Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life

Gilmore Girls was one of my favorite shows growing up and the minute it was released I had to watch it, and I had to review it (I've been singing the last part of this sentence but that's the down side of blogging; you can't hear me =(   )

I sat down and binge watched the first three episodes and after I started to get the feeling that the past 4 and a half hours of my life was wasted and before I could watch another episode I either needed some sleep or a hard drink. I went with the sleep.

For you, and only for you (whoever you are) I have shared my feelings and comments and my opinions, on things that actually don't matter, for each episode with lots and lots and loooots of spoilers. So if you haven't seen the show yet and if you don't like spoilers don't continue to read because I assure that I will ruin it for you. If you don't care, enjoy =)

(As I came back to edit my notes I realized that I jump from one comment to another. This is because I started writing while I was watching, so forgive me this once if I present you with a mess of ideas. Also I know it looks long but it's individual comments on each episode so I couldn't shorten it much; so bare with me.)

"It's the same show we swear! Look Kirk is being weird, look Lorelai can smell snow! See? SEE?? " This is literally the first half hour of the show. I like to see easter eggs from the old series, I love cameos, little reminders... I don't need them to be thrown into my face.

I'm only guessing that it's the warming back into it stages but I remember Luke acting like a grumpy old man not like a mother that does all the work around and is never appreciated.

Seeing a new face and that face being Alex Kingston is really great for me. She plays a total nut-job and I couldn't love her even more.

At some point (before even finishing the first episode) I started to get distracted. But then I saw Logan =) To be honest Logan has always been my favorite. So seeing them together with Rory did attract my attention back a bit. Even though they are in this What Happens in Vegas agreement. Still is much better than that Paul guy.

Who is this Paul anyway? Seriously how did Rory end up with him? It's ridiculous.

The best part of the episode? Always and forever Paris. At the beginning of the original series, she may have been one of the most distasteful characters. But starting with the Yale years she has become one of my favorite characters. In a universe where everyone is just so perfect in their own way, Paris was a character that was so flawed that made her the most interesting of them all.

(Post-edit note: For the review of a 90 minute episode you would expect that I would have more to say right? But no! Because honestly that was all the episode offered to me. The material that is worth filling maybe one 40 minute episode of a 25 episode season.)

In the second episode, I realized that they are not going to play the theme song. Whole week I have been singing Where You Lead waiting for today. How can you deny me that song?

There in the middle of the festival, there is Mr. Kim. Just simply Mr. Kim. That mysterious character that has never been seen in the original series and towards the end wasn't even mentioned by name as if he was abducted by aliens and was erased from everyone's memories. And there he is, a tiny Korean man having the screen time same as the snail on the wall. Mr. Kim....

The town meetings were always fun and they thankfully wasn't short of it here either. I especially love the part where they're talking about a gay parade and someone says "Why can't they lend us their gays?" for the neighboring towns.

In the Dragonfly kitchen, when I saw Rachel Ray I figured there is this running famous chef bid going on  (didn't realize it in the first episode because I didn't know that Roy Choi was actually a real person until I looked him up). The idea wasn't so bad I guess but it seemed a little too parodical for Gilmore Girls to me. (being able to have famous chefs to work for you in a tiny inn in a tiny tiny town and you know... firing them and stuff... Really?)

Paris Geller is still the best thing about this show.

This spring episode was a little closer to home. I've always seen Gilmore Girls as a reflection my troubles. I somehow always related to Rory when my ambitions and the way I look at life was considered. Now (despite the almost 10 years of age difference between me and the character) I can relate to her again in her career troubles and her life not turning out to be the way she thought it would. In this episode, once again, Gilmore Girls became what it used to be to me.

(Post-edit note: This was the best episode among the 4. It only goes downhill from here.)

The secret bar scene was simply genius. When I saw this seen I thought "finally". This is what Gilmore Girl humor is. It's clever, it's relevant, it's not Lorelai firing a world famous chef from her 10 room inn) Speaking of famous chefs, I guess they ran out of them in this episode unless Luke has started his own cooking channel.

So they decide to have a "Stars Hollow Musical". That is again a very Stars Hollowy thing and the auditions part etc. was actually fun. But did we have to watch the entire musical? It started to seem like they're buying some time here. I get the point it's supposed to be incredibly stupid and whatever but we could get the idea from that one opening scene. Instead, just like Lorelai watching the musical, I found myself staring at the screen with empty eyes for a good 10 minutes.

And hey is that the pianist from Glee?

After that ferocity of a musical it was nice to see another familiar face,Carole King (pro hint: the writer and performer of the original theme song for the show, Where You Lead). Her scene was very cute and again I thought it was clever but it was just another reminder that we still haven't heard the theme song.

This episode was a bit scattered in general. It started with a summery cheerful note with the hopes of bringing something. But instead it delivered a 10 minute musical that was horrible, signs of unresolved depression from multiple characters, lots of fights and not much of a movement in the story. I'm hoping that this was only a setup for a great finale; or else it is a sign of an other unsuccessful revival.

(Post-edit note: This was again, like the first one, was only 40 minute worth of an episode. It was like they were throwing ideas for possible storylines and not bothering to deliver a content that was thought-out.)

I'm only imagining that Lorelai is going through some kind of mid-life crisis. And did they just use Jason Ritter as an extra? I mean, I know he's not like a Brad Pitt but he's a well-known actor. Just why?

If Charlie and Esther are inside the office how did they pull the bolt lock thingy from the outside? Yes, I am binge watching this thing and my mind has drifted off slightly bit but that doesn't mean that I'm not gonna get stuck on the little production mistakes that are really not that important.

When I saw that "Get Ready" on the computer screen I knew what was coming. The Life and Death Brigade was maybe the most fun thing this show has produced and seeing the old gang was really fun.

At this point of the show I believe Rory has become Logan's mistress. Which reminds me; I was promised a Dean. Where is my Dean?

It's kind of a cliche where the lead character writes a book about their life in the finale. It has been over done and I don't know how I feel about this one. I get that it creates a whole storyline where Lorelai is uncomfortable with it and stuff but at least they could maybe avoid giving the book the same title. If at the end of the episode we time jump to a book signing of Rory I may throw the computer to the wall.

Dean lives in Scranton? Is he also working in a paper company named Dunder-Mifflin?

The wedding scene was a little cliche once more but the kind of cliche I could like. It was cute. The part I don't get is at the end of the scene is it raining rose pedals? Where do they come from? It's too rom-com. Was Gilmore Girls this rom-com? And plus your best friend prepares millions of cakes for your wedding and when you have a secret wedding you don't even call her? You call Michele but not Sookie?

Aaaannndd the last words of the whole season is "I'm pregnant" We understand that they intend to have a second season (even though Netflix says they currently have no plans for it). Either way I have always believed that (especially if you're not going to continue the story) you have an obligation towards fans and ending a season (or the entire show) like that seems... disrespectful maybe? I have strong feelings about things; leave me alone.

They play the song at the end? That is the theme song dude! You can't toss it to the end. You simply just can't. And I'm angry again. You always make me angry!

(Post-edit note: At least they didn't do the book signing thing so that's a win.)

In conclusion, I was crazy excited about this and it just didn't quite deliver for me.

The 4, 90 minute episodes format is better going when you treat each episode as if they are movies. We are getting used to hour long episodes, which are also constructed more in a movie format rather than a prime time TV show, but 90 minutes is a full length movie. Therefore when the story is written in the same pace as the episodes of the original series, it becomes slow and to be honest I got distracted a lot while watching. After a while I turned into Michel on an ordinary day.

It was still nice to have a piece of that old show I loved, but it just didn't feel like that old show that I loved. It felt forced and to be honest it felt like Amy Sherman was just trying to satisfy her need to make a final season for the show which she couldn't because of a contract conflict. She threw but it hit only partially.

But as always, it's just my humble opinion; thank you for reading it.

And here, I put the theme song at the end of the review for you. Apparently that's where theme songs belong now...

Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them Review

Hi there!

I know, it's been a while but I'm back. And I'm back for a good reason.

Last Friday I've had the pleasure of seeing Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and I had to write about it.

Before I write another word I should give the warning: after this point tiny bits of spoilers might come flying towards your face so, if you haven't seen it, beware!

I have this thing about trailers: If I know that I'm definitely going to see the movie, I don't watch them. I feel like they take the magic out of it. They put every scene they deem good and when you see them in the movie it feels like second hand. I just simply prefer enjoying the movie while watching the movie, not while watching the bits and parts of it.

Anyway, the reason I'm telling this is to explain how expectationless (is that a word?) I was when I sat on that chair waiting for the movie to start. Because to be honest I solemnly believed that this was only an opportunity to extract more money from the money tree that is Harry Potter universe. (Well, it still probably is, but at least they did justice to it).

Because of my low expectation, I was waiting there to see nothing but a mediocre piece of film but I really, really did enjoy it.

To begin with, being a huge Harry Potter fan since, I don't know when I was 7, hearing that same old melody, that has been giving me goosebumps every since the first Harry Potter movie came out, at the beginning was just the perfect sign that this was going to be good.

The story revolves around Newt Scamander, the eccentric ex-Hufflepuff alumni who is travelling to collect different beast, study them, nurture them and at the end write a book about them to help people understand the them. (them, them, them, them... it started to sound funny).

If you didn't already know, the text book "Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them" is mentioned in the original Harry Potter series and was actually released as a hard-copy text book in the middle of the Harry Potter merchandise frenzy.

If you are familiar with my previous reviews you may know that I find Eddie Redmayne really charming. His portrayal of the character was very fitting for the general theme of the movie and it was exactly what you would expect an excitable Hufflepuffer who has been expelled most probably because of his love for these creatures.

In general I did enjoy his performance however, at some level his movements, exclamations, his choice of words reminded me awful a lot of Matt Smith's 11th Doctor. Just a thought.

On of the best things about the movie was Dan Fogler, who plays Jacob Kowalski, a no-maj (the American word for muggles) that finds himself in the middle of the adventure of the beast chasing in New York City.

Not only being the comic relief of the movie, he provides some very emotional moments that is what Harry Potter always stands for: funny, adventures and emotional. Therefore it was very sad when we had to say goodbye to him at the end of the movie. However, knowing that there are 4 more movies to come in our way in this series and considering the popularity of the character, I expect him to somehow come back to join the crew again in a future sequel.

When we look just a bit to the general casting, I found it quite successful, however I found Katherine Waterstone as Tina Goldstein, who, by the development of the story, is supposed to be the leading woman character a bit too... dull. She has a very significant role and she definitely brings it in the first about half an hour I guess. However as the movie moves forward Queenie, sister of Tina, starts to stand out better with her fascination with Kowalski and her ability to read minds and, Waterstone's character starts to lose her light becoming a character just simply follows Newt around with less than significant effect on the story.

The finale of the movie just show that the reason Tina Goldstein is there is that Newt needs a love interest. The whole purpose of a character shouldn't be that.

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the movie. The little Easter Eggs such as various spells we are familiar with from the original series and the tiny little mention of Dumbledore's name, the Hufflepuff scarf... these were all little happy moments for me throughout the movie.

Maybe I was this impressed because I had so little expectations. You can't know without seeing it for yourself.

Thank you for reading my humble opinion!...

Why Did I Hate The Ghostbusters Reboot?

Ahahahahaha... Gotcha! I actually liked it. What do you know!

Okay okay calm down. Of course is not like the original. But what did you expect? That is a classic movie with legendary actors that came out in an era that this variety of high quality movies weren't being made. It was special and we grew up with that. It's just like saying that todays, I don't know, icecream doesn't taste as good as it used to. It's a good memory from our past and a reboot is of course not going to replace it; it's not even what they aim to do. We all know it's because of the current lack of content and creativy in Hollywood right?

So, I'm going to make my review disregarding the whole existence of the previous Ghostbusters movies.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

I have to start with how I loved seeing literally my favorite female comediens in the lead. I am a big SNL fan (I acknowledge that SNL is also not what it used to be; but they still introduced us to amazing talents) and I must say in my opinion Kristen Wigg is the queen of the comedy world. I can't even start explaining how much I adore this multitalented gorgeous woman. So I won't cause I think you got the idea.

Melissa McCharty is one of the rising stars of a decent amount of years now; and I have been vigorously following her since she made me fall in love with the lovely and clumsy Sookie St. James in Gilmore Girls. Considering her performance in this movie, she wasn't any short on the perfection as usual.

And then there are the relatively less experienced however still as talented Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones.

Kate McKinnon also seems to be very popular these days and I can totally understand why. She is very funny and of course her blonde beauty doesn't really hurt her case. But I have to say even though she provided a whole lot of laughs through out the movie, her character just seemed a little too forced. Until the very end of the movie she acts more like a brilliant but a bit miswired robot showing absolutely no emotion whatsoever.

I personally really value the character depth and she simply had none. I'm not sure if it's the director effect or the writing but the actor always has a responsibility towarda their character to make them feel more human and I'm afraid Kate McKinnon was not so successful in this area.

In SNL Leslie Jones almost always plays characters that are intimidating and with a quality of extreme insanity. She still had that lively and full of life style of hers in this movie however, it was refreshing to see her tone the crazy down a bit. If you have ever seen her play herself in the News Update with Colin Jost then you know what I mean. She really added a different kind of joy to the ensemble performance.

