What I Watched This Week 1/14/11

1. Avengers: Animated version that is Saturday morning quality, but still a lot of fun.
2. The Simpsons: This episode was one of the weaker ones in a season that has been a bit of a return to the great year of the show.
3. Bob’s Burgers: Funny new show that follows the The Simpsons on Fox. It’s dark and twisted, at least for a family cartoon--more Family Guy than The Simpsons.
4. Modern Family: started late due to the President's speech in Arizona, which bumped Cougar Town off the air.
5. Episodes: Unfunny new Showtime series set in Hollywood, but pales in comparison to shows like Action and Entourage.
6. V: Not as good as last week’s season premiere, but still more entertaining than anything last season.
7. Shameless: Very well done exploitation. Very good cast and crew doing things of questionable intent--most appropriate title of the year.
8. American Masters "Jeff Bridges": Great clips and interviews about one of the best actors working today and perhaps of all time. If you missed it, seek it out.
9. Circus: I've had this on my DVR since it was originally broadcast on PBS last fall and I'm very glad I got around to it. Great documentary mini-series about the Big Apple Circus. A little long at 6 hours, but a fascinating in-depth look at a modern day circus.
10. Californication: First time seeing the show after hearing good things about it. Liked it but need to start at Season One--I'm a completist.
11. BCS Championship: ESPN 3D's football coverage is far better than their basketball thanks in large part to shot variety and abundant slo-mo instant replay.
12. Saturday Night Live: Jim Carrey returned to his sketch show roots and it was one of the best SNL episodes in recent memory.
13. Who is Harry Nilsson (and why is everybody talking about him)?: A so-so produced documentary about the late singer/songwriter, whose story and music is so great that it really
Robin Hood (2010)
14. The Fighter: The reviews are true--this is one of the best movies of the year. Christian Bale may be an asshole, but he is one helluva actor.
15. City Island: I avoided this movie because it seems like the typical off-beat family indie film, which it is! But thanks to Andy Garcia and a really good supporting cast, it's worth seeing.
16. The Two Escobars: Part of ESPN's 30 For 30 series about how Columbia's drug and soccer culture violently collided.
17. Adam: Another small quirky indie film, but very charming.
18. Cop Out: Panned by both critics and audiences, but I enjoyed it because I get a kick out of Tracy Morgan's pseudo-moron shtick.
19. Youth in Revolt: Another little seen movie that brings a welcome dose of cartoon slap stick to the indie comedy. Not a great movie, but a better one than people seemed to give it credit for.
20. True Grit: Watched the original after falling in love with the remake and the two are very similar, except that the Coen's have improved upon every aspect of the Duke version.

What I Watched This Week

Here's a new weekly feature that is really not much more than a helpful reminder of how I spend huge chunks of my time. In my defense, most of these programs are watched while working out, except of course when I go to the movies! Hopefully these lists will turn you on to something you haven't heard of, let you what to skip or convince you to give something a shot.
For the week ending 1/7/11 (in no particular order):
“Wipeout” The winter edition is just as much mindless fun as the summer version.
“Modern Family” and “Cougar Town” Two of the few sitcoms I watch—great casts and writing.
“Road to Perdition” This is a very good movie that I can’t believe I haven’t seen before. Seems like the blueprint for HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” which I also really like.
“Katy Perry E! Special” This one was for my wife and daughter, although I am a fan of her music (and look).
“Paris Je T’aime” Great movie for those not afraid of subtitles—so much better than “New York, I Love You.”
“V” – 2nd season premiere: better than any episode from the first season.
“Lakers vs. Suns” 3D – eye popping visuals thanks to ESPN 3D
“Primeval” Season 1 – The FX are cheesy, but Dinos in contemporary London is a lot of fun.
“The King’s Speech” I’m a history buff, so this was one of my favorites of the year.
“Monica and David” Amazing documentary—must see!
“Sins of My Father” Very well done documentary about Pablo Escobar’s son reaching out to the sons of the politicians Escobar killed.
“Black Swan” One of my favorite movies of the year. This is more of a horror film than it is a ballet one.

3DTV is here, sort of...

The Lakers and Suns game last night will forever be burned into my brain. Not because I'm that big of a b-ball fan, in fact I play more than I watch on TV, but because it is the first live 3D program I've ever watched. For a $10 monthly upgrade to my AT&T U-verse package I can now watch ESPN 3D, and their other pay-per-view 3D programming (Comcast has a much richer offering through their On-Demand), on my new Sony Bravia. The picture quality is truly eye popping, especially during the on court close-ups and slow mo instant replays. Unfortunately, the wide shots, which dominate most of the game, are not as dramatic. Overall, the effect is amazingly clear and much like having a window into an NBA court.

The main problem with ESPN 3D is that for the foreseeable future they have a very limited schedule that is more like pay-per-view special events than a broadcast channel. Hopefully as the technology catches on more games will be available, although programming will increase significantly with the X Games coming up at the end of the month.

Luckily for me there are plenty of other 3D content available, since I'm not a huge sports fanatic. There is now a decent catalogue of 3D Blu Rays available, although most of them are animated films ("Dispicable Me," "A Christmas Carol," and "Coraline" just to name a few of the better ones). This is great for me since I have kids, but if you don't, the pickens are a bit slim. There are quite a few over priced documentaries, most of which cost around $35 and get you under an hour of content, and a few newer releases, including "Clash of the Titans" and "Pirahna." The holy grail of 3D Blu Ray, "Avatar," is only available with the purchase of a Panasonic 3D HDTV, "Monsters vs. Aliens" and the "Shrek" series also have other exclusive deals with TV makers. Hopefully this won't be a trend because it smacks of the alienation most consumers felt during the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD wars. Come on people, getting on the same page will be better for everyone!

Another great avenue for 3D content is the online store at Playstation 3. There are quite a few movies available for rent, as well as freebies like a Bon Jovi music video and an amazing sizzle reel for the soon to be launched 3D Channel, which is a joint effort between Sony, IMAX and the Discovery Channel. The real advantage with having a Playstation 3 over other Blu-Ray 3D players, are the 3D video games. The demos I've played so far are all pretty impressive, especially "Tumbler" which is one of those classic games that are easy to play but difficult to master. (Warning - Gamer tangent: "Tumbler" also utilizes the new "Move" system and makes for one helluva gaming experience. It's mind boggling how far video games have come from my Atari 2600 I spent so many hours on as a young boy.) However, 3D PS3 games are still limited in the number of titles offered, but with more and more available soon.

The real question comes down to whether it's time to upgrade to 3D HDTV and Blu-Ray players. While 3DTV is definitely the wave of the future it's still fairly costly (a pair of glasses alone will cost you $150) and the content is somewhat limited. If you're a gadget and 3D freak, like I obviously am, then you need to get a set up ASAP. If not, I'd wait another 6 months or more for prices to come down and for more content to become available.

Quasi-Analytical Ranking of 2010's Best Movies

At the end of every year pretty much everyone and their mother puts out a "best of" list of top movies, so I figured I'd add my list to the mix. However, this isn't just a list of my favorite movies, although many of them are on this list. In an attempt to factor in both critical and audience reaction to determine ranking, I've taken the highest rated movies according to Rotten Tomatoes and then placed those 20 films in order of their box office results. Many people seem to think that if a movie makes too much money that it can't be artistically satisfying, or vice versa. My list shows that many films can be loved by audiences and critics alike. I realize that some of these films are still in theaters and therefore will ultimately change position, but this is a 2010 list, not a 2010-2011 list. You've waited long enough! Behold the real best films of 2010:
1. Toy Story 3
2. Inception
3. How To Train Your Dragon
4. Tangled
5. The Town
6. The Social Network
7. Unstoppable
8. Easy A
9. True Grit
10. Black Swan
11. The Fighter
12. The Kids Are All Right
13. Let Me In
14. 127 Hours
15. Winter’s Bone
16. Please Give
17. The King’s Speech
18. Restrepo
19. Animal Kingdom
20. Buried

Below is the list of top reviewed 2010 films via Rotten Tomatoes, along with their rating. The following list is comprised of widely released films with 100 reviews or more. My rationale was that if audience viewership was to be factored in that it should be for films that the general audience actually had a chance to see. Most limited release films rarely are seen outside of ten or so major cities. This was a tough decision to make because a few of my personal favorites had fewer than 100 reviews, including "Exit Through The Gift Shop," "A Piece of Work" and "Waiting For Superman" were left off of the top 20.
1. Toy Story 3 – 99%
2. How To Train Your Dragon - 98%
3. Restrepo – 97%
4. The Social Network – 97%
5. The King’s Speech – 96%
6. Animal Kingdom – 96%
7. The Town – 94%
8. The Kids Are All Right – 94%
9. True Grit – 95%
10. Winter’s Bone – 94%
11. 127 Hours – 93%
12. Let Me In – 89%
13. The Fighter – 89%
14. Black Swan – 87%
15. Please Give – 88%
16. Tangled – 89%
17. Inception – 87%
18. Easy A – 87%
19. Unstoppable – 86%
20. Buried – 86%

And here's the 2010 box office rankings according to Box Office Mojo. It's interesting to note that "Toy Story 3," "Inception," "How To Train Your Dragon" and "Tangled" are the only movies on both lists and which is why they are ranked as the top 4 on my list with "Toy Story 3" as the clear choice as best movie of 2010.
1. Toy Story 3
2. Alice in Wonderland (2010)
3. Iron Man 2
4. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
5. Inception
6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
7. Despicable Me
8. Shrek Forever After
9. How to Train Your Dragon
10. The Karate Kid
11. Clash of the Titans (2010)
12. Grown Ups
13. Tangled
14. Megamind
15. The Last Airbender
16. Shutter Island
17. The Other Guys
18. Salt
19. Jackass 3-D
20. Valentine's Day

New Theater Review: Emagine Rochester Hills

I took my wife out for a rare date night without our children. I was hoping I could talk her into checking out the new Emagine Theater in Rochester Hills. The combination of her wanting to see "Black Swan" and the chance to have some of the theater's delicious Olive Oil cooked popcorn were enough to seal the deal. I'll have more on "Black Swan" in a future post, but for now let's concentrate on Metro Detroit's newest big screen venue.

Let's start with the first decision you're going to face when buying your tickets: should you upgrade to premium seating for an extra $2.50?

The extra wide leather seats offer small tables for food and lots 'o leg room, so much that your fellow theater goers won't have to move when you get up in the middle of the movie to use the bathroom or load up on more snacks. The placement of the Premium section was all the way in the back of the theater, which is not the best place for optimum sound quality. Generally speaking, the rear surround speakers are too loud in the last rows, unless you have extra high ceilings which is not the case in the room I was in.

Next to the box office is their Cocktails consession stand--not really a bar since there is nowhere to sit and enjoy your drinks. This is probably the most unique and popular feature offered by the Emagine chain and the lines were just as long as the regular concession stand lines. My only complaint with serving booze is that it seemed to make all the drinkers around me extremely chatty during the movie, although this hasn't been a problem at the other Emagine Theaters.

The big innovation here is the Food Consession, which looks like a restaurant's kitchen with a stove for their small pizza's.

The pizza was good, but by no means gourmet, and the soft pretzels were just right. But this place is strictly BYOM (bring your own mustard), which is one of the kinks I'm sure they'll have worked out. Having been open only a week, I was pretty forgiving of the lack of mustard. The olive oil cooked popcorn was light and didn't leave the container or my fingers covered in yellow grease. I'm not a big popcorn person, but I was won over when I could practically taste the olive oil the moment it was handed to me.

Be warned, because, unlike the AMC and MJR chains, refills here are $.25.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that D-Box motion seating will be installed in time for the release of "The Green Hornet" in mid-January. Right now the Emagine Canton is the only other movie theater in the Detroit area to offer this. I saw "Prince of Persia" there with the D-Box seating and it's a lot of fun--think of a less intense version of the flight simulator rides at amusement parks.

Emagine Royal Oak is scheduled to open this year near my house, so I'm really excited about not having to travel very far for a deluxe movie going experience. In the meantime, I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot of films out at the Emagine Rochester Hills.