July was apparently a month of making up for my truant sitcom-watching behavior. Earlier in the month I caught up on Playing House, and now – almost four months after reviewing the pilot – I’ve finally finished the first season of Mike Judge’s new HBO series, Silicon Valley.
“I love Greek mythology.” That’s the first note I wrote down as the Paramount stars skidded their way across that lake to take their rightful place around that oh-so-familiar mountain. I suppose that statement is true – or at least true of my life at one point in time. Greek mythology is like the original comic books, and as a child I loved them for their seemingly endless supply of wacky characters with weirdo origin stories. Greek mythology is like the X-Men, but with a little more incest. So, given all of that, Hercules ought to be right up my alley, even though “Hercules” is the Roman variant of the Greek demigod Heracles, but whatever. It’s a common mistake.
Lucy, the latest movie from incredibly prolific filmmaker Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, Léon: The Professional) is entirely built upon the false premise that we only use 10% of our brains. It is an annoyingly ubiquitous notion that we as a society have not been able to shake. Your enjoyment of Lucy will probably depend on your ability to suspend your disbelief regarding such fallacies. It would be very easy (too easy, in fact) to sit there and say “[blank] doesn’t work that way” throughout the film, but it wouldn’t be any fun.
they’re having so much fun!
Sure, auditioning for a game show is all well and good (still haven’t heard back from those guys, by the way – that’s probably not a great sign), but unless you win that million dollars, it won’t pay the bills. You need more lucrative auditions for that kind of thing. Well, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’m a bit of an actor these days. So when an opportunity arises to audition for a very popular show that has taken the country by storm, I can’t not go for it.
I’ve worked hard to impart my positive impressions of the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International to you lovely people, but that is not entirely representative of my experience this year. Here’s where the real talk begins.
Day three of Comic Con began the same way as the previous two: with us showing up too late to run the Assassin’s Creed obstacle course in a timely fashion. We even planned to wake up at a certain point and get that thing out of the way first thing in the morning. Instead, it continues to mock us from the ground below our balcony. It may not be in the cards.
After a crowded night in which three adults shared one king-sized bed (much tossing and unrequited cuddling ensued), the second day of the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International arrived. We woke up pretty early, as you’re wont to do when you’re bed is just too full. We had a hazy conception of what we would do with our morning, but we weren’t going to plan things out too strictly. That’s just not our style.
The social event of the season is finally here. I mean, “social” isn’t quite the right word. As much as geek culture has become mainstream and accepted, there is still a lot of awkwardness in San Diego come convention time. But now that my crew and I are here, Comic Con better get ready to get down.
“Being prepared” is an essential skill – so essential that one of our more homophobic organizations exists solely to cultivate said skill in young boys. I myself was never a Boy Scout, but I understand the importance of preparation, even if I don’t always do the deed as well as it could be done.
There are two types of people in the world: those who have seen Casablanca, and those who claim that they have. Well, I am proud to say that thanks to Roger Ebert’s The Great Movies, I have moves from the latter category into the former. Casablanca – much like Gone with the Wind (which I’ve definitely “seen”) – is one of those time-tested classics that is maybe too famous for its own good. The 1942 film from director Michael Curtiz has been referenced and parodied so many times that you almost begin to wonder “what’s the point?”
Steven Cohen's 365 Days of Reviews 