And I'm back. Well, despite it being over as of last night, I haven't properly said Happy Hanukkah yet here on the blog - so, hope everyone else in the Jew Crew had eight crazy nights of good food, fun, and celebration.
If you're just catching up on your blog reading, be sure to check out my last two entries: a recap of my recent trip to London, and a review of one of my favorite movies of 2007, Juno.
- I've yet to write about this past weekend, with the main event of note being that a bunch of friends and I attended a taping of NBC's upcoming revival of 80's classic AMERICAN GLADIATORS. Yep, a whole crew of Hulkamanics piled into a car and drove down to Sony Studios in Culver City to witness the one and only Hulk Hogan play host, along with Layla Ali, as a new crop of musclebound men and women competed in challenges like Joust, Powerball, and Hang Tough.
It was great to see the Hulkster again live and in person - it's no secret that I'm a true-blue Hulkamaniac from back in the day, so it was fun to paricipate in the random "Hulk" chants that broke out throughout the taping, and engage in random ear-cups and pose-downs in tribute to the wrestling legend. However, a new star was born at these Gladiator tapings - a woman seemingly descended from the Norse gods and forged by the same fiery furnace that birthed the Hammer of Thor itself. Yes, friends, the star of these tapings was undoubtedly the woman known only as The Mighty Helga - a viking warrioress who stole the crowd's affections and inspired thunderous chants of her name throughout the show.
We watched Helga and other she-Gladiators with names like Crush and Venom compete in two different events, along with their male counterparts - bruising dudes with names like Militia. The first event we saw was surely the coolest - a wobbly bridge is suspended over a pool of water - the contestants attempt to cross the bridge back and forth as many times as they can without falling into the pool, all while being assualted by giant hanging spheres being hurled at them by the gladiators, who sit perched on raised platforms at all four of the pool's corners. It kinda plays out like a level of Super Mario Bros. come to life, and was fun to watch. The second event we saw, Powerball, was a holdover I believe from the original series. It's basically a glorified game of "kill the man with the ball," and a bit hard to follow live without the aid of on-screen graphics to help you keep score.
Overall though - good times. As with any TV taping, there was a lot of waiting around, but at least the waiting was made more bearable by dancing girls, random chants of "Helga!", and the novelty factor of being in the presence of the immortal Hulk Hogan, who is essentially a real-life superhero (even if it takes him threee tries to get his teleprompter-fed lines correctly). The sets looked pretty badass, and I'm really curious to see how this all comes together on TV.
In any case, be sure to check out the all-new AMERICAN GLADIATORS on NBC, premiering January 6th and 7th at 8pm. If you see a bunch of guys and girls screaming like maniacs, doing random Hogan-esque poses, and screaming out spontaneous marriage proposals to The Might Helga - well, that might just be (and probably is) my friends and I.
TV STUFF:
- So I'm sure you guys can see that the pickings are starting to get pretty slim on the ol' tube of late. I haven't been current enough on my TV watching of late to do timely reviews - I've mostly just been catching up on programs like 30 ROCK (so hilarious), ALIENS IN AMERICA (best new comedy of the year), GOSSIP GIRL (def an addictive show - the new OC?), and PUSHING DAISIES (I loved the smell-centric episode with Paul Reubens from a few weeks back, and look forward to his characters' return tonight). Otherwise, the strike marches on and it will be interesting to see if there's any movement towards a resolution in the next few months or if this thing just drags on interminably. I've been reading rumors today about what might happen with LOST -- word is it may shift nights from Wednesdays or maybe even be delayed past '08 a la 24. Personally, while I'm kinda grateful in a way for not having new TV as a distraction over the next several weeks, I was really looking forward to at least one must-see show in Lost, esp. after last season's kickass cliffhanger ending. I say give us new episodes now, and pray that the strike is resolved in time to keep things going after the initial batch of episodes has run dry.
MOVIES:
- On my Need To See Before the End of 2007 list:
Already Released: Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, The Mist, Enchanted, Lars and the Real Girl, The Golden Compass, Into The Wild, I'm Not There
Soon To Be Released: Walk Hard, I Am Legend (if only for the Dark Knight preview), There Will Be Blood, Sweeney Todd
From Earlier in the Year: Zodiac, probably one or two others that I'm forgetting ...
I'm pretty confident that of these, There Will Be Blood and Sweeney Todd will push there way into my Best of 2007 List, and who knows, maybe one or two will as well. Already though, I can say it's been an incredible year for movies, with soon-to-be-classic entries in a number of genres, some of which (like the Western) that were thought all-but-dead. I'm also really hoping to see Into the Wild, still playing in one or two theaters over here, which I've heard nothing but good things about.
- I'm happy that THE X-FILES 2 is finally up and running. As a huge X-Phile, I'm dying to see this one, and am praying to the movie gods that it will be an adventure worthy of the best episodes of the groundbreaking TV show. The fact that Lance Henrikson is rumored to be it, reprising his role as Frank Black from the late great TV show Millenium, is pure awesomeness - if handled well, seeing Lance as Frank Black could be a true chill-inducing moment, as to me Frank is one of the coolest, creepiest, most interesting characters ever to be on television, and it's a shame that Henrikson was never properly ackowledged for his amazing work on Millenium, truly one of the great shows of the 90's. Anyways, the addition of Amanda Peet and Xhibit (sp?) to the cast is kinda meh - I'm more concerned with seeing Skinner, Doggett, and please-lord, a not-quite dead LONE GUNMEN. Most of all, I jsut want a kickass story and maybe a little bit of resolution for Mulder and Scully, who certainly deserve at least one more great adventure.
- Speaking of adventure ... yes, I have seen the new painted poster for Indiana Jones. And yes, it rules.
- Also, I loved the new trailer for SPEED RACER. More than any other movie to date, it looks like a Japanese anime brought to candy-coated life, aka it looks to be fun as hell and a movie at which a sugar-filled Slurpee is most definitely a required accessory. Check it out ASAP if you haven't seen already. Between this, JJ Abrams' CLOVERFIELD, and by-God RAMBO ... there is already a ton of geektastic goodness to look forward to in early '08. And Summer of '08 ... holy lord ... between DARK KNIGHT and INDIANA JONES, it may very well be one of the biggest box-office periods of all time.
Alright, that's all I've got for now. Hopefully I'll get into a more regular blog-writing routine soon, and of course, the countdown is on to the usual massive BEST OF, YEAR-END lists and columns. PEACE.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment