Tombstone: Cast Roundup

I rewatched the movie Tombstone the other day and was reminded not only of how awesome it is, but also of how it has one of the best casts that has ever been assembled. Just for fun, let's talk about 'em:

Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp
Kurt Russell and Wyatt Earp need no introduction. One is a true legend of the silver screen while the other is a legend of the Wild West. The role of Wyatt Earp requires somebody to be charming, scary, laconic, effusive, romantic, and a stone cold bad ass, often intersecting each emotion multiple times in the same scene. In other words, Kurt Russell. Anyway, Wyatt Earp is arguably the most well known lawman in American history, so it was perfect casting since Kurt Russell is one of the coolest actors ever. He was also very good in Captain Ron.

Sam Elliot as Virgil Earp
Only slightly less well known and respected as Wyatt was his older brother Virgil Earp, played by the always charming Sam Elliot. Who doesn't love Sam Elliot? He's so perfect as a cowboy, that he even played one in the Big Lebowski, just because.

Bill Paxton as Morgan Earp
Any list of great movie casts has to include Bill Paxton. He's just awesome. You know it, I know it, and everybody else knows it.

Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday
This is one of the most famous scene-stealing performances in the history of film. Everybody loves Val Kilmer's performance in this movie, even the people who don't like this movie. Val Kilmer's performance as the legendary gunslinger Doc Holiday is nothing short of extraordinary. He is so good and so much fun to watch that he doesn't just steal every scene he's in, but even the ones he's not in, if only because you keep waiting for him to come back.

Go Read This

My friend Anna recently landed a gig as a film reviewer for Examiner.com. Check out her articles here. She's a good friend, but that's not enough to get a plug on my blog. I'm mentioning her stuff because it's good and worth reading.

And if you like what she wrote on Examiner, check out her blog.

Happy Birthday, William Shatner!

Oh, captain my captain.

The Blessed are the Geeks Blog would like to wish a happy and healthy birthday to William Shatner, an actor who needs no introduction. He's just the coolest actor ever, and he just turned 80. Good on ya!

Ultimate Sitcom Intro Part II

I don't know why I made another one of these since the first one has only seven views on youtube (which, if my math is correct, is only seven more than none), but I think they're fun. This one is better than the other one, for whatever that's worth, since I put a little more care into the editing. It makes me laugh, anyway.

Virgil Cole

For the most part, there are two kinds of Western stories: There are the big epic tales of life on the plains, usually involving some sort of cattle drive across the country. Then there are the stories about gunslingers shooting each other. I like the stories about gunslingers shooting each other, and Robert B. Parker writes the best I've ever read, about the greatest gunslinger in Western fiction: Virgil Cole.

A couple of months ago, I wrote a glowing review about Parker's first novel in the Virgil Cole series, but I have since read the remaining three. When I picked up Appaloosa, I didn't know it was the start of a series. Then again, reading through these novels, it's difficult to tell if Parker knew it was going to be a series as well. There are a few details that pass through the novels necessitating they be read in chronological order, but there isn't much of an overall story arc tying the stories together. This books are mostly just the adventures of Virgil Cole and his sidekick (and chronicler) Everett Hitch, as they travel from town to town.

Story-wise, these novels are admittedly lacking. Each book pretty much has the same plot (Cole and Hitch arrive in town, find some trouble, and shoot the bad guy), but that's ok because the books are character-drive more than plot-driven. Actually, I'm not even sure if that's true since there is very little character development from novel to novel. We learn some about the two leads as the stories progress, but I can't say either one changes much from beginning to end. But, again, that's ok because these stories are so much fun, and Parker's prose is so wonderfully rich. These books are held together because of the conversations between the leads are so entertaining, and the various shootouts are so exciting.

Parker writes his gunslingers as though they are Samurai, and they follow certain codes and rules of honor as they meet one another. The worst insult one gunslinger can pay to another is "back-shooter." There are multiple gunslingers that meet up (and, on occasion, are killed by) Cole and Hitch, most of whom are so colorful and entertaining that they could've been the stars of their own series of novels. Of course, Parker makes it clear that nobody could touch Virgil Cole. He's the best there is, and his novels are some of the most fun Westerns you'll read.

That's all.

The Ultimate Sitcom Intro

Forget that last video I put together. This one is way better:

Stranger Prince

Now that I finished my reviews of every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I get get on to doing more important things with my time. Like making videos like this:

Breakout Kings

I checked out the first episode of this new A&E series about cops who team up with cons in order to catch recently-escaped criminals. Cool premise for an interesting show, that has a lot of work to do it if wants to be great. But... I liked it.

I downloaded the first episode for free on the iTunes store. I always check the free shows since the often offer pilot episodes at no charge. This one caught my interest because it stars that guy who played Herc on the Wire. I love that guy, and he's basically playing the exact same character here that he did then. He's the same tough yet lovable cop who plays by his own rules. He's good at it, so I'm not complaining. In fact, had he not played a character that was just like Herc from the Wire, I would've been disappointed. That was why I downloaded this show in the first place. So this show gets points for having a central performance by an actor as likable and fun to watch as Domenick Lombardozzi.

The rest of the cast is great too. The real star is some guy named Laz Alonso, whom I've never really seen before, but he was very good and very effective as the series lead. The cast of cons was fun and likable, containing a funny black guy, a super hot white chick, and one of the McPoyle brothers from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. They were all likable, even if they were a bit too quirky.

The only real problem with the show is that it made no sense. The premise of having former fugitives help cops track down current fugitives in order to decrease their prison sentences is very clever, but the writers didn't really do enough with it. The prisons didn't really offer that much expertise about breaking out of prison. They all had intellects like Sherlock Holmes, of course, but never gave any insight or discovered clues that wouldn't have been offered by an actual criminal investigator. The show simply failed to establish beyond my suspension of disbelief why this task force needed criminals instead of just really good cops.

But I liked it, because it was very clever, exciting, and well done. She show has a cool cast, good action sequences, and enough in depth procedural details that kept me enthralled the entire episode. I just failed to buy the main premise, and I doubt they'll manage to coast by for more than a season or so. But I liked it enough to check out episode two, if I can watch it online somewhere, that is. I don't get A&E.

Happy Birthday, Alan Bean

 
The Blessed are the Geeks blog would like to wish a happy and healthy birthday to astronaut and artist Alan Bean. Alan Bean was the Lunar Module Pilot for the Apollo 12 mission, and became the fourth man to walk on the Moon in November, 1969.

Bean retired from NASA in the early 1980s and became a painter. Most of his works are landscapes of the lunar surface, many of them containing actual dust from the surface of the moon. He is 79, and still an American hero.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

What a long title, and what a long movie. This film was about, well, the assassination of of Jesse James by Robert Ford. Whether he's a coward or not is up for debate, but this film is a mostly sympathetic portrayal of both men, and a fascinating study of their often fraternal and tumultuous relationship. This is a really good movie, that I just can't recommend because it's so long, drawn out, and kind of boring. Also, for a film that's three hours long, we didn't really learn all that much about the titular characters about whom the entire film revolves. That's too bad.

However, as long and boring as it was, I did finish it, partly because I kept thinking the story would pick up eventually, but mostly because the acting was so fantastic. This film really had one of the coolest casts I've seen in a long time, with stellar performances from Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Sam Rockwell, and many more cool character actors. It was also beautifully filmed, with stunning landscapes and a few set pieces that were extremely well done. The train robbery near the opening of the film was flawlessly put together, and worked as something of a mini masterpiece in terms of filmmaking.

So... I liked it and have a lot of respect for it, but I can't really recommend it because it just wasn't all that entertaining. But if you're curious and want to learn more about Jesse James and the man who killed him, it's worth checking out.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Retrospective Retrospective

Well, that's done, and every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation received at least a brief review and rating. Just for fun, I'm going to look at the scores I gave to each episode and season and rank things over all. And, of course, remember that there is nothing scientific about any of this, and my basic three tiered rating system (based on Skip it, Watch it, or Buy it) doesn't allow for a lot of nuance.

Out of 177 episodes reviewed, the breakdowns are as follows:

Buy it: 63 episodes (35%)

Watch it: 66 episodes (37%)

Skip it: 48 episodes (27%)

This gives an overall score of 129 episodes (72%) that fall somewhere in the range of good to great. That's a score any long-running series can take pride in.

And then I gave each rating a score, with Skip it getting zero, Watch it getting 1 point, and Buy it getting 2 points. I thought about weighing the Buy it score with three points, but decided that I'd keep things somewhat simple. Here are the seasons ranked from lowest to highest in terms of their overall score:

Season Two: 18 points

Season One: 21 points (tied)

Season Seven: 21 points (tied)

Season Five: 27 points

Season Six: 33 points

Season Four: 34 points

Season Three: 38 points


And all of this proves... nothing.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Seven Retrospective

1. Descent: Part II
The season opening falls apart almost immediately. The interesting premise set up in the previous season's cliff-hanger just wasn't played out well at all. This is just a jumbled mess.
Skip it

2. Liaisons
An alien race sends different liaisons to the Enterprise in order to learn about different human (and nonhuman) emotions. Fun, clever episode, especially in the scenes where the one guy keeps trying to piss off Worf.
Watch it

3. Interface
Another episode where Geordie pines for a woman he can never be with. This time, it's his mother. Weird!
Skip it

4./5. Gambit: Parts I & II
This season's action story. I'm not so sure that the story had to be stretched across two parts, but both are pretty darn entertaining and fun. 
Watch it

6. Phantasms
Data's dream program begins to give him nightmares. Meh.
Skip it