"BOARDWALK EMPIRE" Season One (2010) Photo Gallery

 

Below are images from Season One of the 2010-2014 HBO series called "BOARDWALK EMPIRE". Produced by Terence Winter, Mark Walhberg and Martin Scorsese, the series starred Steve Buscemi:

"BOARDWALK EMPIRE" SEASON ONE (2010) Photo Gallery

Favorite Episodes of "HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER" Season One (2005-2006)

 

Below is a list of my favorite episodes from Season One of the CBS series, "HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER". The series was created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas:



FAVORITE EPISODES OF "HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER" SEASON ONE (2005-2006)



1. (1.22) "Come On" - In the season finale, narrator Ted Mosby decides to seriously pursue Robin Scherbatsky, the young woman he had first met in the series finale, instead of a date arranged for him by a matchmaking service. Meanwhile, best friend Marshall Eriksen is stunned by his fiancée Lily Aldrin's decision to break their engagement and leave him for an art fellowship in San Francisco.





2. (1.11) "The Limo" - On New Year's Eve 2005, Ted spends a large portion of his Christmas bonus for a limo for him and the gang to celebrate the holiday. Things do not go as planned.





3. (1.18) "Nothing Good Happens After 2AM" - With his long-distance girlfriend Victoria on his mind, Ted has conflicted feelings when Robin invites him over for a late-night rendezvous.





4. (1.01) "Pilot" - In the series' pilot episode, Ted starts his tale of how he had met his children's mother with how he, Marshall, Lily and their womanizing friend Barney Stinson had met Robin for the first time.





5. (1.05) "Okay Awesome" - Robin, Ted, and Barney visit a hot new nightclub; leaving the engaged Marshall and Lily to a more adult and boring evening of wine tasting with another couple.

"TRANSFORMERS" (2007) Review

 

"TRANSFORMERS" (2007) Review

Based upon the Japanese cartoon TV series and the line of Hasbro toys, "TRANSFORMERS" is the story about how Earth is caught in the middle of an intergalactic war between two races of robots, the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, which are able to change into a variety of objects, including cars, trucks, planes and other technological creations. This 2007 film was developed by producers Don Murphy and Tom DeSanto and executive director, Steven Spielberg, had convinced Michael Bay ("PEARL HARBOR", "BAD BOYS", "BAD BOYS II" and "THE ISLAND") to direct it as his first family film.

I really do not know what to say about "TRANSFORMERS". It has a pretty good cast with the likes of Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight, Anthony Anderson and John Turturro. It also featured the voices of Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime (leader of the the good alien robots) and Hugo Weaving as the voice of the evil Megatron.

I am already into the third paragraph of this post and I have yet to give my review. It sounds as if I am delaying in giving my view of the movie, doesn't it? Perhaps I am. Like I had stated in the previous paragraph, I do not know what to say about "TRANSFORMERS". On the surface, it is a pretty exciting, yet funny film. It can boast some first-class action, which happens to be Michael Bay's forte. And the performances are pretty good. I could say that Shia LaBeouf (Spielberg's new favorite at the time) was exceptional. Although there were times when I found his performance a little frantic. Rather like a young John Cusack on crack. Nearly six years ago, I thought Tyrese Gibson seemed a little too big to be playing second fiddle to a TV actor like Josh Duhamel. Now that both are big screen actors . . . well, I was too busy enjoying their on-screen camaraderie to really care one way or the other.

Despite all of the action, special effects and good performances, I had left the theater with this uneasy feeling that "TRANSFORMERS" seemed a little beneath for someone of even of Bay's talent or reputation when I first saw the movie. When one really comes down to it, the movie seemed nothing more than an over-the-top kiddie flick. But hey, if you are really a fan of THE TRANSFORMERS franchise, I suggest that you consider re-watching it. Chances are you will either enjoy it again or not be disappointed.

"LOOPER" (2012) Photo Gallery

 

Below are images from the new science-fiction thriller called "LOOPER". Written and directed by Rian Johnson, the movie stars Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt:



"LOOPER" (2012) Photo Gallery

"LOST" RETROSPECT: (1.12) "Whatever the Case May Be"

 

"LOST" RETROSPECT: (1.12) "Whatever the Case May Be"

I had never meant to write an article on (1.12) "Whatever the Case May Be", the Season One episode of ABC’s ”LOST”. Honestly. But after I recently re-watched the episode, I realized that I had to say or write something about it.

”Whatever the Case May Be” happened to be the second episode that featured Kate Austen as a main character. While frolicking in what looked like a spring, Kate and fellow castaway James “Sawyer” Ford came across another chunk of Oceanic Airlines 815’s fuselage section and several dead passengers. Kate also discovered a silver Halliburton case that she asked Sawyer to retrieve for her. The case belonged to the recently dead U.S. Marshal Edward Mars, who had been escorting Kate back to United States soil in order for her to face criminal charges. Being Kate, she decided to tell Sawyer that he could keep the case . . . before making several attempts to get her hands on it by theft. The case not only contained Marshal Mars’ firearms and some money, but also a sentimental object that meant very much to Kate.

How much did that object mean to Kate? As shown in the episode’s flashbacks, it meant so much to her that she staged a bank robbery (in which she pretended to be a potential loan customer and victim) in New Mexico in order to acquire it from one of the bank’s safety deposit box. It seemed that Marshal Mars had placed it there to entrap Kate. As for the object of Kate’s desire, it turned out to be a toy airplane that once belonged to a former childhood sweetheart named Tom Brennan, whose death she was partially responsible for, as shown in a later episode called (1.22) “Born to Run”. Not only was Kate willing to stage a bank robbery in New Mexico and steal the Marshal’s case on the island for it, she was also willing to manipulate and lie to castaway leader Jack Shephard in order to get her hands on it.

