Movies | Television | Video Games

Weekend Menu: Presidents, Parrots, and Possibly Portals

Busy week, what with trying to get this blog off the ground. Thanks to anyone who’s been reading!

My own personal menu for the weekend includes a watching of Tron: Legacy, which just arrived on DVD from Netflix. I’ve seen the first ten minutes of the film already, and I don’t have a lot of hope that I’ll enjoy the rest, because the preview featured a digitally-created young version of Jeff Bridges that was creepy and unconvincing. He looked like a character from a video game cut-scene. From two years ago. Also, there was a guy base-jumping off a skyscraper that served no purpose except to make the character doing it seem X-TREME.

Here’s the weekend menu; see you on Monday!

Movies

The Conspirator: I like courtroom dramas, and the story surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln is a fascinating one. That being said, I probably won’t see this until it’s on DVD. It just feels plodding, somehow. (April 15)

Scream 4: Fourth films in a series are always really good, right? (April 15)

Rio: Um. A bunch of animated parrots with celebrity voices have a crazy adventure, would be my guess. Look, I don’t know what this is, okay? Fine, I’ll go watch the trailer. Wait here.

Okay, I watched it. A bunch of animated parrots with celebrity voices have a crazy adventure. But who knows, maybe it’s cute. (April 15)

Television

The Soup: Every week I wait for the announcement that Joel McHale is leaving The Soup due to him being a huge TV star with Community, and every week it doesn’t happen. They also never seem to take a week off, unlike every other Soup-like show out there. (Friday, E!)

Smallville: Wow, really? This is still getting new episodes? I’ve never seen it and I’m not making any judgements, it just must be in it’s 957th season by now. I was actually interested in watching the first season, but it’s not on Netflix Instant yet. (Friday, CW)

Saturday Night Live: It’s a repeat this week, so now I’m gonna have to find something else to fast-foward through on Sunday morning. (Saturday, NBC)

Game of Thrones: I haven’t read the books yet (I may start this weekend, actually), and I don’t have HBO, so this is pretty much something I don’t directly care about, but everyone I know who has read the books loves them, and they’re all excited for the series, so I’m excited for them and for myself in the future once I’ve read the books or have HBO. Plus, Peter Dinklage is just great. (Sunday, HBO)

The Killing: I’m going to keep trumpeting this show because it’s good. A nice, gloomy, long-form murder mystery is rare for TV. This week, a teacher provides some help with the investigation, and the Richmond campaign engages in damage control. And — this is just a guess — it rains a lot. (Sunday, AMC)

Video Games

Portal 2? Valve has been working tirelessly for weeks to promote interest in Portal 2 among people who have already bought Portal 2. The most recent revelation is that GLaDOS is trying to reboot, but needs more CPUs to help, and the help can come from gamers playing certain indie games. I’m a little disappointed; for a while there it looked like the game was going to release today, no-strings attached, but it’s hard to fault Valve on their creativity, humor, and support for the indie game community. Hopefully, it will still unlock some time this weekend so I can take a break (and give you a break) from Crysis 2.

Comments

  1. Well so far I’m pretty psyched with this blog and what you’re doing with it, I’ve been following your stuff since Concerned and enjoy pretty much everything you do.

    As for Tron, the first part is just the setup for the nifty Tron-type stuff that takes place inside the computer. Have patience (or fast forward) and it gets really pretty, if by pretty you mean glowy stuff on a lot of black backgrounds. I liked it but I liked the original too so my taste may be in question.

  2. Chris, I’ve followed you ever since Concerned, and am a huge fan of your writing. I’m glad to see it’s found a new home. Try to stick around here, though, okay? I’m tired of scanning your defunct websites, desperately searching for an update somewhere, anywhere.

  3. The only explanation is that there must be more than one Joel McHale…