Not all of the major characters were women of course. Along side of the Ghost Busters crew, we got the incredibly stupid character of Kevin the secretary. I have definitely, totally, absolutely no objection to the casting choice. Oh holy Chris Hemsworth! (Drool)

He is definitely very easy to eyes and his acting was quite charming. However, the character was written very poorly once again. His stupidity sure causes some laughs at first. The glasses bid and the telephone being in the fish tank was really funny. But after some point the repetative phone jokes and the constant reminder of the glasses with no glasses has become very annoying.

I actually really started enjoying his performance after he was possesed by the antagonist ghost and it only lasted until he was back to being plain Kevin again. Again there was no sign of character depth he was just hot and stupid. That was his whole persona. This bid may work for a short sketch but for a character that has a lot of screentime in a 2 hour movie, it is just poor work.

If we stop ignoring the fact that there were 2 other Ghostbusters movies before this one for a while, I have to say that although the cameos from Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Sigourney Weaver was far from satisfying, they were nice to see. 

Ozzy Osbourne was a good touch though. ("Sharon! Am I daydreaming again??")

The two cameos that I actually enjoyed were of the Marshmallow Man and of course Slimer. Ghostbuster is really nothing in my eyes without those two. I am very happy that Slimer found himself a Mrs. Slimer. (Man I so identify with that character, I don't even know why)

In overall I don't think that it was a 5.7 rating movie. I personally voted with a 7. But despite all the good thoughts and wishes from my side, unfortunately today, at the almost end of its 3rd week in the box office, with a $144 million budget, the movie has only made a $135.4 million worldwide. Which makes it very unlikely that the studio will shine a green light for the sequel. But who knows, maybe Sony will make a second mistake.

If you enjoyed the movie as I did leave a comment. What the hell, if you didn't enjoy it just feel free to shout how wrong I am in the comments also. I'm open to all. Don't be shy.

As usual, thank you for reading my humble opinion.

Why was X-Men Apocalypse A Disappointment?

Some call him Apocalypse, he's some kind of god... who got beaten down by a bunch of kids who are not even at the top of their game.

Fair warning: This entry involves spoilers!

So Apocalypse was supposed to be "bigger and even better than Days of the Future Past". We were promised BIG! What we got was...... mediocre.

I'll be honest as usual; as time gone by and we saw new trailers I started to lose my enthusiasm long before the movie came to the theaters. The trailers were just... not good. And it's never a good sign for the trailers to disappoint you.

What kept my hopes up was the success of Days of the Future Past (I saw it in the theater 5 times and I swear I lost count of how many times I've seen it after it was on digital release.) and of course the already amazing cast being supported with new amazing cast members.

So let's begin with the cast then... (Did I say cast too many times? Cast, cast, cast, cast)

One of the most popular actors in the past few years, the great Oscar Isaac, was the mighty Apocalypse. The problem was that neither Oscar Isaac was great nor Apocalypse was mighty.

I don't find the blame in Isaac in this one don't get me wrong. There was just not much for him to do. The character was written so badly into the screenplay that under all that makeup it could be an Oscar Isaac look alike and we wouldn't notice for as long as I'm concerned.

There is a great destruction but no motive.

Then there's the 4 horsemen. I get why Magneto and Angel would like to join Apocalypse to a certain level. Storm... okay he makes you more powerful and stuff but you are striving for good. You are looking up to Mystique for being a hero (don't even get me started on that). Why would you be a part of this immense destruction?

And Psylocke... I was so excited for this character to finally enter the X-Men universe, expecting so much from her; and I was sure that Olivia Munn was going to do justice to her being a big fan of the character. But again I was disappointed.

In the movie Psylocke was no more than a layerless, brainless, power hungry mutant that not only has a motive in life, except for jealousy towards every single soul she sees but really has no opinion of her own at all.

Thank God, at least Fassbender did justice to one of my favorite characters, and even though towards the end of the movie it is oddly vague what he is doing just floating around with a bunch of metal and doing some kind of a magnetic yoga (?), Magneto was one of the only well written characters in the story.

We also met some of the new students of Xavier's school for gifted youngsters.

I've never liked Cyclops and I never will so I'll just leave that there.

But I actually like the character Jean Grey (not in the movies but in the comics and cartoons etc.) but it had been destroyed for me by Famke Janssen and I was hoping for Sophie Turner to make it better for me in this one; only she didn't.

I really like her in Game of Thrones and I believed that she was a good actor until now. But the horrible accent and those empty eyes proved me wrong. I hate to say this but Turner was not a good Jean Grey.

I really liked Nightcrawler though. Kodi Smit-Mcphee's Nightcrawler really was one of the highlights for me in this movie. I wish they didn't delete so many good scenes of him in the final cut but at least he was in the final cut right Rogue?