Several “B” plots also abound in this episode. One of them featured on Charlie Pace’s continuing melancholy and guilt over Claire Littleton’s kidnapping at the end of (1.10) “Raised By Another”. In short, Charlie sat around and moped over Claire, while the other castaways moved their belongings to another beach in order to prevent everything and everyone from a rising tide that threatened to wash over their camp. In the end, Rose Nadler helped him snapped out of his gloom with tough words and a prayer. John Locke and Boone Carlyle focused on finding ways to open the hatch they had discovered near the end of (1.11) “Even the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues” and met with failure. And Sayid Jarrah asked Boone’s stepsister, Shannon Rutherford, to help him translate longtime castaway Danielle Rousseau’s maps and notes, which are written in French. His request attracted Boone’s jealous attention.

Did I like ”Whatever the Case May Be”? No, I did not. In my opinion, it was one of the worst episodes from Season One. In other words, I thought it was a piece of crap. One, the entire storyline about Kate’s efforts to get her hands on the toy airplane struck me as an exercise in irrelevancy. The fact that this particular episode was resolved in ”Born to Run”, the next Kate-centric episode, not only convinced me of the uselessness of this storyline, but also the flaky nature of Kate’s personality. Look, I understand that she had felt guilty for inadvertently causing Tom Brennan’s death. But was it really necessary to set in motion a bank robbery in New Mexico or piss off Jack and Sawyer for that damn toy plane? I do not think so.



Kate’s quest for the toy airplane produced two sequences that really annoyed me. One, her attempts to steal the Halliburton case from Sawyer left me shaking my head in disbelief. At one point, I felt as if I was watching two adolescents behaving like ten-year-olds. Both of them seemed ridiculous and immature in their efforts to steal the case from each other . . . not sexy. And why did Kate hand over the case to Sawyer in the first place? She could have maintained the lie that the case belonged to her. Nor did she have to tell Sawyer what was inside the case. At least she would have been spared resorting to childish efforts to get the damn thing. The quest for the toy airplane also produced one of the most ludicrous flashbacks in the series’ history, and one of the dumbest bank robberies in movies or television. The fact that Kate had staged the robbery for the airplane makes me want to upchuck. And if she knew that Marshal Mars had placed the airplane inside the bank, why did she have to enter the bank, unmasked? Why not simply act as one of the masked robbers? And if the whole thing was a trap set up by Marshal Mars, where in the hell was he? Where was the stakeout? And what were Damon Lindelof and Jennifer Johnson thinking when they wrote this episode?

And if the main plot seemed ludicrous beyond belief, the subplots were no better. After discovering the infamous hatch to the Swan Station at the end of the previous episode, (1.11) “All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues”, John Locke and Boone Carlyle decided to keep their discovery a secret. Well . . . Locke did. Boone rather idiotically decided to follow his lead. To this day, I am amazed that so many ”LOST” fans had continued to regard Locke as the castaways’ wise mentor by this point in Season One, considering that his decision to keep the hatch a secret struck me as incredibly stupid. Oh well. Perhaps Lindelhof and Johnson needed this secretive behavior as fodder for future storylines. Another subplot featured Sayid Jarrah and Shannon Rutherford’s efforts to translate the charts and notes that he had stolen from Danielle Rousseau in (1.09) “Solitary”. The storyline regarding the charts and notes amounted to nothing. But it did initiate the romance between the former Iraqi soldier and California dance student. We finally come to the subplot regarding Charlie Pace’s guilt and despair over Claire Littleton’s kidnapping and Rose Nadler’s attempts to help him deal with the latter. One, I found subplot boring. And two, Rose’s attempts to revive him from his despair struck me as a perpetration of the ”Religious Black Woman” cliché. Not only could I have done without this subplot, I could have also done without her dialogue.

Many fans have viewed Jack’s behavior toward Kate in this episode as abusive and controlling. Perhaps. Perhaps not. I found his reaction to Kate’s revelation about her tracking skills in ”All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues” as controlling and abusive. Frankly, I thought he was being a prick. However, I completely understood his behavior with Kate in this episode. Honestly? Kate had manipulated him and lied to him for the sake of case and a toy airplane. Instead of keeping the case in the first damn place and explaining to Jack why she wanted it opened, Kate behaved like an erratic child. And Jack treated her like one, in a fit of disgust and anger. Boone continued his verbal abuse of Shannon’s self-esteem in this episode. I realize that she had behaved abominably to him, back in Australia. I also realize that Shannon can be a bitch. But she had done nothing to earn such constant and persistent abuse. So . . . Boone behaved like a prick. Sawyer did not treat anyone with such abuse. I found his efforts to open the case rather childish, but that is all. But I thought that Kate treated him in an abusive manner in an effort to get her hands on the case. I realize that she did not want him to know about her criminal past. But as I had stated earlier, she could have continued to claim the case as hers and recruited Jack’s help to open the damn thing. Instead, she allowed Sawyer to take the case. The she resorted to stealth and physical abuse to get it back. Kate had behaved like a prick . . . or a female version of one.

"Whatever the Case May Be" had one or two virtues. Actually, it had one. Larry Fong’s photography of the Hawaiian jungles and beaches remained fresh and beautiful as ever. But with so much infantile and stupid behavior by the characters, and incompetent writing by Damon Lindelhof and Jennifer Johnson, is it any wonder that I hold this episode in deep contempt?