- Word to your moms, I came to drop bombs. What up? Back from a fun pre-Halloween weekend and ready for some craziness in the week ahead. Tommorow, me and three big-time ballaz head to Staples for THIRD ROW seats for NBA opening night - Lakers / Suns, baby. G-Money, Kaiser Roll, and Coach Carter will become honorary members of Danny Basketball's Blue Team, IBA-style, as we cruise VIP into the Lakeshow and singlehandedly bring tha' Showtime back to Los Angeles. Watch out, Jack, there's a new Hollywood b-ball fan in town, and this town may not be big enough for the both of us. Kobe. Nash. Amare. Live on TNT, 10:30 pm ET, 7:30 pm West Coast - look for the four of us front and center - tommorow night.
- Halloween weekend was a good time ... Friday some friends and I ordered some pizza and revisited the Tarantino-penned horrorfest known as From Dusk Till Dawn. Saturday I headed down to Manhattan beach to join in with Mr. S Green's Halloween festivities, live from his beachside apartment. At Sean's and in various other local locales, we saw all kinds of crazy costumes, from superheroes to mustachioed Kazhak reporters to all manner of she-devils, cat-women, gold-diggers, and other creatures of the night. Sunday I mostly took it easy, but did get back into the Halloween spirit with a viewing of Sam Rami's classic Evil Dead. Unfortunately I didn't come up with much of a costume, other than re-donning my Clark Kent getup from last Halloween (which, actually, was quite the popular outfit around Manhattan Beach this weekend ...), but hopefully I'll be able to assemble something more original for next week's Pasadena quasi-Page O Ween bash.
- Speaking of Borat, while I can't find fault in anyone choosing to dress as everyone's favorite Eastern-European iconoclast for Halloween, I am getting a liiiiittle bit fatigued with all of the Borat-bandwagoners who are popping out of the woodwork of late. That includes Universal, who recently paid Sascha Baron Cohen something to the tune of $42 million for the rights to make a Bruno movie. I have to wonder if this could be a collossal mistake ... I mean, I think the ADL may have been right to an extent in its criticism of Borat -- the average person just laughs at his accent and funny look - do most people even GET the real satire behind the character? When people look at Borat, they see a lovably goofy eccentric foreigner. When people look at Bruno, they will see ... a flamingly gay Austrian, which may not equal box office gold. But, I guess I shouldn't complain, as a Bruno movie could be pretty hilarious, though I'd rather just see a REAL Ali G movie in the same fiction-meets-reality style of Borat.
In any case, I will be first in line this weekend for the Borat movie, baby. Yes, I long ago drank the Borat Kool-Aid, and ... I like!
- In other movie news, it's official - Bryan Singer is back for a Superman Returns sequal. Man, I just don't see how this is a positive. Yes, X-2 was pretty damn good, but a lot of that came from the screenwriting - so let's hope that Warners brings in some fresh writers to add fun, excitement, and action to Singer's Superman universe. PLEASE do a comic villain that has not been seen before in the movies, and, man, I have no idea what to do about that kid ...
- Oh, one more item about basketball. Let me join in the choruses of fans who have paid tribute to the late great Red Aurbach. Red was a true original, and surely one of the great characters in the history of professional sports. The image of Red sitting courtside, chomping on his trademark cigar, never at a loss for a word of wisdom or two, is one that NBA fan will recall with fondness and a smile. His long and illustrious association with the Celtics was one filled not just with championships, but with dynasties. I don't know if any other man has ever been a part of so many winning teams within the framework of a single sports franchise. Without Red, a true part of sports history is missing, and the embodiment of Celtic Pride is no longer with us. One of the all-time greats - that much cannot be denied.
- On the TV Front, just a few quick things to cover:
- So I made sure to record SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE this weekend, as, a.) I had heard that there would be a Borat appearance, and b.) I am a sucker for SNL's annual round of Halloween-themed comedy (I still love the John Travolta-as-gay-vampire bit from way back). So I record SNL, and then on Sunday morning I'm reading a bunch of internet reviews that claim this ep to be one of the best SNL's in a while. Cool, I'm psyched ... until I actually watch the thing. Even if the Borat opener was mostly recycled material, it still made me laugh, so, okay, off to a better-than-usual start. Then, man, alllll down hill from there, until Robert Smigel stopped the bleeding with a hilarious Bush-centric TV Funhouse bit. So, an hour in, and the ONLY remotely funny bits have been provided by people putside of the regular SNL writing staff ... NOT a good sign. The one other saving grace for this lame excuse for comedy was the Will Forte Senator bit on Weekend Update, which I admit was pretty hilarious. So we had funny stuff from Borat and Smigel, one good Will Forte bit on Weekend Update, and ... every actual SKETCH was the suck, despite host Hugh Laurie doing his best to liven things up (though his well-intentioned protest song bit ultimately fell flat). Man, not good, not good at all. The SNL powers-that-be should be thanking the comedy gods that Smigel yet again saved this trainwreck with his reliably awesome brand of subversive humor.
My Grade: C
- But I didn't have to look far to appease my hankering for good comedy. I also had last week's Comedy Central special, Night of Too Many Stars, geared up to watch after being put on the backburner due to lack of time to sit back and take in this benefit comedy show. But man, what a difference the right talent makes. Not only did this special have Borat, in a much fresher bit than he had on SNL, but it had about 20 other comedians showing why they are the best in the biz. I'm talkin' Jerry Seinfeld, Ricky Gervais, Steve Carrell, Adam Sandler, Mike Myers, Martin Short, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Will Ferell, Jack Black, Will Arnett, Triumph, and many more. Damn! It was great to see rarely-seen performers like Myers and Seinfeld tear it up. I mean, Seinfeld started in about cell-phones, and I kind of cringed at the thought of so-five-years-ago cell phone humor, as did, I think, the live audience. But within minutes, Seinfeld began firing on all cylinders to the point where it was hard to imagine anything being funnier than the quirks of cell phone usage. Son of a bitch - amazing. Between the vintage Seinfeld stuff, Borat doing his thing, Mike Myers as an eccentric billionaire, Will Ferrell as Robert Goulet, Gervais making a crack about Carell, Carell meowing like a cat for 5 straight minutes, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog singing a side-splitting ode to washed up celebrity punchlines, and Stewart doing a great job as MC, this was the definition of "bringing the funny." Any comedy fan should catch a replay of this special or download it on I-Tunes or whatever. Awesome stuff.
My Grade: A
- Okay, I'll be back very soon to turn some more Halloween tricks. Until next time ...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment