Arrested Development' (thats still my favorite) but its still great. It's totally wrong in so many ways, you'll find that each episode usually touches on some taboo. Find below a clip from an episode called 'Gun Fever'.



I've watched most of the episodes on Bravo and have since downloaded some of them although I like the look of the official box set, I'll get that at some point.

Check it out if you fancy some offensive (and original) American comedy.

Arrested Development - Fire Sale

A clip featuring Tobias from season 1.

Great Shows I Missed on TV (part 1)

Here's a few great series I completely missed on TV the first time round and have since watched on DVD, sometimes in rapid accession!

Arrested Development (2003)



Without a doubt the funniest series (all three of them) I have ever watched. Great cast, brilliant script/story. I highly recommend this show. Check out my links (to the side of this) to watch an episode online.







Battlestar Galactica (2003)



A remake of the 70's sci-fi series, this time the evil Cylon's look like regular people (some look pretty hot too!) and believe they are the next step in mans evolution. I've seen the first two seasons, can't wait for the third to be released on DVD.






Lost (2004)



Believe it or not I missed the first season of Lost, probably due to the weird reviews I heard after the pilot was shown. I was lent the season boxset and the rest is history. I managed to watch the entire first season and 4 episodes of season two in just 6 days! That was intense, have you ever had Lost dreams? I have!

I wasn't too sure about series three but near the end things really picked up. As the writers now know whats happening and how its all going to end the next few seasons should be very interesting.