I'm a pseudo celeb and I hate spiders!

Truth be told, I don’t even know the real name of show I’m about to blog about, but as my wife and I were watching TV tonight, she said that she wanted to watch this new reality show on NBC. I had seen that former Governor Rod Blagojevich had wanted to be on the show and yet the government wouldn’t let him out f the country, so his wife was going to be on it. I think the irony in that is that she, herself, may actually be indicted. So let’s let her out into the wild! Hmmm.

Anyway, I found out that it’s called I’m A Celebrity; Get Me Out of Here! Admittedly, I do like a few of the folks on the show, but this is ridiculous. I mean these two idiots from The Hills are horrible. The whole deal is that the proceeds are to go to charity and these two are so damned conceited that they think they are better than the others and even have the audacity to say they are bigger stars then John Sally – one of the best basketball players of all time. I don’t even like the guy, but how about some respect.

Nevertheless, I’ll watch it a little more before giving a total verdict for the show because there are some interesting characters on there. Granted, none are really “current” celebrities, but most have some good qualities to add to the show. So far… C!

Liam Neeson tears up Paris in Taken!

Did you even play one of those drinking games where you took a drink of beer every time a character said a word or phrase? I’m sure most of you have and many have likely adapted this game to include are repetitious things. Perhaps it’s a little weird, but this was something I actually thought about while watching the movie, Taken, starring Liam Neeson.

If you’ve followed Neeson’s on-screen career, you know that he’s not exactly known as an action hero, so-to-speak, but let’s just say that in Taken, he takes vengeance to another level.

With his daughter in the hands of Albanian child smugglers, Neeson’s character is on the loose in Paris and seemingly everyone that gets in his way gets shot, stabbed, or receives knuckle to the throat. Neeson even indulges in some Jack Bauer-esque torture tactics and for a moment you thought that he might let the guy live. Guess again.

All-in-all, Taken was surprising good. The plot had certainly been done before – Harrison Ford in Frantic comes to mind, but the action is fast-paced and the script is succinct and the movie runs around an hour and a half. This one gets a B+ for pure body count!

The first half of The Deadliest Catch comes to a close!

For yet another year, The Discovery Channel’s flagship show, The Deadliest Catch has once again proven to be a winner on the ratings scale and chock full of drama. It’s hard to put into words why this show is so compelling, but there’s just something about the raw and gritty emotion that keeps me interested when by-in-large, episodes are the same.

The narration by Mike Rowe keeps viewers on edge and these guys – who you’d probably avoid if you saw on the street – show the human side of hard work, tradition, and courage. In the second episode of the year we learned that a cod fishing boat had gone down and the following episode turned out to be one of the most haunting of all. For that one hour episode it was hard to even think about the concept behind the show because it didn’t matter. The Bering Sea showed why Mother Nature can be so brutal and that is a reality that rings true no matter what coast you set sail on or what you’re doing on the ocean.

And as the king crab season comes to a close, the crews get a brief respite before getting back aboard and heading out for the deadliest season of all.

Kevin James is a hero of comedic little people in Paul Blart: Mall Cop!

I sometimes wonder if anyone really pays attention to movie critics when it comes to new movies. Yes, I understand they provide that they provide fodder for performances that may or may not be Oscar-worthy, but I can’t count how many times I’ve heard how awful a movie is and had a totally different opinion. Perhaps that’s why like what I say here, it’s all subjective.

My newest example is a movie that even I didn’t want to see – Paul Blart: Mall Cop. To be frank, I didn’t see how this Kevin James movie could even keep me entertained for 5 minutes, let alone an hour and a half, but man was I pleasantly surprised. Having seen a few episodes of King of Queens, I found Kevin James moderately funny, but never thought I would laugh as hard as I did throughout this movie. Yes, it was totally stupid and played on just about every mall cliché one could imagine, but the plot was actually half-decent and Kevin James was fabulous. We all know that this movie turned out to be a big hit in theaters and having raked in $140 mil in the US alone, the future looks bright for Mr. James.

CBS gives the axe to another great show - The Unit!

Every spring there are casualties of television ratings. This is much more the case for shows on larger networks that need to win the sweeps season after season. While the smaller networks can afford to take risks on shows that draw moderate ratings, networks like CBS need to sustain such high ratings that shows that outperform 80% of all the other shows out there, will find themselves cut.

The above was the case with Jericho a few years back after the show averaged over 7 million viewers in a tough time slot. Fans were outraged and CBS brought the show back for a short second season, but the damage was done. Advertising investors had already lost confidence in the time slot and with no spike in viewers, the show was gone for good, well, at least until the move comes out.

Now after four seasons of always being on the edge of being cut, CBS has cancelled The Unit. Praised by critics as one of the most thought-provoking and best series on television, 10 millions viewers wasn’t enough for CBS and The Unit it gone. There will be no bags of peanuts or public outrage – the audience is different from Jericho, but the loss of The Unit is a real loss for well-scripted television and its’ cancellation is sad for those who just love a good show to lose themselves in.

Blockbuster has a plan for your movie rental needs!

I think it’s safe to say that the way we watch television and movies has been forever changed over the last couple of decades. Moreover, the entertainment industry continues to grow and spawn new ideas and ways to keep us connected to out favorite movies and television series.

I admit to be somewhat addicted to both film and television. Growing up, the video store was a place of intrigue for me. Without the outlet of the internet to find out about new or old movies, I would browse the aisles of my local video store and read the back of VHS boxes till I found movies that interested me.

And yet the selection was still pretty limited, especially when it came to new releases. Blockbuster changed all of that when they started to order dozens of copies of new releases and even guarantee them being there. I found myself at the video store more than any other place and just loved it.

That being said, all the time spent at the video store meant a lot of rental and coincidentally a ton of late fees. He I recall a couple of years ago when Blockbuster got rid of late fees. If you wanted to keep a movie a few nights longer than the due date you wouldn’t have a fat late fee tacked onto your account and that was fabulous because while I still love movies and television series as much as ever, I just don’t have the time to watch them when I want.

And while there are numerous online rental services out there, only BLOCKBUSTER has accounts that let you rent DVDs online and exchange them the nearest store for a new rental at no additional cost apart from the low monthly fee. This works great for me because I can keep a movie for as long as I want and maybe exchange others more frequently. In my opinion, there’s no better value available.

Will anyone else miss Juliet on Lost?

You know; I really am excited to see Liz Mitchell in the new V series and think that she really made a name for herself with some gutsy performances in Lost, but despite the new series excitement, I don’t really like the fact that Juliet was killed off on the show. Sure, I understand that she may appear from time to time, but aside from Locke, she may have been the most mysterious character on the show. Did anyone really know what was going on inside her head? The little smirk could mean she wanted to make out with Jake or cut off someone’s head.

I guess I just think that her style of acting was well-suited for Lost because she could play both sides of the coin so well without even tipping her hat. And yes, this will be crucial for success in a show like V, if it has any plot resemblance to the prior show, but let’s face it; we’ll all miss her on Wednesday nights.

Speaking of which… There’s nothing on tonight and don’t give me that Idol crap!