This Post Brought To You By, You Guessed It ... Frank Stallone.

What's up. Okay, so everyone is now coming out of the woodwork to IM me about my Spiderman review. It sounds like most are in agreement that it didn't fully live up to expectations, it's really just a question of whether people were able to dismiss the movie's glaring flaws in the name of it being a fun comic book movie or if they couldn't get over how goofy and overstuffed the movie often felt. It's not the kind of movie I'll really dwell on too much, I don't think. It wasn't so bad as to be offensive a la Batman Forever, but to me it was a pretty severe disappointment all the same. For another review that kind of shares my sentiment, click here:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32546

But yeah, even though I was kind of disappointed, there's enough other big movies coming up shortly that there's a lot to be excited about. My personal must-see list? Pirates 3. Knocked Up. Superbad. Balls of Fury. Transformers. Stardust. Fanboys. The Simpsons. And probably about 10 or so others that I'm forgetting ... Not to mention movies that I have a healthy skepticism towards but could potentially surprise me with their quality, like Evan Almighty or Fantastic Four (yeah, not holding my breath on that one ...).

- Last night , NBC had a really excellent special - Saturday Night Live in the 90's. For me, this era was when I became really obsessed with SNL and peple like Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, and Norm McDonald became some of my biggest comedic heroes. Staying up late to watch SNL was a big deal, and it was this semi-forbbiden comedy that consistently delivered stuff that was so new and different to me. I'd see a new Wayne's World or Dieter or Matt Foley sketch and be quoting those endlessly, SNL and The Simpsons were the end all be all of comedy for me at the time. Even up to the late 90's and then through most of college, SNL remained a sacred institution. Episodes would be discussed and analyzed at our weekly Overexposed writers meetings every week, and though I was starting to get weary of the show, I still found stuff to like. Tracy Morgan's oddball characters. Will Ferrell's edgier stuff. Darrell Hammond's dead-on political impressions. The show had enough of an aura about it to me that, as an intern at Conan in 2004, I'd eagerly volunteer any chance I coudl to bring a package or envelope up to the SNL offices - I'd feel in awe of just being there when I stepped into those halls.

The special was a great look at that era. I loved hearing from Norm McDonald and some of the NBC execs from the time about the circumstances surrounding his departure from the show. To me, no one has ever been funnier on Weekend Update than Norm. His bitterly dry sense of humor was a huge influence on me, and I used to crack up laughing at his deadpan, nonsequitar jokes. The fact that he was unceremoniously replaced by the less funny Colin Quinn always annoyed me, and that's when to me SNL really started to decline, a decline that has yet to really be reversed except by the occasional flash of brilliance, usually in the form of digital shorts or Robert Smigel cartoons.

Anyways, kudos to NBC / Broadway for such a cool, candid special. It was great hearing from people like Mike Myers who just blew up thanks to the show, and also from people like Chris Rock who had a short stint but never really got to make a name for himself on the show. It would have been pretty interesting though to hear more from someone like Tracy Morgan, who was always pretty underutilized even though he was often a scene-stealer and had some of the best stuff going when the show started to decline in the late 90's. A great piece of TV though, I hope any SNL fans caught it. I know I can't get enough of stuff like Canteen Boy, Celebrity Jeapordy, and the Superfans. Good stuff.

- After a few weeks of pure suckiness, it was nice to actually laugh while watching THE SIMPSONS last night. Sure, the ep as a whole was nothing special, and yet again the A-plot, where Homer, Moe, Apu, and skinner become volunteer firemen, didn't start until a third of the way through the show, never a good sign. But there were some funny moments, with Zombie Homer in particular being pretty hilarious, Mr. Burns with some good stuff, and a potential new catchphrase in "you just got Apu'd." Hahahaha ... Plotwise though this ep was pretty forgettable, but hey, at least it kinda brought the funny.

My Grade: B

-It's funny though, because that ep of The Simpsons was followed by a rerun of what is probably the best ep of the season so far, where Moe becomes a published poet. Prob the closest the show has come in a while to recapturing that old-school Simpsons magic.

- FAMILY GUY ... I didn't even see last week's ep, but this week was pretty tame. Okay, I admit, the Peter vs. Chicken stuff was pretty funny. I like how they kind of set it up as a random joke that could happen at any time. Like how Peter looks up, sees the Chicken eyeing him from outside, and mutters "oh, crap," before the inevitable ten minute long random fight scene occurs, complete with makeup scene followed by the fight resuming and going another few minutes. I mean, wow. That's quite a tangent. It's too bad that the main plot, of Chris going to a snobby prep school, mostly just coasted on the joke of having the preppies talk with weirdly exaggerated preppy accents. Nothing too exciting in that plotline. This one was memorable for the chicken fight alone, otherwise, nothing too special.

My Grade: B -

- Last Thursday's SMALLVILLE ... decent, but went nowhere fast. I appreciated the style and artistic flair that went into the look and feel of the black and white, noir sections of the episode. The mood of a 1950's crime flick was captured well - it's just too bad that most of the cast wasn't really up to the challenge of adjusting their acting styles to reflect that bygone era. It also just seemed odd to me that the show features Clark Kent / Superman, a character created with 1940's pulp sensibilities, yet didn't pay much homage to the character's own history, instead looking to other movies as inspiration. In any case, the dream sequences looked cool, but didn't really tie in all that well to the main plot, whic seemed like yet another case of Lana being wounded, ending up in the hospital, and everyone moping around and vowing to find the perpetrator. Smallville is so predictable at times, and I can't think of any non-medical show where EVERY week a main cast member ends up in the same stupid hospital room. Whatever money they spent to construct that Smallville hospital set, they have REALLY gotten their money's worth, let me tell you. So all in all, kind of a fun episode, but again, not as good as it could have been - very meandering and lacking the urgency you'd think this show would have as it builds towards its season finale.

My Grade: B -

- Alright, I'm out. Stay tuned ...