Speaking of being left out of the movie... Did you see Jubilee? Because she was nothing more than an extra in the film.

I was just so excited that Jubilee was finally finding her place in the movies but... I don't remember did she even have a line? Did we even hear her speak? If you haven't read the comics or seen the cartoon tell me, do you know what Jubilee's powers are?

Did you also notice that at least 1/10 of the movie was scenes from First Class. At this point we have to admit that Brian Singer was too lazy to place clever dialogues to explain/remind us of the past events and just preferred to embed tiny flashbacks all over the movie. I don't know about you but I don't respect that.

Of course it's not fair to say that it was all bad.

Quicksilver again did his thing and signed for another unforgettable moment in the movie (probably one of the two best scenes in the entire movie with the Wolverine cameo).

If you've read my Quicksilver vs. Quicksilver entry, you know that I have a special place for Peters' Quicksilver in my heart. But still I can't help but admitting that at one point the school rescue scene (or whatever you would like to call it) seemed a little bit forced to me.

The kitchen scene of Days of the Future Past had a well deserved great success and I'm pretty sure a lot of people still watch just that scene particularly on an on again just like I still do. And even though the school scene was a great comic relief and it was really good, I can't help feeling like it was just a copy past of the kitchen scene in a different setting.

At the end of the day, I have no choice but to say that X-Men Apocalypse, even though it was a fun movie to watch, was not really what I expected.

It probably could be perceived better if we saw Apocalypse first and Days of the Future Past later; because I admit it was a though act to follow. But whether you enjoyed or were annoyed by it we have to agree in one point: it had the potential to much a much better movie. Let's hope the final Wolverine movie will erase our memories of this tragedy.

Anyway, at least we always have Deadpool :)

Thank you for reading my humble opinion.

Arrested Development, Revival and Re-Revival

Do you remember Arrested Development? Do you remember it in a good way? If the answer to the second question is yes, then you obviously haven't seen the 4th season right?

(I'll give it my best not to give any spoilers so take pity on me!)

I don't know what it is but I could never, like the slightest bit, could like Jason Bateman. I can't really explain it, I just don't like the guy. That was the sole reason why I resisted watching Arrested Development for all these years despite hearing great things about it.

Anyway, being a huge Harmonian, I caved it when I heard Dan Harmon talking about it so I downloaded the entire show.

Now, there are a few things that I hate in a TV show. First of all the cliche premise. Second of all Jason Bateman... The story of a family that lost everything and a Jason Bateman that had no choice but to keep them together... That is kind of a nightmare to me.

However, as I got to watching the show, I... yeah I loved it. I'm not gonna lie I even liked Bateman. It is a perfectly structured comedy that really makes you laugh. I'm not talking about a grin or a smile, I'm talking LMFAO kind of laugh. I really did laugh my ass off.

Then came the 4th season...

I usually trust Netflix when it's about making shows. I haven't seen a Netflix series that I didn't like... until this week.

Every episode was about an individual character that we came to love. What we learnt however is that what made us love those characters was the unity of their existence. And because they hardly could get more than two characters in one scene together, Buster's immaturity and Gob's stupidness and Tobias' weirdness just didn't have the same effect on us.

At the end the whole of 15 episodes was just a pile of old jokes reheated and served tasting dry.

Scheduling problems, I get it. It's not easy to gather that many big names in front of one camera at the same time especially after almost 10 years. But if you can't do it, don't do it. Just don't half ass it!

What is special about this show is the relationships and yes all the events somehow get tied to each other at one point and the intricate storylines, I like; but it just lacked that thing that I can't really name.

It must be the confused feedback that the show got after its revival season that even though it's not canceled there hasn't been a new season for the past 3 years. Movie sequels come faster than this right?

Anyhow, according to the "mega producer" of the show Brian Grazer, season 5 was "definitely" coming in 2016, starting production in January and airing summer. You know... this summer... like... now....

Then a few days ago Mitch Hurwitz, the creator of the show, made this statement:

"It'll happen. It'll definitely happen. Not before the election, but it's definitely going to happen." (I'm not kidding, this is a direct quote)

And after this statement we are sure that... it's soooo not going to happen. Maybe another 10 years late. Who knows.

As I said, I really did my best not give any spoilers because if you haven't seen the show, I would really really recommend you to see it. It's a great laugh. But I would also like to warn you. Take caution in watching the final season. Sometimes it's better for things to die young so that you'll remember them well.

Thank you for reading my humble opinion.