Parks-and-Recreation

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“The MLB Playoffs continue. While most of my weekend was spent watching baseball, I also got tons of other stuff in.”] [/caption] Movies Hesher - When I saw the trailer for this Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie I thought it would be a weird character study. I was pretty much right about that, but it’s simultaneously weirder and crasser than you’d think without really being comedic. Hesher is a truly bizarre character, the likes of which I’ve never seen in movies before, but he’s still very interesting. Not worth going out of your way to see, but it’s pretty good. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=““Shit””] [/caption] It may look like I’m insulting Gears, but I’m really not. That’s legitimately the closest those guys come to eloquence most games. They’re fantastic games, but their stories are fundamentally idiotic. Movies Thor - I’m pretty sure that complaining about blatant product placement in a movie was last interesting five years ago, but I found the Southwest Airlines advertising in Thor to be too much. Did not like. The movie itself was cool, although Natalie Portman’s character had nothing to do but be a pretty damsel. Don’t get me wrong, she’s good at that, but I wouldn’t have minded her being more active (like Peggy in Captain America). Her portrayal of Jane was true to Thor: The Mighty Avenger, aside from her career, so at least there’s that. I hope she comes back for The Avengers (and that The Avengers is good). ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“I thought about posting a picture of Rob Corddry instead, but I think we’d all much rather see Malin Åkerman. (Image used courtesy of Gage Skidmore)”] [/caption] Movies The Wrong Side of Town - Danielle’s parents were watching the tail end of this terrible wrestler movie. It was pretty awful, so I read a Batman comic instead of paying that much attention. ...

I’m gonna stick to tv here, but this is a general purpose post, really. Remember in the early aughts when the death of modern tv was imminent due to reality tv? Original programming was over! Reality tv was so cheap and got such high ratings that soon we’d all be watching The Bachelor, Survivor, and American Idol 24/7! What happened instead? Nothing, really. There’s a smaller field of original programming, I suppose, but I think that allows networks to focus on fewer, higher quality shows. I mean, think of all the great tv that has happened since the end was near: ...

I already love Michael C. Hall from Dexter, but Ben Schwartz, who hilariously plays Jean-Ralphio on Parks and Recreation really sells this clip.

Here’s another breakdown of the media I’ve been consuming: Video Games: I haven’t talked about these for a long while, so I’m just gonna go over recent history, post-robbery. L.A. Noire - Just beat it last night. I think that the game premise shows a lot of potential, but the true masterpiece will be any game that piggybacks off of this one. Why did they feel the need to open world this? It only creates dissonance between the character as portrayed and the character they want him to be. Also: interrogations are neat, but very tough. ...

Been a while since I’ve talked about the tv I’m watching. Here’s a breakdown: Justified Based on novels and a short story by Elmore Leonard, Justified is about to enter its second season. I’m catching up on S1 and I gotta say I’m a huge fan of US Marshal Raylan Givens (played by Timothy Olyphant) and the crime landscape of Eastern Kentucky. It’s definitely worth tuning into. ...