Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Catch Up

I had a pretty busy week with a lot of stuff going on in my life, but I'm here to talk about things in television, books and movies from the weekend.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: When I saw the preview before Batman Begins I was not too enthused to go see this movie. Then I started hearing the early word about it and I got stoked again. After watching it I have to say this version by Tim Burton was better than the previous movie. Most of the enjoyment comes from the fact the movie could be made using today's technology versus the technology available for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. This movie should solidify the idea that Johnny Depp is one of the best actors alive today. I wouldn't say this movie was better than Batman Begins, but it is right up there and gives Warner Bros. a second fantastic movie this summer.
Score: *** 1/2 out of ****

Monk: Monk was another really good episode. It's always nice to see Ambrose in an episode and this time he even made it out of the house. I wonder how sincere Natalie was with going out with Ambrose and I hope we see John Turturro again this year.

Family Guy: I think since the episode last week that the series is starting to hit its groove again. Peter was not in this episode as much as he usually is, I'd even say it was a Lois and Brian one. The beginning with Chris going into A-Ha's "Take on Me" video was hilarious.

The 4400: An excellent episode, although I am quite interested in whether Tom and Alana will continue to be an item or not given they just spent 8 years together in her mind and got married. I'm also glad to see that Tom is hopefully getting a love interest, now Diana needs to follow suit. I was going through the episode figuring it was Collier under the sheet since he seemed to like Tom and would show that powers can live beyond the grave, but no dice. Collier's body is still missing.

The Dead Zone: Another terrific episode. I find it very rare where USA has a perfect weekend, and this one pretty much wrapped it up. Had nothing to do with Stinson (actually, are they going to touch that story again this year?) and was a stand-alone episode. The autistic child was spot on and although I knew it was the partner all along, I still enjoyed the episode quite a bit.

Entourage: Can't say enough about this show and I hope people are watching it. Every episode seems to get better and better. James Cameron makes an appearance at Sundance, but only sees 10 minutes of the 4 hour (?!?!) Queens Boulevard. At the end he offers Aquaman to Vince and everything is right with the world of the gang again...well, until Mandy Moore shows up next week.

And of course there is that little book that came out...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: I have no clue who dies or what happens. I picked up the book on Saturday, but probably won't read it for a while and I'm going to be very careful this time around to not know what goes on. I knew about Sirius' death before I read the last book, so it was a bit of a downer. This time I hope to not be spoiled. My money is still on Dumbledore though.